You will need to modify the above condition to include your current OS (in my case Windows 2003). Use the below table to find out what is the versionNT for your OS.

If that doesn’t do the trick, search for other occurences of the versionNT property using Orca’s Edit/Find.

It goes without saying that bypassing the installer OS checks doesn’t mean that the software you are installing will eventually work. As a matter of fact you could even potentially mess up your system. So use with caution and at your own risks…

Find the instance ID of your CD-ROM drive:

devcon find *CDROM*

Now, use this instance ID (everything before the : sign) to disable the drive:

devcon disable "@IDE\CDROMMATSHITA_UJDA755ZDVD/CDRW_______________1.2
0____\5&3CCF215&0&0.0.0"
IDE\CDROMMATSHITA_UJDA755ZDVD/CDRW_______________1.20____\5&3CCF215&0&0.0.0: Disabled
1 device(s) disabled.

devcon enable "@IDE\CDROMMATSHITA_UJDA755ZDVD/CDRW_______________1.20
____\5&3CCF215&0&0.0.0"
IDE\CDROMMATSHITA_UJDA755ZDVD/CDRW_______________1.20____\5&3CCF215&0&0.0.0: Enabled
1 device(s) enabled.

Do not forget to add the @ sign before the device ID. Haven’t seen any mention of this in help (found it in examples).
And unfortunately if you don’t put it you will not get any error message - it will just not do anything, as if you didn’t have enough permission.
You will also need to enclose the device ID in quotes.

More examples here.

… ok, comparing this to the French Minitel is stretching things a little bit. But think about it: when was the last time that one single entity owned the terminal, the pipes and the services?

(and now using Flock too - testing authoring tool here. Cool. Missing the “del” button. More details later.)

Kind of reminds me of my high-school days, trading obscure vinyls, making compilation tapes for friends and DJ-ing on college radios! Fun.

By the way, you can read more about Pandora on TechCrunch.
And here are the links to the stations described in my previous post (and slightly tweaked since):

• The Placebo
• Kruder The Thief
• The Keren Orton Connection

Don’t pigeonhole me please

I remember that the first time I stumbled onto the Music Genome Project and Pandora I was very skeptical and didn’t even bother trying the service. I guess I was being a little arrogant (dude, I’ve got over 600 CD’s in my collection; not counting vinyls; do you really think you have anything to show me that I don’t already know?!). In addition, I have a fierce aversion for services that try to pigeonhole consumers and then feed them with what they “want” over and over again; where is the spice in life when everything just tastes the same? There are tons of streaming services out there with specialized music channels - they all get very boring after 30mn, roughly playing the same song over and over again.

I eventually gave in after yet more raving comments on Pandora on HorsePigCow. It was time to try it out.

It all starts with a simple question…

I’ve never been able to answer the simple “what is your favorite band/book/movie” question. So when Pandora prompted me for my favorite singer, I was a little uncertain for a few seconds. Finally I entered Beth Orton, whose Central Reservation album is probably one of the most memorable record I’ve heard in this past decade.

Here’s what Pandora gave me in return:

1. Fifty five falls - Marissa Nadler
2. Keren Ann - Nolita (*)
3. Sunday Morning - Ana DiFranco
4. Beloved Wife - Natalie Merchant
5. Sweet Unknown - The Hope Blister
6. Lion’s Mane - iron & Wine
7. There For You - Sara Paxton
8. The Good Old Days - Eels (*)
9. One Thing - Finger Eleven (+)
10. Sorry - Pat Benatar (…)
11. Surrounded - Chantal Kreviazuk (-)
12. Sorry to Myself - Alanis Morrissette
13. Tomorrow - Avril Lavigne (…)
14. Annabelle Lee - Marissa Nadler (+)
15. Dragon Fly - Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright (+)
16. To This Earth - Nick Castro & The Poison Tree
17. Sno Cat - Kristin Hersh (*)
18. Fan Dance - Sam Phillips (…)
19. Chest Of Drawers - Wovenhand
20. Hall Of Fire - Hall Of Fame
21. Behind Her Smiling Eyes - Cyann & Ben
22. Mermaid - Lily Holbrook
23. Snow - Emiliana Torrini (*)
24. Landslide (live) - Fleetwood Mac
25. Big Brother - The Out Crowd (-)
26. For the Roses - Joni Mitchell
27. Wild Deer At Dawn - Diane Cluck (-)

Wow! I was stunned to hear Keren Ann and Yann Tiersen, two other artists I really like but who are definitely less-known, and whose relationship to Beth Orton is not that obvious. More importantly, I discovered quite a few new interesting artists (+) that I need to investigate. Overall, all the songs were decent, with only a few ones that I didn’t like (-). Some choices (…) were a bit surprising but to be fair they were not as bad as one might have thought.

What’s missing?

The fact that Pandora streams music (128kbps) in a Flash widget is a little annoying. Ultimately, for Pandora to grow from its current status of toy for geeks it will need to leave the laptop and either enter your living room through some media center, or your mobile life through your iPod - and for this, Flash will not cut it.

Is it really that good?.. or was I just lucky?

When was the last time I discovered 5 to 10 new artists I wanted to hear more of while listening to a 2 hour program? So far, I’m tempted to classify Pandora among the best things that have happened to online music since the Groove Salad of Soma FM!

Was I simply lucky, hitting Pandora with artists and styles that the folks at the Music Genome Project know well? Or is the quality of their “predictions” consistent across the whole spectrum of pop music (unfortunately they do not cover classical nor world music yet)? In any case, it looks very promising.

The first 10 hours are free and then it’s $36 a year. Try it out for yourself and let me know!

My other Pandora stations


Keren Ann station
------------------
Midi dans le salon de la duchesse - Keren Ann (*)
Simple Kind of Life - No Doubt (*)
Chelsea Burns - Keren Ann (*)
None - Erin McKeown (+)
Afraid Of My Heart - Universal Honey
Undertaker - Marissa Nadler
Story Of My Life - Kristian Leontiou (+)
Road Bin - Keren Ann (*)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Damon & Naomi (+)
Chemical Drive - Gosling (++)
Be With - Koushik
My Only Enemy - Meredith Bragg and the Terminals (++)
Mockingbirg - Papercuts



Thievery Corporation Station
------------------------------
Lebanese Blonde - TC (*)
Blackbird (feat. Nina Simone) - Mocean Worker (+)
Remember Me - Blue Boy
Breathe - Telepopmusik (+)
Beautiful Things (Gabriel & Dresden Unplugged Mix) - Andain
To This World - Soei
The gentle rain (RJD2 remix) - Astrud Gilberto (++)
Numero Deux - The Dining Rooms
Sofa Rockers - Kruder & Dorfmeister (*)
No Problem - The Dining rooms
Flowers - Fauna Flash (+)
Perfume (feat. Adriana Varela) - Bajofondo Tango Club (+)
Clear Cut (feat. Bomb The Bass) - Lali Puna (+)


MyLocations still work fine. And you might want to check the cool Google Maps tools on Matt King’s GNIKville wiki. His gmap_extras is more flexible than MyLocations, since it requires no web server and save/delete of locations on the fly. I might modify it to add the drop-down menus from MyLocations to the “directions” form - at which point I should be able to drop MyLocations.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I just used a technique worth of these TV networks that I loathe so much: bring up a few names that sell well, a hint of politically-correct sex, outrageous headlines remotely connected to your story, build up expectations, and finally deliver superficial and tasteless content in a vast sea of commercials. I have to admit: Amanda hasn’t much in common with Katie or Diane. But I figured that their names would fare better in search engines than any closer comparison (say Jon Stewart). Shameless. I am shameless.

But hold on… Amanda is blonde too. Oh, and she’s also based in New-York. And damn attractive too! Well, sounds like I’ll keep my headlines as is after all!

A few more shows like this one (anything to recommend? something a little more consistent than the other typical vlogs out there? leave a comment!), an easy-to-use media center and my TV might start seeing me staring at her (it’s a she) again.

Keep an eye on Current TV as well.