Overall I like it, but there’s still some slightly rough edges that will hopefully be addressed via minor updates.

Until I’m able to write further on the subject, I’ll leave you with the swank “Now Playing” screen:

7:52 pm Update: If you’re having album art troubles (where some of the album art doesn’t match properly), check out this workaround from Microsoft. I had a few that were off, but are now fixed.

From http://www.austinpc.com/TF2/ (NCSoft):

(second place: girl in a splicer costume from Bioshock!)

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From http://wire.ggl.com/2007/10/29/team-fortress-2-the-best-halloween-cosplay-ever/:

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From http://kotaku.com/gaming/halloween-hangover/how-nihilistic-celebrated-halloween-318050.php (Nihilistic Software):

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From http://kotaku.com/gaming/halloween-hangover/how-ea-la-celebrated-halloween-318045.php (EA Los Angeles):

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From http://kotaku.com/gaming/halloween-hangover/how-blizzard-celebrated-halloween-318035.php (Blizzard Software):

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From http://www.flickr.com/photos/klutzo/sets/72157602826116221/ (Bioware Games):

I was using my favorite audio player/manager, MediaMonkey, this afternoon and ran into a really annoying bug. All of the songs in a particular album would play except for one. MediaMonkey would just skip the file, no error or anything.

At first I thought the file was “corrupt”, but it couldn’t be. It had only been ripped a few weeks ago, and plays fine in other players, such as Winamp, VLC and Foobar2000. I started to think logically about the problem, and noticed that particular track had parenthesis in it’s filename. I removed the parathesis, and replaced them with another character. Nope, still skipping.

So I thought more, and concluded that the filename was the longest filename on the album. I removed a few characters and tried again. Voila, now it works!

I do some research and find that MediaMonkey (at least the new beta for Vista) uses the Quicktime API to playback AAC files. I decided to try an experiment, and attempted to load the troublesome file (with it’s long filename) into Quicktime via Quicktime’s own “open file” menu. It’s leads me to a wonderfully unhelpful error message of “Error -37: a bad filename or volume name was encountered”. Oh, really?

Doing even further research, it seems that Quicktime can’t handle a file with a name longer than 60 characters. What the crap?

Searching around the web, I find a handful of people who have run into this same problem. Why hasn’t this been fixed yet? Is this why iTunes automatically stores most songs in a “cut off filename” state when “Keep my iTunes Folder Organized” is checked?

Ugh. Will someone at Apple get their head outta their butt, fire the entire Quicktime/iTunes for Windows development staff, and start over? I’m tired of it crashing, having exploits, making my computer slow to a crawl, and not playing back “HD” content on even screaming-fast PCs. All major reasons I switched to MediaMonkey. But alas, since MediaMonkey relies on Quicktime for it’s AAC playback, I’m going to have to truncate all my AAC filenames until a fix comes out.

Since there is no way for me to directly link this content, and I also wish to keep it for history’s sake, I reproduce it here without permission of Ramona Sentinel or Keith Hansen. If anyone from the Sentinel (or Keith) reads this and wants it taken down, please contact me. I did not write the following editorial; Keith Hansen did at RamonaSentinel.com — I should say that I wholeheartedly agree with the tone and statements made in this editorial. If the water board members did in fact do something “wrong”, then they will be punished for it after investigations. But until then, let’s cut them some slack, and not try to instantly strangle them. Also, most geniuses in Ramona don’t realize that the Ramona Fire Department is actually a department UNDER the water district. Do we really want to affect our firefighters with this mess, too?

A mob mentality seems to be growing around Ramona since the smoke and fire moved out of town.

It seems that some folks are after the hides of Ramona Municipal Water District board members and the general manager. We’ve been fielding phone calls from irate district customers complaining that the district did not have 20/20 foresight, leaving Ramona without water when the electric lines feeding the pumping station in Poway were burned by the Witch Creek Fire.

One may have noticed signs taped to the backs of portable toilets along Main Street that essentially call for the resignations of all board members and the management of the water district. Well, that’s everyone’s right as a paying customer to demand service. It’s also everyone’s right to sit back and gather facts before throwing gas on a fire!

Critics said that board president Bob Krysak was nowhere to be found during the raging inferno. That’s correct. He along with his elderly mother (who is on oxygen) were forced to evacuate with the rest of us.

Director Kit Kissinger lost his house in the blaze, and director Doug Wilsman, who has asthma, left when wind-driven smoke came over his house and it was obvious the fire was coming. Directors Jim Robinson and Red Hager remained in town.

It is our understanding that board members stayed in constant contact with district management.

I’m not sure, but I do believe that the evacuation order given by law enforcement was mandatory for all citizens. Members of the water board were among those of us who where told to get out when the reverse 911 order came.

Now, for those among us so eager to point the finger at these folks and demand their resignation, I’d ask all of you to stop and think for just one moment before you throw the rope over that low-hanging branch to lynch these five citizen board members. First, consider that the fire roared through Ramona like a locomotive bent on killing everyone and everything in its path. No amount of water or flame retardant was going to quench that fire’s lust for fuel.

Second, the board, even if they would have had an emergency meeting in the middle of Main Street while the embers were flying around their heads, it is doubtful they could have forced the fire to stop.

Third, the problem was in Poway. The electrical feed that powers the huge pumps to bring water up the hill was cut off when this demonically driven fire moved down the hill. Even if the board and the general manager had been there 10 seconds prior to or after the fire hit the pumping station, there was nothing that could have been done to pump water up the hill.

Fourth, even if there was fault, however great, is there no more room in our town for giving each other a bit of slack? The board is made up of citizens — just like you and me. I don’t know about you, but I’ve made a mistake or two in my lifetime, and I’d venture to guess so have you.

Finally, if the mob does prevail and the board does resign under pressure and the general manager is forced out of his position, who is going to take their place? Will it be a group of village idiots who have no idea of how a water district is operated or maybe we’ll be lucky and get five people with Ph.D.s who have IQs over 200, but don’t know the first thing about running the water district.

Some have said there was no contingency plan. No alternative source for water. Yup, that’s right. The old back-up source for water was the Barger operation, which was too costly to run and, as I understand it, just plain worn out. The board decided it was too expensive to operate and did not want to saddle district customers with the cost of running an obsolete system. So, they voted not to include the Barger system in this year’s budget.

“Yeah, well they should have known!” has been the outcry from the mob. Well, they like everyone else had not predicted the Santa Ana winds to blow into town last week and spark an inferno that would wipe out the lives of folks from our town.

Let’s focus on those folks who need our support. There’ll be plenty of time for a good lynching after the entire matter has been investigated. If they are negligent, I’m certain we can get a good deal on hanging rope!

Keith Hansen

The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is—a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness.

Mark Twain

Okay, I messed up. This past month, especially during the honeymoon, I was using my cell phone’s internet client to check my e-mail, etc… I didn’t think it’d be that big of a deal. Maybe $10–$15 worth of charges, right? I get my latest Verizon cell phone bill and it’s almost $100 more than usual. Apparently I used 6 megabytes of data, and Verizon wants $97 for it. What.. the.. f—k?

To rub salt in the wound, Verizon offers a pre-paid “data block” of 10 megabytes for $25. Or unlimited data usage for $40. But of course, they can’t retroactively add these plans to your phone if the bill has been generated, according to them. Which is total baloney. According to the woman I spoke to, if I had changed my plan last week (to have the data block), I wouldn’t have had to pay this charge. Glorious!

I know the error is clearly on my side, but don’t you think they could have a little compassion for someone? The $95 for 6 megabytes is clearly raping the customer for no good reason, when compared to their other plans— that’s $15 per megabyte, compared to the pre-paid 10 megabyte block coming out to $4 a megabyte. Blah.

Also, looking at my phone bill, I noticed minutes deducted for calling voicemail. I was under the impression that calling your voicemail was always free with Verizon. Bzzzt. Wrong. According to Wikipedia (and other sources):

Verizon Wireless charges customers peak minutes if a user dials his/her voicemail during peak hours which is in contrast to its competitors. A customer may have mobile to mobile but will still be charged peak minutes for dialing his/her voicemail. Many customers are used to having free minutes when checking voicemail and are unaware that Verizon Wireless is deducting peak minutes.

Awesome!

Anyways, when our contract is up, Heather and I will most likely be finding another wireless provider.

Heather and I had to evacuate Ramona due to the recent Southern California wild fires. We’re safe, and our house is okay. Pray for everyone in this town, and in California, who might have suffered losses.