Dread Pirate Alice

Don’t Buy Coldplay!

From Boing Boing Via Itch the new Coldplay X&Y CD has a warning label about their DRM technology that you don’t get to know about until you buy the CD and open it up. And of course the rules say that unless there is a manufacturing problem, you can’t return it.
The rules say the CD can’t be played on a Mac, some PC’s, some car radios, some portable CD players…

And the music industry whines that they’re losing album sales…well Mr Bigshot Record Label asshole… THIS IS WHY! If I buy a CD, I should be allowed some fair use of said CD. If I want to load it onto my iPod, I should be able to do so. If I want to play it in my car CD player, I should be able to do so. If I want to make a backup copy of my CD that I PAID FOR I should be able to do so, so that in the event my CD gets stolen with my frickin car radio I’m not without my beloved CD! If you want to know why iTunes album downloads are growing while you’re physical album sales are going down, this is why. Because those who download their music are then able to listen to it on their iPods. They don’t have to buy portable CD players and shuffle between disks….which according to the Coldplay DRM list even some portable CD players may not work… Who wants to buy a CD and then find out they can’t play it in their car, portable CD player or even on their comptuer? What kind of IDIOT created that DRM!?! YOU JERKS ARE WAY TOO PARANOID!

BTW – the guy at Itch lives in India…he bought the CD there. It is possible Amercian copies of X&Y don’t have this little leaflet….but in any event, I’ve got a digital copy of X&Y should you wish to avoid destroying your computer…

And for all of you who support the record industry let me point out something to you… I buy a book, I pass it along to a friend…the author and the publisher get nothing from that pass along. I go to the library, I borrow a book….the publisher and author make no money off me reading that book either. I download a PDF of a book…the publisher and the author get nothing from that. I take my books to a used bookstore, I sell the books to the guy there, pick up a few more…and one more time, the author/publisher aren’t making money on that. Why aren’t writers and publishing companies pissed off over me loaning, borrowing, selling, etc my books? Why is the same thing the book industry doesn’t care about something the record companies are in a snit over?

Happy New Year to all the music lovers out there!

Drat

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

So, I sit down at the finally cleared off kitchen table to make sure I’ve got everything together to make the Christmas ham and other stuff. I get started with roasting the garlic for the mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and I pull out the aluminum foil and find I’ve barely got enough to wrap these two heads of garlic in… then I tie up the garbage before it starts to overflow and replace the bag, that’s the last garbage bag. THEN I discover that I have no heavy cream….well…I’ve got some but it expired on Dec 3rd and when you shake it, it makes no sloshy noise that liquid in a container SHOULD make, and that’s just really gross…can’t use that, even if I’m not eating the mashed potatoes. Then…I think I’ll make the pumpkin roll I’ve been planning on since last Christmas…no flour…
Yeah, I think you’re getting the picture.
My list:

Trash bags
Foil
Flour
Heavy Cream
Orange Juice

Off I go assuming that either Jewel or Dominicks (both are like 5 min away, but in opposite directions) will be open until at LEAST 10am… I get to Jewel (my best bet) and there is only ONE car in the lot, and that car looks like it probably wouldn’t start in the summer without prayers… UGH…. Off to Dominicks. There isn’t even a dead car in the parking lot there…ARUGH… So, it’s on to the gas station which IS open. I figure at the very least they’ll have the OJ and maybe I can use half & half instead of heavy cream….cream is cream right? This isn’t baking, it’s mashed potatoes. I should be OK, and we just can’t tie up the garbage until tomorrow, the pumpkin roll will just have to wait another day, and the foil…well, I guess I’m foil-less until tomorrow…not that I want to go anywhere tomorrow but I’ll live, and that’ll teach me to wait until Christmas morning to sit down and check my stock….

I can’t believe that NEITHER major grocery store is open for even a couple of hours today…Piece of crap…BAH!

So, Merry Christmas everyone! OH….and I’ll probably be silent for a while here, cuz I got City of Villains today…. bwahahahah!