Where a is the (constant) processing time per person, b is the time per item, x₁ is the number of people in line 1, y₁ is the number of items in line 1, x₂ is the number of people in line 2, and y₂ is the items of people in line 2.

a(x1) + b(y1) < a(x2) + b(y2)
a(4) + b(11) < a(1) + b(y2)
a(4) + b(11) - a(1) = b(y2)
a(3) + b(11) = b(y2)
3(a/b) + 11 = y2
3(a/b) = y2 - 11

That is, line 2 must have 12 more items in it than three times the processing time per person divided by the processing time per item.

Recently, I have begun the long and ardous process of organizing my massive music library in iTunes (currently at ~34 GB). As I do so, I run into the problem of duplicate tracks: the same track, from multiple albums. When albums were consumed in physical media, this made sense: the same track from different albums would never be listened to concurrently.

Now, when all the music is presented in a massive blob, there’s no point to having the same track twice. However, there’s no easy way to resolve the difference: if I delete the track, the album becomes incomplete. But if I keep both it divides information and makes things messy. If only there was some way to “tag” a track to multiple albums…

How do other people handle this?

Waking up to a blaring alarm has to be the stupidest idea in the world. It’s the mechanical equivilant of asking someone to yell at you constantly. To alleviate this, I built a little playlist for myself. It autostarts at 6:00 (which is precisely 4 sleep cycles from midnight), with the help of Awaken on my Mac.

1. Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles
2. You Give Me Fever – Peggy Lee
3. Messah. Chorus: Hallelujah – London Symphony Orchestra
4. Exit Music (For A Film) – Radiohead
5. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
6. Sunday Morning – The Velvet Underground
7. Choplin
8. I’m Only Sleeping – The Beatles
9. Hallelujah – Rufus Wainwright
10. Somewhere Over The Rainbow – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole