Angel Dust Was The Inspiration For a New Schizophrenia Drug: "When scientists learned that PCP, also known as angel dust, can cause every single symptom of schizophrenia, they wondered if chemicals that have the opposite effect could fight mental disorders. That insight led to them to discover a new class of antipsychotic medications.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Control QuickTime Player playback via the keyboard: "Learn about a very useful set of keys to control QuickTime Player's playback features.
"
Mac OS X Hints Weblog - http://www.macworld.com
Levelator 1.4: "If you produce podcasts, use the Levelator instead of spending your day endlessly adjusting volume curves.
"
Mac Gems Weblog - http://www.macworld.com
Transmission 1.22: "BitTorrent has become the peer-to-peer protocol of choice for transferring large files quickly. There are plenty of clients for OS X, but Transmission Project’s Transmission 1.22 has a lot of things going for it.
"
Mac Gems Weblog - http://www.macworld.com
AppleJack 1.5: "AppleJack is a nifty utility that lets you access a number of troubleshooting tools at startup, even if you don't have an OS X disc.
"
Mac Gems Weblog - http://www.macworld.com
Apple releases Security Update 2008-006: "A security update has been released fixing several issues with the underlying components in Mac OS X.
"
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
Get iTunes 7's Album View back in iTunes 8: "You may think that iTunes 8 has removed the Album View mode from iTunes 7. It's still there, but the activation method has changed. To get it back, put iTunes 8 into List view mode, then click the black arrow on the far left of the column bar to show album artwork (or use View -> View Artwork Column or press Command-G). Then select Album by Artist in the columns (Control-click and add it to the columns if it's not visible) to organize music by album.
[robg adds: Based on the emails and hint submissions I've received on this subject, the changes in iTunes 8 have made some people think that view mode went away, hence, this hint.]
"
Mac OS X Hints - http://www.macosxhints.com
Hands on with Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5.5: "Monday’s release of OS X 10.5.5 brought a slew of updates...
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Quickly access Grid view options in iTunes 8: "Learn a bit more about Grid view in iTunes 8, including a faster way to access its settings for grouping and sorting.
"
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
Move the distortion effects position in Photo Booth: "A very simple tip that explains how to move the distortion effect’s position in Photo Booth.
"
Mac OS X Hints Weblog - http://www.macworld.com
iTunes 8 Adds Genius; iTunes Store Adds HDTV and NBC: "
Do you have a friend who always seems plugged in to the latest music? With today's release of iTunes 8, Apple wants to be that hip friend, in the form of the new Genius feature.
The iTunes Genius automatically builds a playlist of songs in your library, matching artists and genres according to Apple-developed algorithms that, in theory, result in a collection of songs that sound good together.
When you install and launch iTunes 8 for the first time, the program asks whether you want to enable the Genius feature in a right-hand sidebar. If you agree, you next log into your (required) iTunes account, and Apple gathers information about your iTunes library, sends it to their servers, and then produces results. The process isn't necessarily quick, depending on the size of your iTunes library. According to Apple, information about your library, including track names, play counts, ratings, and playlists - but no personal data - is sent to the company's servers and analyzed each week. Two Genius features become available after this initial process.
Select a song in your library and click the new Genius button in the lower-right corner of the window. A Genius playlist is created and appears in the iTunes left-hand sidebar. (The Genius button replaces the Browse button from iTunes 7.) The Genius ties into the iTunes Store using that right-hand sidebar, suggesting other songs and artists you would like based on what's in your library.
As with the old MiniStore (which is now gone), the Genius sidebar is not automatically enabled by default.
Grid view -- An interesting evolution in iTunes is Apple's work toward making your media library less listy and more visually interactive. The Cover Flow mode replicates the old jukebox approach of flipping panels of albums. But despite its 3D appeal, Cover Flow displays only a handful of items at a time.
So Apple has added Grid View, which displays rows and columns of album art in a grid. (Grid View replaces the list-with-artwork view.) The album covers can be resized; like iPhoto's events icons, rolling your mouse pointer over an icon in the artists, genres, or composers views displays the albums without clicking the icon. Buttons along the top let you display by album, artist, genre, or composer. In a little stylistic touch, the icons sorted by album are square (like an album cover), while the icons for the other view options have rounded corners.
It's nice to see Apple keeping a focus on album artwork, since the digital era has made album covers almost obsolete.
HD TV Shows and the Return of the Peacock -- The update of iTunes also comes with the addition of high-definition television shows through the iTunes Store; previously, only standard-definition TV episodes were available. Apple doesn't specify the format of its new HD programs (720p, 1080i, etc.) or the bit rate at which shows will be compressed, but just about any high-definition content will look worlds better than the low-resolution TV shows we've been buying until now - and those didn't even look that bad.
Being able to view TV shows in high definition could bring a boost to the Apple TV, a set-top box whose sales continue to lag despite generally positive feedback from consumers and reviewers, even in comparison to features available from other set-top video service boxes like the Vudu, the Netflix Player by Roku, and TiVo using the Amazon movie download service. The Apple TV can play back HD content already - including HD movies from the iTunes Store or downloaded HD content copied into iTunes - but being able to purchase and view a series of HD TV programs that you can retain, as opposed to the rental-only HD movies available, makes the one-stop-shopping experience better.
HD programs purchased from the iTunes Store may be viewed not only on an Apple TV, but also in iTunes itself; both Mac and Windows users will need a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor, according to the iTunes 8 release notes.
Apple says HD programs will initially be available from NBC Universal's networks (such as NBC, USA Network, and Sci-Fi Channel), ABC, and Showtime, for a $1 premium over the $1.99 price for the standard-definition version of each show. (As a bonus, viewers purchasing HD programs will also get an iPod-ready version with a smaller file size and resolution suitable for portable devices.)
Yes, we said 'NBC Universal.' Today's event marks the return of NBCU content to the iTunes Store after its abrupt departure almost exactly a year ago, when, according to Apple, the company declined NBCU's demand for a much-higher payment per episode sold. (In Macworld's liveblogging of today's event, Associate Editor Dan Moren joked about John Mayer showing up in every Genius playlist; perhaps extra exposure for Mayer, who is a Universal recording artist, was the quid pro quo that got NBCU back to the table.)
Apple says that NBC, back just in time for the fall television season, will be offering a free episode from each of their 'top series,' including advance previews of premiere episodes of upcoming shows such as 'Knight Rider' and 'My Own Worst Enemy,' a week before the broadcast date. Several vintage shows, like 'Miami Vice' and the original 'Battlestar Galactica,' will also be available for 99 cents an episode.
Other Changes -- iTunes 8 adds support for managing the iTunes library using the VoiceOver component of Leopard's Universal Access preference pane; under Windows XP and Windows Vista, iTunes takes advantage of the Window-Eyes feature. You can also purchase and download media from the iTunes Store using a screen reader.
A new visualizer makes its appearance in iTunes 8, listed simply as iTunes Visualizer from the Visualizer submenu of the View menu. The effect resembles electricity arcing around spheres of dark matter in space. The old visualizer is still available as iTunes Classic Visualizer from the same menu.
iTunes 8 requires QuickTime 7.5.5, available via Software Update as a 67.5 MB download, to handle the new video options. Also released today was Front Row Update 2.1.6 (a 13.1 MB download), which provides iTunes 8 compatibility. Both iTunes 8 and QuickTime 7.5.5 feature security fixes, as well.
iTunes 8 is a 55.9 MB download from Apple's Web site. (It did not show up in Software Update as we were writing this article shortly after the event, but we assume it will be available via that channel soon.)
'
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What I Saw at the Devastation: "This is what everyone in New York says, sooner or later, when they talk about what happened: 'It was such a beautiful day. It was the most beautiful day of the year.' It was. Clear stunning cloudless skies, warm but not hot, a breeze. It was so clear that everyone in town and Jersey and the outer boroughs--everyone could see the huge, thick plumes and clouds of black and gray smoke. Everyone "
Zeta Woof - http://grdurand.com/blogger/
The Ambush Doctrine: "Charles Krauthammer, who coined the term, on the Bush Doctrine. Yes, Sarah Palin didn't know what it is. But neither does Charlie Gibson. And at least she didn't pretend to know -- while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain, sighing and 'sounding like an impatient teacher,' as the Times noted. In doing so, he captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and "
Zeta Woof - http://grdurand.com/blogger/
Shattered Windows: HP tries putting lipstick on Windows Vista pig; working on own Linux-based OS: "The ecosystem that Microsoft has built up around its Windows operating system is showing signs of strain...
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/
Review: iTunes 8: "iTunes 8 isn’t a revolution in media players, but its new features make an already capable application even more indispensable
"
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
Davydenko cleared in betting probe (AP): "
Russian tennis star Nikolay Davydenko was cleared by the ATP on Friday after a yearlong investigation into suspicious betting patterns on a match he lost to a low-ranked opponent. The governing body of men's tennis said it found no evidence of wrongdoing by Davydenko, opponent Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina or anyone else associated with their match in Sopot, Poland, on Aug.
Yahoo! Sports - Tennis News - http://sports.yahoo.com/ten
Firefox to Embrace Porn With New 'Private Browsing' Mode: "Mozilla is jumping on the 'private browsing' bandwagon, with developers already working hard to ensure the new feature ships in Firefox 3.1, due to arrive at the end of 2008.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
iTunes 8 KOs Vista With 'Blue Screen of Death' Bug: "Windows Vista users are reporting that Apple's latest iTunes upgrade -- full
of essential enhancements for the latest iPods and iPhones -- is causing
system crashes and the dreaded BSOD. Apple says it's working on a fix. Vista
users, please wait patiently.
Wired News - http://www.wired.com/rss/index.xml
Lookingglass Store still functions as center of community: "West of Roseburg, in the community of Lookingglass, stands a pre-modern marvel."
News Review - News - http://www.nrtoday.com
Does Bob Schieffer Really Need to Be in HD?: "HD television is all over the place, but not always where you want it."
Pogue's Posts - http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com
Doomsday: "
This was the week Google surprised the world with Chrome, its own open source web browser. Just imagine the deadly effect that had on a dozen or more browser-specific start-ups in Silicon Valley. Lots of readers are wondering what I think of Chrome, like my opinion really matters. Chrome is okay -- faster, but not faster enough to make me change for that reason alone. It's better than IE and almost better than Firefox except there are no plug-ins to speak of. What I really wonder, though, is why Google bothered to do a browser at all? Now I know.
It's not like there aren't enough web browsers in the world. There are plenty. And though Internet Explorer still dominates the Windows market, Firefox (not to mention Opera, Safari, etc.) is there to keep Microsoft honest,. So why did Google even bother? There are two general opinions on this and they are not mutually exclusive. Naturally one opinion is widely held and the other is held mainly by me.
The first reason why Google had to do its own browser comes courtesy of my friend Dave:
'People are looking at Google Chrome and actually think Google is competing in the so-called Browser Wars,' said Dave. 'This is not the case at all. Google doesn't care what happens to Chrome. And, in fact would be absolutely thrilled if Firefox and Opera enhanced their browsers to the point where they trounce Chrome into extinction. Google doesn't make a dime off of Chrome. Its money comes from people using the web browser -- any browser.
'What Google does not want is Microsoft creating a browser that sucks. Actually, Google doesn't mind if Microsoft's browser sucks. What they really don't want is Microsoft to make a browser that sucks and everyone ends up using it. And, if the IE8 beta shows us anything, making a really sucky web browser is Microsoft's true ambition.
'Google's main concern is quite simple: Browsers should render pages accurately, and the JavaScript engine in the browser should be fast, efficient, and bug free. On both counts, IE8 is an abomination. JScript just doesn't behave very well and is buggy. And, IE's page-rendering engine simply does not follow the standard. Because of this, Google has to keep development on their Google Applications quite generic and simply cannot implement the features they want. You'll also notice that Microsoft recently has been putting on some very compelling web content that is only available if you use Windows and IE.'
Now back to Bob. Everything Dave says makes sense and I agree with it, but it doesn't answer my real question, which is not 'Why did Google have to do a browser?' but rather, 'What made it impossible for Google NOT to do a browser?'
The answer to this latter question begins with Dave noticing Microsoft's recent IE- and Windows-specific web content, which cracks open the door on Google's greatest fear -- that Microsoft will turn off ads in IE.
Microsoft can't do that, can they?
Microsoft can do pretty much whatever it wants in this area. There is plenty of browser competition. They can hobble their own product if they like, though it would drive users away from IE -- from a product that brings Microsoft no direct revenue anyway -- so what's the risk?
Microsoft turns off the ads in IE and what happens? Google takes a huge revenue hit, is knocked down three pegs in the eyes of Wall Street, while pretty much nothing happens to Microsoft, which would have just shown the world who is still the sheriff.
I am not saying this is going to happen, but I AM saying that it COULD happen -- and that very remote possibility is, by itself, enough to make Google have to produce its own browser.
Let me be clear that there doesn't have to be any subterfuge here on Microsoft's part. They can simply turn off the ads in IE, declaring it a non-commercial product. If you don't like it, get another browser -- there are plenty to choose from. Microsoft's revenue would go almost unchanged while Google's would plummet, if only for a few weeks or months -- just long enough for Microsoft to come through with a second punch, that is if they have thought that far ahead.
If you are wondering whether people really sit around Google asking if Microsoft would actually do something like this, well they do.
So to avoid that eventuality (and to do all the other things that Dave said, above) here we have Chrome, Google's attempt to direct the future of browser development and take some momentum away from IE.
Chrome promotes WebKit rendering, which is also done in Safari. It would not surprise me if WebKit didn't make some inroads shortly with Firefox and Opera, helping somewhat to turn the tide away from IE. Yet WebKit will change, too, by adopting Google's V8 JavaScript engine, replacing JavaScriptCore in both WebKit and Safari. Thus all the open source browsers (and Safari) become better and more alike, which helps them against IE.
A rising tide floats all (open source) ships. Google needs open source browsers to become even more competitive with IE, hence Chrome is a reference design that Google knows will work brilliantly with all Google Apps.
So much for Chrome: Now for something REALLY scary. I've been hearing that peer-to-peer file sharing has declined a bit. Actually, it's the rate of growth that has declined, but in a market where volume is always rising and prices always falling, even a decline in growth can be significant. This is happening for lots of reasons (market saturation, summer vacation, etc.) but the effect appears to be real, much to the relief of the RIAA and MPAA, which hate people sharing music, TV shows, and movies that they see as violating the intellectual property rights of their members.
But I think something else is actually happening. People are just finding new ways to share files -- ways that are harder to detect and even more chilling for society to prohibit.
Look at where P2P came from in the first place. The idea behind BitTorrent and similar programs was that many people wanted the same content and few users could afford the bandwidth to run their own dedicated servers, so sharing files by caching and re-serving small pieces of files was very efficient, especially with flat-rate bandwidth. Depending on your point of view, P2P has been a huge success or a huge pain in the ass.
But all the while, the cost of Internet bandwidth has come down A LOT. Remember P2P was born in the 1990s when most users still had dial-up connections. With the cost of Internet backbone bandwidth dropping 50 percent per year for the last decade or more, the economics have changed dramatically and it has become reasonable to effectively have your own server. No, I'm not talking about YouTube, I'm talking about dedicated servers used in large part to distribute movies and music. I'm talking about any of a number of Internet backup services.
The poster child for this new kind of service is RapidShare, a German file-sharing service that will let you distribute files up to 200 megs each for free and up to two gigs for not much money -- 55 Euros per year -- with no limit on the total number of files, total storage, total downloads or even total simultaneous downloads. Rip your copy of The Dark Knight, store it on RapidShare, then send the download URL to anyone you like or simply post it somewhere on the web. It's not as efficient as P2P, but it sure is easier AND harder to detect since nothing but http is used.
Can you see where I am going with this? How are the MPAA and the RIAA likely to respond if this technique becomes really popular? They are going to want to spy on us more, even to the point of auditing (or attempting to audit) our network backups. More lawsuits, more grandmothers and little kids being sued, less privacy.
I'm sure the RIAA and MPAA will fail in the long run. Once custom protocols and ports are dropped and you can't tell the difference between a spreadsheet and I Am Curious (Yellow) the game is up. But we're still years -- and a lot of pain -- away from that.
"I, Cringely . The Pulpit - http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/
WA Shooting Rampage Suspect Held on $5M Bail: "The suspect in Tuesday’s deadly shooting spree in Northwest Washington State is being held on five million dollars bail. 28-year old Isaac Zamora is charged with six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder."
Northwest Public Radio - http://www.nwpr.org/
Why Does Facebook Do That?: "David Pogue is willing to be Facebook friends with just about anyone who asks, but he wonders about some of Facebook's little quirks."
Pogue's Posts - http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com
Arts & Letters Daily (10 Sep 2008): "
Ben Franklin liked to present himself as a small-town boy bewildered in the big city. This urbane, highly intelligent man was anything but... more
In 1904, Max Factor huddled in a forest with his wife and children, hunted by the Czar's men. Hollywood was still a long way off... more
Thirty years ago, U.S. academics carried with them to England copies of David Lodge's comic classic, Changing Places. But times have changed, writes Elaine Showalter... more
Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate - http://aldaily.com/
App Store Pick of the Week: Spore Origins: "This week, Electronic Arts delivered Spore Origins to the App Store. In the game, you use the Creature Editor to fashion your own archetypal species. Then set it loose. Using the accelerometer on iPhone or iPod touch, you guide it through the primordial sea to search for food, score points, and fend off nasty predatory creatures. Got an iPod? There’s a version of Spore Origins for you, too."
Apple Hot News - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
First Look: iTunes 8.0: "Apple released a new version of iTunes Tuesday highlighted by the addition of an automatic playlist generator called Genius. But that’s just one of the changes you’ll find in iTunes 8. Rob Griffiths walks you through the additions and enhancements in the latest version of iTunes.
"
Macworld - http://www.macworld.com
Fringe Premieres Strongly: "
Fox's SF series Fringe performed well in its Sept. 9 debut, airing as a 90-minute episode with limited commercial breaks, according to The Hollywood Reporter."
Sci Fi Wire - http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/
New iPod nano: “coolest, slickest, and most intuitive” flash player: "Calling it ‘one of the best looking and most successfully executed flash players ever created,’ Tim Gideon (pcmag.com) praises the new iPod nano (4th generation), gives it 4.5 stars (out of 5) and names it an Editors’ Choice. ‘Apple’s slimmed-down, slicker-than-ever iPod nano,’ he says, ‘responds to your movements, creates playlists it thinks you’ll like, and makes the competition look like a bunch of clunkers."
Apple Hot News - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/
Apple debuts iTunes 8 with Genius technology: "Apple today announced iTunes 8, the next major release of Apple's ubiquitous music and video player...
MacDailyNews - http://www.macdailynews.com/