April 22, 2004

Previous -- April 2004 -- Next
For some reason word wrap stopped working correctly on my HTML editor, so now everything is one long line.

Today was the last day of classes for the semester, and one would think that that (two that's in a row) would mean no more homework and just studying for finals. But no, I still have a computer networking project to finish and some microprocessor stuff to get done. I am however completely finished with the robotics course I took, after turning in the final report along with the sensor report on the CMUcam. I got an A on my robot, and I hope to have most of the pictures and stuff up before too much longer.

I also downloaded my second legally purchased internet music file today (Frou Frou's Let Go, from the trailer of Garden State, which I REALLY want to see and not just because it has Natalie Portman in it). This time it was with Apple's proprietary iTunes service. The other one was just a plain mp3 file purchased straight from the record companies website. Both cost me 99 cents, which is a little high in my opinion, but at least you can get an entire album for $10 usually. I really don't like proprietary things however, and after some trial, I was able to get an mp3 out of the file I donwloaded. If you try to convert it directly to mp3 it says it can't do it since the file is protected. But you burn it as an audio cd, and then eject the disc, reinsert the disc, and then it lets you rip it from the cd to an mp3 with one click. So it really doesn't prevent you from making a "protected" song unprotected, but just makes you jump through hoops to get an mp3 for some reason. The only thing I can think of is that they figure people are too lazy to do it and by restricting the number of floating mp3 files out there that piracy will go down. Otherwise I was fairly impressed by it, though since it runs on Windows I can't say I'll be using it that much.

The Song of the Moment is updated for the first time in about 4 months, this time with Jarabe De Palo - Bonito . The lyrics are simple, but it's like audio crack. I listened to it for 4 straight days before I got tired of it.

Previous -- April 2004 -- Next