iTunes could not connect to the iTunes Music Store

Some help here on why iTunes sometimes cannot connect to the iTunes Music Store. In this case with a MacBook…

http://www.kenjun.com/blog/?p=115

Remove duplicate files on a Mac - software review

See this review of software that remove duplicate files on a Mac

ffmpegX failing to convert .MOV to .avi mpeg4…?

On my MacBook I dropped in a .MOV file into ffmpegX, selected DivX AVI and clicked Encode… with no luck.

The error message I kept getting finished with:

“ Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.”

The solution was to go into Options and change Scaling method from Fast Bilinear to Bilinear.

Plenty more discussion on this here:

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/encoding-finishes-immediately-when-using-flv-source-t316847.html 

MacBook drops wireless when on battery and connecting to certain routers

Quite annoying but:

I’ve just noticed that my MacBook drops its wireless connection when on battery power and connected to a Netgear DG834 router.

It only happens when on battery power and the internet connection is idle for a few seconds.

SOLUTION: Either do not run on battery power OR if you must do so do not let the internet connection run idle.

IN PRACTICAL TERMS:
1. Keep your Macbook plugged in.

OR
2. On battery open a TERMINAL session and run the following command at the prompt.
$ nohup ping -i 10 somehost.com > /dev/null &
where somehost.com can be any server that responds to ping.

http://www.appledefects.com/wiki/index.php?title=MacBook
and
http://kristopherjohnson.blogspot.com/2006/08/macbook-wireless-connection-drops.html

Leopard Update:

Now, using Leopard, I notice that it disconnects periodically and then reconnects which is better than before but, not great. Not sure if this is an Apple or Netgear problem.