Jonbu the baker

Thanks to the power of the internet (and the people on it) I finally got my itunes Genius to work. Here’s what solved my problem:

Download Validator and run it on your “iTunes Music Library.xml” file in the iTunes folder. It tells you where the parser fails. Mine failed with weird characters in a few tracks. Validator tells you the line number but doesn’t let you look at the file, so you go to that line with an editor and find out which track is causing the problem, and fix it. I just had to edit the tags within iTunes.

After that I deleted the *.itdb files and turned Genius on again so Genius would re-scan from scratch, and then it worked! A happy ending.

If that didn’t work there’s a few other things you can try in the Apple Discussions.

Shirley and I went to the Opening Day event at the new Vancouver Apple Store. Before lining up, I was able snap some pictures of the line, and thanks to Shirley’s friend Erik, the queuing wasn’t so bad.

Super-quick checkout system. I didn’t notice a cashier when I was there.. Just swipe a card and you’re done. The store itself wasn’t big. Lots of good accessories on the walls. More pictures over at my flickr.

Not so related, but after that, Alex joined us for Indiana Jones 4. There were scenes that reminded me of Mario Kart, and I guess Spielberg was playing Boom Blox while making this movie.
AND THEN we played Boom Blox for hours. It was Awesome.

I didn’t realize I had this problem until today. Things like Expose and Dashboard were all animated smoothly, so when I first noticed that there was a bit of lag (frame rate issues, i guess) moving windows around, I thought it’s just some other apps taking up cpu. Turns out, people have had this problem, and there’s a solution!

Jerky Graphics

I’ve already installed this graphical update before, so to be safe, I restarted in safe mode and manually re-installed this update. Things are smoother now! wow.

While doing this I noticed another problem tho. The restart instructions from Apple said to wait for the boot sound before pressing “shift”, but I didn’t hear a sound… Where did my boot sound go? It was one of my favorite too..

image:Apple Inc.

Love the black keyboard. Was hoping more for the comeback of the 12in PowerBook tho, the one with the keyboard touching the edge of the notebook.

Steve kept pointing to how thin the thinnest part is. I wonder if there’s actually any useful hardware in those thin thin parts of the laptop. I’d be happier if the whole thing had a smaller footprint. Imagine carrying a Trombone around. Some nice guy on the street comes and machine-press your Trombone into a flat piece of metal. You marvel at how thin it has gotten, but after thanking the guy and go on with your way, you realize it’s still hard to carry. It still doesn’t fit inside your backpack. Plus it doesn’t sound as nice anymore when you play it. That’s the MacBook Air. Except, it still looks awesome.

I just got back yesterday (or so). Photos are gradually being uploaded onto my flickr.

Side notes:
Apple posts 3 new Get a Mac ads
These new ads are awful. Instead of making fun, they just make you go EEK.

New Ceramic White PS3s Just got released. Since it’s Asia only, I might just get one the next time I go.

Oh what, It’s the 12th already? I’m sticking with the 11/11 title.