Month: September 2005

Digital Music Update

The other day, when I was discussing the vast and unnecessary limitations that online music sellers place on downloaded music files via DRM, I decided to cancel my Rhapsody subscription because (a) Rhapsody is now owned by RealNetworks, maker of Real Player, that bloated and computer hogging software that I detest, and (b) there is a new version of Rhapsody that allows you to buy DRM infested downloadable music files. Previously, Rhapsody was a burn to CD only service (you ended up with CDs and not DRM infested music files).

Well, when I logged onto Rhapsody to cancel, I was quickly reminded of why I avoid RealNetworks software like the plague. When I finally found the page describing how to cancel your account, I found this little jewel:

rhapbs-744163

So, even though you can sign up, upgrade and buy music online, to cancel you are forced to call a telephone number and speak to someone. And of course the telephone number only works during business hours. I remember having the exact same problem in the past when trying to cancel RealNetworks services.

I’ll call on Tuesday. And I’ll vote with my keyboard and my wallet. No RealNetwork products. Not now, not ever.

Technorati Tags:
,

Digital Music: Less Than Meets the Eye

The EEF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that works to protect individual and consumer rights relating to technology, has published a very interesting and useful Guide to DRM in Online Music.

DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is an umbrella term referring to any of several technical methods used to control or restrict the use of digital media content on electronic devices with such technologies installed. Stated another way, DRM is what prevents us from freely using the music we legally purchase from online music stores like iTunes, Rhapsody, MusicMatch, etc.

In its guide, the EEF examines the licenses and marketing language used by various online music stores to decipher what it means- to determine if you truly own the music you have purchased. The conclusion: not really. You have the right to use it, but you don’t own it in the traditional sense of the word and even your right to use the music can be further restricted after you buy it.

The guide analyzes iTunes, Microsoft, RealNetworks (makers of that bloatware and computer hogging Real Player program), Napster (the new establishment-supported and DRM restricted version, not the old version the RIAA killed).

Some lowlights:

iTunes can add additional restrictions to your ability to use a song, ever after you buy the song. iTunes also makes it hard to give away or sell a song you have bought (meaning sell without keeping a copy, much like if you sold a CD you own on eBay). It also limits your ability to convert the song to another format, which may be necessary to listen to the song on certain non-Apple MP3 players.

RealNetworks promises “freedom of choice” to use the songs on the music player of your choice, but the songs you buy are not compatible with all music players and can only be burned to a CD a limited number of times.

Napster charges extra for the right to put your songs on a portable player.

I decided to see how the music services I use stack up. I use MusicMatch, owned by Yahoo, and Rhapsody, sadly owned now by RealNetworks (I signed up when it was independent).

MusicMatch. I had to dig around the web site and within the MusicMatch Jukebox to find anything about DRM. But I am persistent and I found a few things. The downloaded tracks are encoded in secure WMA format. The cannot be transferred to an iPod, since the only secure format supported by the iPod is the AAC file format. MusicMatch has the Microsoft “playsforsure” logo, so I assume the restrictions are the same as the Microsoft downloads. I know only one thing for sure- and it’s a big thing. I just bought a copy of Delbert McClinton’s Down in Mexico and at no time did the system tell me that the music file I bought was restricted or the nature of such extensions. As mentioned above, looking around the site uncovered no summary of the restrictions. DRM should be invisible, but not in this way.

Rhapsody. Unlike most online music stores that sell downloadable song files, Rhapsody traditionally sold songs that you would burn to a CD from within the Rhapsody software itself. Not all songs could be burned onto a CD, but the ones that could burned to a CD ended up on a CD that, like regular music CDs could be ripped (i.e., transferred to your computer in digital format). The foregoing applies to Rhapsody version 2.1, which is the one on my computer. Apparently, there is now a version 3.0 that lets you buy digital copies of songs, but is full of DRM restrictions. I am going to cancel my Rhapsody subscription as soon as I finish this post.

The bottom line is that DRM protected song files are restricted, some less than others. The problem is that the casual buyer likely has no idea if and to what degree the songs he or she buys are restricted. As I’ve said before, I don’t pirate or share music, but I also don’t purchase songs that are crippled by DRM.

EFF Trivia: John Perry Barlow is one of the co-founders of the EFF. He also co-wrote the song that Cassidy is named after. Shortly after Cassidy was born, I emailed him a photo and short note, letting him know how much I love that song and telling him about Cassidy. He emailed Cassidy and welcomed her to the world, and he has emailed her a few times since then, just to check in. How absolutely cool is that? When Cassidy is older, that will mean a great deal to her.

Technorati Tags:
,

Great Flickr News

Flickr and its publishing partner, QOOP have unveiled Flickr’s new book printing service. This wonderful and affordable service allows you to order glossy, laminated photo books and posters made up of your favorite photos from your Flickr account. I’ve already ordered a poster of my Summer 2005 photos and plan to order at least one book a year, and probably more.

The prices are $9.99 for a 13.5 by 19 inch poster (with many pictures in rows- it looks very cool) and books start at $9.99.

The possibilities of this service are endless. Not only can you order professional looking books and posters of your own photos, but just imagine the fund raising possibilities for schools, etc. If my kids’ teachers took one picture of classroom activites every day during the school year, I’d pay 3 or 4 (or 10) times what it would cost the school to have these books printed. Other parents would too. Think about all of the old family photos we all have stuffed into boxes somewhere. A nice book of the best ones would make a super holiday gift.

My friends all say that Flickr is great, but complain that you can’t order prints from your Flickr account (you can’t order covered wagons from a Toyota dealer either). Now you can order an entire book of photos, which is much better, not to mention easier, than ordering and organizing a bunch of prints. Luddites fear not, however, because Flickr representatives have stated on the record that they are looking into print ordering as a future option.

Google changed the internet search world for the better. Now Flickr is changing the photography world for the better. I can’t wait for my poster to get here!

Technorati Tags:
,

George Gets a Letter

One of the main reasons I am firmly apolitical is because I believe that Democrats and Republicans put promoting their respective platforms far above logic and doing their job. In all aspects of life I discount completely the opinion of anyone who cannot or will not see the other side of an argument. Because if they can’t it’s because they are regurgitating what someone has spoon fed them, not because they reached a conclusion on their own.

I have the same problem with a lot of the media, including Michael Moore. While I think he is a smart guy, he loses me by completely discounting the opposing view. I have the same problem with Rush Limbaugh and that crowd.

Having said all of this, I have enjoyed every one of Michael Moore’s movies. Not because he is going to change my mind or make me vote for that idiot Bob Kerry, but because they make me think. My current irritation with the media’s handling of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath is directly a result of something I concluded after watching Fahrenheit 9/11- American media is creating a culture of fear in the way it presents the news. Be scared; don’t trust; be afraid; they’re coming to get you, etc.

The downward spiral of my opinion of George W. Bush has been accelerated by his weak and very non-presidential actions since the hurricane. While I think it is ridiculous to blame the federal government for not stopping this damage that could not have been stopped, I do find fault with the almost lackadaisical response to the devastation.

So today, Michael Moore writes an open letter to Mr. Bush. Yes, it’s a little over the top, but I agree with a lot of it. Especially this passage:

“On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn’t stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.”

I would vote for Daffy Duck before I would vote for Kerry, and the fact that Kerry was front and center then and Hillary Clinton will be front and center soon shows how shallow the Democrats’ pool of options has become. But at this point, I’d vote for Daffy over the whole crew.

I am now consistently irritated by George W. Bush. At this point, almost every word that comes out of his mouth pisses me off. I don’t think I’m alone. The approval polls over the next few weeks should be interesting.

Technorati Tags:
,

Friday's Link: Survival of New Orleans Blog

Firday’s link for this week is the Survival of New Orleans Blog. An employee at an ISP that is somehow still operational is blogging first hand about the troubles and tragedy in the Crescent City.

The site links to a live webcam and has a bunch of photos.

More information about New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina can be found at the Post-Katrina Intel Dissemination Wiki.

Technorati Tags:

Texas Food TV

We went with the Clarks and the Fenrichs to Pico’s for dinner tonight. While we were there the crew was filming an episode of Texas Food TV on Mexican restaurants in Houston. We were asked to appear on the show, and our entire group was filmed as I introduced myself and then each person individually. I talked about why we enjoy Pico’s. Then Greg Clark spoke about Pico’s catering his wedding reception 15 years ago this month.

The kids really got into it and can’t wait to see themselves on TV. The show begins on September 18 on KUHT. Our episode will be broadcast in January.

Technorati Tags:

One More Thing About RSS

Fred Wilson has a recent post about his reluctance to use RSS Readers to read blogs. I have said similar things here. Recently, I finally figured out the biggest problem with RSS- it’s the partial feeds.

Because I like Onfolio so much, I added feeds for all of the blogs I read regularly into its RSS reader (Onfolio has many useful functions, including as an RSS reader). I hoped that reading those blogs in Onfolio would be faster and more centralized. It didn’t work out that way.

There are certainly benefits: the RSS reader alerts you when there is a new post on one of the blogs you read and, with one near-fatal exception, it is faster to read blogs from a central location.

rsslogoThe exception is that many blogs only syndicate (i.e., make available as an RSS feed) a headline or the first few words of a post. This means that if you want to read the entire post, you still have to click through to the blog itself. You can do this through the RSS reader, but it still takes a long time and is decidedly unsatisfying to me. If I have to click through to the blog for every post I want to read, I’d rather just go to the blog initially, where all of the recent posts are available in their entirely on a single page.

I understand why bloggers are hesitant to syndicate their entire posts. Mainly, it’s because they want to drive traffic to their website. Sometimes, it’s for content control reasons. More often it’s for ad serving reasons.

Dwight Silverman (who hasn’t put Newsome.Org in his blogroll even though we live in the same city and I link to his blog all the time- but who’s keeping track of that sort of thing) discusses the full text dilemma in this post. While I read Dwight’s blog daily, if he kills the full text feed, I’ll go back to reading his blog at his blog instead of via an RSS reader. I guess I’m a full-feed snob.

Technorati Tags:

WFU Week One: Clash of the Titans

In a clash of the titans that resonated throughout college football, my two alma maters met in a gridiron war tonight. In the first live college football game televised on ESPN-U, Vanderbilt (my graduate school) beat Wake Forest (my undergraduate school) 24-20.

I care about Wake Forest and follow the Deacons football team closely, even though I know from 40+ years experience that it will almost always be painful and frustrating. I don’t follow Vanderbilt athletics at all, so the fact that this was a game between my alma maters is more trivia than conflict.

Jim Grobe has been anointed the savior of Wake Forest football, and he may be (to the extent it can be saved). Wake loses games by a few points now, whereas it used to lose by a lot of points. Vanderbilt, who was 2-9 last year and is even more entrenched near the bottom of the SEC than WFU is near the bottom of the ACC came into Wake’s home stadium and beat the Deacs again, raising Vandy’s record against Wake to 7-3 (a better record than either team has had since 1992). Next week, the Deacs travel to Nebraska. Let’s do some projections: Wake loses to a traditionally pitiful Vandy team at home by 4 then travels to play a traditionally good Nebraska team. Hmmm…. Sounds like a recipe for moral victory (Wake has a lot of those). Mark it down- Wake will lose by 10 or less next week. For sure, the Deacs will lose, but they will look good doing it. Otherwise we Deac fans would just write off the season and try to recoup our emotional investment. An investment that has had consistently poor returns over the years.

Here are my thoughts on tonight’s game.

Yes, Vandy’s Jay Cutler is a good QB (276 yards passing). But to try to rationalize this loss on the fact that the opponent has a good QB is simply a canard. If it hadn’t been the QB it would have been a RB, WR, kicker or equipment manager.

Like every other year, the Deacs seem utterly unable to put any pressure on the QB. With 11 seconds to throw, Harpo Marx would look like Johnny U.

I thought we were in for another year of horrible special teams play after a few of those squib kick-looking kickoffs, but Swank later sent one out of the end zone. Maybe he was just messing with us on the first few, setting expectations low and all that.

The Deacs still have trouble throwing downfield, but I think this year that has more to do with the inexperienced receiving corp that the QB or the system.

Granted, it was against Vanderbilt, but the offensive line looked very good and Micah Andrews (254 yards rushing) looks like a player. Wake has good pass/run balance and that should help keep the loss margins in the single digits.

I sure hope Jon Abatte (Wake’s best defensive player and the anchor of the defense) isn’t hurt. He was not on the field much, if any, in the second half (at least as far as I could tell). Without him, our defense would be much less effective against the run. Granted, the run defense was pretty good tonight until Vandy’s final drive, but the Deacs don’t play Vandy every week (much to Vandy’s dismay).

Yes, I sound frustrated. That’s because I am. But make no mistake, I love the Deacons. I just keep expecting them to become the good team they are allegedly on the verge of becoming. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t care.

Few of us picked our colleges based on how good their sports teams are. Obviously, I didn’t. There are many, many reasons to love Wake Forest that go beyond and above its football record. But it sure would be nice to have one more reason to love my school.

If you want to talk about the Deacons, visit the WFU message board at ACCBoards.Com. It’s hopping tonight.

Technorati Tags:
,