OT: Hey, Mac People -- You're Not in Kansas Anymore

Precisely.

I had an experience which proves it.

The issue devolved on a wonderful mp3 program, Audion. Best encoder going, bar none. Same for editing and playing. Mac only. What's not to like?

Just one thing. After a computer restart, the thing wouldn't open. Froze solid. Took a "force quit" (Mac-speak) to get it gone. More than annoying. Worse, all the usual remedies didn't work: trash the preferences, repair permissions (more Mac-speak).

Time to crawl into the ductwork. The Mac OS X operating system is based on Unix. A wonderful, aesthetic, intuitive interface. But underneath is Unix. Just like older versions of Windows sat atop DOS. And therein lies a tale.

Unix is not user-friendly. It's user-hostile. At least. It extends a hand which really grabs you...in all the wrong places. DOS comes from Unix, which explains many of its charming quirks. You see where this is leading.

I've spent 20 years on DOS/Windows systems. You've got to be able to crawl into the ductwork and fix things. Or you're dead. And that's what I did here. It was an obscure issue of how Unix handles passwords. Don't ask -- it only affected Audion. I found it by a process of elimination.

So I'm up and running with Audion. I don't regret all the time I spent on DOS/Windows. Would never have been able to fix this otherwise.

As for all you Mac Cult people out there. Your beloved Leopard, under the hood, is no better than Windows, or as you snidely call it, Windoze, used to be.

Naxos Music Library: Feast for the Ears

Thanks to the kindness of the good people at Naxos Music Library, and Joe Pisano of Mustech (see my entry for 12/19/2008) I've been having a tryout of the Naxos Music Library.

It's better than I could have imagined and, to quote Harrison Ford, I can imagine quite a lot.

For example, want to follow up on my Sibelius suggestions (my entry for 12/21/08 )? Head to the site and stream the BIS recordings of his piano music? Got Scarlatti on your mind (who doesn't?)? Stream the Naxos ongoing series of the complete sonatas. Want to remedy your ignorance of Medieval music (the case of The Arpeggist)? Stream Machaut.

You get my point. You want it, you can hear it. In a couple of clicks.

It's not free. But very affordable.

A full review is coming soon....

OT: The Apeggist Goes Green

As in screw-in fluorescent bulbs. All the nattering about quality of light kept me back. But when a bulb on a light that's on all the blew, I took the plunge. That was a 75 watt. The replacement puts out 100 watts of light, with a 23 watt current draw.

Better. It lasts for 11,000 hours versus 1200.

Best. The light quality is great.Better than an incandescent.

What's not to like? It saves energy, it's green, it's great light, it's cheaper to run.

Next move. A 500 watt output from a 100 watt draw. For the light by the piano. Know how hard it is to get that much light, and a fixture that can handle it? Just right for aging eyes.

Try it. You'll like it!