Here I am again, with no particularly interesting thing to say. I want to comment about iPods. I have heard some people have a problem with Apple's control over the particular technology....at least with regard to the iTunes music store, and I think it is interesting. Apple complained for years about various things regarding Microsoft and their predatory approach to things (with good reason methinks) yet they don't seem to have a problem doing the same thing with iTunes. If you have an iPod, (as I do) you can't buy songs from the other online services such as Napster, since WMA files are not supported. And the players that do play WMA files can't play the files that the iTunes store sells. This can mean that you have to switch between two different mp3 players (I wonder if this just supports the supremacy of the mp3 file itself, without the copy protection and all the junk that the major labels throw on top of it.) Now obviously there are ways to convert between the two, such as if you have one of those highly protected WMA files, you can just play the file and record it with another program such as AudioTunes and then just convert it to mp3 and voila, there you are. It's burdensome, but it can be done. I think that most of these protections are set up to keep those who aren't too clued in from being able to do certain things. Obviously the uber-technical (of which I am not one) will always be able to circumvent such safeguards.

I understand that the next version of Windows is supposedly going to have such stringent copy protection measures that recording of any type of audio will be difficult to impossible. Lovely. One of my favorite things to do is to use the a recording program to tape online radio from KFI in Los Angeles and other radio stations. I don't see much difference in doing that and taping a program over the air, I think it's similar to the time-shifting argument that was floated during previous court cases over the VCR, yet the industry wants such a stranglehold over everything that they are insisting on this. If I can't record KFI, I just won't listen. First of all, I don't live in an area where KFI can be picked up over the air, and secondly, I am usually working when the shows are originally broadcast. I think I have strayed quite far from the original intent of this piece.

Anyway, back to the iPod. I love the concept. Even with my iPod mini and its 4 GB hard drive I was able to drive all the way to Los Angeles (about 8 hours) and put it on shuffle, play it through my radio, and never hear a song twice. It's like listening to a REALLY good radio station. (Since you program it yourself, you should always enjoy it, theoretically.) Is there a point to this? Probably not.