Well, the iTunes Music Store has been open for all of 17 days, and they’ve sold over two million songs. If you do the math, that’s one song sold every 1.44 seconds. Not bad, considering that Windoze users need not apply – yet (iTunes for Windoze is promised by year’s end, if not sooner). If you’re doing the Jaguar OSX thing, download iTunes 4 and the QuickTime 6.2 update and give the Music Store a spin. A word of warning – it’s addictive, and potentially expensive. I did some searching for some obscure artists from my wilder, younger days. I found a wide selection of older albums, some of which I haven’t found on CD in megastores in big cities (even bigger than Cooks Corner?).

Judging is over in the First Annual Maine Student Web Design Awards, and the winners will be announced Saturday, May 17th, at an awards dinner in Portland, and on the web at http://www.mainehost.com/contest/. I know this because I had the distinct honor of being one of the judges. There were over 120 entries, with some great talent and imagination displayed. Many thanks to the fine folks at Maine Hosting Solutions for running the contest, and to all the sponsors as well.

A common question in emails has been “where can I go locally to get my hands on a Mac?” Funny you should ask. Next week, May 19th through the 24th, is Customer Appreciation Week at Reliable Computers, at all three of their locations (Bangor, Belfast and Rockport). Reliable is an authorized Mac reseller and service specialist. Special presentations ($5 a pop, free for “senior Mac users” over 55) on a wide variety of topics from wireless networking to demos of Final Cut Express and other new software will be given. At the Rockport store (closest to us in the MidCoast area) on Wednesday, May 21st, an Apple representative will be demonstrating the new iPods, PowerBooks, Jaguar, etc., all day long. Discounts will be available. For a full event schedule, go to http://www.macmaineiac.com/rc.

Also next week, on Tuesday, May 20th, is the monthly MMOOS (Maine Macintosh Owners & Operators Society) meeting, at 7:00 PM in Room 124 of Brunswick High School. If you’ve never been to a User Group meeting, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to make new friends and expand your Mac horizons.

Keep those emails coming to petez@macmaineiac.com, and, as always, Semper Mac! Take care.

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski