I'm really looking forward to the new Depeche Mode album, Sounds of the Universe, which releases on April 20th. The early single Wrong is classic but modern, and the video is perfectly dark.
Recently in Listening/Watching Category
For a while, I've stored my music in to PGPdisk folders, each mounted into an NTFS sub-directory. Originally, primary music files went in one folder, and secondary files went in the other folder. Like many good intentions, this setup didn't last long once I ran out of space in my primary folder, and started using the secondary folder for overflow.
This worked well enough, but I wanted to change it, for a couple of reasons. First, I'm trying to get away from PGPdisk and move all my encrypted file systems to TrueCrypt, for long-term flexibility and cost savings. Secondly, I wanted a single, large area for all my music, so I didn't have to remember (or search for) where a particular artist might be located.
Monday, I did some research, and found this site: HOWTO: Move your iTunes music while preserving library data. The description seemed very straightforward, so I went to work.
First, I created a single, 105gb TrueCrypt volume. At some point I want to move this volume to an external disk drive, and wanted it to fit even if I went with a 120gb drive. I only have 70gb of music now, so it also gave me a big chunk of space to grow into. TrueCrypt is good - very good - but it takes a while to create, encrypt, and format a 105gb volume, especially one stored on a network drive. I started on Monday afternoon, and it took about 16 hours to finish.
On Tuesday, I copied the files from my current PGPdisk folders onto the new TrueCrypt volume. This took about three hours total. Later that afternoon, I created a backup of my iTunes folder per the instructions.
This morning, I copied the XML and ITL files to my Linux box. I substituted the new file location in the XML file, and zeroed out the ITL files, also per the instructions. I copied the updated files back to my Windows system, and started up iTunes.
iTunes started, but didn't display anything. I watched for a while on the Task Manager and saw it was working on something, but no status bar was displayed (contrary to the instructions). After fifteen minutes or so, I got a dialog box saying my ITL file was corrupted, had been saved, and was then rebuilt. I spent a few minutes poking around in iTunes to make sure it was reading from the new location.
Everything looks good so far. I had no real podcast subscriptions, so losing them is not a big deal. All my custom play lists are intact, and everything appears in order. Fry's has a 250gb external drive for $99 - I'll probably head out there on Thursday to check it out.
The Tivo in the family room came with 75 hours of recording time, which seemed like a lot at the time. Over the years everyone put in the shows they wanted to record, and with some proper maintenance we made everything fit.
With the new season upon us, we had hit the limits. First, we started recording Rachael Ray every day, so we can burn it to DVD and send it to Cindy. Between the four of us, we also started recording a lot of the new shoes, to see if they're worth watching. We still record a few things for Jason to watch when he comes over, too - Bill Maher, Kings programming. Add it all up, and we were overextended.
The solution: a Tivo upgrade from Weakness.com. They sent a new 160gb — the largest that would go in without an OS upgrade — along with a new mounting bracket, new quiter fans, cabling, tools, the work. It took me about an hour to do the upgrade - I worked slowly to make sure the existing programming wasn't lost or damaged - and I'll admit to more than a little trepidation when I plugged it in after the upgrade. It came up without a hitch, and the System Information screen showed a new total capacity of 207 hours, give or take.
The first DVD writer from Newegg was DOA, and the replacement isn't expected until Friday at the earliest. With the new capacity, and the ability to burn off some of the older shows (along with weekly dumps of Cindy's Rachael Ray shows), we should be good to go for the foreseeable future.
A classic.
Ken Jennings paid the price for doing his own taxes, and maybe for a little hubris in his two incorrect Daily Double questions in Double Jeopardy, losing to a real estate agent from Ventura on last night's show. It was a good run. I think I'll take a few weeks off - it won't be the same without Ken at the right-side podium.
Update:The real estate agent lost in her first game as champion.
Here's an audio clip of the Final Jeopardy answer: Listen
I've been enjoying the documentary series Long Way Round, where Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman, along with their cameraman Claudio, ride east from London to far east Russia, then from Alaska to New York. It makes me long for a nice, extended ride - minus the icy river crossings.
The series is broadcast here on Bravo, but I prefer the British version available as a torrent from digitaldistractions - it's in HDTV format, the trip is spread over seven episodes instead of the six shown on Bravo, and the commercials are removed.
Here's my copy of the Long Way Round eBook: Download file.
