The other day, Apple’s Steve Jobs called on the four major record companies to start selling songs without digital rights management. “If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies…” and certainly a positive to Apple…who holds the market share.

Apple has been under pressure in Europe to make iTunes music compatible with players other than the iPod. Jobs suggested that the problem is not Apple, but the record companies it gets the music from. The songs sold are protected by Apple’s proprietary Fairplay software, which only works with iTunes and the iPod.

The Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA), who represents the record companies, suggested more DRM…suggesting they should license their technology to rivals. Analysts blame the software industry for its unwillingness to participate in creating an open and industrywide standard.

The overall idea behind Jobs recommendation is that piracy protection doesn’t work…and thus…if the industry accepts a certain level of piracy…then it will get greater profits from legitimate consumers. The idea works with CDs. Anyone can copy a CD and rip its music…then distribute it with a little bit of work.

1. Find yourself a record player or cassette player.
2. Buy a patch cord, that goes from the out on the player to the line-in jack on the computer’s sound card.
3. If you don’t have a sound editing program, try Audacity. It will work on any operating system.
4. Configure your program to output the file format you want. MP3 is popular, as is WMA.
5. If you are converting music, split each song into its own file. With an audiobook or such, you may wish to divide it into five second intervals, or by chapter or section, to make it easier to navigate.

Gloom and doom aside about the problems in Vista…We present the alternative point of view, from PCWorld, and our summary of it…

1. It’s the Interface Stupid – For those of you who emphasize form over function…it is certainly beautiful.
2. Flip over Windows Flip 3D – The traditional Alt-Tab program switching function, extended in XP with Powertoys, has been expanded to 3D thumbnails of open programs.
3. Live Thumbnails – Like the Alt-Tab function, if you put your mouse over anything on the taskbar, it will pop up with a live image of the window, instead of the tagtip in previously versions
4. Boost Performance with ReadyBoost – ReadyBoost optimizes things by preloading programs and files you often use into RAM, or into a flash memory drive.
5. Cool Performance Tools – Improved performance tools are bundled, rather than having to buy those separately.
6. Better Security – Multiple security holes have been plugged, and security at all levels have been encapsulated, allowing programs to run under limited security.
7. Find Anything Fast with Search – Searching has Been Improved
8. Nifty Software Gadgets – Onscreen gadgets or widgets for the desktop allowing a variety of dynamic information.
9. Better Wireless Networking – Improved Wireless Security built into Windows is certainly a help.
10. Map Your Network – Network mapping is certainly an improvement over old style network browsing…it provides a much more graphical interface.
11. Better Graphics with Windows Photo Gallery -As part of their attempt to mimic the Mac selection of built-ins, Microsoft has bundled a basic complete photo software package.
12. Become a Director with Windows Movie Maker – Windows Movie Maker may actually become adequate in its latest addition
13. Better Notebook Support – Power management and other mobile-computing features have always been a bit problematic, no matter what the operating system. Microsoft has unified their functions into a Mobility Center, which will control all those things that the notebook manufacturers have been writing their own software for for years.
14. File Sharing and Syncing – Vista improves some of the file sharing issues that have plagued Windows since the beginning of Workgroups.
15. Protect Your Kids With Parental Controls – Parental controls improves the ability to block access by website, time, and software.

PCWorld also has the opposing view represented…why you might want to wait on Vista.

1. Vista is Incomplete
   1. Microsoft is already planning its first service pack
   2. Vista hardware support is not yet complete…many drivers released are still in beta, and some older products will have no support made available.
   3. Vista software support is also limited. With the new security restrictions, programs must be retuned to work with them…and perfecting that will take time. New DirectX 10 is a great graphics improvement…but support is nonexistent as of now.
2. Vista is Expensive –
   1. The least expensive way to get Vista is Home Basic Upgrade, which is $99, and removes some of the best features.
   2. The Upgrade Versions require a valid version of XP to be installed to be used, unlike previous upgrades which would do a clean install if the disc was merely verified…so the new install version might be better.
   3. Home Premium costs $239…$159 for the upgrade edition, it is akin to XP Media Center.
   4. The only version that contains both the media functions and the business functions is Vista Ultimate, which costs $399.
   5. No matter what…everything but Ultimate seems to cut out useful functions.