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IRENE seeks to digitize, preserve fragile recordings
Granted, it's no Commodore 64, but the Library of Congress is yet again warming up to modern technology in order to save some of its most precious at-risk recordings from decades (or longer) ago. Dubbed IRENE (Image, Reconstruct, Erase, Noise, Etc.), the system was created by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to help preservationists "rapidly convert 78 rpm shellac and acetate discs" to digital form, and it is slated to also "remove debris and extraneous sounds that contribute to the deterioration of recordings." The next step in the sound restoration project is to create a fetching system that is simplistic enough for employees to understand and utilize, and we suspect the RAID vendors are already lining up to provide the terabytes exabytes of storage that will likely be needed.[Image courtesy of IRENE]
Mac 101: Sharing your iTunes Library in 3 easy steps
Apple makes it super-easy for you to share your iTunes media between computers. It's just a matter of three steps to get iTunes sharing up and running. If you have a local network in your house but you've never tried this out, here's a simple quick-start.Read on to discover the three easy steps to music sharing nirvana.
Kentucky public library to carry video games
The Campbell County Public Library in Kentucky recently announced it will carry video games alongside those paper-bound book things with words on the inside. Three local branches will house games from each of the three big systems -- Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3. People have been requesting video games for years, a branch manager said, so the library did some research (Did they have to go to another library to do it? Zing!) and found that a large portion of their patrons (people in their early 30s) also happen to be gamers. Expect to see titles such as SpongeBob SquarePants and the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as sports games like Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007. Each branch will have a ratings board to help parents keep potentially naughty games away from their children. And don't even think about Grand Theft Auto, as the library "won't be collecting the violent games with the harsh language".[Via GameAlmighty]
Xbox 360 to promote reading?
After a nice round of torque bowing, chainsawing, and grenade tagging some grotesque underground dwelling beasts, don't you just want to sit back, and curl up with a nice Mark Twain novel? Public libraries across Canada seem to think so, as they try to reach out to teens by adding cafes, karaoke and open mike nights and even Xbox 360s to their outlets. So, would you consider hitting the library to get your Crackdown on if 360s showed up at your local library, or does reading and hunting for green orbs at the top of sky scrapers sound like polar opposite activities? Maybe if they held some LAN parties, tournaments, or had a better broadband connection than you do at home, because you're bound to find more people to play videogames with on Xbox Live then at the library. Although you could play same Halo, then go read one of its novels. [Via GameStooge]
TUAW How To: Use your iTunes library over AirPort Disk
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/software/How_To_Use_your_iTunes_library_over_AirPort_Disk'; Last September we showed you how to keep your iTunes library on an external hard drive. While doing the same thing over an AirPort Disk with Apple's new AirPort Extreme Base Station sounds like it should more or less be the same situation, there are a couple of new catches to be aware of. Never fear, though - we'll outline what you need to know to truly snip the wires on your iTunes library.First, in order to do this right, we recommend backing up your library before snipping any cables (we also don't recommend actually snipping any cables; they can be expensive to replace). If you haven't gotten into the backup habit yet, Scott's How to Back your music using iTunes 7 tutorial is a great place to start. Now, on with the show.
Gamer busted for "borrowing" library WiFi after hours
We're well aware of WiFi bogarting from unsuspecting neighbors or coffee shops, but who knew there'd be a crackdown at the local house o' books? Cops couldn't leave well enough alone when they rolled up on 21 year-old Brian Tanner jammin' on some WoW-type action in a library parking lot. Tanner's lappy was confiscated and he now faces possible criminal charges for illegally accessing WiFi at the Palmer, Alaska library after hours. While the library could thwart such wardrivers by simply disabling the dang signal at closing, they continue to enforce some usage rules that Mr. Tanner may or may not have been aware of -- the authorities claim this greedy gamer's notorious for WiFi piggybacking and has been "chased out of a number of locations" in the area. [Via Fark]
Add music to auto-synced iPods from any Mac (photos and videos, too)
At last, the chains that bind an auto-synced iPod have been broken; or at least, this is the first time I've heard of such a simple hint for adding music (and possibly photos and video) to an iPod already bound to another computer's library. Mac OS X Hints has a surprisingly simple tip for accomplishing this: all you need to do is select and expand the iPod icon in the left Sources menu, then simply drag from the Finder whatever new music you want to add onto the main list of music, *not* the iPod in the list. This can be useful especially for those who have separate libraries on two machines (example: one for work and another for home), since the only other simple alternative is to set the iPod for manually managing your music, which then doesn't allow you to sync some metadata like ratings and comments or tags. Oh what a twisted music management web Apple weaves. A commenter at Mac OS X Hints says they can add photos and videos using this method as well, but I unfortunately don't have a second machine to try this out on right now. Anyone in the audience care to give it a go?
Got a disagreement? A dance-off will settle it!
Forget for a moment that libraries are supposedly places where one can go for some quiet reading. Forget too that librarians are typically known for being shushers and squelchers of anything resembling fun. Finally, forget that there's an inverse relationship between time spent exercising and time spent sitting in a library. Now you're ready to accept the wackiness of a situation in which a teenaged librarian uses DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) to settle disputes between patrons and to determine whether an overdue fine should be waived. Totally awesome, if completely inappropriate in a library environment. [Via BoingBoing] [Image via flickr user Librarian Avenger]
How To: keep your iTunes library on an external hard drive
For more helpful how-to guides, check out the TUAW Tips, iPhone 101 and Mac 101 topics. After discussing how my iTunes library is set up with a few readers in the comments on my First Impressions/2G iPod nano post, I figured this might be a handy tip for readers who find themselves running out of room to store an expanding iTunes library. My only machine is a MacBook Pro with a 120GB hard drive, but after installing ~ 40GB of the entire Final Cut Studio suite and other various software and projects, I don't have room for my ~ 35GB iTunes library. I decided to do some experimenting a couple weeks back with moving and keeping my library on an external hard drive. There are obvious initial disadvantages to this, but after some tinkering and getting comfortable with iTunes' baked-in library management genius, this can be a pretty useful setup for those who, like me, are cramped for space but aren't willing to trash those albums you're too embarrassed use in a Party Shuffle playlist. This setup also has the inherent, and obvious, advantage of keeping your library on an external hard drive, so it's more or less already backed up - though I, with my paranoid data habits, keep a backup of my library on a second hard drive, and I now also use Scott's iTunes 7 backup tip (instead of a previous Smart Playlist system) to burn my library to DVDs (the lesson from someone who knows: your data can never be too backed up - ever). Getting back on topic: read on for a walkthrough (from a very mobile notebook user) of how to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive. I'll include some tips on how iTunes is already one step ahead of this setup, as well as a few habits you might need to adopt when living la vida external-iTunes-library.
Enable a slick Constellation menu in Quicksilver ?49
Macintalk has posted a how-to on enabling a really slick Constellation menu plugin for Quicksilver β49. Granted, this menu is quite a bit of eye candy, but if you follow Macintalk's post all the way through and assign this menu to a hotkey, it then becomes a bit of really handy eye candy.Keep in mind, however, that (as far as I know) you need the latest developer β49 to bring this plugin to fruition, so just like with the last slick Quicksilver Cube eye candy plugin, if you're not interested in the beta side of things, you should probably leave this one alone until it gets ironed out a bit more......but on the other hand: look at how cool that is! The entire thing is clickable, and it's also bigger in 'real life' - on my 1440 x 900 display it's 512 x 512 pixels, so it's much more legible than the 225 x 225 screenshot in this post. The small button just to the right of the iTunes icon in the middle of this menu, for example, displays a popup list of your playlists. Clicking on any of the larger slices, such as the albums or artists, pops up a second, similar menu you can browse through by using the down arrow at the bottom of the inner circle. The whole menu system seems pretty zippy too, once it takes a second to load all your iTunes information. Of course, I'm also using a 2.0 Ghz MacBook Pro with 1.5 GB RAM, so YMMV. Check out Macintalk's how-to if you're done drooling and want to get down to business.
Delicious Library Gambler's Sale enters fourth and final week
You'd better get out those credit cards boys and girls, as the Delicious Monster Gambler's Sale has entered its fourth and final week. For those not familiar with this type of sale: Delicious Monster set aside a secret number of Delicious Library licenses and put the app on a four week sale. Each week, they drop the price by $5. Herein lies the catch: the sale ends when either four weeks are up, or the secret number of licenses is sold - whichever is first.This is the fourth and final week of the sale, and Delicious Library has hit $20. I just purchased my own copy, but only Delicious Monster knows how long you can keep waiting to taking advantage of a killer sale on a killer app.Thanks RP
DS allows you to choose your own adventure
In their continuing trend of crafting unique lines of games, it looks like Nintendo has their hopes set on bringing a series of books to the DS. These would be akin to the "choose your own adventure" books that many of us grew up with. In what is being horribly electronically translated as the DS Lightning Library series, these "games" place emphasis on text and reading as opposed to fast gameplay. The title featured by Famitsu, [arison], looks to be the first in the series and focuses on a war between two countries that has been raging for some time.[Thanks Nushio!]
iPod.iTunes: powerful library synchronization
iPod.iTunes offers 8 different ways of synchronizing your iTunes library and playlists between both devices, giving you powerful control over what files are moved where and how. All formats are supported, including MP3, AAC, protected AAC (iTMS purchases), Audible books, and video files. PC-formatted iPods are compatible, and all metadata such as your song ratings, play count and album art are preserved in the transfer. This is a great utility for anyone in need of an easy method to clone an iPod, keep iTunes libraries on different Macs in sync or simply back up your iPod's library if it's the only place you keep all your media (Apple sadly doesn't provide a way of doing this).Check out the full list of features of everything iPod.iTunes is capable of. Another handy trick this app performs is that it can live and run directly from your iPod, in which case your registration ($35 USD) travels with you. A demo is available from crispSofties.
Library Books
I'm on a big book kick today, so I thought I would point out Library Books. What does it do? Well, it is a little menu item that tracks the books that you have checked out of the library (see if your library is supported here).Pretty slick, if you ask me.[via Library Stuff]
Access iPhoto and iTunes libraries with a simple Automator action
You could also file this under "fantastic Automator actions that Apple should've advertised when Tiger was being released."A post at macosxhints has discovered a simple Automator action you can use to open panel containing your entire iPhoto or iTunes library (pictured), complete with albums/playlists, DnD and even search abilities. This is for all those times you groan at having to start iPhoto just to grab an image or two. Bonus points for the iTunes library action: songs are playable from this panel.Check out the macosxhints post for the drop-dead simple 3-step process (it's really only two steps) for creating this handy panel.
TUAW Tip: visit your Library
This tip could definitely be classified as rudimentary to some, but I thought it would be handy to shed some light on a folder in the Home directory that is rarely opened by many users: the Library. For those who sometimes wonder things such as where Safari stores your bookmarks or where Mail.app keeps all those messages you never reply to, your Library folder is calling your name. The Library in your Home folder is where Mac OS X stores all the data you enter into almost any and every application you use. Take a look at ~/Library/Safari, for example (the (~) stands for your Home folder). In there is just about everything Safari stores for you, including your bookmarks and history. There are plenty of other handy folders to check out in your Library, such as the Fonts folder which stores all the fonts you install, but I think the real meat of the Library is the Application Support folder. This is where most applications will store their information, such as Adium extras, Camino/Firefox bookmarks, NetNewsWire subscription information and the database file iWeb uses to create your website.The Library is where (almost) all of it happens boys and girls, so take a look around. There are a lot of handy folders in there, but more importantly: in addition to the rest of the folders in your Home directory, the Library is one of the most vital to back up. So feel free to look around and familiarize yourself with your Library, the "guy behind the guy" of your Mac OS X Home directory.
Delicious Library 1.6.1
Delicious Library has gone Universal as of version 1.6.1, which was just released. This point release also enables user to use Delicious Library with the built in iSights in both the iMacs and MacBook Pros.There are also numerous bug fixes which is to be expected in any point release, as well as several new translations so you can now lend out your movies in Swedish.
iPhoto Buddy: Speeds up iPhoto's load time
I came accross a neat freeware app today coded by Rick Neil called iPhoto Buddy. This app allows you to create more than one Library of photos so iPhoto can load more quickly. Each Library can be named, given an icon, and doesn't have to respect chronological time.If you've been struggling with iPhoto taking a century to load because your Library has more than a couple thousand photos (or you are on a less zippy Mac), fear not, iPhoto Buddy will make your iLife easier.iPhoto Buddy is compatible with iLife 04, 05, and 06, requires a minimum of OS 10.2.4, and even allows you to import an iPhoto Buddy created Library into iMovie or iDVD.[via Appleology]
Chicago library to trial video game lending
A public library in the Park Ridge area of Chicago has revealed that it will soon be trialling a video game lending service, representing similar schemes taking place across the world. Starting with a collection 50 games purchased with a requested $3,000 worth of funding, the pilot program will last two year during which time "circulation and patron comments will be measured". The library is hoping to focus on "high demand" games for PlayStation and Xbox systems in order to draw in a younger demographic. We certainly can't think of a strategy more effective at increasing the number of younger visitors than lending games for free. To deter older gamers that may get word of this scheme, they'll be limiting the collection to "games that are rated E for all ages or T for teens" although there's no strict age limit for lending the games.So how do you get your local library to start lending games ? Simple, just ask. According to a librarian working at the library, "kids throughout Park Ridge kept coming up to me and asking why we didn't have video games for circulation." We feel very cynical for suggesting it, but we wouldn't be surprised to find that a large percentage of those kids were bribed by gaming moms, dads and older siblings. We'll hold off from judging them, because there aren't many things we wouldn't do for free games![Via digg]
ROKR E2 dumping iTunes for an iRadio service?
MacRumors picked up on a New York Times report that the forthcoming ROKR E2 will be dumping iTunes in favor of a new subscription-based iRadio service, featuring over 400 channels of commercial-free radio. So basically: instead of a phone that can freely play all of your music, you can pay a reported $7/month for what is basically XM/Sirius in your phone. For those of you still waiting for an iTunes-based ROKR successor, the recently-announced RAZR v3i sounds like it won't dissappoint. In my opinion though, following up the less-than-stellar ROKR with a new version that doesn't even support playing my music is two steps in the wrong direction.But what do you guys think of this? Do you want a ROKR phone with a radio-on-steriods in it, or are you already yelling "I want my iTunes library!"
