So I have to admit that I'm a big teknophile and big advocate of online music downloads.  I think that many music lovers will agree that the advent of online downloads is such a great concept.  You have the ability to preview and purchase songs from the convenience of your living room.

However this emerging industry has some big hurdles to overcome.  The biggest complaint I have is the lack of intercompatible  DRM format.  DRM is basically a security mechanism that let's the content publishers (the online stores in this case) to control what kind of rights you have to your songs that you purchase (burning to cd, transferring to portable devices, how long you can have the song).   Almost all legit online music stores use DRM.

Now the problem is that there isn't one DRM format for all the online stores.  For the mostpart, you have two major formats for DRM.  Microsoft DRM and Apple DRM.   Most of the online music stores such as music.msn.com, napster, musicmach.com use windows DRM.  Most of the media devices you find on the market support this format (often referred to as protected WMA format). 

Apple on the other hand uses their own DRM format (protected AAC).  Apple does not let any other software application, online music store, or portable device maker to use this format.  Only Apple iTunes is allowed to sell songs in this format and only Apple iPods are able to play this format. In addition, the iPod will not play any other DRM format (especially WMA from Microsoft)

So why has Apple been so successful?  My opinion is great marketting and a great product dispite the limitations of compatablity.  From everyone I've talked to, the iPod is the one of the best portable players on the market and the ease of use when combined with iTunes music downloads.   So with their success, it's not suprising that they don't need to open up their iPod to competition from competing online stores.  However, in the long run, I think it would promote the sale of their ipods for those of us who won't buy one because of the lack of online stores it supports.  Hopefully music stores and media device makers can come to a common ground and adopt a universal DRM format that anyone could use.  

More Info on DRM issues:

International Digital Media Project (DMP)
Mission: To promote continuing successful development, deployment and use of Digital Media that respect the rights of creators and rights holders to exploit their works, the wish of end users to fully enjoy the benefits of Digital Media and the interests of various value-chain players to provide products and services.

DigitalConsumer.org
Mission: To restore the balance between citizens and copyright holders by employing a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Mission: Working to protect our fundamental rights regardless of technology; to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties

For those who haven't seen this article, I think it's worth a read http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002254110_webjobs26.html

Apple is going as far as pulling all the books from the publisher of an un-authorized biography about it's CEO, Mr. Steve Jobs.   After reading the article, I still can't seem to understand the company's thought process and why they would take these drastic actions. 

According to the article, the book is for the most part, favorable towards Mr. Jobs.  I think that most of us can agree that Apple is notorious about not sharing their technology or brand name with anybody else (examples are iTunes - they will not let anyone else use the file format, their machines - only Apple can make their machines and the hardware is usually more spendy than windows based PCs).  However, what good can come out of trying to control what people say about Apple in their books?  

I definitely think this will backfire against Apple and fuel critic's reasons on why not to support Apple.   For such a forward thinking company that is about brand name and image consiousness, this act of trying to repress free speech will be a black eye for them. 

One of my indulgences is to have a nice cup of esspresso on the weekend and do some people watching.  For those in the Seattle area, I highly recommend Cafe Vita off of Pike Street in Capitol Hill.  I really like the smooth roast of their coffee beans as well as the great presentation and service at the cafe.  Below is a photo of my quad espresso.

Caffe Vita
1005 E Pike St
Seattle, WA 98122-3818  
(206) 709-4440

 Sasha @ The Element on 4/22/05 .  One of my fav. dj's will finally be coming through to Seattle.  Gonna be crowded with limited presale tickets.  Get'em while you can :)

Media Center Edition setup

Now I know that there are online services pushing to sell their online radio services.  However, if you are a big electronic music fan such as myself, you can't seem to find the variety of different genres on most of those services.

Here is a great site that has hundreds of electronic music feeds.  They are all free and you can do sub genre searches as well as specifying bandwidth, ect.  Of course, you do need winamp to play the feeds as the site is sponsored by winamp.  Fortunately, Winamp is free and one of my favorite music players on the pc.

http://www.shoutcast.com/ (for list of streaming stations)

http://www.winamp.com/ (winamp player needed to play streams)

I'm finally back from my 2 week trip to Ohio.  It was nice to finally meet the rest of Cheri's family and friends as well as get to know the different areas of Ohio.  We basically stayed at each of the 3 major cities in Ohio: Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.

Cleveland is a very industrial city.  Instead of oceans of water, the landscape is filled with oceans of old factories and steel mills.  It was evident that the city is no longer in its prime, as most of the city was fairly dirty and run down.  There were exceptions such as the cities of Shaker Heights and Pepper Pike-  but for the most part, it seemed liked its glory days have come and gone.

Columbus, at first, seemed like just any other college town I had been to.  However, I was given the grand tour and was pleasantly suprised to see how large it was and how many different areas of the city there really are.  The city has a progressive feel, and from what I foresee, will be growing rapidly in the next 5 years.  Everywhere I turned, there were new lofts and old houses being renovated.  The city boasts a very chic area named the Short North which reminded me a lot of Seattle's Belltown.  Another favorite area of mine was German Village which has an urban yet quaint and charming feel about it, as you can tell from my photos.  Columbus was a fun town, but I can see outgrowing it after living there a few years.

Lastly, there was Cincinnati.  Home to large companies such as Procter and Gamble.  Cincinnati is an old town and has a sense of history even though it is a thriving commercial city.  The city seems to have a good balance of new growth as well as maintaining its charm and historic roots.