Check this out, from BoingBoing ( )

Apparently PyMusique is a free program that allows you to download tunes from iTunes without the DRM (iTunes uses FairPlay, which is not supported on any platform except the iPod, which some people don't like *gasp*!)

Anyway, I suggest getting PyMusique for any new acquisitions. Or old ones -- apparently it will let you re-download all your tracks as regular old non-DRM files. woot! \0//

Oh, damn, (e:Paul), this is exactly the way I like to do it -- I come to (e:strip) to read other people's journals -- I always disliked how if I saw something I thought was cool or wanted to say something about while I was browsing around, it was so hard to open a new tab and go to (e:Strip) to post something about it...

Yeah, this feels great. You roXor my boXor (e:Paul).

So I just found this page ( ) at Rolling Stone about M.I.A. M.I.A. is a Sri-Lankan female rapper who bad ass. You can watch her vid for Sunshowers on the page I just linked to. You can download a Sri Lankan hip hop mix on this Bit Torrent link ( ) -- it's the Tsunami Terror Mix. Remember, Sri Lanka has been in civil war for ages now (what, like 10 years? 20?) and all of Arthur C. Clarke's mysterious investigations couldn't prevent some of the most tragic terrorist attacks in the world, perpetrated by the Tamil Tigers. ha, and 50 Cent (the Mumblefish as I like to call him, after the Matt Dillon movie) thought he was bad...

Anyway, everyone ( ) is writing about M.I.A. I saw her vid on MuchMusic when we escaped to Canada for the Inaugaration. Download her video for Sunshowers. One of the best new tracks this year, fo sho.

[inlink]paul,2797[/inlink] (e:paul)

That image on Halavais' door looks like a Rasterbator ( ) print from here. Or it could just be a really huge print of a really large file that's been run through an ascii generator like this ( ).

Fun stuff...

(e:Paul) has been having issues with his Basic Stamp, which is, apparently, something used in basic electronics. Don't ask me, I just read about this stuff...

Anyway, I was reading Hack A Day (http://www.hackaday.com) and they wrote about the Basic Stamp a couple times on two different fun-looking projects. The first is a "robot Grover" modificiation (http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000017035470/) and the earlier article, which includes an introduction to the basic stamp is here (http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000487032939/).

Maybe this give hope? Or leads to some overlooked resources? I dunno...

Jon Udell does Screencasts, which is a pretty interesting thing in and of itself. While browsing his site, I found this great screencast about the Heavy Metal Umaut article on Wikipedia ( (WIKIPEDIA - heavy metal umlaut)). It's a great display of the power of Wikipedia to evolve and the entertainment value in reviewing the history of articles. Of course, it's even more fun when people like Udell have packaged it all up into a nifty little video for you. Check his screencast here:

Hapened across this entry on Engadget this morning:




It's a how-to on hacking Google maps. Whee!

Wow, I love how sometimes an interesting blog posting will lead you to multiple things you've just GOT to know about. Case in point, this here post. I have to go make tacos right now, but when I come back, I'm going to read this stuff:

First, GTxA (http://www.grandtextauto.org) just posted about John Udell's walking narrative that uses a unique Google Map Hack. What? Google Maps Hackable? I've been so busy with other stuff I hadn't even played with it, but now I discover this (http://69.90.152.144/collab/GoogleMapsHacking) and this (http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/) which are really interesting resources for Google Map Hacking. The potential seems way fun...

So then I was watching what seemed like a regular video tutorial and I notice that this guy has a link to find out more about screencasting... screencasting? I haven't heard of this... So I clicked around a bit and foiund this: which pretty much sums it up, I guess. I have to do more research. But his point about sharing our use of tools through video and audio and images is pretty cool. I think a lot of people forget how creative we can be with a tool. Just look at all those people using a wrench for a hammer, or a nail file for a screwdriver. We're born to it. We are not necessarily limited by the limitations of software packages or any other technology. But that's a different post...

I wanted to encourage (e:Scud) to check out Blog Torrent ( www.blogtorrent.com). It's a good little utility for serving files via Bit Torrent (WIKIPEDIA - bit torrent) . What's really cool is that it just requires basic PHP to run on the server, and you serve the files from your PC running a Bit Torrent seed. If this all sounds complicated, it isn't. Blog Torrent takes care of everything really nicely. It's amazingly easy to install.

Set that thing up, and you can use the RSS feed as a dynamic XML listng of your podcasts -- that would be the link to put into iPodder to download on schedule.

All this too much? Don't have time to figure it out? Here's what I propose for (e:Strip) folks and anyone else who wants to distribute their podcasts or other media creations. Really, as long as it's yours to share, I'll be happy to have it listed on my tracker. But to use a tracker, you need to do a few things still. And my tracker is not working at the moment (read the post below this), but here's how it will work:

go to (that's my Blog Torrent Tracker) and sign up for an account. Don't worry about me selling, spamming, or otherwise abusing your email address -- I won't.

You can then create Torrents. The Blog Torrent program will make the little Torrent file for you and will automatically open up the basic Bit Torrent program to seed the file. (You will need to seed the file to make sure there is at least one seed online -- no seeds means no downloads.)

That's it. I like to use the Azureus BT client (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/), so I open the .torrent file that Blog Torrent made in Azureus and let it do the work. There are some good tutes out there for using Azureus to gather media and podcasts.

So now if you want to share your materials, you can post the .torrent link shown in the index (http://www.shawnrider.com/bt) on your (e:strip) journal, or anywhere else you can post a link. Anyone with a Bit Torrent client installed can open the .torrent link directly. Other folks can be directed to the index page where they can use the Easy Download link, which automatically installs the Bit Torrent client.



Hopefully this post helps people get into Bit Torrent. I should note that it's not safe to use Bit Torrrent to download illegal materials, and that I don't want any illegal materials on my tracker.

Have fun.

After a day full of getting loads of stuff done, I was about to test the first dry run of a new part of my thesis project and all of a sudden DW can't connect. Shit. So I check the server through FF -- nothing -- error 400. WTF?!? What's error 400? I know 404, and 403, and 401 once in awhile. 400 is apparently "locked out for being a deadbeat." I forgot to update my billing information this year. And the email they were using to hassle me was an account I had let die due to massive spams. So it's my own fault, but dammit, there should be some automated way of correcting this. I've updated all my new info, and I've responded to their emails (I dug up the latest one in the old mailbox). I've sent loads of emails to them. And now nothing will get through to me anyway because all of our emails are locked out, too.

My kingdom for a goddamned CHECKOUT button! I can't believe there's no way to just pay the bill and move on. Instead I have to hassle them at 8am tomorrow. Whee. I'll just pass the time reading 1and1 hate postings online.

I'm sad that (e:Soyeon) left (e:Strip). That was my favorite journal. As much as I enjoy reading stuff on all the journals from time to time, I always found Soyeon's journal to be really entertaining. I think for a variety of reasons, she captured the memoir mode of communication best. I don't think she really understood how interesting her journals were, or how much her language (and language difficulties) enhanced her writing. It provided just enough defamiliarization to make her words all the more powerful and resonant.

I don't blame anyone for her departure. I think all parties had something of merit to add to the discussion. I think (e:Ajay) has a legitimate point, and I don't think (e:Paul) meant any harm at all. It even seemed like (e:Soyeon) was rolling with it when she posted her suggestion on (e:Chrisb) 's website (www.chrisbarr.net) for one of his art projects. I don't think anyone meant to "gang up" on anyone else. Spirited discussion happens when the parties are invested in the topic, which is a good thing.

I dunno. I'm just ruminating. I love soap opera moments on (e:Strip). How fun is this? But I hate to see hurt feelings. I also hate to see the network lose all of Soy's writings. I guess I'll learn to cap my faves to PDF...