iBeat U Up

Brought to you by iRonny.

That's the name I've chosen for my iBook: iRonny. You know how I love iRonny. And you know how I love Rockapella. But sometimes the two don't mix.

The problem is the webcast. The webcast is a Rockapella concert that was broadcast live over the Internet many years ago, back in the early days of such things. A copy of the webcast file is a must-have for any diehard Rockapella fan, and many months ago, a generous friend sent me one.

I stored the webcast file on Sony, my PC laptop. There it resided in all its grainy, skippy, scratchy, garbly glory, and there it remains unto this day. When I got iRonny, I managed to transfer all my other files from the PC via a flash memory stick (sort of like a huge floppy disk, except it's neither huge nor floppy nor disk-shaped), but the webcast file was too big. I thought about uploading it to my Backpack file hosting site but didn’t because (A) I’d have to upgrade my account, which would cost a few bucks and (B) I’d have to get the PC back online, which wasn’t looking easy.

Then I got the bright idea to just go buy a bigger flash memory stick to transfer the webcast. I found a 512 MB one on sale for $29.99, down from its normal $79.99 due to a huge promotion/instant rebate. Bargain! Bought it. Brought it home. And guess what? My PC runs a version of Windows 98 so old it won’t support the drivers needed to install the 512 MB device. GRR! So I’ve got a dandy flash stick I don’t need (and the free USB cable that came with it), and I’m out $29.99, and the webcast is still stuck on the PC.

Yesterday a nice lady from DSL service came to Sensational Acres to fix the funky DSL jack in my office — yes, on a Sunday — so I could get iRonny online from the office instead of the bedroom. Cool. Then it occurred to me that the finicky modem might work for the PC if I plugged it into the bedroom jack. Separation of church and state, see: office = iBook, bedroom = PC. I’d just have to unhook everything, carry it over there, and hook it back up.

I was right! Mark the calendar! I got the PC online in the bedroom, upgraded the Backpack account after all ($10), and uploaded the webcast over the course of 2 hours. Then I moved the modem back to the office, plugged in iRonny, and downloaded the file over the course of another 2 hours. Clever, clever me.

The file won’t open.

I can’t open the webcast file the way I could on the PC because there’s no application associated with it. So I downloaded Windows Media Player for OS X — and I can’t open that either! What the hell? I could not find a way around this problem after an hour of cruising the WMP support pages. I’m stuck, I’m vexed, and I'm out $40. And it’s Rockapella’s fault.

On the up side, I burned my first illegal CD yesterday. It was Rockapella's hard-to-find album Primer. Take that, Rockapella.

Photos today? NO

Today around the world: August 29 is Slovak National Uprising Day in Slovakia.