Slashback: ITunes, Debian, ATMs

Slashback tonight brings some clarifications and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including: iTunes 7.0, Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes sales, debate over a proposal to fund Debian, and Googling for ATM master passwords. Read on for details.

Apple Announces iTunes 7, Movies, Set-Top Box. This evening Apple released iTunes 7.0.1, which "addresses stability and performance issues with Cover Flow, CD importing, iPod syncing, and more." iTunes users, especially those on Windows, have been complaining loudly about iTunes 7.0 since its release.

Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes sales. camperslo writes, "Playlist reported that Walt Disney President and CEO Robert Iger said that 125,000 downloadable movies had been purchased in the week since Apple's debut of movies on the iTunes Store. That sales level generated $1 million in revenue for Disney, which works out to $8 per movie. They also state that 'Iger told attendees of an investment conference in New York on Tuesday that Disney anticipates seeing about $50 million in revenue from the venture during its first year.'"

Proposal to fund Debian sparks debate. lisah writes, "Debian Project Leader Anthony Towns is now facing a recall vote over his involvement with Dunc-Tank, something Towns himself is willing to explore. Not everyone agrees that such a move is necessary, or even acceptable, and fur is beginning to fly as one community member asks, 'So, just to be clear, you want to punish a Debian developer for their activities outside of Debian? Now that we're in crazy-as-batshit land, who do you want to bring up on charges next?'"

Googling for ATM master passwords. bagsc writes, "Kevin Poulsen of Wired.com strikes fear into another ATM manufacturer. This time, Triton ATMs had their super-secret master codes revealed by simple Google searches. Tranax was the most recent company with this problem, but probably not the last."

iTunes

[FuturePastNow (836765)]

I guess I'm the only person who didn't have any problems with iTunes 7 (on either Windows or Mac). Good job to Apple for updating it quickly, though. Maybe a little more testing nest time, eh?

Re:iTunes

[geek (5680)]

I'm still trying to figure out what in the heck 7.0 did to my system. Before the install my system hadn't crashed, bogged down, nothing in over a year. Now suddenly the firewire is dead on it, my iPod isn't recognized by the system at all, not even by the update app from their website.

Apple is deleting posts off their discussion forum by the hundreds, all from people just asking for help to get it working again. This update has done nothing to fix this problem for me so essentially the iPod I spent nearly 500$ on is worthless, Apple won't help me on the matter at all.

I'm glad some people aren't having issues. I've been using OSX since release, bought every update, never had an issue till now. I used to post here telling everyone how great my situation was while others complained. Now that I'm in their shoes, it's pretty shitty.

Apple is a gem of company when things go right, but when they go wrong, watch out. I've never felt so disrespected in my life when dealing with a corporation.

Re:

[AhtirTano (638534)]

iTunes 7.0 has screwed things up for me too, though apparently not as badly as for you. iTunes hangs literally 50% of the time I try to sync my ipod. I have to force quit and restart itunes to try again. I have had a few times where I had to reboot the machine, things had crashed so hard.

Re:

[ElephanTS (624421)]

is the firewire really dead or do you just mean the iPod? Firewire can run without system software (like firewire target mode) so I guess you mean just the pod. Perhaps get the pod onto a friends machine a do some checking and maybe a total reformat on it. I also guess you've tried all this.

no problems here

[bodrell (665409)]

Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5

I've never purchased anything from the iTunes store, but I have nearly 13,000 mp3s, which meant I had to wait awhile as iTunes analyzed every single freaking file for "gapless playback information." I suppose it was worth the wait. Oh, and I've used version 7.0 to rip several CDs with no problems, either. Still thrown off by the new location of the "import" button.

Re:

[DrXym (126579)]

iTunes works okay on XP, but the UI is horrible. Scrolling through a large list is painfully slow and iTunes has a horrible non-standard UI. The last release aped Aqua, the new one apes pastel shades of grey. Either version looks and feels totally non-standard. Considering that Apple (and users) loudly beat the usability drum it's quite surprising that they feel they can get away with it on Windows.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[Moridineas (213502)]

Annoying for me ..maybe this can help.

itunes by default stores stuff in a folder called "iTunes" under your user "My Music" folder, and th library itself in "iTunes Music" which is a folder under the iTunes directory.

You can make your "My Music" folder be the same for all your accounts, and then you don't have to worry about different libraries. use TweakUI to change the default location of your "My Music" folder.

Re:

[willy_me (212994)]

Instead of logging in as an admin to install software, just change the rights of your current user - temporarily. This way all the user specific changes the installer is required to do won't be lost. Of course, it really shouldn't matter one way or the other - the fact that it does shows that Apple didn't design the Windows version as well as the Mac version. Either that or Windows doesn't make it as easy to do as MacOS.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[jesboat (64736)]

You said, "it had trouble coping with the concept that there were multiple users on the machine, kept separate music libraries for root and me". Not to be rude, but are you serious?

You say that the expected behavior would be for iTunes to keep the same music library for two distinct users on the system. The whole point of having a multi-user system is so that different users have distinct settings and documents. iTunes behaved perfectly correctly, and, if it had done anything else, it would have been buggy.

You use two user accounts on your system to get privilege separation, and that's fine. Then, because you want the two accounts to share data (not the typical multi-user paradigm), you use trickery to get it to work, and that's fine too. What you shouldn't do is complain when software breaks it.

Re:iTunes7 on Multi-User XP trashed my libraries

[billstewart (78916)]

Of course I'm serious, otherwise I wouldn't have been bitching about it on Slashdot :-)

ITunes should have given me a choice about setting it up for shared use or non-shared. Especially for a "personal computer", it's typical to expect that multiple users will want to share resources, and on a machine and an application program targeted towards consumer entertainment you'd also expect that. (That doesn't mean that I expect it to also force the same playlists onto each iPod - it seems to do a good job of keeping track of multiple iPods.)
If the system didn't insist on having a user with Administrator privileges install it, that'd be different.

I didn't use "trickery" to get it to combine the two accounts - I poked around in the menus until I found where it kept the directory information, and it lets you change it. It was annoyingly well hidden, given that music and especially video podcasts are large enough that many users might want to keep them on some drive other than the default C:.

Breaking user preference settings during an upgrade is a real annoyance - most other software, even Mozilla, has finally caught up with the idea that you might want to do a software version upgrade without forgetting all your settings, or at least the idea that if you're *going* to trash all their settings, you should give an "Are you sure?" choice. iTunes didn't actually forget all my settings - it just forgot some of them. It kept the database of information about the tunes I had - it just lost track of where they were stored, including the tunes I'd downloaded from the iTunes Store. Broken, broken, annoying, and not what I'd expect from Apple.

Re:

[jackbird (721605)]

There are a number of perfectly reasonable scenarios for wanting a shared itunes library that many users would expect to work. Like a husband and wife who share a home computer, for example.

Re:iTunes

[Millenniumman (924859)]

First, I'll pretend your extremely exaggerated Godwin-esque analogy was less so.

So you're saying that using a free program that can be used to buy DRMed music is evil, because DRMed music is evil? Well, I'm sure you'll agree that hacking into other people's computers is bad. And yet, you use a computer. And a computer can be used to hack into a computer.

Syncing still doesn't work properly

[SilentChris (452960)]

I bought a 2G iPod awhile back and haven't really touched the platform until recently to buy a new Nano. Syncing still doesn't work properly with any playlists that include dates. Before you go thinking "that's not a big deal" -- the Nano doesn't have much storage. You rely on the playlists to fill it up correctly. In my case, I created a playlist with just enough music to fill the iPod up with songs I hadn't listened to recently. Doesn't work at all.

It's a relatively simple problem, and it kind of ticks me off that my 2G "old" iPod did this right while a brand new Nano doesn't.

Re:

[crvtec (921881)]

Syncing still doesn't work properly with any playlists that include dates.

Yeah, I have a problem syncing with my dates, too, but it has nothing to do with an iPod... :(

Re:Syncing still doesn't work properly

[SilentChris (452960)]

Uh... no. You're wrong. A bunch of people are having problems specifically with smart playlists using dates. The update has not fixed anything.

See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID= 642774&tstart=0 [apple.com] for other examples. They screwed up the code, plain and simple.

Re:

[SilentChris (452960)]

An update was also released for the iPod Nano yesterday, bringing the firmware on the 2G models to 1.02. Please PLEASE don't state something as fact if you know nothing about it.

Just Write Code

[QuantumG (50515)]

What a bunch of political bullshit. For fuck sake people, it's a Linux distribution, not the United Nations. During the many years I spent at the University of Queensland [uq.edu.au] I ran into Anthony Towns a bunch of times. Back then he was a fun loving geek, and I doubt much has changed. We both attended HUMBUG [humbug.org.au] semi-regularly, and had a few laughs. The politics at HUMBUG were annoying too. For a bunch of geeks sitting in a lecture theatre playing around with Linux and ignoring whoever was giving a "presentation" that month, there was a heck of a lot bureaucracy, what with voting held annually for president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary and librarian. There's such a thing as too much organisation. Especially when people lose sight of the big picture and get bogged down in administrivity.

Re:Just Write Code

[x2A (858210)]

All the cores in the recently announced 80 core Intel CPU will operate in "committee" mode, to slow it down to a reasonable pace...

Re:

[Russ Nelson (33911)]

I like the t-shirt that Jesse Vincent was distributing at OSCON. It reads:

        "Shut the fuck up and write some code."

No information about WalMart

[Dynedain (141758)]

Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes sales. camperslo writes, "Playlist reported that Walt Disney President and CEO Robert Iger said that 125,000 downloadable movies had been purchased in the week since Apple's debut of movies on the iTunes Store. That sales level generated $1 million in revenue for Disney, which works out to $8 per movie. They also state that 'Iger told attendees of an investment conference in New York on Tuesday that Disney anticipates seeing about $50 million in revenue from the ventu

Re:

[kfg (145172)]

Where in that article or the associated links is anything regarding WalMart threatening lawsuits?

Where in the blurb does it say anything about lawsuits? There's actually more ways to threaten someone (or something) than with a court case. Hard to believe, but it's true.

Just click on the link to the original story (this is a Slashback, ya know expanding on a previous story. Kinda like a dupe, only different) at the bottom of the blurb.

KFG

I know it says "especially those on windows"

[Miguelito (13307)]

But I haven't had a single problem with 7.0 since installed it the day it came out. It's been rock solid.. only issue I've had is that I had to mark some albums as collections because it would split the display of the album covers into multiple ones when an album had different artists (like a movie soundtrack).

Re:

[kubrick (27291)]

iTunes 7 has an "Album Artist" tag, so you can set that to, e.g. "Various Artists" (or the name of the primary artist of the soundtrack) and still set the artist tag differently for the individual tracks, and it will group the album correctly.

Album Artist vs Compilations

[reverse solidus (30707)]

For albums that aren't actually compilations (one primary artist with a bunch of collaborators, for example) you can use the Album Artist field instead of marking the album as a compilation. I like the artwork view, but the old standalone CoverFlow totally kicks the integrated cover browser's behind.

Re:

[TheoMurpse (729043)]

So I finally cleared up enough HD space to upgrade to 7.0 (ripping Futurama off my DVDs left no space for a while, and iTunes refused to install w/o clearing up some space); I installed it tonight, and lo and behold!!! 7.0.1 BREAKS MYFAIRTUNES AGAIN! Oh well, it'll be broken again in a couple days, since Igor just has to find the new memory offsets, but just letting everyone know that if you upgrade to the new iTunes, it borks the fair use enabling software.

ATM Passwords

[-1-Lone_Eagle (863807)]

Is it just me, or am I the only one that doesn't feel sorry for the companies that own and operate these machines. How can you be so lacking in security to not assign each machine it's own individual password. Yes, tedious, Yes, service nightmare. But these machines handle CASH. Isn't it akin to setting up a network where each user isn't forced to change thier password? Be lazy and lose.

Re:

[booch (4157)]

Uh, and how about a physical locking mechanism inside the machine required to enable any such changes? I mean, there's already a physical lock required to get into the machine to add/remove cash. Why would the maintenance person not have access to that key?

It's funny, really...

[SmoothTom (455688)]

One of my blog entries has the phrase "ATM Instructions" as its title http://www.tijil.org/blog/?p=15 [tijil.org], and it has been amazing to watch the sudden upswing over the last few days is searches for that phrase hitting it.

What's funny, is it's a rather poor joke that I use as a take off point to discuss a specific sort of illogic.

--
Tomas

Still running iTunes 4

[sdo1 (213835)]

Every time a new version has come out, there's an amazing number of "this messed up my computer/songs/database/etc." messages all over every apple/ipod/itunes forum around. But 7 takes the cake. And from what I'm reading, this new version seems to do very little for people who had major issues with the first 7 release. For now, I'm just waiting and running iTunes 4. With about 20K songs in my database, iTunes 4 seems fairly stable (with more than 30K, it was very very slow, so I pulled a bunch out that

Apple Update doesn't show it yet

[alanjstr (131045)]

I was hoping that I could use Apple's Software Update to download something smaller. But it didn't find anything available.

Re:

[mh101 (620659)]

Be patient, and it will show up. I assume Apple rolls out their updates to various locations slowly over a couple days or so, to keep their servers from being overloaded. I, for one, had iTunes 7.0.1 waiting for me in Software Update when I checked earlier this evening. And I've also seen other updates that aren't available to me for a day or so after I read about it.

Re:

[alanjstr (131045)]

Downloading a huge update instead of a patch is not easier on their servers.

Debian developers are held accountable, period

[asuffield (111848)]

'So, just to be clear, you want to punish a Debian developer for their activities outside of Debian? Now that we're in crazy-as-batshit land, who do you want to bring up on charges next?'

Since the story submitter decided to display only one side of the argument here, I should point out that this objection is somewhat irrational. Several Debian developers have been forcibly kicked out of the project for actions that had no direct connection with the project. The details of names and events are usually considered private, but to pick one example that's already public knowledge - at one point a developer was an operator on the Freenode IRC network (then called OPN), abused this privilege in some fairly juvenile prank, and was promptly kicked out of Debian on the basis that they coudn't be trusted.

It is already expected that Debian developers will conduct themselves appropriately in all circumstances, not just ones relating to Debian. This is interpreted fairly liberally (the project doesn't care if you're an arse, it's primarily only interested in abuse of powers), but it is apparent that the current complaint is of this nature. Whether or not it is upheld by the project is for them to decide, but there's plenty of established precedent for this sort of thing. They're currently arguing about whether or not to uphold it; there appears to be little question as to whether developers should be held accountable in this manner.

ObBio: I'm an ex-developer who quit for personal reasons that had nothing to do with the project.

Re:

[bfree (113420)]

Debian is Trademarked [debian.org]

Re:

[QuantumG (50515)]

1. It's lapsed.
2. It's not defended, and therefore unenforcable.

Re:

[bfree (113420)]

While you may feel that you could take that to the bank in your legal juristiction I won't be trampling on the Debian trademark in mine.
IANAL, let alone an international trademark lawyer, are you?

Re:

[Burz (138833)]

They defended it in 2005 when Debian Common Core Alliance had to change their name to just 'DCCA'.

Re:

[BacOs (33082)]

1. It's lapsed

According to uspto.gov, the Debian trademark is still live. Why do you say it's lapsed?

iTunes 7 breaks DAAP compatibility with rhythmbox

[Pausanias (681077)]

I upgraded to iTunes 7 (which runs on my PowerMac). Then I noticed that rhythmbox (the default GNOME music player) running on my laptop would no longer recognize my shared iTunes Library. It was doing so just fine before with iTunes 6. And it's not just rhythmbox: closed source software [rokulabs.com] is having problems with this as well. And not just with DAAP sharing, either [volumelogic.com].

So I downgraded to iTunes 6 immediately. Apple penalizes you for doing so: iTunes 6 cannot read iTunes 7 shares (but iTunes 7 can read iTunes 6 shares). Talk about a forced upgrade. It seems that the change to DAAP was fairly trivial and avoidable, which brings up the question of whether they did it with the sole intention of breaking compatibility with the other software out there that reads the v6 DAAP protocol.

It's just a music player, but now I'm getting a little taste of what Richard Stallman means when he tells you to refrain from using closed source software. Even when you think a closed source vendor has good intentions, there's always a chance that they'll turn on you and slap you with an upgrade that breaks compatibility with your other software.

Re:iTunes 7 breaks DAAP compatibility with rhythmb

[Burz (138833)]

RMS is certainly correct when he says that free software would not put you in such a corner.

OTOH, you were really asking for it by expecting a whole-number upgrade to remain compatible with 3rd-party stuff. Even novices are supposed to understand that major whole-number upgrades are mostly likely to break compatability with previous versions as well as 'accessory' products and such.

Debian cracks me up...

[meme_police (645420)]

...along with all the other bureaucratically bloated organizations like most of the governments around the world. No wonder smaller projects get more done and ahead of schedule, their contributors aren't wasting time writing "constitutions" and dealing with politics.

Re:

[Respect_my_Authority (967217)]

That's because Debian is a project that has high ideals:

• Debian aims to support Free Software.

• Debian aims to produce a high quality product for their users to enjoy.

• Debian aims to be a non-profit volunteer project.

• Debian aims to be a democratic organization where everyone has the freedom of speech.

Some other distros and projects have "self appointed benevolent dictators for life" but that's hardly democratic, is it? You can laugh at other peoples' ideals if you want to but does that make you a better pe

I went back to iTunes 6.0.5

[gelfling (6534)]

7 had performance problems including running over 90% CPU just sitting there doing nothing, not even playing a track. A couple of things to note:

Apple needs to do a better of job of documenting versions, e.g. what's different or fixed. This is particular relevant with iPod code. Usually every new version is called "Bug fixes". Ok, what bugs? What's fixed?

Apple needs to do a better job with backwards compatibility or provide a rollback. Going from iTunes 7 to 6 requires you to delete the library and start over. So if the code recognizes that the library is a newer version it should be able to create an older version.

iTunes 7.0.1 and Podcast Issues

[Milican (58140)]

My podcasts got all screwed up starting with 7.0. That sucks because I listen to them every day on the way to work to take me away from the mindless dribble that is talk radio in the mornings.

Anyway, I upgraded to 7.0.1 last night in hopes that they would have addressed my issue, but I'm still having the problem. I also did a restore on my iPod this morning, but I'm still not getting all of my podcasts. I only get a few on my iPod. I'm not sure why either. I'll keep looking into this, but it really is a pai

Not really.

[Virak (897071)]

The point of Slashback is to post a bunch of updates to recent stories that aren't worth an article on their own, not to post the EXACT SAME STORY TWICE.

Re:

[whoop (194)]

... but no mention of 5 minutes, 500 miles electric cars? That's worthy of a triple dupe.

Re:

[7Prime (871679)]

Wait, what the hell kind of standard is 640x480? NTSC is 720x480. Why would they change the resolution?

640 x 480 == iPod Support

[@madeus (24818)]

Wait, what the hell kind of standard is 640x480? NTSC is 720x480. Why would they change the resolution?

The change has likely happened as by now both Apple and content owners are relatively happy with the distribution system and both are willing to make videos available at a higher resolution. Putting lower quality more 'disposable' content online (in the form of TV series at QVGA) lowered the risk from the PoV of content owners, but now the system is seen to be 'proven' (popular opinion being that the low

Re:

[Inoshiro (71693)]

Because all those pixels above/below are for overscan and other analog signal artifacts not needed on an end-to-end digital system.

Re:

[ben there... (946946)]

One slightly* annoying aspect of that bump is that you had to repurchase anything you had bought at 320x240.

* I say "slightly" because I was lucky enough to only have 2 or 3 videos at that quality.