testing {at} tmsproject(.)net

Oil is the lifeblood of the world’s economy. If deprived of it, industrialized nations would wither and die. At record high prices, transportation and manufacturing are easily the hardest hit. The cost of raw materials for manufactured goods is surging on a grand scale, causing price increases across the board from food to laundry detergent and even paper towels. Some manufactures are working to absorb the costs any way they can, while others are left with no choice but to pass the costs on to consumers.

For many, the financial sting of grocery shopping may seem trivial when compared to the pain inflicted at the gas pump. Americans everywhere are taking whatever steps possible to minimize fuel costs. The days have long passed when consumers could claim up to 5% on fuel rebates simply by paying with a credit card.

While most companies (airlines in particular) are seeing red, soaring oil prices have had a slew of positive benefits to our economic future. Automotive manufactures everywhere are working double time to maximize the fuel efficiency of upcoming car models. Public transportation ridership has risen to a 50-year high. SUVs are depreciating like sub-prime mortgage securities and hybrid cars can’t be produced fast enough.

Oil’s high price is causing radical changes in consumer behavior and is fundamentally altering the way we view energy consumption. In cities all across America, people are choosing to bike to work, walk to lunch and carpool with their coworkers. The smallest and the most fuel efficient vehicles on the market have taken precedence over their gas guzzling brethren. Domestic and international airline ticket prices are causing people to rethink their family vacation plans and opt for local destinations.

These sweeping  changes may be painful adjustments but over time they will help us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and force environmental issue to the forefont. Out of the chaos a clear winner has emerged. I only hope America’s new found rationalism will continue for years to come. The environment may eventually thank us for it.

Byte Night was started in 1998 with just 25 attendees. The event was organized by National Children’s Homes (NCH) to help raise money in support of young people who are coping with abandonment or facing homelessness. Each year IT professionals throughout London gather to sleep outside and raise money for the organization.

Since the standard goal for individual sleepers was set at £2,000, it would not have been possible to me to raise the necessary funding in time for the event, especially since I found out about it just three weeks prior to the deadline. Nevertheless, I thought Byte Night was a creative way to give back to the community, so I decided I would volunteer and join in on the fun.

Byte Night helped to give some much needed visibility to homeless children and was a great networking opportunity for those who participated. Throughout the night I was assigned to sell drink vouchers to the sleepers. The atmosphere was refreshingly social and seemed increasingly so as the night went on while more wine was consumed. At one point, Dell took on HP in a trivia challenge… and won. I even had the opportunity to discuss Google’s competitive market prospects with a few Micro$oft account managers.

I’ll be sure to update this with the total amount raised.

Expect to see some content expansions in the near future. I felt slightly guilty about neglecting this site for so long, so I decided to do something about it.

Although, I can easily see how some people would fail to see the humor.  :-p

Flash Mob Dancers Startle Commuters @ Victoria

-Cheers

-Thanks V.

While there are several options available for cracking FairPlay, this tutorial will focus on using QTFairUse6. It’s small, efficient and will decrypt your music without any degradation in sound quality.

For the first step, you must download and unzip QTFairUse6. The most up-to-date version (v2.5) can be found on the hymn forums, or to download it directly, click here (5.1M). Once downloaded, you will need to extract the files from the .zip archive in a folder of your choosing.

While many people claim that QTFairUse6 v2.5 works with the most current version of iTunes (7.0.2.16), I received numerous errors from QTFairUse6 when I attempted to decrypt my files. An easy way of avoiding this would be to download an older version. I recommend downloading iTunes 7.0.1 which can be found on filehippo.com. Or to download it directly click here (35M). If your version of iTunes is older 7.0.2, you may skip the next few steps.

In order to fully downgrade your version of iTunes, you must completely uninstall your current version and reboot your computer. Uninstalling leaves the iTunes database intact so all your settings will migrate over to the older version. It will also not delete any of your music files, or playlists.

Once your computer has rebooted, launch the installer (you just downloaded) for iTunes 7.0.1. Proceed through the steps to complete the installation.

When setup is complete you can begin using QTFairUse6. Return to the directory you specified when unzipping in step 1 and launch the "QTFairUse6" executable. Use of the console version of QTFairUse6 is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Although the default set of options in QTFairUse6 are desirable for most people, for the sake of simplicity I would recommend selecting the "Process just these files" option. With this selected, you can choose which files you wish to decrypt by dragging and dropping them from explorer. iTunes protected files are easily identifiable by their .m4p extension

Once successfully added, QTFairUse will update and your list of files to be decrypted will appear in the main window.

In case decrypting should fail or you want to keep your original protected .m4p files, you should specify a folder to be used for backups.

Once you have selected a backup folder, click "Start conversion" and watch the magic happen.

Depending on iTunes, you may need to sign into your iTunes account using your Apple ID and password. This is necessary so that iTunes can authorize your computer to play your files.

If everything goes smoothly, the "success" message should appear in the QTFairUse window indicating that the decryption is complete.

As an added bonus, the newly decrypted files are automatically updated in your iTunes library so that you don’t need to worry about adding them back in. You should be able to open iTunes and play your files as usual without the need to update anything. The decrypted files can now be transported to other computers without iTunes or played on any other .mp3 player which supports the AAC codec.

Sadly, this is a ludicrous argument.

On the contrary, CBS now has the highest ratings in the broadcast industry due to their partnership with YouTube. In combination with good programming, CBS has seen it’s ratings increase by 21% from last year along.

Although, recent negotiations have failed to strike a new deal, CBS’s existing partnership with YouTube allows CBS to publish its own content online. In return, CBS gets a sizeable share of the ad revenue. The success of the existing program has been astounding, CBS and YouTube are both reaping the rewards. CBS is even enjoying a PR boost along with renewed enthusiasm from viewers.

The truth of the matter is that watching something online generates hype and boosts ratings. The AdSense market is booming and everyone especially Google is getting rich.

Perhaps at some point the media industry will grow some balls and embrace emerging technologies instead of shunning away from them. You would think that at some point the media industry would realize that their own stupidity causes nothing but financial nightmares.

Last night while I was browsing around online, one of my favorite songs made its way to the front of the pack on my shuffled playlist. Despite it being performed by one of my favorite bands, it was a song which I hadn’t heard in quite a while. Instinctively I began to hum along to the tune as I caught up on some overdue Digg reading. Its catchy lyrics and slightly uplifting beat mixed with a touch of melodrama make Naive one of The Kooks most adored singles.

I had first heard of The Kooks while I was studying abroad in England. Although their debut album Inside In/Inside Out was released in January of 2006, they were entirely unknown to me before I had studied abroad. When I arrived in the UK in September of 2006 I was fortunate that the band was still on the UK charts and getting major airplay (see #26). After listening to a few more of their hit singles, I was hooked. Almost overnight The Kooks had become my new favorite band.

Flash forward.

After humming along to Naive for a short while I decided I should check to see if The Kooks would be playing an American tour anytime soon. A quick glance at Ticketmaster revealed that I may have underestimated their American popularity… Not only were The Kooks touring in America, but they were coming to Boston in May. I found this quite surprising considering none of my friends have even heard of them. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Not only were The Kooks coming to Boston on their second American tour (their first was only for two weeks) but they were playing at the Paradise Rock Club! Small venues are always more exciting and have a much more personal feel when compared to their larger rivals. While struggling to contain my excitement, I frantically clicked purchase on Ticketmaster… after all $12 seemed like tiny price to pay to see my favorite band perform during their second tour in the US…

SOLD OUT.

I felt exasperated, disappointed and completely surprised that anyone here had even heard of The Kooks, let alone snatch up all the tickets to their show before I even had a chance of purchasing them. Undeterred, I decided I would try my luck elsewhere. My first though was sold out.com or StubHub. I have a few friends who have had luck with these in the past. After finding nothing, I desperately turned to the last place I could think of… Ebay.

Now don’t get me wrong, Ebay is perfectly respectable and is a fantastic place to purchase just about anything. Except for concert tickets that is. Swallowing my pride in online deal hunting, I committed myself to going to the show no matter what price I had to pay… and pay I did. Heavily. $120 later I got two tickets to go see The Kooks on Sunday, May 13th and honestly, I think it’s money well spent. I don’t usually enjoy being raped financially but I have a feeling the show will be well worth it. I’m just disappointed I didn’t check sooner and grab a few tickets while they were $12. I also feel shamefully stupid for not checking to see if they were touring in the UK when I was there.

Nevertheless, lesson learned.