Wednesday, 26 February 2003

Good Night The whisky glass is empty, again. The battery on my PowerBook is down to 38 minutes. It's 11:20pm and I'll be up at 6am. I believe the universe is gently hinting that I should go to bed. 11:22:58 PM    comment []

Addendum Apropos of the last 2 posts, I idly clicked on the Radio selection in iTunes and instantly found 7 Web radio stations broadcasting the blues. Chose one at random (Young Guns) and, hey presto, wonderful, heavy, soulful blues. Andrew's happy. Mmm: 24/7 excellent blues (or Beethoven, as I've gleefully discovered) for nix, or 1 hour of music I can't even play on my PC for AU$25? Tough choice. 11:07:15 PM    comment []

A small win for Apple After the previous post, I must add this. I bought the Nora Jones CD the morning after the Grammy awards. Got back to the office and saw the copy-protection notice to the effect that it would play on certain versions of Windows PCs but couldn't be digitally copied. Oh no! Anyway, put the CD into my work machine -- an ancient WinNT4 notebook -- whereupon it asked me if it might install some files. I said yes, and the next thing it pops up its own little media player, based I think on MS Media Player. Hey, at least I can listen to it. Then I put the CD into the PowerBook. Tee hee: what copy protection? Windows executables aren't Mac excutables. The PowerBook ignored all that crap and presented me with a normal audio CD. Yes! So, of course I ripped it to MP3 using iTunes. Hell, do I want to carry 100 CDs with me everywhere I go? 10:59:46 PM    comment []

An open letter to Peter Gabriel Peter, late last year my dear wife bought me a remastered copy of UP. She knew I'd wanted it for a long time, particularly for Don't Give Up. I happily inserted the CD into my Apple PowerBook. It hummed and fussed and hesitated for a minute or more, but no music. It couldn't even read the CD. I tried it on my Windows PC with the same result. Bugger. Oh sure, it plays just fine on my DVD player -- when no one is watching TV, when I'm actually in that room and not in the bedroom or study or at work or on the train or anywhere else. Effectively, it's damn-near useless; I can't listen to it. It cost AU$25, of which I imagine you'll get about 10%, and Kate Bush maybe 1%. So, you have your money, and the retailer and Virgin have theirs. But I can't listen to it. And nowhere on the CD does it tell me that it won't play on my computer. It's faulty, defective, and I feel I've been shafted. It would seem that the recording industry is almost alone -- apart from Victoria's public-transport operators -- in regarding customers as the enemy, to be fought at every turn. I don't get it. The way I see it, that kind of attitude only comes from having to desperately defend an untenable, monopolistic position. Enjoy your AU$2.50 Peter. I'm making an effort to be a generous fellow, to spread some joy and wealth where I can. But I won't buy any more of your music if I can't be sure that I can actually listen to it. 10:50:23 PM    comment []