itunes and audio hijack

Fellow Mac geeks: Thinking of ways to get around the digital rights management encryption of songs bought via the iTunes Music Store? (Just for jollys, not for any evil intentions.) Just channel the sound through Audio Hijack or its pro version. (With the regular version you have to record into AIFF and then convert to MP3 in iTunes; with the Pro version, you skip the conversion step and go straight into MP3.) Works fine for me, and it strips out all encryption and usage limits.

apple itunes music store

The best thing about Apple’s new iTunes Music Store: It hasn’t been around long enough for the recommendations system to make sense. (You know, the “If you like this CD, you’ll also like” thing that Amazon and others get from analyzing customer data.)
If you try to buy a track off 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’, the current number one recommendation is Paco de Lucia & Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. I had no idea 50 Cent’s bangers were all secret flamenco guitar aficionados.

lauren weisberger, chicago recap

Gothamist hates Lauren Weisberger. Crabwalk, although inclined by life experience among the Weisbergeresque to agree, takes no formal stance.
Got back from Chicago last night (mad shout-out to my education writer homeez!). Drank a lot of beer. Bought a sportscoat. Drank some more beer. Heard about a newspaper shutting down a reporter’s blog. Silently praised my employers for being more logical. Pledged more regular blog postings to satisfy the five readers left after the CDMOM shutdown. Drank beer.
Oh yeah, here’s my story from today’s front page, article no. 3,573,738 in my endless standardized testing death march.

boiled crawfish, bynum isd

I’m not sure I can properly communicate through electronic prose my excitement — nay, my joy — that a reliable boiled crawfish joint has opened one block away from my Louisiana family home. $14.99 for five pounds — a thoroughly acceptable price. I suspect my traditional five-pound gain per home visit will soon reach eight or nine.
Also, here’s my story from tomorrow’s front page, on a rural school district that’s gone from craptacular to rock-star status in a few years’ time. (Well, I phrase it differently in the story.) Notice the he’s-pushing-it use of the phrase “thousands-strong throngs.”