silence was golden.

After my great ol’ Carver died yesterday, my system was mute for more then a day.  Until i brought home a sweet new harman/kardon system.  Now i’m finally using the optical out i’ve had for years!  There is an adjustment to running optical vs analog.  First off, there is no pre-amp coming out of your computer.  This means no system volume.  all those media keys stop working.  Stopped until i repurposed them to control iTunes.  Best side effect is that all the media key conflicts (i.e. VLC) are gone forever now!

Media Key Hack
just check “Use all F1, F2, etc, keys as standard function keys” from the Keyboard System Preference pane and then setup  Sizzling Keys to control itunes:  http://www.yellowmug.com/sk4it/