Interscription

So after reading this article on lifehacker.com, it got me thinking.  As anyone who knows me is aware, I’m a subscription entertainment junkie.  I currently have a Rhapsody subscription for my music, a Gamefly subscription for games (an awesome service, use this link to try it out, and send me some love!), and I’ve been demoing Netflix for it’s watch now product, which I’ll probably review at some point.  I also subscribe to every premium cable channel under the sun for their generally high level shows.

The theory of the article is that subscriptions are generally not the value that they seem to be as most of us actually consume far less than we think.  The argument doesn’t quite resonate very much for me on most things.   Let’s go through a couple of the subscriptions in my life:

• Read more: To Subscribe or not to subscribe…

Mega Man 3 has easily one of my favorite game soundtracks from the NES days.  It was incredibly forward-thinking and surprisingly rocking for how limited the musical creation tools were for NES devkits (Apparently I’m not the only person who thinks so).  How appropriate it is, then, that someone took that soundtrack, and squeezed whatever small bit of coolness I found out by replacing the “instruments” with (as Capcom’s blog so appropriately put it), Japanese chipmunks.

• Read more: SuperAwesome JapaneseKid SoundtrackExtreme!

So, about that Sansa View I wrote about last week.  It suffered a complete hardware failure within that week, and so it was promptly returned.  I do have to point out though, that I think the failure I suffered was uncommon, and Dave with Sansa customer support was the polar opposite of my MS support experience.  He spent about 45 minutes on the phone with me walking me through some fairly sophisticated options to try to get the view back and working.  He was also very clearly an enthusiast (talking to me about Rockbox, third party cables enabling hidden features like tv out, etc…) and the overall experience still made me comfortable recommending their products.

I hear a Rhapsody, an Ibiza Rhapsody:

• Read more: The Ibiza Rhapsody - First thoughts

So I’ve been toying around with the sansa view and rhapsody…  advance america payday loanno fax payday cash advancepayday loan storefax free loan paydayloan money payday treeez payday loanlow interest payday loan,interest loan low payday,low interest rate payday loanonline payday loan applicationeasy payday loanpayday loan store milwaukeeonline payday loan instant approvaladvance cash loan payday softwareameriloan loan paydayadvance cash loan loan paydaypayday loan 1000payday loan paycheck advancecanada in loan paydaydebt get loan paydaymoney tree payday loanfast cash payday advancecompletely instant loan online payday,instant online payday loangeorgia loan payday,georgia in loan online payday2 loan online paydayadvance cash fast loan paydayadvance loan paycheck paydayloan oneclickcash paydayadvance loan online payday,loan online payday,instant payday loan completely onlinefax guaranteed loan no paydayloan payday till,loan till payday,info loan payday tillloan till paydayassociation canadian loan payday,canadian loan paydayno checking account payday loangeorgia payday loanez money payday loanquick payday advance loaninstant loan online paydayno fax cash advance for bad credit,advance bad cash credit loan loan,bad credit cash advanceadvance cash loan loan paydaycash till payday loancash advance business for sale,business cash advance,cash advance business opportunitycash fast loan paydayadvance america cashcash advance,cash advance america,business cash advanceadvance cash loan payday quickloan oneclickcash paydaylawsuit settlement cash advance,advance cash lawsuit pre settlement,lawsuit cash advanceno faxing savings account cash advance,no faxing required cash advance,advance cash faxing nocash loan payday tilladvance cash check credit nono fax cash advance,advance cash fax no,advance cash fast fax no It’s funny I have many of the same feelings about it that I had about the iriver…  primarily because, from a hardware perspective, it’s nowhere near as elegant as the zune, which just has a certain beauty to it.  Feature-wise, it has drag’n'drop support from windows, a big plus, as well as a very capable eq, and tons of ways to listen to your music. 

• Read more: Zune vs. Rhapsody - first thoughts

With the new Zunes taking up all of my daydreams, I decided to sign up for a Zune Pass, while saving the scratch for the Zune 80.  The Zune Pass really is the most striking difference between Microsoft’s entry into the DAP market, and that certain other ubiquitous white brick.

• Read more: My Zune Pass Fantasy…

I am declaring war on copyright.

The corporate interests, which hold the majority of copyrights in our country, have distorted copyright beyond all constitutional recognition, and replaced it over the years with something that does little to “promote the progress of science and useful arts.” 

• Read more: Copyright to public domain: a battlecry

(From Blogcritics.org) 

Lime Wire, one of the last commercial P2P holdouts in the RIAA’s ongoing war against file sharing networks, has answered the RIAA’s complaint and counterclaimed against the RIAA on a number of grounds.  The counterclaim itself is interesting for a number of reasons.  For one thing, it clearly describes the reason for the recording industry’s feverish pursuit of applications which enable their users to trade files regardless of their status under copyright law. 

• Read more: RIAA v. Lime Wire, the Counterclaim

Mike, over at Techdirt, called Harry Fuller to the carpet for his assault on Howard Stern’s value since making the leap into orbit.  I think Mike makes an excellent point, as Harry Fuller’s argument completely failed to consider the monthly premium Stern fans now pay.  It also seems interesting that his Ad buys are getting a third of their previous value with less than a third of the potential audience.  My fuzzy math says that makes that a higher per listener buy rate.  What do I know though, Sirius was silly not to build in some sort of listener tracking system to their product.  (On second thought, I really don’t want them canning fabulous niche shows with 5 devoted listeners in favor of more star studded vapid programming)*†

See Mike’s take here. 
Check out the original Fuller article here.

*I’m not talking about Stern.   
† I’m talking about Martha.

So, what are your Sirius presets?  Or, do you have XM? How does the other side live?