iTunes 4.9

I've just downloaded iTunes 4.9 via software update, but i don't see any mention of it on the apple site. There they are still on about iTunes 4.8? Hmmmm. Ah! it is here

iTunes 4.9 has basic support for podacst subscription.

A band called Calamateur have an album out which you can download for free from the Autoclave records website on this page. I am at this very moment downloading it and will be giving it a listen.

This week I have lots of magazines to read.
"is this music" a scottish music mag with cd. Interviews with members of Bis (who are now Data Panik, and of Monica Queen from Belle and Sebastian, and lots of mini album reviews)
Private Eye
New Scientist (previous issue about the implications of quantum experiments)
Macworld
Sound on Sound
I haven't bought magazines for quite some time, now a surfeit. Haven't the stamina to read them all – my poor wings.

They say rain a plenty is "weather for ducks" and I for one love a good downpour. My friends however do not. And another thing - my geese friend's little goslings aren't so little any more.

Have decided to use del.icio.us so here's a link. My list of bookmarks is growing slowly.
I have found a few good websites, maybe will post links in next post.

Lovely Lovely OS X Apps

I have been trying out some lovely applications recently.
Links:
Quicksilver
Bits on Wheels
Path Finder

the most useful is Quicksilver  (which I previously knew the name of, but didn't know what it was.)
It's a launcher and searcher thing that works through typing; activate (with a modifiable shortcut) then type the first few letters of a folder/app/thing, you can then choose different actions to perform on this thing. That is the basic premise, but plug-ins allow you to do things like search your bookmarks and display iTunes artwork, (and presumable things that i can't even conceive of yet as I've only had it a day) Oh yes and it's FREEWARE.

The most exciting is Bits on Wheels

A BitTorrent client, with lots of features (list of peers and up/down, list of files and percentage complete, total number of pieces in a file, amount you have left to get etc.). But the most exciting of these (for me anyway) is the visualisation of the BitTorrent uploading/downloading/sharing business. The Swarm Tab shows displays yourself as a box in the centre of a circle being orbited by other boxes to whom you are down/uploading. While you download your box fills up with blueness, an indication of how much of the total download you have, when you have the total file and are seeding the box and the background become red indicating you have all the pieces. There are also other visualisations going on here : the lines from you to the peers indicate the direction on the flow (up/down) and the speed and other things that again, I haven't figured out yet. Also FREEWARE, but not, it notes open source.

Just having a look at Path Finder which says it is a"pro-finder" thing, the finder plus a whole loada things. Screen Capture, favourites, a list of open apps in the Menu Bar, Trash on Desktop, open in Terminal. You can do things to files: compress images, email files, view files in Hex form, Create Disc Images. I've only had it for about and hour yet, so still exploring. this is Shareware - timed trial for, i think it's 21 days. $34, which is about £18
p.s. also has a great Drop Stack area where you can drop files so you can transfer them later to wherever you like, without having to drag them all over the place or have multiple finder windows open.

Stuff

I bought a copy of "They F*** You Up" (yes that is it's title, asterisks and all) by Oliver James which had been reduced as sommat weird going on with the last few pages and the way they were cut. Title taken from that most memorable of Philip Larkin poems. It's a nice hard back book, I've been reading it and it's quite interesting. His idea in this book is that the way your parents related to you due to various factors (gender, birth order, whether you were a favoured/unfavoured child, the state of family fortunes at the time you were born, etc - you get the idea) has a lot more influence on your personality than most people believe. He says of nature/nurture it's 50/50, but traits that we see as inherent as part of of our character he says are to do with the way we have learned to behave as we have grown up. For example, he suggests that firstborns are more likely to endorse their parent's sense of morality than are lastborns who must learn individuality to gain their parents' attention. Also says that "genius" children are almost always hothoused, and it is this hothousing that brings out that level of exceptional-ness. And similarly with negativity. I won't go on any more. but you get the idea. Quite interesting. I'm about a quarter of the way through. And am still reading Catch 22, though have kind of stopped in order to read this.

Big Brother, I have really lost interest. But as E4 is now on Freeview. I have been watching a bit of that. At the moment is seems to be all Friends, Sex and the City, The OC and Hollyoaks. First three fine, last one not fine; actually I don't know whether the last one is anygood as i haven't watched it since I was at school as it got very annoying and depressing, it used to be a very light, silly once or twice a week thing now I think it's C4 have thrusted soap status on it after the demise of Brookside. Oh and Big brother of course. Oh and of course there is a lot of Big Brother on E4.

Springwatch with Bill Oddie on BBC2 has been great. lots of newborn birds to watch, and their parents. On yesterday's programme there were many ducks. Including the eider duck. No mallards though.

The Devil Bites Dirty...

we wax and wane (It's a Cocteau Twins lyric, at least I think those are the words, who knoweth?).

Apple. Intel.
Need I say more? Read a lot about it on fora, been thinking too much about it, feeling apprehensive about my lovely puters that may become defunct more quickly than I imagined, or may not. How long before the the next os upgrade is not compatible with ye olde computers? What will the Apple line up of 2 or 3 years into the future look like? What will the prices be like? What will OS XI (or whatever they are going to call it) be like and how will it be different to take advantage of the different processors individualities? Or perhaps it will only be 10.7 by the time that happens. STOP.

I don't want to think about it any more it is making me feel ill. I was going to take a day off thinking about it, but alas see what has not happened.

My acquaintances' little chicks are growing up very quickly. My friends the geese have four little goslings that aren't so little as they were just over a week ago.

A Wren Visits

A wren stopped by for an hour or so yesterday. Flew about a bit, had a look around and then flew off out of the window. I would have liked the wren to stay a while longer but... ahh maybe another time.

I am getting into Catch 22, and am enjoying the style of writing and the nonsensical logic of Heller. I remember watching some of the film, specifically Major Major, who when reading the book I now realise is Major Major Major Major. So far I am fascinated by the way the ideas are expressed. The overwhelming sense of it all is a pointless and farcical maze of a war, where the only people who make sense are madmen (Yossarian for example) who one character describes as the sanest of the whole lot. That kind of nonesensical logic. If English wan't my 1st language, id be wondering what the hell was going on. When i read books in french they sometimes seem like this, but that's only because I am rubbish at French.

Watched "The Thing Form Another World" yesterday. Quite a good film, all the better for being in black and white. Features a female who appeared to have the role of secretary, who is a humorous intelligent and confident character, which made a nice change from the usual characters I see in b&w horror films. But this wasn't exactly schlock. Wouldn't mind seeing it again. There's a scientific fundamentalist who tries to force the rest of the people at the Arctic station to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of the furtherance of scientific knowledge - in the form of the seemingly invincible alien vegetable man.

Another Hey

Just posting for the sake of it here. Made changes to the weblog template, the process of which almost gave me a headache, trying to figure out which classes related to which bits of text.

I have read 59 pages of Catch 22, which I have tried to read before but the book got abandoned as books do.
There was some watchable stuff on tv tonight. "Mock the Week" was good for a first episode (Rory Bremner, Dara O'Brian, Jeremy Hardy, John Oliver, Linda Smith, Hugh Dennis and a guy whose name I can't recall).
Also good was the Storville film about the McLibel case. Then Click Online about technology things and the web.

Spent too long on the 'puter. I feel sick.

hello

just tchecking