Songsmith Ad Secures Microsoft a Spot in Hall of Lame

Sure, it’s easy to pick on Microsoft, what with Apple making all those clever “I’m a Mac” ads (not to mention all those clever products).  Still, it is hard to cut them much slack when you see something as monumentally lame as this long-form ad for their new DIY song-making software, Songsmith:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGFogwcx-E&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

The saddest part is that the software is at least marginally cool.  It certainly doesn’t replace authentic songwriting but it could be fun in a RockBand / Guitar Hero sort of way.

It’s hard to decide what is most surprising – that some company would actually pitch this as a way to sell Songsmith or that Microsoft execs allowed the video to be distributed once they saw the final results.

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Apple Takes Another Step Toward Evil

I have been an Apple/Mac user since I upgraded from my Atari 800 back in the ’80’s,  I love the interface, the design and even the vague sense of superiority over my Windows brethren.

However, every now and then (and it feels like it is more and more often) Apple does something that is really a screw you to their faithful customers.

The lastest example is their incorporation of bullshit copyright “protection” built into the latest MacBooks:

“Buying an Apple computer? Get ready to throw away your monitor, over and over again. New Apple hardware is shipping with “HDCP” anti-copying technology that prevents showing some video on “non-compliant” monitors. Best part: the list of “compliant” monitors will change over time: the monitor you buy today can be “revoked” tomorrow and stop working.” (via BoingBoing)

Sweet, eh?  The worst part of this is that it is a completely bogus protection since there is nothing in copyright law that makes it illegal for me to watch a movie I bought on a screen other than my built-in monitor.  It’s just insane.

And it’s evil.

Live From Vermont, It’s Wimbledon!

For the past week-and-half or so I have been avidly following the play at Wimbledon.  Thanks to DVR I am able to come home each night and watch all the day’s matches, speeding through the blowouts and skipping the inane rain-delay commentary.  It’s great.

The thing is, yesterday I left NYC and my DVR and headed up to visit some good friends up in Vermont.  They run the fantastic On The Rise Bakery and Cafe in Richmond (stop in if you’re in the neighborhood!).  It’s wonderful up here.  Green and peaceful.

Adding to the serenity, my bakery friends, while very up-to-date in all areas, do not have cable TV, let alone a DVR.  Since I am going to be up here through the weekend it looked like I was going to have to miss the last two rounds of the tournament I’d been following so closely.

But wait, you say, didn’t you read somewhere that you could watch the tournament online?  Yup, you did.  The thing is, the legal feed provided by Wimbledon costs something like $25 and only runs on a Windows machine.

So, here I am in blissful Vermont.  Everything is perfect, but it would be amazing if I could just catch a glimpse of the lady’s semifinals.  But I have a Mac and don’t really want to spend $25 to indulge my craving.  Instead, I type “watch wimbledon online” into google and in less than a minute I am watching a slightly choppy and far from hi-res stream of Venus Williams putting away poor, sad Dementiava in a second set tie-breaker.  For free.  On my Mac.  Technically, I was probably breaking the law, or at very least abetting someone else in breaking the law, but who have I harmed?

What’s my point?  Well, first, I love the internet for allowing me to watch the what I wanted, when I wanted, where I wanted.  Was it a perfect experience?  Nope.  Would I have been willing to pay a small fee for a better version.  You bet.  $25 is a bit steep, though…

Why are the big media providers not serving me with all of these things when some hacker/pirates in god-knows-where are able to do it no problem?  Somehow, the whole mess of copyright and DRM and all that crap has led to a completely crippled service.

No wonder the pirates are winning.  Everyone is being made into a pirate just to get what they want in a reasonable fashion.

Just to watch a tennis match I had to break the law.  Is the problem me or the law?

John “I’m a PC” Hodgeman Answers His iPhone!

Anybody else notice that John “I’m a PC” Hodgeman answered his iPhone last night on The Daily Show?  If not, you can check it out from the clip I’ve provided.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsT067y8Gdk&hl=en]

Man, first John Stewart uses an iPhone on the Oscars, than that picture of the iPod on the Space Shuttle and now this.  Apple just keeps kicking everyone else’s ass in the marketing department.