Mechanical Turk’s requester site https://requester.mturk.com now offers an interactive Ask-A-Question HIT Builder and a new HIT management area. Of course, this completely obviates my AskAQuestion freeware, but who cares? The new capabilities rock and are a great sign of things to come.

So what is this and what does it mean? If you’re willing to set up an Amazon Web Services account and fund it with your bank account (I recommend you create a new free checking account, separate from your normal personal finances), you can start creating Mechanical Turk requests.

I decided to give it a spin. The new Create HITs tab offers two approaches: a Basic HIT and an Advanced one. The basic approach presents a question and asks for a freeform text reply. I asked 5 workers to submit their opinions about the future and health of Mechanical Turk. Unfortunately, I could not get the creation pages to work with Safari, so I ended up creating the HIT in Firefox.

Workers quickly (and I mean quickly!) accepted the new assignment and I was able to track the pending assignments on the requester site, review the response and approve and reject the work.

This new MTurk interactive website deserves a complete how-to, and I’ll try to write one up if time allows.

iTunes celebrates two years of freebies. Unfortunately, they aren’t doing some massive giveaway. Instead, iTunes showcases all the musicians, whom you probably missed your chance to get free and now have to pay for. Bummer.

If you’ve been following my recent posts, you’re probably well aware that I’ve been doing a lot of playing with Web APIs–particularly with iTunes and Amazon Web Services. I love the concept of API as User Interface and I love the new ways established companies are providing Web-based utilities.

Because the World Wide Web is such an open place, many Web API services demand that you authenticate your requests. Requests must come from the proper parties and sent without loss of message integrity.

Asking customers for a credit card number, even when they sign up for a free trial is not outrageous. It’s standard business and it’s time we accept that. Here’s why and, more specifically, why it’s the perfect example of the Getting Real way of life.

I had occasion recently to need to remotely delete a user — let’s call him “George” — on a Mac OS X box that is running the Client version of Tiger. I have ssh access to that machine and, since I keep meaning to learn how to do it, I decided to take the time to make a few notes on the process for the next such occasion.

• New Apple Patent [Engadget]
  In this new patent, thousands of tiny image sensing cameras are embedded next to the LCD display pixels. We’ve been watching our monitors for years. Isn’t it fair that they get their turn? And seriously, wouldn’t it be cool to hold up photos or documents and have them scanned instantly?
• The Smithy Code
  Whoda thunk it? Geek DaVinci Code Judge with a sense of humor.
• Sheep Billboards [Herald Tribune]
  The challenge is, of course, to get the sheep to line up in raster arrays.
• Little Green Apples [Apple.com]
  Jo Jo was a man who didn’t buy a loaner, but he knew his Mac couldn’t last. So he packed up his computer, in Tuscon, Arizona, and sent it to California fast. Take back, take back, take back the computer to where it once belonged. Take back, take back, take back the computer for recycling, mon.
• Is it real? Or is it Memorex? [iPodFun.de]
  From Germany: iPod klones und produkt pirating. A fascinating fotogalerie to browse through.
• PC Death [PCStats.com]
  The top ways your computer will die.
• libipod [SourceForge]
  Lightweight, C-based library for Apple iPod management, licensed under the lesser GNU public license(LGPL).
• Prolonging your iPod’s Battery Life [PlaylistMagazine]
  Tips to keep your iPod from running down before its time.

In a previous blog, I said I had dismissed GarageBand as a podcast editor because of its seeming inability to generate uncompressed masters. Readers suggested I give it another chance.

A few weeks ago, Fluxiom was to me a beautiful video on a definitely Web 2.0 site. Gray backdrop, light greens and gorgeous design were announcing an application I had absolutely no interest in but that, from the previews and the author’s previous portfolio, seemed like it could kick ass - provided you need it, of course.

It turns out Fluxiom launched a few days ago. I didn’t get an account but I still would like to make a case for it. Here’s why.

In my last post, There Has Got to be a Better Way to Share Big Files, I asked for ideas to help me improve my workflow for transferring big files across the internet. A ton of good suggestions were posted in the comments section, and I’ve tried out many of them today. Here’s how my favorites shook out.

I used a 12.5 MB zipped file as my test subject and moved it around using four of the methods suggested in the comments discussion: regular iDisk from my .Mac account via the Finder, iDisk using the Transmit FTP client, a free DropSend account, and a free YouSendIt account. I tested these methods using my sluggish home DSL connection and the super fast O’Reilly T3 connection. The results were interesting.

Here’s a couple of Automator actions I’ve discovered lurking on the interwebs recently. Both of them - like many third-party actions around - offer something incredibly useful and oddly missing from Automator’s default actions list.

First off there’s Play Sound, a simple action that, um, plays sounds you feed into it. I thought it might be useful as an instant MP3 file player, although feeding a half-hour BBC radio show into it caused a little bit of runaway CPU. Still, useful to have around.

Another neat little action is Upload to FTP, which, um, uploads stuff to an FTP server.

It comes with a selection of useful workflows, including one for auto re-sizing selected images and uploading them to a server. Another workflow performs basic backup functions.

If you’ve found a neat Automator action or workflow recently, do mention it in the comments.

It’s been pretty predicable in years past - during the week of the NAB conference, Apple rolls out a new version of Final Cut, which they can then talk up for the rest of the show.

Thing is, the show ends Thursday, and so far… no Final Cut!

I have more big stuff to move than ever. Photos, movies, podcasts… I’ve gone from a kb world to one of MBs. Originally, I thought that my .Mac subscription would ease my pain. I love the concept of iDisk, and the storage is reasonable these days (1 GB), but the uploading performance is still dismal. I keep thinking that any day now I’ll be able to upload 100 MBs in less than 30 minutes. Nope.

I’m hesitant to use my personal server for big file sharing. This is where my websites and email live. Call me paranoid, but giving strangers “secure” access to even a few sectors makes me nervous.

There’s got to be a better answer. Maybe you can convince me that opening secure access to my server is really OK. Maybe you have some insight about the future performance of iDisk. Hopefully you have a completely new solution that I haven’t thought of. If you do, will you share it with the class?

Things You Probably Didn’t Need to Know About the iTunes Music Store. More after the break.

• US: Dimension by Wolfmother
  Is there more to Wolfmother outside of the lead singer’s fabulous Afro and his rare ability to wear a very small vest and actually look cool? Normally, this would be enough, but in the case of this Australian power trio, it’s just the beginning of their effortless chic. “Dimension” offers all the blazing riffage of Sabbath and Ozzy-esque vocal phrasing you need but without the pure evil.
• US: Zambra by Willie & Lobo
  This track from Willie & Lobo’s tenth release puts a Middle Eastern spin on their full-bodied, tasteful Latin jazz and funk. Heavy on the violins and flamenco-guitar accents, Willie and Lobo imagine a world where gypsies can still celebrate until dawn. “Zambra” is our free Discovery Download.
• US: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
  How did America begin? Time magazine called Philbrick’s award-winning In the Heart of the Sea “spellbinding”. In Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick casts his spell again, giving us, complete and completely fresh, the ultimate American story. [Spoken]
• US: The Apprentice Clip Show [2nd week]
  Seventeen are told, “You’re fired!” Only one hears business tycoon Donald Trump say, “You’re hired.” At stake is a career-altering job of a lifetime with the Trump Organization and a hefty six-figure salary.
• Australia: Don’t Walk Alone by Bob Evans
  Bob Evans aka Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah is heading home to Perth to release a new album. Recording happened in Nashville Tennessee last year where Bob teamed up with a former member of alt country heroes Wilco to record twelve new tracks.
• Canada: Take Some Time by Rose Melberg
  You’ll know Rose Melberg from her time with Go Sailor, the Softies and Tiger Trap. She was a major force in indie-pop in the ’90’s. “Take Some Time” moves beyond incessantly cheery pop to post-youth pursuit of self-repair.
• UK: Cuckoo by Archie Bronson Outfit
  Swampwater addled Archie Bronson Outfit are a group of misfits who act like blues-soaked rock was the biggeest innovation since microwavable bacon.
• France: The Servant by Cocosuma
  From “Reindeer show the way”.
• Japan: Trip by Kao
  Googling says: “Neo acoustic/ guitar pop band from Osaka ORANGE CUBE’s main vocal KAO’s solo no.1. She started playing solo since the band dissolved in 2002 and moved to Tokyo from Osaka. She writes both music and lyrics by herself and released CDRs by indies and had shows constantly. During her activity, she won a prize at a contest held by a radio station and became more notable.”
• Refrederator
  Vintage Cartoon podcast from the same folks who brought us Channel Frederator.
• Vintage ToonCast
  Cartoons from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s no longer protected by copyright, many of them marked Explicit as they come from an era before political correctness.

Update: Added Japanese Single of the Week.

At the Maker Faire on Sunday, I had one of those great Silicon Valley moments: While watching four guys zipping around on their Segway scooters, playing polo, I realized that one of them was Apple inventor Steve Wozniak. I whipped out my digicam just in time to see him thwack a shot into the goal. Here’s a little movie (608KB), edited together in iMovie HD 6 out of two QuickTime clips:

I read that the Sony PSP 2.70 firmware was available in Japan and decided to check if it was also available in the US although the Sony PSP Update page still shows 2.60 as the current firmware version in the US. I used the PSP’s built-in network (wireless) update feature and found that, yep, the 2.70 update is available in the US too. Here’s some info and gotchas.

• iTunes to contain Ads [AdAge]
  iTunes will start showing billboard ads in iTunes during on-computer podcast playback. iPod playback will reportedly be unaffected.
• Cheap and Early DVDs in Russia [TechDirt]
  In order to compete with movie pirates, Universal will release “Cheap’n'early” DVDs in Russia four weeks after movie release date, and full-quality DVDs packed with extras a few months later.
• Linux Infrared Remote Control Porject [LinuxJournal]
  Build your own cheap TV remote system for your homebrew MythTV computer.
• Warner Home Video releases low-end Aviator DVD in China for $1.50 [MSNBC]
  Trying to make a profit in pirate-packed China, Warner Home Video is using a “simple pack” edition with a cardboard sleeve.
• Embedding Ads [BusinessWeek]
  Advertisers begin to embed themselves into the entertainment itself, rather than commercials.

OK, according to Apple’s own figures, here’s what the MacBook Pro 17 inch has got that the 15 inch model hasn’t:

• Faster processor
• More RAM
• One extra USB port
• A Firewire 800 port
• One (1) additional hour of battery life (estimated)
• More oomph in the graphics card (well, more than the lower-end 15-inchers anyway)
• Faster hard disk, but only if you sacrifice 20GB of storage: “120GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive. Optional 100GB 7200-rpm drive.” (??!!)
• 1680 by 1050 pixels
• Additional pound or so of weight

Here’s what’s the same in each of them:

• 667MHz frontside bus
• Airport, Bluetooth, 10/100
• Optical digital in
• Optical digital out
• Speakers, mic, iSight, Photo Booth (yay!), Apple Remote
• DVI, VGA adapter

So, is that a compelling package? Are the extra dollars worth all those additional pixels and another USB port?

Personally, I’m not persuaded, but then I’m not a video/photo professional for whom those extra pixels may well be worth spending the money on. But I’d expected to see a few more extras in this very top-of-the-line machine, things to make purchasers feel like they were getting something insanely special.

So, raise your hands. Are you planning on buying one?

Update: Macintouch has rounded up some good comments on the pricing, especially compared to recent purchases of 15 inch models. In and of itself, the 17 inch price tag looks more appealing, unless of course you’ve recently spent money on a 15 inch.

As regular readers of this blog know, I’m just getting acquainted with Perl, which is to say that I started programming in Perl in the early ’90s but as an occasional thing. Only recently, with my renewed interest in scraping Webpages and using Web APIs have I really started to get my hands dirty with Perl scripts more than a line or two long.

Therefore, I was particularly pleased to be given a chance to review Steve Oualline’s new Wicked Cool Perl Scripts book (Feb 2006, No Starch Press). It offers collections of ready-to-use code snippets that raise the abstraction level from the basic “how do I express something in Perl” up to “how do I get a particular coding job done”.

Noggin’s entire 2nd Season of O’Grady is free. That’s currently 5 free half-hour episodes. What’s O’Grady? It’s a Noggin show about a normal town affected the paranormal “Weirdness”, where your life can change in an instant.

In O’Grady’s second season, the Weirdness is witnessed by a slew of all-star comedy guest voices belonging to Late Night’s Conan O’Brien, Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch, and Arrested Development’s David Cross and Will Arnett…all complementing the wicked humor of O’Grady’s regular (and hilarious) cast.

Update: Another freebie. Easy Love by MSTRKRFT (Master Craft) is the free new Discovery Download. “MSTRKRFT is one half of the explosive punk rock duo Death From Above 1979…[whose] appeal is their relentless, pummeling beat-something worked to frazled (im)perfection…”

[1] The sensationalist headline used for this post was inspired by this post I stumbled upon via Digg. It discusses and suggests attention grabbing post headlines.

[2] Free show catch courtesy of the MacRumors forum. I didn’t catch it on my usual Tuesday iTMS scan

[3] There is no footnote 3.

Related link: https://volity.net/

I am the head of the Volity project, an open platform for multiplayer casual games. (This has been my main project since I declared myself done with tech writing in 2003.) We consider ourselves an easy-entry alternative to systems like Yahoo! Games, providing a complete network-gaming infrastructure and inviting casual game developers of all stripes to use our open architecture and development libraries to rapidly implement and add their own titles to the system.

We’ve actually been in a quiet player-centric beta for the past few months, so we have live parlors running games you can play right now with Gamut, our Java-based client application, and lots of documentation and examples to help developers learn how it all woks. I’m posting here today because we just entered a developer-beta period with the release of new game programming libraries, currently available in Perl and Python flavors. (The platform is language-agnostic, but the core group happens to know these two languages best, so that’s what we’re starting with.)

The platform is open in the sense that anyone can develop games for it, and also in that it’s entirely based on open technologies. Volity uses XMPP (a.k.a. Jabber) for user authentication and its communication transport. Gamut supports game UI files written in SVG and made interactive with ECMAScript. And it all actually works!

To dive into the system from a player’s perspective, go download Gamut, which should work on any Java-happy machine. You can use it to create an account and start poking around our handful of launch and demo titles immediately. Most are implementations of real-world board and card games made by friends of ours, and implemented for the most part by Andrew Plotkin, our in-house wizard.

Our hope, though, is to become less a maker of games and more a provider of a platform that other people will want to make games on — and that even more people will want to play games on! We already host a couple of games created by our first trailblazing game hackers. If you’d like to help with the developer beta too, please visit the Game Developer’s Overview page on our wiki.

We’ve also started to roll out Volity.Net, the web front-end of the public Volity game network that we’re running. It features a number of applications and other resources to help developers add their games to our platform, and maintain them once they do.

Disclosure: I am also helming a startup that is currently accelerating the development of Volity, and will try to make a buck off of it through magical jedi voodoo. We’re being very careful about putting a logical and legal firewall between the company and the platform, so that the fate of one is not bound to the other. That said, we’re staking the future of the company on how well casual game developers receive this idea, so we are keenly interested in entering a beta feedback cycle with some of them.

As today is my birthday, I thought I’d share a couple of ways to give the gift of iTunes. If you know a person’s e-mail address, you can send them an iTunes gift without having to visit a bricks & mortar store. I’m not sure whether an iTunes gift is up there with a fancy dinner, wine and flowers or, say, a new red Ferrari but it may help you out of a last-minute fix for that iPod-enabled special someone.

Gifting a Playlist To buy any playlist, select its name in the playlist column and then click the arrow to the right of its name. (Assuming you’ve set the “Show links to the Music Store” option in iTunes preferences.) A dialog opens asking whether you want to give the playlist as a gift or publish it as an iMix. Click Give Playist. iTunes will prompt you to fill out the Gift Recipient information and handle the payment terms.

Buying a Gift certificate iTunes Gift Wizard walks you through the steps to purchase and send an iTunes gift certificate, which you can send by e-mail or US mail or print to a hardcopy. Gift amounts range from $10 to $200.

• Mac Resellers Pre-Installing WinXP
  InformationWeek reports that some resellers are taking advantage of boot camp to pre-load new Mac desktops with WinXP. Apple says it won’t for now. Adding XP Home adds $100 to the price of a new Mac, XP Pro adds $150.
• $0.99–and holding
  The New York Post reports that Steve Jobs seems to have held steady in the negotiations between Apple and major record labels to renew agreements due to expire in two months. The four major music companies wanted Jobs to introduce variable pricing to the iTunes Music Store. Jobs has stood firm on the singe 99-cents-per-track price.
• iPod prices to drop
  Reuters reports that Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer says iPod prices are likely to drop in the June quarter. However, posters at online iPod forum iPodBank think there may be more to the story than Mr. Oppenheimer’s comments.
• iPod Chip Change
  EETimes reports that Apple Computer is set to switch media processor chip vendors for its iPod line.
• OS X vulnerabilities “highly critical”
  Secrity site Secunia has issued a Mac OS X advisory for multiple potential vulnerabilities. Worth checking out.
• Update: Apple Legal vs Little Girl
  See girl write letter. See Apple Legal send warning. See girl cry! Mean Apple!

Microsoft’s David Weiss provides a A Tour of Microsoft’s Mac Lab. Lots of interesting information and good photos from the home of Mactopia.com.

What’s worse than discovering that your backup hard drive has mechanical difficulties that just killed a years worth of your pictures and videos? I’ll give you the answer: Discovering that the file system on your primary data drive is corrupt and also just killed that same years worth of pictures and video.

So what do you do? In my case, I dashed over to the Alsoft website and downloaded a copy of the well regarded Disk Warrior software. The reviews on this software are such that I expect people to regularly offer to marry the software and bear its little disk-recovery babies. That’s how good the reviews are.

Unfortunately, the software was no-go. It did not work. It did not recover my disk. Not only did it not work, but the horrible way it ran under Tiger OS X gave me the impression that it was a bad Carbon makeover of legacy 9.x code. (It may not be, but that’s the impression it gives.) For heaven’s sake, I couldn’t even drag the window when it’s scanning a disk. Nor did it offer a try then pay model. No refunds, no returns, no trial.

I’m out my primary data drive. I’m out my backup hard drive. I’m out a years worth of photos and videos. And I’m out $80 for the Disk Warrior software. And I am more than a bit cranky about it all.

So what are your experiences with Disk Warrior? Happier Endings? Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: I’ve downloaded the Data Rescue II trial and I’m seeing whether or not it can find any data before I lay out another $99. According to the software, the scan will take an hour or two before I know. The Quick Scan did not work at all.

UPDATE II: The Data Rescue II scan worked beautifully! My data is (mostly) rescued and my $99 seems to have been very, very well spent. Thanks for the recommendation!

UPDATE III: Tech Support from Alsoft just contacted me by e-mail, gently chided me for not contacting them first to take advantage of their tech support and offered their help.

Remember NeXT? Steve Job’s next big thing after he left Apple in the 80’s? Weblog Mac on Intel reports they’ve gotten NeXT OpenStep up and running on a new Intel-based MacBook Pro. OpenStep was developed in the early ’90s to let NeXT’s NeXTStep OS run on Solaris SPARC workstations. NeXTStep, which dates back to the late 80’s was a Mach-kernel based Unix with a GUI that later evolved into Rhapsody and eventually OS X. GNUStep continues a live, open-source and developing GNU release of OpenStep.

Recently, when trying to export movie files from QuickTime Pro (7.0.4) or iMovie HD (6.0.1), I’ve been getting mysterious errors. This unhelpful iMovie one popped up when I tried to export an MPEG-4 project using the QuickTime Full Quality setting:

Other formats failed as well. For example, trying to export in iPod video format ended with this unhappy message:

Reuters has a story about Apple planning a new campus.

Why do I post this on a technology weblog?

Well, it is the litmus test for Google Earth: I want it to figure out geographic locations that relate to certain news.

Why do I want to do this?

First of all, I am curious. Second, it might be the sort of machine intelligence we can expect from future applications. It is not very hard to do. A little bit of data mining, provided the data is available online.

(BTW: this is the satelite view of the new campus area. How did I figure this out? I watched the Cupertino City Council webcast with Steve giving away the location…)

If you’re thinking about updating your Macteltosh’s firmware (iMac, mini or MacBook Pro), you may want to visit Apple and download a copy of the Firmware Restoration CD first. You’ll need a copy of this CD on hand for failed firmware updates.

You can only use this to restore the Firmware after an interrupted or failed update. If your computer is already in this state, you’ll need to download the software and create the CD on another Macintosh computer, or you can take your computer to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to restore your firmware. This CD can be created on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers…This CD cannot be used to return an Intel-based Macintosh computer’s firmware to a previous version if a successful update has already been performed.

To use:

1. Power on the computer you want to restore, holding down the power button until the LED blinks rapidly followed by a 3-quick blink/3-slow blink/3-quick blink series.
2. Release the power button.
3. Insert the CD into your optical drive and wait. There’s nothing more you need to do until the computer restarts. The startup beep occurs at least 30-60 seconds after you begin this process and a progress bar will appear to keep track. Do not unplug or otherwise mess with your computer during the update.

Firmware Updates:

• 1.01 Intel iMac Firmware Update
• 1.01 Intel MacBookPro Firmware Update
• 1.01 Intel Mac Mini Firmware Udpate

Today’s iTunes Music Store Hack: downloading the text that accompanies an iTunes Music Store album. The text will generally include the album description and user reviews from the main album page. If you’re a Unix weenie, you can think of this script as “strings” for the iTMS.

As always, this is a US music store hack only. If someone can help me figure out how to request listings from another storefront, please let me know.

I’ve taken some of Andy Lester’s superb coding examples to heart here, but as always please feel free to suggest improvements. Enjoy.

#! /usr/bin/perl
# US Only, Erica Sadun,  14 April 2006
# Return the text for an album
# e.g. ./getAlbumText.pl 140812843
# or   ./getAlbumText.pl 145852049
use warnings;
use strict;
if ($#ARGV < 0) {die "Usage: $0 AlbumID (StoreID)\n";}
my $albumid = $ARGV[0];
my $url = "https://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/com.apple.jingle.app.store.DirectAction/viewAlbum?id=$albumid";
my $doit = qq{curl -s "$url" | gunzip};
my $riz = `$doit`;
my @riz = split("\n", $riz);
foreach my $item (grep(/TextView/ , @riz))
{
  $item =~ s/<[^>]*>//g;
  $item =~ s/^ *//;
  if ($item ne "") {print $item, "\n";}
}

Download a copy of the code here.

• US: Out Here All Night by Damone
  Yes, they’re named after a character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Yes, they play rock music that people ought to listen to while they spin their car around in circles in the parking lot. Somewhere between Weezer’s melodic wizardry and Judas Priest’s relentless riffage - therein lies our free Single of the Week, “Out Here All Night.”
• US: The Apprentice Clip Show by “The Hair”
  Seventeen are told, “You’re fired!” Only one hears business tycoon Donald Trump say, “You’re hired.” At stake is a career-altering job of a lifetime with the Trump Organization and a hefty six-figure salary. This latest competition is a uniquely international affair, with candidates hailing from the former U.S.S.R., England, and Canada. The Donald’s trusted advisors, George Ross and Carolyn Kepcher, are back, with the original “Apprentice” Bill Rancic filling in as well. And for the first time, Trump’s daughter Ivanka and eldest son Donald Jr. appear in multiple episodes. Among the diverse group of candidates are a psychotherapist, an appellate attorney, a Mensa member, and even a sticker company owner. Ingeniously challenging tasks have been devised featuring some of the biggest companies in the world. Plus, the boardroom showdowns and weekly rewards are the very best yet, with a wealth of twists, turns, and unexpected surprises along the way.
• iTunes New Music Tuesday podcast
  Your guided tour through the best new music iTunes has to offer. From brand new releases, exclusives, pre-releases, Originals and catalog albums just added.
• Japan: Me, Me, Me by Dr Love vs Tense
  Alternative. Radio version.
• Australia: Ave Maria by Alfio
  What sounds like synthesizers. And no product description.
• Canada: Tomorrow Starts Today by Mobile
  Don’t try to figure out the logistics of the phrase–you’ll get stuck in a vortex for days. However–if you enjoy this title track from Mobile’s debut album, life is likely to get better within minutes. Marked by a propulsive drum kick, whirlwind energy and glittery melodies.
• UK: Where to Start by Elin Sigvardsson
  Sweden–home to lutefisk, Ingmar Bergman, lutefisk, lutefisk, lutefisk and singer/songwriter Elin Ruth. Her strong vocals come to the forefront of this song, a tough mixture of country, folk and rock.
• France: She’s Coming Over by Fugu
  I have no idea what the French store says about this album. Here’s what I googled up from DreamChimney.com: “I have to give a shout-out to the French iTunes store, otherwise I might never have known that Fugu had put out another record. Was quite a fan of that debut record. This one has some of that innate pure pop Brian Wilson attraction, but this one gets more into power pop territory. One of the Tahiti 80 guys and a resident Stereolabber worked on the record, so you can probably guess how shiny and nice it sounds. This dreamy little bit of post-Beatles 70s pop sounds pretty nice from my carpeted confines.”

UPDATE: The Japanese Single of the Week just got updated to control freak! by Hanson.

Reuters reports that PBS CEO Paula Kerger is considering putting more PBS content online.

“My goal in running PBS is that no matter what choice consumers in the digital age decide to do … we recognize the need to make content available to any of those platforms, and right now we’re moving in that direction,” Kerger said at a luncheon sponsored by the Media Institute…She also pointed to PBS’s archive of educational shows like “Nature,” “Frontline” and other documentaries as a possible resource that could be accessed “anytime, anywhere.”

PBS’s Newshour is already available from the iTunes music store. (Free)

Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but free on-line Sesame Street would rock the rockiest rock that ever rocked. Load it onto the iPod. Let the 3-year old zone. I like to think that my kids have two proper parents: computer games and television.

NOTE: The parenting views expressed above do not reflect those of O’Reilly Networks. They are solely the views of the digital media-addicted poster. O’Reilly Networks does not endorse excess computer and iPod use by toddlers. The application of media described herein is hypothetical in nature, does not reflect actual parenting, and is not a guarantee of well-raised children. Results will vary with child and over time. All parenting discussions are based on historical data and are not verified, followed or reviewed for parenting performance. Excess use of alcohol and dancing may result in small persons being produced several months later. In the event of actual parenting, please consult an actual parenting professional.

Weblog Skattertech has a post up today showing how to stream your iTunes music to your wifi-enabled PSP. You’ll need a an WinXP computer, an 802.11b router, iTunes and the iTunes-PSP-Server.exe software. Make sure to read through all the directions. They’re a little non-intuitive.

This project is based on the iTunes RSS Server which publishes playlists as RSS 2.0 Podcast feeds.

Cool stuff.