i.justrealized

My iTunes has been pretty much screwed these days with the notification message:

One Moment Please.
Connecting to the iTunes Store.
Loading

If iTunes doesn’t open, click the iTunes application icon in your Dock or Windows Task Bar.

So iTunes does not itself know it is in iTunes. Very philosophical.

I tried logging out of my iTunes account and cannot log in back. I can log in using iTunes for Windows on my Windows machine but not iTunes for Mac. I have also reset everything in Safari.

Signing in to iTunes give me the following:

[iTunes We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occured (-50).]

I can’t use iTunes Store any more and Apple Support doesn’t seem to have a similar problem listed.

[UPDATE: I resolved the issue.]

Resolution

Okay actually, I sort of solved it accidentally a few minutes after I write this. I just randomly delete some files that says iTunes such as the cache and I chanced upon the right file to delete.

There appears to have been some problems with iTunes preferences. I don’t exactly know which particular setting is incorrect; I don’t recall editing my preferences in the past couple of months.

Anyway, I deleted the preferences file. Mine is found in:

This causes iTunes to launch the set up wizard for iTunes where you have to click through all over again, as if it is a new installation. But that’s fine for me, I hardly customized my iTunes anyway.

And the iTunes Store is working again. Damn.

I don’t think he can laugh about it today.

Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone

Opps. If you’re on Snow Leopard, never log into your guest account. Logging into the guest account then back to your account can cause your account’s home directory to be deleted as though it is brand new. It is speculated that Apple’s Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard deletes the user’s home directory instead of the guest’s directory.

Snow Leopard bug can delete account data

A bug has been reported in Apple’s new Snow Leopard version of OS X that can result in the loss of an entire user account’s data. The glitch seems to be triggered by using a Guest account and then trying to log back into a regular account.

According to multiple topics on the Apple Support discussion boards, the problem can occur when a user logs into their Mac’s Guest account — whether by accident or on purpose — and then tries to log back into their regular account.

In some cases, users have reported finding their regular account empty of data, as though it were a brand new account.

Speculation is that something makes Snow Leopard treat the regular account like a Guest account, from which by default all data is deleted upon logout. Further speculation is that the problem occurs when the Guest account was already enabled in Leopard before being upgraded to Snow Leopard. (Source: IT Wire)

This is really bad if it’s true. Apple has yet to confirm this.

It annoys me that my Recently Added and Top 25 Played are all not in order when they’re in my iPod Touch. The Smart Playlist in iTunes looks correct but it never syncs correctly to iPod Touch. In my iPod Touch, it just shows in some random order.

How to fix iPod Touch Smart Playlist appearing randomly

I chanced upon the fix to this by unchecked “Live Updating” in Smart Playlist. Just click on the smart playlist and choose “Edit Smart Playlist”, then uncheck “Live Updating”. It does syncs in order now although it is still not ideal.

Smart playlist in iTunes

This has been broken since the OS 3.1 update. Currently at iPod Touch OS 3.1.2, it still does not work.

This is just a temporary fix, at least my playlist look more sensible.

Whilst at a 24-hour Starbucks working with a MacBook, I discovered the green power indicator unlit. It led me in a panicky state wondering if my power adapter malfunctioned. I turned to a friend and laments the high costs of Apple accessories. I remarked a new adapter would set me back 150SGD.

And I had the thought — what am I going to do meantime if my adapter cannot work? No power, no way to charge, there’s just no way to use the device. Even if I order the adapter, I presume it’s going to take 2 days. What am I going to do meantime?

Oh yeah. I have a desktop. Anyway turns out the Starbucks outlet turned off the electrical power. Says it’s only available for customers 11 pm to 10 am.

Adobe Flash puts Flash into iPhone as presented in the MAX conference:

Flash Developers can target the Iphone

There’s a South Park app that uses Adobe Flash that is already in the Apple App Store it seems.

[via Techcrunch]

I’m pleased with the new exposé. The one is Leopard just looks terrible with all the windows not aligned. Leopard’s exposé is just a horrible Apple engineer’s prank.

Snow Leopard exposé is so worth mentioning:

Nicer expose

Look it actually aligns nicely now.