Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Apple iTunes Store Goes [Mostly] DRM-Free

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In October of 2007 I wrote a fairly detailed comparison of Apple’s iTunes Music Store and Amazon’s then-new MP3 store. My verdict was not too clear—Amazon’s MP3 store won kudos for its DRM-free 256-bit MP3 files that could be played in almost any jukebox software and on almost any portable player. iTunes, however, had a much wider selection of songs.

iTunes was the first digital music store to offer unencumbered, DRM-free songs, but only from the EMI record label and (until Amazon MP3 entered the market) at a higher price. After Amazon MP3 entered the market, these so-called ‘iTunes Plus’ tracks came down to the standard $0.99 price but were still offered only from EMI artists. iTunes had become a confusing mish-mash of DRM-encumbered and unencumbered tracks and, as a result, I did most of my music buying through Amazon MP3.

Well, iTunes is [finally!] back in the game. At today’s MacWorld Expo Keynote, Apple VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller announced that ‘iTunes Plus’ DRM-free tracks would become the standard, with most songs available without DRM immediately and the store going completely DRM-free within three months. Users can also ‘upgrade’ their previously-purchased tracks to being DRM-free, but personally I removed the DRM myself from those tracks using my legitimate fair-use rights and have successfully avoided that unnecessary expense.

Regardless, this is good news for music lovers like myself. We now have renewed competition between Amazon MP3 and Apple iTunes for our music dollars, and neither will lock us in to a DRM-encumbered universe. We can own our own music again. The music industry might just survive after all, if only they would start supporting the good artists again ;-).

Doug and Valerie Herrman: Parents of the Decade

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It’s only January 5th, and I’ve already stumbled upon my nominee for the parents of the year. In fact, they’re my nominees for parents of the decade.

Doug and Valerie Herrman took in two-year-old Irvin Groeninger III as a foster child and, before too long, adopted the boy and gave him the name Adam Herrman. In 1999, when Adam was approx. 12 years old, he disappeared. The Herrman parents apparently weren’t too worried, because they didn’t report him missing in the next several days . . . or months . . . or years. In fact, Kansas police have just started trying to piece together what happened to Adam ten years ago, since they just found out about it.

I don’t even know what to say. How could two people who loved this child enough to take him into their home and raise him for ten years go for two days, let alone ten years, without reporting him missing? I just don’t understand. According to the Herrmans’ attorney, “they were very worried about him.” Well, we have ten years of negligent inaction that would imply they weren’t very worried at all.

Amazing.

Looking Forward to Palm’s ‘Nova’

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This coming week may turn out to be a dream for us nerdy types. The MacWorld Expo, an annual event held every January, kicks off Tuesday with a keynote address by Apple VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller. While MacWorld is a traditional launching-pad for new, spiffy Apple products, this year comes with an unexpected shadow overhead: this will be Apple’s last year as a participant at MacWorld, and the keynote will be given by Schiller instead of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. This, essentially, means the end of the conference; what is MacWorld without Apple’s participation?

But I, being a bit of an oddball, am not focused on Apple this week. I’m less enamored with Apple than I used to be for a number of reasons that I’ll get into later (and a few I’ve gotten into before), and I have my eye on one other potentially-groundbreaking announcement scheduled for this week.

Palm, maker of Treo and Centro smartphones running the ancient-but-user-friendly Palm OS ‘Garnet’ or modern-but-giant-kludge Windows Mobile, is on the verge of a make-or-break announcement: the long-awaited, Linux-based mobile operating system code-named ‘Nova’ and devices to run it. Announcements of ‘Nova’ and its supporting hardware are expected at the CES trade show on Thursday.

Ever since I bought my first Palm OS device, a Handspring Visor Pro PDA in 2002, I’ve loved Palm OS. It has its flaws, and it is definitely showing its age—millennia in computer terms—but it is simple, friendly, and functional. I bit-the-bullet and bought a BlackBerry in November, which I do like very much so far, but I’m still really rooting for Palm to regain its former glory. I could go on-and-on about how they got where they are today—an also-ran in the very industry they created—but that doesn’t matter now. Palm has to hit a home-run on Thursday if it expects to survive.

I hope it does.

The Fairfax Circuit Court Definition of ’45 Days’ Is . . . ?

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One of my biggest, most frustrating pet-peeves is when those in positions of authority fail to follow the very rules they establish. There are tons of examples. I’ve written about some here before, like when the Prince Georges County, Maryland, police performed an illegal home invasion on the Mayor of Berwyn Heights or when the Governor of Illinois tried to sell a vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. If government officials expect us to follow the laws and policies they establish and enforce, then they must follow those same laws and policies themselves. We, as the citizens and the source of all legitimate government authority, must hold all of our government officials to a very high standard.

This is especially important when we talk about our law enforcement and courts. Police officers, judges, magistrates, and their supporting staff must be held to the absolute highest moral and legal standards. I know this is a lot to ask, since these people are (obviously) human and have jobs that are much more challenging and difficult than anything the rest of us can easily imagine, but it is only fair that the people who directly enforce our adherence to the law adhere to the law themselves in all respects.

While certainly not as dramatic as the PG County home invasion, the Fairfax Circuit Court has just violated Virginia law (and likely does so all the time), and it just drives me crazy.

Read more . . .

Happy New Year 2009!

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Welcome to 2009! Lots of people are in the process of doing a lot of retrospectives of 2008, so I’ll do a (brief) retrospective myself: It’s been a good year. I’ve been more physically fit, I’ve been more social and proactive in my writing, I’ve maintained a good job, I’ve got a new car, and more. Most importantly, I have a wonderful wife and a wonderful family.

People are already blathering on about how bad 2008 was, and in some respects it wasn’t so great a year. So what. As we move into 2009, now is the time to focus on what we have and how blessed we are.

I sincerely wish all of you a wonderful 2009. I don’t care if you’re liberal or conservative; Republican or Democrat; Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or something else; American, European, African, Asian, Middle-Eastern; etc.

Happy New Year. I hope God blesses you and protects you through this coming year.

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Posted in: Life

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.