iTunes 4.5: Just Say No

to the tune of: Friends In Low Places by Garth Brooks

I must say, Apple's getting sleazier by the day.

The new iTunes 4.5 trumpets exciting features like playlists you can re-arrange while playing (like the ones in WinAmp years ago) and lossless encoding (like Windows Media 9). Tempting eh?

The real reason Apple is releasing an upgrade is to break all the cracks in its copy protection. MyTunes and getTunes no longer work, nor does FairPlay. Although someone's already cracked the new security, it may take a while for someone to release a Windows version.

But worse, the new version is completely incompatible with older iTunes 4.x. If you upgrade, you won't be able to listen to anyone's iTunes 4 libraries. But if you don't you won't be able to hear 4.5 music collections. And the only compelling reason to use iTunes goes poof in a cloud of brushed metal smoke. So sleazy. Apple's getting good at this coercion thing. Even Microsoft makes its stuff backward-compatible...

Lemme know if you find a replacement for MyTunes that works with 4.5.

this job offer will self-destruct in 5...

to the tune of: Nancy's Waltz by Natalie MacMaster

It's like The Man of Stanford is plotting against me.

Tuesday I got a friendly e-mail from the registrar informing me I was being switched to grad tuition, and that "it might be a good idea to check" how I'd pay the extra $2K they slapped on my bill. The Registrar's office was befuddled, and no one could explain why this happened.

Wednesday at 1 PM I was awarded an RCC job in Rains. Which is exactly what I wanted. Problem is that at 6 PM the offer was withdrawn because I wasn't at my computer to accept it. Before I realized what had happened, they had offered the position to someone else. The irony here is that the ResComp people I called and e-mailed took nearly 10 hours to get back to me. But they don't really care; as far as they're concerned, they have someone to fill that job, and it doesn't matter whom.

Friday I went to go start the grad housing draw process, made necessary by not having a staff position. I had just filled out this massive form, including eight housing preferences and a handful of probing questions about what sort of roommate I wanted that took a good 20 minutes to deliberate over (and a draw group name/password that took another 20 minutes) only to have the housing site go down on me and lose everything I had entered. Sigh...

But I don't care, 'cause I feel grr-EEEAT!

Pics from my surprise birthday party.

i'm only 0x16...

to the tune of: Hope On Fire by Vienna Teng

22 is old. Older than dirt. Older than some things older than dirt, since according to Nick, dirt is 19 1/2. And what a birthday it's been:

Morning interactive grading: 1 for 2. Even with the reminder e-mail, I still had one sectionee forget. This does not bode well for the quarter.

After missing two calls during my one successful IG, and AT&T playing a cruel trick on me (who'd have thought I had to reboot my cell phone to make a call), I ended up with an interesting three-way call with my parents and little brother. Something about three-way calling just seems opposed to the two-way dialogues typical of social conversation. But one resulting phenomenon: I got three different weather reports; they were each proud to report that Detroit was experiencing a freak heat wave in the 80s. Given that this month it's usually been about, oh, 10 degrees warmer here, this was a Big Deal to them.

I started off with a Wheel of Fortune taping in SF with TBP. It was a lot of fun... We got there and discovered we had VIP tickets, which means we were the part of the audience that actually got taped. Along with a disturbing number of Santa Clara students and people from Cal. For good measure, Cal brought their whole band and their cheerleaders. We clapped our hands sore, Ryan Bickerstaff of FroSoCo fame won some money, and some Stanford frosh won a car and $20K. They actually have people whose job it is to walk the aisles and indicate to people when they should clap and to shush them when everyone in the audience knows the answer to the puzzles.

The second show featured this guy from San Jose State who must have been trying to become the next William Hung. He definitely had energy, screaming at Pat that he wanted to buy vowels every chance he got (and even some chances he didn't get) and gesturing wildly each time he guessed wrong or lost a turn. He also thought he could will the wheel away from Bankrupt spaces by screaming at it. (Aside: Why would you ever buy vowels unless you can't think of any consonants to guess?) But he was a somewhat lovable guy, and so when after racking up $13K and (through buying out their stock of vowels) getting the puzzle down to "DON'T BREATHE A _ORD OF THIS TO AN_ONE" he spun again, and guessed...L? Granted, he spoke English with a Chinese accent so maybe his grasp of spelling wasn't the best, but still...

Later tonight I got back and had just about forgotten about my birthday when I was heading out the door to a group meeting when Guy stopped me, saying, "Something might happen..." It turned out some of my friends had been plotting a surprise party at 9, the exact time I was going to meet with my group. And it was a nice surprise, certainly. And unexpected. But all was good; I shifted the meeting forward and did my best to feign surprise even though everyone knew already. Surprise parties rarely turn out to be complete surprises in my experience, but knowing people were planning a party for 15 minutes is just as good I think. I felt kinda bad for making them ruin the surprise but they had no way to know, and they'd been secretive enough beforehand so neither did I. Still, it is truly the thought that counts, and it was much appreciated.

Questing for: An English translation of Vienna Teng's Green Island Lullaby.
Taking nominations for: A superhero to dress as for Big Dance next month.

that might hurt their draw numbers...

to the tune of: Boogie by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Jason just sent me some stunning pictures of today's fire at CroMem. No details yet on how the fire started but everyone seems OK.

Not that I really wanted to live there anyway...

yet another reason not to upgrade your AIM

to the tune of: Deora Ar Mo Chroi by Enya

So I'm minding my own business and suddenly I get this popup inviting me to download this Viewpoint Toolbar. Which is funny, since I never installed any Viewpoint software. A little bit of research revealed AIM decided to install this without my consent. It turns out to be some form of spyware which thinks it's entitled to be on my computer but provides me no real benefit. Curious, since it wants to direct me to use Yahoo!'s search engine. Though I don't know what sinister purpose this serves yet, I generally dislike things randomly popping up and asking me to download things I don't need. Of course, I probably wouldn't have noticed it had it not conveniently announced its presence, but still. You can theoretically remove it through Add/Remove Programs. Stupid AIM.

On a less rantful note, the future of nicological technology is here. Are you sick of being told when and where you can light up? Well now, there's a solution...

ahhh...

to the tune of: Whadaya Want by Casey MacGill

Today: Bohemian! National! Polka! This was the first time I actually danced the whole thing without screwing up.

Next time you're at In-N-Out, the secret password is: "animal style French fries". Trust me.

mmixed it up

to the tune of: Nara by E.S. Posthumus

Ahh, Jammix. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well when the birthday dance came around and missed out on that, which is sad cause it was cross-step and hustle, two of my favorites. But at the end we practiced the music set Richard had picked for the Wacky Walk. Perhaps polkaing, swinging, and hustling for 20 straight minutes in the blazing June sun in a black robe might not be the smartest thing to do. But I'm still going to do it. Without anyone I know in the stands to see me make a fool of myself, what have I got to lose?

Yesterday I went to Karen's baptism. It's frightening how many churches there are in Palo Alto--and they're all right next to each other. And many of them are pretty segregated too. This one was a Korean church, which meant bilingual testimonials. Which was cool and all, but I kept hearing words that sounded suspiciously like Japanese and trying to find them in the English translations.

Random Easter observation: It seems like Christians spend way more time talking about how Christ died than how He lived.

Note to self: Bring flowers to any future baptisms.

to the tune of: Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra

Recent happenings:

Getting a sweet CS 106A section where people actually participate. It's amazing how much a difference it makes not to be right after lunch. Curiously, not a single person majoring in or considering CS. Our department is in a contraction phase right now, and since the Daily said it, it must be true.

Actually getting up early enough to go sit outside a prof's office and have him show up 15 minutes late for a 9 AM meeting.

Agreeing to learn all of CS 229 in three weeks.

Reverse redowa! It actually worked for the first time today!

Freaky "gypsy variation" in cross-step waltz. Yup, we're so damn advanced, we can not only waltz with one hand tied behind our backs, but no hands at all...

Dunking newly 21-year-old Jim in the shower. He made the mistake of admitting he wanted to be doused with water, so being the great friends we are, we obliged.

Balloon fencing with Kathy. Lesson: balloons are not the most sturdy swords. And weird wrestling/martial arts/samba fights with Robin.

Deciding computer whisperer was probably not the best qualification to list on my RCC application.
On a sadder note, I fear something that was very special to me may be lost. I still don't understand how or why. But it saddens me because of all the memories we shared. I only hope I find it again, my pair of dance shoes...

this weekend...

to the tune of: Alive by Raiko

The Fellowship of the Rabbit, forged two years ago in the darkness of CS108, fractured and broke up.

A parallax in a good friend became apparent.

It hurts when someone you care about blocks you out of their life deliberately.

The rest of this post (warning: may include some whining)

this week i learned...

There are a frightening number of ethnic fraternities and sororities.

South Stacks: creepy.

Some sororities are just like Girls Gone Wild.

Lying in grass on a high pollen day: bad for allergies.

Women, listen carefully: I am oblivious. To many things that may be perfectly obvious to you. Insinuations, hints, your inner thoughts... yes. Plainly spell out things you must.

hmm...

I was fumbling with a box of Pop-Tarts this morning and noticed it had system requirements printed on the side, right above the nutrition facts. I was wondering why you'd need a 700 MHz processor to eat these Pop-Tarts when I found the CD. Yes, my Pop-Tarts came with a video game. Somehow not surprising given that in the past you could get the sum of human knowledge free with a $2 pack of Kraft cheese as a Grolier encyclopedia on CD-ROM.

I finally went to my first Friday Night Waltz last night. The first thing I noticed: space. So much of it. Enough for redowas and all sorts of funky variations. It was beautiful. Almost as much fun as Jammix. While the leads were reportedly better than the average Jammix, I found the follows not so good. This made the cross-step mixer, usually my favorite part of the night, unusually painful. Still, the highlights were fumbling through the Bohemian National Polka and the Congress of Vienna. The most bizarre waltz award goes to the so-called American waltz that seemed to be a version of "Close Every Door" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph. It was perhaps better that it left out the lyrics, which include such upbeat lines as "Darken my daytime and torture my night / If my life were important, I would ask, 'Will I live or die?'"

There was a definite proliferation of Gmail T-shirts, making me wonder if Google coordinates Wear Our Ads days.

so old

I found out one of my high school classmates is already engaged and in med school. A handful of '04 friends have already graduated. I know two people who have (or will have) masters' degrees before they can drink. (Makes me feel like such an underachiever...) And most all my classmates are graduating in two months. So scary.

But not me. Exploiting a convenient loophole, I can qualify for undergrad research funding by remaining an undergrad this summer. So I'll walk at Commencement, if only to broil in a nice black gown and see my friends, uh, get commenced. And maybe to hear Sandra Day O'Connor.

And so time will wash away the class of 2004, sweeping a thousand people who were willing to uproot themselves to come here to the far corners of the earth. But it will leave me behind, stubbornly resisting the tide with my ragtag band of fellow coterms. Heck, now that they've let me in they might never get rid of me. Bwaa ha haaa...

I'll be a supersenior, and then a sketchy grad student. My position is that the day I start paying grad tuition I get to start calling myself a grad student, despite the lack of a bachelor's degree.

In other news, the Google e-mail thing might actually not be an April Fool's joke. Maybe some lady really did "kvetch about spending all her time filing messages".

never delete e-mail again...

Not when Google can store a gigabyte of e-mail for you for free.

Sound too good to be true? Read the dateline again.

And here's the job I've been waiting for...