Here! Here! I have not bought music on-line to this point because of the restrictions that I perceive are still part of the process. I have many many older CDs, but I worry about the new ones and their crap made to keep me from playing the music that I paid for. It seems clear to everyone except the music industry, and perhaps the government, that when you buy a piece of recorded music, then you own it... forever.
All of these machinations about DRM are about another American industry that wants to keep ramping up profits without actually producing anything new. You see, I remember vinyl albums (33s and 45s), 8-track tapes, reel-to-reel, cassettes, and CD's. Every format incompatible with the next. Don't fool yourselves, DRM was just the next format made to force you to buy your music again, and again.
I also spent 20 years in IT and after the downturn a few years ago I decided to make a radical change. I was able to find an IT job at a University and have used that proximity to begin retooling for the next career. I'm now working on a doctorate in education. I could have chosen anything that the university teaches but have always wanted to be involved in higher education.
There are two things to learn from this. First, look for a job somewhere that has other fields that you'd like to explore. Second, go to work somewhere that is friendly to education and retool. Fortunately, my employer satisfies both of these ideas.
Remember, after 20 years of work, you probably still have another 20 years to go. A second (third?) degree makes sense for changing jobs.
This is not exactly the most popular combination of tools here. No one is using Vista except the poor bums forced to by insane employers and those unfortunate enough to have gotten it with a new system. Next, Toshiba might sell in some circles but they aren't exactly the cream of the crop of laptops these days. I haven't seen a toshiba laptop in 10 years at least. Not to say that no one uses them but there was a day that everyone used them; not any more. And last, if you're watching movies on your windows computer, then you're probably using some Microsoft tool.
My pity on the folks that fit into this category. My advice: see if the computer is still within the return period and either send it back and try another vendor, or DEMAND WINDOWS XP for your windows platform. Vista doesn't run anything.
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Here! Here! I have not bought music on-line to this point because of the restrictions that I perceive are still part of the process. I have many many older CDs, but I worry about the new ones and their crap made to keep me from playing the music that I paid for. It seems clear to everyone except the music industry, and perhaps the government, that when you buy a piece of recorded music, then you own it ... forever.
All of these machinations about DRM are about another American industry that wants to keep ramping up profits without actually producing anything new. You see, I remember vinyl albums (33s and 45s), 8-track tapes, reel-to-reel, cassettes, and CD's. Every format incompatible with the next. Don't fool yourselves, DRM was just the next format made to force you to buy your music again, and again.
I also spent 20 years in IT and after the downturn a few years ago I decided to make a radical change. I was able to find an IT job at a University and have used that proximity to begin retooling for the next career. I'm now working on a doctorate in education. I could have chosen anything that the university teaches but have always wanted to be involved in higher education.
There are two things to learn from this. First, look for a job somewhere that has other fields that you'd like to explore. Second, go to work somewhere that is friendly to education and retool. Fortunately, my employer satisfies both of these ideas.
Remember, after 20 years of work, you probably still have another 20 years to go. A second (third?) degree makes sense for changing jobs.
Good luck with it.
This is not exactly the most popular combination of tools here. No one is using Vista except the poor bums forced to by insane employers and those unfortunate enough to have gotten it with a new system. Next, Toshiba might sell in some circles but they aren't exactly the cream of the crop of laptops these days. I haven't seen a toshiba laptop in 10 years at least. Not to say that no one uses them but there was a day that everyone used them; not any more. And last, if you're watching movies on your windows computer, then you're probably using some Microsoft tool.
My pity on the folks that fit into this category. My advice: see if the computer is still within the return period and either send it back and try another vendor, or DEMAND WINDOWS XP for your windows platform. Vista doesn't run anything.