Austin Web Designer - Adam Freetly

current tune: minus the bear - fine + 2 pts.
i got my MCX update in the mail, finally. popped it in to install it, and got the media center setup screen. after checking "agree" on the license agreement, the setup screen closed, and it sent me to validate my copy of windows. ugh. in order to receive the update, i had to validate my xbox and my MCX software/game/whatever it's called. microsoft has really been pissing me off lately. granted, the validation program is still in beta, so i could have just opted out of it.
anyway, after that, a ~9MB installer downloaded and ran. finished with prompting me to restart.
remembering what the tech had said on my last phone call, i ran the setup disc again, to get to the point where it prompts me for the 8 digit code, before sticking the game disc in the xbox. this time, no prompt for a license agreement, it just starts installing something off the disc. apparently this was a 2-part install, but that wasn't terribly well noted.
so i got to the 8 digit code part, and popped in the game disc. the xbox connected without a hitch, so i wound up cancelling out of setup on the pc. whatever, now all my VBR mp3's play properly, including "under the pink" and the cowboy bebop movie soundtrack.about the music
with the update disc, there was a gift certificate for 5 downloads from music.msn.com. whee. i decided to go for the new(-ish) minus the bear ep, minus the last song, since it's 6 songs long. they're playing with straylight run, spitalfield, and gratitude on the 8th, so i wanted to know the new stuff before the show. i knew the music would have drm restrictions, but what the heck, it's free.
i didn't know that neither sony's sonic stage/connect software nor realplayer 10 wouldn't be able to validate said DRM, thus making me unable to transfer the songs to my minidisc. this is mainly a complaint to sony, since they don't make their netMD drivers comply with microsoft's "Portable Media Device" standard. especially when they sell media centers. i thought the point was for these things to work like appliances, not for you to have to open another app everytime you want to do something?
gargh.
here's where i start preaching. we'll start with some reference links:
the state of the industry
how things could evolve
why the industry should want things to evolve
my last rant on the subject
buying DRM music is giving up something. you have rights to make yourself infinite copies of your cd's and records. you don't have to "check in" your mix tapes when you're done with them. not so with copy-protected *.wma or *.m4a tracks. but we get nothing back from this trade off. no price cut, no improved quality, nothing. pay as much or more than hard-copy prices for something with less sound quality, that you have less right to use. why would we?
i understand that right now, it's not possible for these "stores" to give everyone their share of the pie (see reference link #1) for less than $0.99 per song. so how about... better quality? come on, would it really be that hard for them to give us lossless files? both microsoft and apple are touting their new ultra hi-fi codecs, why not use them? i won't buy DRM music until it comes at unapologetic, no holds barred 24-bit 96Khz quality. there's no reason it shouldn't. but the record companies won't do it. because they're too lazy. it doesn't make any sense. pay more get less? fuck that. fuck them.
in the end, i couldn't get the files to transfer to my minidisc player, so since it's a minidisc player, not an ipod, i hooked it up to the optical output on my computer and dubbed it, old skool. 1998 > 2005