I love my iPod, even though I am convinced Apple’s software is rubbish. That cavil aside, I am trying to see if the iPod can do one simple thing. I have two or more copies of some songs on the iPod. I have them because the same track belongs to more than one album. For example, ‘Born to Run’ by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rightly belongs on Born to Run and The Essential Bruce Springsteen. I also have live versions on Live in New York City and Live 75/85. I want to keep the two live versions of the song because they’re quite different, but I only need one copy of the studio version. I could simply delete one copy of the song, but that would mean every time I played either of the studio sets one of them would skip that song. Not acceptable.

What I need is something that doesn’t simply delete duplicate songs. What I need is something that redirects a reference to a song to a single copy of that song at my direction. I want it to search the iPod and tell me that four copies of ‘Born to Run’ exist, and then offer me the choice of merging or not merging those tracks. With the copies to be merged, I want to be able to choose which version to retain. It seems like a good thing and a sensible thing. Does anyone know if it can be done?

Oh, and if that’s too tough, anyone on how to shuffle a play list on the iPod, or even delete a track while on the go?

The nice folks over at SF Site have just published their Howard Waldrop Reading List, as compiled by Rodger Turner. It’s a good list, though the date for All About Strange Monsters… looks wrong to my eye.

Anyhow, that list got me thinking. Howard has, by my count, published about seventy-five short stories since “Lunchbox” appeared in Analog back in May of ’72, and in the intervening thirty five years he’s written about pretty much everything you could possibly imagine, and a lot you couldn’t have. But, no-one’s ever published a ‘best of’, a selection of the Waldrop stories you simply have to read. I’m unlikely to publish such a thing, but I thought I might throw together a first pass list for what would be The Howard Waldrop Reader.

I knew that any list would need to include the most famous stories, and a few lesser known ones. It would have to range across his entire career, and it would also have to include some of the longer stories. I decided to restrict myself to just one collaboration, though Waldrop is an accomplished collaborator. The list of fifteen stories that I came up with is probably too long for a real book (I’m guessing about two hundred thousand words), and there are too many novellas (four), but there are no duds. If I had time, I’d re-read the stories, fine tune things, and then get running order, but this is just playing and was done in ten minutes.

1. The Ugly Chickens
2. God’s Hooks!
3. Flying Saucer Rock and Roll
4. Custer’s Last Jump (with Steven Utley)
5. Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance?
6. Helpless, Helpless
7. Ike at the Mike
8. Major Spacer in the 21st Century
9. Mr. Goober’s Show
10. Night of the Cooters
11. Why Did?
12. The Sawing Boys
13. A Dozen Tough Jobs
14. US
15. You Could Go Home Again

One thing I promise: if you hunt out the stories, you’ll find every one’s a winner.

Jeremy emailed me and asked me why I didn’t have an LJ feed. I said I’d set one up. One of the Martins of this world – in my experience Martins are all helpful folk – let me know I already have one at:

And apparently there are twenty four subscribers (hi). Um, if you’re an LJ person and interested, maybe the above info might be useful.

I’m not a Kate Bush fan, but some of you are, so herewith the news. After twelve years, new double-album Aerial will be released on November 7. The official announcement is here.

As previously reported, science magazine Nature has been running a regular series of short science fiction stories in its pages. Typically these stories are short (about 1,000 words or a single page of the magazine) one idea pieces based around a particular scientific conceit. They have also been only accessible to paid subscribers (which only seems unreasonable).

I happened to check their website today and found that the latest two stories are accessible, and was delighted to see that one of them was by Charles Stross. His story, MAXO signals, is one of the better very short pieces I’ve read all year. Recognising the limitations of the format, Stross doesn’t attempt to build character or unwind plot, rather he chooses an apparently universal characteristic and lets it play out until the reader either smiles or groans (or both). To tell anymore about the story would be to remove any point in reading it. Suffice it to say, it’s well worth clicking on the link.

Stross seems to be making something of a habit of getting published in science magazines. He also has a short story, “Remade”, in the September issue of Australian science magazine Cosmos. The story isn’t online so you’ll either have to buy the issue, or wait for a new story collection. I haven’t read the story yet, but will report later.