just how random is shuffle?

[Fritz]

I have 600 tunes on my iPhone.
I have the playlist set for shuffle.
But damn there are some tunes I hear every frickin time i listen and tons I've never heard.
I want random shuffle plus!!!!!

we now return you to your regularly scheduled forum already in progress.
If this had been an actual emergency, you'd have known by now.

[C(-)ris]

Oh, so you want a random number generator that excludes numbers that have already been picked? That isn't very random

[Seacrest]

Like, TOTALLY random?

BTW, I think if you plug your shuffle into your computer and add or delete songs (or maybe not), it resets the random play thingy.

[microchip]

Hey, at least iTunes picks different random seeds every time. My N900 doesn't.

[Article Accelerator]

There's a good discussion of playlist randomness here:

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/...c2959.html

[kj]

People's concept of random contains too much alternating. If they are asked to write down the numbers 1-5 randomly, they alternate too much (not enough strings of the same number). So what people want when they say they want "random", isn't random at all. The concept of randomness is interesting. From what I've read, it's just the absence of a recognizable pattern. So you use all kinds of analyses to look for patterns, but just because you don't find any, doesn't mean there aren't any. It may mean you haven't looked hard enough. So most random number generators are quasi-random number generators. kj.

[RAMd®d]

You could make a non-random "random" smart playlist that excludes songs after X plays so that all your music is played, eventually.

That tends to fit most people's concept of aural randomness.

And/or you could make a playlist of "never played" songs.

But it from what people have posted over the years, some iPods seem to favor more songs/artists than others.

Spooky.

[Fritz]

"BTW, I think if you plug your shuffle into your computer and add or delete songs (or maybe not), it resets the random play thingy."

True, but apparently not as much as you'd think.

"so you want a random number generator that excludes numbers that have already been picked?"

quasi-organized random?

"You could make a non-random "random" smart playlist that excludes songs after X plays so that all your music is played, eventually."

hmmmmmmmmmmmm............

[NewtonMP2100]

...didn't some scientist make an entire case for the fact that nothing in this world is truly random....?

[Buzz]

Random until played, integrated w/ favorites also randomized in 8% - 10% of the time.
Is it really too much to ask for?