Since we're talking of advice and of music
a reply by the Supreme Crow taking us to this comic reminded me of an incident from about a year ago.

Like most of us, I own an mp3 player. I dumped everything from Windows Media Player onto it when I first got it and carried it with me to work. All was great- it went from Pink Floyd to Herbie Hancock to Led Zeppelin and I was quite happy.

Just one little hitch.

See, some years back when I was separated from the Bagwitch she was in the habit of leaving really unpleasant messages on my answering machine if I didn't happen to respond to her paging me. (Translation: I often returned to recordings of harpy screeches.) One day I played back a particularly angry one and decided to keep it for posterity, in case I needed it in court or wanted to play it back for the family counselor we were seeing at the time. So I opened up Goldwave, initialized an mp3 file, put the computer mic next to the answering machine and recorded it. Then I filed the mp3 away and left it there.

Unfortunately WMP scans your entire hard drive for sound files and puts them all into the library.

So here I am at the office wearing my headphones as I work on a CAD drawing, the last chords of a Sass Jordan song still ringing in my ears, when my ex wife's voice shrieks at me. "It's 5:00 on Sunday night and I haven't heard anything from you since Thursday! You said that you would answer your pager and be available to us! Where the fuck are you? WE NEED YOU! YOUR CHILDREN NEED YOU! When you get this message you'd better get your ass over here!"

My co-workers tell me I turned dead white as I tore the headphones from my ears and sat there, pale and sweaty, for a good twenty minutes with an expression of abject horror etched onto my face. For a fact my heart damn near seized and it was an hour before my hands stopped trembling.

My advice? DON'T TRUST WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER. It's an eeevil program that will cause you to soil yourself at the worst possible moment.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 24 Jun 2008, 17:55, 14 replies)

Sorry mate but that is pretty fucking funny!

( jim_bob can herd cats., Tue 24 Jun 2008, 18:02, closed)

In retrospect, yes.
But at the time it was about the most horrible thing imaginable.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 24 Jun 2008, 18:09, closed)

Eeeeeeek
all the worse for being completely unexpected.
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Tue 24 Jun 2008, 18:13, closed)

*laughs maniacally*
*laughs some more*
( girlinthehole, Tue 24 Jun 2008, 18:40, closed)

Funny when it happens to someone else.
Sort of like a gift that keeps on giving.

I avoid all microsoft products that attempt to help me out. My MP3 player gets it's files via drag and drop, the way the MP3 gods intended.
(Lurkaloid awarded wanking black belt on, Tue 24 Jun 2008, 18:48, closed)

Hmpf.
Careful, BGB- I might change the name of the file and email it to you instead of music, and then you'll get the full experience for yourself.

It really is a bowel-loosening experience.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 24 Jun 2008, 18:49, closed)

just
the media player?
no, you've got it all wrong
dont trust windows.
(fisherOfApples123 -=destroyer of toilets=-, Tue 24 Jun 2008, 19:08, closed)

Nasty..
...yet amusing
(Zapiola zip-zap-zop, Tue 24 Jun 2008, 19:19, closed)

^^
I think you just summarized my life.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 24 Jun 2008, 19:22, closed)

Well
at least there is some amusement there? For what its worth :s
(Zapiola zip-zap-zop, Tue 24 Jun 2008, 19:43, closed)

Oh definitely!
Don't get me wrong- I was chuckling as I wrote this story. Nothing makes me laugh harder than pulling a prank on myself, and this one was a true gem.

The only thing that will make it funnier is when I change the name of the file and load it onto my son's iPod so it happens to him.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 24 Jun 2008, 19:50, closed)

Now
that is pure evil.

And needs to be done as soon as possible.

Make em jumpy when they're young... psychatrists need patients.
(Zapiola zip-zap-zop, Tue 24 Jun 2008, 20:02, closed)

Windows Media Player
is rubbish!

Use Media_Player_Classic instead.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Tue 24 Jun 2008, 21:58, closed)

The only reason I use WMP
is that half the time I'm on a work computer, so if I want to dump my music over I need to be using something that is already on the system. They sometimes get snarky if you download extra software on work machines. (Not that I don't do that anyway- generally the first thing I do is download Firefox and make it the default.)

And actually, iTunes will do the same thing in terms of combing your system for sound files to add to the library. I found myself listening unexpectedly one day to Pete and Ray (explanation here), and thereafter kept wanting to scream out "Shut up little man!"
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 24 Jun 2008, 22:09, closed)