Author: admin

On Friday I saw this picture of the mayor in the paper and I thought “Now where have I seen that individual before?”

Uh-oh.

iplaying: Open Your Eyes – Snow Patrol (Eyes Open)

I just read a fascinating commentary by Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) speaking out against the critics of their company’s Digital Rights Management encoding – FairPlay. Click here to read.

Everyone is calling for Apple to let them in on the secret of their FairPlay technology so they can make MP3 players that can handle iTunes-purchased songs. In a nutshell, Apple encodes their purchased music with some encryption so you can’t play it on other MP3 players (other than the iPod) as well as not being able to play it outside of the iTunes software.

What does this mean to the average consumer? Well, it means that in 5 years time if I don’t use my iPod, I’ll have to listen to my purchased music on the iTunes software on my computer. What if I don’t want to use iTunes? Tough noogie. I’m screwed. It’s like saying that I can purchase a CD but only play it on a Panasonic brand CD player.

I, for one, think DRM technology is awful. Some CD companies are encoding their CDs with DRM technology to prevent the copying of their albums into any digital format. Let’s take the new Trews album Den of Thieves. Mike bought this album outright but cannot copy the songs to his iPod. Hey, he bought the damn thing, he should be able to do what the heck he wants with it (other than spread it on the Internet en masse). So that’s what I have against DRM. It screws over the actual people purchasing the CDs.

“Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.”

Steve Jobs brings up…in my opinion…the best example as to why DRM doesn’t work. Running some rough numbers, he estimates 3% of a person’s music collection (on an iPod) is made up of digitally purchased songs. So basically, the music industries are allowing 97% of their music to be sold without any protection at all. Granted, this is in a perfect scenario where people’s iPods are full of stolen music to begin with.

All in all, I think the music industries have to just give in to the fact that their music will be pirated. End of story. There’s no winning the battle. But at the very least, they can cater to the persons who actually purchase their music and make an enjoyable experience out of it. There are a few iTunes only tracks which I would like to purchase but have not done so due to the fact that I do not want to be painted into a corner. Sure, there are some software cracks out there that will strip the DRM off of the tune, but that’s not the point. I want to say “Hey, I paid some cash for this, and I want to do what I want with it. That’s how it’s been for all time, let’s keep it that way.”

Bravo to Steve for pointing out the obvious. Music industries take note. You are losing the battle. Hightail it out of here and remove DRM from all music and the world will be a better place.

Benoit writes:

So I just got back from my Media Ethics mid-term. I think I did decent to my usual standards (anything over 75% is alright with me) but lately I’m starting to change how I feel about education in general.

When I was younger I wanted to just get by the course. Hey, I wanted a decent mark also, but I lived my life according to scoring well on an exam.

But what about the knowledge gained? I don’t know…I have to admit that sometimes I didn’t really care about the knowledge. Or, at the very least, I didn’t even think about it. I just went to class, heard what the professor had to say and then studied for the test.

Tonight I hit upon a question about a Supreme Court case that I didn’t have a good grasp on. In the end, I probably bombed the question, but I’m not really concerned with the actual mark. I am concerned that I don’t have a grasp on the subject matter – in this case, the outcome of the Supreme Court case I was reading. Heck, maybe my legalese is pretty well non-existent so it’s hard to understand it all after reading 20 pages.

So, there you have it. I have realized that I have finally become a student who wishes to absorb knowledge. In my view, I don’t believe sending teenagers to school is necessarily the best idea. I’m not saying that I didn’t retain what I learned in college. I did. Maybe not the specifics (Hey, how do I do a FOR Loop in C++ programming language again? Hmm…off the top of my head I believe it’s (for i=0;i<10;i++), hey, I actually think that's right! I'll have to check that out later. I actually just impressed myself!), but I have a greater appreciation for education than I did 10 years ago. I believe this is the secret Rick has discovered as he pretty well hasn't left the school life and I doubt he ever will. One word Mr. MacLeod - Professor.

Check out this article from NME:

Guitarists attempt to break rock record

Record-breaking bid set for London

London department store Harrods is hosting a bid to break an unusual rock record.

The store will attempt to beat the world record for the most guitarists playing one song simultaneously.

Harrods, based in Knighstbridge, hopes to get 2,000 guitarists to perform Deep Purple‘s ‘Smoke On The Water’ at 8am on February 18.

The existing record was set in Vancouver in 1994, where 1,322 guitarists took part.

The attempt is part of the ‘Harrods Rocks’ season, which runs from February 1 to March 3, and participants in the attempt will receive complimentary earplugs and a free T-shirt and plectrum.

For more information, and to register to take part, visit harrods.com.

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This is amazing! I want to find out more about the Vancouver world record! I wish I could take part in this world record setting. So cool! An excellent song choice also!

In the haze which is the morning hour when I awake from my slumber, there is little light in my room. To begin with, there is only a bedside lamp shedding rays of illumination towards the far corners of my room. Most of the time, I cannot even see the corner of my room. One day, it was sunny out and I rose the blinds to find that a family of geese had settled into the corner of my room! Considering I haven’t noticed them before, I just let them be and threw them some of Mike’s food items from the fridge.

So, one would hypothesize that the solution to my dilemna would be to invest in a new lamp. That’s an excellent point but one that I am always forgetting to do.

The flaw in my dimly lit room is when I grab stuff in the morning, sometimes I find…they do not match.

For example, ONCE AGAIN, I have a blue sock on this morning next to a black sock. I don’t even know how I have come to inherit a black sock as my system is a fine one – Buy white, buy black. Then, in the morning, all you have to do is reach in and pull out the right shade of sock. I don’t care if a sock doesn’t match. It’s not like they have fancy designs on them.

But somewhere along the trek which is life, I have inherited a blue sock and I swear it ends up on my foot every few weeks and I swear each time to throw it in the trash. But by the time slumber comes henceforth (10 Palmer points if you can identify where that line comes from), I forget that I have the blue sock on when I throw it into the hamper.

Palmer’s life is fraught full of little bits of irritation. In the grand scheme of life, is it worse than…an agent of SPECTRE after me? Heavens no! But I do live in fear that someone will realize I have two different socks on.

At least it’s not as bad as one day at work I noticed some guy had two different shoes on. That made my day.

iplaying: Heartbreaker – Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin III)

Saturday night brought me to Mike and Melissa’s place after a hard day of studying for Media Ethics. Ugh. I still don’t have Section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms memorized yet.

We started out at Pho Maximum (or was it Maxim?) on Merivale. This was my first Pho experience which turned out to be a success! I enjoyed it thoroughly and it warmed my body while sitting across from the window. I had pleasant conversation with all and was happy to have spoken to Mark (Marc) in a sober fashion as the last time I had met him, was at my Christmas part. NOT a good time to have a conversation with me, unless you want to talk about what beer is better, or philosophical issues.

Heading over to Mike and Mel’s place, we munched on some good treats and settled into the living to play around with Joe’s electric guitar. I impressed myself with my rendition of Crazy Train which I only know the first few riffs for. Considering I am more of a rhythm man myself, I always am proud of anything I accomplish in the world of lead guitar.

Considering it was Melissa’s birthday, there was a questionnaire about her which only confirmed the fact that I really don’t know much about her! 😉 It was a neat idea and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I may borrow it for future events.

I played a little Dance Dance Revolution which I found very lame. Larisa pointed out that it gets better if I increase the difficulty level. I decided to not give it any further chance, as I realize that Guitar Hero 2 is so much better than dancing around the floor.

The moment of the night was when we pulled out Them Vs. Us (the board game my parents bought me for Christmas) and we had a full out battle of males vs. females. I think there were a good 30 of us competing which is insane considering everyone yells out answers within a time limit. Half the time people on the same team didn’t hear that someone on their team had yelled out the same answer a few times.

It was funny when someone commented “I can’t believe you played this game with your family!” due to the sheer R Rated cards that show up from time to time. They misunderstood that I had received it from my parents, not played it with them. 😉

In the end (does this even need to be said?), the males trounced the females once again which just goes to show .

All in all, a fun night! Kudos to Mike and Melissa, and seeing that TODAY is actually Melissa’s birthday, I send birthday wishes to you!

iplaying: Send It Up – Vertical Horizon (Everything You Want)

For awhile now, as I’ve been searching deal sites like redflagdeals.com or pricenetwork.com and they always advertise this NCIX.com website.

I decided to peruse their wares as I am in need of some blank DVDs and CDs.

Well, I was in for a pleasant surprise! I managed to score the following items:

• 50 CD-Rs for $5.99
• 100 DVD-Rs for $27
• 2 96 Disc Carrying Cases at $4 a pop.

Not too shabby at all. Perhaps there are better deals out there for the DVD-Rs that I would have found if I would have spent the time searching, but I figured the CDs and carrying cases were a steal of a deal and a quick look into other stores showed 100 DVD-Rs for $27 was a fair price.

Anyhow, I haven’t received them yet so I can’t comment on their prompt service, but I’m sure I will be checking out this store in the future if I need anything!

iplaying: You Say – Vertical Horizon (Everything You Want)