This year was better for the family get-togethers than last year was. Last Christmas, more than half of the family got really sick from one of the earlier family gatherings. They encouraged us to stay home and keep well. Well, this year we definitely made up for that, at least on Christine’s side. The downside to all this is that I couldn’t see anyone on my side of the family. I’m thankful for phone conversations, but I do miss everyone that I couldn’t see this year. Also, I’m thankful that this year’s holiday didn’t have any bad surprises (ie. deaths) to mar future memories. This seems to happen to more families than I care to think about. All in all, I’m just thankful, and that is one of the main points of the holiday, as it is a gift in itself.

Now that I’ve said that, it’s time to bring up the gift bag so I can talk about the cool stuff I received! Just to let you all know, the order that I’m going in does not dictate most favorite or anything like that.

First, I got a neat little toy called a Rubik’s Revolution. I say “toy”, instead of “puzzle”, because that’s really what it is. At first glance, it looks like a super-sized Rubik’s Cube, but the centers are hollowed out and have lights in them. Plus, the layers really don’t move. What is cool about it is that it is an electronic game device with six games built-in. Most of these games are themed on turning off multicolored lights within a time limit. However one game, “Pattern Panic” is fashioned like the classic Simon game where you repeat a growing pattern from memory. Another game, “Code Cracker”, has the player figure out a hidden pattern in the fewest turns possible. While this is a fun little thing, I only have two small caveats about it. One, you can reduce the volume, but there’s no way to mute it. For that reason, it stays downstairs per the wife. Two, I don’t like the fact that Rubik’s name is being used for a mere toy when that name has been synonymous with brain-busting puzzles. Still, I’ll be enjoying it for a long while.

Next, I was given an awesome box set of the second season of Doctor Who . I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have this, and it’s also a gift for both me and Christine because she loves the show, too. We have seen some of the episodes on it, but not all of them, so we’re going to have a fun time watching the unknown ones. The extras on some of the discs, I can tell, are going to be awesome. I’ve already watched the out-takes, because I really love blooper reels. There’s just something about watching your favorite actors flubbing up lines or breaking out in lunacy. Maybe after we watch all the episodes, I’ll make some episode reviews.

Also of note, I was given a CD of Lunatica’s “Fables & Dreams”. I just recently heard a few songs of theirs and I got hooked on their smoother form of Symphonic Metal. So far, the whole CD is just great and I’ll do a review of it on this site soon. Speaking of new music, we just received a late-arrival gift today for Christine: Din Fiv’s “Escape To Reality”.

We also got the usual assortment of clothing and gift cards, which are equally appreciated. However, I figured that the above mentioned items were most interesting and worth talking about in detail. I will say that the only bad thing about the DVD box set is that I’ll be tempted to get the other two season box sets later this coming year!

Cheers!

Just when I thought that 320 GB hard drive was big enough for Time Machine backups and my iTunes library, I find out that both used up nearly 120 GB’s of the space! Wow!

You just never know how much music, movies and pictures you actually have until you’re looking at the raw numbers. 16 GB of audio, 14 GB of movies and vid clips, 10 GB (roughly) of ST:Voyager and Doctor Who episodes (and that’s not including the episodes that TM backed up that aren’t converted for iTunes/iPod use!) and 2 GB of pictures. All the other GB’s include vidcasts that I made, including the raw data (iMovie files can be huge suckers!) and other PhotoShop and media projects.

Maybe I should have gotten that 500 gig drive after all!

This is just awesome! I saw the post on ABCNews.com today on what has been called “The Wilhelm Scream”. This is one of those useless trivia things that I just completely adore, mainly because I fancy myself a music and sound geek. It’s a particular scream that got so popular among Hollywood sound editors and directors, that it’s been put in around 130 movies, some of which are all-time classic films. For instance, the sound editor for all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies used this scream in every single movie from those series! Do you want more info? Just watch the mini-presentation below, courtesy of Showtime and brought to you by myself and YouTube!

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

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