A case study on how to turn your customers against you

The music industry just does not get it. They don't understand what a large number of their customers want and or how to give it to them. So, what do we want? Its really quite simple, we want music. The problem we, as consumers have is that the music industry does not seem to want to give it to us. I think this statement requires a more in-depth explanation.

Lets say I go to the music store in the mall and buy a CD. This is nice and simple, and on first glance someone might thing that they now have the music they want. However, consider the following. Many people no longer own CD players, how are they going to listen to their music? It would be silly for someone to purchase a CD if they had no way of listening to the music it contained at all. I personally use my computer and my iPod. I purchased as CD a little while ago, Den of Thieves by The Trews. When I put the CD into my computer some software popped up. I did not buy a software program, I bought a music CD...or so I thought. I quit the program, went into iTunes and moved the music (or so I thought) onto my computer. From there I moved it onto my iPod so that I could listen to it while I traveled. Done deal, right? Wrong!

When I tried to listen to the music on my iPod it was completely garbled. I thought there might have been a problem transferring it from the computer so I listened on the computer and that was garbled as well. I then thought there might have been an error moving the music onto my computer from the CD. I put the CD into my computer expecting the software to pop-up again. Instead, I get a message from the software that they could not authenticate my CD. Excuse me??? All I want to do is listen to the music which I purchased and I can't!

So you see, even though I went to the store (more then one actually as the first did not have what I wanted) and purchase a CD, I still don't have the music I payed for. Great.

Yes, there are other options. If I was going to use the music with iTunes and on my iPod I could have purchased it from the iTunes music store. This however is restricting in other ways.

I should not have to install software from a CD simply to listen to the music it contains. For an example of why not do an online search for articles using the terms 'Sony rootkit'.

All I can say is that I will not be purchasing music for a while again. This was the first CD I had purchased in over a year. The last time I purchased a CD it cost me around $70 for 2 of them. I thought that was stupid so it took me a year before I bought any other. I it will probably be more then a year before I buy any other music. Am I losing out? Maybe, but the music industry is losing out more.

Their shortsightedness and lack of imagination is turning a large portion of a generation against them. That is enough of a rant for now. There is much more to say on this issue but I think this is a long enough entry already. I will probably revisit this issue in the future.

...sidewalks cease to exist.
...curbs cease to exist.
...your favorite past-time temporarily becomes watching sheets of snow fall off things (building roofs, car roofs, car hoods, parking metres, ...).
...you are able to watch sheets of snow fall off parking metres.
...walking through ankle deep snow is considered easy going.
...shovels and snow blowers sell out in a matter of minutes...after people are able to get to the store.
...people with a 5 foot front walk (and no driveway) resort to purchasing the top of the line snow blower because shoves are sold out.
...you are ecstatic that your front door opens inwards.
...you have to climb out of a window because your front door opens outward.
...stores are closed because they literally could not open.
...internet sites are slow due to the extra people online because work / schools / other is closed.
...you start talking about past storms like they were light dustings.

I have just completed the current round of updates to my blog application. You can now add / view comments to my blog postings. If you stop by the blog, please leave a comment as I am a bit curious to know if anyone actually reads this thing. Also, if you notice that anything is not working or looks weird, please let me know.

I have collected a pile of links over the past number of months. I did not want to add all of them to my links section because I don't think they all belong there, but I did want to share them. I have therefore decided that once in a while I will make a post that is simply some interesting links I have come across in the past little while. This will be the first of such posts.

Sitepoint.com - This site has a list of some common PHP security mistakes. It will be most useful for web developers
web2 - A collection of some neat / useful / interesting web applications.
Position Is Everything - This site is dedicated to positioning elements using CSS. If you don't know what that means this site is not for you.
Westciv - Another CSS site. I have been learning more CSS lately so I have come across (and been shown) many good tutorials and resources.
Chuck Norris - If you know anything about Chuck Norris then take a look at this joke site.
Warnings - This site is not English. Using the lower of the two menus, navigate around and then go to the bottom of the pages. They have pictures of what NOT to do with the products. Very funny.
Ruby on Rails - Another web developer thing. If you wanted to try Ruby then take a look at this site. I was just sent this link this morning.

I am nearing the end of the usually Montreal trip during the holidays. One nice thing about working at a university is that they close down for a whole week so I get a bit more time off without having to use vacation days. I am heading home tomorrow and will be laden down with Montreal goodies including hard cider and bagels:)

Last year in February (for reading week) a group of us went to Mont. Tremblant where I skied for the first time. There are tentative plans for another ski trip this year around the same time this year. I am a bit wiser this time having now been exposed to skiing. Today my aunt took my to a ski store so that I could grab a couple of essentials. I picked up ski socks and mitts. Later in the day I managed to find a decently priced pair of ski / snow pants. I got a good undershirt last year so the only other thing I am planning on buying this year is a better pair of long johns. I will try to get to Mountain Equipment Co-op for those. MEC is not known for low prices but they generally have good stuff.

Now that I've spent all of this money the ski trip had better happen! I had a lot of fun last year (although I don't remember ever being that sore) and I am really looking forward to going skiing again.