Ryckbost.com

I wish there was a way for my computer to tell what music is being played on another computer that is in close proximity to mine. We (my bosses and I) listened to some great music yesterday that was both interesting and new to me, but since it was played only from one computer, it was most likely scrobbled on that computer.

I’ve had similar experiences while working out of the Lemonjellos.  I’m
listening to, albeit subconsciously at times.  There’s been a number of
times where it’d be nice to see the artist and song information that’s
being played in the shop and have a record of what you heard while
you’re visit there.

It would be awesome, if through some sort of wireless communication, that my mac could tell which song I’m listening to and scrobble it, even if I’m not playing it directly from my computer. I don’t know how Last.fm’s scrobbling works to its full extent, but I assume it just reads the ID3 tags of the file and then sends it to the servers. Does any one know of anything like this or something that does this already?

Want a Zune? It’s rumored that Microsoft will be dropping the price to $199 tomorow. If you’ve been eyeing one for a while, now would be a good time to get one. Of course, I’ve also heard that Zune 2 isn’t too far out, so hey, you may want to just wait a little while longer.

Tomorrow, Apple will be holding a special event to announce what’s rumored as being new iPods. Is Microsoft dropping the price in light of this ‘event’? An article on Engadget seems to indicate that it doesn’t, but who knows. Does it even really matter?

More info from Zune Insider.

NBC Universal, unable to come to an agreement with Apple on pricing, has decided not to renew its contract to sell digital downloads of television shows on iTunes.

The media conglomerate — which is the No. 1 supplier of digital video to Apple’s online store, accounting for about 40 percent of downloads — notified Apple of its decision late yesterday, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked for anonymity because negotiations between the companies are confidential.

Via New York Times

Some of you may be wondering just what this switch is. No, I’m not switching cellular carriers (I like Verizon). No, I’m not going to buy a PS3 now that my 360 is dead. I’d buy a Wii, but I don’t have any money. The switch is making the jump from a Window’s environment to a Mac-based environment. Granted, I wouldn’t make the switch any time soon, especially because I’m a sucker for good displays and want to see what the LED-backlit models look like.

Anyways, I’ve now had a few business days to get adjusted and aquainted with Mac OS X and the quirky mighty mouse. I’ve even toiled for a few moments from time to time trying to list the things I liked and disliked about the past few days. I haven’t had much luck, mostly because I’m working on a school iMac and having a limited account prevents me from really delving into the operating system, but so far, things have been alright.

A few things have come up through installing apps and properly configuring Ruby, Rails, and other related programs. The end and home do not function the same way as in other environments. Normally, hitting end would bring me to the end of a line, and home would bring me to the beginning. I’ve found this comes in handy in some text editors, making for some quick editing without having to reach the mouse. While reaching over and hitting control (or command… I don’t remember) and left or right isn’t too big of a deal, it still requires more work that hitting end with my pinky.

Yah, that’s a picky little issue that I’ve come a crossed. I’m sure there will be more, but other than that, I haven’t had too many problems. I have the occasional program hang, then managed to launch Front Row by trying to remedy the issue. That was a surprise!

So where does OS X stack up against Vista for me? I’m comfortable in Linux, so I’m quasi-comfortable with a Mac and a terminal. I like that I could probably consolidate my dual-boot setup of having personal stuff in Vista and having development / design work in Linux. I haven’t even begun playing around with the iLife sweet yet, and that seems like a large part of Apple’s promotional aspect of the Mac. Then again, I’ve only been at this thing for 3 days. In 10 weeks, I’ll report back with how I feel about things. Maybe then I’ll be more convinced to make the switch.