I just checked a lot of my itunes rips and they are all 128K. I experimented with higher bit rates but couldn't really tell the difference when played through my ipod and since I usually use it on planes and my tractor and through my Alpine ipod dock in my car (and not an oscilloscope) so 128K is fine. Plus I only have limited amount of space and did experiment with some albums but the cost in space wasn't worth it. To get 192k music for 'free' is, well, great. If it's good tunes...

I mean, am I missing something? Do I really need to double the space commandeered by my music?

Maybe for 'free', people should have gotten 32k versions. I'd imagine that they pretty much suck at that resolution?

After so many people dropped Sony? Kinda anticlimactic, huh?

It will be interesting to watch the stock market's reaction to the final nominees. Someone has to take the silver spoon out of their mouths.

Like petulant three year olds, the market is known to throw temper tantrums and hold it's breath until it passes out. The time of 'disaster capitalism' SHOULD be over.

Celebrating the demise of thousands of employees by a run up on the stock price is just cruel and nasty. In seven years we as a country have morphed into the worst of corporatist countries. Yippee...

The stock market tanked because the bullshit that the market is built on has started to thaw.

I live in Michigan and the water isn't all that great here. Sure, you get a lot of it but the republicans and the Chamber of Commerce are seeing to it that the water quality is plummeting.

Major neighborhoods around Traverse City had to get 'city water' because the wells all went bad from the industrial wastes and the old military base at the airport.

That coupled with the number of rivers that are heavily polluted and the significant pollution in the bays (Grand Traverse and Saginaw) make Michigan look pretty sick.

Our governor, Jennifer Granholm (a moderate democrat) has thrown her lot in with Dow Chemical and other polluting corporations in spite of running on a strong environmental platform in the last election. Google 'Dow' and 'Tittabawassee River' sometime (and check out 'deep well injection' too). Jobs weigh more to her staff than the environment now.

Oh, and Lake Michigan levels have fallen to unheard of levels and people think that it's partly because of the Nestle (Ice Mountain) water plant on the west side of the lower peninsula. They are shipping hundreds of thousands of gallons of water out of there a day and the people have tried to stop it but it was a corporate giveaway from the John Engler administration (who almost rammed even more contamination down all of Michigan's throats and nearly killed the Department of Environmental Quality).

I really have a hard time looking at the ecological destruction that has occurred in this great lake state. So many people not able to use their wells anymore. But at least the corporations and their lobbyists are doing quite well.

Michigan isn't 'piping water south'. It's being hauled out in trucks and bottles.

The ecological destruction is noticeable and getting worse. I don't think our environment can take much more. I can't have kids play in my yard because it's contaminated. The city water here barely meets the state's standards and won an award for being the worst publicly available water in Michigan!

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence...

And my recent experience with Apple service makes me believe that Apple isn't near ready for the big time.

They should not try to get into the business arena witht he crappy service that I got.

IMac 2.33 Core 2 Duo drops a hard drive. It's my main machine having converted from Windows. Well, I can't fix it myself because I can't open it. I take it to the local Apple Store, 2 hours away, and get the 2 to 3 weeks answer to the question 'When'. But, if I buy 'Pro Care' I can get it in days. After having bought Apple Care for it in the beginning. Still takes 3 days.

Now the fan on the HDD runs top speed. Oh, there is a smear of some kind of glue on the screen. Oh, not every disc gets stuck in the thing. Oh, now another 8 hours back and forth to the Apple Store. YIPPEE! Oh, it's the 'holiday season'. Apple Store is a disaster around that time. So I wait. No onsite service. No local resellers that can save me 8 hours to drop it off and then pick it up again while fixing it. Now I'm back on Windows because I can't stand the fan sound and like to be able to get discs out of my computer. The glue streak isn't that noticeable.

I'm not a happy camper. I have three computers from them and I feel played. You see, there used to be a local service place. Oh, Apple shut them down for some reason. I feel like I bought a used car and now have to come into the back door to get service. I feel so valued as a sucker, and I'm back on Windows (XP Pro). Oh, and don't even get me started on Leopard. I still can't get Leopard to print to my Laserjet 3600.

Pox on both companies... I guess I'm stuck back in Windows hell. It's the same thing, same fire just different pan.