Nitro pump for Boddington's

Went to Ben 'n Nick's on College Ave last night with some old co-workers.

As luck would have it, they had Boddington's on tap, AND poured from the nitro tap, which means the head was extra creamy, so of course, I got a stein.

And to add to the Citysearch comments, they do have free wifi, but the signal was weak, so disconnected the iPhone from the network and ran it on 3G instead. All better.

iTunes secret assassinator for Outlook?

Word on the street is that the latest version of iTunes software is obliterating some Outlook recurring events. Not a big deal if you're using it at home to listen to the Sphincter Sister's podcast while you dial Mom and looking at the photos your cousin sent you from inside Space Mountain.

But if you're one of those people who have admin rights and can install the iTunes software on your work machine AND your work mail solution just happens to be riding on the Exchange/Outlook backbone, well then...for now you might want to consider disabling automatic updates of the iTunes software if the MS Outlook Calendar-iPhone synch is a concern for you.

The affected version of the software is version 7.3.2.6. If have already have this version installed and have not yet synched, you can also disable the Outlook add-in.

For Outlook 2003, follow these steps to disable third-party add-ins:

1. Open Outlook 2003
2. From the Tools menu, choose Options.
3. Click the Other tab.
4. Click the Advanced Options button.
5. Click the COM Add-Ins button.
6. In the add-ins "iTunes Outlook add-in" and "Outlook iTunes Sync add-in" please uncheck and disable this.
7. Deselect the checkbox for each third-party add-in in this list.
8. Click OK.

For Outlook 2007, follow these steps to disable third-party add-ins:

1. Open Outlook 2007
2. From the Tools menu, choose Trust Center.
3. Select Add-ins from the left column.
4. Look at the list of add-ins beneath "Active Application Add-Ins" iTunes/Outlook add-ins ("iTunes Outlook add-in" and "Outlook iTunes Sync add-in") select the iTunes add-in
5. In the Manage box, click COM Add-Ins, and then click Go.
6. In the COM Add-Ins dialog, deselect the checkbox for each iTunes add-in in this list.
7. Click OK.

Folks who were troubleshooting this couldn't find any other alternative order of operations or impact from other applications that would cause this problem, so tread lightly. This looks to be affecting Outlook Calendars on both PCs and Macs. More troubleshooting from Apple here. Although in this case installing the newest version of iTunes probably shouldn't be part of the solution. Steve Jobs wants to kill your Microsoft calendar...muah-ha-ha-hahahaha!!

Lala rocks the house...any house

Do you use Lala for your musical appropriations?

Well, they just launched a service that integrates your music library so that you can listen to it from any computer. Once you establish a profile with the service, the small app that installs searches for your music library, uploads it, processes and tags it as needed using Gracenote's catalog, and allows you to play your iTunes library (for example) from any computer that has internet access.

Sweet.

This means you don't have to carry your iPod or CDs to work to listen to your music, or if you DJ or stream music you don't need any special hardware or software (save for the small app) to access your music. It definitely puts the crosshairs on Sling technology, and makes the Lala CD trading experience that much richer.

CD sales suck, and it's not your fault

It's not your fault, Will.

Highlights (from WSJ.com):

"One week, "American Idol" runner-up Chris Daughtry's rock band sold just 65,000 copies of its chart-topping album; another week, the "Dreamgirls" movie soundtrack sold a mere 60,000. As recently as 2005, there were many weeks when such tallies wouldn't have been enough to crack the top 30 sellers. In prior years, it wasn't uncommon for a No. 1 record to sell 500,000 or 600,000 copies a week."

"The music industry has been banking on the rise of digital music to compensate for inevitable drops in sales of CDs. Apple's 2003 launch of its iTunes Store was greeted as a new day in music retailing, one that would allow fans to conveniently and quickly snap up large amounts of music from limitless virtual shelves."

"It hasn't worked out that way -- at least so far. Digital sales of individual songs this year have risen 54% from a year earlier to 173.4 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But that's nowhere near enough to offset the 20% decline from a year ago in CD sales to 81.5 million units. Overall, sales of all music -- digital and physical -- are down 10% this year. And even including sales of ringtones, subscription services and other "ancillary" goods, sales are still down 9%, according to one estimate; some recording executives have privately questioned that figure, which was included in a recent report by Pali Research."

"Meanwhile, one billion songs a month are traded on illegal file-sharing networks, according to BigChampagne LLC."

Let's not blame this all on Best Buy and illegal downloads. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the majority of music that gets cranked out suffers from being soulless, contrived, and manufactured. Am I old and crotchety for saying that DJ Unk doesn't inspire me to walk it out?

The fish n' chips take on PC and Mac

The British comedian duo, Mitchell and Webb, star in the U.K. regional commericals for Apple. Jolly brilliant stuff. They might not be as well known in the states...yet...but these are ha-ha-ha best good times ever for you making the happiest.

Check out the plethora of postings on YouTube, but I threw in a couple here for your viewing pleasure...you big lovable gentle reader.

Where's Dave Chappelle when you need him?

Step aside Rosie O'Donnell and Michael Richards...UConn and Tarleton State University have set a new precedent for feelin' the love.

Both schools engaged in off campus parties to "commemorate" MLK's birthday.

Students at TSU threw a party that featured attendees wearing gang apparel and Afro wigs, carrying malt liquor, handguns, and fried chicken, and even one woman dressed as Aunt Jemima. Not to be outdone, students at the University of Connecticut School of Law opted for do-rags, gang signs, gold teeth, malt liquor, and a fake machine gun during an off-campus gathering, just days after the civil rights leader's January 15 birthday.

See the red state hicks and blue state WASPs demonstrate their appreciation for a man who died for civil rights. Classy kids. Real classy. I bet you're all big Amos n' Andy fans.

Dave Chappelle!! Where are you? Can't Chris Rock step in to provide a "cracka-ass cracka"?

iPhone...or iRipyouagoodone

Let's face it...Apple puts out hot sexy gear that makes you quiver with desire. They made UNIX hot with OS X. They have groovy PC-Mac commercials where the Apple guy is the quintessential "every-guy" (no doubt a character amalgamated from careful market analysis, surveying of Apple store patrons, and executing multiple focus groups) with whom all Apple fans can identify.

Or not.

The newest, and hottest thing to come from Apple was announced at this year's CES in Vegas: the iPhone. You may have seen the new device. It's hot. It's sexy. Did I say that already? Yes I did. Other not so sexy facts: while the two iPhone models will retail at $499 and $599 for the 4 and 8 GB versions, their actual costs of production will amount to no more than $245.83 and $280.83, respectively.

The markup on each model, which falls just under 50%, is one of the most aggressive in recent consumer electronic history. A 2-year service contract with Cingular will also be required for the purchase. Unlike most service plans, the agreement obviously does not subsidize the hardware cost.

You can check out the itemized breakdown here.

This just in: consumers have enabled Apple's raping of their collective wallet! Yay! I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I will not be an early adopter of this product. I'll let it go through a couple iterations and feature enhancements and price drops before I make a commitment here. Apple is still hot and sexy, but I just can't afford a Gisele-type device. I need more of a Tina Fey model.