Tag Archive for 'rants'

E-books, DRM and irony

Published on July 17, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I’ve never been a fan of Digital Rights Management. In general, the anti-piracy measure frustrates legitimate consumers (such as finding out music you PAID to download won’t play on the MP3 player of your choice) while pirates always find a way around it.

Today, all this took a deliciously ironic twist over Amazon’s Kindle E-book reader.

Many customers woke up this morning to find that Amazon had remotely deleted two books from their collection.

If this sounds Orwellian, well, wait for it. According to David Pogue’s blog at the New York Times, George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm were the two books that had been deleted at the request of the rights holder.

Now, getting past the irony (delicious as it may be) this SNAFU really underscores the issue of being expected to pay for digital content.

A frequent argument used against pirating music off the Internet is “You wouldn’t walk into a music store and stuff a bunch of CDs in your pocket.”

Well, it goes both ways. If Chapters employees broke into my apartment and swiped a few books I paid for, we’d have a pretty big problem (and some injured Chapters employees.)

Worse is that I’m fairly sure if one were to find a place to download said books illegally, they wouldn’t be getting deleted.

That said, the idea of an e-book reader has intrigued me for a while though I don’t have one since the price is still pretty high for this poor freelance writer. However, were I able to afford one, it definitely wouldn’t be the Kindle and just because it isn’t even available in Canada. I mean, not to put the tinfoil hat on, but I really don’t want to carry something around that the manufacturer can access remotely any time. 

The economy is quickly moving to selling ones and zeroes rather than physical products and in many ways, that’s for the better. But really, this whole issue of ownership needs to be figured out before it takes off any further.

Enough is enough

Published on January 14, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I’m sure Samuel L. Jackson would have something to say about these strikes on the bus. My December/January "transit pass"

But seriously, we’re into Day 36 of this hostage crisis with no end in sight and a massive temperature drop hitting the National Capital.

I’ve been getting around thanks to my collection of modified “transit passes” (see photo) but when looking at a forecast of –30 degrees Celsius, this is getting ridiculous.

According to yesterday’s Ottawa Citizen, the strike has so far cost the Ottawa economy $280 million in lost sales for retailers, lost wages and lost productivity. According to the same article, 4,100 people have lost their jobs altogether!

This has to stop. No one is impressed with either side of the fight’s posturing and it’s time to start serious negotiations to end this. Now.

Either that or the city needs to use the $3 million per week they’re saving during the strike to buy some robot drivers. At this point, even an Isaac Asimov scenario is preferable.  

Rumors are stupid

Published on August 21, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

And so are online music subscriptions.

So The Unofficial Apple Weblog received an anonymous tip that Apple is set to announce a subscription service for iTunes.

To TUAW’s credit, they state right at the beginning of their post that this is probably B.S. Unfortunately, even with that preface, that rumor is now spreading across the intertubes. The only reason I can think of for this shoddy journalism is the "If you say it enough times, it’ll come true," mind set.

However, that makes even less sense! For Apple to do a subscription service, the songs would need to become unplayable if the subscription wasn’t renewed. That means good old Digital Rights Management meaning the songs will only be playable in the iTunes software. Yuck.

That’s not an experience I’m in any hurry to repeat.

Recently, I’ve become very happy with eMusic. It’s not the all-you-can-eat buffet bloggers are hoping Apple will introduce but the music downloads are plain MP3 files that’ll play in any audio software and work on any portable music player.

I realize they don’t offer anything from the big-four record labels but I realized something while browsing their selection: I don’t listen to much music distributed by the big labels anyway. It seems typing in the name of an artist I enjoy on eMusic is far likely to return results than on larger services. 

Oh yeah, and unlike other DRM-free (and, well, legal) music sites, it’s available to Canadians, too.

Wait, that’s $400 WITH a contract?!?

Published on August 15, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Setting: An average Rogers store. Center stage is the iPhone podium while stage right and back hold displays of various GSM phones. Stage left is a sales counter, behind which stands Sales Dude.

Me: Excuse me, how much for the Blackberry Bold?

Sales Dude: That’ll be four-hundred dollars.

Me: Wow, I can swing that.

Sales Dude: Alright, let me just print out the contact

Me: (cutting him off) Oh no, I want month to month.

Sales Dude: Sir. Four-hundred dollars is the three-year contract price!

Me: (exasperated) What? Well, how much is it without a contract?

Sales Dude: If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

Me: (with a heavy sigh) Give me an iPhone.

Well, no, I’m certainly not about to give up on my Crackberry addiction and get an iPhone, but Crackberry.com has unearthed a Rogers Wireless flyer showing the latest and greatest hopefully soon to finally be released Blackberry as $399 on a three-year contract. Meanwhile, the much in demand iPhone sits at $199.

It looks like I’ll be using my now archaic Blackberry 8700 for a while longer.

A disgusting act of cowardice

Published on May 8, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

If I may, I need to step away from my usual ramblings about technology and self-employment to rant about something that truly makes me sick.

Living in downtown Ottawa, the ByWard Market is frequent stop for me. Walking through, it’s hard not to notice Craazy Dave.

Dave’s “home” is a milk crate behind the Rideau Street Chapters store. There he supports himself by writing poetry on pieces of cardboard and selling it to passers-by. Maybe it’s because of my brief period as a musician that I still romanticize the image of the starving artist or whatever other reason, but I like him. His poetry in big black letters adds character to the area, I’ve yet to see him bother anyone and he’s rather pleasant given the fact that he’s homeless.

This week, some “tax-paying citizen” who was sick of Dave getting a “free ride” took it upon himself to steal what meagre possessions the man had and destroy them. Then in the ultimate act of cowardice, sent a letter bragging about this “accomplishment” to a local gallery owner who displays Dave’s poems signing it “R.F. Cartier.”

I really have no idea how sleeping on a sidewalk constitutes a “free ride”, especially since Dave refuses to go on welfare or take any other social assistance. The possessions that were disposed of mostly consisted of poems and a collection of newspaper articles that had been written about Dave.

One of the defining characteristics that’s supposed to separate human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom is compassion. Clearly this Cartier person is severely lacking in that department. I mean, it’s one thing to walk around yelling at panhandlers to get a job, but to dispose of someone’s property that only has sentimental value seems like a pretty low depth to sink to.

I just hope Cartier remember’s one important thing: Karma’s a bitch!

Wow, why does Techmeme suck?

Published on April 10, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Today’s top story: Some guy I’ve only heard of passing deletes his Twitter account!

I suppose I’m perpetuating the insinuated complaint in this post by writing about it, but it needs to be said. I’m trying to imagine the level of ridicule that would be doled out if any other news outlet led with a story about somebody deleting an account on some web site.

Perhaps I’ve learned my lesson about spending too much time reading Techmeme. I do think aggregating the conversations across blogs and news sites is a neat idea and feel it’s useful to know what’s going on but when THAT is the top story? What’s gonna be huge tomorrow? “Robert Janelle deletes his Techmeme bookmark?”

And slow news day is no excuse when Gizmodo (link is just barely safe for work) is writing about a device that allows men to control their computer with their penis.