Shuffle play

Shuffle play is a mode of music playback in which songs are played in a randomized order that is decided upon for all tracks at once. It is commonly found on CD players, digital audio players and media player software. Shuffle playback prevents repeated tracks, which makes it distinct from random playback, in which the next track is chosen at random after the last track has ended.

In CD players

In a Compact Disc player one can only shuffle songs on that CD, or with some models that could hold more than one CD, shuffle the songs on all of those CDs. Some CDs have been designed for the shuffle feature on CD players, such as They Might Be Giants' Apollo 18. More modern CD players come with the shuffle feature.

In media devices

Almost all software on computers has the shuffle feature including Windows Media Player and iTunes. Most electronic devices including mobile phones and iPod's have the shuffle feature and devices have even been created just for the shuffle feature, such as the Apple iPod Shuffle. Media devices and players can usually shuffle more than just albums: they can also shuffle all of an Artists Music, all of the music in a certain genre, and even all songs on the device. Users can also create playlists of whatever songs they like and shuffle them.

Shuffle!

Shuffle! (シャッフル!, Shaffuru!) is a Japanese visual novel developed by Navel. It was originally released as an adult game for Microsoft Windows on January 30, 2004. It was subsequently followed by an all-ages release for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and an expanded adult release for Windows. The Windows version was localized in English by MangaGamer in 2009. The gameplay in Shuffle! follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios and courses of interaction and focuses on the appeal of the female main characters. Shuffle! has been re-made into an expanded version called Shuffle! Essence+. It has expanded routes for the original five main heroines as well as new routes for six other characters. Shuffle! also has three spin-off sequels: Tick! Tack! , Really? Really! and Shuffle! Love Rainbow.

Shuffle! has made several transitions to other media. There have been two manga series based on the visual novel. The first was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine Comptiq between December 2003 and 2006. The second was a comic anthology published by Kadokawa Shoten between July 2004 and December 2005. Two anime adaptations were produced by the animation studio Asread. The first anime was twenty-four episodes in length and was broadcast in Japan between July 2005 and January 2006. The second series was a twelve-episode readaptation and was broadcast between January and March 2007. Seven light novels, two fanbooks, nine drama CDs, and seven radio drama CDs adaptations have also been produced.

Shuffling

Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to help ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome.

Shuffling techniques

Overhand shuffle

One of the easiest shuffles to accomplish, the overhand or stripping shuffle is essentially a series of cuts. A group of cards on the bottom (or top) of the deck grasped between the thumb on one side and fingers on the other, lifted sideways out of the deck, and then placed on the top (or bottom). This process is repeated multiple times with random selections of cards in order to randomize them.

The overhand shuffle offers sufficient opportunity for sleight of hand techniques to be used to affect the ordering of cards, creating a stacked deck. The most common way that players cheat with the overhand shuffle is by having a card at the top or bottom of the pack that they require, and then slipping it to the bottom at the start of a shuffle (if it was on top to start), or leaving it as the last card in a shuffle and just dropping it on top (if it was originally on the bottom of the deck).

Shuffle (song)

"Shuffle" is the first single by British alternative rock band Bombay Bicycle Club from their third studio album, A Different Kind of Fix. Through Island Records, the single was released on 23 June 2011 as a digital download in the United Kingdom. The song was chosen as "Record of The Week" by UK radio DJ Zane Lowe. "Shuffle" would become one of the band's most commercially successful singles.

Commercial performance

"Shuffle" peaked at number 64 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's second-most successful single. The single also debuted at number 40 and peaked at number 38 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in the United States, the band's first chart appearance in that country. The song also charted at number 60 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 Singles chart.

Music video

The music video was uploaded to VEVO and YouTube on July 22, 2011. It features Lucy Rose, a fellow artist who is friends with the band. With over three million views, it is the band's most viewed video on YouTube and VEVO to date.

Mode (computer interface)

In user interface design, a mode is a distinct setting within a computer program or any physical machine interface, in which the same user input will produce perceived different results than it would in other settings. The best-known modal interface components are probably the Caps lock and Insert keys on the standard computer keyboard, both of which put the user's typing into a different mode after being pressed, then return it to the regular mode after being re-pressed.

An interface that uses no modes is known as a modeless interface. Modeless interfaces intend to avoid mode errors by making it impossible for the user to commit them.

Definition

A precise definition is given by Jef Raskin in his book The Humane Interface:

"An human-machine interface is modal with respect to a given gesture when (1) the current state of the interface is not the user's locus of attention and (2) the interface will execute one among several different responses to the gesture, depending on the system's current state." (Page 42).

Mode (literature)

In literature, a mode is an employed method or approach, identifiable within a written work. As descriptive terms, form and genre are often used inaccurately instead of mode; for example, the pastoral mode is often mistakenly identified as a genre. The Writers Web site feature, A List of Important Literary Terms, defines mode thus:

History of mode

In his Poetics, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle uses 'mode' in a more specific sense. Kinds of 'poetry' (the term includes drama, flute music, and lyre music for Aristotle), he writes, may be differentiated in three ways: according to their medium of imitation, according to their objects of imitation, and according to their mode or 'manner' of imitation (section I). "For the medium being the same, and the objects the same, the poet may imitate by narration—in which case he can either take another personality as Homer does, or speak in his own person, unchanged—or he may present all his characters as living and moving before us" (section III). According to this definition, 'narrative' and 'dramatic' are modes of fiction:

Mode (music)

In the theory of Western music, mode (from Latin modus, "measure, standard, manner, way, size, limit of quantity, method") (Powers 2001, Introduction; OED) generally refers to a type of scale, coupled with a set of characteristic melodic behaviours. This use, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the Middle Ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.

Mode as a general concept

Regarding the concept of mode as applied to pitch relationships generally, Harold S. Powers proposed mode as a general term but limited for melody types, which were based on the modal interpretation of ancient Greek octave species called tonos (τόνος) or harmonia (ἁρμονία), with "most of the area between ... being in the domain of mode" (Powers 2001, §I,3). This synthesis between tonus as a church tone and the older meaning associated with an octave species was done by medieval theorists for the Western monodic plainchant tradition (see Hucbald and Aurelian). It is generally assumed that Carolingian theorists imported monastic Octoechos propagated in the patriarchates of Jerusalem (Mar Saba) and Constantinople (Stoudios Monastery) which meant the eight echoi they used for the composition of hymns (e.g., Wellesz 1954, 41 ff.), though direct adaptations of Byzantine chants in the survived Gregorian repertoire are extremely rare.