Real 'Slow' Networks: no DRM, finally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Digital music seller Rhapsody is launching a $50 million marketing assault on Apple's iTunes, offering songs online and via partners including Yahoo Inc and Verizon Wireless, Rhapsody said on Monday.

The songs will be sold in MP3 format, which means users of the Rhapsody service will be able to play them on iPods.

Before now Rhapsody, jointly owned by Real Networks Inc and Viacom Inc's MTV Networks, had focused on a subscription service, allowing unlimited song streaming for $13 to $15 a month, rather than selling downloads.

I gave up on Real Networks over a year ago. The Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions and the oft repeating software glitches proved too much of a nuisance for what should have been an enjoyable experience. I want to listen to music, not struggle with it.

I dumped my stock as well.

Rhapsody is the latest player to challenge iTunes's 70 percent-plus market share of U.S. digital music sales.

Last month digital music service Napster Inc launched an MP3 store. Both Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Amazon.com Inc launched stores last year.

None of the new stores has made much of a dent on Apple's lead. Early this year iTunes became the biggest music retailer in the United States. It has sold more than 5 billion songs since it launched in 2003.

Its success has been due partly to a seamless interface between iTunes and the iPod and because it provides a good user experience [emphasis mine], said analyst David Card of Jupiter Research.<...>

Not to be sarcastic, but what would you expect?

"I think we'll see retailers begin to compete the way they usually compete with pricing, merchandising and promotions, rather than due to some arbitrary technology," Card said.

I don't have a degree in marketing. This simply sounds like common sense.


Rhapsody to challenge iTunes by embracing the iPod
By Yinka Adegoke
Mon Jun 30 2008
Reuters

You do NOT have the right to vote!

The 15th Amendment to the US Consitution states that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The 19th Amendment states that a person's sex may not be used to deny or abridge the right to vote.

But NOWHERE in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or any of the other Amendments, is the right to vote explicitly guaranteed as an actual right for any US citizen.

The Supreme Court in its recent decision of District of Columbia v. Heller gives the right of guns to DC residents (and, by extension, most US citizens). Please note, however, that DC residents do NOT have the right to vote for Congressional representation. Their right to vote for President was only granted in the 1960s granted by the 23rd Amendment.

Notions Capitol, from whom I borrowed the above graphic, has some interesting comments on the matter.

a morality lesson

Peggy Noonan, in the Wall Street Journal on Friday 20 June, offers a 'moral' analysis on the meaning of Tim Russert's life.

After Tim's death, the entire television media for four days told you the keys to a life well lived, the things you actually need to live life well, and without which it won't be good. Among them: taking care of those you love and letting them know they're loved, which involves self-sacrifice; holding firm to God, to your religious faith, no matter how high you rise or low you fall. This involves guts, and self-discipline, and active attention to developing and refining a conscience to whose promptings you can respond. Honoring your calling or profession by trying to do within it honorable work, which takes hard effort, and a willingness to master the ethics of your field. And enjoying life. This can be hard in America, where sometimes people are rather grim in their determination to get and to have. "Enjoy life, it's ungrateful not to," said Ronald Reagan.

They paved the river and put in a parking lot?

I'm no meteorologist, but ...

5 observations from the Great Midwest Flood of '08:

• "With that volume of rain, you're going to have flooding, said Donna Dubberke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "This is not just because someone put in a parking lot."
  
• Elwynn Taylor, a meteorologist at Iowa State University attributes the flooding in recent years to cyclical climate change.
  
• "We've lost 90 percent of our wetlands," said Mary Skopec, who monitors water quality for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
  
• Crop rotation may also play a subtle role in the flooding. Farmers who may have once grown a number of crops are now likely to stick to just corn and soybeans -- annual plants that don't put down deep roots.
• "Cities routinely build in the flood plain," said Kamyar Enshayan, director of an environmental center at the University of Northern Iowa. "That's not an act of God; that's an act of City Council."

Iowa Flooding Could Be An Act of Man, Experts Say
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 19, 2008; Page A01

Help at Network for Good.

Tim Russert

Tim Russert, NBC Washington, DC bureau chief, and long-time moderator of Meet The Press, has died.

Tim Russert always seemed to me the amazing combination of tough questioner --inside man of the press-- and common man, with whom you would want to have a beer.

But Mr. Russert was obviously not a common man, considering his skills, the accolades being given him, and the prominence to which he rose.

Sunday mornings at 10:30 when Meet the Press aired here in DC, my 82 year-young mother would brook no interruption while 'her Tim' was analyzing the news, and especially politics, for her.

It's too young a death that has been unfair to Tim Russert, and his family ... and to us.

Big Tim, this beer's for you.

[Read this appreciation from Peggy Noonan, who was Ronald Reagan's speechwriter.]

Hang On Little Tomato

Grow your own tomatoes ... and when you don't, buy from local farmers!

Kim O'Donnell
Washington Post
A Mighty Appetite

Are tomatoes from local growers (farmer's markets etc.) safe provided they are washed thoroughly?

The FDA has issued a very long dizzying list of domestic and international tomato spots NOT affected by the outbreak, and if you can come up with a way to make sense of it, give me a call.

Here's my personal, unscientific rule of thumb: Buy local tomatoes. Like we learned from the horrible spinach scare in 2006, the source of contamination came from industrial-scale farms (via bagged supermarket spinach), not from your local farmer's market. Here in Washington, vine tomatoes are still at least a month away, and if you do see them on display at your local market, it means they're probably from a greenhouse. But that's the beauty of going to the farmer's market -- there's a real person behind the stand available for consultation and guidance, someone who can tell you how the tomato was grown and handled.

So, to minimize your chances of eating contaminated food: Buy local and seasonal. Thoroughly wash all raw produce. And wash your hands!

Sorting Through the Tomato Pulp

----------------
Now playing: Pink Martini - Hang On Little Tomato
via FoxyTunes

The sun has left and forgotten me
It`s dark, I cannot see
Why does this rain pour down
I`m gonna drown
In a sea
Of deep confusion

Somebody told me, I don`t know who
Whenever you are sad and blue
And you`re feelin` all alone and left behind
Just take a look inside and you will find

You gotta hold on, hold on through the night
Hang on, things will be all right
Even when it`s dark
And not a bit of sparkling
Sing-song sunshine from above
Spreading rays of sunny love

Just hang on, hang on to the vine
Stay on, soon you`ll be divine
If you start to cry, look up to the sky
Something`s coming up ahead
To turn your tears to dew instead

And so I hold on to his advice
When change is hard and not so nice
If you listen to your heart the whole night through
Your sunny someday will come one day soon to you.

The rich are cooler than you or me

Fox network bloviator Bill O'Reilly announced today that we Americans should save energy by raising our summer thermostats to 71 °F.

I certainly can't afford that setting. Mine's hurting the wallet as it is set at 80°F.

The rich indeed are different than you or me. They're more comfortable this summer.

Much green needed to go green

By 2050, the world population will top nine billion. Where's the food, water, and energy going to come from?

Samuel Bodman [U.S. energy secretary] attending two days of meetings in northern Japan among energy chiefs from Group of Eight industrialized countries and other top economies, said the surge in world oil prices was largely a simple problem of supply and demand.

Production has stalled since 2005 at 85 million barrels a day, while economic growth — particularly in China and India — has pushed demand ever higher, Bodman said before a meeting of ministers from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, India and China.

"We're in a difficult position where we have a lid on production and we have increasing demand in the world," he told a small group of reporters, dismissing the effects of speculation and unclear inventory levels and other factors on oil prices.

By JOSEPH COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer Sat Jun 7

In other words, oil, as energy, is only getting to become scarcer and/or more expensive. and that's the oil-friendly Bush administration saying this.

Also this week, the International Energy Agency

put a figure on the amount it will cost to go green, and it’s a lot: $45 trillion. Even when you spread that amount over the next 42 years, it’s still more than $1 trillion annually, or more than the GDP of many industrialized nations.

Nobuo Tanaka, the agency’s executive director, gave the figure as part of a report calling for “a global energy revolution.” He called for “immediate policy action and technological transition on an unprecedented scale.” The world needed to “completely transform the way we produce and use energy.”

Some reasons why I supported Hillary Clinton

... and why I now support Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America

Senator Hillary Clinton's Concession Speech
7 June 2008

I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of. I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter's future and a mother who wants to lead all children to brighter tomorrows. To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers, and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay, and equal respect. Let us resolve and work toward achieving some very simple propositions: There are no acceptable limits and there are no acceptable prejudices in the twenty-first century.

You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the President of the United States. And that is truly remarkable. <...>

Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time. That has always been the history of progress in America.

Think of the suffragists who gathered at Seneca Falls in 1848 and those who kept fighting until women could cast their votes. Think of the abolitionists who struggled and died to see the end of slavery. Think of the civil rights heroes and foot-soldiers who marched, protested and risked their lives to bring about the end to segregation and Jim Crow.

Because of them, I grew up taking for granted that women could vote. Because of them, my daughter grew up taking for granted that children of all colors could go to school together. Because of them, Barack Obama and I could wage a hard fought campaign for the Democratic nomination. Because of them, and because of you, children today will grow up taking for granted that an African American or a woman can yes, become President of the United States.

When that day arrives and a woman takes the oath of office as our President, we will all stand taller, proud of the values of our nation, proud that every little girl can dream and that her dreams can come true in America. And all of you will know that because of your passion and hard work you helped pave the way for that day.

So I want to say to my supporters, when you hear people saying - or think to yourself - "if only" or "what if," I say, "please don't go there." Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward.

Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Senator Obama is our next President and I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort. <...>

our lives, our freedom, our happiness, are best enjoyed, best protected, and best advanced when we do work together.

That is what we will do now as we join forces with Senator Obama and his campaign. We will make history together as we write the next chapter in America's story. We will stand united for the values we hold dear, for the vision of progress we share, and for the country we love. There is nothing more American than that. <...>

I will do it with a heart filled with gratitude, with a deep and abiding love for our country- and with nothing but optimism and confidence for the days ahead. This is now our time to do all that we can to make sure that in this election we add another Democratic president to that very small list of the last 40 years and that we take back our country and once again move with progress and commitment to the future.

Thank you all and God bless you and God bless America.

Proud to be an American

This morning, I'm proud and thrilled to be American.

A divided party? Ha!

A long powerful debate strengthens democracy.

Hillary? Despite some gaffes, and her husband's diminution of his legacy, she proved herself to be one tough broad. And someone whose best days - and best days for America - are still in front of her. I have more admiration for her now than when she announced her candidacy.

But so, with 2,156 delegates to Hillary Clinton's 1,933, it is Barack Obama who will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

I am abashed today that it has been taken more than 200 years for a presidential candidate to not be judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. So I look forward to the possibility that on 20 January 2009, Barack Obama, an African-American, will be sworn in as President of the United States.

What do I think is at stake?

• the threat of religious extremism to our national security
• the threat to our lives, economy, and planet from global warming
• our increasingly dangerous dependence on foreign energy sources
  
• the threat to the viability of the middle class in the United States, due in part to the transfer of wealth to the top tier
• the decreasing economic vitality of the United States internationally
• the civil war in Iraq that we hastened- if not caused - and the concomitant enervation of our military
  
• the threats against our basic freedoms from international business and our own government
  
• good health care, not only for the wealthy.
• good education, not only for the wealthy.
  

"There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America."

HRC to suspend campaign Tuesday evening, 3 June

AP: Clinton to concede tonight

BY BETH FOUHY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation’s first female president.

The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City. She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.

Most campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.

However ...

Clinton campaign says she's not conceding

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is "absolutely not" planning to concede the campaign to Barack Obama on Tuesday night, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told CNN on Tuesday.

"No one has the number to be the nominee of the Democratic party right now," he said.

McAuliffe, asked about an AP report that Clinton will acknowledge Tuesday night after the South Dakota and Montana primaries that Obama has the delegates to clinch the nomination for the November presidential election, replied: "They are 100 percent incorrect."

I think that this may be a question of what "is" is. Suspending a campaign is a different thing than conceding a loss. I believe that Clinton will suspend active campaigning, but keep her slate of delegates intact through the convention.

Hors de combat ... Or not!