If you’ve been living under a rock lately, tech-wise, then you may not have heard about Microsoft’s attempt to compete with Apple’s iPod. Their offering, which was released last week, is called Zune. Before the announcements several months ago, there have been grumblings around the internet (for at least a year… I wrote about the rumour last December) that they may be trying something like this endeavor in an effort to cash in on the success story that the iPod has become. In fact, if this is your first time at this blog, read the entry I did about two weeks ago… something about a certain jackass CEO of a certain music company that had the nerve to shoot off his big mouth served up golden words of wisdom pertaining to his company’s deal with Microsoft regarding the Zune player. But I digress…

Normally, I have a lot of patience writing lengthy blog entries. However, from all that I researched about it, I could literally write a book about the new Zune player’s triumphs and shortcomings (I hope you understand I’m being really gracious saying that last line!). From the Wi-Fi capability to the draconian (compared to Apple’s FairPlay) DRM scheme, from the bigger screen to the incompatability with Microsoft’s own Plays-for-Sure DRM and its partners who use it, from the novel color assortment and different body styling (ok, I’m being facetious there!), to its own software giving new users no end of crashing and hurdle-jumping grief.

With that out of the way, I think I’ll let these links to recent articles speak for themselves:

Chicago Sun-Times: Avoid The Looney Zune

Steve’s Remote Clickr: Trade Your iPod For A Zune?

The Street.com: Microsoft’s No-Zune Zone

See a pattern emerging here?

To be fair, there are some pro-Zune reviews:

Gizmodo: Zune - First Full Review

IGN: Microsoft Zune Review

These are the only two that I could find right away but I’m sure, if you just keep digging, you may find more good reviews. Be prepared, though, to wade through a lot of so-so to bad reviews. Let’s face it: CNN actually had its own commentary about the Zune player, and the reviewer along with the two anchors are trying to figure out how good it is. Then one of the anchors whips out her iPod Shuffle and it makes everyone’s eyes grow wide through the cool factor alone… well, it doesn’t look promising for Microsoft or its Zune player when that happens on global television!

Before anyone says, “Well, did you actually buy a Zune and try it out before writing this drivel??”, there’s a few things I’ll say about that argument. One, I’m not a member of the press, so Microsoft doesn’t have any incentive to send me a Zune for review purposes. Two, I’m just a blue-collar working stiff and, though I love technology as much as the next techie, I can’t blow my money on every gadget that comes out. Three, refer back to my previous article about UMG and Microsoft; I’d rather spend my hard-earned cash on a new iPod than give a dollar to that unholy partnership!

Personally, as I had told a friend of mine earlier, I had expected much more from one of the world’s most powerful tech companies. I’m actually sad to say I’m quite disappointed.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Zune, iPod, DAP Reviews

Happy Turkey Day, everyone!!

I hope everyone had their fill of whatever it was you or your families cooked up. I know I sure did! Truth be told, I’m not much of a turkey person. I go for all the other stuff, especially the ham and lamb dishes!

Of course, it’s not about the food, though a feast is almost obligatory. This day should give everyone the impetuous to be thankful for their families and everything else that makes our lives easier or more special. If one has a roof over their head and food to eat, then they are truly blessed. If one is a believer, then this day is certainly a day to especially thank God for that very blessing.

I’m very thankful for everything that makes up my world. I’m also thankful that I have the day off tomorrow, though I had a big hand in the scheduling of this week! I’ll write some more then. I feel bad that I didn’t write for the last ten days; there was actually a lot to write about. I’ll make up for it, trust me!

Cheers! [belch!]

Remember the entry back in the beginning of October when I was suffering a rash of migraines that were so bad, it prompted me to make a special category in my blog specifically for these little monsters? Well, the cool thing about that month was that the next week after that entry was my vacation from work.

Usually I get migraines from one every two months to two a month. That whole string of migraines was certainly related to stress and sleep deprivation from work. During vacation, I didn’t suffer at all. Better still, the weeks at work so far have been free of head pounders. So, it seems tension headaches will trigger migraines in me if the stress level is bad enough.

Anyways, the week after vacation, I went to a general care doctor, seeing as I haven’t established a PCP in this state since I moved here 3 years ago! I told him my problems, he ran some tests (they had to break out the EKG), and concluded slight hypertension. He gave me a low-level beta blocker called Propranolol, which is also used to prevent moderate cases of migraines, and told me to go get a cholesterol screening. Also, I need to establish a cardiologist out here (fun, fun!).

After that visit, on my following work days up until now, I haven’t taken the medicine. I wanted to give myself some time to get used to the beta blocker’s side effects. I had to take Coreg several years ago, and I remember it making me very legarthic. I hated it! At work, I’m known for my speed and urgency. I don’t like the idea of anything slowing me down! However, this last week I’ve been under more and more pressure and, last Thursday while at work, I had a tension headache going into the red-line territory.

So… now I’m taking the Propranolol. I’ll see how I do at work and how good it may be in controlling the threat of migraines. If it starts slowing me down too much, or giving me any problems in driving a car or powered equipment, I’ll have to tell the doc that it’s a no -go.

Whosoever reads this around the post time, please pray for me! Hopefully, I’ll do fine on this stuff.

Tags: Migraines, Propranolol, Esoterik, Beta Blockers

Ever since Napster 1.0 and the shutdown of that revolutionary P2P app, the music industry has been falling over themselves trying to implement a grand scheme of encoding music with DRM (digital rights management). Once music is encoded with, say, Apple’s FairPlay DRM, the music files will only play on Apple computers that have that user’s permission (5 maximum) and iPods that are recognized by those systems as belonging to that network. There are several DRM lockdown schemes, and all are required of the tech companies to implement as per the DCMA agreement that the RIAA was heavily involved with.

Now, for the last year or so, there were insistent grumblings throughout the music industry that the RIAA and/or the Big Four of the record companies were somehow entitled to a cut of, get this… Apple’s iPod profits! As you may well imagine, this was scoffed at by and large as the baby-ish whinings of music execs that aren’t somehow content with the revenue that Apple’s iTMS sales pull in for the music industry and artists. The theory these execs have is that, since some music is still shown to be pirated off P2P networks and acquired for free, and then being played on these ¹ultra-popular iPods and being harbored on said devices, that entitles them to a cut of the player’s profit line. Never mind the fact that there’s many ways to apply this illogical thinking in other areas of tech and business… and the fact that these ideas would be laughed out of boardrooms and courts as fast as they were spewed out of mind.

Here’s the meat of the matter (finally, you say!). Microsoft is pitting themselves in direct competition with Apple on the portable media player front by releasing their ZUNE player this coming Tuesday, November 14th. During their talks with Universal Music, it was decided that Microsoft will get the rights to sell the music if they allow Universal a one dollar profit on every ZUNE sold! Microsoft, needing this deal as Universal currently puts out 1/3 of the total music sold in the US alone, said yes sir to that. In a recent article on Billboard.com, Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Doug Morris stated the reason for this bas-aackwards draconian tactic:

“These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it… So it’s time to get paid for it.”

By this, I think it’s safe for us all to assume, he meant all portable MP3 players, including all models of iPods.

Wait a second, Mr. Morris sir! Did I somehow miss some facts here?? Did UMG somehow have a small team of software and hardware manufacturers work with Microsoft’s XBox division in creating the ZUNE player? Did UMG subsidize the MS R&D department in its tireless ZUNE endeavors? Did you even have a hand in creating whatever DRM encoding MS is going to be using this time around, now that Microsoft’s very own “Plays-For-Sure” DRM isn’t going to be used on the ZUNE?

Let’s have some more common sense questions, more food for the brain! Since laptops and desktop computers can potentially harbor pirated music, are you going to demand a cut of computer sales, too?! And while we’re talking about potentials here, are you insisting that all iPod and other MP3 player owners are thieves?! That is a mighty big assumption there, Mr. Douglas Morris. One that Steve “MonkeyBoy” Ballmer made a little over a year ago, and created a backlash within the press that eventually made him regret making that statement² and yet he still didn’t apologize for, even though it pushed away many Mac users who might have once considered buying a Microsoft product.

I’ll be honest and say that, yes, I do have some music downloaded off LimeWire. I’m a thief, and it’s not justifiable, even though I buy the music later if I’m impressed with the artist to get the whole album. I don’t like investing in a band or artist if I’m not going to like them. However, there are people who have the money to burn that have no pirated music on their players or computers: all the music is either bought online then downloaded with the necessary DRM anti-piracy encodes, or ripped from the owner’s CDs. Is UMG that insistent about this issue… to make the supposed “piracy money” off the people who are truly innocent? I’m ashamed enough of the music industry as it is; I didn’t need another excuse, Mr. Morris. His words and ethics in this earn him The Esoterik Blog’s “Idiot Of The Week” award.

There’s an interesting rebuttal of this issue on MacDailyNews, where I originally found out about this.

Oh, one more thing. I’ll stop downloading music to try out, to see if I’ll like the artist in the long run, when labels like UMG will get a clue and stop signing “artists” like Fergie, whos album Fergalicious (A&M Records) I wouldn’t waste a cent on the bandwidth to download any of the songs! That’s just my 2�… I know everyone’s entitled to their own tastes.

¹ For nearly two years, Apple’s iPod has dominated 75% of the total portable MP3 player market.
² Sorry. I did the research and I didn’t see any signs that he regretted his words. Jerk!

Technorati Tags: Idiots, UMG, Universal, Doug Morris, Zune, Microsoft

I cruise the web a lot and see/read lots of articles, just like many other people I know. I have Safari to let me know what RSS feeds have updated on my favorite news sites such as ABC News, TUAW, MacDailyNews and other blogs and newsworthy stuff. I’m not the most well-read blogger, by any stretch, but I get by with the help of fellow bloggers around the ‘net.

Well anyways, the über-blogger and tech pundit John Gruber (of the Daring Fireball blog) reads many interesting things too, and reports on his blog using a well-refined writing style that is diplomatic at best, but uses brute force when necessary to make a point. Every week, from his research, he writes up an entry for what he calls “Jackass Of The Week”. In fact, last month being so newsworthy with all the inane BS in both politics and techworld, he actually stated that his “jackass stamp is running out of ink!”.

I fully credit Mr. Gruber for the inspiration for me to create a new category on my blog. Please welcome my “Idiot Of The Week” category. Every week, I’ll save a few articles to review on Saturday and write up an entry worthy of the recipient that I choose. My next entry will be for the first recipient of this little-known award, so stay tuned!

Hopefully my idiot stamp won’t run out of ink too soon but, from the way things are going, I may have to get some extra stamp pads. Just in case…

Cheers!

Tags: Idiots, John Gruber, Daring Fireball