Bad Weather, iPod Sucks, DRM

Note: Dear fellow (worst)writer(s), postings in April are gonna be kind of weird because I’m trying to focus on a really bad story I’ve been working on lately. As usual it’s going badly and most likely nothing will come of it. But it is preoccupying me a bit. Whoopee.

Also, this is yet another confusing post – yes, with some post-teen language – trying to find a train of thought, a topic to focus on, or something worthwhile to say.

If you’re here about the iPod complaint then just scroll down a bit.

There are three months out of the year I hate. No, I mean, seriously, I hate these months. First there’s November. I hate November. The second and third hated months are April and May. The reason I hate May is because it seems to me like the only month out of the year that lasts thirty-two or thirty three days. I hate April because it’s pretentious and usually always lies about winter going away. I actually started hating November when I moved to Germany because it always seemed like the time of year where the weather was the worst. You know, it’s always gray and the sky hangs just over your head threatening to dump a cloud on you with every step.

Months were always strange for me. When I was young I remember asking a teacher why we needed months. Included in that question was why we need twenty four hours in a day or twice twelve hours and then there was a bit in there about weeks. Anywho. I said to my teacher one day, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just tracked it all along a single line towards infinity?” The answer – as usual – in a world of misgivings and everything-you-know-is-wrong – was: “No. Things are the way they are. Because that’s just the way it is.” Yeah, everything is that way ain’t it? When I got older and finally learned that time was invented by a bunch of dudes who were stoned out of their minds and spent every night staring at the stars…. I thought: Wow.

One thing in all this (worst)writing is for sure. The weather sucks in Europe. Currently winter is trying to recede but, as usual, it hangs on with some kind of selfish child-like vengeance. I feel this mostly in my bones. One day the sun shines or maybe it shines for three of four days but it’s combined with a cold front. So you’ve got this hot spring sun barreling down on you – which you haven’t felt for nine or so months – and if you wear dark clothes it makes you sweat. (Seriously, the response/answer to that is NOT to wear brighter clothes – at least not in Europe!) Of course the air is almost freezing which causes some pretty nasty chills. Someone told me once that my problem is the way I dress. They added, “You’re not young anymore. When you get older you have to watch out for the weather. If you didn’t make friends with it (the weather?) when you were young, as you get older it won’t get any better.” Thanks pops.

iPod, DRM, iSuck begins here.

So the sun’s been shinning this week and Germany has a few days off on account of the death of that guy some thought was a messiah and others didn’t think was a messiah. So my girl said the other day: “OK, I want a new car radio in the convertible and make sure it works with my iPod.”

My girlfriend ordered an iPod Nano from all the points she collected using one of her credit cards. It’s the 4gb version in silver. Being the cause-less rebel that I am, I would never buy an iPod (with actual money) because, although many years ago I was an avid Apple Macintosh user, I’ve since come to the conclusion that there is nothing innovative about anything Apple does anymore which also means it’s not worth the self-imposed mark-ups that buyers of its products love paying. Since I’d been wanting an MP3 player – on account my cassette Walkman kicked the bucket last summer- I thought, OK, what the hell, let me finally see what all this iPod krapp is about.

In short: iPods suck.

Been fiddling with an iPod for almost six months now and I’m amazed that so many people actually buy this krapp. It is, like all Apple products, completely overpriced and second rate. Nothing more than a memory stick, this thing has got to be the worst “programmed” personal technology device I’ve ever used. On top of that the monopolized PC interface, iTunes, sucks even more. Obviously Apple had to do some serious butt-licking in order to legitimize the downloading of music files post Napster which includes milking the ill-will of the dinosaur music industry mafia. The result: why bother “buying” anything via iTunes? This is nothing but a memory stick dependent on very badly written software – including “mp3″ – that makes the whole product/experience, according to its potential, pretty much useless. (Luckily I have a large enough CD collection so I can just dump songs on the thing. But, to be honest, my old cassette Walkman had much better sound/fidelity than the iPod.)

Continuing with the brilliant and shinny lack of innovation and thoughtlessness that is Apple, their engineers have come up with the first technology product that you can’t actually buy – but you think you’re buying it. Ain’t that really neat-o-torpedo. Seriously. I find it very strange that so many people spend so much money for something that they ultimately don’t even own. Wow. I guess that Steve (brainfuck) Jobs is a pretty smart guy since he can easily trick so many smart people. Can you say DRM? Hold on a sec…

Jobs looks so stupid when he gets up on that podium every year to announce products. Every time I see him my gut tells me I would rather listen to Bill Gates. And that is saying a lot! Gee, to think of all the idiots waiting for the first beta release of iPhone. Yes, I believe that all Apple products are somehow beta. (PCs are too but at least they’re cheap and less pretentious! Which is what all technology should be!)

The reality is, Apple has created probably the first product in history that a person cannot actually own – even though s/he actually buys it. Does that make any sense? Are you bit a lost? Or are you still practicing saying… D-R-M, D-R-M, D-R-M…

My real problem with the iPod started when my girl and I needed to make some changes with the stuff (music?) we had put on it. My girl actually bought one or two podcasts for the iPod and I just loaded about 1gb of music on it from my CD collection. We have three PCs that we regularly use. There’s my girl’s work PC, the home laptop and the home desktop. We initially installed iTunes on the desktop. But then when we tried to synchronize that with the home laptop (yes, we were traveling) iTunes wouldn’t recognize the iPod. This meant that all of the podcasts and music on the iPod were locked into being used ONLY by the home PC where the iPod synchronized with iTunes. And that’s not what we – as owners of these products – wanted. But who are we (idiot consumer)!

Consumer: But this is my iPod. I own it. I can do anything I want with it!

Really Big Fancy Company, Inc.: Think again. Sucker!

In order for Apple to be able to legitimize a product that is dependent on content they cannot own they had to basically sell-out to the providers of that content. This is where the idea/concept of DRM comes into the picture. I won’t get into explaining DRM here because it is a somewhat complex but I highly suggest that anyone considering buying an iPod should get informed about this. And be prepared to do a lot of reading – talk about the proverbial small print! In fact, I suggest that people get informed with or without considering an iPod because DRM is gonna be in our future no matter what.

IMHO DRM is one of the largest consumer scams in history. In short, the reality is, this is the beginning of not being able to actually own anything anymore – even though you will be required to exchange your hard-earned cash/credit in the traditional sense. That is, the day where you take a dollar (or lots of them) and buy something and then call it “mine” will come to end. I don’t know about you but the implications of DRM are pretty strange.

It is somehow ironic when one takes a below the surface look at the US economy and how it actually works these days (comparatively, nothing is produced anymore, everything consumed is purchased with debt, and the only secure work available across the board is low-paying) that something like DRM appears without much attention. I don’t mean attention from the media here. You would think that consumers, especially the so-called educated consumer elites that can actually afford an iPod, would be very, VERY interested in DRM. It may be small now but in the future this concept will be big. The time is coming, for example, that you will never be able to actually “buy” an automobile or “own” a house. You will instead be granted a “right” to use the automobile that is ultimately owned by an investment group or foreign-national cash-cow entity. This goes way beyond the idea of consumer credit, mortgaging, or “leasing”.

Yeah, give an iPod and your stupid monthly car payments a new thought or two when you decide to buy another house that is ultimately financed by bonds that are owned by China or Saudi Arabia or, etc., etc. Wow.

Here a few sites regarding the iSuck world of iPod:

iPods Suck.
This link is just a pretty cool rant about iPods.
Here an interesting and somewhat similar iPod experience.
Here’s a google blog search with “iPod sucks” if you want more.

Originally I intended to make a joke about my girl getting an iPod Nano and now wanting an iPod Video and also wanting it to work with the new radio in her convertible and then adding something about the irony of all the Germans that own convertibles even though the weather is so bad here.

Oh well. So much for focusing on anything.

-tgs-

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