Macs at Math Empo automatically download music from Pandora!!

Yea! Wow!

I am more than excited to share my experience at the Math Emporium with you! Today while studying for my Rhetoric Tradition exam which is tomorrow, I did what a lot of you may do and that is listen to music.

Listening to music for me has always been a pain, First I am not very good at finding good music nor very good at finding new music, Second: I like the iPod, but uploading music to it was a pain, I'm not a big fan of iTunes... I know.. I know its not that hard but the less steps I have to take the better.

Did I mention I am not very good at finding new/good music? That's why I use Pandora.com . Basically Pandora.com is a website that plays steaming music to your computer, but it only plays music you like, so if you like Mrs.Officer by Lil Wayne Pandora will only play music that is similar.

In all honesty I was surprised by how well Pandora was able to select music I liked, I liked almost everything it played. Also a feature I find especially useful when I have company over, s that Pandora will automatically play the next song on the list. SO, you can start Pandora and leave it alone and it automatically plays music, NICE, no more searching for songs in my library.

ANYWAYS! Today while in the Math Emporium I was listening to Pandora when I noticed on the right that Real Player (an application) had a number on its icon. So I click on it and what do ya know, It automatically was downloading Pandora's music files (as FLV)!!!

THIS WAS GREAT! At home, on my windows machine, I had been using Orbit, a streaming downloader application, which requires a couple more steps to actually download the song.

Note: If you use Orbit to download streaming music from pandora, the files will be in MOV format not FLV, and at least for me the extension was not added onto the files.. FYI: I was trying to convert my "unknown" filetype to mp3 or wav so that I could burn my songs onto a Audio CD.

-Aaron

Screen Captures:

DX Express Make Over - A welcome change

Although this post is not technology related, I believe any pro-active change is worth noting.
As long as your not a freshman you might have noticed DX Express got quite the make over, a change I welcome with open arms. For anyone who has visited DX express this year will notice the sleek design of the New DX Express.

For starters the area where students debate which food is going to fill their tummy has expanded... well maybe not expanded but the equipment in this area has been moved around, if not completely removed, allowing more room for people like me, no I'm not fat, I just can never make up my mind. So now there is more room so what? Well besides the rearrangement, that area is clean and modern looking.

Not only has the food purchasing area undergone a change, the area where hungry students eat has been completely overhauled. This area also makes use of friendly, efficient seating unlike the old area, that left little room for people to sit and enjoy their meal.

Kudos to you DX Express for taking an eye sore and turning it into eye candy! And for the 32"+ Lcd Tv's!

Macs not living up to their name!

Are Mac's really as great as they claim?

The short answer is no, although I already have preference for a well rounded PC over a mac, I can say with confidence Macs aren't as great as they should be, at least for the price, and the claims you see on TV.

In the last month I have had more problems with Mac's than I have my whole life. First my friend Kathleen with a Mac Book Pro, could not get past an error screen demanding she restart. In a effort to help her, I opened up the Mac to get to the hard drive, which is not an easy task considering most PC laptop Hard drives are only a screw away.

After spending a good hour plus getting to the Mac's hard drive, I still could not access the file system without more headache and at this point I had to much work to go on.

Second, my roommate Harley had an "expanding battery" problem.. say what?!?!?!
Yes the battery in his Mac Book Pro had some how expanded, and because this is not a good thing he removed his battery and waiting on a replacement. Meanwhile Harley is running his Mac on AC power without the battery. No problem right? WRONG! Because of some BS (at least in my opinion) he is running on only one processor apparently because the AC adapter might/cant support the power consumption of both processors.
WHOA! Never had an expanding battery problem on a PC.

Third and Fourth, when writing data to a DVD I am given no option to continue writing on the disc after burning or finalize the disc. What this means is that after burning 1gb worth of data on a 4+ GB blank DVD you may not add more. Way to waste 3gb+ of free space Mr.Mac. Not only are the options limited when burning, I cant prevent the "verifying process" which doubles the time it takes to "complete" the task. SO.... if your like me you cancel the verifying process... which then freezes the drive and you cant get the flipping disc out. Great... now I have to restart. Way to go MAC!

In the end macs are still a decent computer, especially if your like the majority of people who use their computer for just a few things like checking e-mail, browsing the web, writing documents, and listening to music. BUT! If your doing little more than the basic things like listed above why... WHY spend $1000 to $2000 George Washington's on a laptop, when a PC for under $600 could do all the same basic things perfectly fine?

-Aaron Bitler



Information & Links

Mac Book Expanding Battery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aclgdTlCyXs
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/30/bloated-17-inch-macbook-pro-battery-part-4/
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2006/06/4357.ars

Laptop for under $700
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220385