The Manic Mechanic

Since my last video got pah-owned for not giving 20 million dollars to 20th Century in order to run on YouTube, I will post something else instead.

It does appear that running Flash is a big drain on system resources. ;-)

Because you will do what The Jobs says.

Pee Wee gets an iPad! AAAAAAAHH! heh heh heh

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman

I finally have to raise a half-hearted cheer to Apple for finally releasing their iTunes music from the shackles of their ironically named FairPlay DRM. Millions of people have bought their music over the years from the iTunes music store and most have been pretty happy as long as they remained in the walled garden (or is that 'orchard'?) of Apple. Sure, there have always been ways to jailbreak one's tunes from the iTunes/iPod ecosphere, the easiest being to burn the purchased songs to CD then reconvert to other digital formats, but that introduces varying degrees of degradation depending on the desired outcome. There are also less-than-legal means as well, ones that strip the DRM from the songs leaving the original AAC coding generationally intact. But now that Apple has seen the light of unencombered musical nirvana, they are allowing those who have been faithful to the iTunes musical universe their own way out of the darkness.

The problem is, it's all or nothing.

The current deal to rid ones self of the FairPlay encoded songs for the unencumbered (and higher-bitrate) versions is 30 cents per song, albums for 30% of the album price and 60 cents per video. Not exactly huge, especially if there are certain albums, tunes or vids that you truly enjoy, want higher quality or would like to play on other equipment. The problem is that you dont have the choice. It's all of your collection, all at once, or nothing.

Here is yet another example of how Apple has become all those things that Microsoft was being accused of being by the Appleistas and more. This policy of all-or-nothing punishes the biggest users/purchasers on iTunes the worst, as those with the most purchased songs will end up having the highest 'upgrade' price handed to them. The early adopters get smacked down once again, the same as those who purchased the first iPhones and iPod Touch models had to pay for feature upgrades that later buyers got included with their purchases. This latest cash grab is likely to go over like a turd in a punch bowl, especially by those who have been loyal, long-time customers.

Then again, all this infusion of cash could help keep The Jobs from collapsing into a cosmic string wearing a black turtleneck. Or not.

This sort of thing makes me chuckle and shake my head at the same time. In a case filled with metric tons of irony, it seems that Apple has accidently shipped a fair number of iPods with an extra bonus, a Windows virus, "RavMonE". It seems that the virus originated from a production line Windows PC which is most likely used during the formatting and setup of the iPods. That Apple's iconic device needing PCs during their creation isn't enough to jump the snark, lo and behold an Apple spokesman takes this time to dig at Windows' inherent security weaknesses:

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company apologized on its Web site for the problem, but also used the opportunity to jab at Microsoft, its operating system rival.

"As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it," Apple said on its site.

Lame, lame, lame. While I will be the first to agree with claims that Windows is a veritable culture dish when it comes to viruses, to blame the OS for becoming infected and passing it's payload into product is akin to Republicans constantly blaming Clinton for everything they do wrong. First of all, steps should be put in place to prevent malware infections. This is SOP for any respectable company using platform computers in manufacturing settings. Also, give some courtesy where it is due. The iPod owes it's bewildering success to PC users. It's generally known that the iPod is primarily a Windows device, Apple itself recognizes this fact. Add to that the iPod being the first Apple-branded item that most of their owners have purchased, windfall sales of Apple computers and other items to PC users benefit Apple immensely these days and have practically saved the company from being the next Commodore.

You dont bite the hand that feeds you. Admit you made a mistake, make good on your promises to deliver a quality product and perhaps even use this as a learning experience and not a chance to shove off your responsibilities on others. Otherwise, the spotlight ends up shining instead on poor quality control on your part.

Reactions from Microsoft and security experts were in this same vein. Ironically, McDonalds (yes, the hamburger people) ran into almost the exact same scenario only recently when a MP3 player given away to Japanese customers as part of some promotion also contained a virus, presumably infected in a similar fashion. McDonalds immediately sent out a link to a website hosting a solution to fix any problems with the device. McDonalds! Not who immediately pops in one's mind when it comes to computer perpherals and containing malware, but they did the right thing and did it immediately.

Okay, back to transferring more music onto my iPod. From my PC.