Heroes

Great show, maybe the best on TV. Tonight's episode was great, with a lot of cool stuff and good information. However, much like anytime people start messing around with time travel, I think they may have fucked some things up. Either that or I just missed something. First, if future Hiro hadn't yet traveled back in time and told Peter to save the cheerleader, then why does Mohider still remember it. And now with future Hiro dead, does that screw up the past timeline that we've been watching all this time, since it seems that he never did get around to going back to meet Peter? And more importantly, if Claire never did get killed by Sylar, then how did Sylar regenerate when future Hiro stabbed him, since he obviously never got Claire's power? And how is it going to help now that they've saved her, if she was never dead to begin with? Also, when did Isaac get around to drawing the future 9th Wonder comics? Especially since he apparently did versions set in each of the two timelines, one of which happens five years after his death. Did he write 5 years worth of comics before he died?

Also, NBC ran it over by I don't know how long since my DVR cut off when Ando told Hiro he believed in him, so I don't even know exactly how it ended. Though I assume Hiro was able to get back to the past somehow.

Best-selling Author Will 'Prove' God's Existence

Well, this should be good. Ever since I saw that banana video with these two geniuses, I've been questioning being an atheist, I'm sure this debate will make me a believer once and for all.

I hope when he's done proving the existence of god, that someone remembers to quote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.' "'But,' says Man, 'The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.' "'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

Unfortunately, I think we'll discover a real Babel fish before Kirk Cameron says anything that even suggests the existence of god, much less proves it.

National Boring Association

I haven't really paid any attention at all this season to the NBA. That wasn't surprising considering the Lakers suck, and Georgetown was very good this year which made me focus more on college basketball. But, even when the Lakers aren't even in the playoffs at all, I've always been able to enjoy watching them anyway. But so far this season, I've seen nothing that interests me even slightly. I tried to watch several games over the weekend, and was bored by all of them, including the Lakers. I have a mild interest in the Heat because I like Shaq, but other than that, there's no team out there that is compelling to me, and no individual players that really pull me into a game just to watch them play.

Any NBA fans want to tell me about something great that I'm missing? Because I just can't get interested.

Gen Y shaped, not stopped, by tragedy

Stupid articles like this one make me want to repeatedly bang my head against a wall. What is this fascination we have with naming generations anyway? It's a pretty vague thing to use for distinction, but once you put a name on it, then people seem to want to try and apply hard and fast rules to each generation.

More annoyingly, in this article, they decide to use two stupid names for the same generation.

Millennials — also known as Gen Y — are typically described as those born since the early 80s.

Millenials? That's ridiculous. It wouldn't sound nearly so bad if the author hadn't used it over and over again like it's a widely accepted term. And I know Generation Y is a pretty crappy name, being a lazy sequel type name derived from the slightly more creative Generation X, but that speaks more to the need to stop making up silly names for generations than a need to come up with a new one.

And how do people born in the 80's qualify as millenials? Also, born since the early 80's until when? Until now? That would put my son in this generation, and I'm pretty sure he's affected by none of this. It also puts grown men and women in the same generation with little kids, which is another reason these distinctions are stupid. If people were only born every twenty years or so, these generational distinctions would be significant and worth talking about.

The timeline in the sidebar starts with 1986 and the shuttle explosion. How did that affect anyone born in the early 80s in any way? What four year old pays attention to the news?

Aside from the above, the premise of the article is stupid. For what generation can you not put together a list of disasters that they lived through?

I can see the logic in whoever came up with the label for the Baby Boomers. After the war, with people coming home, and with a lot to be happy about, it made sense to point that out. But just because one generation was named doesn't mean we have to name the rest from now on. I guess it's just another annoying thing we can blame on the Baby Boomers.

50 Questions

Haven't posted much lately, and these things are always good when I can't come up with anything interesting to say. Saw it at TwoGlasses and Laughing Wild

1. How tall are you barefoot?
About 5'9"

2. Have you ever smoked heroin?
No

3. Do you own a gun?
No, guns kill people

4. Who's your best friend?
Mike

5. Do you get nervous before "meeting the parents"?
My parents? I don't remember, but I doubt I realized I was going to meet them. Ok, I guess this is about my wife's parents. No, I didn't get nervous, but when I met my mother in law, she didn't say a word to me and looked at me like she wanted to beat meet to death with her bare hands. She loves me now, of course.

6. What music are you embarrassed to admit that you listen to?
Nothing, I'm not easily embarrased, and I don't listen to a lot of music.

7. What's your favourite Christmas song?
The one with the wind, and the sheep and the king and all that.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Chocolate Milk

9. Can you do push-ups?
Not many

10. Why does one question always disappear?
I have no idea what the fuck this means.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry?
My wedding ring. It's the only jewelry I wear, though it would probably be my favorite anyway.

12. Do you like painkillers? When I'm in pain.

13. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?
My wife's kids read this occasionally, so I'll spare them having to read about it.

14. Do you own a knife?
Who doesn't? Not like a crazy killing knife or anything. Just regular knives.

15. Do you have A.D.D.?
No

16. Middle Name?
Randall

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?
Who the fuck cares about three random thoughts. I'm embarrased that I'm wasting time on this stupid meme that probably started on some preteen girl's MySpace page. The Sopranos was kind of lousy this week.

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought:
Coffee, Milk, Coke

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink:
Kool-Aid (actually Great Value flavored drink mix, I'm cheap), milk, Mountain Dew

20. What time did you wake up today?
7:45 a.m.

22. Current worry?
I usually only worry about money

23. Current hate?
Whiny bitches

24. Favorite place to be?
Skiping my first choice for reasons mentioned above, I'll go with at home, just because I'm too lazy to put any thought into this.

25. Least favourite place to be?
Church

26. Where would you like to go?
Rome, New York, probably a million other places

27. Do you own slippers?
No

28. What shirt are you wearing?
Black Nike T shirt

29. Do you burn or tan?
Both

30. Favorite color(s)?
Blue

31. Would you be a pirate?
I don't think so. Why would I?

32. Last time you had an alcoholic drink?
Sunday

33. What songs do you sing in the shower?
I don't.

34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?
Burglars

35. What's in your pockets right now?
Nothing

36. Last thing that made you laugh?
My son, he's funny

37. Best bed sheets you had as a child?
What the fuck? Even if I was weird enough to have favorite bedsheets, I sure wouldn't remember them anymore.

38. Worst injury you've ever had?
Dislocated thumb.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house?
Five. For three people, seems excessive, but what am I going to do throw away perfectly good TVs?

41. Who is your loudest friend?
I don't keep track of my friends by volume.

42. Who is your most silent friend?
See above.

43. Does someone have a crush on you?
I seriously doubt it.

44. Do you wish on shooting stars?
No

45. What is your favourite book?
I'm not good with favorites, there are a lot of books I really like.

46. What is your favorite candy?
Miniature Reese's peanut butter cups.

47. What song do you want played at your wedding?
This reinforces my thought above that this came from some girl's MySpace page. I already had my wedding, we played All My Life by K-Ci and JoJo along with a lot of other songs.

48. What song do you want played at your funeral?
What the fuck do I care?

49. What were you doing at 12 AM last night?
Sleeping.

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning?
I have no idea.

Buckeyes drop Hoyas

I wasn't going to say much about Jeff Green's disappearing act in the Final Four, because they're just kids, and even with all that talent, can't always come through. But then I read the quote below, and it almost made my head explode.

"I wouldn't change anything," Green said. "I didn't want to force anything. ... You've got to credit their defense. They had great weak-side defense. That made it tough on our teammates to try and throw the ball down to me."

Huh? You didn't want to force anything? Why not? Because your teammates were having such success? You were losing most notably because you were not a factor in the game. Hibbert had foul trouble, but still managed to put in 19 points. You went stretches of 17 and 14 minutes without taking a shot. Ridiculous. You need to make your own shots sometimes. Obviously, you already know that, because you wouldn't even have been in the Final Four if not for forcing your way through a double and nearly triple team to hit the game winner against Vanderbilt. Your assertion that it was tough for your teammates to get you the ball is patently ridiculous. I watched the entire game very closely and continually saw you run away from the ball, and in fact immeadiately give it up almost everytime you got it.

And, sure the loss is not all your fault. DuJuan Summers, who has been very good lately only scored 3, but at least he was out there trying, taking 10 shots, and he's a freshman, not the Big East Player of the Year. And the bench was nonexistent. But they're the bench, you're supposed to be the star. If Allen Iverson were dead, he's be rolling over in his grave after that performance by a fellow Hoya in the Final Four.

Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?

I had heard just a little bit about this show but had never watched it. Then a few days ago, I caught just a brief little bit of it. When I had heard about it, I assumed it was the kind of obscure crap that you learn in fifth grade, but isn't important enough to remember, like the chief export of Brazil, or the capitals of Canadian provinces or something. However, during the time I watched, some obscenely stupid woman went from $150K in winnings up to $300K by answering how many months had 31 days. The saddest part about watching was her methods to get to that correct answer. She did the little rhyme to come up with 4 months with 30 days, then added on February to get to 5. Then she fucking counted on her fingers, saying "one from twelve is eleven, two from twelve is ten, three from twelve is nine, four from twelve is eight, five from twelve is seven." As sad as that is, at least she came up with the right answer.

Next, she had a chance to get a half a million dollars. If she missed the question, she would only get $25K. Or she could walk away with the $300K, but she had to say she wasn't as smart as a fifth grader or some bullshit. The question? "What continent is also a country?" I was prepared to forgive her for not immediately answering, thinking they had told her to string the drama out or something. But then she went back to her fingers. Why, I don't know. I guess she was counting the continents in her head for some reason. After some hemming and hawing, and chit chat with Jeff Foxworthy, who I can only assume was able to restrain himself from openly laughing at her only because he was getting paid for this, she decided to walk away. So, when Foxworthy asks what her answer would have been, I'm still hoping she will give the correct answer, and just is nervous on TV, and her head isn't clear enough to risk $275K for any reason. But then what she comes up with is "all of them." All of them. And some nonesense about how North America is a country, and the audience (thankfully) laughing at her. Then instead of looking suitably ashamed when given the correct answer, she instead seems to be giving herself credit for being smart enough to walk away.

I can only assume that either these two questions are not represenative of what is normally on this show, or that they make the contestants take some test to prove they are adequately stupid. Otherwise, this show would be giving away a million dollars everytime it airs. I wanted to stick around to the end to see how I could get on this show, but I had to go tell my wife about the stupidity I had just witnessed, and how it was rewarded with three hundred thousand dollars.

Passover Coke

I remember Coke seemingly tasting better when I was a kid. Up until fairly recently, I figured it was just the glass bottles. Then I discovered that since around 1984 or so, they've been making it with corn syrup instead of sugar, which many people on the internets (always believe everything you read on the internets) swear is a million times better.

So, last week I was in Winn Dixie and saw some Coke which was advertised as kosher for Passover. Not knowing what the hell would make Coke kosher or not, I looked it up on the aformentioned internets and apparently the Passover Coke is sweetened with sucrose, instead of corn syrup. So it's supposed to be more like the good stuff, though still not as good as Mexican Coke, which uses cane sugar (again according to the internets). So I bought some (it has a yellow cap), and I'll see how it tastes when I get home. If it really does taste better, then I'm going to be pretty pissed at Coke for using corn syrup all this time.


UPDATE: The verdict is in. Not much difference. If anything, it's slightly worse, flatter. Unless I got a bad batch or something, I'm unimpressed. Still look forward to trying the Mexican Coke with real sugar sometime.

Now you can see the coolest book ever...for FREE

Over on Flickr there's a copy of the Codex Seraphinianus, which is fascinating if you've never been able to find a copy. The illustrations are at once beautiful,amazing and disturbing. The Wikipedia article gives a pretty thorough explanation of the history as well as the mystery around this fairly recent piece of artwork.

Wicked - review

We're ending our 3rd day in London which means we're halfway done with our trip :(. But we're having a great time. I plan to do a Toast-like travelogue, but until then, I want to put up a quick review of Wicked while it's fresh in my mind.

I had heard the Broadway cast recording of this show, so going in I knew some of what to expect. I thought I would enjoy it, but I wasn't sure how much, as the music was pretty good, but hadn't grabbed me like say, LesMis did when I first heard it.

We got to the theatre which is right outside Victoria station in downtown London. I love the giant signs they put up for these shows. It really builds up the atmosphere, not to mention the throngs of people everywhere. London is a bustling place, especially at night.



The staging was great, as you would expect from a London or a Broadway show. The dragon was a nice, if unnecessary touch, and the stairs along the sides let the characters move around nicely. The style with the cogs and gears seemed to fit right in. The crowning moment was just before intermission when Elphaba (the wicked witch) rises up above everyone and is surrounded by her dress, which has expanded to fill the entire stage behind everyone.

I knew some of the story going in from the cast recording, but not all. Unlike some of the sung-through musicals, you don't get everything from the songs alone. I thought the book for the musical was very well-done. For this musical to be successful, you really have to believe in the characters and come to care about them. I thought they did a good job outlining the two main characters Galinda (Glinda) and Elphaba, and showing at a realistic pace how they change after they meet each other. Likewise with Fiyero, who changes quite a bit after he's first introduced. Once Elphaba finished "The Wizard and I", which is early in the first act, I was completely captivated.

All of the cast were outstanding. I believe we did see the main performers, Helen Dallimore as Glinda and Kerry Ellis as Elphaba. Helen Dallimore did a great job with her part. Of course, I had heard Kristen Chenoweth from the OBC as Glinda, and she has a great, strong voice. Helen Dallimore's wasn't quite as strong, but she made me forget about Kristen Chenoweth anyway. Glinda's part isn't the easiest, I don't think, as she has to be both shallow and lovable at the same time. Kerry Ellis was spectacular. Her big songs "The Wizard and I", "Defying Gravity", and "No Good Deed" gave me chills. Songs that I had heard on the CD and kind of liked really knocked me over here. It reminds me why I love live theatre so much. The rest of the cast shone as well. The Wizard and Madame Morrible were both in great form musically and in their characterization.

To use the Toast movie scale, I would say I had expected a 7, and actually got a 9. The whole family really enjoyed it. And it's a good thing too, considering we spent over 100 pounds plus the tickets after all was said and done. But it was well worth it. I would do it again tomorrow if I could get Michelline to go along.

McCain Regrets Use of Term 'Tar Baby'

John McCain is a fucking douchebag, who I can't stand for a number of reasons, but this is a ridiculous thing for people to be upset about. However, instead of talking about it, I'll just link to my post after Mitt Romney used the word, since we've been down this road before.

NCAA Tournament

I know this is late, but I've been sick so I haven't had a chance to post it yet. But here is my bracket, where you can clearly see that I haven't cheated at all getting it up this late. It's also clearly biased with Georgetown winning it all, but fuck it, they haven't been in a position where I could legitimately make that pick for a while, so I'm going with it.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say something about all the people I've seen recently detailing their different records in different pools. Pick one bracket and stick with it, it's way more fun that way. Where's the exceitement if you need one team to win in one pool, and another team in a different pool, and can never really decide who to root for? Half the fun of getting in a pool and picking a bracket is giving you a clear interest in each game, so I don't understand you people with the multiple brackets.

Also, it's come to my attention that my brother picked Duke to win it all, so feel free to use this space to make fun of him.

Customer service and faith clash at registers

Well, I guess it's nice to see that being an unreasonable idiot isn't reserved for pharmacists. Also, I'd be interested to see how many people who thought it was perefectly ok for pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions because of their religous beliefs complain when someone refuses to scan their bacon at the grocery store. I think all these Muslim cashiers should be required to get their prescriptions filled at pharmacies staffed by lunatic Christians, and those Christian pharmacists should have to shop at grocery stores with crazy Muslim cashiers. Maybe then, as each complains that the other shouldn't take a job that they can't do completely, a light bulb will go on. Probably not, but it's possible.

Anyway, the most ridiculous thing about this story to me is, who the fuck doesn't like bacon? If your religion doesn't let you eat bacon, it's time to find a new religion.

Hooray for daylight savings time!

No, I'm not being ironic.

It seems like a popular position to bitch about DST, and I'm not sure why. What's not to like about extra light in the evening? I leave work most days between 4 and 5. During the winter, that means it's already dark by the time I get home. Which means none of us can do anything outside. I would just as soon can standard time altogether and go DST year-round.

Take today, for example. I got home at about 6. I had to finish building a fence in the backyard. Prior to the DST switch , I would have had less than an hour to get it done. With the extra hour, I had plenty of daylight to finish up.

Keep the extra daylight coming, I say.

Kroger responds to denied 'morning after' pill request

This is good. At least it's a better policy than some other chains which don't seem to care one way or the other. But I wish they would just drop this sort of crap -

The Cincinnati-based grocery chain said if its pharmacists object to fulfilling a request, the store must "make accommodations to have that prescription filled for our customer."

and say if its pharmacists object to fulfilling a request, they can damn well find themselves another job.

Do health insurance companies allow claims examiners to deny covered claims relating to abortions? Do convenience stores allow clerks to deny the sale of adult magazines? Fuck no. They do that and get fired. So why are the pharmacists treated differently? Make them do their jobs.

Study: No need to ban cell phones in hospitals - CNN.com

No shit. I thought this quote was kind of odd - Most hospitals forbid the use of cell phones. Actually, in my experience, most hospitals have signs forbidding the use of cell phones, but that's about as far as it goes. Last time I was at the hospital, the doctors were whipping out their cell phones left and right. If it really, truly caused problems, they would make you check them at the door, like they do at Social Security offices (don't get me started on that stupid policy either).

Hey NBC - You Suck!

I'll completely ignore the fact that Heroes isn't coming back until the end of fucking April, only because it's such a great show. No, I'm talking about the much hyped extra HD Spider-Man 3 trailer you were going to show me if I went to NBC.com in the next 24 hours. Well, I went, to be told I had to download Quicktime (which sucks), then to have it tell me it would take 8 minutes or so. This is way too long for 200 something MB anyway, but then to have absolutely no indication of how much progress is being made in the download is ridiculous. Why not just let me download the file, anyway? Why does it have to be streaming? Afraid I'm going to make the Spidr-Man trailer available to others who might just (gasp) go see the movie? Anyway, so I trust this thing for 12 minutes (not 8), only to have it tell me that Quicktime is missing something or other which it needs but can't find on the Quicktime website. Wel, since I had no quicktime before, and followed the instructions completely, you'd think that it might have given me everything I needed. You might think that. Anyway, so I wasted 15 minutes or so, and saw no special HD Spider-Man trailer, which pisses me off, since I should have been asleep by now.

So anyway, NBC, you suck. I had heard that 30 Rock was pretty funny, and I had planned to start watching, but now, in protest, I will not. Also, I quit watching The Apprentice this season, so fuck you NBC.

Best Show on Television

I'm pretty sure I did a post with this title already, and I was then talking about The Wire on HBO. Well, this time I'm obviously talking about Heroes on NBC. Last night's episode was just great TV. Hard to believe an episode which had only a little Hiro (literally) could be so good, but it was. Nice to see them use flashbacks so well. It was great to see so much background information. It's hard to believe they packed all that into only 42 minutes or whatever. Also, it was great to learn that the George Takei appearance earlier was not just a cheap stunt casting trick, and instead is part of something which obviously goes a lot deeper with Hiro's dad. About the only complaint I have about the episode is that Eric Roberts looks like someone ran over his face with a large truck, and his hair looked like there was a dead animal on top of his head. I can't wait to see how they handle Mr. Bennett after his memory has been erased. He may be leading the charge looking for Claire even though he was the one who made her disappear. Anyway, if you're not watching Heroes, you should really start.


Also, The Black Donnelly's which premiered after wasn't bad either.

'Unlucky' airline logo grounded

Wow, people are fucking stupid. Ok, so I realize that some people are unnecessarily superstitous, but who the hell even noticed in the first place that this logo had 13 dots? Who goes around counting things like this? Did they have to rip the seats out of row 13 also? So many questions. And I guess I realize that an airline can't just tell their customers to fuck off, but this would be a case where I'd really like to have seen that response.

Filet-O-Fish hooked patrons

I came across this somewhat interesting article on the origin of the Filet-o-Fish sandwich. But all I could think while reading it, was "why on Earth would anyone eat that thing?" A question which was even more perplexing after seeing the original poster for it in the article. It looks like the guy blew his nose on it. Disgusting. I guess the article offers a little of an explanation about Catholics who don't eat meat on Fridays, but fuck, why wouldn't you just rather starve? That Hula Burger that Ray Kroc apparently came up with sounds really lame, but I can't imagine it wasn't better than this disgusting creation. Does McDonald's still even sell these things? If so, why?

Kansas embraces evolution

It's good to see that Kansas has rejoined the modern era once more, for a while at least. Maybe next time, if they do decide to reject the scientific method, they'll reject it altogether. This could open up a whole world of possibilities - students could learn "alternate" theories about astronomy(the Earth is flat, really), geology (those rocks are only a few thousand years old) and even human biology(can you prove the stork isn't real?).

One quote in the article was puzzling -

But many Kansans still harbor religious objections and other misgivings about the British naturalist's theories. The Intelligent Design Network presented petitions with almost 4,000 signatures opposing the standards the board eventually adopted.

John Calvert, a retired attorney who helped found the group, accused the board of promoting atheism. And Greg Lassey, a retired Wichita-area biology teacher, said the new standards undermine families by "discrediting parents who reject materialism and the ethics and morals it fosters."

How exactly is reinstating teaching according to science "discrediting parents who reject materialism"? Are these people so far gone that they think evolution = atheist libertinism? What does evolution have to do with "ethics and morals"? Clearly, Lassey here has created a chain of thought - teaching evoltuion means rejecting God, rejecting God means rejecting morality, because without God there is no morality. Not very scientific for a retired biology teacher. And it certainly puts the lie to the idea that "Intelligent Design" isn't a way to sneak religion into the schools, that it's just another valid way to look at the evidence. If that were truly the case, how could teaching evolution lead in any way to talk of ethics and morals?

Product Placement

I constantly hear people whining about product placement in movies and TV, but it's never bothered me. There was a perfect example of why on Heroes tonight. Nikki/Jessica gets a letter and goes to open it, and it's clearly in a FedEx envelope. Only, instead of saying FedEx, it says SendEx. How this is any better than just leaving it FedEx, which is both easier and more realistic, is beyond me.

Even the Nissan Versa in this show, which I've seen people complain about, and which is clearly superfluous to the plot doesn't bother me, because all the references to it fit nicely with (and actually helped develop) Hiro's character.

Apple - Thoughts on Music

I haven't talked much here about DRM, since it really seems pretty simple to me (i.e. it doesn't work and never will), and would ulimately just turn into a rant. But with someone like Steve Jobs weighing in, I thought I should mention it. It's good that someone who may actually have some influence seems to recognize that it doesn't work.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

emphaiss mine

So, the gist seems to be that DRM sucks and that Apple uses it only because they are forced to by the music companies. I'd love to hear a response to Jobs' points from someone on the other side. But I'm sure we won't, since there really isn't any resonable position.

One thing that did bug me about Jobs' letter, though, was when he described the existing course, where it seems that he doesn't think DRM is such a big issue, and I think he misses the point a little bit.

Some have argued that once a consumer purchases a body of music from one of the proprietary music stores, they are forever locked into only using music players from that one company.
[snip]
Through the end of 2006, customers purchased a total of 90 million iPods and 2 billion songs from the iTunes store. On average, that’s 22 songs purchased from the iTunes store for each iPod ever sold.

Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats. It’s hard to believe that just 3% of the music on the average iPod is enough to lock users into buying only iPods in the future. And since 97% of the music on the average iPod was not purchased from the iTunes store, iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.

Sure, the average iPod today only has 3% DRM music on it, but what about tomorrow? People are only just now starting to buy their music online. Most people who invest in an iPod in the first place probably already have a vast library of CDs that they want to rip and put on it. However, if they start buying music from iTunes, why would they want to continue buying CDs? At some point that 3% is going to get to be a number that is significant, and will sway the consumer's decision. So, while Jobs may be correct right now that it isn't a big issue, when he's talking about continuing on the current course, he's talking about the future, and future where more people get more music online must be considered in the argument. Also, I would bet that there are quite a few iPods with no music from the iTunes store on them, which would skew those numbers a bit.

Anyway, the bottom line with DRM is that it doesn't in anyway affect music piracy. Just go look for illegal versions of any song you want and see how hard a time you have finding them. All it does is hamper legitimate customers' use of their rightly acquired media.

Suicide-prevention group criticizes GM ad

So, I thought yesterday that it was ridiculous that someone could be offended by that Snickers ad. Well, that's nothing compared to the morons upset by the suicide robot ad. Apparently, it might give young robots bad ideas or something.

GM has "no plans" to drop the robot spot, spokeswoman Ryndee Carney says

Good. At least someone still has some common sense.

Like I said yesterday, we should just ignore anything people say for a week or so after the Superbowl.

Billy Joel Concert

Michelline and I went to see Billy Joel last night as he kicked off his US tour to a sold-out crowd in Jacksonville. I've been to see very few concerts, and I was looking forward to this one. Billy Joel has always been one of my favorites. One thing about Billy Joel - he's got so many hit albums and so many songs, you never really know where he's going to go. I like almost all of his stuff, so I knew I wouldn't be disappointed no matter what was on the set list for the night.

He was at the new arena downtown, which is also a basketball/hockey/whatever else they can fit in venue. It's a nice place with good visibility and ok acoustics. Facing the stage, we were in the stands on the right hand side, about halfway up. Of course, they also had a monitor in the center of the roof so we could see some of the things you can't make out if you're not right by the stage. So, like I said, the sound was ok. This is the complaint I have about a lot of live music I've seen, that they sacrifice sound quality for volume. I know that you want it to be loud, that's one reason to go to a concert - you get to be surrounded by the music, to kind of be a part of it. But when the guitars drown out the vocals and the sound blares, I just think there's got to be a better way.

The show started with a bang as Joel rose along with his piano in the center of the stage playing something pretty good that I didn't recognize. Heavy on the piano, which I like. Then he went into "My Life" to get the fans going. During the first half, he alternated fan favorites - "Allentown", "Don't Ask My Why", "The Entertainer" with some stuff they haven't played in concert since the 70's, according to Joel. His voice still sounds good - clear and confident, and he had a lot of energy on stage. The crowd was into the show, but not overwhelmed early. There were a few people standing up, but most of us were sitting for this part. He's comfortable on the stage, which you would expect of someone who's been playing and touring since the early 70's. He was funny, and thanked everyone, especially the people who bought the "shitty seats".

After the first hour, he did a few slower songs - "New York State of Mind", which seems to be a favorite for a lot of people although not one of my favorites, "She's Always a Woman", and "An Innocent Man". On this last one, he has to hit the high note and hold it, and he did a good job. He sounded good all night.

For the second half, he started picking it up and really got things going, (and surprised everyone) when he said he was bringing one of his crew up to sing a "religious song, a sacred song" and to give him a chance. So this fat guy with a t-shirt and a mic comes out and they break into "Highway to Hell" with Joel on the guitar. Of course, it's a great song and they did it well, and it got everyone on their feet and moving. From that point on, most people were standing and dancing. He went into "We Didn't Start the Fire", from there, and "Big Shot" among a few others. Energy was really high and there was a real buzz for this whole set, good stuff. Then the band left the stage and the crowd was screaming and waving lighters and cell phones for a few minutes waiting for the encore everyone knew was coming. They came back out and did "Only the Good Die Young" which is one of my favorites, and then the band left again. Joel played with the audience a little and pretended to leave the stage, and finally sat down and finished up with the song he had to play - "Piano Man". It was a great ending, and the Joel let the crowd sing the chorus, which we were all doing anyway. It was a great way to finish a great show.

One interesting thing I noticed at the end - we were in a sold-out arena, probably 15000 people, and I couldn't find a black person. I know there had to be a few black people there, but they were nearly impossible to find. It was a sea of white faces. I guess it's not surprising, I just hadn't really thought about it before. Another thing was the variety of age groups. There were a surprising number of younger people, people in their 20's. Surprising to me because his last album was 1993. And there were also a lot of people in Joel's own age group. But everybody had a good time. Some of the most enthusiastic were some of the young women. No underwear was tossed, but there was a lot of energetic dancing.

I'm really glad I went. It was my wife's idea, and I probably would have skipped it, as I've never been much of a concert-goer, and I'm glad she suggested it. If he comes back, I'll definitely see him again.