Miscellany

Steve Ballmer and the Microsofties are talking about subsidizing Zunes to take market share away from the iPod. You just sign up for a multi-year subscription, you get your very own ugly lump of plastic, and you get the illusion of having saved money. You still end up with a Zune, though.

Unfortunately for those of us who live in the upper left hand corner of the country, where Microsoft is a major tax payer, this won't fix the underlying problem with the Zune. Namely, that the Zune's goal is to take market share away from the iPod.

The iPod's goal is to play music and video, and to look teh cool while doing it.

As usual, Redmond doesn't get it.

More Notes on DRM

I read over on Macalope that there are people who think we ought to keep the discussion on DRM going for music and video on the exact same level. Because after all, they're both the same. It's all restricting my ability to make copies of my stuff and dammitall I hate it.

Other people think we should split them up and argue about them separately. After carefully considering all the options, and looking at the situation from several different angles I've decided to put blueberries on my oatmeal this morning.

I've never made a copy of a movie. Here I am, fifty frigging years old, and I've NEVER even re-recorded The Outlaw Josie Wales. So DRM on video just does not mean diddly-squat to me. DRM on music doesn't affect me much, and DRM on video not at all, so to me they are two different discussions – both of which I would prefer not to be bothered with.

To me the major importance of the Apple-EMI announcement last week is that now I can buy songs on iTMS and play them on a Zune (or some other third rate piece of crap mp3 player). Wow.

DRM=Doesn't Really Matter

If the movie companies want to spend a whole bunch of money to prevent me from doing something I wasn't going to do anyway, it's their money.