More RIAA Fallout

Yesterday, my sister bought a music file from one of the "legal" music download sites, Puretracks.com. Once she downloaded it, she tried to play it in her MP3 player, which is why she bought it in the first place. She then discovered that it was in WMA (Microsoft's proprietary format) and her MP3 player did not support that format. So, she asked me for help in converting it to MP3, so she could play it in her MP3 player. I couldn't even play this file, as it was encumbered with DRM (Digital Rights Management), so that only she could play it.

I then suggested she burn it to a CD, using Microsoft Windows Media Player, which could play the tune just fine, and then just rip it back to MP3 from there. So, she burned it on a CD, and she could play the CD just fine. She was using RealPlayer to play the CD. She then tried to use the same player to rip the CD track back to an MP3, and it wouldn't let her. It was as though the DRM had followed the track onto the CD. Several hours later, she still couldn't play the track she legally paid for on her MP3 player.

The fallout from this has been a very bad user experience, with someone willing to actually PAY for music being denied the ability to use the legally purchased song on her music player of choice. This means that she will never use this service again, and probably never use a legal download site again. All because the RIAA has it's head up its ass so far that it has lost sight of the customers it is supposed to be attracting to its offerings. All the RIAA can see these days is its collective upper colons.

Here is a radical idea for the RIAA, which I already know will fall on deaf ears. How about thinking about the customers for a change, instead of merely thinking of ways to preserve an outdated business model and trying to find new ways to gouge the customers and the musicians too. The RIAA is becoming an anachronism, and desperately needs to be put out of its misery.

07/07/2005 London Bombings

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the cowardly bombing attacks in London, England in recent weeks. As I understand it, the purpose of terrorism is either to terrorize a group of people into doing what the terrorist organizations want them to do, or to act as a form of retaliation. In the case of the London bombings, it must certainly be the latter. Otherwise, the terrorists that performed the cowardly act of bombing a civilian population must be dumber than a door knob. It is possible that I am wrong, and the terrorists are indeed dumber than a door knob, and that they actually expect these attacks to convince Britian to withdraw from the activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a highly unlikely outcome of the attacks.

In the last 100 years, London has been heavily attacked by Germany in vicious air raids when it was under the rule of Adolph Hitler, and more recently, when the IRA would perform frequent terrorist attacks in London and other cities in England. At none of these times did England even consider surrendering or changing their behaviour during WWII or any time since.

Given this, why would a bunch of cowardly terrorists think that a few bombs on public transit systems would scare the British or the British Government? As both Hitler and the IRA discovered, terrorist type attacks only make the British more resolute in their beliefs and actions.

As has been mentioned in other places, the terrorists have messed with the wrong people. The British may not be known for aggressive behaviour internationally, but they are definitely a country it is better to be a friend of than an enemy of.

My condolences go out to the victims of the recent cowardly attacks and their friends and families. Your friends in North America grieve with you.

PETA - People for the Evil Treatment of Animals

The following story is from This is True dated 17 July 2005. It is Copyright 2005 Randy Cassingham, all rights reserved, and reprinted here with permission:

"Ethical" Defined

After more than 100 dead dogs were dumped in a trash dumpster over four weeks, police in Ahoskie, N.C., kept an eye on the trash receptacle behind a supermarket. Sure enough, a van drove up and officers watched the occupants throw in heavy plastic bags. They detained the two people in the van and found 18 dead dogs in plastic bags in the dumpster, including puppies; 13 more dead dogs were still in the van. Police say the van is registered to the headquarters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the two occupants, Andrew B. Cook, 24, and Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, identified themselves as PETA employees. An autopsy performed on one of the dogs found it was healthy before it was killed. Police say PETA has been picking up the animals -- alive -- from North Carolina animal shelters, promising to find them good homes. Cook and Hinkle have been charged with 62 felony counts of animal cruelty. In
response to the arrests PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said it's against the group's policy for employees to dump animals in the trash, but "that for some animals in North Carolina, there is no kinder option than euthanasia." (Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald) ...Oops, my mistake: that's "Playing God" defined.

In his author's notes section, Cassingham had more to say about this story:

The more I learn about PETA, the less I think of them. The story of them killing animals isn't even unusual. According to PETA's own filings, in 2004 PETA killed 86.3 percent of the animals entrusted to its care -- a number that's rising, not falling. Meanwhile, the SPCA in PETA's home town (Norfolk, Va.) was able to find loving homes for 73 percent of the animals put in its care. A shortage of funds? Nope: last year PETA took in $29 million in tax-exempt donations. It simply has other priorities for the funds, like funding terrorism (yes, really). But don't take my word for it: I got my figures from
http://www.PETAkillsAnimals.com -- and they have copies of PETA's state and federal filings to back it up. The bottom line: if you donate money to PETA because you think they care for and about animals, you need to think some more. PETA literally yells and screams about how others "kill animals" but this is how they operate? Pathetic.

And you know what I wonder? PETA's official count of animals they kill is 86.3 percent. But if they're going around picking up animals, killing them while they drive around and not even giving them a chance to be adopted, and then destroying the evidence by dumping the bodies in the trash, are those deaths being reported? My guess: no. While 86.3 percent is awful, the actual number is probably much, much higher. How dare they lecture anyone about the "ethical" treatment of animals!

(This is True is a weekly column featuring weird-but-true news stories from around the world, and has been published since 1994. Click the link for info about free subscriptions.)

The more I learn about PETA, the less I think of them. I agree with Randy on this issue.

Bad Drivers, Part One

Why is it that people have this complulsive need to drive in the middle of a road if the road does not have a line down the middle of it. As soon as the yellow line is removed, people somehow manage to forget the rules of the road, and think that the road must be for their personal use only, and that no other vehicles could possibly come in the opposite direction.

People, listen up! If a road is wide enough for two vehicles side by side, and there are no "One Way" types of signs on the roadway, STAY ON YOUR OWN SIDE OF THE ROAD!

Turning 40 - Redux

It has been a week since I turned 40, and after having some time to allow it to sink in, it is not so bad after all. I like to think of myself as having 20 years of experience at being 20. :-)

The down side is that I am now in that age bracket where employers label me as "older" or "up there in age" or whatever the label of choice these days are. In the Technology Industry, youth has its advantages when you are job hunting. However, this old rat still has a few things to offer that the youngins can't.

As they say, age and guile beat youth and vigour every time. :-)

Blogebrity

You know this whole blogging thing has gotten to be popular when someone has the bright idea to do an online blog celebrity site. Blogebrity hopes to become an online magazine, with a quarterly print publication too. I wish them the best of luck.

Another year older

Today is my 40th birthday. Yee ha. If life begins at 40, what ends?