Tidbits: My Articles, iTunes for Windows, Political Stuff
Friday, 2003-10-17; 09:48:00
New sidebar links to my articles, iTunes for Windows is OUT!, and some political stuff
I've added a new sidebar section (and removed the one about voter registration -- it will come back for the next election, though :) ). It's appropriately called "Articles By Me", and it links to all the articles that I've written for online publications. So far, that's only five articles on two small Mac sites, but we'll see how it goes from there. :) It's cool, though: I've been writing a lot more, and I'm sure I need the practice. I've never been a phenomenal writer, so even informative/editorial pieces will likely help. Feel free to critique/respond. I already have another one written from OS X Factor, and I'm going to probably have two more this weekend for Apple-X. In case you're wondering, Apple-X was looking for writers and I figured I could do it despite the fact that I also recently started writing for OS X Factor. I've decided to split up my articles -- reviews and tutorials will go to OS X Factor; rants, raves, and editorials will go to Apple-X. Keep your eyes on the sidebar links or on those websites. :)
Next up: iTunes. IT'S OUT FOR WINDOWS. Hey all you Windows users out there -- you should try this music player out. It's really awesome, and I think you'll love it. Note that if you have your music in WMA format, it won't work in iTunes, but that should be a problem only for a relatively small number of users. Also, a word of warning: make sure you uncheck "Keep my iTunes music folder organized" when iTunes first starts up (it should be unchecked by default). If you don't your structure of folders where you keep your music will be entirely obliterated -- that wasn't a problem for me, but it may be for you. Note that this is not a half-assed port of iTunes to Windows: it's the full thing. Every single feature on the Mac has been implemented on the PC. Yes, that includes Rendezvous music sharing. And yes, you can share music between Macs and PCs seamlessly. The list of shared music here at Casa has grown to just about the size of my source list when iTunes takes up almost the whole screen (right now I have 33 shared music libraries showing up :) ).
Last up, some political stuff: yes, I'm disappointed about Schwarzenegger winning. And I'm having an ethical dilemma: should I sign the recall petition for Arnold Schwarzenegger if it ever comes to pass like people were threatening? I believe that the recall election fundamentally undermined democracy, because 10% of the voting populace could overthrow the decision of the past election (whereas Davis garnered over 40% of the vote when he got elected). Why in the world do they have the power to do that? Furthermore, the election was biased against Davis -- he had to get a 50% approval rating from California voters, while Schwarzenegger only had to get a plurality (i.e.: more than any other candidate). That's totally unfair. Given these points, I would be pretty inclined to sign the new recall petition.
But Schwarzenegger got 48% of the voting populace in California. First of all, that boggles my mind -- how can people expect that an actor, who hasn't had any political experience, to govern a state that's under a massive budget crisis? It makes no sense whatsoever. However, given that Schwarzy got 48% of the vote, it would mean that he could potentially SURVIVE a recall election! He just needs 3% of the voters to be outraged that there's another recall election, and he's set! Of course, that assumes that nothing bad happens during his time in the Governor's office at which people can get mad.
Given the fact that another recall election would drop California into an even deeper budget crisis by a few tens of millions of dollars (which is mere pennies compared to the $38 BILLION budget problem that California has), I think I'm leaning against signing it -- if it ever comes around.
In other news, I found Aaron Swartz's characterization of the left to be very interesting. I have to admit that there is definitely some truth to it -- there are much bigger eggs to fry than this CIA cover thing (although it is an important issue in itself). It just continues to prove to me that the Democrats really have no spine, and that they have no business with my vote. (For the recall election, though, I decided to forgo my vote for Georgy, and vote for Bustamante instead, because I really didn't want Schwarzenegger to get into office. Fat lot of good that did. Sorry, Georgy!)
Next up: iTunes. IT'S OUT FOR WINDOWS. Hey all you Windows users out there -- you should try this music player out. It's really awesome, and I think you'll love it. Note that if you have your music in WMA format, it won't work in iTunes, but that should be a problem only for a relatively small number of users. Also, a word of warning: make sure you uncheck "Keep my iTunes music folder organized" when iTunes first starts up (it should be unchecked by default). If you don't your structure of folders where you keep your music will be entirely obliterated -- that wasn't a problem for me, but it may be for you. Note that this is not a half-assed port of iTunes to Windows: it's the full thing. Every single feature on the Mac has been implemented on the PC. Yes, that includes Rendezvous music sharing. And yes, you can share music between Macs and PCs seamlessly. The list of shared music here at Casa has grown to just about the size of my source list when iTunes takes up almost the whole screen (right now I have 33 shared music libraries showing up :) ).
Last up, some political stuff: yes, I'm disappointed about Schwarzenegger winning. And I'm having an ethical dilemma: should I sign the recall petition for Arnold Schwarzenegger if it ever comes to pass like people were threatening? I believe that the recall election fundamentally undermined democracy, because 10% of the voting populace could overthrow the decision of the past election (whereas Davis garnered over 40% of the vote when he got elected). Why in the world do they have the power to do that? Furthermore, the election was biased against Davis -- he had to get a 50% approval rating from California voters, while Schwarzenegger only had to get a plurality (i.e.: more than any other candidate). That's totally unfair. Given these points, I would be pretty inclined to sign the new recall petition.
But Schwarzenegger got 48% of the voting populace in California. First of all, that boggles my mind -- how can people expect that an actor, who hasn't had any political experience, to govern a state that's under a massive budget crisis? It makes no sense whatsoever. However, given that Schwarzy got 48% of the vote, it would mean that he could potentially SURVIVE a recall election! He just needs 3% of the voters to be outraged that there's another recall election, and he's set! Of course, that assumes that nothing bad happens during his time in the Governor's office at which people can get mad.
Given the fact that another recall election would drop California into an even deeper budget crisis by a few tens of millions of dollars (which is mere pennies compared to the $38 BILLION budget problem that California has), I think I'm leaning against signing it -- if it ever comes around.
In other news, I found Aaron Swartz's characterization of the left to be very interesting. I have to admit that there is definitely some truth to it -- there are much bigger eggs to fry than this CIA cover thing (although it is an important issue in itself). It just continues to prove to me that the Democrats really have no spine, and that they have no business with my vote. (For the recall election, though, I decided to forgo my vote for Georgy, and vote for Bustamante instead, because I really didn't want Schwarzenegger to get into office. Fat lot of good that did. Sorry, Georgy!)
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