Theo Moore

I always wondered why there was so little AC/DC available on Napster (I assume their reasoning is similar to that for iTunes), and this article discusses their point of view. Basically, they aren't allowed to "lock" a full CDs worth of tunes that have to be purchased instead allowing for singles...so I want the hit song, I buy the hit and avoid the filler stuff. They feel this sort of cheats them as artists and breaks the integrity of their art. AC/DC's new CD, Black Ice, is due out on the 20th of Oct. and is expected to be the largest release of the year. (BTW, I have my tickets for the show in Charlotte on Dec 18th already. Yay!)

Ok, let me get this straight...I am the customer with the money, and you won't sell me what I want, instead forcing me to buy stuff I don't to get what I do. I've never been a fan of this approach to marketing, and I love online music for exactly this reason. There are tons of CDs out there with one decent track on it. I don't particularly care if the artist in question thinks the whole CD rocks; mine (to me) is the perspective that matters where my dollar is concerned. This mentality of "buy the marginal along with the great because I get more money" approach seems to rip off the fan in some way. Online music has drastically reduced the illegal file sharing (although it does continue to this day) we saw a few years ago; take it away, and it will simply come back. People don't want to buy crap to get good tunes.

I will be very sad if the online music model dies (if iTunes goes can Napster be far behind?), but how can it survive if the artists insist on selling whole CDs? I also find it a little odd that AC/DC refers to their "art" in one paragraph as an explanation of why they don't want to see individual tracks, then comments on how much more money they make if they sell CDs. It just doesn't wash.

PC World is providing some great info on changing out your 20 GB hard drive with a 120 GB version on the cheap, doing the work yourself. Pretty slick, and apparently saves about 120 bucks. I've not modded mine (heck, I am considering selling it for all the use it gets), but I think it's pretty cool how many people have found good, cheap hacks to get the most out of their console. I am pretty sure this voids your warranty, though, so best be sure you know that going in.

Nice!

Among other things in this article, the MS CEO discusses Google and states that MS is likely the only company who could give them any competition in the web search arena. There are also some comparisons to Apple, Hp, etc in their respective technologies. I thought it a pretty concise statement of their position.

It also got me thinking about Goo. You know, I remember the first time someone asked me if I'd tried Google and then stated that is was a great search engine. At the time, seems like InfoSeek and Yahoo (and maybe Dogpile if you were edgy) were the search engines of the day. Yet, here comes this completely new search engine company with the very plain main screen and POOF! In what seems a ridiculously short amount of time, Goo becomes the preferred search engine on the web. Pretty amazing, dontcha think?