You may remember one of my earliest posts on this site, “How to Survive the DTV Switch,” but when I wrote that post, I had no idea that the DTV switch could actually be a matter of survival for some people. I was reading through my blogs the other day, when I came across this article: “Digital TV Saved a Man’s Life.” From the original article:

As of 11:15 p.m. Saturday, 69,003 Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division customers were without power. On Friday, soon after the storm blew through, more than 131,000 customers were without power.

The damages caused by the storm are easy to see at the Midtown home of 86-year-old Robert Monsarrat. [...] Monsarrat hasn’t received his digital converter box yet, so instead of watching “The Oprah Winfrey Show” from his bedroom like usual, he went into the kitchen to use his only digital television.

Soon after, lightning struck a large red oak in his backyard, causing it to come crashing down on his house at Hawthorne and Peach near Overton Park. [...] The tree destroyed the back of the house, including his bedroom. [...] Other than a few bruises, minor cuts and a gash on his head, Monsarrat was not seriously injured.

So there you have it. By the transitive property of equality, this blog can save your life. I wrote about switching to digital television, and digital television saved that man’s life, therefore my article saved that man’s life!

Okay, maybe not, but I do hope that everyone else out there made it through the transition without any problems. I may have to upgrade our antenna because after the switch, our local digital signals don’t seem to be coming in as strong as they used to be. How about you? Did you survive the switch?

Oh, and don’t forget to become a fan on Facebook! I’ll be trying to post more content such as links and shorter tips over there so it becomes a little more valuable to follow. Plus, if I get 100 or more fans, I can get a nifty new vanity url!

- Source: CommercialAppeal.com via Warming Glow

We recently discussed how to sync your iTunes Library between two different computers, but what happens when your computer crashes without a backup and you lose all your precious music? Is there an easy way to get the music off your iPod and back onto your computer? Luckily, thanks to a few great programs, the answer is yes.

There are many of these iPod-ripping programs these days, but I will stick to the two that I have used the most, Senuti for the Mac, and YamiPod for the PC and the Mac. As a disclaimer, I have received no compensation whatsoever for recommending either of these products.

Senuti

Senuti is my all-time favorite iPod-ripping program. Unfortunately, it’s strictly for Mac. It’s simple and easy to use, but packed with plenty of features. The interface looks just like iTunes and works every bit as well. It will even tell you which songs on an iPod are already in your library. You can choose to automatically add any songs transferred to your library, or to add them to a playlist, which is great for importing playlists. You just select the desired playlist on your iPod, set the transfer to playlist in the preferences, and it will automatically transfer the songs both to your library and to the playlist of your choosing. Unfortunately, Senuti is no longer freeware, but it is free to try for 30 days. It’s so easy to use though, and so packed with features, that it’s well worth the $18 registration cost. Be sure to check out their preview videos that walk you through some of the basic features. I found them very helpful.

YamiPod

YamiPod is my go to iPod-ripping program for PC. It used to be PC only, but they have recently added support for both Mac and Linux. Best of all, it’s completely free. They have added a lot of features since I first started using it like Playlist support, duplicate track removal, and more. It’s a bit more complicated then Senuti, but still straightforward enough for beginners to figure out. You basically select the songs you want to import and click the button. As an added bonus, it always reminds me of my friend Nathan Yamashita, who has a brother they call Yami.

The most important step to using any iPod-ripping program is verification. After taking music off any iPod, you want to make sure it ended up in the right place and that all your music is in your iTunes library. If you have lost your music to a hard drive crash or something similar, you’ll be warned that your iPod will be erased when you try to sync. After verification, you are free to restore your iPod and ignore any warinings that your iPod will be erased. As long as the same music that was on your iPod is now in your library again, you have nothing to worry about.

So there you go. Those are my favorite iPod-ripping programs. Feel free to leave any of your favorites in the comments below. As always, any questions are very welcome and I will do my best to answer them promptly!

I was looking for Mac-compatible syncing apps for the “How to Sync iTunes on Multiple Computers” post and Russell tipped me off to a great one.

I use the creatively named SyncTwoFolders for syncing on my mac.

I checked it out and it works great. I successfully synced both my iTunes folder and my wife’s (across the network) with my backup folder on an external hard drive. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Download the Program – Go here, click “Download Now,” then select either the “Mac Intel” link , or the “Mac PPC” (Power PC, for older Macs like the Powerbook) link next to the “SyncTwoFolders” icon. After the file downloads, unzip and drag the .app file to your Applications folder.

Step 2: Set Up Your Sync – Open the program and select your “Source” folder and your “Target” folder. For an iTunes sync, the source would be your iTunes music folder on the primary computer and the target will be the secondary computer, whether across the network or on an external hard drive.

Selecting your “Synchronization Mode” can be a bit confusing because of the terms used, so I’ll break them down for you. “Reciprocal” will only look at files that are in both folders, replacing any older file with the newer one. No files will be deleted in this mode. “Source up Target” will do the same thing as “Reciprocal,” but also copy any files from the source file that are not in the target folder (i.e. if you add new songs to your library). No files will be deleted in this mode either. “Source on Target” does the same thing as “Source up Target,” but also deletes any files from the target folder that are no longer found in the source folder (i.e. if you delete any songs from your library).

Select your preferred “Synchronization Mode” (I use “Source on Target” so I have an exact copy) and add any additional filters you want. If you hover over any of the options, a box will appear describing that option. If you want a test run to see what files will be affected without actually moving anything around, click “Simulation.” Click the right-most checkbox to see the log.

Step 3: Run Your Sync – Make sure “Simulation” is unchecked and click “Synchronize.” Then, just sit back and watch your files fly across the magical tubes. Now run to the kitchen sink and pour yourself an ice cold glass of Mother Nature’s life juice, because you just synced two folders.

I muted my sound because it copies each file individually and my computer was chiming non-stop. My only real complaint is that you can’t schedule regular syncs, but for a free app, that’s definitely not a deal-breaker.