From: James Propp <jpropp@cs.uml.edu>

Does the shuffle operation on in iPod choose a genuinely pseudorandom song from the playlist (so that, if there are n items, there's a 1/n chance that the next song will be the one you just heard)?

1) "Shuffle" suggests something better: a random permutation of what's in there. That means many songs should have zero odds of coming up next. What you do when you get through the first permutation I have wondered about. 2) You can go back as many songs as you like in the random sequence, and it remembers. Suggests it has enough memory to store a permutation (although there are ways to generate fair permutations without storing them). 3) I remember a release note once saying "fixed a bug where it would play two songs in a row from the same album too often." Makes me wonder about their notion of random. 4) I have a complicated set of interdependent "smart playlists" set up so my 1GB iPod gets loaded with songs that haven't been played... or skipped... in 18 months or so. What you play or skip with the iPod updates iTunes when you sync. What I mean is, I wasn't happy with the randomness, but they finally provided a tool to do something about it. 5) No erosion. Oops, wrong question. --Steve