Vista, Micro$oft, and DRM

On February 13, 2007, in tech, by mugen

From Schneier, the man himself when it comes to security:

Windows Vista includes an array of “features” that you don’t want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They’ll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won’t do anything useful. In fact, they’re working against you. They’re digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry.

And you don’t get to refuse them.
[…]
Microsoft put all those functionality-crippling features into Vista because it wants to own the entertainment industry. This isn’t how Microsoft spins it, of course. It maintains that it has no choice, that it’s Hollywood that is demanding DRM in Windows in order to allow “premium content”–meaning, new movies that are still earning revenue–onto your computer. If Microsoft didn’t play along, it’d be relegated to second-class status as Hollywood pulled its support for the platform.

It’s all complete nonsense.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows.html

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P2P: no impact on album sales? EMI dumps DRM

On February 13, 2007, in Music, tech, by mugen

Well now. Isn’t this interesting? A recent study shows that even though album sales (which actually means SHIPPED, not SOLD) dropped by 80 million units, P2P probably only accounts for only 6 million of them. That’s excellent… and it reveals another HUGE problem with the music industry, in that they base everything on shipped units, not true sales.

It’s timely, given this study and Jobs’s comments last week and Schneier’s commentary on Vista, that EMI is moving toward dropping DRM altogether.

(For full disclosure, too… There have been issues with DRM and media with Macintosh computers for a long time. There are limits in Quicktime (especially copying still frames and clipping video), obviously there’s the DRM in iTunes, and other issues. None of these is as insidious nor as bloated as what Vista appears to be doing.)

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Steve Jobs on DRM

On February 6, 2007, in Music, tech, by mugen

Steve Jobs doesn’t like DRM any more than you do. Good points about CDs, licensing Fair Play, and why DRM isn’t working.

(ok, so maybe Jobs likes it more than you do since it’s the only way the iTunes Store can stay in business…)

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crushing

On January 10, 2007, in Music, by mugen

These lyrics destroy me. Every time. Since I was 17:

“I feel her gently sighing as the evening slips away.
If only you knew what’s inside of me now
You wouldn’t want to know me somehow”

The tremble in his voice, at once vulnerable and rising in power as he sings. God.

Thank you, Julie, for that tape, because the real gift was those moments when I can’t see during that song.

(“Never Comes the Day” by The Moody Blues)

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Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music:

“[I]t was once considered unseemly to listen to the phonograph alone. It was considered the equivalent of drinking liquor alone or talking to yourself. This sounds crazy, but it actually makes sense. Before the phonograph, listening to music was something done almost exclusively as a communal activity. It was hardly possible to listen to music alone.”

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Best Fucking Songs Ever

On July 15, 2005, in Music, song, by mugen

“Demon” — Scheer
“Pure Morning” — Placebo
“IDL” — Doubting Thomas
“Sick of Myself” — Matthew Sweet
“Duvet” — Boa
“Plowed” — Sponge
“Vasoline” — Stone Temple Pilots
“Only Love Can Break Your Heart” — St. Etienne featuring Moira Lambert
“Wait and Bleed” — Slipknot
“Tin Omen” — Skinny Puppy
“You Know What You Are” — Ministry
“Cuts You Up” — Peter Murphy
“Mr. Brightside” — The Killers
“Under the Milkyway Tonight” — The Church
“Rocket Queen” — Guns N’ Roses
“The Sweetness” — Jimmy Eat World
“Ulysses” — Dead Can Dance
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” (original) — The Police
“Rubber Glove Seduction” — PTP
“Bring the Noise” — Public Enemy
“Shamrocks and Shenanigans” (Butch Vig Remix) — House of Pain
“Negative Creep” — Nirvana
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” — U2
“Beers, Steers, and Queers” — Revolting Cocks
“Get Down, Make Love” — NIN (cover)
“Like a Prayer” — Bigod 20 (cover)
“Make Me a Mixtape” — The Promise Ring
“Butyric Acid” — Consolidated
“Creep” — Radiohead
“Keep Myself Awake” — Black Lab
“Transylvanian Concubine” — Rasputina
“Anarchy in the U.K.” — Sex Pistols
“How Soon is Now” — anyone but The Smiths
“6 Underground” — Sneaker Pimps
“I’m Free” — Soup Dragons (cover)
“Paint It Black” — The Rolling Stones
“Eddie Hook” — Tad
“Paranoid” — Clay People (cover)
“Slayed” — Overseer
“Solsbury Hill” — Peter Gabriel
“Sand” — Einstürzende Neubäuten (cover)
“A Lonely Chord” — Tsunami Bomb
“South Texas Deathride” — The Union Underground
“Something Good” — Utah Saints
“Temple of Dreams” — Messiah
“Fun with Drugs” (remix) — Velvet Acid Christ
“Add It Up” — Violent Femmes
“Hobo Humping Slobo Babe” — Whale
“Opiate” — Tool
“Bitches” — Mindless Self Indulgence
“Grave Wisdom” — Skinny Puppy
“Busy” — Jawbreaker
“She’s My Ex” — ALL
“Ich Bin Ein Auslander” — Pop Will Eat Itself
“Jane Says” — Jane’s Addiction
“Milquetoast” — Helmet
“Clint Eastwood” — Gorillaz
“Love” — Gearwhore
“My Favorite Game” — Cardigans
“The Touch” — Heather Nova (cover)
“Waiting Room” — Fugazi
“Your Silent Face” — New Order
“Southside” — Moby
“Dig Up Her Bones” — Misfits
“Skulls” — Lemonheads (cover)
“Fade to Black” — Metallica
“Torpedoes” — MDFMK
“Godlike” — KMFDM
“Tourniquet” — Marilyn Manson
“Charlotte” — Kittie
“Zerospace” — Kidney Thieves
“Cemetery Gates” — Pantera
“Birthday” — Sugar Cubes
“Kerosene” — Big Black
“Rusty Cage” — Soundgarden
“Movies” — Alien Ant Farm
“Wreath of Barbs” — :Wumpscut:
“One for the Mockingbird” — Cutting Crew
“Zoolook” — Jean Michel Jarre
“Linda Linda” — Blue Hearts
“More Than a Feeling” — Boston

That’ll do for now.
What’re yours?

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Concert-Going

On April 13, 2005, in Concert, Music, by mugen

Fugazi (dayton twice, Raleigh, NC)
They Might Be Giants (twice in DeKalb, IL)
Elvis Costello (Raleigh, NC)
The Violent Femmes (Cincinnati twice, DeKalb)
Jane’s Addiction (Toledo and Lollapalooza I in Cleveland*)
Skinny Puppy (Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago twice)
Slipknot (Chicago twice)
Lamb of God + Shadows Fall (Chicago)
Ruby (Chicago)
Black Sabbath (Ozzfest, Chicago)
Sponge (DeKalb)
Pigface (Cleveland twice, Detroit, Chicago)
White Zombie (Detroit twice)
Metric (Chicago)
The Chieftans (Chicago)
Einstürzende Neubauten (Chicago)
Diamanda Galas (Kent State?)
The Pixies (Oberlin, OH)
Mighty Mighty Bosstones (Cleveland)
Sinead O’Connor (Columbus)
ALL (Columbus, Cincinnati)
Tool (Detroit; Raleigh; Ames, IA)
Rammstein + Godhead (northern Indiana)
Metallica (Detroit)
Soul Asylum (DeKalb)
The Breeders (Detroit)
Pantera (Detroit, with White Zombie)
Anything Box (Chicago)
VNV Nation + Haujobb (Chicago)
Gorillaz (Chicago)
North Mississippi Allstars (DeKalb)
Cowboy Mouth (DeKalb)
Gravity Kills (DeKalb)
Nine Inch Nails (Cincinnati, Lollapalooza I in Cleveland)
Liz Phair (Greenville, NC)
Marilyn Manson (Chicago, Raleigh)
Frank Black (Chapel Hill, NC)
Coal Chamber + Disturbed (Chicago)

Big Festivals
Lollapalooza in Cleveland (Jane’s Addiction*, NIN, Living Colour, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Ice-T with BodyCount, but I didn’t watch Butthole Surfers or Rollins Band)

Lollapalooza 2 in Cleveland (Lush, Jesus and Mary Chain, Soundgarden, Ice Cube, Ministry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I didn’t watch Pearl Jam)

Lollapalooza 3 in Detroit (Rage Against the Machine, Front-242, Babes in Toyland, Fishbone, Arrested Development, Dinosaur Jr. [yawn], Alice in Chains, Primus, Tool on the sidestage)

Lilith Fair in Columbus (Sinead O’Connor, Indigo Girls, Natalie Merchant, but Sarah Maclachlan was sick)

Ozzfest 2001 (Black Sabbath, Linkin Park, Crazy Town [ugh!], Papa Roach, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Mudvayne, Disturbed, Godhead, Otep, Union Underground, Nonpoint)

*Perry Ferell held my hand all the way thru “Standing in the Shower…Thinking”

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Scrobble

On February 14, 2005, in tech, by mugen

Dean hooked us up with his AudioScrobbler chart and turned me on to the service. Here’s my scrobble which is just a list of the songs I listened to at work today. I’m getting a new machine at home soon (probably a MacMini), so I’ll add the plugin there, too.

Dean’s old blog has died and so the original link is now linkrot. Dean’s stuff is now here: http://www.spipmusic.com/

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Honest Mistake

On January 23, 2005, in Music, song, by mugen

I was listening to WOXY last night via iTunes and heard “Honest Mistake” by The Bravery, and it’s a damn good song. Get you some.

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The RIAA and MPAA can bite me

On November 24, 2004, in Music, by mugen

I just ordered the FLCL DVD box set with 2 graphic novels. The reason? Anime music videos and episodes in WMV, AVI, and MPEG formats, all downloaded via Limewire. I’ve also purchased DVDs of Invader Zim and CDs by Overseer, Luxt, and Kill Hannah because of downloads. So fuck off, you calcified, outdated pricks. Get with the 21st Century. And the rest of us should support efforts like Weed, if we can.

(UPDATE 2012: Weed has suspended operations due to incompatibility issues with various media players. Very sad. Hopefully they’ll find a way to keep up the good fight.)