iTunes, EMI and non-DRM Music

The iTunes Store began selling DRM-free music from EMI's catalog today. When Steve Jobs made the announcement a couple of months ago that Apple and EMI had reached an agreement to do this, he predicted more than half the songs on iTunes would be available without DRM by the end of the year. The heads of the other three major music labels disputed Jobs' optimism on that, standing by their policy that DRM is necessary to keep digital music from being pirated.

According to some posters at the Macintouch web site, there appears to be a huge initial response to the DRM-free music being offered at the iTunes Store. The site has been slow and downloads have timed out, presumably due to heavy traffic on the site.

Provided the apparent, huge interest isn't a brief one-time event, it would seem the other major labels may begin to rethink their position with regard to the DRM issue and Jobs' prediction may very well come to pass.

Personally, I never previously considered purchasing any songs from the iTunes Store because of the DRM and the limitation of all songs being encoded at 128 Kbps. With the availability of DRM-free songs and the much higher 256 Kbps encoding, I expect I will buy the occasional song there in the future.

It's The Little Things

It's no secret that when it comes to computers I'm a 'Mac guy'. I've never owned a Windows computer but I have had my share of opportunity to use Windows and I've maintained for years that I know more about Windows than the average Windows user. Of course that's not really claiming a lot, because the average Windows user really doesn't know a lot about how computers work and the role an operating system plays in that. They don't learn how to do more with their computer than the minimum to accomplish what they want or need to accomplish with it.

Over the years, Microsoft has made huge strides in improving Windows' useability, but in my opinion, it still falls well short of the Macintosh's useability. And that is after Apple arguably went backward in useablility in some respects with the transition from what is now known as the classic Mac OS to OS X.

It seems to me that Apple spends more time and energy with the little things in your day-to-day computing experience. Things that, by themselves don't seem that important, but as you add them together, they begin to affect one's overall perception and expectations as well as the machine's user friendliness.

I give you an example that I encounter every day at work. Our prepress department is Mac based. We have an Apple Xserve for our file server and four out of six workstations are Macs. We do have a couple of Windows machines that are used for the occasional job that arrives as Windows-native files although those have largely been eliminated with the trasition to PDF workflows that has taken place in the print industry over the past few years.

The company's internal email is handled by a Microsoft Exchange server. The Macs in prepress have their email client configured to send and receive mail for the operator of each machine's email account. This works fine for exchanging email with computers that are outside of the company, but for email that is exchanged within the company we have to have an account set up on one of the Windows machines and get the mail there.

So each morning when I arrive at work, I go to one of the Windows machines and log off of the default account (which is set up for our data collection service) and log in to my user account on the machine so I can check any email sent within the company over that last day. To log into my account, I go to the start menu and choose Shut Down, then from the dialog that pops up, I choose "log off of dcollect". Windows quits any running programs, logs off the dcollect account and brings up the login window.

Now here's the irritating part. The login window has three fields. A field for the user's account name, a field for their password and a field for the Windows domain that the computer is on (which we can disregard here). When the login window comes up, the account name field still has the name of the account you're logging out of filled in, and the cursor is positioned in the password field. This means you have to backward tab to the account name field to type in the name of the account you're logging into, then tab to the password field and type your password.

I just told the machine I wanted to log off of the account it was logged into. If the programmers were thinking about the process being done here, when the login window appears, the field for the account name would be highlighted, ready for the user to type their account name into. Then they can tab to the password field. If they really didn't want to log into a different account, they don't need to type a new account name, they just tab to the password field, leaving the account name field filled in with the previously logged in account. In case you wondered, that is the way that a Mac handles logging into different user accounts.

It's a simple thing, but those are the small touches that make a difference the the overall impression the two operating systems leave with you.

Memorial Weekend

We drove down to Fort Worth yesterday to visit Peggy's sister Mickey, who has been in intensive care at a hospital there for two weeks now, because of a series of problems resulting from a problem with her diabetes. I'm writing this post from the waiting room on the third floor neuro ICU.

Lyndsey and her boyfriend Jeremiah came down here with us. After we got to the hospital yesterday, we left Peggy and Lyndsey, Jeremiah and I went to get a hotel to stay the night in. After we had done that and eaten some lunch we came back to the hospital.

Peggy was back visiting her sister so Lyndsey and I decided to go on back there. We went back and donned the gowns and gloves they make us wear then went in the room. Mickey seemed a bit out of it when we first got there but after a few minutes she began responding well to Peggy. After we had been back there about ten minutes or so, Lyndsey remarked that she was really tired and said she had gotten up too early. A couple of minutes later Lyndsey suddenly pitched forward and fell face first onto the bed, across Mickey's legs. After the initial shock of seeing Lyndsey collapse, I quick realized she had fainted.

I helped her to her feet and asked her if she was okay. She said yes and nodded her head, even as she slowly sank to the ground. I worked on getting her back up while Peggy got one of the nurses. We got Lyndsey up and sat her down in a chair. The nurse began asking if I wanted to take her down to Emergency and have them take a look at her. I said I thought we could probably go back to the waiting room and sit there for a few minutes and see how she felt. She was still extremely pale but kept saying she was okay. The nurse continued to suggest going down to the emergency room, and then Peggy began to agree with the nurse, so I finally agreed that we could go down there and have them take a look at her.

They got a wheelchair and had an intern accompany her and me down. We got to the emergency room and they put us in triage because the place was packed! By now her color was coming back and she said she really did feel fine now. I thought we should go ahead and have them look at her to ease her mom's mind so we waited.

That turned out to be a mistake. Jeremiah joined us and we slowly worked our way through the emegency room. They ended up putting her on a gurney in the hall and hooking her up to a monitor right there. A young doctor eventually showed up and looked at her then said she was probably just fine, but he wanted to go ahead and run a couple of blood tests. So we waited for someone to come and draw blood, then they hooked her up to an IV and we waited some more.

We left Mickey's room for the emergency room around 4:20 and they finally let her go from Emergency around 7:15. There was nothing wrong with her.

This morning when Lyndsey went back to visit Mickey, Mickey told her she'd better sit down!

Excuses

Two days ago, I wrote a post in which I said I was going to try to begin writing something everyday, usually on this blog. And what have I written?

Nothing yesterday. Well, I did make a very small post on my GNN blog, but it's a big stretch to call it writing. But wait! I have an excuse. Yesterday afternoon, when I would have written the post I had a meeting to attend where we are looking at a new workflow system for our prepress department at work. This went on over twice as long as anticipated, and ate up the better part of the afternoon. Now if I was really going to really, really try, I could have thrown something together yesterday evening, so this is really a semi-lame excuse, but that's what I've got.

Today... I came close to blowing it off, but two days in a row! Right after I determine to do this! So this is today's post. A post of excuses for not writing.

And, as a bonus I give you an excuse for the future: I'm going out of town tomorrow, so I may miss writing something there too.

Hopefully the next attempt will be better.

Writing

The Low End Mac website recently ran an interview with Chicago Sun-Times tech writer Andy Ihnatko. Andy Ihnatko has been a staple in the Macintosh world for years, having written (or currently still writing) for publications and websites such as MacUser, MacWeek and MacWorld. He has a humorous writing style, and I've always enjoyed reading him.

In the interview he said starting in Junior High School, he has made it a point to write something everyday. And, he said all that practice has paid off. Many times he has trouble figuring out how to begin a piece, but once he figures out his opening, the rest of it just flows. I suppose that's not earth-shattering news. The more you practice anything, the better you become at it. If you want to be a good writer, you have to write a lot.

Perhaps that's obvious wisdom, but sometimes I have to be hit between the eyes to see the obvious and that did the trick. I tend to have a lot of ideas for blog posts, but actually getting the words down and saying what I want to say tends to be difficult. I find it takes more effort than I want to expend. So I thought I really ought to try to write something everyday. I can try it for a while and see if it does make a difference in the quality of my writing as well as make it easier to put my thoughts into words.

My blogging is pretty spread out these days. I have my original blog (inspired by my dealings with Ben Mack) here on Blogger.com. Then I have my "political" blog on GNN (also inspired by Ben). I have a MySpace page although the blog posts there are duplicates of things I've posted on my other blogs, and I have my newest blog which is connected to the Frequency23 community. It tends to focus on philosophical/psychological/spiritual and artistic matters as well as some politics. I do some crossposting on all the blogs if I like the post enough and think it's topical to more than one of my blogs.

Anyway, since this blog is my oldest one and has had the most eclectic subject matter, it's the one I'm going to try to keep up somewhat daily. We'll see how it goes.

In Their Own Words

Some tasty quotes courtesy of Tom Tomorrow with interspersed snide comments from yours truly:

“I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week.”
— Bill O’Reilly, Fox News Channel 1/29/03

How many dinners did he buy?

“There is a certain amount of pop psychology in America that the Shia can’t get along with the Sunni … There’s almost no evidence of that at all”
—Bill Kristol, radio interview 4/1/03

There is a certain amount of pop psychology in Neocon circles that military force and the promise of democracy can bend any people in the world to the will of the U.S.

“It’s amazing that more than two weeks into the liberation of Iraq … the anti-war crowd is still spinning a doomsday scenario.”
— Brendan Miniter, Opinionjournal.com 4/8/03

er…make that four years into the “liberation”...

“Over the next couple of weeks when we find the chemical weapons this guy was amassing … the left is going to have to hang its head for three or four more years.”
— Dick Morris, Fox News Channel 4/9/03

Over the next couple of years when the “situation” in Iraq doesn’t improve appreciably for the U.S., the right is going to have to hang its head for three or four more years.

“The war was the hard part … and it gets easier. I mean, setting up a democracy is hard, but not as hard as winning a war.”
— Fred Barnes, Fox News Channel 4/10/03

This comment actually almost seems spot-on. Except for the part where he mentioned the war in the past tense.

“The three week swing through Iraq has utterly shattered skeptic’s complaints.”
— Tony Snow, Fox News Channel 4/13/03

Tony Snow, now making brilliant comments like this as the president’s spokesman.

“The only people who think this wasn’t a victory are Upper
West Side liberals, and a few people here in Washington.”
— Charles Krauthammer, Inside Washington 4/19/03

And more than 60% of the U.S. population.

“Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger … the women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president … we’re not like the Brits.”
— Chris Matthews, MSNBC 5/1/03

Matthews actually referred to dubya as a hero??! Putting on a flight suit and posing on an aircraft carrier doesn’t make you a hero Chris.

“We had controversial wars that divided the country. This war united the country and brought the military back.”
— Howard Fineman, MSNBC 5/7/03

No comment necessary.

“American Forces are being ‘love-bombed’ by Baghdadis on a daily basis … Everywhere they go, Americans are cheered and thanked profusely.”
— Mona Charen, syndicated column 5/9/03

When did they quit referring to them as ‘love-bombs’ and begin calling them IEDs?

“There is a lot of work yet to do, but all the naysayers have been humiliated so far … the final word on this is, hooray.”
— Morton Kondracke, Fox News Channel 4/12/03

I think Al Qaida is is the group saying hooray.

You know, I think these people owe the U.S. an apology (well, the owe the whole world one), but I’m not holding my breath. I also note how many of these comments were made on the Fox “News” Channel.