iTunes attacked with radio broadcast loop, etc.

bobstad · Jul 31, 2011

I'm new to MacRumors, and am also inept at the technological end of computers; despite having one in my abode since April of '03, now on my third used Mac from that beginning, which is a G4 powerpc tower and a monitor.

What happened a couple days ago now really has me deeply enraged; as somehow someone has attacked my computer, by corrupting my iTunes with something which plays a repeating segment of a radio broadcast over and over again along with my selections, whenever I try to listen to the recorded music in my computer.

I have dial-up as my ISP which I'm not willing to change due to economic reasons; that has been suggested as the means by which my computing is easily abrogated.

I've also been alerted by one of the forums I post at, [http://www.fordfestiva.com] that someone there into their technical end of things noticed what they'd thought might be someone using my phone line; which seemed pretty strange at the time about three years ago, though now as if par for the course in many things. As someone myself typically and frequently targeted for abuses in the on-going "cold" civil war; that seems to be about what this country boils down to on many levels for most people, if you bother to think much about anything at all besides your naval.

At a chat I participate in, part of a radical mental health website [http://www.theicarusproject.net] someone there trying to help me, has suggested the following, I'm simply going to link to as I really am way out of my depth; they'd reasoned could be a way to deal with my problem with the radio broadcast repeating whenever I try to use my iTunes' music.

I'm saving myself typing out what I'm not too sure about in the first place; though basically I guess the idea is to install some things, which by the way I've downloaded successfully already, yet haven't a clue as to how to go about dealing with what I've got.

I think this was the first thing suggested? [http://www.nicotine-plus.org/wiki/NicotineOnOsx] Then this. [http://support.apple.com/downloads/X11_for_Mac_OS_X_1_0], this [http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/downloads/MacPorts-1.6.0/], & this [http://support.apple.com/downloads/X11_Update_2006_1_1_3], plus these supportive commentaries, [http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/10/22/how-to-install-x11-in-os-x/], and [http://www.slsknet.org/download.html].

The four downloads I have are as follow...

X11Update2006-1.dmg, X11Update2006.dmg, X11Tiger, X11User.pkg; and I noticed the following in my applications file as well which may relate I haven't a clue as to what the thing may be, iMeshV10.exe

I've already put both X11 Tiger, and X11 User.pkg into the applications file, though the first two downloads listed are still on my desktop.

*LTD* · Jul 31, 2011

I doubt anyone here can help you.

Your problem really has nothing to do with iTunes, by the way.

bobstad · Jul 31, 2011

go back to beating your wife and kids?

*LTD* said:
I doubt anyone here can help you.

Your problem really has nothing to do with iTunes, by the way.

WOW, is this person attempting to be discouraging? Telling me my problem has nothing to do with iTunes, as if they know what is going on; then leaving me hanging.

If my signal, the music in my iTunes application, is corrupted by the sound of a repeating radio broadcast no matter what my selection of the over fourteen days total of music stored; then I'd sure like to know why this has nothing to do with iTunes?

This happens whether or not the computer is on-line, or even if the telephone jack is unplugged that allows the computer to go on-line.

AdrianK · Jul 31, 2011

@bobstad If you keep everything relevant to your problem you're more likely to get a resolution, all the irrelevant junk in your post made me and others think this was a complete joke. Some of your off topic responses aren't helping either.

Moving on, none of things people have told you to download are in any way relevant to your problem:

Nicotine is a SoulSeek client, SoulSeek is a P2P network mainly used for sharing music.
http://www.slsknet.org is the official site for SoulSeek
MacPorts is a port of APT for OS X, you'll only need this for installing unix packages
X11 is for the X Window Manager, you'll only need this for certain unix software

Personally I don't understand how your problem could occur, the chances of your system being infiltrated are slim to nil. If you can, wipe your hard drive and reinstall Tiger (or Leopard, whatever you're using).

balamw · Jul 31, 2011

bobstad said:
Come on, I've poised an obvious technological problem; and all I get is stupid blather?

Even after the edits it is very difficult to suss out the technological problem from your post. It is far from obvious.

Part of that stems from all the information you posted that has nothing to do with the problem, and even some of the stuff you posted as possible solutions which seem to have nothing to do with the problem.

X11 is a graphical compatibility layer for running Unix applications on OS X, which iTunes has nothing to do with.

I didn't follow all the other links to see where they go.

While this link is designed for programmers it explains a bit why some posts get the reaction they get. I suggest you read it and try to rephrase your question in a way that is more along the lines they describe. http://www.mikeash.com/getting_answers.html

FWIW the official "introduce yourself to MR" thread is here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/324933/ and would have been a better choice for your background information.

EDIT:

bobstad said:
There is no possible reason anyone should even be able to edit what I post here; let alone reasons for editing this thread specifically.

Please refer to the Forum Rules: https://macrumors.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

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This is a busy bulletin board exceeding 10000 forum posts per day. The moderators cannot read them all so they rely on members to report problem posts that they encounter.

The point of moderation is not to limit discussion, promote or suppress points of view, or any other secret agenda. Even though the site is private, we encourage discussion among all members. The goal of moderation is to keep the forums enjoyable and free from problems that detract from the experiences of our users.

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B

bobstad · Jul 31, 2011

Much appreciated!!!

AdrianK said:
@bobstad If you keep everything relevant to your problem you're more likely to get a resolution, all the irrelevant junk in your post made me and others think this was a complete joke. Some of your off topic responses aren't helping either.

Moving on, none of things people have told you to download are in any way relevant to your problem:

Nicotine is a SoulSeek client, SoulSeek is a P2P network mainly used for sharing music.

http://www.slsknet.org is the official site for SoulSeek

MacPorts is a port of APT for OS X, you'll only need this for installing unix packages

X11 is for the X Window Manager, you'll only need this for certain unix software

Personally I don't understand how your problem could occur, the chances of your system being infiltrated are slim to nil. If you can, wipe your hard drive and reinstall Tiger (or Leopard, whatever you're using).

Hey, I'm glad someone finally weighed in with a rational response. I was totally confused by the suggestions made to me from the chat, so seeing someone else feeling they are irrelevant is heartening.

This reply gives me what I was looking for, some sort of a specific idea of what could be going on; even if no real clue to that, at least solidly negative!!

I'm simply a lousy person to have to try to deal explicitly with technological issues; which are real torture to endure on this end, the way my personality is contrived.

I guess I must be a sort of hybrid; though far from unique, in having to take care of my own problems I can't afford to pay others to fix for me. I suffered decades of learning to be a self-taught auto mechanic similarly; so computers were like the second shoe falling, which landing, was like the proverbial seven league boot!

So, if someone intelligent has no idea how I've gotten an over-riding, repeating dialogue from a radio broadcast, which plays along with whatever music I try to listen to from the iTunes application; this is really something!

Now I think one of the first things to do is phone the Mac store here in town, to describe what is happening; which might've been a good idea to try before posting here. I was simply so overwhelmed with one more damned thing dumped into my lap, far from my liking.

Off-topic for sure; but, July 12th I got bitten by a brown recluse spider in my sleep in my apartment! The internet proved invaluable!!!

I have to admit that posting to a forum or composing an email even to a friend; probably waiting a day to let my emotions settle, then heavily editing myself would probably be a great habit. Though one to date I've never found any way to instill.

I wonder if the technical problem I'm having could even be some sort of freakishness, like people with a gold filling that picks up airplane radio messages?

That is why I went into so much detail about myself personally; is because I couldn't imagine any good reason for what has happened to be happening?

If you don't experience this sort of thing generally; let me tell you, I've run into some credible people who will tell you the situation in this country now reminds them of Weimar Germany just before Hitler took over.

Or, imagine the Jim Crow south if an African American?

So, my thing is that the music I listen to has been one great asset for my mental health; some really great "modern music in the jazz tradition" as my friend Bert Wilson calls his efforts, who has played with John Coltrane at Trane's request for instance.

Anyway, I'd hope I've not been too rude; but, I also tend to defend the notion of making communication which informs, more than of that which is simplistic.

Where my fatal error is in consideration of time; as my time to create brevity is most difficult for me, while not doing so consumes the time of others, disadvantageously.

Knowing this, makes me at least try to do as well as I'm able to.

balamw · Jul 31, 2011

AdrianK said:
If you can, wipe your hard drive and reinstall Tiger (or Leopard, whatever you're using).

bobstad, this is good advice though it may not be what you want to hear.

A real good way to make sure that you know the problem is confined to a particular application is to do a fresh install and make sure that there are no plugins etc... installed that might be creating or exacerbating the problem. Especially if you have downloaded Soulseek and X11 stuff that is not part of what you intended.

You can ask the folks at your local Apple Store to consider that if you don't think you can handle it by yourself.

B

AdrianK · Jul 31, 2011

Would it be possible for you to wipe your hard drive and reinstall your operating system? That's definitely your best bet, as it remove a ton of possible contributing factors.

balamw beat me to it, sorry for rehashing the previous post

bobstad · Jul 31, 2011

to round out the dialogue, at last.

Well, the notion of the heavy anomaly remains.

This is the corruption of my fourteen days worth of music files.

Until that issue is resolved, there remains a huge problem.

Which is no doubt the reason my initial attempts to communicate myself were so difficult.

If done somehow as an attack, and not some aberrant freak of technology; then a very serious problem as well as a large one.

I hope this makes clear in part at least; why I'd been so dynamically upset, trying to present myself.

And, I do think whomever edited me, did so without much thought to how little doing so improved the communication. Far less work for them, than what I'd done; is how a person gets to feeling an injury.

Though, as I'm trying to convey; the situation is still greatly upsetting, amidst general circumstances far from congenial. I'm still wondering how I'll be able to figure out what exactly happened, so will get back here if I come up with anything.

Thanks for the help.

balamw · Jul 31, 2011

bobstad said:
This is the corruption of my fourteen days worth of music files.

You need to separate variables before you can say that the 14 days of music are corrupted.

e.g. can you play your music in QuickTime without anomalies? How about on a different system?

One thought did come to mind. iTunes has a feature for announcing the names of tracks with an artificial voice. Could it be that this got turned on and you are interpreting it as a radio station?

B

bobstad · Jul 31, 2011

That idiot in the mirror, looks just like ME!!!!

Problem solved!

I'd downloaded some radio broadcasts a few days ago from KUOW's website; something I'd never done before.

I'd also not had time to listen to them, so when opening the browser after the computer was turned off; I had the pages reopened, and one of them started playing, of the downloaded radio broadcasts.

This is what I heard, which kept repeating over and over again.

Once I got the reply; telling me there was no way that person could imagine happening what I'd thought had happened, I started to think a little.

Then before phoning the local Mac store, I turned on the sound and started fooling around; trying to figure out where I was getting an audio signal, since even without iTunes on, the same radio broadcast kept repeating.

I try to go on frequent "media fasts," which would probably be a good thing now, since congress is now in the midst of supposedly ending life on the planet as I know that, as someone dependant upon SSDI/SSI assistance. Not to mention other feasible ramifications of the current federal debacle.*

I probably will be a little more congruent once my direct deposit check is in the bank on the third of the month. I'd guess I'm one of the least self-assured, reasonably intelligent people I know, or know of.

*I was mentored early in my adult life as a fifteen year-old by world famous hobo journalist, printer, publisher and author John Patric; who used to comment the problem with democracy, is votes are counted and not weighed. I'd only seen that in print, so am left to wonder exactly what he'd had in mind; certainly enough of a cynic, to think of registering ballots by the ton!

Thanks for all the great help; and profoundly glad I didn't decide to reinstall the OS. I've arranged my monitor and chair so that the position I sit in no longer tempts me to put my fist through the screen. Wish I could do the same thing with my neighbors somehow, too. Oh well.

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iTunes attacked with radio broadcast loop, etc.

bobstad

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LTD

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AdrianK

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balamw

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bobstad

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AdrianK

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