Urge sucks too
They have the same policy as Napster. See previous post for details.
I must say though – the UI integration in WMP 11 is fucking slick. Please, please fix the authorization issues!!!
Napster sucks
This month’s winner of my award for the worst ever is Napster. Allow me to explain…
So last week I switched from Windows 2003 x64 Edition back to Windows Media Center Edition – the idea being that now that this computer is in my bedroom at the new house (and no longer in the big open “living room” area of my old apartment) I want to use it as a TV – for when Jon is watching the big TV, or when I want to enjoy the comforts of my bed (or hypothetically, if someone else did).
So all is well and good and Media Center is up and running just fine. Except for one thing. Napster. I can’t play any of the music I downloaded from Napster. And they tell me they’re going to hold it hostage until July 16th, when I will be given the opportunity to repent for my sins and “deactivate” one of my PCs. And by “Old PC” I mean one of the OS installations from the same PC that was formatted away.
And when that happens, I will then have to wait another 30 days before I can “activate” my laptop and listen to music there. So right now, the only place I can listen to my Napster tracks is in my living room on the evil little Mac Mini (also running Windows Media Center). But they’ll keep taking the same amount of my money regardless.
I’ve dealt with computer “activation” for DRM’d media before. It’s a required process for the music I bought from MSN Music. However they handle it a bit differently. You see, they allow 5 simultaneous activations and you can activate/deactivate as frequently as you like. They do require that you deactivate from the computer you want removed, but I’ve gotten good at remembering to do that before I blow away any OS installations on any of my PCs. And it takes about 2 minutes to ask them via the online help to reset any orphaned PCs so I know it’s not the end of the world if I forget.
Napster allows only 3 computers to be active at once. However they let you deactivate a PC without actually connecting from it. Handy, I thought. Until I tried it and it told me I could only deactivate once every 30 days. At this point I already had 3 orphaned or soon-to-be orphaned activations. I had direct access to machines I wanted to remove from their list, but that didn’t matter to them. One per 30 days, regardless of where you do it from. This is crap.
So now I need to investigate how Urge works, to see if they offer a better solution. Still, switching services and re-downloading tracks is a pain I’d hoped to avoid.
My ideal solution (other than no stupid DRM) would be this:
1) Give me 5 activations. Three isn’t enough because I want my music on my desktop, my laptop, my media center, and maybe at work. And an extra one never hurts.
2) Let me deactivate anytime I want if I have access to the PC, just like MSN Music does now.
3) Let me deactivate an “orphaned” PC once every 30 days, like Napster does now.
4) As a stretch, give me “guest” activations where I can unlock my music for a short period of time, like 3-5 days or something. Give me a handful of these every month. This would be great when visiting friends or family and I could show them how great subscription music services are.
This seems reasonable enough to me. If no one is offering this now, they should be.
Gnomedex in one picture.
A couple things
First up, I made a couple of posts this week to our FindMyStuff Team Blog. The second of which is about our support for searching over sources that output OpenSearch RSS. Check it out.
Second, I’m about to head off to Gnomedex 6.0. I’m running on less sleep than planned, so caffiene will have to get me through the day. Hopefully I’ll get online during the event, but no promises.
Fox News? Or the Jerry Springer Channel?
A friend sent me a link to an interesting clip from a Fox News program today. I can’t believe people actually get their news from sources like this. They have some crazy anti-american “religious” zealot on the show and pit her against a raging screaming “journalist.” Of course both of them sound like total whack-jobs – but that’s exactly what they want. I can’t help but feel like the whole argument was scripted. They throw a news ticker on the bottom and claim it’s a news station. But really it’s The Jerry Springer show with a different cast and fewer thrown chairs. I feel like the only purpose of programming like this is to make politics “entertaining” for the masses who get their kicks from Springer or COPS or championship rodeo on SpikeTV.
I would wonder about whether the motivation is to drive ratings or News Corp’s political agenda. But the sad fact is it probably serves both.
How not to do a podcast
Major Nelson pointed his readers at the first official Sony Online Entertainment podcast.
You can listen to it here.
If you listen close you can actually hear the Marketing guys whipping the presenters anytime they inject the slightest hint of emotion or even think about saying a single word off-script. Seriously guys, you sound like robots. Try listening to one of Major Nelson’s podcasts and see if you hear the difference (heck he even interviews a VP in that one).
Blogging my favorite band
Tonight I discovered a new blog following my favorite band’s summer tour which recently started. It’s called The Blog That Jane Likes.
They have lyrics and MP3 downloads of 5 or 6 new songs that DMB has played since starting the tour a couple weeks ago. And before you ask, yes – downloading MP3s of DMB’s live performances is 100% legal and encouraged by the band.
And let me tell you, so many brand new songs is like Christmas for a hardcore DMB fan like myself!
Relationships and the internet.
Wired had an interesting article recently titled “The Kinsey of Clicking.” I found the various insights on how the internet affects modern relationships to be interesting. But more than that, it prompted me thinking about this topic.
At least two of my friends (Steve and Chris) met their sweethearts via Match.com. While my own dabblings haven’t been quite so fruitful, I did have some positive experiences and certainly gained a new appreciation for the medium (especially as someone who transplanted his life a few thousands miles last year).
Beyond that, the effect of IM on people my age is undeniable (even though I still consider it to be wholly impersonal). And now MySpace has taken the phenomenon started by LiveJournal to a whole new level.
It all makes me wonder just how much modern technology has influenced (both good and bad) my dating life, and whether there are some traps I should be learning to avoid. One I’ve always tried to watch out for is having IM become the primary (or exclusive) means of communication with someone I’m dating. Recent experience only reinforces that concern.
Alright, here’s the real scoop: That site redirects to www.msreadr.com – a site (plus RSS feed) that aggregates a whole bunch of Windows Live blogs!
Scoble is leaving
Yup, it’s official. I first saw the news via Chris last night. Robert had hinted pretty strongly about this possibility a liitle while back, so it’s not terribly surprising to me. It’s my understanding that several factors influenced his decision, and I can’t say I blame him for any of them.
I think there’s no doubt it’s a loss for Microsoft, and maybe somebody could have done more to keep him around. However, I think Robert has picked a reasonably good time to leave. Not because I think Microsoft has trouble ahead – quite the contrary. I think Robert set out to make Microsoft a better place and a better company – and I dare say he succeeded. In some sense, I think a part of Robert felt that “his work here is done.”
Still, Channel 9 won’t be quite the same without him. As for conferences and the like, I’m sure we’ll be graced by the Scobleizer’s presence courtesty of his new role at PodTech.net
Good luck Robert!