Slashback: ITunes, Debian, ATMs

Slashback tonight brings some clarifications and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including: iTunes 7.0, Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes sales, debate over a proposal to fund Debian, and Googling for ATM master passwords. Read on for details.

Apple Announces iTunes 7, Movies, Set-Top Box. This evening Apple released iTunes 7.0.1, which "addresses stability and performance issues with Cover Flow, CD importing, iPod syncing, and more." iTunes users, especially those on Windows, have been complaining loudly about iTunes 7.0 since its release.

Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes sales. camperslo writes, "Playlist reported that Walt Disney President and CEO Robert Iger said that 125,000 downloadable movies had been purchased in the week since Apple's debut of movies on the iTunes Store. That sales level generated $1 million in revenue for Disney, which works out to $8 per movie. They also state that 'Iger told attendees of an investment conference in New York on Tuesday that Disney anticipates seeing about $50 million in revenue from the venture during its first year.'"

Proposal to fund Debian sparks debate. lisah writes, "Debian Project Leader Anthony Towns is now facing a recall vote over his involvement with Dunc-Tank, something Towns himself is willing to explore. Not everyone agrees that such a move is necessary, or even acceptable, and fur is beginning to fly as one community member asks, 'So, just to be clear, you want to punish a Debian developer for their activities outside of Debian? Now that we're in crazy-as-batshit land, who do you want to bring up on charges next?'"

Googling for ATM master passwords. bagsc writes, "Kevin Poulsen of Wired.com strikes fear into another ATM manufacturer. This time, Triton ATMs had their super-secret master codes revealed by simple Google searches. Tranax was the most recent company with this problem, but probably not the last."

Syncing still doesn't work properly

[SilentChris]

I bought a 2G iPod awhile back and haven't really touched the platform until recently to buy a new Nano. Syncing still doesn't work properly with any playlists that include dates. Before you go thinking "that's not a big deal" -- the Nano doesn't have much storage. You rely on the playlists to fill it up correctly. In my case, I created a playlist with just enough music to fill the iPod up with songs I hadn't listened to recently. Doesn't work at all.

It's a relatively simple problem, and it kind of ticks me off that my 2G "old" iPod did this right while a brand new Nano doesn't.

I know it says "especially those on windows"

[Miguelito]

But I haven't had a single problem with 7.0 since installed it the day it came out. It's been rock solid.. only issue I've had is that I had to mark some albums as collections because it would split the display of the album covers into multiple ones when an album had different artists (like a movie soundtrack).

Re:iTunes

[geek]

I'm still trying to figure out what in the heck 7.0 did to my system. Before the install my system hadn't crashed, bogged down, nothing in over a year. Now suddenly the firewire is dead on it, my iPod isn't recognized by the system at all, not even by the update app from their website.

Apple is deleting posts off their discussion forum by the hundreds, all from people just asking for help to get it working again. This update has done nothing to fix this problem for me so essentially the iPod I spent nearly 500$ on is worthless, Apple won't help me on the matter at all.

I'm glad some people aren't having issues. I've been using OSX since release, bought every update, never had an issue till now. I used to post here telling everyone how great my situation was while others complained. Now that I'm in their shoes, it's pretty shitty.

Apple is a gem of company when things go right, but when they go wrong, watch out. I've never felt so disrespected in my life when dealing with a corporation.

Re:Debian cracks me up...

[Respect_my_Authority]

That's because Debian is a project that has high ideals:

• Debian aims to support Free Software.

• Debian aims to produce a high quality product for their users to enjoy.

• Debian aims to be a non-profit volunteer project.

• Debian aims to be a democratic organization where everyone has the freedom of speech.

Some other distros and projects have "self appointed benevolent dictators for life" but that's hardly democratic, is it? You can laugh at other peoples' ideals if you want to but does that make you a better person than those you laugh at? I'd say no.

You could also take a different approach and look at the resulting products instead of the seemingly chaotic development process. Then you'd see that Debian has repeatedly produced high quality releases that their users can rely on. If the upcoming Debian 4.0 release (codenamed "etch, planned for December 2006) will be in any way technically inferior or outdated, then I'll admit that Debian is in trouble -- but not before that.