Anyone know why when I burn songs to a cd from iTunes, then import the songs to iTunes on other computer, I lose all the song info? So aggravating.

When you burn the songs to CD, are you just making a regular music CD? If so, then all the info gets lost at that point (that's just the nature of a music CD - it doesn't store that info). And when you stick the CD into the other computer, I think the CDDB database lookup won't recognize the album you made, because it'll be subtly different from the original one.

eta: x-posty....

Yup, Brenda.

I think the CDDB database lookup won't recognize the album you made, because it'll be subtly different from the original one.

I've not had problems with this. My burns of entire albums have so far been like enough for Gracenote (née CDDB) to cough up the info.

I've not had problems with this. My burns of entire albums have so far been like enough for Gracenote (née CDDB) to cough up the info.

Oh. Maybe what I'm thinking of is if you make a CD that is not an exact track-by-track duplicate of an album, CDDB won't recognize it.

I think it works by the pattern of tracks and intervals.

Now you're going to make me go read up on it.

Cool, thanks.

Here's a more fun question. My new place is prewired for surround sound. I don't even know what that means. What shiny new toys do I need to acquire to take advantage?

Speakers, I would imagine. And either a receiver or a sound card that can handle surround sound, depending on whether you're hooking up your stereo or your computer.

t waits for the actual knowledgeable people to speak up

Come to think of it, it was iTunes that identified that classical piano fraud. In that case iTunes recognized one specific track as being from another album.

So I don't know what I'm talking about? Or do I?

What shiny new toys do I need to acquire to take advantage?

A friendly sound professional, say me perhaps, to come by and hook everything up for you.

In that case iTunes recognized one specific track as being from another album.

From looking at the oh-so-impartial Wikipedia article on Gracenote it looks like they can do that sort of thing too:

Gracenote operates a digital file identification service which allows digital music files (such as MP3s) to be identified

Freedom! (cue George Michael earworm)

As of July 1, cable providers are required to offer new digital subscribers equipment that works with what's known as a CableCARD, a wafer-thin card that tells your TV what programming you have purchased. It's revolutionary because it can be used with a variety of devices, not just the set-top boxes traditionally leased by cable operators such as Comcast and Time Warner.

Not actually sure how that'll affect my life in the short run if I don't get one of the new TiVos, but it's a start.