Atlantic City

Tomorrow I will be in Atlantic City for the NJ Democratic State Committee conference. Really its just an excuse to drink and Gamble. I might play a few slots.

Lifetime Music

When CD's first came out, the public was promised that the higher cost over cassattes were justified because of the longevity of the CD-- essentially the CD was suppose to last our entire lifetime assuming the user took care of it.

Now though it seems CD Rot threatens to wipe out aging collectings of CD's and possibly even DVDs.

I have said on numerous occasions the biggest obstacle for me to buy downloaded songs off of iTunes or pay Napster is that the MP3's are actually AAC or some other format that restricts the users ability to copy it from computer to computer.

In either case, between CD rot and AAC files, it seems the best solution is statutory assurances of time-less rights to music or movies that are purchased. Essentially, purchasing an MP3 or CD or DVD grants the buyer a license that is gaurantees them one copy anytime, anywhere, in any format.

How is this idea different then the system today? Its really not, since copyright law has always allowed users to make personal copies of data despite what motion picture association president Jack Valenti thinks.

Instead though, the idea of a timeless licence would gaurantee access to data until the copyright ran out. But also, the licences could be sold-- "I sell you all rights I have to any copies of this music". So instead of just selling used CD's, users could buy the entire license. While this of course cuts out the RIAA from making profit on repeat sales (such as if you break lose, or have a CD stolen), that's just the way the cookie crumbles. In essence, current copyright law should support this idea anyway. It really just depends on how many judges the RIAA have contributed money to.

Coffee

I enjoy Hazelnut Coffee with cream and sugar.

In defense of MacBlog Ratings.

Clayton again has criticized the MacBlog Ranking System; again he is not at the top of the list. This indicates one of two things:
1. Clayton is full of shit and just wants to start trouble
2. He is merely bitter about not being a better blogger.

The first MacBlog Rankings had two purposes
1. Increase Blog activity
2. Critique blogs in the hopes of improving the blog activity.

Since then it has become a weekly activity that has experienced heavy criticism from those at the bottom of the rankings. For example, of the last 7 days, clayton has blogged 4 times. One of these times was dedicated to criticisms of the MacBlog Rankings. Is it entirely absurd that the other bloggers placed ahead of him with as many or more entries are ranked higher?

No.

So I will assume that Clayton's primary objective is to cause trouble rather than to offer anything relevant or meaningful to the dialogue.

MacBlog Rankings for the Week of May 5

1. Shawn
2. Patrick
3. Peter
4. Erik
5. Clayton
6. Cyriaque
7. Tom
8. Faraci
9. Mrs. L

Rubric:
Because of the uproar over previous Macblog Ranks, a new formula was used to determine this weeks Best Blogs. Some criticisms included past emphasis on the frequency of blogs over quality. To preserve the integrity of the ranking system, the absolute formula used for ranking will be kept secret to prevent cheats.

That being said, blogs were assessed in a way to balance the quality of posts with the fact that some bloggers either from laziness or apathy fail to post. The entire system was designed to be objective and rewarding only to good blogs.

Entries posted after 11:35 am April 28 to 10:00 am May 5 were considered.

Summary and Trends:
Because of the recalibration of the methodology, there are no trends this week.

Notes:
Of particular note is a post by Shawn where he addresses bloggers individually. I have to wonder if these are his final words to us before jumping off a bridge. I certainly enjoy Patrick’s continued revelations of correspondence from his office. Also of particular interest this week was Erik’s bicycle theft and subsequent joy ride.

Hotmail Vs. Gmail

There seems no limit to my satisfaction with gmail, and have started sending mail exclusively from Gmail. The vast amounts of server space is not the reason. Hotmail is now helping Spam get to my account. Since I hate spam about as much as I hate the christian right, I don't really appreciate MS's invasion of my inbox. I already put up with the banner ads.

I think my 8 year long affair with hotmail may finally becoming to end.

Feeling Unemployed?

view this Map to see what states have lost the most jobs over the last four years.

Sony's Mini Disc

Anyone remember the Sony Mini Disc? They were about half the size of regular CD's and you record to them. I have a player / recorder, but they are mostly useless technology because sony never licensed the hardware to anyone. Now Sony is launching a Music Store to Compete with i-Tunes. What's the point though, since Sony's products will only work on Sony Memory Sticks, i-Tunes on the iPod and so forth.

it really begs the question, Can't all MP3's just get along?

Destroying California

So I had been quite excited by the advertisements of 10.5, the earthquake miniseries airing on NBC this past weekend. Of course i was not watching since the Sopranos was on.

The cities nearest California-- Seattle, Vegas, and Portland were all stuck to their televisions with high viewing ratings. Could this be because they are hoping for ocean front property?

I guess Im not really dissappointed that I missed this miniseries because I dont really care about the character development. Im much more interested in watching parts of California collapse, trains collide with giant gaping holes rifts, and tidal waves. I got all of this from the 30 second advertisements, so watching 4 hours of commercial television for two more minutes of disaster footage probably isn't worth it.

Our Hero

This Article quotes our Miserable Failure of a president saying 'Peace and freedom depend upon this election. Prosperity for the people depend upon this election.' He has probably never said anything so accurate.

Anyone out there still looking for a job (I know this is a small percentage of MacBlog readers, since everyone is an academic) should realize that replacing Bush is the best idea yet: the President controls direct appointment of roughly 10,000 people. So at least 10,000 non-republicans would have jobs after November if he was unelected. This is good because all the Republicans he has working for him don't need the jobs anyway; Republicans are either uber rich, i.e. Bush's Tax cut, or understand that God will provide for them somehow, if they would just stop sinning.

Maybe Erik Doesn't Have Allergies.

Fear of dormitory showers may not be entirely undeserved. Bacteria in soap scum are quite the dangerous little devils. Sure this article points that really this means people with increased risk of and decreased immune system protection; but every time I have an allergy now, I'll have to wonder if I really should just replace the shower curtain.

Fun with electricity.

As if texas hadn't produced enough foolsthis one tried to kill his wife by dropping a radio into a bubble bath. Seems the bugger was trying to collect a five month old insurance policy on her.

But as it seems, its pretty tought to die by bathtub electrocution. Indeed, its really the act of not being dead when an appliance falls into the tub that you die.

Jobs and Bush.

Bush has kicked off a Bus Tour across parts of the country--swing states that might turn for him. Many of these people are now out of work and I find it unlikely they would support a president when they have no income. Of course, if they are out of a job for another six months, by november they might be too drunk on grain alcohol to vote against him.

Bud Bowl

The hype about the upcoming friends finale is centering around the high cost of advertising. Im not really planning on watching; however, if there was going to be a bud bowl, I might be interested. What can I say, Im a sucker for stop motion beer bottles.

Ale

James Goldifini appeared at the Ale N Witch last night. I was informed via phone call from Vanessa to Mandee. Having little interest, and because I was waiting for Weekend Update, I didn't run off to my favorite bar. My thinking is if Goldifini didn't have the courtesy to show up at the Ale N Witch last year when I frequented the bar 7 nights a week, I wasn't going to make the effort last night.