Slashback: ITunes, Debian, ATMs

Slashback tonight brings some clarifications and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including: iTunes 7.0, Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes sales, debate over a proposal to fund Debian, and Googling for ATM master passwords. Read on for details.

Apple Announces iTunes 7, Movies, Set-Top Box. This evening Apple released iTunes 7.0.1, which "addresses stability and performance issues with Cover Flow, CD importing, iPod syncing, and more." iTunes users, especially those on Windows, have been complaining loudly about iTunes 7.0 since its release.

Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes sales. camperslo writes, "Playlist reported that Walt Disney President and CEO Robert Iger said that 125,000 downloadable movies had been purchased in the week since Apple's debut of movies on the iTunes Store. That sales level generated $1 million in revenue for Disney, which works out to $8 per movie. They also state that 'Iger told attendees of an investment conference in New York on Tuesday that Disney anticipates seeing about $50 million in revenue from the venture during its first year.'"

Proposal to fund Debian sparks debate. lisah writes, "Debian Project Leader Anthony Towns is now facing a recall vote over his involvement with Dunc-Tank, something Towns himself is willing to explore. Not everyone agrees that such a move is necessary, or even acceptable, and fur is beginning to fly as one community member asks, 'So, just to be clear, you want to punish a Debian developer for their activities outside of Debian? Now that we're in crazy-as-batshit land, who do you want to bring up on charges next?'"

Googling for ATM master passwords. bagsc writes, "Kevin Poulsen of Wired.com strikes fear into another ATM manufacturer. This time, Triton ATMs had their super-secret master codes revealed by simple Google searches. Tranax was the most recent company with this problem, but probably not the last."

Comments

Dupe

[Anonymous Coward]

Googling for ATM master passwords. bagsc writes, "Kevin Poulsen of Wired.com strikes fear into another ATM manufacturer. This time, Triton ATMs had their super-secret master codes revealed by simple Google searches. Tranax was the most recent company with this problem, but probably not the last."

Seems he also wrote that two days ago.

Re:Dupe

[Shortgeek]

Umm... this is a Slashback. That's the whole point.

iTunes

[FuturePastNow]

I guess I'm the only person who didn't have any problems with iTunes 7 (on either Windows or Mac). Good job to Apple for updating it quickly, though. Maybe a little more testing nest time, eh?

Re:iTunes

[FuturePastNow]

Well, yeah, that's the easiest way to avoid problems. By the way, I have something like 16,000 tracks in my music library, and no one bit of it has DRM.

Re:iTunes

[koko]

Works for me. I like gapless. Cookies needed? Yup.

Re:iTunes

[WilliamSChips]

Do you realize how close to Godwin's Law that is? :P

Re:iTunes

[Millenniumman]

First, I'll pretend your extremely exaggerated Godwin-esque analogy was less so.

So you're saying that using a free program that can be used to buy DRMed music is evil, because DRMed music is evil? Well, I'm sure you'll agree that hacking into other people's computers is bad. And yet, you use a computer. And a computer can be used to hack into a computer.

Re:iTunes

[indigest]

Maybe a little more proofreading next time, eh? :)

Re:iTunes

[geek]

I'm still trying to figure out what in the heck 7.0 did to my system. Before the install my system hadn't crashed, bogged down, nothing in over a year. Now suddenly the firewire is dead on it, my iPod isn't recognized by the system at all, not even by the update app from their website.

Apple is deleting posts off their discussion forum by the hundreds, all from people just asking for help to get it working again. This update has done nothing to fix this problem for me so essentially the iPod I spent nearly 500$ on is worthless, Apple won't help me on the matter at all.

I'm glad some people aren't having issues. I've been using OSX since release, bought every update, never had an issue till now. I used to post here telling everyone how great my situation was while others complained. Now that I'm in their shoes, it's pretty shitty.

Apple is a gem of company when things go right, but when they go wrong, watch out. I've never felt so disrespected in my life when dealing with a corporation.

Re:iTunes

[AhtirTano]

iTunes 7.0 has screwed things up for me too, though apparently not as badly as for you. iTunes hangs literally 50% of the time I try to sync my ipod. I have to force quit and restart itunes to try again. I have had a few times where I had to reboot the machine, things had crashed so hard.

Re:iTunes

[groovelator]

Only problem I had was on one PC. Updating DirectX and the soundcard drivers seemed to do the trick...

Re:iTunes

[jesboat]

That's not a great situation. Apple should, of course, be helping you, and if they're not, there are steps you can take to get them to do so.

That said, if that's the worst thing you've ever had a company do to you, you're pretty lucky.

Re:iTunes

[ElephanTS]

is the firewire really dead or do you just mean the iPod? Firewire can run without system software (like firewire target mode) so I guess you mean just the pod. Perhaps get the pod onto a friends machine a do some checking and maybe a total reformat on it. I also guess you've tried all this.

Re:iTunes

[teh kurisu]

Yay for not knowing the difference between iTunes and the iTunes Store.

Re:iTunes

[DrXym]

iTunes works okay on XP, but the UI is horrible. Scrolling through a large list is painfully slow and iTunes has a horrible non-standard UI. The last release aped Aqua, the new one apes pastel shades of grey. Either version looks and feels totally non-standard. Considering that Apple (and users) loudly beat the usability drum it's quite surprising that they feel they can get away with it on Windows.

Re:iTunes

[ClamIAm]

Yay for not understanding software bundling and/or humor.

Syncing still doesn't work properly

[SilentChris]

I bought a 2G iPod awhile back and haven't really touched the platform until recently to buy a new Nano. Syncing still doesn't work properly with any playlists that include dates. Before you go thinking "that's not a big deal" -- the Nano doesn't have much storage. You rely on the playlists to fill it up correctly. In my case, I created a playlist with just enough music to fill the iPod up with songs I hadn't listened to recently. Doesn't work at all.

It's a relatively simple problem, and it kind of ticks me off that my 2G "old" iPod did this right while a brand new Nano doesn't.

Re:Syncing still doesn't work properly

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you really think it just doesn't work, or maybe it's just a specific problem or even user error on your part?

I know exactly what you describe about needed good control over what gets copied, and guess what, it works just fine.
I've got my base nano playlist that is always synced, which is about 300 songs. Then to top it off, I sync a few smart playlists that contain a portion from recently added, recently played, top rated but not heard recently, most played, etc... as well as a dozen or so of the latest podcasts.

Works just FINE. Ask for help cause you must be doing something wrong.

Re:Syncing still doesn't work properly

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't work at all.
It's a relatively simple problem

Welcome to the world of Apple Sync software. For past examples of Apple Sync quality, please read UseNet archives about the Newton 2000/2100 and eMate 300.

Re:Syncing still doesn't work properly

[crvtec]

Syncing still doesn't work properly with any playlists that include dates.

Yeah, I have a problem syncing with my dates, too, but it has nothing to do with an iPod... :(

Re:Syncing still doesn't work properly

[SilentChris]

Uh... no. You're wrong. A bunch of people are having problems specifically with smart playlists using dates. The update has not fixed anything.

See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID= 642774&tstart=0 for other examples. They screwed up the code, plain and simple.

Re:Syncing still doesn't work properly

[cjmnews]

That's because the people are having issues with their playlists on the iPod, and the update was for the PC/Mac.
Since the iPod was not updated, there won't be a change to how it performs.

Re:Syncing still doesn't work properly

[SilentChris]

An update was also released for the iPod Nano yesterday, bringing the firmware on the 2G models to 1.02. Please PLEASE don't state something as fact if you know nothing about it.

Just Write Code

[QuantumG]

What a bunch of political bullshit. For fuck sake people, it's a Linux distribution, not the United Nations. During the many years I spent at the University of Queensland I ran into Anthony Towns a bunch of times. Back then he was a fun loving geek, and I doubt much has changed. We both attended HUMBUG semi-regularly, and had a few laughs. The politics at HUMBUG were annoying too. For a bunch of geeks sitting in a lecture theatre playing around with Linux and ignoring whoever was giving a "presentation" that month, there was a heck of a lot bureaucracy, what with voting held annually for president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary and librarian. There's such a thing as too much organisation. Especially when people lose sight of the big picture and get bogged down in administrivity.

Re:Just Write Code

[x2A]

All the cores in the recently announced 80 core Intel CPU will operate in "committee" mode, to slow it down to a reasonable pace...

Re:Just Write Code

[kfg]

They're going to toss Anthony, but agree that, in principle, he has a right to have a baby.

KFG

Re:Just Write Code

[Anonymous Coward]

What?! An 80 core Intel processor? We need a Slashdot story about that!

Re:Just Write Code

[Russ Nelson]

I like the t-shirt that Jesse Vincent was distributing at OSCON. It reads:

        "Shut the fuck up and write some code."

Re:Just Write Code

[McBofh]

I, too, attended UQ and was one of the founding Humbug members. The reason for the beauracracy involved is purely due to the UQ Student Union's governance requirements. Part of the quid pro quo for being able to have official meeting within the Uni and student involvement.

It's not really that big a deal.

There's a lot of traffic on the #humbug channel, still, and AJ remains a fun-loving codergeek. He also seems to have his head screwed on properly which is not something I'd say about many other debian organisational types.

Re:Just Write Code

[QuantumG]

Yeah, I remember the shit we had to go through to get that room booked every month. Beauracracy breeds beauracracy.

Not really.

[Virak]

The point of Slashback is to post a bunch of updates to recent stories that aren't worth an article on their own, not to post the EXACT SAME STORY TWICE.

Re:Not really.

[Shortgeek]

Oh. OK. Sorry.

Re:Not really.

[dfsmith]

Um, this is slashback. That's the point. Deja vu.

Re:Not really.

[Talinth]

Posted the first message as AC, then revealed your identity with an appology while logged in. Brilliant.

Re:Not really.

[whoop]

... but no mention of 5 minutes, 500 miles electric cars? That's worthy of a triple dupe.

Re:Not really.

[Anonymous Coward]

Posted your message as a mockery of someone, then reveal that you're an illiterate cunt by failing to realize that his other post was logged in too, not anonymous. Brilliant.

Re:Not really.

[geekoid]

It's callled slashback for a reason.

Personally I like, which is why I haven't removed it from my prefrences. --- HINT.

iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[billstewart]

My Windows XP machine runs multiple users - I only log in as "root" when I need admin privileges, typically to install software, and log in as "me" when I don't. iTunes was the first Apple product I've used that didn't "just work" - it had trouble coping with the concept that there were multiple users on the machine, kept separate music libraries for root and me, and I had to do a bunch of annoying configuration work to consolidate them.

When I installed the iTunes 7 the other week, this appears to have all broken. I found it out by trying to download new music to my iPod Shuffle, found that only two songs were on it (the freebies-of-the-week I'd just downloaded from the Apple Store), and gradually realized that the reason all my music was listed in gray wasn't Apple's latest cool aesthetic designs, it was indicating that iTunes didn't know where my music was any more. [expletive deleted!] Now I've got to go haggle with it to rebuild a consolidated music library again, and hope it does it correctly as opposed to things like having two directory entries per tune, one working and one empty, or some similar bogosity.

It was especially annoying, because I'd recently discovered that an iPod Shuffle *can* survive being dropped into hot coffee, if you rinse it off quickly and let it dry for a few days :-)

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[Moridineas]

Annoying for me ..maybe this can help.

itunes by default stores stuff in a folder called "iTunes" under your user "My Music" folder, and th library itself in "iTunes Music" which is a folder under the iTunes directory.

You can make your "My Music" folder be the same for all your accounts, and then you don't have to worry about different libraries. use TweakUI to change the default location of your "My Music" folder.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[willy_me]

Instead of logging in as an admin to install software, just change the rights of your current user - temporarily. This way all the user specific changes the installer is required to do won't be lost. Of course, it really shouldn't matter one way or the other - the fact that it does shows that Apple didn't design the Windows version as well as the Mac version. Either that or Windows doesn't make it as easy to do as MacOS.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[jesboat]

You said, "it had trouble coping with the concept that there were multiple users on the machine, kept separate music libraries for root and me". Not to be rude, but are you serious?

You say that the expected behavior would be for iTunes to keep the same music library for two distinct users on the system. The whole point of having a multi-user system is so that different users have distinct settings and documents. iTunes behaved perfectly correctly, and, if it had done anything else, it would have been buggy.

You use two user accounts on your system to get privilege separation, and that's fine. Then, because you want the two accounts to share data (not the typical multi-user paradigm), you use trickery to get it to work, and that's fine too. What you shouldn't do is complain when software breaks it.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, this is Slashdot. You shouldn't expect the people posting here to actually understand the reasoning behind the paradigms they so vocally advocate.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[jackbird]

There are a number of perfectly reasonable scenarios for wanting a shared itunes library that many users would expect to work. Like a husband and wife who share a home computer, for example.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[billstewart]

Of course I'm serious, otherwise I wouldn't have been bitching about it on Slashdot :-)

ITunes should have given me a choice about setting it up for shared use or non-shared. Especially for a "personal computer", it's typical to expect that multiple users will want to share resources, and on a machine and an application program targeted towards consumer entertainment you'd also expect that. (That doesn't mean that I expect it to also force the same playlists onto each iPod - it seems to do a good job of keeping track of multiple iPods.)
If the system didn't insist on having a user with Administrator privileges install it, that'd be different.

I didn't use "trickery" to get it to combine the two accounts - I poked around in the menus until I found where it kept the directory information, and it lets you change it. It was annoyingly well hidden, given that music and especially video podcasts are large enough that many users might want to keep them on some drive other than the default C:.

Breaking user preference settings during an upgrade is a real annoyance - most other software, even Mozilla, has finally caught up with the idea that you might want to do a software version upgrade without forgetting all your settings, or at least the idea that if you're *going* to trash all their settings, you should give an "Are you sure?" choice. iTunes didn't actually forget all my settings - it just forgot some of them. It kept the database of information about the tunes I had - it just lost track of where they were stored, including the tunes I'd downloaded from the iTunes Store. Broken, broken, annoying, and not what I'd expect from Apple.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[Anonymous Coward]

> Broken, broken, annoying, and not what I'd expect from Apple.
From my expirience - this is exactly what I'd except from Apple.

That - and overpriced.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[johnpaul191]

the Mac version lets you select what directory and what HDD you store your music on. in the Mac world it's a selection under advanced options. is it not on the XP version? i have a G4 tower, and always put my MP3s on a separate HDD or at least another partition of a HDD. that way multiple accounts can easily access it, and when i backup my /home directory i do not have to worry about the MP3 repository. worst case scenario means i just have to re-rip CDs. i have never played with XP iTunes enough to look at this stuff, but i am surprised if it's that different.

i would assume for the default setup they envision the family computer that mom, dad and the kids have their own accounts and do not want to look at each other's music. while that idea seems valid for music, i would think people would be more inclined to share movies with the whole family? well.... the kind of movies (Disney) that you can buy from iTMS.... not THOSE kind of movies. i guess we'll see how iTV handles that in a few months.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[gwhenning]

While I admit that I really like iTunes, I am surprised that they make it such a pain in the rear to share music with another user on the same computer. I tried setting this up on my OS X box at home so my wife and I could share the music but have seperate logins. I can use the same folder, but can't use the same library file no matter how I change the permissions on the file, so whenever I download new music I have to login to my wife's account, delete the library, and rebuild it. It would be easier if they would just let you use the same library and have a seperate file for your ratings, etc.
Some Windows XP programs ask whether or not to install the program for just you or anyone who uses the computer and it wouldn't take much for Apple to do the same.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[Mattintosh]

iTunes for Windows allows the same thing. I had my iTunes library in D:\Music until I moved it over to my Mac.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[Buran]

Instead of logging in as an admin to install software, just change the rights of your current user - temporarily

Why not just right-click on the item in question and select "Run As" from the context menu? (you may have to hold down shift as you click). I do this all the time -- I know the magic admin password for the machines in the department office but the staff doesn't -- and so if they need something installed (Flash, iTunes, something that we know is safe and are OK with) I ask them to download the installer onto their desktop and then use Run as to run the installer with the appropriate privs.

No logging in/out or rights-changing needed.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[Moridineas]

Right, it's the exact same way on the PC--you get to select where you store your iTunes library in the iTunes preferences.

However doing the way I described, you keep the same playlists, same album art, same play history, same preferences--it's all identical between users, and all in one place

This is also ideal for BootCamp.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[johnpaul191]

ahhhhh gotcha. interesting.

i don't use BootCamp, so i was just sharing it between OS X users.

No information about WalMart

[Dynedain]

Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes sales. camperslo writes, "Playlist reported that Walt Disney President and CEO Robert Iger said that 125,000 downloadable movies had been purchased in the week since Apple's debut of movies on the iTunes Store. That sales level generated $1 million in revenue for Disney, which works out to $8 per movie. They also state that 'Iger told attendees of an investment conference in New York on Tuesday that Disney anticipates seeing about $50 million in revenue from the venture during its first year.'"

Where in that article or the associated links is anything regarding WalMart threatening lawsuits? C'mon editors...

Re:No information about WalMart

[kfg]

Where in that article or the associated links is anything regarding WalMart threatening lawsuits?

Where in the blurb does it say anything about lawsuits? There's actually more ways to threaten someone (or something) than with a court case. Hard to believe, but it's true.

Just click on the link to the original story (this is a Slashback, ya know expanding on a previous story. Kinda like a dupe, only different) at the bottom of the blurb.

KFG

I know it says "especially those on windows"

[Miguelito]

But I haven't had a single problem with 7.0 since installed it the day it came out. It's been rock solid.. only issue I've had is that I had to mark some albums as collections because it would split the display of the album covers into multiple ones when an album had different artists (like a movie soundtrack).

Re:I know it says "especially those on windows"

[kubrick]

iTunes 7 has an "Album Artist" tag, so you can set that to, e.g. "Various Artists" (or the name of the primary artist of the soundtrack) and still set the artist tag differently for the individual tracks, and it will group the album correctly.

Re:I know it says "especially those on windows"

[Anonymous Coward]

"Various Artists" is not a person. If there's not a common artist who orchestrated the creation of the CD, then just mark it with the "Compilation" checkbox and leave it at that. Don't add in some crap metadata.

Re:I know it says "especially those on windows"

[TheoMurpse]

So I finally cleared up enough HD space to upgrade to 7.0 (ripping Futurama off my DVDs left no space for a while, and iTunes refused to install w/o clearing up some space); I installed it tonight, and lo and behold!!! 7.0.1 BREAKS MYFAIRTUNES AGAIN! Oh well, it'll be broken again in a couple days, since Igor just has to find the new memory offsets, but just letting everyone know that if you upgrade to the new iTunes, it borks the fair use enabling software.

$8 a movie? What a RIP

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

If these movies are at 320x240 like the tv shows are, that is a total rip off since that is a quarter of the resolution of a real DVD. I bet they are "foolscreen" too in order to fill that tiny little display. And their official prices are even higher - $15 for a recent release and $10 for library titles.

Re:$8 a movie? What a RIP

[kylner]

All movies and TV shows are now 640x480.

Re:$8 a movie? What a RIP

[Anonymous Coward]

actually i think they upgraded to 640x480 at least the ipod video so i would assume the movies would be too

Re:$8 a movie? What a RIP

[7Prime]

Wait, what the hell kind of standard is 640x480? NTSC is 720x480. Why would they change the resolution?

Re:$8 a movie? What a RIP

[kylner]

There are apparantly multiple NTSC standards, 720x486 only being one of them. According to that site, the 4:3 aspect ratio is the preferred normal resolution standard and comes in at 648x486.

Re:$8 a movie? What a RIP

[kescom]

720x480 is with NTSC-aspect pixels, which are rectangular (taller than they are wide). 640x480 has practically the same physical size.

ATM Passwords

[-1-Lone_Eagle]

Is it just me, or am I the only one that doesn't feel sorry for the companies that own and operate these machines. How can you be so lacking in security to not assign each machine it's own individual password. Yes, tedious, Yes, service nightmare. But these machines handle CASH. Isn't it akin to setting up a network where each user isn't forced to change thier password? Be lazy and lose.

Re:ATM Passwords

[booch]

Uh, and how about a physical locking mechanism inside the machine required to enable any such changes? I mean, there's already a physical lock required to get into the machine to add/remove cash. Why would the maintenance person not have access to that key?

Re:ATM Passwords

[brufar]

Since I work for an ATM manufacturer (and own and operate several machines of my own.. ) I'll comment on this one.

Yes the Distributor, Operators and Merchants responsible for those machines are the ones to blame. my understanding is that the service manuals posted on the Internet were posted by Distributors and NOT the manufacturers.. Anyone that doesn't change the Vault combination or maintenance passwords is a fool imho. We all know that "A fool and his money are soon parted" how very true in this instance..

Our ATM's have several levels of passwords.

- CASH LOADER a password for the person that loads cash into the machine. this level will not allow you do do anything other than change the amount of cash in the vault.. you could zero it or set it to 100,000.00 but it's not going to help you at all.. you can print a journal or event log report.. nope that won't help you either..

- MASTER allows the owner to load cash, pull reports, print journals, test the equipment etc.. a bit more can be done in here, but still no major programming functions. you must first enter the management mode before you can access the programming level.

- PROGRAMMING PASSWORD 1 / PROGRAMMING PASSWORD 2 - yes our machines require you to enter TWO passwords in order to access the programming are where you could change bill size and other important information. Not only are two passwords required to access this section, but the first time you enter programming mode you are immediately prompted to change these passwords from default.

It is possible that a distributor could leave everything at default and when prompted to change the passwords they could program them to the default settings, but that is hardly the fault of the manufacturer.

Googling for a manual and default password hardly qualifies as "hacking" in my book, as some articles have stated. ALL ATM's have default passwords, Diebold, Fujitsu, etc.. etc.. equally easy to find.

There will be additional follow ups on this on some of the industry sites such as http://www.atmmarketplace.com/ This site is dedicated to all news-worthy items related to the ATM industry.

Since I am NOT an official spokesman for our company I'll refrain from posting the company name or URL.

It's funny, really...

[SmoothTom]

One of my blog entries has the phrase "ATM Instructions" as its title http://www.tijil.org/blog/?p=15, and it has been amazing to watch the sudden upswing over the last few days is searches for that phrase hitting it.

What's funny, is it's a rather poor joke that I use as a take off point to discuss a specific sort of illogic.

--
Tomas

Still running iTunes 4

[sdo1]

Every time a new version has come out, there's an amazing number of "this messed up my computer/songs/database/etc." messages all over every apple/ipod/itunes forum around. But 7 takes the cake. And from what I'm reading, this new version seems to do very little for people who had major issues with the first 7 release. For now, I'm just waiting and running iTunes 4. With about 20K songs in my database, iTunes 4 seems fairly stable (with more than 30K, it was very very slow, so I pulled a bunch out that I just want to archive for posterity's sake).

Now here's the conspiracy theorist in me... the iTunes for Mac software (from what I've read) seems to be fairly problem free. iTunes for Windows... it can be a nightmare. Is this is subtle nudge from Apple to get more of the iPod/iTunes fans to move over to Macs? Are they saying (without saying it) "Hey kids... look what a mess your Windows PC can be..."?

-S

Re:Still running iTunes 4

[arazor]

You might have a point except at times itunes has totally fucked Mac users also. should be easily searchable for the specifics.

Re:Still running iTunes 4

[Anonymous Coward]

Are they saying (without saying it) "Hey kids... look what a mess your Windows PC can be..."?

Such an effort, if Apple undertook it, would surely be moderated Redundant.

Re:Still running iTunes 4

[smitingpurpleemu]

You realize that everyone blames iTunes and Apple for not working and not Windows/M$? If that is indeed the aim of Apple it is very ill-conceived and has failed horribly.

Re:Still running iTunes 4

[Anonymous Coward]

I rather hope that isn't their goal.

All that 'nudge' says to me is that every other software company in the world can code for the OS that's on more than 9 out of every 10 computers, but Apple is inept and cannot manage it.

All I see is badly-written software that sucks up CPU and memory, like Photoshop rendering a 150MB .TIFF, when it's doing no more than download a podcast or two. Doesn't make me want to jump up and buy anything made by the company that's responsible for such shoddy code.

But hey, at least it works on OS X. Mostly. I'm told.

640 x 480 == iPod Support

[@madeus]

Wait, what the hell kind of standard is 640x480? NTSC is 720x480. Why would they change the resolution?

The change has likely happened as by now both Apple and content owners are relatively happy with the distribution system and both are willing to make videos available at a higher resolution. Putting lower quality more 'disposable' content online (in the form of TV series at QVGA) lowered the risk from the PoV of content owners, but now the system is seen to be 'proven' (popular opinion being that the low resolution of the initially available content being at the bequest of the content owners, with Apple acquiescing to get them on board).

640x480 is of course VGA, and it's 4:3 resolution, as was QVGA, the previous distribution format (NTSC 720 x 480 is also 4:3, but that's because it relies on pixels that are not square). They could have used NTSC with square pixels, but the maximum MPEG4 video resolution on the Broadcom chip in the video iPod can rescale on the fly is 640x480 - I would bet that is why they went with it.

I'm a bit confused though, because I had thought all video content from the iTMS was in H.264 (not MPEG4) and I thought the iPod could only handle playback of H.264 at up to at QVGA size - I guess it's all MPEG4 then?

If the iPod's video chip supported a higher resolution (like NTSC/PAL DVD quality) I expect they would have bumped up the quality slightly. It's a shame it's not actually DVD quality (especially at a time when people are now looking for HD content), but at 640x480 is at least a reasonable size (for comparison, it's better than SVCD, which I've always thought was quite watchable).

Album Artist vs Compilations

[reverse solidus]

For albums that aren't actually compilations (one primary artist with a bunch of collaborators, for example) you can use the Album Artist field instead of marking the album as a compilation. I like the artwork view, but the old standalone CoverFlow totally kicks the integrated cover browser's behind.

Apple Update doesn't show it yet

[alanjstr]

I was hoping that I could use Apple's Software Update to download something smaller. But it didn't find anything available.

Re:Apple Update doesn't show it yet

[Lisana]

Yeah, I tried it too. Makes me wonder what the point of the software updater is. When an update comes out, I want it as soon as I know about it, not next week. Go apple. /sarcasm

Re:Apple Update doesn't show it yet

[mh101]

Be patient, and it will show up. I assume Apple rolls out their updates to various locations slowly over a couple days or so, to keep their servers from being overloaded. I, for one, had iTunes 7.0.1 waiting for me in Software Update when I checked earlier this evening. And I've also seen other updates that aren't available to me for a day or so after I read about it.

Re:Apple Update doesn't show it yet

[alanjstr]

Downloading a huge update instead of a patch is not easier on their servers.

Debian developers are held accountable, period

[asuffield]

'So, just to be clear, you want to punish a Debian developer for their activities outside of Debian? Now that we're in crazy-as-batshit land, who do you want to bring up on charges next?'

Since the story submitter decided to display only one side of the argument here, I should point out that this objection is somewhat irrational. Several Debian developers have been forcibly kicked out of the project for actions that had no direct connection with the project. The details of names and events are usually considered private, but to pick one example that's already public knowledge - at one point a developer was an operator on the Freenode IRC network (then called OPN), abused this privilege in some fairly juvenile prank, and was promptly kicked out of Debian on the basis that they coudn't be trusted.

It is already expected that Debian developers will conduct themselves appropriately in all circumstances, not just ones relating to Debian. This is interpreted fairly liberally (the project doesn't care if you're an arse, it's primarily only interested in abuse of powers), but it is apparent that the current complaint is of this nature. Whether or not it is upheld by the project is for them to decide, but there's plenty of established precedent for this sort of thing. They're currently arguing about whether or not to uphold it; there appears to be little question as to whether developers should be held accountable in this manner.

ObBio: I'm an ex-developer who quit for personal reasons that had nothing to do with the project.

Re:Debian developers are held accountable, period

[QuantumG]

Personally I think the whole idea of a governing body for volunteer work is absurd. They only have the power to do this stuff because of arcane centralised revision control concepts.. it's not like they have a trademark on "debian".

Re:Debian developers are held accountable, period

[bfree]

Debian is Trademarked

Re:Debian developers are held accountable, period

[QuantumG]

1. It's lapsed.
2. It's not defended, and therefore unenforcable.

Re:Debian developers are held accountable, period

[bfree]

While you may feel that you could take that to the bank in your legal juristiction I won't be trampling on the Debian trademark in mine.
IANAL, let alone an international trademark lawyer, are you?

Re:Debian developers are held accountable, period

[Burz]

They defended it in 2005 when Debian Common Core Alliance had to change their name to just 'DCCA'.

Re:Debian developers are held accountable, period

[BacOs]

1. It's lapsed

According to uspto.gov, the Debian trademark is still live. Why do you say it's lapsed?

Update doesn't fix iPods

[Anonymous Coward]

The iTunes 7.0.1 update that was released today doesn't fix all of the iPod connection problems... The latest suspect is the iPod updater 1.2 included in the iTunes 7 release. My iPod's still dead, as are many others that I find on the Apple support discussion forums.

The most frustrating thing that I find is Apple's total lack of response to this issue. If you don't take the time to read the forums (and how many average users really do?) you won't even know that there are problems. It is by following Apple's own online support instructions that I caused what seems right now to be unrecoverable damage. There are many posts on the forums now from people who have downloaded the updates causing problems in the last few days, long after Apple must have known that there were problems. Yet, on their site... silence.

I write as a long time Mac user and dedicated fan: I am getting very frustrated with their apparent lack of response to this issue. Sorry -- I can't afford to make a $250 music player a disposible item. And yet, look at their poor warranty and lack of tech support, and that seems to be what Apple considers it to be - "having problems? It's cheaper just to buy a new one."

Re:SEX WITH BEN AND KATE

[Anonymous Coward]

that's odd. they don't make bras in odd sizes (37).

no problems here

[bodrell]

Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5

I've never purchased anything from the iTunes store, but I have nearly 13,000 mp3s, which meant I had to wait awhile as iTunes analyzed every single freaking file for "gapless playback information." I suppose it was worth the wait. Oh, and I've used version 7.0 to rip several CDs with no problems, either. Still thrown off by the new location of the "import" button.

iTunes 7 breaks DAAP compatibility with rhythmbox

[Pausanias]

I upgraded to iTunes 7 (which runs on my PowerMac). Then I noticed that rhythmbox (the default GNOME music player) running on my laptop would no longer recognize my shared iTunes Library. It was doing so just fine before with iTunes 6. And it's not just rhythmbox: closed source software is having problems with this as well. And not just with DAAP sharing, either.

So I downgraded to iTunes 6 immediately. Apple penalizes you for doing so: iTunes 6 cannot read iTunes 7 shares (but iTunes 7 can read iTunes 6 shares). Talk about a forced upgrade. It seems that the change to DAAP was fairly trivial and avoidable, which brings up the question of whether they did it with the sole intention of breaking compatibility with the other software out there that reads the v6 DAAP protocol.

It's just a music player, but now I'm getting a little taste of what Richard Stallman means when he tells you to refrain from using closed source software. Even when you think a closed source vendor has good intentions, there's always a chance that they'll turn on you and slap you with an upgrade that breaks compatibility with your other software.

Debian cracks me up...

[meme_police]

...along with all the other bureaucratically bloated organizations like most of the governments around the world. No wonder smaller projects get more done and ahead of schedule, their contributors aren't wasting time writing "constitutions" and dealing with politics.

Re:Debian cracks me up...

[Respect_my_Authority]

That's because Debian is a project that has high ideals:

• Debian aims to support Free Software.

• Debian aims to produce a high quality product for their users to enjoy.

• Debian aims to be a non-profit volunteer project.

• Debian aims to be a democratic organization where everyone has the freedom of speech.

Some other distros and projects have "self appointed benevolent dictators for life" but that's hardly democratic, is it? You can laugh at other peoples' ideals if you want to but does that make you a better person than those you laugh at? I'd say no.

You could also take a different approach and look at the resulting products instead of the seemingly chaotic development process. Then you'd see that Debian has repeatedly produced high quality releases that their users can rely on. If the upcoming Debian 4.0 release (codenamed "etch, planned for December 2006) will be in any way technically inferior or outdated, then I'll admit that Debian is in trouble -- but not before that.

Re:$8 a movie? What a RIP

[Inoshiro]

Because all those pixels above/below are for overscan and other analog signal artifacts not needed on an end-to-end digital system.

Re:iTunes 7 breaks DAAP compatibility with rhythmb

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you, very informative.

Re:iTunes 7 breaks DAAP compatibility with rhythmb

[Burz]

RMS is certainly correct when he says that free software would not put you in such a corner.

OTOH, you were really asking for it by expecting a whole-number upgrade to remain compatible with 3rd-party stuff. Even novices are supposed to understand that major whole-number upgrades are mostly likely to break compatability with previous versions as well as 'accessory' products and such.

Re:$8 a movie? What a RIP

[ben there...]

One slightly* annoying aspect of that bump is that you had to repurchase anything you had bought at 320x240.

* I say "slightly" because I was lucky enough to only have 2 or 3 videos at that quality.

Holy Bean Counters Batman!

[tod_miller]

"[$1 million in revenue for Disney] in the week since Apple's debut of movies on the iTunes Store. 'Iger told attendees of an investment conference in New York on Tuesday that Disney anticipates seeing about $50 million in revenue from the venture during its first year.'"

How many weeks are in a year? Boom (ha, Jobs). I wonder who bought a new yacht for coming up with that whirlwind piece of fiscal advice.

Of course, was the first week a boom week (so much vibe on it, must try it) or a fledgling phase?

Will it rise, fall, or waver.

OMG let's apply Moore's Fucking Law to it and find out!! ##LL@L#@L#@LKR((

Please please let me hear an article in the future about how iTunes sales obey Moore's law, then I can heat up a watermelon , drill a hole in it and fuck it, pretending it is the eye socket of Gordon himself.

Orgasmic. -1 Sick?

iTunes updated to 7.0.1

[k1980pc]

My ibook updated iTunes to 7.0.1. I have not faced any probs with version 7 but this might be the update ppl are looking for for firewire issues and other crashes. http://www.apple.com/itunes/download

I went back to iTunes 6.0.5

[gelfling]

7 had performance problems including running over 90% CPU just sitting there doing nothing, not even playing a track. A couple of things to note:

Apple needs to do a better of job of documenting versions, e.g. what's different or fixed. This is particular relevant with iPod code. Usually every new version is called "Bug fixes". Ok, what bugs? What's fixed?

Apple needs to do a better job with backwards compatibility or provide a rollback. Going from iTunes 7 to 6 requires you to delete the library and start over. So if the code recognizes that the library is a newer version it should be able to create an older version.

Re:iTunes 7 breaks DAAP compatibility with rhythmb

[Anonymous Coward]

You've never used a Free Software product that had a one-way upgrade? I certainly have, and unless you're a developer, you're only marginally less fucked than if it were closed-source.

iTunes 7.0.1 and Podcast Issues

[Milican]

My podcasts got all screwed up starting with 7.0. That sucks because I listen to them every day on the way to work to take me away from the mindless dribble that is talk radio in the mornings.

Anyway, I upgraded to 7.0.1 last night in hopes that they would have addressed my issue, but I'm still having the problem. I also did a restore on my iPod this morning, but I'm still not getting all of my podcasts. I only get a few on my iPod. I'm not sure why either. I'll keep looking into this, but it really is a pain in the butt. I knew I should have listened to that voice in the back of my head telling me to hold off while they fixed the bugs.

I also run my machine as a Limited User in Windows XP and iTunes 7.0 doesn't like that (iTunes 6.x was fine with it). ITunes still runs though, but pretends to install something new every time I run the app and gives me some dialog about how it can't write iTunes store information. Maybe the problems are related. Unless I'm using a software development program, I don't like running as Administrator all the time. I shouldn't have to either.

JOhn

Sounds good

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm looking for Firewire issues and other crashes. I think this is the update for me.

Apple Software Update for Windows does not have it

[salimma]

This is curious. On Windows, iTunes 7 ships with Apple Software Update, but .. err, the update is not made available yet. My iTunes is still at version 7.0.0.70, and since I don't use it much (my Mac-formatted iPod syncs to my iBook) I'm not so keen on redownloading 25MB.

Non-standard for Windows, you mean

[blueZ3]

Overall, I find the iTunes interface to be generally in-line with other Apple apps.

I think what you meant to say is Either version looks and feels totally non-Windows-standard

Whether Apple should have changed the Windows version of their application's interface to match other Windows apps is a different question

Hi, KFG.

[ClioCJS]

You answered the letter of his question, but I think you did not answer the spirit of his question.

I, too, am wondering just what the "threat" was.

Re:Hi, KFG.

[kfg]

It's in the original story; to stop selling DVDs of companies that sell movies online. Wal-Mart is the 800 lb. gorilla of retail and are already powerful enough that they have forced the sound recording industry to produce bowdlerized versions of CDs for sale at Wal-Mart (and I'll note, as an aside, that the artist is usually clueless about this; and would be powerless if he had a clue).

What Wal-Mart does not seem to fully grasp is that by selling online the studios cut them out of the distribution chain, even though this is Wal-Mart's very complaint. They ain't the 800 lb. gorilla no mo'. For the first time the studios can say "Well fine, we don't need you. Go away."

One might almost think that's the very idea.

KFG

debian? Clinton says ubuntu!

[FuzzyDaddy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/538818 2.stm - ubuntu is all you need, according to Clinton.

It's the Apple cycle

[geekoid]

#Begin Engineering Process
10: Make a great product
20: It becomes successfull
30: Sales begin to level off.
#End Engineering process
#Begin Managment Control - This is where new managemnt is assigned to the team.
#Usually coat tail riders, Noobs, and kiss asses.
40: Start suing everyone you can think of.
50: Start rushing development to keep market share.
60: Stagnate
#End managment control
70: goto 10

Thanks...

[ClioCJS]

... Thanks for enlightening me in spite of my laziness. :)

Re:$8 a movie? What a RIP

[7Prime]

No, that's not it. There are only 6 lines above that are not drawn (NTSC is technically 720x486)... that's not counting the emergency safe zone (about 20 pixels, or so, on either side and top and bottom that are obscurred by the frame of the TV set... yes, a standard NTSC actually only desplays about 680x440 due to the emergency safe zone). But standard NTSC resolution, as it is talked about, is 720x480, with 6 overscan lines (which includes things like closed captioning, frame sync, and fun things like that). What I was refering to was however, was the horizontal resolution change. NTSC sets use rectangular pixels, where the width is 90% of the height, to achieve a 4:3 ratio, instead of being 640x480, it's 720x480. Since many of Apple's shows are going to be played on NTSC-standard TVs, 640x480 is going to look squashed. Not that I'm ANY advocate of NTSC by any means, it's a dated, overcomplicated, low quality, and irrelivent standard that should have been done away with a long time ago. Square pixels, progressive scan, and higher resolution are LONG overdue. I'm a TV producer, and I hate dealing with NTSC... every time I make a graphic, I have to use a setting in Photoshop, or whatever program I'm using, to squash it. It makes no sense to me why they chose to use a rectangular pixel geometery.

i think there is a name of this

[meatbridge]

It's called anti-trust in the country I come from.