I love technology... Always and forever

I join Neil Young and ask "Are you passionate?" I'm usually more passionate about things I dislike (ie. people who misuse tivo, the elderly, Rob Cordry, Suddenly Susan, etc). I think this is the case with everybody. We see an injustice, we want to make it right. We see an ugly person, we want to make them beautiful. Or at the very least, we want the TV show we watch to make them beautiful. What happened to Extreme Makeover (not the home but the human edition) anyway?

The old analogy of the frog in the boiling pot of water will always ring true. But it especially rings true with a subject I hope you're at lease casually aware of: DRM.

DRM is bad. But I don't think most people in the world have a clue what DRM even is. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. It's what makes a song you bought on iTunes incompatible with your Sony mp3 player. It's what makes it nearly impossible to backup copies of DVDs that you've purchased legally. Every corporation wants to monopolize, and wants to make you believe that their monopoly is necessary, or even good.

After I buy music on iTunes, I have to burn it and then re-rip it into my computer. Otherwise I can only burn a limited number of copies or listen to it on a limited number of computers.

"In any other industry, such limitations or invasions would be considered major flaws. A media player that restricts what you can play is like a car that you won't let you steer... Products containing DRM are defective -- only, unlike other products, these defects are deliberately created by an industry that has long stopped caring about us."

-Peter Brown, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation

I'm not asking you to throw away your iPod. Just BE AWARE of the world around you, otherwise you make up one day and decide you're like the frog... boiled to death.

ps. Here is where you can download Open Office. Rage against the machine!
pps. Here is a fun and totally unrelated link that I'm sure you will like. Give it a try.