Now, I thought Apple's DRM was fair before iTunes 4.5 - 3 computers, 10 burns. Suddenly, with 4.5 Apple changes what I can do with my music. No grandfather clause, no nothing, just bingo-bango, that's the way it is now folks.

These terms are still fair - let me burn a few copies of my favorite CD for the car, discman, oops I scratched the one in the car, etc. But it really bugs me that Apple decided to change the rules on us mid-game. What happens in 2 years when the RIAA decides that, because of rampant (CD+7 burns)*people piracy, that Apple should limit the number of burns to 2? Apple does so, and consumers lost some of the freedom they have with their music. This doesn't sit right with me - I bought this music with the understanding of the limits of the format, and now I'm not getting what I bargained for.

Yes, I think it's a fair trade - more machines for less burns. It just bugs me that Apple decided to just change the rules.

Anyway, back to the main point of my rant:

I use Firewire Target Disk Mode with my powerbook and G5 a fair bit - this allows me to plug my Powerbook into my G5, and have my home folder be served off my Powerbook. With this arrangement, I can easily access all my files, mail, environment, and changes to files there stay on the Powerbook (since I'm making them on that hard drive).

This does have some down sides, like sometimes I don't know what hard drive a particular application is going to be launched from, but most of the times I don't care.

Anyway, I go to update my iPod. iTunes complains that it can't copy the protected AAC files to my iPod since the current machine is not authorized. Hmm... odd... go up to the Advanced menu and it says DeAuthorize Computer. I'm betting iTunes is reading the preferences file from my home directory (good so far), seeing that the powerbook is registered (correct), but the G5 is not the Powerbook (still correct), yet iTunes is using the preference file as the basis for the menu.

The really odd thing is that my protected AAC purchases play just fine. Given this little new factoid means I uncovered a bug (I think). I'm not sure where it is - is it in the play-check, or the copy-check?), but the behavior should be consistent - am I authorized or not?

Here endth the story.

So far I've categorized my anime music, and I'm working on my heavy metal stuff now. I have this big suspicion that other genres will follow - I almost hope not. With my fairly large collection (very few of which have genre labels) it could be a long task.

Today Boing Boing has a link to Michigan State's Sign Language Video Glossary.

An amazing site - it has QuickTime movies of how to sign a word, as well as a description of the sign. This is great - textual descriptions of signs are often impossible to follow, and 2D sketch art is often confusing.

So next time I need to know how to sign abduct (and many many other words), I'll know how. Thanks MSU!