Recently in Computers Category

I hate DRM!  So, one of the first things I do when my darling wife purchases her music from iTunes is to convert it to mp3 to remove the limitations from the music.  Is it illegal, probably, but I don't distribute the music.  I don't pass it around to everyone, I don't spread it around with bit torrents, I simply want to have a copy of it without DRM.  That way in a year or two, or maybe three when I have gone through a couple of different computers I dont have to hassle with authorizing and de-authorizing players.  The mp3 format also gives me more flexibility as to how and where I play the music.
In iTunes, on a Mac, the only way to convert the files from Apple proprietary mp4 format is to insert a blank compact disc and burn a playlist as an audio cd, then import the CD as an mp3.  This task is time consuming and gets expensive when you consider a blank CD costs .29.  Not to mention the CD is wasted because like I said above I dont distribute that copyrighted DRM'd material.  On a windows machine there are numerous options for creating a virtual CD drive on the computer to trick iTunes in to thinking that it's burning to a real CD.  I used to use daemon tools and it did the trick.  On a Mac I could not find any options for creating this virtual drive until I came across NoteBurner Audio Converter.
Despite the $39.99 price tag it's a must have application!  Once installed in the super simple OS X way it required a restart to make the virtual drive available.  Now for the cool part, Noteburner not only fools itunes in to thinking that it has a blank CD, but it also automatically converts the audio files in to mp3 for you! 
All I had to do was create the playlist of files that I wanted to buin to a CD, click the Burn CD button, then select the Noteburner Virtual Drive from the drive selections.  It was that easy! 
I dont feel so bad about buying some music from iTunes now that I have a easy way to convert my purchased audio to a format I prefer.

I downloaded and installed Google's new web browser called Chrome.  So far it's nice, not great, not super, not awesome, just nice.  Chrome isn't bloated with excess features and plug-ins, the memory footprint is relatively small, and it's fast.  It opens fast and renders pages fast.  Once opened the lack of menus is the first thing I noticed.  No File, Edit, View, just a row for tabs and an address bar.  The bookmarks toolbar can even be hidden to further simplify the view. 

I wont waste much more time going in to detail about all the capabilities of the browser though.  There are tons of in depth articles on the web like this one at Lifehacker.com if you want to find out about all of the features. 

I dont see Chrome taking over the browser world, but it has it's place.  Especially with the Application Shortcut feature.  This one feature alone would have kept me from just tossing it to the wayside.  Chrome's lower memory usage makes using it to run "desktop web applications" more feasible.  I set up a desktop application shortcut with Chrome for one for one of my favorite online music services called The Sixtyone.  I then right clicked and assigned the hot key combination Ctrl + Alt + S to it.  When opened and running for an extended period of time it is using MUCH less memory than any of the other options like Firefox or Prism.  I tried this same desktop short cut trick with Google Docs, but ironically the right click feature in Google Docs doesn't work when accessed in Chrome.  

The other reason I decided to continue trying it is the simplicity of the browser.  I like the minimalistic, clutter free, interface.  It removes the extra distractions and lets me just browse the web.  Isnt that what a browser is supposed to do anyways?