Here's a query:

My portable hard drive hast starting making louder noises. Clicks and whirs and what not. It won't mount to OSX anymore and I can't get any access to my data. It is a firelite smartdisk.

Any clue?

Clicks are whirs are bad, probably a drive failure and you're hearing the drive move around the heads pointlessly.

Somehow, I've never bought Office at full price in my life. And I think I've even managed that mostly legally. Or legally at the time. Or something. So thinking of buying for an Apple machine ... it's like volunteering for the yoke after shucking it.

Speaking of which, Graphic Converter's chapping my ass. Every time I open an image in it, I've somehow convinced it to show me some "Save and Next" fripperies in the image window. I want them to go away. But I can't work out how I turned them on. Please help. [eta: never mind -- it's the thingummy in the top right of the title bar]

Also -- I've found that text applied on images with Graphic Converter look much crappier than text applied with say, PSP on my PC. I can't work out why. I do like some of the image effects though. Makes stuff complicated.

I'm pretty sure I've seen "convert to pdf" in the file menu of Word on computers-not-mine. Is that because those computers have the full version of Acrobat? Is there a way for me to convert my word doc to a pdf from here for free? I can just wait until I get on a computer with Acrobat, but I'd just as soon do it now while I'm thinking about it. Thx.

Is there a way for me to convert my word doc to a pdf from here for free?

Jesse, see my comment regarding PDFCreator here:

Eddie "Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?" Oct 11, 2005 6:17:12 pm PDT

It creates a "printer" that you print your Word document to and it outputs a PDF. Also? Free.

Thanks! That totally did the trick, once I figured out what to actually download. My brief google found me places that wanted my email and/or to put a watermark on my document.

iLounge iPod accessory shopping guide.

iLounge iPod accessory shopping guide.

106 pages!

Has anyone posted anything recently about Sony's new CD DRM? [link]

Information Regarding Our Artists' Music, Copy-Protected CDs and your iPod
We at ATO Records are aware of the problems being experienced by certain fans due to the copy-protection of our distributor. Neither we nor our artists ever gave permission for the use of this technology, nor is it our distributor's opinion that they need our permission. Wherever it is our decision, we will forego use of copy-protection, just as we have in the past.

Huh. But we need DRM to protect musicians and labels, right?

As odd as the story is so far, its about to get a whole lot weirder: It turns out that all Engadget (quoting Variety) notes that this DRM is not at all about making the CD immune to piracy. Instead, its part of a pissing contest between Sony and Apple: Variety writes that "the new copy protection scheme — which makes it difficult to rip CDs and listen to them with an iPod — is designed to put pressure on Apple to open the iPod to other music services, rather than making it dependent on the iTunes Music Store for downloads."

You mean to tell me that this isn't even about P2P and unauthorized downloading? How annoying is that? Sony has their panties in a bunch cause Apple has been kicking their arses all over the innovation and digital music schoolyard? So the mature response from a major global conmsumer electronics corporation is to take their ball and go home?

Not quite mad enough at Sony yet? Well, it seems that running a Sony DRMed CD on your PC will result in a Sony rootkit being installed. [link]

The entire experience was frustrating and irritating. Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.

More on the Sony rootkit: [link]

There's been some recent developments in digital rights management systems (DRM) that have security implications. Some DRM systems have started to use rootkit technology. Rootkits are normally associated with malware but in this case a rootkit is used to enforce the copy control policies of audio CDs!

Bastards....

Has anyone posted anything recently about Sony's new CD DRM?

Yup. Typo Boy "Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?" Nov 1, 2005 11:38:58 pm PST