iTunes and Pepsi have teamed up again, and I’m once again in the possession of a code for a free song that I can’t redeem due to this little thing called the official rules and “Section 9.” So, like last year, I’m putting the code in the comments, and I expect whoever redeems it to tell us what they purchased and why. Heck, give us a review of the song! It’s free!
Author: josh
Protect vs. Create
I use a Mac. I’ve been using email and browsing the web on my Mac for at least 10 years now. (Well, okay, I sometimes stop to sleep, eat, and go to the bathroom.) I have never used any virus-checking software or spyware removal software, and I have never had any viruses or spyware. That’s because there are no viruses and no spyware that have affected the Mac. The Mac has been completely immune to everything that has ever been out there.
Google Maps
Be sure to check out the new Google Maps service. Those guys are doing things with Javascript that I had no idea were possible. They are absolute wizards of the web. You can use it to simply see a map of an area, or get driving directions, and probably a few other things I haven’t discovered yet. It looks like a really beautiful, useful service. (Very unfortunately, Safari isn’t supported yet, so if you’re on Mac OS X, consider Firefox for now.)
Obi-Hen Kenobi
I’m not intending this blog to become some kind of shrine to Henson, my miniature dachshund. I admit I’ve been writing about him more than usual lately. I don’t intend to, it’s just that he’s so dang naughty! Someone has to tell you these stories, and I figure that someone is me.
Tonight we moved the kitty litter box outside onto the patio in the back of our house, under an awning. The cat knows how to use the little pet door we installed, and she is perfectly capable of going out whenever she likes, so that shouldn’t be an obstacle for her getting kitty business done. We moved it there because we needed somewhere to keep Henson’s kennel, now that we’re going to begin using it again. Henson is just uncontrollable when he’s at home alone. We’ll come back to find food gotten into and ripped apart, things from our bags strewn about the living room (thankfully unmauled) in the hopes of finding gum or some other treasure, and occasionally there will be an accident in the house. When we bought a little gate to put between the kitchen and the rest of the house so we could limit Henson’s “damage zone” Henson figured out how to escape. We’re still not sure how he does it. So the kennel will be the end of that. We tried to give him freedom, he didn’t take it well, and he won’t have it again.
Tonight Henson made his way outside and found the litterbox. Steph and I didn’t notice he’d been gone for half an hour, and when we found him, he was trapped inside the litterbox, unable to get out. We usually push it up against a wall so that only the cat can get in there, but he once again figured a way around it and got in, and trapped himself. He was covered in cat nastiness. He was immediately brought inside and given a bath, and you can see the result of that bath above. Truly, a more repentant face has never been seen.
Little Design Refinements
I’ve been doing little touch-ups to this blog lately, trying to make it look better. The comments and individual entry pages are way cooler now than they were (partially because now they don’t look like a horrible afterthought). Let me know what you think. I’ll either thank you for complimenting me profusely, or ignore you completely. Either way, it’s fun!
I’ll probably be adding a new sidebar in the next week or two.
Napster’s Bad Deal
Napster’s Superbowl ad, which will air sometime in the next couple hours, encourages viewers to “do the math” on how much it will cost to fill up their MP3 player using Napster or using iTunes. Never mind the fact that the same MP3 players won’t work with both, so if you already own one…
Napster’s bait: you can get an unlimited amount of music for (only?) $15 per month. Napster hopes people will think, “Wow! I can download 100,000 songs for only $15.” And that would be true. You could technically sit there and click buttons for an entire month and download and listen to an unlimited amount of possibly-good songs. You could. Also, you can use Napster with your choice of 75 different music players! None of which are an iPod. None of which are as good as an iPod. Oh well. There’s gotta be one that’s almost as good, right? Let’s hope so.
Napster’s sharp, rusty hook: when you end your subscription, you no longer have any of the music you “purchased.” What you’re actually doing is renting your music for $15 each month. Stop paying? Stop enjoying your music. It’s that simple.
Now, let’s do some real math.
Let’s say you purchase 8000 songs online. That’s about 800 albums worth of music, all purchased online. That’s more than one album each month for the rest of my natural life. I’d say that’s pretty realistic for a lifetime of music buying. It’s even a liberal amount. I’d bet most people never own that much music. I totally love music and I own only about 2400 songs (not counting speeches, audiobooks, etc). Mind you, the number I’m quoting here is 8000 songs on top of the music you already own on CD. It’s all the music you’ll buy online in the future. I know a few people who have 6000 or 7000 legally-obtained songs, but just a few. It’s certainly not the norm. (If you’re stealing music, you don’t even need to bother with these equations because all your music is free. But don’t steal music.)
Now, consider this: I plan on living for another 60 years. That’s what I’m shootin’ for. I would like to be able to listen to this music any time I want up until the moment I die. Maybe even while I’m dying. Why not? It’s my music.
How much would this plan cost me with iTunes? Well, 8000 songs at $0.99 each would be about $7,920 for a lifetime of music. How much would this plan cost with Napster? Well… 60 remaining years of life times 12 months a year times $15 a month is… $10,800 for a lifetime of music renting. Surprise! It looks like iTunes wins by a wide margin! And if you buy less than 8000 songs, iTunes’ margin widens by even more than what it is in this example. In fact, assuming a remaining lifespan of 60 years, you’ll have to purchase over 10,692 songs to break even with what iTunes gives you. That’s not taking into account that, on iTunes, groups of songs bought as albums are usually much cheaper, you can get a new free song each week, etc, etc.
Now think about this: what if Napster goes out of business? What happens to your music, the music you thought you owned? I don’t even want to risk it. What if I want to burn my music to CD? Napster charges me extra. What if I wanted to be able to pass my music collection on to my kids and grandkids, as I think most people would? Then the fee goes up, up, up. iTunes’ prices stay right where you left them, and you can burn your music to CD or do pretty much whatever you want with it for no extra charge.
Now, combine that with the fact that Napster doesn’t work with the most popular MP3 player on the planet (and most popular for a very good reason) and… why would I use Napster, again? Oh, I know! If I’m terminally ill it’s a great deal! Honestly, if I find out tomorrow that I have cancer (which honestly, I may, because cancer has claimed so many in my family) and I’ve got a year to live, I’m totally going with Napster. So maybe Napster should change their slogan:
Napster: the music service for the elderly and terminally ill!
Sweet.
Update: Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I put up a quick-n-dirty Napster & iTunes Price Calculator just so you could all play around with your own set of figures.
Dog Door Difficulties
My dog Henson is so stupid. He’s also very evil, but that’s a separate topic altogether. Let me tell you how stupid he is. This photograph, to the right, is his dog door. We installed it so that he would be able to get outside and go to the bathroom whenever he liked, and we wouldn’t have to be here to let him out. Understandably, the first night we put it in he had a difficult time figuring out why he was able to walk through the door when he wasn’t able to do that the day before. But this is something we expect all our pets to deal with; it’s not really out of the ordinary to have to show them, slowly, how your hand can pass into and through this otherworldly portal without being maimed, or how you can push the cat out, and she seems just fine on the other side. Eventually, he understood these gestures as a suggestion, and he tried it cautiously, and he liked it.
Since then, he has figured out that he can run through the door to bark at the mailman as he comes around the house, and that he can run though the door to bark at our neighbors when they come home. Those things are easy. But for bathroom purposes? No, the door isn’t for that. He can go out that door and go to the bathroom if we’re standing right there and we tell him to do it, but he can’t do it on his own. Somehow, that isn’t what the door is for. When we’re home, he will come to us with the “I have to go out” look in his eyes, and when we stand up, he takes us to the front door, the sans-doggie-door side of the house, and expects us to open it, leash him up, and let him out. He could never just go out the back and stop bugging us. No way.
Stupid dog.