Being able to search through their store and listen to 30 second clips of everything was very nice. Everything is very orderly, easy-to-understand, and very functional. Apple also managed to get a few Mac OS-like things in it, such as the glowing scroll bars.

I downloaded a couple of things by Dream Theater since I didn't own them, but had heard them quite a few times from CD's owned by friends of mine. This way I would get something new for my collection, but wouldn't be relying on anything I had never heard before. The files you download are m4p files, which are in Apples AAC audio format. This format, as I have yet found, is only playable in iTunes; it's probably playable on an iPod as well, but I don't have one to test that. However, you are allowed to burn these files to CD using iTunes built-in CD burner.

I burnt the files I downloaded on to a CD-RW and played them on my DVD player, which is able to read CD-RW's. I did this because I can listen to the stuff from my DVD player using a digital audio connection to my surround sound receiver and it's a CD-RW; I wouldn't be stuck with a two-song CD once I was done! It sounded great. I was surprised to learn that these iTunes-specific files are encoded at 128 kBits/sec, which would make for a pretty bad mp3. The compression must be a lot better, because I wasn't able to notice anything wrong with the songs. They sounded good. Not CD good, but good. I'm pretty damn picky, so you may want to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

In other "news," the Marlins, who were 5 outs away from being eliminated by the Cubs, are the 2003 World Series Champions. I have a different view on this than most Cub fans seem to. I like the fact that the Cubs had the team that turned out to be World Series champs down to their final 5 outs. The Cubs had the World Series champs down 3 games to 1 in a best-of-seven series. It sucks the Cubs couldn't have knocked them out, but I think the fact the Cubs played the Marlins better than the Yankees did is something to pat yourself on the back about.