iTunes has a Visualizer?!

I have never seen a practical purpose for an audio visualizer. Even back in the day when I saw my first one while using Windows Media Player, I didn’t see the point. I’ll be honest, that hasn’t changed one bit. But that does not take away from my surprise (and joy?) at discovering that the iTunes player has one. Since I didn’t know, I figured you might not know either. Will I use it? Probably not. Will you use it? I doubt it. But who cares, it’s just fun to know about, like back in 1999 when you saw one for the first time.

First you need to use the View menu to show the visualizer.

Then you get to choose the type of visualizer. Some are more nostalgic than others.

Then you get to see cool things like this.

And this.

Then after 58 seconds, or so, of visualizer you get bored (if you’re young) or get a headache (if you’re older) and decide it is time to hide the visualizer.

Article: Hacking Coveted Twitter Handles

I am always captivated by stories of hackers, scam artists, and fugitives. I’m not sure why. Maybe it is the sense of danger and adventure and plot that I admire in well-written movie scripts. Maybe it’s the window into the dark and mysterious. Maybe it’s how close and relevant it all feels to our daily digital lives.

This week, I read another fantastic story in this “genre” where the author describes the details of a digital attack where the ultimate goal was his coveted Twitter handle @N. I have to admit, that is a pretty awesome Twitter handle, but I would not pay $50,000 for it (as someone offered), or break laws to get it. These stories always remind me of how fragile our security is in the digital world. The other thing I love with this story (and many others like it) is that the attacker is humanized. Many people think of hackers as masked men without morals living in a lawless, virtual world. Here we see that the attacker is very willing to negotiate, with little harm done to the victim’s accounts. In other stories, hack-tivists seek to expose security weaknesses for the good of the people and the industry. I eat it up. Every time.

Read the article here:

http://gizmodo.com/how-i-lost-my-50-000-twitter-username-1511578384/@whitsongordon