Why is the Sun So Dim?

Slept until about 9 (after dog duties of course) and then have lounged/napped on and off for most of the day. It's 9 pm and feels like 4 pm, except that it's extremely dark outside for 4 pm. The dogs just don't know WHAT to do.

If you haven't seen Anchorman yet, and you don't like cheesy/campy comedy, skip the movie. Some people liked it a lot, I was very disappointed in it.

I just found the most kick-ass feature in MusicMatch. Many of you have seen the Artist On Demand feature at the last party when a certain Hispanic/Mexican (yes, there is a difference - ask the folks running the Census) hottie requested some Latin pop music that we'd never heard of. I typed in the name and had over 40 songs at my fingertips by that artist in a matter of seconds.

In an effort to find better mood music for later in the evening, I started surfing the web looking for suggestions. I found some, typed them into the Artist On Demand search. By default, it lists the songs for an artist by popularity. Now here comes the cool part: Right click over the artist's name and you can have it add the most popular tracks (10-15) to your library automagically.

It doesn't actually download the songs, and it doesn't charge for them, but it does add a link in your music library and (as long as you have an Internet connection) acts just like the song/file is local. This means a virtual library of 50,000 songs or more (and they can even be saved in playlists).

This little $50/yr(?) service has now given me a way to not only keep from buying any more CDs, but I don't have to *ahem* download music, and I don't have to use up all my disk space.

In summary: This f'in rocks!

Watching the ways in which technology has developed (and consumer reactions to it) over the past few years has been fascinating. Apple has taken a large chunk of the desktop market share with ridiculously priced hardware and a so-so interface.

Sorry Apple fans, but Mac OS is Unix.. Something I've dealt with for more than a decade, and OS X - the GUI, may be a pretty face but it is certainly nothing impressive (or pitiful, for that matter) compared to other X Windows Window Managers that I've used on various Unix platforms.

While all of this is happening, Windows deservedly loses market share. Windows sucks. All it has going for it is applications. The lack of tightly integrated, easily installed applications is exactly what is holding up Linux as a viable desktop for the masses. Imagine Apple/Unix reliability, Windows-like application availability, and a price of a few hundred dollars (Linux is free). It's only a few years away.

Well gosh. What got me started on that rant? Oh yes. I'll certainly give Apple credit where it is due: The iPod is cool as hell. Not the look (call me old-fashioned, but electronics, especially ones that have constant environmental and pocket-crud exposure; should not be white), not the sound (the specs are actually kind of bad compared to most other high-end MP3 players), but the interface. It's just so damn usable. It is one of those rare products that makes you want to love it.. that you dream about owning. That makes people like me want to sell their higher-priced, better-featured, higher-quality (sound), better built, more stable gadget just to jump on the bandwagon.

.. Yet even though Apple seems to not only have cornered a large part of the portable music device market, but the digital music market. The desktop application software surrounding all of this (digital music acquisition, management, and transfer) is years ahead of what Apple is offering through their iTunes program/service.

Damn, I really ramble on about random drivel at times, don't I? lol!

Time to go lay down again.

G'night.