Monday, May 19, 2003

Computer failure on Saturday - I am slowly rebuilding it. No fun at all...mj 8:20:48 PM

Sunday, May 4, 2003

Apple steals music... Apple released the Apple iTunes Music Store this past week. I downloaded my first song the next day. It's slick, it's simple to use, and the list of artist will expand quickly as independents are signed and artist scramble to catch the next wave in music distribution. Over 200,000 songs in the first day - thats half the total number of songs downloaded on the other commercial music services all last year! The next step is for Apple to get the windows version of iTunes released ASAP! They also need to move aggressively to get AOL to add the store to their services. After all Warner Records sells in the store, so why not have AOL add it. Apple could be poised to sweep the rug out from under Microsoft's dreams of taking control of the music distribution with their proprietary Windows Media Format. Apple's simple DRM model gives so much more control to the user then any other legal distribution model (Please quit your crying people. DRM is going stay, it's just a matter of how painful it is). Once again, APPLE ROCKS!!...mj 10:01:05 PM

Monday, April 28, 2003

Week of action The job hunting is going down to the wire. I have a couple things that are starting to look good. More to say if something happens. I move on Wednesday. I will be getting a new phone number and going from Qwest DSL back to Cable Modem service. I will let you know how that all goes. Sad story today all over the news about the Tacoma Police Chief who shot his wife and then killed himself. At this point she is still alive. I hope for her kids sake that she survives. Another indication indication of the problems of violence in marriage. Why was this case not referred to Internal Affairs for investigation due to the alligations of spousal abuse? More needs to be done to crush the 'protect our own' culture that pervades law inforcement. It will be interesting to watch the local fallout here. Apple launched it's new Muisc service. It's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out. It could be the start of a real shot at selling music on the web - if this fails, then we have a bigger problem then the Music Industry can imagine. Postings this week will be very sporadic...mj 2:16:23 PM

Thursday, April 24, 2003

Microsoft, Macrovision to halt CD 'ripping The world's largest software company, along with the firm most involved in protecting the entertainment industry's content, are cooking up a music CD to keep tunes from being 'ripped' and traded on the Net. Macrovision, which already helps Hollywood keep videocassettes and DVDs from being copied, said Wednesday that it is joining with Microsoft and its Windows Media software to allow labels to make CDs that could let consumers make copies for themselves but prevent file sharing...more [Yahoo News] It's so nice to know that Microsoft cares about it's customers, LOL! I want to make this very clear -- I will not buy ANY copy protected CD's. So far none work well, and none allow my 'Fair Use' rights to remain intact. The Music Industry is so happy to blame file sharing for the 7-10% drop in CD sales, yet they're making more money then ever! Maybe the drop in sales is because they're releasing fewer CDs, and maybe it's because there is so little really good new stuff being released. Maybe Apple should buy Universal Record Group. Almost anyone could do a better job at this point...mj 1:20:05 PM

Friday, April 11, 2003

Apple...in Talks to Buy Universal Music In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said. Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry....more [LA Times] I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I think Jobs and his vision could transform the industry. On the other hand, I am not convinced that the industry is going to survive in a form anything like today's bloated dumb beast. If Jobs could make this work, he would do what SONY has been trying to do for years -- take advantage of the synergy created by it's many parts. So far it hasn't worked for SONY, only time will tell if Apple can do better...mj 8:51:42 AM

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

RIAA Hits Students Where It Hurts The Recording Industry Association of America apparently took a page from the military handbooks of coalition forces in Iraq this week when it attempted to "shock and awe" college music pirates by hitting them with hefty lawsuits. The trade group is suing four students for operating Napster-like file-sharing services on their campus networks. "This round of suits is intended to send a message to other students who are engaging in this type of behavior," said Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president of business and legal affairs at the RIAA. "There will be no one free pass."...more [Wired] No Matt, it's more like Moff Tarkin watching more planets escape as he squeezes harder. The music industry has a death wish that is going to be satisfied. The chance for them to avoid a massive restructure from the oncoming wave of change is in the past. Instead they now spend time attacking customers. Going for the small fish to try and spread fear and uncertainty. Sadly it is too little, too late. When business schools study this in the years to come, it will stand as a testament to the futility of hubris. ...mj 11:59:26 AM

Disney...shifting its anti-piracy stance Walt Disney Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner said Monday that his company won't let the threat of piracy keep it from aggressively pursuing business strategies based on new digital technologies, even if that means rethinking its current business models...more [SiliconValley.com] If Eisner is serious about this and not doing the FUD dance, then this would be a nice shift from the company that is legendary for it's protection of it's intellectual property. The tough part is that the Music industry is the one who really needs to get moving on this. I hope that the rumored Apple music service will be a big step in that direction...mj 11:34:38 AM

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

'Dark Side of the Moon' turns 30 For the 30th anniversary of one of the best-selling recordings of all time -- a recording that spent 741 weeks, or a total of 14 years, on Billboard's Album Charts -- EMI/Capitol has produced a gift for its fans: Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." It is being released today for the first time in full 5.1-channel surround sound...more [MSNBC] Many would argue that this is the greatest rock album of the last 40 years. There are a few contenders to that crown, but no other album in history has had the kind of staying power, and popularity that this one has had. Straight, high, drunk, or vegging, this album defined the experience of the 70's rock scene. It's a journey to a place far removed from this world, yet it speaks to many concerns in the human condition. Us and Them "Us, and them And after all we're only ordinary men. Me, and you. God only knows it's not what we would choose to do. Forward he cried from the rear and the front rank died. And the general sat and the lines on the map moved from side to side..." Breathe "...Long you live and high you fly And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry And all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be..." Long live Pink Floyd...mj 7:42:37 PM

Saturday, March 22, 2003

Exposing the lies Check out the information and facts put together by Dan Bricklin. He tackles the numbers from ten years of CD and Cassette sales (91-01). The numbers are pretty damning. Bricklin then goes on to attack the way the industry has used those numbers. It's not a pretty picture. As CD's have taken over from Cassettes as the dominant media format, the amount of money the industry makes has risen dramatically. Revenue per unit sales went from $9.78 to $14.19. That's a revenue increase of 45%!! The real problem here is discontent over price structure, and an industry that is hell bent on ticking off it's customers, and killing it's future. Perhaps they might want to go kill computers, game boxes, cellphones, and other items people spend disposable income on....mj 12:12:31 PM

Monday, March 10, 2003

Real Irony: Gates & IP protection Microsoft and Intel have set on a course to release a version of the Windows platform that allows for Big Media to control what we do with the content we buy. It will give them the ability to take away our "Fair Use" rights. They will claim that it is all about Intellectual Property and Copyright, but the truth is, that it's really all about maintaining a cash cow. It's about protecting a business model that died two years ago, it's just taking a long time for the signal to reach the industries brain. You have to find it ironic, that the entire Bill Gates empire is based on one thing: Intellectual Property theft. You may have heard the story of how Gary Kidall's ex-wife, and business partner threw out the IBM suits over their request that she sign a (then rare, now common) non-disclosure agreement. IBM went back to Bill Gates and asked him if he had an OS they could use, he said yes even though he didn't (you have to love the audacity of Gates to lie to IBM). So Bill went off and bought QDOS from Seattle Computer Products. Where did SCP get the software from? They claimed that one of their employees, Tim Paterson, wrote it. In six weeks... That's pretty amazing considering that it took Kidall three years to write CP/M! For proof of the fact that Peterson stole the code look no further then the fact that the first 36 DOS system calls mirror the original CP/M calls EXACTLY. Nearly 20 years after the fact, Caldera (the last owner of CP/M) won an out of court settlement from Microsoft over that theft, too little, too late. "Ask Bill (Gates) why the string in function 9 (in DOS) is terminated by a dollar sign. Ask him, because he can't answer. Only I know that". -- Gary Kildall (1942-1994) Kidall died in a seedy bar on July 8, 1994 of a massive heart attack. He died a broken man, still believing that his ex-wife and Gates had denied him his destiny...mj 12:24:55 PM

Tuesday, March 4, 2003

Apple online music service wins kudos Top executives at the major record companies have finally found an online music service that makes them excited about the digital future, sources said Monday. The new service, developed by Apple Computer, offers Macintosh users many of the same capabilities that are already available from services previously endorsed by the labels. But the Apple offering won over music executives because it makes buying and downloading music as simple and nontechnical as buying a book from Amazon.com, one source said...more [SiliconVally.com] This could be huge, it could be the killer app to move more people over to Macs. The conflict between SONY and Microsoft over control of DRM technology could give Apple a very nice inside track to this market, and a great window of oppertunity...mj 11:55:11 AM

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