Someone decided to run an a cappella lead vocal from Van Halen’s “Runnin’ With The Devil” through Microsoft’s Songsmith. The result is mind-boggling:

http://music.metafilter.com/2943/Runnin-With-The-Songsmith

(Thanks, Phil D.)

(Since we at Suburban Sprawl Music maintain only the highest of ethical standards, I should mention that I used to work for Tower Records.)

So, what’s the explanation here? The weird thing is, the mp3s I found on the internet have the exact same clicks and pops as I do (that is, the clicks and pops are in the exact same places in the songs). So it seems that the clicks and pops aren’t just introduced by computers having a hard time dealing with the Copy Control technology, but rather that they’re part of the actual master audio. Were these clicks and pops added to the master audio for the promo CDs to make it just a little too annoying to listen to recreationally, but close enough for a reviewer to be able to do his or her job? Or was the promo run of CDs just a bad pressing? Or can copy protection introduce the exact same digital glitch noises across many copies of the same CD? (I don’t really understand how that stuff works.) If anyone has a non-promo copy of this CD, I’d love to hear it to find out whether this problem is specific to just the promo run. In any event, until I solve this mystery, “Before The Dawn Heals Us” is BANISHED from my iTunes library.

After fretting heavily about this over the last few weeks, It occurred to me that it might be possible to block my computer from accessing certain websites, and that this would be a boon to my productivity, not to mention my self-respect. I set about looking for Firefox plug-ins to accomplish this and came across this article on Lifehacker. The author offers two solutions: a Firefox plug-in that allows you to restrict access to certain websites to certain times of the day, and a system-based option to “Block the sites entirely”, which is what I chose. The “Block the sites entirely” method has the benefit of blocking my computer, rather than just Firefox, from accessing the websites I specify; this way I can’t just switch to Safari to seek out a list of the largest cities in China by population. Of course, it’s always possible to unblock the sites, but my hope is that the minor hassle of doing so will be enough to deter me from falling into another link-clicking binge.

Implementing the “Block the sites entirely” option involved editing the “hosts” file on my Mac. Editing the “hosts” file was a little harder than Lifehacker describes; I had to change the ownership/permissions for both the “hosts” file and the folder in which it’s contained to be able to save my changes. But it’s working now, and Wikipedia, Pitchfork and Google News are blocked! Here’s to remaining ignorant about future Sarah Palin developments…