Suggestions of things to do sitting at work for 8 hours?

[Macavity]

Plus, you don't have to fart around hacking out the code in the iPod OS that won't let it play anything that you haven't a) ripped yourself or b) downloaded from iTunes.

In the interests of putting down disinformation, most of the previous sentence is false.

All I know is that a lot of my iPod-using friends have had problems trying to play MP3s that they didn't get from iTunes or rip themselves, and according to them, it has something to do with the Apple DRM (a key part of which, apparently, is on the iPod, and is what makes the iPod not play music downloaded from sources other than iTunes).

'Course, it could be that they had older iPods and that newer ones don't have this problem . . . but judging by what I've seen and read, I don't think that's the case.

Hell, even Hilary Rosen - you remember her? The {CENSORED} {CENSORED} {HEAVILY CENSORED} idiot that used to be in charge of the RIAA? - has been complaining about it!

[skroo]

All I know is that a lot of my iPod-using friends have had problems trying to play MP3s that they didn't get from iTunes or rip themselves, and according to them, it has something to do with the Apple DRM (a key part of which, apparently, is on the iPod, and is what makes the iPod not play music downloaded from sources other than iTunes).

'Course, it could be that they had older iPods and that newer ones don't have this problem . . . but judging by what I've seen and read, I don't think that's the case.

Not sure where this is coming from - I routinely just copy MP3s over to my iPod directly without going through iTunes/gtkpod and have no problems at all playing them. FWIW, it's a 20GB model bought late last year.

[Abby_Normal]

Not sure where this is coming from - I routinely just copy MP3s over to my iPod directly without going through iTunes/gtkpod and have no problems at all playing them. FWIW, it's a 20GB model bought late last year.

I've never had any problems with mine either, it's a 40 gig and I bought it back in october.

[Macavity]

Well, my question is: have you been ripping the MP3s yourselves, downloading them from iTunes, or acquiring them from another source (say, WinMX or Rhapsody)?

I ask 'cause one, Rosen's bitching about the DRM was from a couple months back (May 9, to be precise) and two, my friends have newer iPods (I just spoke with a couple of 'em about fifteen minutes ago), so either the Apple DRM is A) a fairly new thing, B) something that was tried, abandoned, reworked, and re-instituted, or C) something you guys have already torn to shreds .

[Voltage Spike]

Well, my question is: have you been ripping the MP3s yourselves, downloading them from iTunes, or acquiring them from another source (say, WinMX or Rhapsody)?

First of all, you don't download MP3s from iTunes. Apple uses an entirely different, DRMed format (a wrapper around an AAC encoding).

Second, Hillary was complaining that the iPod plays only one type of DRMed file format (in my opinion, the fewer, the better). When she said "or songs that you rip from your own CD’s[sic]", she is essentially glossing over the fact that you can also download music illegally.

[Macavity]

Ah, I see - I must have misinterpreted what was happening, then.

Feel free to give me a Shovel Award