iTunes is going to tiered pricing ($1.29, $.99, $.69), which is a good idea in principle. After all, why should a new release cost the same as something 20 or 30 years old? The problem is, of course, the price points. Cut all three in half, and then you are starting to get into a more reasonable range. Add an all-you-can-grab subscription service at a Netflix-like price point, and ta-da!!!! More money than God. The company that negotiates that deal will be the Netflix of music.
Another reminder that the housing problem is still with us, and anyone living in Detroit may want to duck. Michigan hasn't recovered from the closures back in the 1980's and this looks to be far worse.
I know I've been on a anti-public-school kick lately, but really, someone please explain why a parent would put a kid in the care of an institution that operates like this?
And now it looks like AT&T and Verizon are calling in favors for cooperating in illegal wiretapes for the Feds. The FBI is now shutting down the competition:
According to the owner of one co-location facility, Crydon Technology, which was raided on March 12, FBI agents seized about 220 servers belonging to him and his customers, as well as routers, switches, cabinets for storing servers and even power strips. Authorities also raided his home, where they seized eight iPods, some belonging to his three children, five XBoxes, a PlayStation3 system and a Wii gaming console, among other equipment. Agents also seized about $200,000 from the owner's business accounts, $1,000 from his teenage daughter's account and more than $10,000 in a personal bank account belonging to the elderly mother of his former comptroller.
Like nearly 100% of siezed property, none of this will be returned to its owners regardless of the outcome of the "investigation" or "trial." Sounds more like the FBI doing a little early Christmas shopping for the fam than any sort of legitimate action. And I'm all kinds of curious as to what sort of "evidence" the FBI will retrieve from a power strip. And I love this bit:
Faulkner and others say that the FBI agent who led the raid, Special Agent Allen Lynd from the Dallas field office, warned them not to discuss the raid with each other or with the press.
Welcome to the new America. Hope everyone likes it. Oh, and the icing on this entire debacle?
Faulkner says the unnamed informant is a former employee who was fired after failing to show up to work over an extended period.
Ah yes; the usual reliable source of (mis) information.
Well, back to self-induced eye strain.
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