Convert AAC files from iTunes to MP3 and export

Updated 1/17/2007: It took a while for me to realize that even the latest version of iTunes has a simple way to convert non-DRMd music to MP3. It's not as easy as holding down the option key and selecting from the Advanced menu (no longer works), but it's easy enough.

In the Advanced menu there is, typically, a 'convert to aac' option. Turns out what you see here is determined by your import preferences. Set your import to MP3, this will show MP3.

You can convert, export and delete your mp3. I just export the ones I want to convert, move them to a different user account, and convert there.

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Updated 7/14/06

It took a bit of work to figure out the Blacktree iTunes LAME Encoder. It's a GUI wrapped around a command line AAC to MP3 transcoder. By now there's probably something out that's easier to use, but I haven't looked. There's not much documentation.

My Palm Tungsten E plays MP3 files. My DVD player plays MP3 CDs. Great -- except my iTunes library, legally ripped from my personal CDs, is all AAC encoded. Nothing, yet, plays AAC except my iPod and iTunes.

I needed to be able to convert AAC to MP3. This requires software to:

1. convert AAC to AIFF (uncompressed)
2. convert AIFF to MP3

This process takes time, is tedious, etc. I wanted a utility that would automate this.

iTunes LAME encoder does this. Note the UI is all about "Import" but in this case we're exporting from iTunes.

Installation:

1. Drag the app to Applications.
2. Drag the script to the iTunes script folder.

Usage:

1. Set preferences: Destination to save to a local folder rather than iTunes library.
2. Click preferences: "Use Alternate Naming Convention" and delete all but %t (so a flat list of MP3 files is exported).
%a is the album
%l is the ?
%t is the tune or song
3. Change capture settings if desired
4. Create album for AAC files to export/convert and tunes to export there. Select all.
5. Click the LAME script from iTunes. Conversion takes quite a while.

Neat selection of blog tools

Weblogs Compendium - Blog Tools

Extension Room :: Firefox Extensions :: Blogging Category

Extension Room :: Firefox Extensions :: Blogging Category: "Adds a context menu option to blog a link to the current page and the selected text (if any) through Blogger's BlogThis form"

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I wondered if this would work w/ Firefox where the standard BlogThis scriptlet fails. Alas, it works just like BlogThis!, so it doesn't help.

Restoring Graffiti One type print recognition to the Graffiti Two (Jot) Palm devices

Google Groups: View Thread "Tungsten E and print recognition: what's your experi..."

I went through TealScript and ruthlessly deleted all the
variable strokes from my personal profile. The only strokes allowed
are now the ones I use -- the advanced high speed but often
undocumented G1 strokes documented in Pogue's O'Reilly books. I
defined all of my strokes as "standard".

I also deleted many of the "distorted" strokes.

Once I'd paired down the base strokes, I used TealScripts "train
profile" exercise from different angles to create a library of
distorted variants of my base strokes.

I think I could further refine this by tweaking the TealScript squelch
and cutoff settings. Shockingly the best advice I could find seems to
be in the manual.

Based on the manual I have set Squelch and Cutoff to 0 for all of my
"standard" strokes. If one of my standard strokes is being applied
when I don't want it, then

- if it's a simple stroke I'll boost squelch
- if the misapplied strokes is not simple I'll boost cutoff - esp. if
it's distort mismatch

For my distort entries I'll experiment with setting cutoff to 5-15 ...

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One of the miracles of the US Robotics PalmPilot was that the pen character input worked. It worked because of Graffiti, a novel form of printing. The brilliance of Graffiti was that it asked the human to adjust to the limitations of the computer. With a bit of practice one could get pen input to work.

Unfortunately few were willing to learn Graffiti. Xerox won a patent fight about its origins, but it was a false victory. Palm abandoned Graffiti in favor of Jot -- a more familiar but singularly ineffective form of pen input.

Sad.

Got a machine lying around? Web Crossing Express

Web Crossing - Web Crossing Express Features

Web Crossing Express Features: free web/email/ftp server

Web Crossing Express provides unlimited Web Pages (HTTP and HTTPS), Email (POP/IMAP/SMTP), FTP services and WebFiles, and low-volume* use of the popular Web Crossing collaboration features such as such as WebMail, blogs, discussions, chat, wiki, Neurons and more. Web Crossing Express can easily replace a collection of other free servers such as Apache, sendmail, IIS, Exchange, and FTP daemons. It's an excellent choice if you're setting up an Internet presence and also want to try out Web Crossing's powerful collaboration features. You can upgrade your Web Crossing Express license to make greater use of all the collaboration services at any time, without reinstallation.

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This runs atop Win95 and MacOS Classic 9.2. Great use for an old Wintel machine?

Ars Technica: Portable headphone roundup - Page 6 - (2/2004)

Ars Technica: Portable headphone roundup - Page 6 - (2/2004)

Sennheiser PXC250 (US$130): Sound = 7 / Value = 7 / Overall = 7

As the only set of headphones with active noise cancellation in this comparison, the PXC250 was at a bit of a disadvantage — generally active noise-reduction headphones show a significant price premium over their counterparts (The PXC250 is based off of the PX200, which is significantly cheaper). While the PXC250's sound was not terrific, they were at worst entirely inoffensive, and at best quite balanced and pleasing. Neither Jeff nor Matt had any major complaints about the sound. We would definitely recommend these to anyone that travels on planes a lot, works in a server room, or perhaps someone with a rather loud computer that they do not want to hear, but wants to hear other ambient sound. Just as the other Sennheiser PX series headphones were, the PXC250 is also very light and comfortable. The bottom line is that some people would get a lot of good use out of the PXC250s, but they are probably not worth it for people that do not need the active noise cancellation — better sounding headphones without noise cancellation can be had.

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I bought some reconditioned AIWA noise cancelling headphones for $17, but these sound interesting ....

Panther Kernel crashes and BSOD - networks, sleep and location changes

MacFixIt - Troubleshooting Solution for the Macintosh

Mac OS X 10.3.x: Kernel panics upon location change
Yesterday we covered a reader report from Rob Tillyard that his PowerBook G4 has recently been experiencing kernel panics when switching between Network Locations (via the Locations submenu of the Apple Menu or the Network pane of System Preferences). Since then we've received corroborating reports of this issue from many MacFixIt readers.

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I see this. No clear workaround except for Apple to fix the problem.