iTunes can’t find the matching songs, but it maintains at least some semblance of an internal mapping (there are file IDs, presumably hashes, in the xml, f.e.), because when you connect your iPod containing the “missing” files, instead of doing, say, nothing, and warning you about the missing files, it goes through all the media on your iPod, matches it to the corresponding file in the Library, and then deletes that file’s location on disk from the iTunes database.

To reiterate, iTunes FINDS THE MATCHING FILE AND THEN INSTEAD OF UPDATING THE LOCATION, IT DELETES THE LOCATION.

This could only possibly be worse if it actually deleted the file itself, rather than just its location from the database.

The files are still all on disk, and you can manually re-associate the files with their database entries. Sadly, there is no automated tool for finding orphaned files and matching then up. Even if there were, the missing files aren’t pointing to a wrong location, their location is blank, so there wouldn’t even be any hints available when looking for the new file locations. For each individual missing file: you click on the file with the little exclamation point indicating its pooched, you associate it with the proper file on disk. Rinse, foam at the mouth…er, lather, repeat.

Of course, iPods hold a lot of songs these days, and generally, people put their favorite music on their iPods. It’s not like you’ve lost 10 random songs you possibly don’t care about. You’ve lost thousands of your favorite songs and videos, and can’t get them back until you either perform the manual re-association one-at-a-time (slow) or ditch your current library and re-import the whole music directory wholesale (faster, but you lose all your playlists and metadata).

For those curious about the manual re-association route, you can make things a little easier on yourself by creating some temporary smart playlists. Because iTunes (retardedly, IMO) organizes its files different depending on whether the song is part of a compilation or not, you’ll decrease your searching time if you create two playlists: one that contains tracks in compilations, and the converse. That way you can go through the Compilations playlist and the file dialog for matching files can stay in the Compilations sub-directory on disk and save yourself some searching time, and then do the same for regular artists and not have to worry about the Compilations dir. Of course, if you aren’t using a central iTunes music folder, this won’t help you. Don’t even get me started on the sorting differences between iTunes and the underlying OS that make this process even longer. Grrrr.

Fuck you, iTunes. I can think of better ways to spend a Wednesday night.

I’m loving thesixtyone, even more so now that my external drive with my ITunes music stash on it is on the fritz, and this is my current favorite song:

RAC ⋙ Robyn > Mad Cobra

So apparently I’ve been living in a cave, but at least now my cave has streaming Kutiman in it.

The music reminds me of Digable Planets meets DJ Shadow, but the youtube mashup videos take it to another level.

This stuff is too awesome to not get sued out of existence.

I started playing Peter and the Wolf for Will a few weeks ago. I remembered loving it as a child myself, and it also gave us a break from oft insipid children’s music. YouTube even obliged us with the Disney version.

Well, he loves it. He’s been singing the theme non-stop, and pretending he’s the wolf. We try to stop him when he growls at his sister too much. I didn’t realize until this week that he’s *also* been singing it non-stop at pre-school. His teacher asked us if we could make her a copy of the music so she could share it with the rest of the class.

Will just got his classmates interested in classical music, and I think that’s pretty awesome.

If you only have a passing interest in trance music, I recommend this episode as a great summary of what’s transpired in the past year. The only surprise for me was that Cocktail Bar didn’t make the cut. It certainly got a lot of play on TATW (and here) over the summer. Maybe it lucked out at #21.

Neil Patrick Harris steals the show so far, but Nathan Fillion never fails to entertain, going from comically over-archetypal superhero to penis…erm, dick at the drop of a hat. Does Nathan remind anyone else of a young Elvis, or is it just me and my man-crush?

Glad to see someone gaining traction from our idea, even if we could not.

• Street Fighter: The Later Years (courtesy of Shaver); and,
• Blood on the Asphalt – A Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo ReMix collaboration.