Archive for July, 2006

Ya know — if you want to wage a war of words, it helps if you get it right when doing so.

As reported on Boing Boing and elsewhere, a German band — Bodenständig 2000 — has pulled out of the iTunes Music Store because of DRM.

The original post has the original band’s statement interleaved within.

Mostly reasonable and I applaud the band for taking a stand in something they believe in. Personally, I’m no fan of DRM, either.

However, much credibility is lost with this statement:

Apple’s IPod? Yes, they look good any maybe they are the last bastion of classical brAun-like industrial design vs. chinese-turkish styling-trash for pimps and bitches, but still: They are crippled and i don’t buy one.

Actually, the iPod plays non-DRM’d files just fine. It played non-DRM’d files nearly 2 years prior to FairPlay or the iTunes Music Store even being released.

Non-DRM’d– totally unencrypted, AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, WAV, and AIFF (not the shuffle, though) all play perfectly well on every version of the iPod released. And the iPod Video is plays non-encrypted H.264 and MP4 video files with zero DRM.

How, exactly, is that crippled?

I suppose the band also doesn’t buy or use DVD players, then? Or video game consoles? Or any commercial software?

Read the rest of this entry »

Flickr has a contest of sorts going on called The Blink of an Eye. The rules stipulate that I can only submit a single photo.

The problem is which photo to submit?

Update
From email, comments and talking w/my Mom, I missed some photos:

The Luna Moth. Totally meant to add this to the collection.

I can’t believe I missed this one. Mom picked this one out.

Original Post

I have collected together my favorites and from those, I am leaning to submitting one of these:

Bug photos anyone? I like both of these a lot.

But I think I might like this one better than the other two just for the contrast of it all. That and, at a large size, the dragonfly’s eyes are in focus and it makes for a weird globe like focal point.

I have some pictures of Roger that I really like. I think the crop on the smile might be a bit tight, but that is the full frame and, thus, cannot be expanded.

I really like this “tourist trap iguana” portrait, as well.

I could go with a landscape & sky photo, of which this is really the only one that has any impact.

Or I could go with this shot, but everyone who has ever been to Cabo San Lucas takes this shot.

Marketing phone calls suck. I can barely tolerate dealing with a phone when the person on the other end is someone I know. Wasting my time telling some call center droid to never call again is only slightly more pleasant than cleaning up the yard after the dogs “played with” a rotting carcass.

I have been a very happy Vonage customer; cheap long distance and international calls, it just works, online voice mail, etc…

With one phone call, my opinion of Vonage has dropped immensely.

Vonage called earlier in the week to offer me a second line for free for 2 months. “As a valued and loyal customer, we are pleased to offer you a special deal” that is exactly the same as the deal offered on their website.

I was polite; No thanks, don’t need a second line, don’t call back….

They just called again to offer the same deal. I was not as polite and indicated in no uncertain terms that one of the reasons why I have been a long term customer of Vonage is to avoid marketing calls, take me off the list, do not call again, etc…

An angry letter has been written.

If they call again, I’m seriously going to consider switching services. Any suggestions?