Just this week, as I wrote in London, I longed to reference the Chicago Manual of Style online and voila, today I read, in an article in the New York Times, that the University of Chicago is publishing the 15th edition of the manual online. I will never have to struggle with this or that again.
Anita Samen of the University of Chicago Press, with many manuals.
iTunes does not make it easy to find solutions to problems, especially with Windows. On this blog, the most read posts are about my struggles with iTunes and iPods. Lately I have been struggling with iTunes 7.0 The solution to garbled output is not well documented, in my opinion. So here is what I found.
iTunes and Quicktime share functionality and most of the time they cooperate well. To solve the problem of poor quality, unlistenable music in Windows iTunes 7.0 you must change your Quicktime Audio playback settings. Duh.
Here is what i did.
Open preferences page for Quicktime. (Edit, Preferences)
Click on the Audio tab.
In the "Sound Out" Box: select the output format supported by your audio hardware. Change to:
Rate: 48kHz
Size: 16 bit
I had never changed these settings before, but with iTunes 7.0 this seems to be what works.
I have been struggling with Windows Live Writer for some time. I would continually be presented with an "invalid login" message. Finally through the Movable Type Community Forum I was able to find a solution. See this post: Invalid Login with Third Party Clients. For security reasons, an API password has been added to Movable Type. You can access it through your account page. Once I entered the right password, Windows Live Writer works like a charm. Another good page for reference on how to configure Windows Live Writer is here.
Science Fiction Studies: I stumbled on an esoteric site today which has some great critical articles on Science Fiction. "Science Fiction Studies" is published three times per year by SF-TH Inc. at DePauw University.
One of my favorite place to eat for lunch in London is the Phat Phuc Noodle Bar at 151 Sydney street, Chelsea, SW3 6NT. Phat Phuc means "Happy Buddha" in Vietnamese. Apparently the owners brought the Noodle Stall from Ho Chi Min City in 1997. It is very authentic and the Beef Pho is excellent.
John Sawatsky and the power of simple questions - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals) John Sawatsky suggests in this and related posts that interviewers gather the most important facts by asking simple questions. In business, asking simple questions can lead to just as important discoveries as in journalism. We often look to detailed interviewing and analysis of data for answers to difficult performance related problems.
The best questions, argues Sawatsky, are like clean windows.
“A clean window gives a perfect view. When we ask a question, we want to get a window into the source. When you put values in your questions, it’s like putting dirt on the window. It obscures the view of the lake beyond. People shouldn’t notice the question in an interview, just like they shouldn’t notice the window. They should be looking at the lake.”
