iTunes supports AC3 and DTS?

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I was just reading this Macworld article on how AirTunes works (the new audio streaming technology built into Airport Express), when I noticed this paragraph…

If iTunes is playing back a digital multichannel file format like AC3 (Dolby Digital) or DTS, those bitstreams are wrapped in Apple’s compression and encryption, and then decoded at the other end. In those cases, AirPort Express would end up streaming the raw AC3 or DTS stream via an optical cable to your home theater receiver for decoding.

blink

iTunes can play and output AC3 and DTS? How does that work — and from what source? Are there standalone AC3/DTS audio tracks out there somewhere? I’ve generally only seen them used on DVDs, though I know that there are some audio CDs made that use DTS, and probably some that use AC3. If I had such a CD, how would I put an AC3/DTS audio track into iTunes?

I don’t have a use for this information right now, I’m just really curious. It’s news to me.

iTunes: “Sweet Surrender (Roni Size v2)” by McLachlan, Sarah from the album Plastic Compilation Vol. II (1998, 4:00).

First look inside the new Sci-Fi museum

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I’m jealous — while the public isn’t allowed in just yet, there was a “family and friends” night at the EMP‘s new Science-Fiction museum last night, and Thumbmonkey has the details…

My friend Larry is a curator at the Sci Fi Museum here in Seattle- and last night I got a sneak peek at the “Family n’ Friends” opening. Let me just say I was really looking forward to seeing what they had done, but also skeptical that it’d be good. I was blown away. It’s a small museum, but gorgeously made…it’s in the EMP which looks like a space blob anyway so it fits right in.

(via Pops)

iTunes: “Red Towers” by Anal Solvent from the album Secret Broadcast – Pirate Radio USA (1998, 3:20).

Airport Express feat. AirTunes

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This looks very cool: Airport Express featuring AirTunes, a small wireless basestation that will connect to a stereo to allow music streaming, for only \$129.

Unfortunately, I’m 5 minutes away from the start of my shift, so I can’t explore in detail yet. Grrrrr!

(Okay, I’ve skimmed through a bit more. I want. Of course, I’d need an airport card for my G5 too…but I want. Geeklust yay!)

I’m a music whore

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I used to have all of my music stored on my old computer as .mp3 files. When I got the new computer, rather than just copying everything over, I began the process of re-ripping my entire CD collection as AAC, as they sounded a little better and are slightly smaller than the old .mp3s. As I have a lot of music, this project takes quite a while, and I’ll approach it in fits and starts — ripping a ton of CDs over a few weeks, then getting tired of it and taking a break for a few weeks, then getting back into it.

I’ve been back in the “rip like mad” stage for the past week or so.

Progress so far:

Out of the (roughly) 1200 CDs that I own…

I’ve imported probably somewhere around 850 (my album count reads at 879, but that includes any tracks I’ve purchased from the iTunes Music Store).

There are 2,927 separate artists listed (though this is increased a bit by things like “Artist X presents Artist Y”, or “Artist A featuring Artist B”, and so on, not to mention soundtrack cast albums where nearly every song has a different ‘artist’ depending on which characters are performing).

My collection takes up 44.13GB of space.

It would take me 33 days, 13 hours, 21 minutes, and 57 seconds to listen to the entire collection from beginning to end.

The entire collection consists of 10,282 individual tracks.

And I’ve still got a few hundred more albums to import. I’m quite curious as to what the final count ends up being.

Now, if only I could afford either a wide enough pipe to start a ‘net radio station, or a low power FM transmitter to run a small local radio station (of course, I have no clue who’d actually tune in, but I still like the idea). I’d just put the entire collection on random, and let it go.

iTunes: “False Documents” by Anderson, Laurie from the album United States Live (1984, 1:59).

Spring Cleaning

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With a lot of very appreciated help from Prairie, my apartment is now cleaner than it has been in…oh, probably in about a year, since the last time I went on a mad spring cleaning rampage.

It’s kind of freaky, actually. :)

Who knows how long I’ll be able to keep it this way, but at least for the moment, I could actually invite someone over for the first time without being embarrassed when I open the door.

iTunes: “Piggy Bank” by K.M.F.D.M. from the album Naïve: Hell To Go (1994, 6:36).

Part Three

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Through no real reason other than happenstance, this became a weekend of “Part Three”s — Scary Movie 3, American Wedding (the third American Pie movie), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were all part of the weekend entertainment.

Scary Movie 3

Actually, I have to admit, while I’m no huge fan of the series, this was easily my favorite of the three. The humor was a little less scatological in nature and tended more towards the purely absurd, the reason for which became all too clear when the end credits came up and I realized that the director was David Zucker, one third of the Zucker/Zucker/Abrams team responsible for the Airplane! series and Top Secret!, among many other spoof films.

American Wedding

Not as amusing as either of the prior two American Pie films, unfortunately. Too much of the film revolved around Stiffler, who works well as a secondary character, but doesn’t have enough to carry as much of the film as he was expected to here. The look of the film bugged me, too — I’m not sure how best to describe it other than to say that it looked like a beer commercial (high contrast, lots of hand-held camera work, many shots with a very shallow depth of focus). It had its moments, but wasn’t that great, either.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Prairie and I caught this one Saturday afternoon at the 12:30 show, early enough in the day that we didn’t have to stand in line to get into the theater. Interestingly enough, while we generally have fairly similar tastes in films, I ended up liking this latest installment more than she did. It is very obvious throughout the film that there’s a different director this time around, and while I very much enjoyed the end result, Prairie wasn’t as impressed. After talking it over for a while after we got out, we think that it’s simply differences in the way we pictured the books as we read them — her mental images were more in line with how Chris Columbus directed the first two films, while I found Curanzo’s vision much more in line with how I’d “seen” things as I read the books.

This isn’t to say that she didn’t like it, of course, just that she didn’t like it quite as much as she did the first two. As for myself, I’ll quite happily join the many other people declaring HPatPoA to be the best of the three films so far.

Dress Code

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On bright, warm, sunny days such as we’re having here at the moment, I’ll usually start the day off wearing my kilt. Work clothes go in my bag, and I make the walk from home to bus stop, the bus ride, and the walk from the bus stop to work as comfortable as possible. Once at work, I duck into the restroom and change.

Yesterday I needed to grab something to drink about an hour after I started my shift, so I ducked over to the Starbucks Coffee next door. The barrista gave me a quick look up and down, then asked, “Hey! Where’s the Utilikilt?”

I laughed. “Not appropriate for work, unfortunately.”

“What? Why not?”

While our company dress code does specify that either slacks or skirts can be worn — and I’m of the opinion that a kilt should be acceptable — regional and district heads can specify their own rules for their area, and our area apparently specified slacks only. Not only does this keep me from wearing the kilt, but one of the ladies I work with is a little miffed that she can’t wear a skirt. I’m not sure why this is the case, but so it is.

Still — it’s rather nice to know that the entire female staff of the Starbucks next door to my job (since the rest of them soon chimed in on this discussion) are of the opinion that I should be allowed to wear my kilt at work.

Now we just need to convince the Powers That Be.

iTunes: “Killing Moon, The” by Echo and the Bunnymen from the album Rock and Wave Vol. 1 (1983, 5:44).

Almost famous

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A couple of months ago, I was interviewed by a prominent news/entertainment magazine for an article they were preparing on webloggers who had lost their jobs or faced some other form of catastrophe due to their weblogging. The interview took place over the phone over a period of about two days, and once it was concluded, I was told to expect a call from photographers for the magazine, so that they could get a picture of me at my computer here at home to run alongside my section of the article.

Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anything back in the next few days…which eventually stretched on to weeks. Eventually, I assumed that for one reason or another, the story had been scrapped. I recently got this e-mail confirming my suspicion:

Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you. The blogging story has been put on ice, unfortunately, mainly because we couldn’t find enough people who got in trouble with their blogs. Sorry, will let you know if anything changes.

A pity, really. I was looking forward to seeing my face in a national newsmagazine, even if it was more press centered around my making something of a stupid mistake.

I’ve sent the interviewer a link to the list of dangerous bloggers in the hope that there might be one or two names on it that didn’t get tapped in the first round, but at this point, I’m not holding my breath. Looks like I’ll just continue my slide back into obscurity. :)