OT question about Macbook (OS X) file systems

[Dean S. Messing]

Les Mikesell writes:
> On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 11:03 AM, Dean S. Messing <deanm at sharplabs.com> wrote:
> 
> >> I've never bought anything from the itunes store, but I use it daily, so
> >> I can't complain.  Itunes will happily rip your own CD collection, (and
> >> to mp3's if you like)
> >
> > But to Flac?  That's what I'm ripping to.
> >
> 
> I've never had any occasion (or the disk space) to use flac, but a
> quick google search says it can be taught to hand them:
> http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/06/12/how-to-play-flac-files-in-itunes/

Since we are comparing links, have a look at
<http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/a3/tech_specs.html>
and scroll down to "Applications" and you'll see all the
formats that the Cowon A3 supports.

> >> and add the track names and cover art for you
> >> without charging extra.
> >
> > I suppose, then, that she can get the cover art with iTunes. I've
> > spent all my hours ripping (and editing countless mistakes out of the
> > ID3 tags that get pulled down from FreeDB).
> 
> >> Hmmm... It's hard to beat an ipod and itunes at what they do.
> >
> > They can't play Flac, and an iPod does not tocuh a Cowon A3 in
> > audio quality (according to both the reviews and her ear.) and
> > the wonderful number of format, both video and audio, it can handle.
> 
> I suspect that you are really comparing lossless flac to a highly
> compressed mp3 in your listening tests (where a reasonably-sized aac

I'm not.  I'm an old audio hand (used to work as a researcher
in Tektronix Labs doing audio).

The audio quality of the Cowon A3 on .wav files exceeds anything I've
heard on another PMP.  This is what they are _really_ good at.  iPods
are strictly commodity level players (with a fantastic UI, I'll
admit).

> would be somewhere in between), but my ears aren't that great and the
> places where I use a portable player aren't conducive to detecting
> quality anyway so I'm not the best judge.   Also, note that the laptop
> is a fine player itself.

My ears aren't either.  But my budding concert pianist daughter's are.
But even I can hear the difference in (for example) background noise
between the iPod Classic and the Cowon A3 in the many pianissimo
(quite) sections Classical pieces.

> >> If you get a network connection, you can use rsync -av to copy a whole
> >> tree including the symlinks.
> >
> > This assumes I know how to set up networking on an Mac.
> 
> Macs are at their best when you give them a standard environment and
> don't have to set anything up.

Ok. I will keep that in mind. I'm bringing a cable to try to hook my
laptop to her new Macbook after we pick it up.

> > I don't even know how to turn it on and I'll have no time
> > to learn.  I have 48 hours in Chicago and it's the first day
> > of school for Freshman.
> 
> If you know your way around the linux side, set up a DHCP server that
> will hand out a single IP address, plug the 2 machines together and
> ssh to that address from your laptop.  When that works, you can use
> rsync to copy anything you want.   If you need to be root on the mac,
> log in as the first user that was added or one with admin rights, then
> 'sudo su -' and type that user's password again.  You'll get a very
> familiar shell environment  with a somewhat different filesystem
> layout and a case-insensitive filesystem.

Never done dhcp services. Just use 'em.  I know my way around several
parts of Linux but networking is a weak area (though I still do all my
networking by editing config files by hand:-)

> Or, if the school has anything resembling a normal network, plug both
> machines into their network, run ifconfig in terminal windows to find
> your IP addresses, and go from there - but if your laptop has a gig
> nic the direct connect will be faster.

I'll indeed try this. My laptop does do 1Gig.  I suppose the MacBook
does to.  Does the school's?  We'll find out.

I'm off to the airport so I'll be silent for a few days.

Thanks to all for your many helpful suggestions.  I've learned a lot
in 48 hours.

Dean