Network Solutions Shady Marketing
I have stopped registering any new domains with Network Solutions. I used to have all my domains with them, but have moved all but one over to Godaddy.com. I like NetSol's web site and account interface much more than GoDaddy's, which is a nightmare of advertising and small links that I find annoying and confusing. But GoDaddy's service is sufficient and the prices are so much cheaper - we're talking less than 25% of NetSol's. NetSol has been the leading registrar since the rise of the internet, and they are capitalizing on that name recognition to keep prices high, but if you're like me and you maintain dozens of domains it's just not worth it, you have to go to a discount registrar.

As I said, I have one domain left with NetSol and I just got a letter informing that I have a domain due to expire in early July (it's the end of June now). I look at the domain and I'm beginning to start the transfer to GoDaddy and I realize that the expiration date is July 6, 2008. So, that domain isn't going to expire any time soon, but the marketing geniuses at NetSol figured (rightly) that if they send out expiration notices for domains 1 year in advance that many will overlook the year and just see the upcoming date and will renew. That's shady. So much for me being a 'Gold VIP' customer, eh?

Using iTunes as an ID3 Tag Editor

iTunes is a great application, but it can sometimes present you with a vexing problem: you drag an MP3 file into iTunes, it imports the song... but then you can't find it! You search by artist or album, but no luck. This can happen if the ID3 tag of the file is not set, because iTunes uses the ID3 tag to sort MP3 files. For example, if you have a file named 'The_Zutons_Who_killed_the_Zutons_02_Pressure_Point.mp3' without a proper ID3 tag, then once it is added to iTunes it ends up in the Unknown Artist folder and you can't find it in iTunes by artist, album or song name. One workaround to this is to get an ID3 tag editor and edit your files prior to adding them to iTunes (I've used ID3 Editor on OS X and MediaTagger on PC), but wouldn't it be better to be able to edit the ID3 tag directly in iTunes and skip the intermediate application?

Playlists to the Rescue!

To get around this problem, when adding files that may not have the ID3 tag set up properly, do not just drag them onto the 'Music' icon where they can get lost. Instead, create a playlist and drag the the files into the playlist. The files will show up in the playlist regardless of the state of the ID3 tag, then you can just do 'Get Info' in iTunes to edit their ID3 tags.

OS X ScreenGrabs

Dragging an .mp3 file to a playlist



Editing the ID3 tag with Get Info

Imperium by Robert Harris

I'm reading Imperium which is historical fiction about Rome during the time of Pompey and Julius Caesar, focusing on Cicero.

Here's a list of words that I didn't know : hagiography, polymath, sangfroid, salubrious, cynosure.