Category: Random Ramblings

Anything that catches my fancy as a topic I want to cover. Truly random crap.

Sony still hates consumers, now also hates artists

(via boingboing)

Sensationalist headlines just sound good to me some times.  For this write-up, the title refers to the fact that Sony pays its recording artists royalties on iTunes downloads as if the download were a sale of music.  This means lower royalty payments.  However, when a consumer downloads a tune from iTunes, Sony has a license agreement that restricts the user’s rights, basically stating that the download is a licensing of content, not a sale of goods.

NEW YORK – Rock bands Cheap Trick and The Allman Brothers Band are suing Sony Music, claiming they are being shortchanged on royalties for songs downloaded legally over the Internet.

. . .

According to the suit, the record company is treating digital downloads like traditional record sales, rather than licensed music, triggering a different royalty deal.

Under that old rubrik, the record company deducts fees for the kind of extra costs they used to incur when records were pressed on vinyl, including packaging charges, restocking costs and losses due to breakage.

Tracks sold over the Internet usually go for about 99 cents. About 70 cents of the sale price goes to Sony. The bands are getting about 4 1/2 cents per song, according to the suit, rather than the approximately 30 cents they claim is rightfully theirs.

Something smells fishy here.  Anyone know what that is?

[tags]Sony, iTunes, Screw the consumer[/tags]

12″ portable DVD player

(via TechEBlog)

There was a time when I seriously thought I wanted something like this.  (long sentence alert)  That’s a 12″ portable DVD player, which sounds pretty good until yportable_dvd.jpgou consider current pricing on 10″ portables (the price hasn’t been set on the 12″ yet), the size a 12″ player would need to be, and the remarkable affordability of low-end laptops with DVD drives capable of playing all the same content *AND* allowing you to run office applications, browse the web, keep up with e-mail, and more.

[tags]Portable DVD player[/tags]

Shockproof portable hard drives

(via Design Technica via TechEBlog)

I’ve been looking for a good, reliable, sturdy, affordable portable storage device for my wife to carry around.  She has some USB memory sticks, bexternal_shock.jpgut more storage is always good, right?  I think Plextor is looking like a worthy contender for a storage provider in this realm.  Check out these shock-proof external hard drives.  Available in 80 and 120 Gig for $169 and $260 respectively.  I’m seriously considering picking up one of the larger capacity drives at that price.

The external PX-SP hard drives, said Plextor, make use of a specially designed silicon jacket bumper that reportedly helps keep the drive from crashing if it is dropped. The storage device, which measures 3.3” x 0.7” x 5.5” and weighs less than eight ounces, supports USB 2.0 for a maximum data transfer rate of 480Mbps. The PX-SP comes bundled with a USB cable, the silicon jacket and a quick start guide.

[tags]External storage, Shook-proof drives[/tags]

Top 10 worst game quotes ever

(via TechEBlog)

The folks over at IGN have put together a list of the 10 worst game quotes ever. Full list follows the break.

  1. “All your base are belong to us.” – Zero Wing
  2. “I am Error.” – Zelda II: The Adventures of Link
  3. “Jill, why don’t you, the master of unlocking, take this lock pick.” – Resident Evil
  4. “You were doomed as soon as you lost the ability to love.” – Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
  5. “Yo gangsta! Get ready to gang bang!” – Bust-a-Groove
  6. “I feel asleep.” – Metal Gear
  7. “You can’t give it up! Triumph or die!” – Street Fighter Alpha 3
  8. The DK Rap – Donkey Kong 64, Super Smash Bros Melee
  9. “A Winner is You!” – Pro Wrestling
  10. “Shine Get!” – Super Mario Sunshine

The TV you want, but can’t afford

(via Engadget)

panasonic-103inch.jpg

Well, the 65-inch and 80+ inch plasma TVs we’ve seen announced recently just weren’t big enough for some people. Panasonic has announced that it will have its new 103 inch Plasma TV (that’s 8.5 feet diagonal) available for purchase before the end of the year. No pricing, but I’m sure it can’t be much more than a modest car…

[tags]Panasonic, Big TV[/tags]

Nexus Wicked laser review

(via TechEBlog)

I’ve written about Wicked lasers before.  These are some very high powered lasers that you can get to have around the house.  By high powered, I mean something able to cut through a garbage bag or electrical tape.  So if you’re trying to decide whether a $1000 blue laser is worth your money, read the review at OhGizmo.
[tags]Lasers, laser pointers, geek tech[/tags]

Free techie books

I can’t even reemember where I got this link, but check out all the free techie books at TechToolBlog.  Here’s a sampling of the books:

  • Assembly Language Tutorial
  • A Tutorial on Pointers and Arrays in C
  • Win32 Programming for x86 Assembly Language Programmers
  • A Beginners C++ Book
  • Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager
  • Advanced Bash Scripting Guide
  • Loving Lisp – the Savy Programmer’s Secret Weapon
  • Non-Programmers Tutorial for Python

Tons more are listed at the site.  There are 195 books on the site on all kinds of topics.

[tags]Techie books, Free books[/tags]

A for-pay Oblivion mod that doesn’t suck?

(via Kotaku)
I haven’t paid for any of the available for-pay Oblivion mods (and don’t plan to buy or use them – I don’t need horse armor).  I have, however, read quite a bit about how the horse armor and Orrery mods come up, shall we say, a bit short in the value-for-your money department.  But the latest Bethesda provided for-pay mod – Wizard’s Tower – seems to be worth putting a bit of money down.

[tags]Oblivion, Wizard’s Tower[/tags]

7 Days free Dungeons and Dragons online

(via Kotaku)

Man, I wanted this game to be awesome.  I really wanted to try it and like it.  But no single-player content means no RagManX playing it.

First, the write-up from Kotaku:

Love heavily instanced and overwhelmingly brown MMORPGs without enough content and require endlessly replaying the same dungeon over and over again until you jump a level from 2 to 3? Hey, who doesn’t? Nevertheless, early buzz on Turbine’s Dungeons and Dragons Online was so negative that you, like the majority of the planet’s sane, may have been reluctant to drop your hard earned lettuce on it.

Well, Turbine is trying to woo you over: if you’re a Yank and can find your way over to the DDO trial site, you too can have a seven day chance to discover the truth many of us only became privy to at the price of half a benjamin: Dungeons and Dragons Online is terrible. Period. Exclamation point. Radiation symbol! Still, it may be worth it so you can experience first hand DDO’s only saving grace: some pretty cool narration that is charmingly evocative of a real Dungeon Master’s cackling melodrama.

And, of course, the actual link to your 7 day trail download.

[tags]DDO, Dungeons and Dragons online[/tags]

Sometimes, Bill just nails them…

I don’t know that there’s any better way to sum up the world than what Bill had to say:

I’ve seen stories indicating that Tom Cruise is visiting your countries and wowing you.

Please, Rest of the World, listen to us on this one: Tom Cruise may look tiny and cute like a Ken doll, but he is a gigantic, scary asshole. Please do not giggle and throw him parades. Thank you.

Now there.  Doesn’t that seem to have everything covered?  And check below – how often do you think you’ll find Bill Harris and Tom Cruise listed together in the tags for an article?
[tags]DubiousQuality, Bill Harris, Tom Cruise[/tags]