Cingular will allow people to download music to compatible phones for free, although consumers will pay a monthly charge in the range of $15 for the ability to download songs from those services to a portable music player. "
Then you go to their press release and realize that they're not just talking about one monthly fee, but a whole bunch of monthly subscriptions. Napster for $14.95/mo, yahoo! for $11.99/mo, emusicgives you 50 songs free (what kind of songs?), and XM satellite for $8.99 a mo. A full load costs almost as much as your plan...
The one redeeming quality seems to be that it doesn't add cingular DRM on top of Napster and Yahoo DRM - they're willing to share your blood\h\h\h\h\hmoney instead of adding their own tap. As with all DRM services, the scary part seems to be this quote:
"Right now, we're focused on getting people to view mobile music as something that's interesting and exciting. You've got to build a base. Once you do that, there are all sorts of ways to drive revenue from it," says Jim Ryan, vice-president of consumer data services at Cingular.
I used to do a lot of tournament sparring and I can sure understand why people are into this. The rush you get when someone is 5 feet in front of you trying to take your head off is amazing. You've heard off time slowing down, your heart beating in your ears, and all that exciting stuff? that's adrenaline and its an awesome feeling, and fighting seems to bring it out of you in floods, more than sports ever did. I've never done a sport where someone whacks you for making a mistake. Its hugely exhilarating to win a match too.
But it takes a lot of training to learn how not to hurt yourself and your opponent. I can't speak to bashing people bloody with a frying pan. I was as into the form and self control bit as much as I was into the sparring and I always thought matches where you jack yourself up so bad you're out for weeks are pretty dumb. I did have a wierd thing where part of me enjoyed getting bruised. I never sat down to figure it out all out but it seemed to have something to do with not liking myself so much.
After all that my backs a mess now but I discovered that martial arts footwork is real similar to dancing. The throwing and faking bits tend to upset my the women though.
Standardizing on good coding techniques and enforcing them is at least as important as the language its written in. It could be that some languages lend themselves more readily towards abuse then others (Perl vs Java?), but bad code is a nightmare wherever it shows up.
some really interesting jounalism about the fast food industry: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Definitely changed my life a bit. Not only does he look at the food, he also investigates the social, commercial, and industrial aspects of the industry.
Now, not only do I not eat fast food, I refuse to pay for it. I let a fourth grader I used to tutor read the chapter about where the meat comes from. Afterwards, he had such a shocked expression on his face, he looked like he had just seen his dog get run over by a big rig.
Luckily all is not lost - he does identify some fast food that isn't evil.
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The one redeeming quality seems to be that it doesn't add cingular DRM on top of Napster and Yahoo DRM - they're willing to share your blood\h\h\h\h\hmoney instead of adding their own tap. As with all DRM services, the scary part seems to be this quote:
I used to do a lot of tournament sparring and I can sure understand why people are into this. The rush you get when someone is 5 feet in front of you trying to take your head off is amazing. You've heard off time slowing down, your heart beating in your ears, and all that exciting stuff? that's adrenaline and its an awesome feeling, and fighting seems to bring it out of you in floods, more than sports ever did. I've never done a sport where someone whacks you for making a mistake. Its hugely exhilarating to win a match too.
But it takes a lot of training to learn how not to hurt yourself and your opponent. I can't speak to bashing people bloody with a frying pan. I was as into the form and self control bit as much as I was into the sparring and I always thought matches where you jack yourself up so bad you're out for weeks are pretty dumb. I did have a wierd thing where part of me enjoyed getting bruised. I never sat down to figure it out all out but it seemed to have something to do with not liking myself so much.
After all that my backs a mess now but I discovered that martial arts footwork is real similar to dancing. The throwing and faking bits tend to upset my the women though.
Standardizing on good coding techniques and enforcing them is at least as important as the language its written in. It could be that some languages lend themselves more readily towards abuse then others (Perl vs Java?), but bad code is a nightmare wherever it shows up.
some really interesting jounalism about the fast food industry: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Definitely changed my life a bit. Not only does he look at the food, he also investigates the social, commercial, and industrial aspects of the industry. Now, not only do I not eat fast food, I refuse to pay for it. I let a fourth grader I used to tutor read the chapter about where the meat comes from. Afterwards, he had such a shocked expression on his face, he looked like he had just seen his dog get run over by a big rig. Luckily all is not lost - he does identify some fast food that isn't evil.