Jason Shuler's Tech Blog

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 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.

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

TNT has been pusing their new series “Saving Grace” real hard for the last month or so. They have thrown ad clips in between other shows (Law & Order, for example), and had those annoying lower-right-corner ads during other shows.

They made it sound like another crime drama involving a female investigator, with the twist that she is visited by God, or an angel or something.

So I was not interested, but since there was nothing else on, I watched it last week.

The show is on at 9:00pm – not exactly late – and it is rated TV-MA. The VERY FIRST SCENE is a bad-porn-esque sex scene that is far too revealing for a major network at 9:00pm… especially in a show that has been advertised as a respectable crime drama, during other respectable crime dramas and with a religious overtone.

They spent way too much time demonstrating how disgusting her life is (I believe that was the point), and very little showing us why we should care.
She is only an exceptional investigator insomuch as everybody else she works with are incompetent.

I was generally appalled by lack of thought TNT put into this show. Without the TV-MA rating, and completely unnecessary sex / language, (and a decent plot and believable characters…) this show could be watchable. As it is, I hope TNT gets in some kind of trouble.

So anyway, 9:00pm on Monday rolls around as it often does, and there is nothing on. I decide to give “Saving Grace” another chance…

Within the first 3 minutes she gets tobacco-spit from an angel in a tree who misses the spit bottle (I’m guessing the writers thought this would be funny?), then starts rolling around on the ground with her man-friend, her intentions obvious.

Since they presume to make a self-sustaining show out of the process of “saving” Grace, she is going to have to keep doing things requiring saving – which means that the show will continue to be a complete waste of time.