Push Button Paradise

Car rental places are infamous for this. You're in a strange city, but we'll make you go seek out a filling station and bring the tank back full. Of course, nudge, nudge, you can just pay now for a whole tank at our modestly ridiculous prices--never mind that you'll only use 1/4 that much. OR, we'll be happy to top it off for you, and for barely more than double market price.

Rental car companies are nearly indistinguishable these days. If one of them wants to stand out as different, here's a chance.

This annoying business model is the main reason I'm unhappy with Apple's Music Store. For DRM-locked music, there's no reason why users should have to be put through excessive backup procedures. For example, Amazon gives you a 'digital locker' that lets you go back at any time to download (and re-download) any digital content you've purchased. (And this can be more than you think, because it includes product manuals and other potentially useful things.) But with Apple, all you get is a warning about having to pay again for something you already bought.

While in rant mode, I have several gigs of music ripped from my personal collection, copied over onto a new computer. The so-called "import" command doesn't allow picking directories, and even if you drill down, all the *.mp3 files are disabled.

If someone wants to make a music service that I can use and doesn't suck, here's a chance. -m

posted at: 22:07 | under: 2005-09 | 0 comment(s)