I zipped up a bunch of my more boring downloaded photos, and am giving Picasa another try. I'll be interested to see how it can bring value to my website photos.

Well, I took my phone to the Verizon store, and tech support told me I had irreparable moisture damage. (And the symptoms he described matched what I'd been seeing, so feh. My fault for buying a used phone on eBay in the first place.)

On the plus side, I was able to get $300 off a new Treo 700p, which is very shiny and actually works and stuff. Yay new phone!

iTunes question:

I've downloaded a few TV episodes, which I watch on my computer (having no iPod). They tend to be pretty visually skippy, and the video siezes up occasionally, even if the audio keeps going.

Is there anything I can do to improve playback? I've dug around in the menus and haven't found anything to help yet. Any advice?

Have you tried playing them back using the VLC media player? Or are these DRMed such that you can only play them through iTunes?

Actually, I haven't tried to play them on any other media player. What's VLC? I'm running XP (Pro), not any MacOS.

Is anything else running in the background on your computer? Do you have enough memory?

I usually try to watch video after restarting the computer, and without running anything else. I may check my systray, as I sometimes forget memory hogs can hide in there.

As for how much memory I have, the box has 512 megs of RAM, and I have a pretty decent graphics card with some memory (unknown how much off the top of my head) of it's own, but I don't know if that improves video playback, or just boost videogame play.

VLC player has versions for Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, and more, and it's free.

[link]

This is hardly surprising, but it's interesting that a publication such as the Chicago Sun-Times should be completely trashing the Zune:

Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, Andy Ihnatko unloads on the Zune with both barrels, calling it a "complete, humiliating failure" and a "colossal blunder," because Microsoft has taken the user out of its design considerations and put the music industry (in the person of Universal's Doug Morris, "a big, clueless idiot") in their place.

Yes, Microsoft's new Zune digital music player is just plain dreadful. I've spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.

"Avoid," is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity...

The Zune is a complete, humiliating failure. Toshiba's Gigabeat player, for example, is far more versatile, it has none of the Zune's limitations, and Amazon sells the 30-gig model for 40 bucks less.

Throw in the Zune's tail-wagging relationship with music publishers, and it almost becomes important that you encourage people not to buy one.

The whole thing is great - he really rips MS a new one....

Sun-Times article: [link]

Boing-Boing: [link]

It sounds like he gave the Zune a good workout, too, so it's not like he's writing from a first impression. This review reeks of the contempt you develop over a good period of time....