Lala Music Streaming

        

          Lately I've been interested in finding ways to stream music to/from portable devices and computers, I recently found Lala.  Lala is an online music store that allows you to buy web songs/albums.  Web songs are only 10 cents to buy and you can listen to the song as many times online (not a download) and a web album is the same, but range from around 50 cents to $1.50.  What is even better is that buying a web song or album, deducts that cost from the full download.  So if you wanted to listen to a new song or album online for awhile before making a full purchase, you won't have to worry about paying twice for something you already have.  I have actually found that most individual songs are either 79 cents or 89 cents, with very few 99 cent songs.  Even albums are occasionally cheaper than other music stores like iTunes and Amazon.
          Now what does all of this have to do about streaming your music?  Well every song or album you buy is put in your online library.  You can go on any computer, sign into your account and start playing a song.  So simple and nice because of the easy access.  However, the fun doesn't end there because you are also able to upload your music library from your computer.  With the free Lala Music Mover application, you just effortlessly select your music folder and it does the rest of the work.  So you can have access to your entire music library from any computer with internet (and flash).
          Since it uses flash you can not use Lala with a mobile device (at least not yet), but with Lala's merger with Apple there may be hope for an iPhone app soon.  So tell me what you think of it.  I'm definitely going to be using this site often for my music purchases.  Thanks for reading and I hope this was useful to you.  If you do want to sign up, please use this link: Sign Up 

Is You Mac Sluggish?

Man, remember that day you first powered on your macintosh computer and started using safari. The pages would load faster than you could blink. But sadly as time went on, you filled your computer with more and more files. Those files took up space, and now anything you do on your computer seems to take an eternity. Well nothing can act like new forever, but there are ways to bring your computer to a reasonable speed. Small things like deleting unneeded files, keeping your software up to date, and remembering to close applications after you are done using them; can help speed up everything. Of course this is just a brief list. More ideas on how you can quicken up your computer, is from Christopher Lee's post. I've been making sure my desktop is clean and I have noticed that closing my applications really does help with my speed. Hope this post was helpful to some people and if you have any questions just leave a comment.

Save Your Mac!

Ever spilt a liquid on your keyboard?, scratch your computer?, or has a key came off? Then this article is for you! Survive 17 Mac Disasters
It's nice to know, because sooner or later something like this will happen to you and you wont have to worry.

Also at the end of the article it tells you how to avoid these accidents:
Stay Dry- Keep beverages away from the computer (common sense)
Stay Up To Date- Make sure to get all of the latest security updates.
Stay Secure- Be careful of spyware!!
Stay Clean- Both on the computer physically and on the hard drive.
Last BUT VERY IMPORTANT, Back Up Your Data!

Record Tv Shows From Comcast DVR to Your Computer!

I am sure that many people know that you can record shows with a Tivo box and save them for your own use, but not many people know (at least no one I know) realizes you can do the same with a regular Comcast DVR. I've been using it for sometime and it is fairly easy to use. First let me tell you that this program only works on a mac (There may be another thing like this for windows) and you will need to download the Firewire SDK.

CLICK HERE FOR TIGER

CLICK HERE FOR LEOPARD

(For the leopard link you'll need to create a free apple account)


After downloading, the website below has very detailed instructions:
http://jpicune.wordpress.com/2006/10/13/record-shows-from-your-comcast-hd-dvr-onto-your-mac/

It is great because you can even record shows that you recorded already on your DVR!
One problem though is that the original playback file is mpeg-2 and to convert it to a format I can watch on my Ipod, I use Senuti. Now Senuti's latest versions are not free to download, but versions before are and here is a link to the Free Senuti
If you want to be up to date with the newest versions of senuti, you can download the free trial and then if you like it buy it, only $18, Latest Senuti. After that it's very easy from there. Although the files do take up a lot of space, you can delete those big files after you convert them with senuti.

Also if you have any questions feel free to ask. Hope you find it as cool as I did.
Note: You are able to record from most channels off the DVR, but not any of the movie channels (A.K.A HBO, Showtime, Encore...)