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stuff related to the culture of the portable laptop harddrive

I can haz drm free mp3z?

posted Wednesday, October 17, 2007 6:54 AM by hussain
Apple dropped it's price on DRM-free MP3's to $0.99 (some DRM tracks are $0.89, see ArsTechnica, WSJ) via iTunes Plus, just like all their other tracks; and Amazon (from $0.89 and up) and WalMart ($0.94/ea) are starting to offer DRM-free MP3 downloads - what is this world coming to!

http://icanhaz.com/mp3z?

Never mind that Apple embeds your name in their DRM-free tracks - they're 256 kbps instead of the normal +DRM 128 kbps iTunes tracks.  Amazon's are 256 vbr, fyi.
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Correction, MobileSafari - and Crashes

posted Thursday, October 11, 2007 6:10 AM by hussain

Sweet. My iPod Touch crashed while browsing the csis site yesterday and I barely knew it - I thought it just dropped me back to the main app launcher screen because I mistapped or accidentally did some combination. But, no, it actually crashed.

How did I know? Next time I hooked kitterpod up to synch, iTunes asked (something like), "Hey, there, I see you've had a crash, would you like to report it to Apple?" I clicked "totally" before I could get a screenshot, but Apple keeps all the crashlogs on the local computer:

The crash file contains an Incident Identifier - seems obvious, to track the incident, a CrashReporter Key - which merits more digging, since it looks like a SHA-1 hash or maybe an actual encryption key? (lunixnerts) - bytes free, bytes wired, the app that's about to jettison and a ps list. Woot! OS X, for one, and the crashy app is called MobileSafari. Who knows where else MobileSafari might be deployed?

Incident Identifier: 2F067E21-C4EF-42FA-B970-D3CB90754080
CrashReporter Key:   [redacted]
OS Version:          OS X 1.1.1 (3A110a)
Date:                2007-10-10 21:59:34 -0600

1449984 bytes free
34918400 bytes wired
About to jettison: MobileSafari

Processes
 PID  RPRVT  RSHRD  RSIZE Command
   1   148K   220K   236K launchd
  13   344K   176K   536K CommCenter
  15  6.44M  13.5M  8.31M SpringBoard
  16   664K   208K   836K configd
  17   192K   176K   352K crashreporterd
  18  1.54M   272K  2.07M iapd
  19   296K   292K   524K mDNSResponder
  20   404K   356K   676K lockdownd
  21   188K   224K   272K syslogd
  22  84.0K   180K   112K update
  23   292K   264K   484K ptpd
  26   188K   208K   252K notifyd
 419   840K   784K  1.31M mediaserverd
 430  11.4M  13.0M  19.3M MobileSafari
 434   312K   320K   896K crashdump

**End**

Dropping one back to the main screen seems like a fairly decent way of handling a crash or a bug on this platform. Not knowing immediately that I'd crashed, I went back to Safari, sorry MobileSafari, and it restarted with the same pages I had in place - at the time, csis, a csis pdf, and JiveTalk beta for iPhone - all of which reloaded. And crashed. But eventually, kept going.

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iPod Caturday

posted Saturday, October 06, 2007 7:06 AM by hussain

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Safari on iPod Touch doesn't do SVG

posted Friday, October 05, 2007 11:31 PM by hussain

Safari on the iPod Touch doesn't do SVG. What you're not seeing there is the polygon layer north west of Manaus, Amazonia, Brazil. I wonder how much memory (and processor stress) the svg code would've been.
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Safari on iPod Touch doesn't do Arabic

posted Tuesday, October 02, 2007 6:33 AM by hussain

The iPod Touch's Safari browser shows Arabic characters as blocks.

I guess they couldn't afford the extra memory for the additional fonts for Safari "lite."

A Unicode sample page highlights the other character sets left off of the "Safari-light" that's on the iPhone and Touch - Devangari (Hindi) and varietals (Tamil, Bengali, Gujrati), Arabic, Tibetan, Tagalog, Thai, and Hebrew, among others.
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rebirth of the ipod - fat guy in a little suit

posted Saturday, February 17, 2007 12:23 PM by hussain

After determining that corporal punishment wasn't going to be a long term solution, I started sourcing hard drives for my ailing 20Gb 4G iPod. Quickly, I realized I could probably put an even larger hard drive than the original 20Gb (MK2006GAL) Toshiba 1.8 if I got a larger backplate. Uncertain whether it'd work, I looked briefly on the internet and couldn't get a decent affirmative response.

Oddly, I hadn't thought of eBay when looking for backplates or drives, until I started thinking about batteries. eBay (duh) has everything and more. So, I asked one of the 40Gb backplate sellers whether it'd work. "Winterpoem" was very helpful, but unfortunately his auction ended before I could buy it. $167 later and I had a 40Gb 4G backplate and a MK6006GAH, a 60Gb hard drive. The replacement was straightforward and now I have a 60Gb 4th Generation iPod. A new 5G 80Gb iPod's about $350, so I "saved" $187 and a 50 mile trip to the Apple Store. I consider that a good deal.

I'll probably end up buying a 1200mAh battery and an eVo2 iSkin that fits well (the 20Gb sized iSkin fits, but looks like a fat guy in a little suit, which is also fitting) which'll set me back another whopping $25.

I also forgot that they made 4G color iPods in the same size, so for another $100 (which'd've blown my budget) I could've gotten a color LCD (~$50) and a color motherboard (~$50).

As a last note, if you're selling (or reselling) your old 60Gb 4th gen iPod photo's HD on eBay, delete all the info from it, otherwise someone'll find your pictures and keep your music (which, in this case, wasn't worth it).

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That didn't take long

posted Monday, January 22, 2007 12:49 PM by hussain

My expected temporary fix for my iPod has shown its limitations: iPod won't sync as of this weekend and is exhibiting the One Infinite Click again.

Aggressively reseating* the hard drive worked, again, but I've got plans to order a HD (and battery, just for fun).  Still doing a bit of research on whether it's worth trying to "go big" with a larger hd in the iPod.

Also, attempting to use CDs in the car is a strange thing to do.

Yaay, blogging.

* Oh, ps, there was one "technique" I left off of the One Infinite Click post - smacking the iPod.  Yes, actually physically assaulting the thing is something that the internets recommends due to the Toshiba single-platter 20gb hds having a tendancy to get "stuck."  A "stuck" hd is not a good thing, clearly, but resuscitating the thing so that cost/benefit replacement ratios can be debated isn't terrible. Thwaping it means it's going down anyhow, might as well get some pleasure out of it.  And, yes, I did hit the crap out of the hd to make it work.
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Solving my iPod's "One Infinite Click"

posted Saturday, January 06, 2007 12:48 AM by hussain

A few days ago, my 4th gen monochrome 20gb iPod refused to synch or be recognized by iTunes.  It was making the oft mentioned and characteristic constant faint clicking sound typically called the "infinite click of death."  I prefer to call it "One Infinite Click" after Apple's HQ address. After doing the Apple-recommended "5 R's" for what seemed like days (I did it in fits and spurts over two days, since it takes a long time for the iPod to be recognized as it's clicking and whirring), I eventually got it to half-resynch, but then fail, and back to the "One Infinite Click."

Macworld is on the 9th, so I figured I should wait to hear what the Steve's going to announce before making the drive all the way to Boulder or Denver to drool at those respective Apple Stores or buying something on line, just in case the prices drop.  The next best thing would be getting my hands dirty and trying to figure out what causes this.

After a bit of Googling, there're three main solutions I found on-line for "One Infinite Click," in ascending invasiveness:


The iPod was already behaving badly, taking a long time for any of my computers to recognize it, so the first step to reformat the HD was to put it into disk mode.  After a long time (over 10 minutes or so) Windows decided to recognize it and the iPod itself stopped clicking long enough to be recognized, I used the disk utility to reformat H:\ (quick, NTFS).  Disconnected, reconnected and iTunes 7 fired up and wanted to restore the software on the iPod.  Great so far.  Disconnected and connected to an external power source, as requested, let it do its thing then reconnected to the machine.  ITunes 7 wanted to restore again.  Ok.  One more cycle of that business and it's clear that reformatting isn't the solution.  I've got to open the thing up.

Pricewatch's and Froogle's listings for the MK2006GAL are around $100, so I figure I'd better do step 2 before spending the money.  Opening it up was easier than I thought: jeweler's screwdrivers and a bit of plastic stressing until I figured out which way to wedge and it popped open.  The internals look like all the pictures on the net.  I pushed the IDE HD connector on the HD.  I think it felt a bit loose, but I don't know.  Reseating complete.

I went through The Process: attached the iPod to the machine, let it restore, disconnected and attached to a power source, and back to the computer.  I think I may have heard one click as iTunes started to copy over the 3000 mp3 items, but I can't really tell.

Lucky me, the whole library loaded and it seems to work great!  No need to spend the $100 or so for a new hard drive (yet). I may, though, spend the $30 for a newer battery, as the one I have has been dying for a while.

The Steve announced the iPhone and iTV, but no change in prices to the 30 and 80gb iPods.  I'm very happy with my 20gb 4th gen, especially now that it works!
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iPod Downloads

posted Thursday, April 06, 2006 10:27 AM by hussain
Merriam-Webster's put up 10 free text downloads for the iPod
  • Declaration of Independence (1776)
  • Constitution of the United States (1787)
  • Bill of Rights (1791)
  • Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803)
  • Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
  • Gettysburg Address (1863)
  • Civil Rights Act (1964)
  • Social Security Act (1935)
  • Monroe Doctrine (1823)
  • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
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this is how you know we've lost

posted Wednesday, April 05, 2006 2:37 PM by hussain

This is how you know we've lost and they've won:

LONDON - British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said on Wednesday.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash’s 1979 anthem “London Calling,” which features the lyrics “Now war is declared -- and battle come down” while other lines warn of a “meltdown expected.”
Briton held as terror suspect over punk song, MSNBC 04/05/2006

Idiots.

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work haiku

posted Friday, June 24, 2005 4:25 PM by hussain
cackling ladies
whisper and whoop, orgasm
slip into ipod bliss
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iPodNotes

posted Thursday, January 27, 2005 9:28 AM by hussain
Other places that have Notes content for the iPod:
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iPodNotesShakespeare

posted Wednesday, January 26, 2005 12:18 AM by hussain

With a little help from perl and the wonderful Project Gutenberg, I've made Shakespeare's  Sonnets (88kb zip, ~630kb expanded) into iPod Notes format. Placing these on the iPod is straightforward. Copy the unzipped directory into your mounted iPod's "Notes" folder.

I'm excited to read these in my downtime and revisit old favorites. (29, 100, 106)

I'm thinking of doing a reminiscence tour of stuff I grew up on: lots of Latin (Ovid,  Cicero, Virgil), Persian (Khayyam, Sa'di, Rumi), and maybe even Urdu poetry.  Later, some more modern ones, if I can figure out the rights/licensing issues.

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iPodNotes

posted Tuesday, January 18, 2005 3:11 PM by hussain

I want to put the CIA Factbook on my iPod. I love the CIA Factbook so much people have told me I should marry it. I snapped back that they were poopypants and that shut them up something fierce. Here's a iPod notes converter, an article, a site, and the iPod Note Reader Guide (2003) from Apple.

Now I have ideas on the brain: Notecasting anyone?

Other things I bumped into while researching iPod Notes:

http://www.hackaday.com/
http://www.bestcigarette.us/

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FreeMusic

posted Tuesday, January 11, 2005 10:23 AM by hussain
Mercedez-Benz Mix Tape - oddly hip iPodLounge Article on free music

PodcastingReview - Theory of Everything

posted Monday, December 27, 2004 10:02 AM by hussain

Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything: 30 minutes. Listened to #10 “Evil” on Sat., which has two stories in a personal interview and reflective style reminiscent of This American Life. The first story was about Darth Vader (a guy who'd changed his name to) and the 2nd was about Walker's visit to the Hague to give Slobodan Milosovic some books. I don't really believe the first story, but I'd have to do some internet-lookingup; both were very worth listening to. Rating 8/10

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