sorry for the monthlong break, didn't have much to write about, nor the inclination to write without my 8 hour daily dose of cubicleness.

one thing i haven't talked about much on here is my newfound annoyance for music availability online. in an illegal underground sense, it's getting to be more and more impossible to find a particular single track for free online. i'm not knocking the idea of being able to buy a track online, hell, there's some benefits to doing it that way even. i'd agree more with the concept of buying music online *if* you could buy a track and forever own it yourself without any restrictions. as it stands now, most major online music stores use digital rights management (DRM) to prevent you from doing too much with your newly purchased audio track. it basically prevents you from playing it in certain unsupported situations (like in a linux environment or on certain portables) and limiting your ability to burn in at will. at a relatively ridiculous $1 per track, what's the advantage in buying a track online in comparison to a CD? i don't think i see the advantage.

the only way it comes in handy is if you don't want to buy the whole album, a somewhat frequent problem lately. i'm going on official record as saying that the compact disc format might as well be dead. well, at least to me it is, despite the surge in sales for 2004. they were always way overpriced (from what i've heard, they stayed that way for a decade because consumers kept buying the product) and today for anybody with any kind of forward-thinking setup they're a bottleneck.

while i think the idea of the CD is now rather antiquated, what i prefer about it is if you go to a store and actually buy an album yourself, you now *own* the music in a much less binding format. sure, you don't have the original master tapes from the studio recording, but you can do anything you want with that disc. you can copy it for a friend, you can rips only tracks 3 and 7 if you want to, back it up to your own music server at home, whatever. typically you can find a lot of major CD's for $12-13, just a few bucks more than getting the whole album digitally online. how would getting the CD not be worth the extra few bucks? because you're too lazy to drive to the store to get it? is that where you're really saving here? my point is that you're paying $10 for an album with very little stability. it looks like it's a potentially profitable business model, but i think 30 or 50 cents is more accurate for buying a single track online that you don't have 100% control over.

napster's also come out with their subscription based service, where you pay $15 a month for unlimited downloads, and if you cancel your service, BAM no more music. i think this has pros and cons, the biggest pro being that you can get as many songs as you want, giving you plenty to choose from in your personal collection. the biggest con with this has got to be that when you choose to end your service (let's face it, that's got to be at some point) you have NO music from your experience. that's essentially the same thing as renting an apartment -- you have a place to live, but as soon as you stop paying rent, it's like you never had anything at all, your investment went into a black hole. i love the idea of an ever-expanding tightly-controlled music library, but the idea of losing the whole thing if you find something else or can't pay $15 a month anymore is kind of hard to stomach.

for about 5 years now, i've been a solid music-downloader. there's always been good underground ways to get the music you hear and enjoy on the radio. i've gotten tracks from IRC, websites, napster, newsgroups, bittorrent, etc. too many crackdowns means no source is ever really pure for long enough. lately i've had to resort to newsgroups and newsgroups only for getting any kind of mp3s, with suprnova closing down its doors recently. occasionally you can still find some good stuff on IRC (it's pretty much the only source for drum-n-bass mp3s anymore) but it's really messy. the suprnova replacement eXeem might be the answer, but i'm a bit skeptical. what's funny is that right now it's easier to get a recent DVD release than a recent radio release.

if we're gonna say CDs are dead, let's just say terrestrial radio's dead too. the commercials are way too rampant now, there's not enough music-to-ads anymore. the only reason i can think of to keep it is for getting new music out to the masses, but i'm all for just doing that with satellite radio. hearing XM on our 12 hour colorado road trip and sirius everyday in the gym, you wouldn't believe how different it is to NEVER hear any annoying commercials.

and if you must know, i got my iAudio M3L the other day, and for the record, it does kick much ass. possibly considering an ipod shuffle for working out. good price for the capacity, i like how they chose not to even bother with a screen. typical apple shit though, $29 extra for the armband. still, worth considering i think. same thing with that little mac mini. although kinda deceiving in cost (doesn't include plenty, including enough RAM) it's certainly cool looking and a good idea overall. i've always wanted to have a mac (in addition to the mandatory PC), and this would prolly be the best way to get into it, if i were so inclined. thus far, i'm not really inclined, but still, worth noting...

i could go on and on, but honestly, would you read it? ;)

happy friday afternoon,
justin