Okay, that is some good shit.

DH's computer has a weird problem -- it seems to be in denial over the existence of its built-in speakers.

With headphones plugged in, the audio works normally. Without headphones, there's no audio at all. The Sound preferences tell me that no settings exist for the selected device ("Digital Audio Out -- Built-in Audio" which is the only option listed), and the volume controls are grayed out.

Oddly, when the headphones are plugged in, the setting switches to "Line Out - Built-in Audio," but it's still the only option listed.

I know the internal speakers still work because when I restart the computer, it still bings.

There has to be some setting I'm overlooking, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it could be. Apple's support site only offers help for people who have plugged their speakers in incorrectly, not for people with no speakers at all.

[eta: I'm going to try the solution at the bottom of this page and report back. Seems like this is a known issue to users, if not to Apple.]

[eta2: fixed, though I don't know if the command-option-p-r thing helped any. I restarted a few more times and plugged and unplugged the speakers until "Digital Out" switched to "Internal Speakers" Very odd.]

Getting a single tone during an iBook boot process is a Very Bad Thing, right?

Like, get it serviced bad?

RIP, Clippy: [link]

RIH, Clippy.

(RIH = Rot In Hell)

From the Clippy link:

Have a lot of people been asking about the death of Clippy, since the release of Office 2007?

Not so much recently. He's sort of fallen out of disfavor, so this is probably his last gasp.

I love the idea of falling out of disfavor. For instance, I look forward to the day when Bush is so insignificant that we can't be bothered to hate him anymore.

Hey y'all. We're getting my Dad an ipod for his birthday but he's worried he won't know how to work it. Any recommendations?

I love the idea of falling out of disfavor.

What's even more wacky is that they thought Clippy was ever *in* favour.

We're getting my Dad an ipod for his birthday but he's worried he won't know how to work it. Any recommendations?

I'd say keep it simple and just get a shuffle, since it doesn't require learning an entirely new UI.

Apply has a couple good introductory resources for the iPod [link] and iTunes [link]

iLounge is kind of the premier source for iPod information, and has a great help section: [link]

I'm not sure what kind of reccomendations you're looking for, though. Can you be more specific?

I would recommend against a shuffle, because of the reaction I've gotten every time when explaining you couldn't really choose which songs to listen to on the fly.

Well, I think a nano is pretty easy to learn, but I don't know what kind of benchmark Laga is looking for. I think the shuffle would be pretty straightforward--have music in iTunes, stick the ipod in, music downloads, pull it out. But I think the sticking point would be how much control the user wants over the music s/he listens to. If the user is content to have the crapshoot of the shuffle, and a gig of music s/he ostensibly likes on the go, then shuffle. If the user wants a lot/most/all of their music at all times with the opportunity to add more, then nano or full iPod.