Of Relevance

As you may well know, South Africans registered for iTunes cannot purchase from the iTunes store, which can get rather frustrating. If you want to buy music not available for download from Musica.co.za and the likes, you have two options:

• Get dubious music from a Russian MP3 site. Songs cost about 20 American cents.
• Get a US iTunes account.

Getting an iTunes US account:

1.    Buy an iTtunes voucher from eBay. I started off with a $10 voucher from this seller, and the process was painless. (Just email him after you’ve paid, and he’ll email you the voucher code. Remember there is a time difference, so you might have to wait half a day or so).

The real bonus here is that for reasons I do not understand, you will pay considerably less for an iTunes voucher if you buy it on eBay, than if you bought it from Itunes. For instance, My $10 voucher was just over $6, and you can get a $200 voucher for $95.

2.    Once you have the voucher number (which you have to redeem in 24hrs), go to iTunes and log out if you are logged in.

3.    Go to the iTunes store, and click on “Redeem” in the right hand column.

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

4.    Enter the voucher code when requested.

5.    When you are asked to login, choose to create a new account.

6.    Do not enter ANY credit card information. I suggest you use a gmail or other non .co.za email account. For the address, use a valid town and matching zip code.  I use 234 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215.

7.    Continue with the registration process, and guess what? You’re done!

Your account will be credited immediately with the full value of the voucher, and to replenish you simply need to buy more vouchers off eBay, as you need them. You are now able to download music, movies, tv shows etc, as well as the daily free stuff that iTunes gives out.

Enjoy!

These incredible photos arrived in my inbox this morning. Don’t know who to attribute them to, but …WOW!!

Lorelle Van Fossen writes in Blogroll that :

A Magical Date Approaches: At three minutes and four seconds after 2 AM on the 6th of May this year, the time and date will be 02:03:04 05/06/07. You will have to wait until 2107 to experience this moment again.

I was kind of sorry to have missed this, until I realised that the Americans have the strange habit of putting month before day in their dating system. So for us South Africans, that event will actually happen on the 5th of June.

Lorelle also suggests that we write and future post a blog entry for the day this happens next ( in 2107),since we are most likely not going to be here to do it ourselves :-)

Now go ahead, and think of why that entry would never be read. Will the web be outdated? Will the earth be gone?

Recently, a stolen Tazz was recovered – with three cows inside! I guess the pictures tell the whole story. Apparently, the car was involved in an accident. Of course, the cows were also stolen! As you can see in the last pictures, they are fine now, but they sure had one hell of a story to tell in the barn that night!

Thanks to Jacqui for emailing me the story!

Now that we have all this “extra” information sources, do we know more than before?
The short answer? No.

According to “What Americans Know 1989-2007” :

a new nationwide survey finds that the coaxial and digital revolutions and attendant changes in news audience behaviors have had little impact on how much Americans know about national and international affairs.

On average, today’s citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are about as aware of major news events, as was the public nearly 20 years ago.

Other interesting statistics? (remember, this is a US study done for and of Americans):

- 5% LESS Americans can name their vice-president today than could in 1989 (but, to be fair, Quale was far more entertaining – a position now stolen by Bush)
- 11% LESS American can name the Russian leader now than could in 1989
- More than 93% of those surveyed could identify Arnold Schwarzenegger as the California governor
- Men, on average, knew more than women, all other factors being equal

Luckily, for those of us who are information addicts, the study also shows that those who do read or follow the news, are indeed likely to know more. So in (very) short, the bulging sources of information simply feed those who followed the news, international affairs etc already, but do little to encourage those who couldn’t be bothered to read a paper.

If you want to test how much you know, take the quiz here.
Thanks to ePluribus media for drawing my attention to the study.