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Posted on 06.02.06 by Widge @ 4:52 pm
I'm behind on blog-reading, but apparently people are shocked–shocked–that Steve Jobs thinks you should buy a new iPod every year. Here's the latest from Engadget, which is significantly less snarky than the last place I read it, but still. They seem to be treating this like it's proof that Jobs is evil or something. First of all, I hate to break this to anyone outraged by this notion, but for fuck's sake, where have you been? Companies want you to buy their shit. Not only that, but they want you to buy it and then buy it again. Why do you think things break and you have to replace them? Forget MP3 players. When was the last light bulb that honestly lasted as long as the package said it would? And wow, companies innovate so you want to buy the latest and greatest even if your present model is still working. This is really news. Fuck. How many times have you bought the same movie on DVD? Or if not you, somebody's buying them, so how many versions have you seen street? Forget DVDs, how many Monty Python CD compilations have you owned? Hell, I've got one called "The Final Ripoff," flaunting the fact that they had repackaged and resold stuff multiple times. And as for an iPod being obsolete the moment you open the package, again, where have you been? Bought a PC lately? Bought a TV lately? Hell, a car? It's called perspective. Rent some, if you can't afford to own. P.S. The battery life on my 4G iPod is fine and I use the hell out of it. And if you don't have enough sense to buy a case to keep your unit from getting scratched, then you're an idiot. If you own an iPod, you've already decided to trade the unit's functionality and ease of use for its lack of inherent self-protection. No need to trumpet to the world you didn't think about that before you bought it. Filed under: General BS
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Posted on 06.01.06 by Widge @ 2:37 pm
Here's the latest on the RIAA's shenanigans. Here's the story of how the MPAA stymied Pirate Bay. And just as I was getting ready to write this little missive, I spotted this, which pretty much sums up what I was going to say. So. In brief. The entertainment industry continues to learn nothing. They don't understand what century they're in nor do they understand their customers. In my mind, the majority of the so-called "pirates" are people who are, in effect, customers that aren't getting what they want, when they want it, and how they want it, and feel compelled to take matters into their own hands. You can't tell me that somebody with any intelligence wouldn't rather just hit a button and spend some coin to get a quality version of something than to chugachugachuga for hours waiting for something to download. And then it could be wrong, or subtitled in Yiddish, or a live version of the song, or…or…or…or. If somebody's downloading your stuff illegally, congratulations, you have demand down pat. But you twits couldn't figure out the method of supply to save your misbegotten lives. The one chance–the one chance–you had to put the genie back in the bottle and get ahead of it was Napster. There was one service, everybody used it. You could have embraced Napster and brought everybody back into the fold. But no. Metallica came out suing their fans and the fans fled Napster and went to other services. And then when those got shut down, the amount of services grew exponentially. And now, instead of Napster where everything was centrally located, you're going after websites that don't even have illegal files on them. And making enemies by the metric ton. So fine. Shut down as many services and websites as you want. You will never stop this. All you are doing is getting people to innovate past you and circumvent you and go deeper and deeper underground. In fact, I want you to keep trying, because I want you both destroyed. Honestly. The more people get fed up with you, the more they'll turn to people like me who actually want to let people play with our stuff. I want the pocketbooks of the entertainment industry to become smoking craters. And I want truly innovative, forward-thinking artists to get a nice market share out of your death rattles. I have a dream. Won't you all join me? Filed under: General BS
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John Robinson is a writer of prose, poetry and comics who also writes under
the pseudonym of Widgett Walls.
This is my latest book. Short stories written especially for you, or at least someone who reminded me a lot of you at the time.
