life hacking and hack writing
Because they're useful and should be shared: two free apps that make iTunes less of a PitA and Apple less of a monolith in training.
1) iTunes Library Updater. If you're like me and are simultaneously random about filing music tracks and neurotic about file naming, then your iTunes library is seriously fragged. And, iTunes being all self-important, there's no way to sort files by the little exclamation point or otherwise weed out missing tracks or recognize file name changes. This handy little puppy fixes all of that in one go. It gives iTunes a little bit of the library management that makes WinAmp still relevant.
2) Hymn/iOpener (Hymn is the Mac program, iOpener is for Windows). This application goes through your iTunes library and strips the protection layer off of your m4p files. It converts them into m4a, which you can either leave be or use iTunes to convert to mp3 for use in other programs. It can either replace the original m4p files or create separate m4a files, so you can keep the originals if desired. I use iOpener, which is extremely basic -- you can only do them all at once, not ad hoc, but it's still a lifesaver because I have to use WinAmp at work.
***
Am done, sorta, with the novelization. Unsurprisingly, it's twice as long as it used to be. Whether it's twice as good remains to be determined, but I'm not overawed with it. It's just too long to be in one LJ entry, which is annoying. (And now I want an actual @$&#*% fic idea, not wanking.)
Supermarket was having a sale, so I came home with eight pounds of chicken breasts. They were "family packs" and I live alone, so they had to be divvied up before getting tossed in the freezer. Eight pounds was only eleven breasts, which means more giant tits than at a Hooters during lunchtime... and that smittywing is going to be eating some chicken when she visits.
1) iTunes Library Updater. If you're like me and are simultaneously random about filing music tracks and neurotic about file naming, then your iTunes library is seriously fragged. And, iTunes being all self-important, there's no way to sort files by the little exclamation point or otherwise weed out missing tracks or recognize file name changes. This handy little puppy fixes all of that in one go. It gives iTunes a little bit of the library management that makes WinAmp still relevant.
2) Hymn/iOpener (Hymn is the Mac program, iOpener is for Windows). This application goes through your iTunes library and strips the protection layer off of your m4p files. It converts them into m4a, which you can either leave be or use iTunes to convert to mp3 for use in other programs. It can either replace the original m4p files or create separate m4a files, so you can keep the originals if desired. I use iOpener, which is extremely basic -- you can only do them all at once, not ad hoc, but it's still a lifesaver because I have to use WinAmp at work.
***
Am done, sorta, with the novelization. Unsurprisingly, it's twice as long as it used to be. Whether it's twice as good remains to be determined, but I'm not overawed with it. It's just too long to be in one LJ entry, which is annoying. (And now I want an actual @$&#*% fic idea, not wanking.)
Supermarket was having a sale, so I came home with eight pounds of chicken breasts. They were "family packs" and I live alone, so they had to be divvied up before getting tossed in the freezer. Eight pounds was only eleven breasts, which means more giant tits than at a Hooters during lunchtime... and that smittywing is going to be eating some chicken when she visits.