Lessons of Napster

I'm writing this post from the sunny city of Houston, and I'm glad to be back for the weekend. It was good to see my parents and I can't wait to see my brother. Tomorrow is Buzzfest and I'm really only interested in seeing Audioslave, but it looks like my friend wants to go earlier so I'll give you the full scoop on Sunday. Don Dodge wrote an article for CNet describing the difficult transition for Napster from P2P to legitimacy, and I bring it up mainly because this could be advice for the future of television show distribution online. The most poignant point he made was to not get ahead of the market, and I think a lot of columnists are questioning whether Steve Jobs is getting ahead of the market with this video stuff on iTunes. I'm undecided, but I really don't think Napster was. His other tips, in fact, just seem to show how stubborn and old-fashioned the music industry was rather than mistakes on his part. It was ridiculous for them to feel convinced that there isn't a problem, and I applaud television networks for acknowledging (or at least seeming to understand) that they could have a dire situation in their hands very quickly if they don't act. Anyway, it's a good, short read if you want to learn more about Napster.

Turning back to Apple real quick, a class action lawsuit is being filed against them for shoddy production of the iPod Nano with regard to how easily scratched the miniature device is. I don't know whose side to take because I don't think these people would lie about this problem, but I'm not entirely convinced that Apple would be cheap enough to use less resin on the coating. I don't think Ballmer previously responded to Kai-Fu Lee's attacks that he threw a chair and said all that stuff about Google, but he now denies ever having done or said such things. I'm inclined to believe he's lieing though since he also said that we'll all be able to trust Windows Vista from day one. Lastly, an article last week claiming that software developers are to blame for insecure code has caused a backlash laying the blame on the economical vendors. I would be inclined to agree with them: coding is a long and involved process that doesn't always get the attention it deserves from the higher ups.

There's very little movie news today, which is good because my parents' computer is like a PII and is ridiculously slow. There's finally a true theatrical trailer for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and while the movie may seem a little over-the-top, the visuals are absolutely jaw-dropping. It definitely has great potential though it lives in the shadow of Lord of the Rings. Yahoo! Movies has a first trailer up for The Producers and it looks like a funny movie, but I'm afraid it will only be a B-movie. Uma Thurman needs a good movie so bad. Lastly, you need to see Jarhead because not only do I think it'll be good and even JoBlo has decided to agree. Just look how excited this guy is:



Now for Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Do you button shirts top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top?
I button bottom-to-top just out of habit. I wouldn't mind going the other way. In fact, I sometimes start from both sides and work my way to the middle.

Soup
What is your favorite sandwich?
Hard to say. I don't remember the name of favorite Quizno's sub, but that's what it would be. As long as it's on a toasty cheese-based bread and has a lot of meat (preferably chicken).

Salad
What was a family project you helped work on as a child?
What does that mean? Like a home improvement? I can't really think of anything. We never had any family projects. I had enough school projects to keep me busy!

Main Course
When have you acted phony?
Only around people I don't like but with whom it's not in my best interest to keep a negative relationship (such as girls who have screwed me over but know a lot of other girls who know me). It sucks to be phony, so I try to avoid those people.

Dessert
Do you write letters or postcards? If so, to whom?
If I ever send something like that over snail mail it would be a postcard. E-mail has made writing letters obsolete, and my handwriting isn't the best.