Super Ginormous

Year: 2008

  • Amazon takes on Apple with DRM-Free Music

    Amazon takes on Apple with DRM-free music.

    I’ve used iTunes since it was first released in 2001. When music was first sold via iTunes, I bought into the idea right away and stopped buying CDs altogether. I didn’t care about DRM and I didn’t care about bit-rates. When they started selling TV shows, I didn’t hesitate to buy shows like Heroes, Lost, South Park and Lil’ Bush. When they started selling iTunes Plus tracks, I bought those too. The idea of paying a little more for better quality, unprotected music made sense to me.

    Then Amazon started offering DRM-free tracks, and they started offering them for less than copy-protected, lower-quality tracks on iTunes were selling for. Initially, I resisted. I told myself that nothing could work as well as iTunes. But then I tried AmazonMP3. Yeah, there’s a couple of extra steps involved in buying and downloading a track, but it’s worth the extra quality and cost savings.

    I haven’t bought from iTunes since. It’s still my player of choice, and I still get TV shows from it fairly often, but now that there’s a viable alternative for buying music, I’m not sure I can go back.

  • Nerdfest

    Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm
    View Slideshow

    Wyatt, Ian, Jenni and I made the trek to Atlanta, GA over the weekend to see Jonathan Coulton live at the Variety Playhouse. Paul and Storm were a great opening act, and Coulton did not disappoint. The show was three hours of geekiness, and I couldn’t be happier to have been in attendance. (Wyatt’s thoughts can be read here: Nerdfest 2008)

    Prior to the show, we grabbed a quick dinner at Sweet Lime, a Thai and sushi restaurant located right down the street from the Variety Playhouse. I played it safe by getting Spicy Shrimp Rolls and California Rolls, but everyone seemed to enjoy what they ordered.

    Wyatt, thanks for letting me tag along on your birthday outing. I had a fantastic time!

  • Brilliant

    The 80-20 Business Rule – Absolutely brilliant video/idea. (Hat tip: GeekMommy)

  • A More Perfect Union

    One of the most moving speeches I’ve heard.

  • Safari 3.1 Released

    Safari 3.1 Released – new version has limited support for HTML5, embedded fonts via CSS and more. It’s a pretty solid release, but much more needs to be done to reduce the memory footprint of the app on Windows.

  • Internet Addiction

    A recent editorial in the latest issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry entitled “Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction” posits that Internet Addiction should be treated as a Mental Disorder. I’m inclined to agree.

    Internet addiction appears to be a common disorder that merits inclusion in DSM-V. Conceptually, the diagnosis is a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder that involves online and/or offline computer usage (1, 2) and consists of at least three subtypes: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations, and e-mail/text messaging (3). All of the variants share the following four components: 1) excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives, 2) withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible, 3) tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use, and 4) negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue (3, 4).

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  • WordPress 2.5 Sneak Peek

    WordPress 2.5 Sneak Peek. I went ahead and upgraded to Release Candidate 1, just to test it out. So far, so good. It’s still in development, so be careful before you upgrade.

  • Paramount Adapting Dune Again

    Paramount Adapting Dune Again. As long as it doesn’t suck, I’m down.

  • Monkey See. Monkey Do.

    Radiohead hosts online video contest.

  • Radiohead offering was insincere

    Reznor: Radiohead offering was insincere, industry is inept. “…if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale.”