The Modest Thoughts of a Jive Sucka

Getting my suicide pills ready...

More scary sci-fi s*** comes to fruition:

A group of Japanese roboticists, led by Shingo Maeda at the Shuji Hashimoto applied physics laboratory at Waseda University, have created a chemical gel capable of independent motion, similar to that of a caterpillar.

Using a process that combines polymers, the material not only moves on its own, but also can change colors and can be used to perform calculations. According to the scientists involved in the project the morphable material could even one day be used as components of a future robot, thus making the notion of the incredibly scary Terminator T-1000 a real possibility.

 

iTunes Tip

Customize Your View of Library and Playlist Columns

In iTunes you can customize your view of library and playlist columns however you like. What track information is most important to you - Song Name, Time, Album, Artist, Genre, My Rating, Last Played (date), Date Added, Year, Play Count? In Edit > View Options you can show or hide up to 21 columns in your jukebox. You can even move the columns around by clicking and dragging the column headings. It's your jukebox. You can lay it out anyway you choose.
If you click a column heading, you sort your music library by the information in that column - My Ratings, Genre, Year or alphabetically by song name, album or artist, etc. Another click to the column heading reverses the sort order.

iTunes/iPod Tip

Bookmarking in Podcasts/Audiobooks

This is a good one. One of the things that made me insane in the membrane about listening to podcasts or audiobooks on my iPod was the lack of bookmarking. Nothing is more annoying than listening to a good thirty minutes of a podcast, having to stop and resume later, only to find that it has started over at the beginning. Well the latest iTunes as remedied that (thank goodness). Here's what to do.

-> Highlight the podcast/audiobook you want to bookmark (or all of them).

-> Right click, and select "Get Info". A window will open.

-> Select "Options".

-> Look for "Remember Position" and change it from no to yes.

-> Click "OK".

That's it!

AB

In case you were curious...

Top ten turn-offs for employers on social networking websites:

1. References to drug abuse
2. Extremist / intolerant views, including racism, sexism
3. Criminal activity
4. Evidence of excessive alcohol consumption
5. Inappropriate pictures, including nudity
6. Foul language
7. Links to unsuitable websites
8. Lewd jokes
9. Silly email addresses
10. Membership of pointless / silly groups

From: Olrec

iTunes Tip

Adding Podcasts to iTunes That Are Not in the iTunes Store

If while surfing the web, you ever come across a podcast that you can’t find in the iTunes Music Store, here’s an easy way to subscribe to it anyway. From the Advanced menu, choose “Subscribe to Podcast...” and enter the podcast feed URL. iTunes will subscribe you to the podcasts and begin downloading immediately.

Etiquette for when you're on the online.

iPod Tip

Conserve Your Battery!

Prepare to Pause

Avoid abandoning your iPod, leaving it to play alone all by itself. If you're stepping out without it—even for a moment—press the Play/Pause button to pause playback. Otherwise your iPod will continue to happily play songs until the battery drains.

Lessen the Light

Backlighting (on iPods with a display) will eat away at your battery life—especially if you use it excessively. If you don't need to have the backlighting turned on for as long as it's currently set, or you want to turn it off completely, choose Settings > Backlight Timer, then either choose a shorter time interval that allows you enough time to read the screen, or choose Off to disable the feature.

Put It on Hold

When you're not using your iPod, move the switch to the Hold position so that you don't inadvertently power on your player or wake it from sleep when it's in transit (this doesn't affect iPod shuffle owners).

iTunes Tip

If you're anything like me you probably have a huge list of playlists in your iTunes/iPod. It's always annoyed me having to scroll through dozens of them just to get to the playlist I wanted to listen to, and I've always wondered why Apple (in their infinite wisdom) have never created folders and subfolders to help catagorize them. Well now they have! Here's how to do it.

Organizing playlists into folders

To help you organize your songs, videos, and other items, you can add folders below Playlists. After you create a folder, you can add playlists and other folders to it. (You can't add individual songs or videos directly to a folder.)

To create a folder:
 - Choose File > New Playlist Folder.
 - Type a name for the folder and press Return.
 - Drag playlists or other folders into the folder you just created, or drag the folder into another folder.
 - To move a folder from another folder to the top level, drag it to the left edge of the iTunes window.
 - To rename a folder, double-click it.

Poll

Morto the Magician by Steve Martin