The Apple Music Store
The opening of the Apple Music Store would be a revolution, except there are too few Macs on the planet. Let's call it a Macolution for now, and when the service reaches the other 95% of the people online using PCs, we'll change it to revoluton. Ok? That said, The new iTunes Music Store is the most revolutionary thing I've seen in the online music scene since Napster. It is not perfect. There are planty of missing songs. (For now.) They use the format AAC instead of MP3. (And they claim it isn't just because it is not a common PC format.) There are other things wrong with it, too. But despite it all, this is the first legitimate online music business (note: business, not service) that has a chance of making it and an equal chance of making a difference in the way people use music, both on- and and offline.
200,000 songs and counting.
A revolutionary music store is now open: on your computer. With the new iTunes Music Store, you can search or browse to find songs you’ve never heard, or haven’t heard in years. Preview any song for free, then download your favorites in 100% pristine digital quality with just one click for only 99˘ each.
http://www.applemusic.com
While you're there, don't forget to check out the new 30 GIG iPod. "Do the math: that’s space enough to store three weeks of music — played continuously, 24/7 — or one new song a day for the next 20 years."
Promo video
This link leads to an advertisement/video produced by Apple to explain their music service. Worht a look.
Just The Facts
Apple Music Service Offers Songs for 99 Cents
By Duncan Martell, Reuters
Apple Computer Inc.AAPL.O on Monday unveiled a service that lets music fans download songs for 99 cents each, on a Web site Apple called simple and cheap enough to compete with the free song-swap sites the record industry blames for its slump.
The Fan
Apple's New Service Beats Illegal Free Sites
Walter Mossberg, Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required)
For several years now, the music and technology industries have been casting about for a legal Internet music service that might rival the wildly popular bootleg services, like Napster and Kazaa, where songs can be grabbed for free. But the results have been dismal -- until this week.
The Devil's Advocate
Apple Music Store: The New 8-Track Tape
by John Kheit
Here's what sucks about the Apple Music Store (AMS). In a nutshell, the Digital Rights Management (DRM) doesn't strike a comfortable balance, at least not for me. The lack of discounts, lack of higher quality encoding, re-encoding requirements for device/content mobility, cumbersome DRM quirks, and monopoly reliance put a damper on an otherwise pleasant music purchasing experience. (ps: My response is here.)
The Others
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=apple
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
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Joe Queenan on the repercussions of the smoking ban
"The immediate effect was to force legions of angry, drunken smokers out into the streets where they could congregate in large angry circles and keep everybody in the neighbourhood awake until 3am complaining about not being able to smoke inside any more. New York City used to have a lot of bars. Now it is a bar."
Dying for a cigarette
The Spectator
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
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US Ambassador John Brady Keisling's Resignation Letter
Mr. Kiesling is a career diplomat who has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca toYerevan.
Posted by To Colin Powell on March 04, 19103 at 11:49:56:
February 27, 2003
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from my position as Political Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March 7. I do so with a heavy heart. The baggage of my upbringing included a felt obligation to give something back to my country. Service as a U.S. diplomat was a dream job. I was paid to understand foreign languages and cultures, to seek out diplomats, politicians, scholars and journalists, and to persuade them that U.S.interests and theirs fundamentally coincided. My faith in my country and its values was the most powerful weapon in my
diplomatic arsenal.
It is inevitable that during twenty years with the State Department I would become more sophisticated and cynical about the narrow and selfish bureaucratic motives that sometimes shaped our policies. Human nature is what it is, and I was rewarded and promoted for understanding human nature. But until this Administration it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer.
The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.
The sacrifice of global interests to domestic politics and to bureaucratic self-interest is nothing new, and it is certainly not a uniquely American problem. Still, we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam. The September 11 tragedy left us stronger than before, rallying around us a vast international coalition to cooperate for the first time in a systematic way against the threat of terrorism. But rather than take credit for those successes and build on them, this Administration has chosen to make terrorism a domestic political tool, enlisting a scattered and largely defeated Al Qaeda as its bureaucratic ally. We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government. September 11 did not do as much damage to the fabric of American society as we seem determined to so to ourselves. Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model, a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction in the name of a doomed status quo?
We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners. Even where our aims were not in question, our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle East, and in whose image and interests. Have we indeed become blind, as Russia is blind in Chechnya, as Israel is blind in the Occupied Territories, to our own advice, that overwhelming military power is not the answer to terrorism? After the shambles of post-war Iraq joins the shambles in Grozny and Ramallah, it will be a brave foreigner who forms ranks with Micronesia to follow where we lead.
We have a coalition still, a good one. The loyalty of many of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this Administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials. Has "oderint dum metuant" really become our motto?
I urge you to listen to America's friends around the world. Even here in Greece, purported hotbed of European anti-Americanism, we have more and closer friends than the American newspaper reader can possibly imagine. Even when they complain about American arrogance, Greeks know that the world is a difficult and dangerous place, and they want a strong international system, with the U.S. and EU in close partnership. When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us, it is time to worry. And now they are afraid. Who will tell them convincingly that the United States is as it was, a beacon of liberty, security, and justice for the planet?
Mr. Secretary, I have enormous respect for your character and ability. You have preserved more international credibility for us than our policy deserves, and salvaged something positive from the excesses of an ideological and self-serving Administration. But your loyalty to the President goes too far. We are straining beyond its limits an international system we built with such toil and treasure, a web of laws, treaties, organizations, and shared values that sets limits on our foes far more effectively than it ever constrained America's ability to defend its interests.
I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S. Administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share.
Saturday, April 26, 2003
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Nina Simone ... The High Priestess of Soul ... has died.
Jazz and soul singer Nina Simone, famed for her civil rights songs and interpretations of gospel, ballads and George Gershwin, has died at her home in the south of France. She was 70 years old.
Nina Simone, 70, Soulful Diva and Voice of Civil Rights, Dies
NYTimes Obituary (free registration required)
Samples: Music by Nina Simone
Listen to excerpts of "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl," "Four Women," and Ne Me Quitte Pas" from "Nina Simone Sings the Blues" by Nina Simone.
NYTimes.com (free registration required)
Lyrics: I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl
- Nina Simone
I want a little sugar
in my bowl
I want a little sweetness
down in my soul
I could stand some lovin'
Oh so bad
Feel so lonely and I feel so sad
I want a little steam
on my clothes
Maybe I could fix things up
so they'll go
Whatsa matter Daddy
Come on, save my soul
Drop a little sugar in my bowl
I ain't foolin'
Drop a little sugar in my bowl
Well I want a little sugar
in my bowl
Well I want a little sweetness
down in my soul
You been acting strangely
I've been told
Move me Daddy
I want some sugar in my bowl
I want a little steam
on my clothes
Maybe I can fix things up so they'll go
Whatsa matter Daddy
Come on save my soul
Drop a little sugar in my bowl
I ain't foolin'
Drop some sugar- yeah- in my bowl.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
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http://www.grub.org/
Monday, April 21, 2003
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 failed attempt to audblog easter church bells from hotel room window in venice. oh well ... it was a nice thought, right?
Sunday, April 20, 2003
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office sceptics ... audblog audio post
Thursday, April 17, 2003
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Did CNN Turn Up The Boos During Michael Moore's Speech?
i-Boy doesn't blog politics, generally speaking. While many people have made a political issue of Moore's speech (and for good reason, since it was pretty damn political), I'd like to focus on the accuracy in reporting theme.
Most people know that some news orgs (Fox, for example) are slanted. Fine with me (freedom of the press, anyone?), as long as you're fair, upfront and honest about it. For example, when Fox covered the war protests in NYC, they went so far as to post the following messages on the news ticker rimming the Fox headquarters on Sixth Avenue:
'War protester auditions here today ... thanks for coming!'
'Who won your right to show up here today?'
'Protesters or soldiers?'
'How do you keep a war protester in suspense? Ignore them....'
'Attention protesters: the Michael Moore Fan Club meets Thursday at a phone booth at Sixth Avenue and 50th Street.'
Do I like this? Well ... not really.
Should Fox have the right to do it? Absolutely.
Can I change the channel? Yes.
Can I and others write about it? Obviously ...
CNN is sensationalist, but most people think they don't cheat.
I don't know about you, but I can hear a noticeable difference between the live broadcast and the news report on CNN. That's to say nothing about the tone and character of the reporting. Tampering with Moore's speech is not a good thing. It sets a dangerous precedent. This should be stopped. Someone should be fired for this, and the network should fess up.
ABC's Live Audio vs. CNN's Re-broadcast
go to: www.lisarein.com
Thursday, April 17, 2003
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the book club in vienna
Saturday, April 05, 2003
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