Personal

Solution for unknown error 505 when downloading podcasts in iTunes

I think I've figured this out now. I made video podcasts using typepad and then my feeds are managed with feedburner. The feeds were always fine and I could download the video attachments from the feed in a browser or from feedburner just fine. But, iTunes kept giving me an unknown error 505 when I downloaded. This has turned out to be the spaces in the file name. iTunes doesn't URL encode the links to the media. If I url encode the file name in the link to the media in the blog post then iTunes works fine. So, if your file is "http:ssssssss/WXS 3.m4p" then change it to "http:ssssss/WXS%203.m4p" and then it's fine.

I also have intermittent problems with podcast episodes failing to download at varying points. This looks like a typepad problem but they won't acknowledge it. I'm now uploading my video m4ps to Amazon S3 and then linking the file on S3 instead of typepad and this solves the problem totally.

iTunes woes

Starting looking at iTunes now that it's available on Windows but I don't think it's usable. It only works with an iPod. My Creative Labs Nomad cannot play AAC and an iPod cannot play WMA which most of my collection (legal) is encoded with. The only workaround seems to be burn an audio CD from iTunes and then rip it and recompress to WMA/MP3 for export to my nomad, pretty crappy.

If iTunes worked with WMA or Creative updated the nomad to be iTunes compatible then I'd be happy. But, for now, this is just a shame. iTunes seems very convenient.

The trouble with Porsches...

Well,
I used to like my Ford Explorer, and my wifes Windstar seemed pretty nifty. Now, it's all ruined. After a couple of weeks with the Porsche, neither the Explorer or Windstar feel at all safe to me. I now understand why the US has 55mph speed limits and it's because of vehicles like these. They aren't safe at speed above this.

They are like driving boats. Everything feels so out of control. Steering is terrible, they wobble at low speeds. The accelerator and brakes take forever to do anything.

So long as you're driving in a straight line then fine, but if you need to swerve to avoid or brake quickly, forget it, you're screwed, it ain't happening.

The other way of looking at this if that as brilliant as the brakes are in the Porsche, they are now a worry to me. The problem is that the Ford F150 pickup 10 feet behind me doesn't have that stopping power. A deer pops out in front of me, I whack the brakes and stop very quickly, and get rear ended by the F150 who likely didn't even see my brake lights come on before he hit me. Of course, he shouldn't be so close but very few here heed the advice.

Accelerating is another problem. People just don't expect cars to move that quickly. Look left, a small car, look right, nothing, cross the road, whack. Now the small car isn't breaking the speed limit, it just accelerated a whole lot faster than a normal one.

So, having it is great, but now, I hate my other cars and despite the assurance of great brakes etc, it's still a dangerous world out there...

My new car

I finally bought my dream car which is a Porsche 911 C4. I found my one at a dealership in Minneapolis at a substantial discount to the kelly book. It's maroon, turbo wheels, leather with wood interior, tiptronic, nice stereo with multi changer. Very nice. It seems unflappable driving it, there is so much electronic wizardry to correct your mistakes. Personally, I like it, it's very easy driving and given the winters in Minnesota, who needs to take risks with our winters anyway.

I had a baby seat installed last week and the SRS fault light was on. Turned out that the seat belt buckles were faulty and porsche replaced them at their cost which was cool as it was 600 bucks otherwise.

On long trips the car gives between 27-29mpg at a steady 55/65 depending on the speed limit. A lot of patrol men around here so it doesn't pay to speed.

I'll add more experiences with the car as they happen.