Sounds snarky to me

January 12, 2009 5:54 PM

Mac guru John Gruber leverages MeFi Music to make fun of Microsoft Songsmith.

I like MetaFilter, and I'm a paid subscriber to Daring Fireball, but I'm not sure I like Mr. Gruber using MeFi to poop all over some poor defenseless beta software that hardly anyone knows how to use well.

posted by infinitewindow to MetaFilter-related at 5:54 PM (44 comments total)

Well, I (among others) gave it a shot and found it wanting. I can't and won't speak one way or the other to Mr. Gruber's motive or intent, but that whole piece of marketing pretty much begs for snarky memedom.

He's hardly the only one to notice mrzarquon's mashup in the last couple days.
posted by cortex at 5:59 PM on January 12

SINGLE SONG ROCKLE SING SINGLE SMITH ROCK
posted by DU at 5:59 PM on January 12 [15 favorites]

Awesome thirteen word post by gruber. But what I could really use are some glow in the dark towels.
posted by jessamyn at 6:02 PM on January 12 [5 favorites]

We all use MeFi to poop all over poor, defenseless things at one point or another. It's part of the dirt cycle.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:03 PM on January 12

what
posted by ardgedee at 6:15 PM on January 12

So, where would I find a Songsmith guru?
posted by box at 6:23 PM on January 12

You see, I was always taught that "Garbage In, Garbage Out" was one of the core guidelines in computing. What exactly does this guy hope to accomplish when he implies, "Hey look everyone, I crapped all over this program and it failed to polish it into gold!"
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:23 PM on January 12

Leverages? You make it sound like Gruber is the user "mrzarquon" and created the song.
posted by null terminated at 6:28 PM on January 12 [1 favorite]

Aside from the obvious place, of course.
posted by box at 6:28 PM on January 12

Mefi's own waxpancake/waxy.org mentioned it too.
posted by Pronoiac at 6:35 PM on January 12

I the person who made the song in question, I am pretty excited the Gruber linked to my lazy ass late night post drinks at bar attempt to merge oncoming internet trends.

Now considering it is not a beta product, but a for sale commercial product which was announced by Microsoft to go along with CES (which was probably the result of a meeting like this), I think we are all allowed to give our fair share assessment of the product. Granted mine was a half assed attempt at badness, not bothering to even set the tempo of songsmith (one would think it would be able to detect that part, being as it is sold as product where you just sing, and it lines up everything else for you), but along with Cortex's post, there was another good attempt at it also at the time.

So as the creator of the song in question (which I uploaded to Mefi Music, ie, the Internet, knowing it was probably going to make a good laugh by people), used by atleast hundreds of internet nerds to make fun of Songsmith, I give them my full permission to do so.

Also, if it brings MORE music nerds to mefi music, who actually want to try to do creative things with the existing musicians here (with or without songsmith involved) that would be sweet.

And this is the Internet. We can link to things that are bad just as well as they are good. It's not like he deeplinked to the cabal login page or anything...
posted by mrzarquon at 6:37 PM on January 12 [2 favorites]

Next up: Proving that free editing software suplied with low cost videocameras isn't as good as Adobe Premier.
posted by Artw at 6:42 PM on January 12

I have some glow in the dark gloves.

Get enough of them, sew them together, they could be one of the world's creepiest towels.
posted by adipocere at 7:05 PM on January 12 [2 favorites]

I think Microsoft is going to be ok.
posted by starman at 7:14 PM on January 12 [2 favorites]

I noticed the song when Waxy linked to it. Son of a bitch.
posted by chunking express at 7:33 PM on January 12

Huh? I'm pretty sure Gruber linked to it because it's awesome and funny. He took the obvious potshot at ms in an earlier post that quoted the best line from the trainwreck of a demo: "it's from microsoft so you know it's easy to use"
posted by mathowie at 7:39 PM on January 12

MetaFilter: I set the Happy Slider to Full.
posted by loquacious at 8:18 PM on January 12

I think Microsoft is going to be ok.

You know who else thought he was going to be OK?
posted by lukemeister at 8:20 PM on January 12

Made in Germany, you know the Germans always make good stuff.
posted by dead cousin ted at 8:26 PM on January 12 [2 favorites]

You know who else thought he was going to be OK?

Hitler did not have a Happy Slide.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:28 PM on January 12 [1 favorite]

That pretty much confirms my suspicion that Metafilter Music is the Dr. Demento of the internet.
posted by malocchio at 8:31 PM on January 12

guys that is the best song i've ever heard in my life
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:33 PM on January 12

Get your hands off my happy slider, you damn dirty apes!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:49 PM on January 12

BILL GATES, sitting at his desk in his spacious office as the morning sun streams in. A dozen young men are sitting on the floor around a pile of money, counting the bills diligently. BILL GATES leans back in his chair contentedly, smiling.

BILL GATES: What a beautiful morning. I'm in the mood for some breakfast. How about you guys? What'll it be? Some danish? How about I get-

The door bursts open and a young INTERN stumbles in, panting.

INTERN: Mr Gates! Somebody on the internet is making fun of Songsmith.

The men on the floor gasp, and freeze. BILL GATES glowers at the INTERN.

BILL GATES (icily): Show me the link.

INTERN: B-But sir, wouldn't you rather-

BILL GATES: Do it!

The INTERN sheepishly walks to BILL GATES' desk, shaking hands typing on his keyboard. He then backs away, his head bowed. BILL GATES leans close to the monitor, watching for moment.

BILL GATES: Leave me. Now!

INTERN claps his hands twice, the young men quickly stumble to their feet, scurrying out of the room with the INTERN. BILL GATES reaches into a desk drawer, taking out a pair of earphones, which he plugs into the monitor. He clicks his mouse. Seconds pass.

BILL GATES (singing): I found the simple life, ain't so simple ...

posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:10 PM on January 12 [17 favorites]

It just felt not-right to me somehow, enough not-right to post in MeTa about it. I have difficulty articulating just what John Gruber did that felt wrong, though. *shrug*
posted by infinitewindow at 10:16 PM on January 12

> It just felt not-right to me somehow, enough not-right to post in MeTa about it. I have difficulty articulating just what John Gruber did that felt wrong, though. *shrug*

infinitewindow- I actually understand where you are coming from. Metafilter is a close knit community in many ways. I have met in person a few people who have even posted in this thread (mathowie is an exception, as he was across the giant table from me for an entire meetup, but it was too loud to shout at him).

The first time I saw metafilter linked to in another article, it was kind of "wha, thats my playground, don't go messing it up with everyone showing up and having a laugh at someone elses work" etc.

It is actually quite amazing at times to realize how big of a community metafilter has, and a presence on the internet, since it feels so... homely.
posted by mrzarquon at 10:39 PM on January 12

Oh fuck Gruber. Can't he stay in his own little cabbage patch of fanboys?

As someone who used to actually subscribe to that site, I can categorically state that too much exposure to this guy can seriously have you reconsidering your choice of being a Mac user.
posted by bouncebounce at 12:36 AM on January 13 [3 favorites]

INTERN claps his hands twice,

And all the lights go off.
posted by Stewriffic at 4:00 AM on January 13 [1 favorite]

"Sounds snarky to me"

Yeah, it does a bit. I love it.
posted by nthdegx at 4:13 AM on January 13

It's been linked on stereogum, gizmondo and kottke as well.
posted by minifigs at 4:19 AM on January 13

infinitewindow: "I like MetaFilter, and I'm a paid subscriber to Daring Fireball, but I'm not sure I like Mr. Gruber using MeFi to poop all over some poor defenseless beta software that hardly anyone knows how to use well."

You're right. Can we somehow prevent people from linking to our threads? Really, people can use those links to support any point of view they want, even without even saying any at all! There should be a law against Gruber's use of MetaFilter in this way.
posted by Plutor at 5:17 AM on January 13

...poop all over some poor defenseless beta software...

Wait, this was a serious comment. Microsoft is defenseless? I...it...the...I just....WHAT.
posted by DU at 6:13 AM on January 13

Whee! Let's bring back the Deep Linking controversy!
posted by echo target at 7:37 AM on January 13

since it feels so... homely.

Oh, come on. They're not that ugly. Are they?
posted by Burhanistan at 9:09 AM on January 13

THE GUY'S A FRIGGEN GENIUS! MACGRUBER!
posted by ALongDecember at 9:18 AM on January 13

stereogum, gizmodo, kottke. I'd thought about goofing around with Songsmith, & seeing this makes me fear for my server.

On deep linking, to repeat what mathowie said: Hell yeah!

And yeah, Mefi's actually pretty fishbowl-like. I try to not think about it when I make poop jokes.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:35 AM on January 13

I rasped some booze and pills addled nonsense into the mic, and Songsmith completely failed to produce Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, and Robby Krieger.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 10:44 AM on January 13 [1 favorite]

Hey guys, I think it's time we finally put a lid on this whole "making vibrations in the air" thing and go back to communicating through movement and odor.
posted by The Whelk at 12:28 PM on January 13

I just sent a communication your way, The Whelk. Might want to light a match.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:56 PM on January 13 [1 favorite]

Boy, that's terrible. And terribly funny. But you're right, we shouldn't make fun of anything, it will make them feel bad. I hope you're proud of yourself, Gruber.

MICROSOFT WINDOWS 7: IT'S BAD, AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD.
posted by davejay at 4:26 PM on January 13

Made in Germany, you know the Germans always make good stuff.

*ahem* ... you trying to tell me something here?
posted by krautland at 12:44 PM on January 14

ShamWow!
posted by fixedgear at 1:04 PM on January 14

Mentioned on Idolator recently, too, and gives mrzarquon credit.
posted by box at 12:07 PM on January 16

Working songsmith through all the metafilter sites, I've now got a tshirt up on zazzle.com, which has been posted to projects.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:35 PM on January 16