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So there is a new album out, a compilation of 76 artists covering Bob Dylan called Chimes of Freedom – The Songs of Bob Dylan (Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International), for Amnesty International. We’re talking about every major track he’s done, as well as some more subtle stuff. REAL music, played by real artists. And others…

These are the top reviews of it – thank the Gods for Miley Cyrus covering Dylan – maybe now he’ll get some recognition.

Repost from a couple years ago…I still love this video.

So, a lot of my work involves clicking back and forth, and it’s a pain to reach for the Remote or keyboard when I want to skip a track in iTunes. I have a Logitech mouse (actually, about a half dozen of them), so I figured I’d assign one of its buttonst to make the process easier.

Sadly, that’s not an option in the Logitech software, but launching an application is; so I put together a quick little app to do nothing but play the next track. I then told Logitech Control Center to launch the app when a specific button on the mouse was pressed.

It’s simple, but it works perfectly. If you want to build your own, open Applescript Editor and paste the following in, then save it as an application.

tell application “iTunes”

next track

end tell

Or you can simply download my version, here. Enjoy.

If you want to use it with LCC, select the button and choose the app in the resulting dialog:

Automation is fun. Use this script to:

• Rate the current playing track in iTunes as a ’5′.
• Scrobble and ‘Love’ it on Last.FM

Then use my recipe on IFTTT.com to send the Last.FM ‘Love’ to Twitter. Yoink – you’re now annoying the world.

-- This oh-so-simple little app was made by Scott McDaniel
-- Twitter: @mcdev
-- web: scottmcdaniel.org

tell application "iTunes"
	set rating of current track to 100
end tell

tell application "System Events"
	-- Get the frontmost process
	set active_proc to name of the first process whose frontmost is true
	-- Open Last.fm window
	activate application "Dock"
	tell process "Dock"
		click UI element "Last.fm" of list 1
	end tell
	delay 0.5
	-- Click on the relevant menu item and close the window
	tell process "Last.fm"
		click menu item "Love" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Tools" of menu bar 1
		tell application "System Events" to set visible of process "Last.fm" to false
	end tell
	-- Restore frontmost process
	set frontmost of process active_proc to true
end tell

tell application "System Events"
	set isRunning to (count of (every process whose bundle identifier is "com.Growl.GrowlHelperApp")) > 0
end tell

if isRunning then
	tell application id "com.Growl.GrowlHelperApp"

		set the allNotificationsList to ¬
			{"iRate"}
		set the enabledNotificationsList to ¬
			{"iRate"}
		register as application ¬
			"iRate" all notifications allNotificationsList ¬
			default notifications enabledNotificationsList ¬
			icon of application "iTunes"

		notify with name ¬
			"iRate" title ¬
			"iRate" description ¬
			"This track has been iRated as 5 star & sent to Twitter!" application name "iRate"

	end tell
end if

Haha – check out that witty title, isn’t that awesome? No? Oh, well…

If you’re like me, you have playlists based on Star Ratings in iTunes – and if you don’t, you should. Seriously, it’s the law. But iTunes doesn’t make it easy to rate songs, especially when you’re in the middle of something.

BUT – if you use QuickSilver or some other quick launch type app, even Spotlight (and again, you *should* be if you are at all productivity oriented), then here’s an easy little solution for you.

Basically I’ve created 5 small applications that you can use to rate the currently playing track with minimal keystrokes:

• Open your launcher (cmd-space – for example)
• type ‘i5′ to rate the current track as 5 star.

The apps are named i1, i2, i3, i4 and of course, i5. You can, if you wish, rename them or set your own trigger keys in your launcher, but that’s a personal preference.

The advantages of doing it this way are:

• No 3rd party apps need to be running, only iTunes – and if it isn’t, these apps will launch it.
• It doesn’t remove the focus from what you’re doing. You can trigger the app and resume your work in your currently active window.
• If you change your mind and want to rerate the track, just launch the appropriate app instantly.
• No mouse clicks necessary – retain your keyboard focus.
• Bonus: Growl notifications if Growl is installed (old and new Growl)

I hope you enjoy these little tools. If you’d like the source code, it is embedded below. You can download iRate here.

— This oh-so-simple little app was made by Scott McDaniel
— Twitter: @mcdev
— web: scottmcdaniel.org

tell application “iTunes”
set rating of current track to 100 end tell

tell application “System Events”
set isRunning to (count of (every process whose bundle identifier is “com.Growl.GrowlHelperApp”)) > 0
end tell

if isRunning then
tell application id “com.Growl.GrowlHelperApp”

set the allNotificationsList to ¬
{“iRate”}
set the enabledNotificationsList to ¬
{“iRate”}
register as application ¬
“iRate” all notifications allNotificationsList ¬
default notifications enabledNotificationsList ¬
icon of application “iTunes”

notify with name ¬
“iRate” title ¬
“iRate” description ¬
“This track has been iRated as 5 star” application name “iRate”

end tell
end if