Dec 7, 2007 | blog
I talked about this a little over a year ago. I was pretty gung-ho about URGE, the music service offered by MTV and Microsoft. It seamlessly integrated into Windows Media Player 11, could be used on up to 3 computers, and sync tunes to both my Windows Mobile smartphone, and my wife’s Nokia 5300 XpressMusic as well as other "Plays for Sure" WMA media devices.
At the time, things transpired that I didn’t "pull the trigger" on the service. Now I’m glad I didn’t. Real’s Rhapsody has absorbed URGE and all the reasons I was looking at the service have evaporated. The devices I would like to use are "possibly" supported, I have to install *another* media player, and I have to manually copy the music to the devices.
Too much bullshit.
I’ll stick with buying the actual, physical CD-ROM of the artist in question and ripping the audio tracks to lossless WMA. Disk space is cheap – 1TB for $100 – and I have been using Orb for some time to spread my digital media where I want it. I’ll continue to do so.
This is the kind of crap that online services are going to do to their customer base. I can’t use the service based on their offerings, I need a service that caters to my wants and needs. I’ll keep my cash and spend it directly on the artist in question.
Maybe you’ve already figured this out, maybe you’re content with the offerings and wonder why I can’t see the value in it. I can see the potential value in online music services, but it has to be on my terms – not theirs.
Dec 4, 2007 | blog, daily links
Love these stories simply because they don’t get much press. It’s an interesting piece even if you think he’s cracked.
Great take on Microsoft strategy and possibilities of future versions of Microsoft’s OS.
More on Facebook’s Beacon.
Very cool rumer over on WinExtra.
Dec 2, 2007 | blog
Ever wonder where your enthusiasm goes after you’ve had an ‘aha!’ moment? You know, the moment when it all seems so clear. The one moment where you find the path through all the clutter, the distractions, the inhibition, the self-conscience fears?
That is (right or wrongly) what I’ve been calling the Aha! moment for myself. It’s happened more often this year than any other in my life, and it’s more frustrating then I can describe. I’m sure you’re familiar with it. I keep wondering how to leverage that moment, how to capture the thoughts. Obviously it’s time to keep a journal at hand and jot these ideas down when they come along.
I guess the big question I have is what do you do with your Aha! moments after they’ve passed? Do you try to work with the new thoughts, use them to improve yourself? Do they lead you to follow your dreams? Have you begun to question ‘why?’ a bit more because of them?
Obviously I’m asking more questions than I used to. The real measurement is if I’m growing (improving) from what I’m learning about myself and my worldview. That’s something I’ll find out later as I keep following the trail these Aha! moments reveal.
How about you – do you work to learn from your Aha! moments?
Dec 2, 2007 | blog, daily links
No matter how hard people and organizations try to make their work as understandable as possible, there will always be someone who clearly “doesn’t get it” whether intentionally or not.
Could it finally be happening? Should I convert all my albums back to MP3 from WMA? While I wholeheartedly welcome the move, my one beef with MP3 is that there are no lossless options like WMA.
For what it’s worth. I’m still an avid Firefox user.
Online picture service & Microsoft. Does this round out their basic service offerings now?
Not surprising to me – thoughts?
