I am currently a Napster-to-go subscriber. This service allows me to pay $15/month and download / transfer as much music as I want to a compatible player.

Yes, it is a rip off if I don’t continually expand my collection, because if I cancel my account, all the money I have given them becomes several hundred megabytes of useless DRM-locked bits.

That stinks, but the service is convenient, and I really had no complaints… until today.

I had a very nice collection on my old computer that I recently decided to use again – which required updating the licenses. What do you know, song after song were unplayable. The artist, or record company had decided to no longer allow the songs to be heard in their entirety without purchase. I’m only allowed to listen to the first 30-seconds of the songs.

In other words, my music collection is only safe as long as the artist and record company says so? This is ridiculuous.

What the industry doesn’t seem to understand is that the harder yoou make it to legally obtain music, and the more restrictions you place on it, the more people will seek out illegal means.

The album Once, by Nightwish is a good example. I have no desire to buy the album – most of the songs are no good. Neither am I going to pay $1.00 for a song I have essentially already paid for (and them some…). It is completely unreasonable to expect me to pay twice for something. So I wil find another way to get my songs back.

Most of my library was either from CDs or Napster. Unfortunately, more and more songs are getting the green 30-second circle, and I have to seek alternative means. I wish I didn’t have to, but I will probably cancel my membership – it has become a waste of money. Hopefully the industry will eventually get the hint – make music cheaper and easier to get, and people will be happy to pay for it.

I thought it was an annoying nucleus feature, but I guess I was wrong. Apparently, most blog software packages think the authors should have to hunt down the admin link, then hunt down the new-post link in order to make a new post.

Is this really what people want? WHY!!

I do not understand why they would not put a new post link in an easy to find location when you are logged in, and I do not understand why I should have to customize the code just to get such a link.

Blarg.

I have moved to a new host.

Total Choice Hosting has been my host since 2002 I think – it’s been a long time. But alas, I was won over by the wares of another — dreamhost.

I pay a little bit more, but I get tons more – and without the unpleasant aftertaste. Most importantly, I get shell access to my account, and I can host multiple domains.

I have three of them right now, I have to decide what to do with them. I was considering moving the blog type posting craziness to another domain, as shulerent was supposed to be a semi-serious starting point for my devious plans of world domination. It turned into a blog, and I don’t like blogs – I once despised the term ‘blog’.

But the world turns, seasons change, the inevitable inevitably occurs and… I have to accept the the phrase.

While having a discussion with my Mother, I learned that she was unaware of the vast history this blog contains – going all the way back to the beginning. Nucleus’ historical posts can only be viewed by month – so looking to the past can be a real pain.

I am in the process of converting to WordPress. It’s much nicer, and MUCH better supported. You can sample the system at http://www.deviatone.com.

Now I must watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and cry like a sissy girl.

Dispite her apparent distaste for the thing while it is cleaning, she seems to have taken a liking to it:

And for old times sake, here is my little man and Mollybear. This is the last picture I have of him before he died.

Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Act of 2007

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face — forever.”
— George Orwell, 1984

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-CnchIjtaY

This should be a link to a funny sonic commercial. A commercial that Sonic has to pay TV stations more money than I’ll ever see at once to play several times per day. They are really good commercials, and I like watching them.

But it is not a commercial. Apparently allowing people to download an advertisement of their own free will is a violation of copyright. That’s right, we only get to watch commercials when we are forced to – how dare we WANT to watch a advertisement.

Their website has no contact page.

While it seems like a kind of meaningless thing, I find it absolutely frustrating. When commercials go out of circulation they dissappear entirely. You cannot pay to have access to the commercial (nor should you have to). A worthwhile piece of art is going to be lost just because some sue-crazy executive at Americas Drive In Corp. thinks they need to protect their copyright.

Copyrights are supposed to protect the ability of an artist to make money of a creative work. Not snub out the free exchange of information.