Cool Tip for iTunes: Terminal Hack

I like the iTunes Store, but I don't want my music collection to be inextricably linked to it, especially considering only about 5% of it comes from the store, so when Apple added the grey arrows that link directly to the iTunes Music Store with iTunes 4.5 I immediately disabled them.



iTunes 7.0 made them less noticable, allowing them to show only on the currently playing song, but I was still bothered by them.

But, this neat little hack makes them useful. Rather than linking to the iTunes Store, you can use the link as another way to browse your own collection. However, hitting option along with the link goes back to the old behavior. To make this work, Open Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES.

And if for some reason this doesn't work for you, you can change it back by putting NO instead of YES.

Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright

William Blake's "The Tyger" was the first poem I really 'got.' The combination of Blake's accessible meter and the dense lyric language worked, especially the beginning stanza, which is repeated at the end:

Tyger!Tyger! burning bright /
in the forests of the night /
What immortal hand or eye /
dye frame thy fearful symmetry?

I mention this simply because I happened upon Tyger, a multimedia short made—according to Salon's Video Dog—for the British Council in Brazil's annual festival. Tyger uses Blake's poem for inspiration and the combination of puppetry and animation is incredibly imaginative (even the background music is good.) So check it out.

Link.

Prophetic Words

It may be a bit obvious, but there's something about W.B. Yeats' The Second Coming that rings truer today than it should.

Also, after watching Keith Olberman's outstanding and fiery oration on the Bush administration from September 25, I went and found the rest of the Abraham Lincoln's speech he references:

Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here--Congress and Executive--can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united, and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means, so certainly, or so speedily, assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.
- Abraham Lincoln, Annual Remarks to Congress, December 1, 1862.

Swearing in Latin

I can't believe I never noticed this before, but Wikipedia has an entry on swearing in Latin. Useful? No. Fun, in an intellectual sort of way? Yes!

A big nod to Jason Kottke for finding this one.


Link.

Keep Trying Scoble, You're Bound to Think of Something

Microsoft gets so much grief for copying, I think, because they're so blatant and bad at it. They're like Gus Van Sant remaking Hitchcock’s Psycho: the camera angles are the same, but the spirit is dead. Meanwhile, Apple takes ideas and makes them (like 3M!) better, reinventing the idea with their own particular style.
Robert Scoble thinks this is unfair. Frankly, if I were a former Microsoft blogger with his insight into the company I'd probably feel the same way. Often times Microsoft has taken an Apple idea and made a cardboard copy, but Apple's not exactly the innocent waif either, fast user switching being a great example.
However, I think his comparison between the Xbox 360 and the upcoming "iTV" to be ill conceived. The Xbox is a computer, thinner than normal, but nonetheless inside the case is everything you would expect from a gaming machine. However, iTV is different, it's a discrete device that ties into ability the rest of the network should already have. The iTV has more in common with a Sonos and is really an evolution of Apple's Airport Express.
The difference is subtle, but important.

Microsoft is making another version of the MCE box: a complex system capable of a myriad of different tasks; Apple is making a toaster. A toaster that plays video.

[Update:] Apparently, Apple's been working on an idea similar to the iTV as early as the mid-90s; the device was the "Set Top Box." Microsoft gets a cookie for the XBox and the implementation, but I still think Scoble needs a better example than this one.

Napster Begs for Mercy

Already widely reported but fun in light of Orlowski's rambling about subscription services, Napster is looking for a bail-out according to the NYTimes. (Tip to DaringFireball for the link.)

Apparently, BusinessWeek thinks Creative would be a great partner, because two guys who can't swim is always better than one.

Details Confound Register Writer

Andrew Orlowski’s latest article “The iPod’s Achilles Heel? It’s er [sic]…Readers Digest?” manages to be almost completely wrong about the growing business of digital music. Orlowski believes that the subscription model, already an abject failure despite the backing of Real, Sony, and Microsoft under the “PlaysForSure” label, will suddenly be resurrected by Microsoft’s Zune player. However, while this idea is interesting, Orlowski makes the grave mistake of using the success of eMusic as his support, and this is just plain wrong.

eMusic has been a surprise hit among digital music purveyors, second only to iTunes in sales. According to this USA Today article, eMusic accounts for 11% of the market, while Apple seizes nearly 70% (the rest is divvied up among perennial losers Napster, Real, and MSN Music; Sony’s Connect is hidden by a rounding error.) What’s most fascinating about eMusic’s success is not only do they cater to independent bands, but they have managed this success without DRM. And, this is very, very important detail that Orlowski has utterly ignored.

An eMusic customer pays $14.99 a month for 65 downloads for a “Plus” subscription or $19.99 for a “Premium” subscription. Once a song is downloaded it can be played on any device and burned innumerable times. This is completely different from the competing subscription services where songs are locked the minute the subscription ends, and extra charges are assessed to burn the song to a CD or move the file to a portable player.

This is a vital difference, users don’t want to rent their music, they want to own it, and any system that gives them this ability it going to do far better than any current subscription service. Really, eMusic is just a different way of charging for the same bits.

Orlowski also manages to be completely wrong about the economics of digital downloads, he writes:

“iTunes doesn't generate money for anyone except Apple. Broadband providers, PC manufacturers, insurance companies, and the battery-replacement services have all profited in some way from the iPod's success - but no one in the music value chain. Steve Jobs doesn't even leave crumbs on the table.”

That’s why the labels signed a new deal with Apple apparently, they like losing money.

Although, according to this Billboard article (PDF warning), the labels are actually taking 65 cents for every song, meaning that while Apple bears the costs of servers, bandwidth, and the staff necessary to maintain the iTunes site, the music labels merely have to hand over digital content. Really, it seems the labels are getting more than a fair deal, and I think it’s a good thing that not only does Apple and the music labels make money, but the success of the iPod/iTunes/iTunes Store triumvirate has create a micro-economy based on cases, accessories, and even batteries.

Lastly, although eMusic’s CEO David Pakman takes a cheap shot at the iPod, he should realize that the iPod’s massive sales help him as well, because eMusic’s songs work on the iPod just as easily as songs from the iTunes Store. After all, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Consumers hunting for content can happen upon eMusic and use both services equally, grabbing the unusual from eMusic and that Top 40 ohrwrum from iTunes.

iTunes 7

Things to Like About iTunes 7:

• Cover Flow.
  
• Downloading Album Art
  
• Gapless Playback.
  
• The revamped sidebar, including the new icons, but especially the new broken-out categories for movies, TV shows, and podcasts.
  
• Gapless Playback. I know I already said it, but I love that I can listen to Kind of Blue and Delicate Sound of Thunder without the annoying pauses.

Something to Dislike:

• Cover Flow shows displays some albums using a single image, other albums have an image for each-and-every song. Somehow I’ve fixed this on a few albums, but I can’t figure out what I did.

An Inevitable and Necessary Post

September 11 is a bitter day, a sullen and grey ache. Politicians are propping up their image with their response to the anniversary, and I go to lunch with my wife, I send emails to friends, and I hope for better days.

Later that night, I notice the spot-lights spearing the sky, creating a nebulous glow in the clouds, and shafts of blue light that flicker with the fluttering of bats drawn by the moveable feast of insects in the light.

New iPod

I just ordered a refurbished iPod from Apple courtesy of Apple Gift Cards from my family.

Thanks guys.

My Darth Vader Pod is on the way.

Acolytes, Zealots, and Pedants

I can't put my finger on it, but sometime during the last year, the continuous debate over Mac vs. Windows ceased to be fun. Maybe I'm just a jaded flame-warrior, but now it just sucks. Everyone's got an opinion (including me) and everyone's got the data to support it, especially when they ignore data that disagrees.

The example that brought this up was from TUAW in a post by David Cartier. His post, titled Fuzzy Tactics Aren't Helping the Mac Community takes to task a 'Digged' blog post that compared the Total Cost of Ownership between Windows and OSX.

The original article by Daniel Eran tried to compare cost of upgrading OSX from 10.0 to 10.4 versus the cost of upgrading Windows from 2000 to XP SP2. An interesting idea, but ultimately pointless, because the numbers are hard to consider.
Just a few questions I'd ask: Do you count OEM versions of Windows? Do you count the 10.1 upgrade disc that people could buy? And, how in the hell did Thurrott get to $750 for upgrades to OSX? Did he count every version of OSX, including Leopard at $129?

The article tries to compare all the variations, and then adds in Anti-Virus and Geek Squad Support to the Windows total. Apparently, unhappy about his numbers, Eran decided to stack the deck.

This is unfair, and Cartier is right to call him on it. Both Eran and Thurrott have an agenda to serve and they're going to manipulating the numbers to suffice.

What does this mean for the average user? Jack squat. The average user didn't update from 10.1 through 10.4, they skipped updates. Or they waited for the next thing, or they used that time to buy a new computer. Users don't like to upgrade their OS, they like to leave it alone until they have to change. Many OSX users can still get by with Jaguar or Panther. Windows users are the same, many are still using 98 and 2000 (some poor souls even still use ME).

So, for them, what's the TCO? That's a tough metric to give, and it entirely depends on the user and their application, and anyone who pretends there's a nice cut-and-dry number that proves one OS is better than other is serving an agenda.


Edit: See Eran's comment, and also I changed my headline to reflect that no necklaces were involved in this particular posting, which he was kind enough to point out on his follow-up story.

Another Example of People are Idiots

Justin Long, newly famous from the "Get a Mac Ads" talks to the LA Times about being harassed by people offended by the commercials.

Link

I've finally been convinced that the new Apple commercials don't work, Apple has sustained some bad press and managed to offend a sub-set of people who have emotionally tied themselves to their choice of computers. Getting these people fired up is a bad idea, simply because they're such a vocal and apparently aggressive bunch of lunatics. Although John Devorak has been making a mint doing this to Mac users.

While bashing Microsoft during a WWDC is a perfect time to fire up the troops, these commercials aren't very effective at showing what's great about the Mac and merely gets mired in the old PC vs. Mac arguement.

However, Apple should sustain a television commercial campaign because that presence, that constant reminder that a Mac is a great choice and does really cool things, is going to sell Macs.

John Gruber Agrees...

Leander Kahney at Wired mag has completely missed the point of a World Wide Developer's Conference. Here's Gruber's well-written post about what Kahney, and a surprising number of other people, missed at last week's WWDC.

Link.

Apple and Rumors: A Less Than Perfect Relationship

Apple loves hype, or more specifically, Steve Jobs loves hype. He feeds on it, uses it, and mostly controls the hype that flows around Apple Computer.

But, sometimes the hype bites back. For weeks rumors fly and there are whispers of astounding products, amazing products. Even Scoble, noted blogger and Microsoft enthusiast, gets caught in it, leaving less than cryptic hints in an entry about Vista.
The rumors create a wave of feeling, a rising white-tipped wave that no product could ever hope to absorb. Minutes before Jobs' keynote on Monday, the IRC channels ready, MacRumors pushing posts directly from the floor, there was a feeling that Apple was about to announce "The Coolest Thing Ever."

And, then Jobs' ruined it by being the CEO of an outstanding company and announcing the new Mac Pro and previewing Leopard. Rather than being a superhero, Jobs was merely mortal, and Apple merely a computer company. And, there was the collective yawn.

Leander Kahney asked "Has Steve Jobs Lost His Magic" and wondered if Jobs' health was declining. And Scoble offering his mea culpa noted that Apple's announcment went "over like a lead balloon."

But, what was really expected? An iPhone? A new iPod? At a Developers conference? Really.

And, here it is, we get to see a glimpse of Leopard and rather than focusing on the maybe and on the cool things we did see, lots of people assume that its. And then we get into geek wankery about whether Apple was being mean to Microsoft because of some sharp pokes at Goliath, which is quickly followed by the official Who Copied Who Game. By the way, Paul Thurrott isn't the most unbiased source for Apple vs. Microsoft discussions considering he runs the Windows Super Site. And, he should know this discussion goes back to the beginning and coould include Xerox PARC. Yes, the discussion is that freaking geeky and irrelevant.

Apple did what they should have done at this year's WWDC, they showed the attendees some of the things Leopard could do, including very cool technologies like Core Animation, not to mention the full porting of the OS to 64-bit and the transition from PPC to Intel in 210 days.

While Microsoft's been screwing around with Longwait, sorry Vista, Apple has managed to radically change their OS's architecture to work on 64-bit Intel chips, while managing hurdles with Rosetta and Universal Binaries. And, they deserve praise for that not the collective yawn of a buch of jaded rumor-mongers.

The cool hardware and a new iPod are coming. Just not today.

On Predictions

Well, I was hit and miss, just like everyone else. Even Robert Scoble has been forced to offer a mea culpa after his post that mind-blowing things were about to come out. Either Scoble's source was dead wrong, or as my sources tell me, Jobs didn't want to blow the load at once.

This makes a certain amount of sense, the WWDC is about Developers and thus focused on Leopard and the Mac Pro, which looks like an awesome machine and I'd buy one if I didn't think my Visa card would burst into flames.

Rootkits and Wireless Vulnerabilities, Oh My!

A friend of mine recently sent me this email which includes a description of the wireless 'vulnerability' from the Washington Post.

" I just read an article in the morning paper about how easy it is to hack into any computer (including a Mac or mac book) of people who are using wireless connections at airports, restaurants, libraries etc. They drop something called a root kit into the computer by exploiting the wireless card - the root kit is an undetectable program that logs passwords and accesses sensitive files. The demonstration showed that they can quickly hack into the laptops of people with the wireless cards in their computers who are using their computers in public places even when they are not logged onto the wireless system or online."

This is why the headline was so damaging and so dangerous. From this description all the nuances of the vulnerability have fallen away and we remain with the words rootkit and the idea that anyone can send a rootkit into any system, anywhere. If people like me then point out the subtleties of this particular problem it makes the Washington Post article seem false and overblown. Do this enough times and people will start ignoring the message just as they now seem to ignore articles about viruses and malware.
The Washington Post blog headline was irresponsible.

Quick Prediction on Apple's WWDC

The WWDC keynote is about 10 hours away, but I just wanted to write down my predictions, so I can point back to it on Tuesday and say: Wow, I'm clueless. 

Mac Pro. Totally, the new Intel chips are exactly what the G5 replacement needs, and this puts pressure on Adobe to finish their Pro App. It also simplifies the Apple line to all Intel. 

Leopard. I'm forced to agree with John Gruber over at Daring Fireball, the Finder is going to undergo some major changes. Spotlight will be updated, and I'd expect a lot more iChat integration due to the increasing ubiquity of iSight cameras in the iMac, MacBook lines. 

And, Windows will not be integrated into Leopard, but Apple will be happy to sell copies of Parallels. 

iPod Video. Not today, but soon. Maybe during Paris, but I'd expect a special event in August. iPod Nanos are also due for a change, which explains the Educational Discount that includes a Free iPod Nano coupon. 

iPhone, iHome, iTablet. All would be excellent products and would sell like hotcakes, to use a well-worn phrase, but not for WWDC. 
Of the three, the iHome (a Mac DVR) is most likely, but Jobs would totally change the phone industry with an iPhone. And Jobs likes changing the world. 

More on Wireless Flaw

On a follow up to yesterday's post, John Gruber at Daring Fireball makes a similar case. The problem is the Washington Post's story, the presentation, and the failure of the writer to ask specific questions about what this vulnerability means.

Sensational Headlines: or Why Apple Never Made a Yellow iMac...

Headlines are misleading. They're created as trailers for news stories, trying to give you the explosions and the broad dialogue to hook you and get you to read the story. This is an old story, and yet I'm occasionally surprised at just how far this goes. Technology stories are troublesome in this regard, because the story offers relies on specific details to make sense, and sometimes while writing a fantastic headline someone goes too far and changes the meaning of a story.

This happened with the Washington Post's story on a demonstration of wireless-card driver flaws. The headline is "Hijacking a Macbook in 60 Seconds or Less." Now the headline is descriptive in this part, because the researchers did use a Dell laptop to hijack a Macbook. However, this headline is also misleading because it uses the Macbook as the focus. The problem isn't the Macbook, it's the driver implementation of a third-party wireless card and this problem exists for Windows as well.

Although the story buries this fact deep into the story, the security researcher points it out immediately upon presenting the target Macbook. Of course, the blogosphere goes nuts with opprobrium and vitriol against Apple and 'smug' Mac users which seems like a particularly bizarre reaction, until you remember earlier reactions to Apple's new commercials.

This is a security flaw, and make no mistake about it, Apple needs to create a fix, but let's be clear: you can hack any wireless computer using this flaw. Furthermore, wireless networks are inherently insecure. There's too many ways to attack the network including sniffing the traffic and attaining passwords, creating false networks, and simple brute force attacks. This is just another problematic vector in an insecure system. But, this isn't an Apple problem and the word Macbook was in the headline to drive traffic.

A Fresh Start: A history of my writing, bad latin, and bad poetry.

Why bad latin? I actually spent a summer in a Latin intensive and I learned just enough to be utterly confused by Italian and to frequently garble legal terms into hopeless mishmash. And, please note, this happened in spite of the university's best attempts to teach me.

Why bad poetry? Sometimes I'm going to submit you poor unfortunates to some of my poetry and I felt it best to lower your expectations. If you feel the occasional bit of poetry is so fantastic you'd like to read an entire book of it, then let me know. If you feel the occasional bit of poetry is hopelessly childish and gauche, I warned you.

This blog is about me and my frequent obsessions, thoughts, and general rambling. I hold my opinions in low esteem simply because I'm a 29-year-old American with just enough education to be dangerous.

I believe in a few things: the power of literature, good design, the progress of technology—despite the numerous blowbacks and unintended consequence—and smart people who try do good in the world.

Hope you enjoy this blog, another grain of sand in the blogosphere, and hope it find you well and interests you, if only for a moment.