Author: luken7

On Friday, Nicoli’s problems at EMI became considerably worse, or at least more apparent. Disappointing Christmas sales of the latest Robbie Williams CD — and of a remix album by an up-and-coming young act called The Beatles — forced a profits warning out of the group.

And what should EMI or any other record company expect? This is what they have lined up to sell? Robbie Williams and a remix album? Let me say it once again, and again. The price of a CD isn’t worth the plastic it’s on. $15 is quite a bit of money for recycled music that all sounds the same, where the interest in a particular song has a time frame of about, oh six weeks. Believe me, nothing that EMI in general that was released over the holiday season will be remembered five years from now.

When you invest in good artists, that write their own music, play an instrument and produce their music, and is not recycled or sounds like every other Billboard top 100 song, call me. I’m tired of the RIAA and record labels whining and claiming that record sales are down because of piracy. Does piracy exist? Yes, definitely, and while not justifiable, it’s understandable. People feel that they shouldn’t be paying for poor quality music. I think record labels should stop subsidizing poor selling artists by charging high prices across the board.

Here’s an idea, let the buyer bid their price and per per album or per song. Also, make the music downloadable and able to play anywhere, not DRM’d to death. Also, for good artistic values music, offer lossless quality formats for true audiophiles, mp3 for the rest of the world, and you can tier that pricing too.

The music dies for EMI’s Nicoli – Sunday Times – Times Online

Instructions for XMOnline for LInux…
xm411.com – XM online works under Linux

also…. this post

"I’ve recently discovered that XM Radio provides streaming audio for subscribers with existing radio id accounts. I have multiple radios, so I thought I’d give it a try. The web interface only supports Windows and Macs – no Linux. Fortunately, there is a way around that.

The streaming audio is in Windows Media Player format. MPlayer supports this format. I did a search for plugins for Firefox and found the mplayer-plugin. The binary rpm for Fedora Core 3 installed into a location that Firefox wasn’t looking, so I just copied the plugin files from /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins to ~/.mozilla/plugins (or something like that – I did it at work so can’t reference it right now). Once the plugins were found, the XM Radio Web interface worked well enough. The mplayer plugin was embedded in the page. It doesn’t display quite right – there is a blank box in the top middle of the browser window and the player isn’t fully displayed, but that doesn’t really matter. The player controls are visible and you can use the web interface to change channels. So it essentially works. And it was easy to install with FC3.

Kinda cool, since I can’t use my XMPCR at work. Unfortunately, the streaming audio for most of the commercial news sites are not available. But Cinemagic is. :-)"

To think, I was having lunch today with some friends and discussing the utilization and integration of Google’s services and features. This is definitely something to be added to my Google personal homepage. And yes, when I get my iPhone, it will be my default page there too…

Official Google Blog: Real-time quotes for free

Of course, you know what’s next. A partnership with a major brokerage firm that will allow you to do trades right from your Google homepage. You’re in the airport and you see a Dell laptop catch fire. You quickly whip out your iPhone to see Dell’s stock price, and sell a couple of hundred shares. Then buy it back later in the day. This could be a new profession. Walk around all day looking for bad things to happen, and sell short on those products. Of course you can always look for good things to happen and go long, but tragedy usually sells the best, it’s the American way…

Here we go !!! Just in time for those 21,500 additional troops. May have to shift them from Bagdad to the Iraqi eastern border …

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US north Iraqi raid angers Iran US north Iraqi raid angers Iran Iraq map US forces have stormed a building in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil and seized six people said to be Iranians, prompting a diplomatic incident. Iranian and Iraqi officials said the building was an Iranian consulate and the detainees its employees. The US military said it was still investigating, but that the building did not have diplomatic status. The troops raided the building at about 0300 (0001GMT), taking away computers and papers, according to local media.

But it goes deeper than that. This incident occurred in the Kurdish held part of Iraq, where the Kurds are our "allies". The Kurds officially recognize the facility in question as an official diplomatic post of Iran. And when American troops engaged that facility, there was a moment of standoff between the American force and the Kurdish forces. Luckily, no shots were fired between the two. So now, we’ve angered what’s to be our strongest ally within Iraq.

When you want a really, really good movie, you purchase it. For everything else, there’s Netflix.
Got my first three movies in the mail today, quick delivery, one day. Will I become that movie junkie that I’ve sworn not to become?

powered by performancing firefox

Hey, I just noticed that Minima Plus, my WP theme, is the same theme that is used byt the iBiblio blog. Cool…sweet….

powered by performancing firefox

It’s a iPod, it’s a phone, it’s wireless internet.

I was waiting for the new Palm Treo from Cingular to launch. Done waiting, found my new phone. Although I have a ton of rollover minutes with Cingular right now, whichever provider is first with the iPhone is the one for me. Know me though, I’ll get it then want something else in less than a year.

A good 12 step decision tool for choosing XM or Sirius. Pretty good…
12 Easy Steps To Choose Between Sirius And XM Radio

Judge Dean, definitely a person who should be removed form the bench with clear examples of discrimination and a rampant exercise of judicial power. Is it any wonder why non-whites feel that racism is still rampant in America, expecially the south, and darn sure especially in Texas. The old exression that “they just traded in their white sheets for white shirts and tie” clearly is exemplified in this case.

First came the poor man, barely 17 years old – too young to buy beer or vote, but an adult under the Texas penal code. He took part in a $2 stickup in which no one got hurt. He pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was put on 10 years of probation.

Judge Dean has let this man stay free and, last year, exempted him from most of the usual conditions of probation. John Alexander “Alex” Wood no longer must submit to drug tests or refrain from owning a gun or even meet with a probation officer. He’s simply supposed to obey the law and mail the court a postcard once a year that gives his current address.

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News

GM has rebounded with higher sales due largely to SUV sales. Huh? Wasn’t it just three months ago that Americans were dumping large cars and trucks for smaller, fuel efficient vehicles? So…as we near the November elections, less than a week away, gas prices are as low as $2, not seen in over a year. What exactly caused gas prices to fall off more than 30% in such a short time? Supply and demand? Or simply election season and oil industry paybacks to their constituents (puppets). So after the election and when spring rolls around, will all these memory lapsed, new SUV owners suffer a deja-vu when “supply and demand” rockets gas prices back to over $3? Sure hope they all did a two year lease …

GM Sales Rise as Trucks, SUVs Rebound