jr conlin's ink stained banana

Even though i've got a Wii, i've not bought a game for a while. Actually, that's wrong. i've bought a bunch, it's just that none of them have shiny DVD's and plastic cases.

Thing is, i've gotten a mess of really fun games from the online shop, the most expensive being $15. Were i to get a PS3 or XBox, there's even more games i could buy on the cheap. i could be quite happy never getting a full-on game for any of them, but instead messing around with the "little" games like World of Goo. (Ok granted, i'm unnaturally attracted to puzzler games, but that's probably beside the point.)

i also realize that i'm fully into the "casual gamer" category, and frankly don't play as often as i'd prefer for a number of reasons (like the fact that the wii is on the same TV as the Tivo) Heck, i'd be happy buying a console that ONLY played downloaded games, provided there was a way to store them outside of the box (yeah, copying to SD and then dumping the files to a disk is actually fine. i'm cheap.). Gotta figure that the hardware for that has to be damn cheap since you don't need anything more than a core box with a gig' of memory a SDHC slot and a built in 802.11g card.

i wonder when that will ever be released?

MTV, in an apparent attempt to remind folks what the "M" used to stand for, had launched a new music video site called "mtvMusic.com". i'll note that the majority of music videos being featured are from the 80's, the decade that last saw MTV actually play a music video.

Legions of current viewers and aging previous viewers will laud the release with a resounding "meh" as they go back to scrounging around youtube for Timbuk 3 song they taped off of MTV.

Oh, and you may want to add http://www.mtvmusic.com/video/?id=55086 to your filters.

Well, the good news is that calling upon their vast decades of music history, bands are flocking to MTV…

Oh, wait…

How to tell you're eating Real Pizza:

1) The box beneath your pepperoni and mushroom isn't greasy.
2) You can fold the slice in half and the tip sticks out.
3) The crust is chewy enough to let you know it's there.
4) Nothing stands out, other than everything. (Basil, tomato, dash of oregano, cheese, etc. are all there and playing equally like a top notch band.)
5) You dream of the leftover slices, knowing they're only going to taste better once they're reheated.

i've eaten in just about every "East Coast Pizza" joint in the bay area (Amici's, Pizza my Heart, Vesuvio's, Giovanni's, Vito's, etc.) and they've all failed in at least one respect. Most fail more than one.

i have finally found a place that serves real pizza.

At last, i'm happy.

If you're not even going to bother reading this, how can you expect me to?

i remember back when Spammers actually cared about the mindless drivel and black-hearted grabs at my money they spewed out like a 8 megaton warhead buried beneath a septic farm. Now… it's just sad.

(And they wonder why all the spammer jobs are going to third world countries like Florida.)

Ok, so a few folks i know of are trying out the new and improved LaLa. Being equal parts e-sheep and digital cat (with the requisite level of curiosity) i figured i'd do the same. Granted, i'm also a pretty damn big cynic, so bear that in mind. What follows are my various notes and thoughts.

1. Ok, so sign up asks for the usual crap. Let me look at the . Ok, these are the rules, we can change them when we feel like it, i can't use these commercially, i've got to give them real info and keep it updated, i get "server space" but can't upload anything that violates a copyright (wait, doesn't that pretty much ban most of the music i may have? CD rips are currently "questionable" if you talk to the RIAA, and the tracks i've downloaded from Amazon kinda block that as well (section 2.2). i don't have any iTunes tracks, but i'm guessing that since iTunes doesn't connect to this, they're out too. So that kinda limits me to Jonathan Coulton tracks. Ok, well, i guess…
2. i can only connect three computers? Only one at a time can be connected?
3. Downloads or streams of copyrightable materials purchased through the Site may include a security framework…" Oh great, so anything i do actually buy from them has DRM? Meaning that i can only play it on a (singular) computer connected to the service at the time? Joy.
4. "You may stream available songs while you are logged on to the Service. Songs may be streamed in their entirety once, at no cost to you. Thereafter, for a onetime fee,…" Hang on. You're saying that i get to listen to streamed songs once? Right looks like i won't be giving up my Pandora, Last.fm, or Radio.io accounts anytime soon.
5. "la la may at any time lose the right to make certain eMasters (DRM loaded tracks you're renting) or Web Songs available. In such event, you will no longer be able to stream those eMasters or Web Songs." Yay! Isn't DRM great?
6. "You are entitled to receive one CD from another la la user for every CD you successfully ship from your Have List." Ok, so they're also running a CraigsList CD Swap type deal. Only you have to go through them. Because….?
7. "You may not illegally copy CDs or keep copies of CDs you trade." Because you absolutely, positively could never ever have gotten the same CD as a gift from a relative who had no idea you owned it already.
8. Continuing on… You agree to be charged for any reason, in one lump sum.
9. We can cancel your account at any time, for any reason. Screw you. You can cancel too, but you lose everything and are still liable for whatever charges regarding that CD trade thing they offer. Ah, so that's why they want you to use them instead of Craigslist.
10. Go read the privacy policy. It's not here.
11. You will take our email.
12. We own whatever you give us.
13. You will find naughty things here.
14. If challenged on copyright, provide us with proof you actually own the item
15. We give you the software, you can use it, but don't do anything cool with it or we'll kill you.
16. The standard Waivers:
    1. IF WE BREAK ANYTHING, IT WAS YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT
    2. NO, SERIOUSLY, WE'RE FREAKISHLY DANGEROUS AND i WOULDN'T USE US EVER.
17. Pick your own fights.
18. SUBMIT TO MAH A-THORIT-AAY!!
19. Sue us in California
20. Check your mail
21. Did we mention that we can and will change crap after you agree to all of this? Because we will.

So, it's mostly the same boiler plate crap most services have in place. Not really sure what sort of benefit i'm getting out of the deal though.

Ok, so i can pay $.79 a track to get a DRM laden song i can only play while on line and attached to a computer. Yay. Or i can pay $.20 more and get a DRM free track i can put on a portable music player or burn to a CD and stuff in my car's dashboard.

Plus, i'm not really getting this whole "upload your music catalog to the web" thing. Particularly with this sort of crap tied to it. i've got 7GB of music on my Sandisk. My new Archos has 60GB of drive space and a battery that seems to last forever. My laptop as 180GB of free drive space right now. There are latest generation iPods that are 250GB and can be listened to in national parks or at 30,000 feet.

i suppose there's some aspect of music discovery that they do, but c'mon, damn near everything has that now. Heck, even Apple's lame "Genius Bar" thing does it (provided your sole source of music is the iTunes store).

Explain to me again why having this sort of service is useful?