More whingeing than blegging.

AAAGGHHGG. I hit some unfortunate sequence of keystrokes, and now my laptop (A Lenovo Thinkpad T60) is displaying everything sideways. I gather switching to "portrait mode" is useful for tablet PC, but this ain't one of them. I've spent an hour and a half, and I can't figure out how to switch it back to landscape.

I swear I know just enough about computers to get myself in trouble. Molly never has these problems. [Update: Molly says she is not shielded by some special ignorance, but merely the fact that she is willing to ask for help.]

Fuckity fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

Update: Fixed. Sorta, I think. After three hours. I downloaded a bunch of updates from Lenovo, which made the "display mode" menu behave differently. There still was no function that said "switch to landscape mode." But when I switched to projector mode, instead of saying "this function is incompatible with portrait mode." It just gave me a new screen that faces the right way. I think it is also now thinks there is a projector attached to the computer. Ok, whatever.

Now if only I can fix this crick in my neck.

whinging and blegging

Why is the "burn CD" button in Rhapsody permanently gray for me? Why does "update you music licenses" lead to "update your Media Player" which leads to the computer "hanging"? Why to the later message boxes in this sequence spread wider than my monitor, so that I can't really see all the text?

So far I've tried to make my CD with itunes, rhapsody, and emusic. Will I have any better luck with the new Napster?

Does someone want to loan me a copy of Paranoid?

Hypothetically speaking, if someone were frustrated with the methods for buying music legally on the internet, and wanted to return to the more convenient stealing, what would be the best way to do it?

Itunes complaint post

I rarely try to use itunes, but whenever I do, something doesn't work. Last time this happened, I had decided at the last minute that I wanted to use some audio for a class. Both my office computer and the classroom computer were "authorized" for my itunes account. I downloaded the audio. But I couldn't burn a CD or play the file from the classroom computer, even though these are supposedly possible with Apple's DRM system. This time I want to make a mix cd of the songs I promised to Karaoke as a part of the fundraiser for the biology club. The first several songs I look for are unavailable, and the program keeps hanging.

I used to think these problems were products of my ignorance, but now I am blaming Apple. The software keeps hanging. Images sometimes display and sometimes don't. For some reason, it makes me sign a EULA every time I open it. Fuck them. People are going to keep stealing music as long as getting it legally is such a goddamn pain.

Update: Rhapsody is also designed by people who hate customers. Installation brings these messages: "DRM install failed" "You must have Media Player 10! Why don't you have media player 10?!" (I do have Media Player 10.) "You will not be able to download music until you complete this install procedure that always makes your computer hang."