I just signed up at MP3.com and bought that Ndegeocello MP3.  Best buck I ever spent.  Of course, it's only 128kbit/s (thay said it would be 196kbit/s) and it's probably watermarked (my copy appears to have some audio glitch at 4:01), but hey, a major label just sold me a non-copy-protected MP3.  Today's a good day.

I'm going to buy the album from my favorite local record store when it comes out.

(Not that this matters, but it's a good track.  It's a full-length, DJ-friendly 12" mix.  It's definitely got a Two-Step/UK Garage thing going.  It's a little vocal-heavy for my taste, but that's okay.  It's got a great breakdown about six minutes in.)

11:52:17 PM   

Label tests MP3 in song sale. Maverick Records and Vivendi Universal's online division are releasing a single track in the unprotected MP3 format--and they're hoping people will pay to hear it. [CNET News.com]

I'm definitely buying this single.  If you want record companies to sell you standard, unencumbered MP3s -- no strings attached -- you'll buy it too.  Oh, and buy the full album on CD, too.

Send the right message; do this today.

11:22:00 PM   

NYT.  Long article on PVRs.   Sales have finally topped 1 m and given the raves, they will quickly reach 50 m.  I bet Microsoft is thinking that they should have spent one billion $ on this instead of the Xbox as a gaming platform.  If I were them, I would quickly reposition the Xbox as an inexpensive PVR (it has, from what I read a 10 Gb hard drive and a 733 MHz processor) and DVD player. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Aww, jeez.  Quoting that idiot Kellner again.

But this part gets to the heart of the issue: "By recording the shows they know they want to see, many say they have escaped the scourge of channel-surfing and the empty sense of wasted time so often associated with watching TV."  That's exactly what makes PVRs so different from TV, and is why PVRs are going to be incredibly successful.

I've had a PVR for over two years now.  I don't watch TV.  I watch The Shawn Dodd Channel.  I start and stop whenever is convenient for me, I don't schedule my life around prime time, I only ever see quality shows, I take phone calls during shows, and I never, ever, ever watch a commercial.  Ever.

It's not television as we know it.

So why can't I download these shows from the Web?  Let's get it together, folks.  Your old business model is dead.  First one to establish a new one makes a ton of money.  Ready, set, innovate.

10:03:12 AM   

Washington Post: Open-Source Fight Flares At Pentagon. [Hack the Planet]

You can usually count on the military to actually bother testing stuff instead of making purchasing decisions based entirely on marketing or politics.  (Sure there are some high-profile exceptions, but it's a big organization.)

From the article: "A May 10 report prepared for the Defense Department concluded that open source often results in more secure, less expensive applications and that, if anything, its use should be expanded."

Awesome.  Open Source needs to be more widely deployed in government, so it'll be on more officials' radar.

2:11:25 AM