markOne

I should say that I basically consider Apple to be just another big company looking to maximize profits at the expense of all else. It is this basic and extremely common operating precept which will help to bring about a future that will look like Blade Runner, if we are lucky, and if we are unlucky simply won't include us. They are one of many companies which need to change. All of that said I can't help but respond. Discussions like this one which touch on basic consumer rights and environmental concerns should be based on fact as much as possible. Actually it is. From your article: The "statement of objections" EU regulators sent to Apple does not allege the Cupertino, California-based company is in a dominant market position. The EU doesn't like that Apple is not treating the Eu as a single economic entity and they don't like how Apple has defined "fair use". They are two seperate issues both of which are in European courts. These Apple policies were actually forced on Apple (I'm taking the pundits' word on this) by the content owners. The big businesses would much prefer to not you let you BUY music at all (they much prefer a per device subscription / rental model) and they would rather sell in little stores for each country than expose themselves to the risk of making one store which follows the laws of all countries. Do you really think Apple wanted to roll out a different store for every country? Do you realize how much flack they take from consumers all over the world for not having the same music in all stores, and in many countries having no store at all? Do you have any idea how expensive it must be to investigate IP laws and to negotiate separate distribution contracts in every country? Since we have already established that Apple is all about making money this situation can't be making them happy. Apple could make the both themselves and the EU happy if they opened a single EU music store. The problem is that the IP laws are still not unified and they would have to get the big content owners on board (they are also named in the suit). I don't know a single person who bought an Apple product because it was an environmental company which was looking out for their best interests as individual consumers. If anyone actually did that then they did not perform the required due diligence to make that decision, or they were just stupid. In either case I suggest they immediately go buy greener products made by nice fluffy companies which will make them feel good about themselves. Then they should give their evil apple stuff to me. If they don't then I'll run them over with my SUV as I selfishly exploit this planet safe in the knowledge that I will never have children. Of course if your entire reason for posting is to bash apple and the left wing morons who use their products then I'll respectively bow out of this conversation and let you have your fun.

I fail to see how Apple is a monopoly. They are hoping to some day corner %5 of the computer market and even though they have a huge portion of the portable music player market there are many other options for people to buy. Same goes for downloadable music. You have many options. Do they do everything the right way? No. Do they do some things right? Yes. Just like many other companies. If you don't like them don't buy from them, simple. (Edit to include this: Sorry for the double post. MikeR got his in while I had to run out to a meeting. That'll teach me to not refresh my screen) Up until this last post you haven't mentioned Fairplay, Apple's Digital Rights Management (DRM) tool. You have been lumping AAC formated music in with Fairplay DRM. They are unrelated, it's like saying you don't like Ford cars because they have locks, sure the design of the car allows people to install locks but you can have a car without locks too. Apple's Fairplay is a layer placed on top of AAC formated files On the media standards front; AAC is more open than MP3. Check out this quote about AAC licensing from Wikipedia. In contrast with the MP3 format, which requires royalty payments on distributed content, no licenses or payments are required to be able to stream or distribute content in AAC format. [3] This reason alone makes AAC a much more attractive format for distributing content, particularly streaming content (such as Internet radio). However, a patent license is required for all manufacturers or developers of AAC codecs. [4] It is for this reason FOSS implementations such as FAAC and FAAD are distributed in source form only, in order to avoid patent infringement. AAC requires a patent license, and thus uses proprietary technology. But contrary to popular belief, it is not the property of a single company, having been developed in a standards-making organization. Apple's Fairplay DRM scheme is about as closed / proprietary as it gets. You can listen to all the MP3 you want on your iPod, it's not really an iPod issue as much as an issue with where you get your music. Don't forget that iTunes has the built in ability to convert all DRM'd songs purchased from iTunes to MP3 in 2 steps (1:burn to audio CD, 2:rip to format of choice). Do you loose some quality? Yes, but the converters are good and if you're buying music in a lossey format, like AAC, quality is probably not your first concern. As far as I know no other music store has such easy conversion to other formats built in. Apple's conversion is just hard enough to assuage the record companies' fears so they would allow Apple sell music in electronic format. I believe that the other major downloadable music stores use Windows Media DRM which exerts much more control and is just as closed as Fairplay. I'm thinking you are against DRM in general. If that's the case I'm on your side but confusing the issue doesn't do the cause justice. We need to help educate the general populace so they understand what treacherous terrain DRM can be and how it poses a threat to the concept of "ownership" of any non-tangible item (anything written, movies, music, software, etc,). If you don't like DRM then promote DRM free music sites like Amie Street where music starts out free and the price goes up (upper limit is $0.99) as more people buy the songs. This site Festival Link probably has music you like (based on your music posts). There are many more sites out there. If you want more mainstream music and you can't find it on the DRM free sites then your beef is more with the record labels than the stores. Most of the big boys don't want to release DRM free music but hopefully that will change. The Canadian record label Nettwerk has be a leader on this front and the high visibility of the EMI / Apple deal has potential to help the issue.

I had to re-read all of the comments related to the topic quoted above just to try to get a handle on what was being talked about and I'm still not sure I get what is going on. To TheAnk: do you hate Apple, everyone who buys Apple products, or everyone? It is kind of hard to tell.

Ok you actually made me go there and see the add. Of course to see it I had to change a few settings on my browser. I hate the internet when browsing without the right tools. I did notice that the add only animated when you moused over it and the close button did work for me. Still, if that thing was always popping up on a page I visited frequently I wouldn't be going there for long. Since I was able to choose to listen to the song, once, I thought the singing was not that bad. I've heard MUCH worse on local adds. browser add-on

From noaa.com which usually does ok forecasting snow fall totals. Late Afternoon: Rain likely. Cloudy, with a high near 42. East wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Tonight: Periods of snow, mainly before 3am. Low around 28. East wind 10 to 16 mph becoming north. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible. Friday: A chance of snow before 9am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly sunny, with a high near 30. Blustery, with a north wind between 16 and 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. It will be a close thing. The overnight low of 28 is too close to 32 for my comfort.

I went to Rue Bis (google map) yesterday and had some really good coffee. The food looked good too. This would be an easy walk from the Imperial. They open at 7:30am so it would hard to go there before a commute to Boston but on days you stayed local they would be a good option.

For a book here and there Book Crossing can be fun. The basic idea is that you but a label inside the front cover and just leave the book somewhere where anyone can pick it up. They get a free book. The fun part is that when they read your label there is an ID and if they chose to go to the site they can enter the ID and were the book was found and you can track where your book goes. Obviously lots of books will never get their ID entered but it is still kind of fun to see how far and how fast your books can travel. It seems that leaving them in the seat pockets of planes is not uncommon. The last time I cleaned out my collection in bulk I donated over 300 books to a local school's library / English department. They really needed the books and were very happy to get them.

What can I say, I like snow. I certainly don

For those going to the meeting; if you choose to speak on behalf of saving the station and decide to use the T stop study in your argument you should be aware of the following. The position that the building must be saved because a study named this location as the number one place for a new T stop is is weak! The builder can counter that argument by saying he will build a nice new safe station which is handicapped accessible etc. You will need to be able to counter his claim by saying why the existing station will make a better T stop than what the builder claims they will build. That will be hard given that he will probably have no design for said station and he can make up almost any promise and then back out of later. I wish you all luck and I would be there if I could.