Maria’s Guides

• Offbeat News: Apple’s old Macs are for the birds
  A great article about converting old Macintosh computers to birdhouses for use on a farm. In AppleInsider.
  (tags: Apple computer environment)
• Apple seen unloading new MacBook Pros and (possibly) iMacs at WWDC
  Speculation on hardware that may be released at Apple’s WWDC. On AppleInsider.
  (tags: Apple MacBook WWDC)
• Some time spent with Apple TV — an in-depth review
  A review of Apple TV, concentrating on competition and its place in the market. On AppleInsider.
  (tags: Apple AppleTV Macintosh)
• Scraping Starts from the Very First Post
  A fascinating experiment to see how quickly sploggers start scraping a feed. The results are rather shocking. On PlagiarismToday.
  (tags: spam splog plagiarism)
• Google Shutters MFA Accounts
  Good article about Google’s recent shut down of several so-called “made for AdSense” accounts. On PlagiarismToday.
  (tags: Google adsense splog)
• Nine burning questions: How is Vista really doing?
  Nine questions (with answers) that explain how well Vista is doing in the computer operating system marker. On InterGovWorld.com.
  (tags: Vista microsoft PC)
• The Real Reasons Mac OS X Leopard is Late…
  Some humor. On Florianschmid.com.
  (tags: Leopard MacOS Apple)
• Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments
  I know it’s old, but I just stumbled upon it and I think it’s worth sharing. If you’ve ever commented on a blog — or thought about doing so — read this ASAP. On Lifehacker.
  (tags: tips blogging comments)
• Reporting Blog Content Thieves
  An excellent article about tracking down and reporting content thieves. On the Blog Herald.
  (tags: blogging splog copyright)
• If You See This, The Content Is Stolen
  Another article on the Blog Herald about splogging. If you’ve ever had a backlink from Eliot Back, read this to understand why.
  (tags: splog blogging copyright)
• Protect Your Blog With a Solid Password
  Some good information and advice about choosing passwords — not just for your blog but for everything that needs to be secured online. From The Blog Herald.
  (tags: password security Advice)
• How Do You Filter Your Blog Content Decisions?
  More good advice for bloggers on the Blog Herald. This article helps you decide whether or not to write about a topic you might have in mind for your blog.
  (tags: blogging Advice)

A note about iTunes Plus music.

While browsing around the Web this afternoon, I stumbled across an article on Kirkville, “iTunes Plus: No DRM, but Breadcrumbs,” discussing the new iTunes Plus music files. It says, in part:

… However, while there is no DRM (digital rights management) in these tracks, there are breadcrumbs.

If you look into an iTunes Plus file–just open one with a text editor–you’ll see both your name and your iTunes account ID….

Article author Kirk McElhearn then goes on to display the code that he found.

Funny that this additional code wasn’t mentioned in the press releases…

Kudos to Kirk for using a text editor to open a song file.

But this begs the question: What kind of person thinks of doing things like that? Obviously, a very curious one

Using iTunes Plus.

A while back, Apple announced that it had entered into an agreement with EMI to sell DRM-free music in the iTunes store. It promised that iTunes shoppers would have access to this music in May 2007.

As May wound down to a close, Apple released iTunes 7.2, which adds iTunes Plus features. iTunes plus is a special area of the iTunes music store where you can shop for DRM-free music. It’s also where you can upgrade some of the music you’ve already purchased to the higher-quality DRM-free version.

Here’s how to upgrade the songs you’ve already purchased through the iTunes music store.

1. Open iTunes.
2. On the left side of the window under STORE, click iTunes Store.
3. In the iTunes Store Home page, click iTunes Plus in the Quick Links box on the right side of the screen.
   
4. In the top right corner of the screen that appears, you should see an Upgrade My Library box. (This box only appears if you have iTunes-purchased music that can be upgraded.) Click See Details.
   
5. A dialog like the one shown here appears. It asks if you want to enable iTunes Plus preferences so only the DRM-free versions of music appear (when available). Click iTunes Plus.
   
6. A new version of the iTunes Store Terms & Conditions appears. Read this legalize if you like. When you’re ready to continue, click Accept.
7. An Upgrade My Library screen appears. It lists the albums, songs, and videos that you have purchased for which DRM-free versions are available. Click the Buy button to upgrade all music and videos for the price shown onscreen.
   
8. If prompted, enter your login information for the iTunes Store and confirm that you really do want to complete the purchase.
9. Anther dialog tells you that the new songs will replace the old ones and gives you an opportunity to save the old ones to a folder on your desktop. Click Move to Desktop or Delete Files as desired.
   

The download begins. You can monitor its progress in the Downloads screen. iTunes displays the iTunes Plus window again so you can do some more shopping.

It’s quick, it’s easy, and its reasonably priced. Let’s hope Apple makes more agreements with music publishers to sell DRM-free music. It’ll certainly get me shopping in the iTunes Store again.

One more thing — you may want to repeat this process periodically. As Apple signs up other music publishers, more songs will be available for upgrade. You can follow this process to upgrade more iTunes-purchased music in the future.

I look forward to converting the rest of my purchased library — all 500+ songs — to the DRM-free version.

Information from Software Update.

With iTunes 7.2, preview and purchase iTunes Plus music—new higher-quality, DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels.