Archive for December, 2004

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Top 5 Posts for 2004

Friday, December 31st, 2004

Here are the top five posts from the past year, selected by a committee of… well, of one. But at least it’s an impartial committee!

  • #1: The (Bizzarely) Illustrated Ten Commandments
    Funny as heck. I’m still laughing about this.

  • #2: American Media is Broken
    Don’t get me started on something I’m passionate about. Because I won’t shut up. This post wins the filabuster award. But more than that, it was a disturbingly pleasurable return to writing with actual research involved.

  • #3: Mathcaddy Radio Session 5: All Time Favorites
    Here’s a great example of why I have invited my cousin Steve to join Mathcaddy Radio as a co-host. He just makes the show more lively. This was also a great post because I still consider it to be the best Radio Session yet, content-wise. As one reader pointed out, however, how can you go wrong with all-time favorites?

  • #4: Adventures in Guitaring
    This was a fun little history to try and make interesting. I enjoyed writing it.

  • #5: “Angel Pumping Gas”

    • Not so much a great post as it was an incredible demonstration of human nature. Plus the sheer weight of the comments is tilting the entire website.

    Posted in mathcaddy.com | Comments Off

    My Dad’s Sirius About His Radio… I’m retarded

    Thursday, December 30th, 2004

    A couple of months ago, my Dad got a new Explorer with Sirius Satellite Radio installed. Being a music junkie and an open critic of today’s radio, I have been interested, but skeptical. Whether you go with XM or Sirius, you’re still looking at corporate hijacked music, just like (almost) any FM or AM band radio station.

    A few things stood out to me right away. First, there is a “New/College Radio” channel called “Left of Center”. This is somewhat amusing because while “College Radio” has become almost a category of music on its own, it gets its name from the fact that such stations are broadcast by colleges. This one breaks from that mold in that it’s not. At all.

    Despite the fact that these “stations” have enormous playlist possibilities at their fingertips, most of of the ones playing anything new seemed to have the same small rotations that any Clear Channel station would have. I don’t know if someone left the payola button on “repeat”, but I heard Straylight Run’s song, “Existentialism on Prom Night”, no fewer than seven times in two days on three different channels.

    The Sirius DJs are fairly interesting and incredibly professional. Some are a little weird, though. Like the “College” station DJ playing on Wednesday who came on in a cheerful sounding sing-song rant on her life. (Her cadence was much like that of the opening cheer routine in the movie “Bring it On!”) “Hi! I’m Jewish! I’m 32 and Single! I’ll be alone on New Year’s Eve! I’m never getting married! I’m never having children! So how’s your week going?” Strange, indeed. But she was pretty funny.

    It was interesting to get to hear satellite radio only after becoming a regular podcast listener. There were several songs played on Sirius that I first heard on podcasts. MC Lars – “Signing Emo”, the Dears – “Lost in the Plot”, and some Andrew Vladeck, among a great many others. Every time I heard a track from a podcast, I would excitedly inform the other folks riding in the car, who quickly pointed out just how much I was boring them.

    As professional as some of these DJs sounded, they really don’t hold a candle to Funtime Ben (and Josiah!) at Tracks up the Tree, Jason Evangelho at Insomnia Radio, or RadioZoom’s John. There’s really something to that “amateur magic” that makes podcasting insanely addictive. When “real” people are not paid to play something, but are taking their time to speak with self-inspired enthusiasm about music they are genuinely excited about.

    And speaking of money, I would guess you’ve heard satellite radio plugged as “commercial free”. Um, kind of. The music stations are commercial free, but the branded talk stations seem to have missed that memo. So don’t worry, Fox News listeners, you can still look forward to hearing Sean Hannity hock Whose-it’s Whats-its. (Thankfully, I’m not a regular Fox News listener. I would probably start chewing on my steering wheel if I had to listen to Mr. “Let Freedom Ring” himself sell diet pills and eggnog substitute.)

    While listening to the huge number of stations, I found myself in Distractionville. (It’s just outside of Coverville.) Every time a song came on that I didn’t want to hear, I would skim the thirty channels that sounded interesting, looking at the display as I did. (The display shows the artist and track title of each song playing as you turn the dial to each station.) In order to read what was playing on each station, my eyes were taken off the road – the dark, icy road – and down toward the display, located at cupholder level. I think it would be safe to say that satellite radio would probably get me killed.

    The wrap: Is Sirius for you? I have no idea. Why are you asking me? Oh. Sorry. You didn’t ask, did you… Well, I’d say if you like “less talk and more rawk” and don’t mind getting the extra gear, it’s probably a pretty good bet. I know my folks really like it. Me? I’ll stick with podcasting. Infinitely superior in practically every way. Siriusly.

    And I’m done with puns.

    Oh yeah — here’s a sampling of some of the music that I first discovered on Sirius that I liked, along with which channel I heard it on. One station I enjoyed immensely was “Folktown”. Newer Folk music is probably my favorite style, but it’s just about impossible to hear on the radio. I really liked what I heard on this channel. If it was new, I liked it. And the classics were good to hear as well. Don’t be stunned if some of it shows up on a future podcast.

  • Lowen & Navarro – “If I Was the Rain” (Folktown)
  • Keren Ann – “Not Going Anywhere” (Folktown)
  • Kasabian – “L. S. F.” (Alt Nation)
  • Adam Green – “Jessica” (Left of Center)

    • Posted in Entertainment | Comments Off

    iTunes DRM Attacks Puppies, Kittens, and Small Children

    Thursday, December 30th, 2004

    Usually when Cory Doctorow writes about how much he hates DRM, I say, “Keep preaching, Cory.” I mean, I can’t stand DRM (digital rights management) or even the thought of someone taking away my media rights just because I’m using a digital instead of analog medium, but I’ve never seen it as potentially crushing. More irritating than anything else.

    Until last week, when on two different accounts, I was kept from using music purchased through the iTunes Music Store when and where I wanted to.

    The first incident: After becoming addicted to the song, I bought Styx’s “More Love for the Money” in the iTunes store about three weeks ago. Being a neurotic listener, I wanted to hear that song everywhere I went. The most regular places I listen to music are my iPod, my laptop, my home desktop computer, and my work desktop computer. I also have an ftp server set up on my home system dialed right into my iTunes directory so I can take my MP3 (and AAC) files with me wherever I use a computer. Since purchasing the song, I have probably used somewhere around forty different computers in the past year, and around eight to twelve on a consistent basis. Being the default IT manager, computer troubleshooter, graphic designer and software tutor for the church means that I use one here, one there, throughout the week.

    But here’s the rub. Somewhere within the past month, I licensed my fifth computer on the iTunes music store. I don’t know what computer it was. And that’s the whole problem. We have had about six systems go dead within the past year at the church. At least one of them – and perhaps more – was licensed to use songs from my iTunes account.

    I had recently had some complications in iTunes on my laptop (podcasting related) and I had completely uninstalled the app for some time. When I went to install it and use my tracks already sitting on the computer, already licensed to me, I couldn’t play them. I was given iTunes’ “no more licenses” notice. I was then left guessing which computer could I take away a license from. “No problem,” I thought, “I’ve done this before. I’ll just take one of my other licenses off of one of the systems at the church.” And then it dawned on me. The only computers I knew of that were still licensed were my home computer and my work desktop. The other systems were either ones I had forgotten about or were dead!

    The second inicident: It was Christmas Eve and we were in the middle of a service. We were going to play a classical version of Ave Maria that we had purchased the previous year from the iTunes store. We had recently upgraded the sound booth CPU. Unfortunately for us, we had not tested out iTunes with purchased tracks yet. When we went to play them, we came across a similar issue.

    We couldn’t play the tracks because we weren’t licensed. And I couldn’t remove another license because either I couldn’t remember where else I had licensed them or else the computers that were licensed were dismantled.

    Look. Five computers sounds generous. It sounds like a lot of computers. But for anyone who just runs here and there on computers all day long, it’s nothing. I myself have five computers – either for work or home – let alone the fifteen at the church that I use on and off.

    Yes, I should have noted the systems I licensed, but Why on earth should I have to run an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of which computers I have played my music on?

    In conclusion: I’m done with the iTunes Music Store. End of story. I am buying CDs and sharing files. DRM, to me, is a joke. We are told, “You’re a thief” on one hand, but on the other hand, the only option we’re given when it comes to convenient digital music is a license.

    Here’s an idea. Let’s monopolize content. Then we’ll criminalize digitally what is commonplace analogically. And finally, we can hand the consumer a digital “license” instead of giving them what they thought they paid for when they clicked the deceptive “Buy Song” button. Oh wait, that’s already been done. Thanks, once again, to the miracle of fine print!

    There is a word in economics for powerful organizations who monopolize a desirable resource and use their force to manipulate:

    Rent-seeking.

    I’m not paying rent anymore for what I already own.

    Posted in Copyright | Comments

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