Defensive systems... *clunk*... engaged, cap'n.

[flexagon]

I'm not sure there's anything weirder than having to field a 10-minute conversation with a guy who invariably comes around to the topic of interpersonal relations and how I should read all these books and get better at it, yet insists on sarcastically belittling any achievement anyone ever relates. (As a typical example, he saw my wedding rings a while back and reacted with that's it?) I don' t even react to this person as a person anymore... just a system I have to deal with using rules I've found over the years. It tires me out to deal with it though. He's like some bizarre walking mockery of friendliness & mentorship made by an unkind sculptor.

iTunes for Windows is transforming my working experience this week, though. About eight people here have it already (it was released last Thursday), and since it allows sharing-not-copying of ripped CDs over a LAN, I suddenly have gigs and gigs of other people's music I can easily listen to. I've spent almost my entire workweek listening to new-to-me stuff. I'm burning albums to my own drive too--today's big additions are Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis and Hysteria by Def Leppard. Yup, those go together well. <grin>

Comments

Sad people...

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

God, can you imagine how much that guy's life must suck. And then he'll die, having lived that life. Yikes...

As for ITunes...I can't quite bring myself to do it. I'm weakening though. Lemme know how Sketches of Spain is - sounds interesting.

Re: Sad people...

[webrat.livejournal.com]

iTunes is nice. If you can't get into it, I just found Winamp 5 beta. Yup, 3 sucked *so* bad that they elimiated 3 and 4 then went straight to 5. No announcement on their site. Do a google for "Winamp 5 beta" and you'll find plenty of links and a download (eventually). From what I understand, it's Winamp 2's engine (which isn't a resource pig) modified to work with Winamp 3's skinning engine (which apparently now can use both Winamp 2 & 3 skins). There's also a Winamp 5 Pro feature forthcomming that allows you to rip CDs to MP3s.

ITunes

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

My problem with ITunes is a political beef, not a technical one. I think they are WAY overcharging for the music, and perpetuating a crappy music industry system.

Re: ITunes

[webrat.livejournal.com]

I see. Well, I've only used the store except to get 2 songs that I really wanted. Then, I stopped and never used it again. Built in feature I don't use.

Re: ITunes

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I thought the store was primarily what soyfetus was talking about?

Re: ITunes

[webrat.livejournal.com]

Nope. The store is like a mini-app within the iTunes "Player" application. You can share out your mp3 collection to others without giving them access to the mp3 file itself. You can connect up your iPod, you can shop (if you want, you don't *have* to). You can also burn your Mp3's to a CD, you can rip them from a cd, etc.

Re: ITunes

[flexagon]

Nope. I did sign up & buy a song from them for 0.99 to kinda reward them for rolling out the software, and I'll probably buy a couple more sometime, but mostly I'm just listening to stuff on other people's hard drives. Plus I'm ripping some of my own CDs to my own drive for the first time ever (I know, I know, I'm a Luddite) so I can share them with the rest of the company, not to mention give HLM his physical CDs back. That's much more fun. It wouldn't be so fun without being on a LAN.

That said, I don't find their prices unreasonable. And oh yeah, Sketches of Spain is a beautiful album... it's jazz but it's sort of progressive rock-y jazz or something. A bit more accessible than other music called "jazz." Mebbe we can play it on Saturday. :)

Re: ITunes

[webrat.livejournal.com]

So, now the question remains.. his blue a switcher? ;)

Re: ITunes

[webrat.livejournal.com]

duh.. his = is.. dunno where his came from. Damn fingers.

Re: Sad people...

[flexagon]

God, can you imagine how much that guy's life must suck. And then he'll die, having lived that life.

Yeah! Slowly and painfully. :)
I know, I'm not nice.