UPDATECheck this out. Instructions for reverting to iTunes 6! In the process of doing it right now!

---

About a month ago, I got the usual notification from iTunes that “OMG! There’s a new update available! You totally have to download it!”, but I waited.And waited.

And waited some more.

I should have just waited indefinitely though. I downloaded it and installed it on my computer here at work. Some of the new features intrigued me, particularly “Gapless playback” (useful for albums that have pre-made transitions and fades). That new feature with the jukebox style appearance (when it shows the cd covers and you can kind of flip through them) is a neat idea, in theory, but a resource hog. Much like Windows Vista.

Nevertheless, I finally upgraded my home PC to iTunes 7 as well, restarted my machine, and started up iTunes. Everything seemed to work right, even my iPod sync’d, so I was happy.

The thing is, after this, I was only able to get my iPod to sync one more time, EVER. For some reason, Apple changed the interfacing between iTunes 7 and older iPods — my OS recognizes it (as an “Apple USB Device”), but iTunes does not even SEE it.
I’ve scoured online forums and done web searches galore about it. I haven’t found any specific solutions (other than “Uninstall iTunes 7, Re-install iTunes 6, which DOES work.”) but I did find a lot of people complaining that iTunes 7 either broke their iPod or doesn’t mount their iPod, killed their dog, caused their marriage to fail, or made America lose the war.

What’s the deal with this? All these tech companies are dropping the ball left and right. Are they getting lazy or what? I’m definitely going to be downgrading to iTunes 6 — at least that works! Hopefully I don’t have to re-do all of the song info in the library… that would be really annoying. I’m not switching over to MS or other competitor products…yet. But if Apple keeps this up, they’re losing yet another otherwise devoted iPod consumer.

(p.s. if you were expecting a blog about my recent wedding, it’s forthcoming. I need to get some pics edited first.

Categories: Geekery, Rants
No Comments »

What has happened to you, oh software goliath?

You used to be so on-top of things, but sitting on your billions has made you lethargic and lax, and now you’re desperately nipping at the heels of your competitors, trying to keep up — but you’re two steps behind!

First there was the iPod — you TOTALLY missed that train. The “zum” or whatever you call it is going to have a hard time breaking up the stalwart stance of Apple’s uber-successful mp3 player / video player / photo viewer / dishwasher.

Then there’s Google. I don’t necessarily blame you here, who would have thought an internet search firm headed by Novell’s former leader (whom your own Steve Ballmer “f*cking buried” years ago) would be so successful today? They certainly crept up very sneakily — but now you do your “Windows Live” search tool, expecting everyone to jump on board when “google” has already entered the popular usage vernacular as a verb? (ex. “When George couldn’t find the right sized underpants for his chihuahua, he googled it.”) Sorry Bill, they’ve got their feet dug in already, and people love em.

About 10 minutes ago I saw an advertisement for “Windows Live Spaces - ‘Stay in touch with old friends and meet new ones with Windows Live Spaces’”. LIVE SPACES?? Talk about a gross-reference to a certain other social networking site. Come on, MS… you’ve REALLY missed the train on this one. In fact, you’re so behind on this, you’re waiting at the train station and people are flying airplanes now. Even YAHOO beat you to the punch here (with “Yahoo! 360″), but yet you expect to compete with the likes of Myspace, Facebook, Tagworld, and the whole mess of em? Please. What’s next? A photo sharing site?

But what’s the real issue with all of this… why so sluggish? There was a time when you promised there would never be more than a 5 year gap between OS releases…but the clock is rapidly ticking on that, and Windows Vista doesn’t quite sound like it’s done! Will it be full of bugs and unnecessary flashy CPU/memory consuming features? Is it really worth upgrading?
Nay, mighty Microsoft, I think the undertow of the drain has taken hold of you, and you’re picking up speed. You’ve diversified and de-focused so much, and screwed so many people over in Europe that your candle is burning down, and quickly!

It won’t happen today or even next month, but soon, soon enough, you’ll be gone. The death knell will be when you finally release you’re coveted source code that you guard so closely. Europe has been demanding you do it for a while, but then again, they’ve openly embraced the Open Source movement, as has South America (hell, they’ve MANDATED it!). When are you going to learn that computers and Internet access are so commonplace that you really can’t gouge them anymore! (Compare it to Television price history)

Wake up, Microsoft.

Categories: Geekery, Humor, Rants
2 Comments »

We just had a meeting at work with the Registrar and our supervisor, concerning a project we’re working on. The project’s purpose is to track data about on-campus resources a student uses (Tutorial Services, Advising, etc.) in correlation with their grades. This is obviously an issue related to FERPA, the set of guidelines that oversees educational recordkeeping.

After the meeting, which took slightly over an hour, we were walking back towards our office alongside the Registrar and he was saying how he can’t wait to start deer-hunting. He then jokingly says “If you ever violate FERPA, I’ll kill you,” noting both of us.

He then informed me that he could probably gut me in about 3 minutes, and he would let Zak (my co-worker) watch so he could understand how to do it. This was probably the strangest conversation I think I’ve ever had. I didn’t REALLY feel threatened or anything, I knew he was joking in a macabre sort of way. What a day!

Categories: Humor
1 Comment »