The release of iTunes has really sparked an on-line debate over the future direction of the music industry. You see it on websites, forums, news groups, heck my friends and I, who are not exactly music nuts have been debating it too.

However, the pattern in discussion seems to mix business and sports.  Let me explain: In sports it's a win/lose proposition. One way will win, another way will lose.  In business, the goal is win/win. A winning strategy is merely one that generates more net revenue for the company.

For example, at Stardock in 1999 to 2000 there was a strong internal push to dump all the OS/2 software. "OS/2 is doomed, why sell it? It's dying. Why bother selling something that hardly sells any units?"  But when I looked at the books, OS/2 software was still generating $60,000 annually even in 2001.  Sure, that's a trivial amount relative to our other software but $60k is $60k.  There is no bonus for having fewer, more popular things. The goal in business is just to increase the NET revenue.  We only stopped selling OS/2 software when support costs started to close on the revenue.

The same thing is true with music.  iTunes, BuyMusic, whatever are not out to replace anything.  But in discussions on Neowin, WinCustomize, and even in email with my friends, there seems to be a tendency to say "I don't see what the big deal is, there's all these restrictions and buying CDs at retail isn't a big hassle and there are good deals out there. I don't see everyone just switching to buying music on-line."

But that's not the goal. iTunes doesn't exist to replace retail. It exists to expand the customer base for music.  To take people who might have been pirating music or weren't willing to purchase entire albums for songs or just don't care about music enough to go and order a CD and wait for it or drive down to the store and wait in line.

The people who don't see the features of iTunes and similar programs will probably not use it. But it is not as if those people will simply stop buying music. They'll continue to buy (or not) music as they did before.  But now, millions of people (like me) will be added as customers. 

So now, someone like me, hearing about a new Weird Al album can jump onto iTunes, quickly find the album, and listen to 30 seconds of each track. if I want the whole album it's $9.99 or I can pay $.99 per song (a lot of people seem to be under the impression that it's 99 cents per song period but full albums are a cheaper too).  I like that convenience. And I suspect millions of others.

There are legitimate issues with buying music on-line:

• Format problems - they're not MP3. They're either a special version of .WMA or .M4P
• They don't work on most portable players right now (.WMA support isn't enough, it has to support .WMA DRM)
• The quality may not reach the same level as CD music (depends on who you talk to)
• Many full albums these days include extra goodies. If I buy the full album from iTunes or BuyMusic do I get those goodies?
• The whole copy protection thing can be a pain. This is one area iTunes has a big advantage -- I put iTunes on all my machines here at home and as long as it's only being played by 1 person at a time I can play it anywhere in the house.
• If I want to store it on CD, I have to burn my own CD which takes time and requires buying blank CDs. Pretty obvious but still another issue.

But these caveats don't matter equally to all people. For me, they're minor. To others, they're significant barriers to entry. But remember, the music industry isn't looking at this like a sport. Their goal is to increase net revenue. And if they can draw in millions of new customers because of the convenience and lower costs for most demographics that's a win win for them.

 

 

For the past two weeks we've conducted a poll to see what you guys would like to see added to the site. Here are the result after over 2,000 votes cast:

#1 Boot Screens got 38% of the vote

#2 Toolbar icons got 22% of the vote

#3 Trillian skins got 15% of the vote

#4 Rainlendar got 13% of the vote

#5 "Something else" got 9% of the vote

#6 Samurize got 3% of the vote

With that in mind, next month we'll be adding a toolbar icon section. The toolbar icon format will be WindowBlinds 3.2's new toolbar icon feature due out at the beginning of next month (already in beta if you have Object Desktop).

For XP boot screens, the problem that has been discussed previously is that all boot screen programs currently out either require distributing the Windows XP kernel or running a program that patches the Windows XP kernel. In both instances, Microsoft has made it clear to us that they do not approve of such a thing and in fact when SP2 comes out there may be significant problems in applying it (not a problem for experts but for casual users that would be a problem).

To solve this Stardock is working on a freeware boot program that replaces the boot screen by installing a driver that gets loaded and can display a boot screen without touching the Windows XP kernel. The advantage of that is that in the long term other features (such as SVGA support, animations, etc.) can be added to them. We should hopefully have this available to download within a week (fingers crossed).

So there you have it. 2 new sections are planned for next month. We also will look at adding a Trillian section once we talk more with them.

I'm so excited! So much cool stuff is going on! DesktopX 2 is nearly done, SkinStudio 4 and Icon Developer are coming, and WindowBlinds 4.2 is in the wings.

WindowBlinds 4.2? WindowBlinds 4.2 is going to allow people to load up their own IE and Explorer toolbar icons along with replace those ugly progress dialog animations that have hung around since the Windows 95 era.  When you download a file or delete a file or copy something you get that old animation of files moving to a folder or whatever that is absolutely ancient.  Now you'll be able to make your own, upload them and mix and match them with your skins!

If you saw The Matrix Reloaded you undoubtedly noticed that the movie had some...issues. Well, the on-line humor site, The Editing Room, has a spoof screen play of the Matrix reloaded.  Read the full thing here.

But here are a couple of highlights:

INT.  WELL-LIT, NON-NOIR WHITE ROOM

KEANU enters a white room, the walls of which are covered
in monitors.  A chair spins around to reveal THE EXPLAINER.

                        KEANU REEVES
            Who are you?

                       THE EXPLAINER
            I am The Explainer.  I designed the
            matrix screenplay.  Unable to
            decently explain the convoluted plot
            well, I have resorted to putting
            myself here in the final act and
            having you ask all of the questions
            the audience wants to ask.
                 (dramatic pause)
            You must begin by asking your own
            questions then gradually switch to
            asking those of the audience, in
            order to not make this scene any
            more awkward than it already is.
            Concordantly, while your first
            question may be the most pertinent,
            you may or may not realize it is
            also the most irrelevant.

                        KEANU REEVES
            Why am I here?

                       THE EXPLAINER
            Many years ago, shortly before the
            success of Speed, you sold your soul
            to the devil in exchange for a
            promise of notoriety that your
            piss-poor acting skills do not
            deserve. This series is the
            actualization of this promise.

                        KEANU REEVES
            What was the Osiris? And who was
            that kid in zion who kept pestering
            me?

                       THE EXPLAINER
            You will find the answers to these
            questions by purchasing The
            Animatrix, a collection of nine
            animated shorts from some of Anime's
            top directors.

                        KEANU REEVES
            Alright.  Well, what was that crap
            Glora said about vampires and
            werewolves? And how did Jada Pinkett
            Smith get to Laurence Fishburne
            during the car chase? And what the
            hell happened during the power plant
            takeover climax that-wasn't?

                       THE EXPLAINER
            You will find the answers to those
            questions by purchasing the Enter
            The Matrix game, available for
            Windows, Playstation2, Xbox, and
            Gamecube. Enter the Matrix features
            awesome gunplay and spectacular
            martial arts that bend the rules of
            the Matrix.  This game isn't just
            set in the Matrix universe--it's an
            integral part of the experience,
            with a story that weaves in and out
            of The Matrix Reloaded.  Enter the
            Matrix is the story behind the
            story.

                        KEANU REEVES
            Fine! Then tell me this, what the
            hell is with Hugo Weaving saying he
            and I have some special connection?
            And how come I can control machines
            in the real world? And will we win
            the war if I don't choose the door
            to my right?

                       THE EXPLAINER
            You will find the answers to these
            questions when you watch The Matrix
            Revolutions, coming later in 2003.

                        KEANU REEVES
            I hate you.

                       THE EXPLAINER
            Perhaps you should drink more
            Powerade.

                        KEANU REEVES
            Just answer me one question.  We're
            not going to find out that the real
            world is in another matrix, are we?

                       THE EXPLAINER
            Christ I hope not.
 

Hilarous! Read the whole thing.

WindowBlinds 4.2 is coming out in November and it has some really cool new features in it.

1) You will be able to change your IE and Explorer toolbars with it. But even more to the point, you will be able to do this separately from the actual visual style. That is, will be able to mix and match toolbar icons and visual styles. A new section on WinCustomize.com and elsewhere will be created to allow users to upload their own custom toolbars.

2) Progress animations will be replaceable. There are about a half dozen of them. Those file copy, file delete, file move, download animations you see in dialogs. Like toolbars, you'll be able to mix and match them so that skin authors don't feel forced into having to make these since they are .AVI files which not all skin authors will be able to make.

These two items will have tons of user options available as well to make it convenient and easy to decide what toolbars and animations to use and when to use them.

In addition, WindowBlinds 4.2 will work on Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP. WindowBlinds 4 was initially only on Windows XP. During that process we found ways to make WindowBlinds use even less memory than before so 4.2 not only will have more features but it'll use less memory while doing it.

There have also been various tweaks to fix little buglets that users have reported.

 

I've decided that I'm not an atheist. That doesn't mean I believe in "God" per se but being an atheist requires faith as well. We don't know how the universe got here. Oh, we have theories that go something like this:

Around 14 billion years ago there was a gigantic explosion from a source that was theoretically smaller than an electron. As hard as it is to imagine, the universe isn't growing to fill up some "void" because there is no void. There is nothing else outside of our universe. One of the many things we don't know is whether the universe expansion (which seems to be acceleration last time I checked rather than slowing down which was what they belief was when I was a kid) is systemic. That is, whether it occurs from time to time and repeats itself. Who knows. I do know I don't have a clue how the universe's expansion could be accelerating. It seems counter intuitive.

On the other hand, not knowing any of these things isn't likely to make me throw up my hands and say "Well, God must have done all this". I don't know means just that -- I don't know. So I guess that makes me an agnostic. But to be honest, I would like to believe in God very very much -- particularly a Christian God. Christianity is one of the easier solutions. If you believe Jesus Christ is your savior you're all set. But again, I don't know. Is he my savior? I do not know. I believe he existed. But I don't know whether he was my savior or not.

When I was younger, I used to debate with people who would come to my door. Eventually people stopped coming to my door. I'd invite them in, my wife would make lunch for them and bring them tea or a soft drink or just water and chat. They were very nice people and sincerely wanted to convince me in the validity of their beliefs. And so we would sit across from each other on our living room couches. Each of us armed with our bibles bookmarked to the hilt. They would then try to demonstrate the errors of Evolution and the proof behind Noah's Arc and other things. Meanwhile, I already owned the book "A scientific guide to the bible" that was the source material for many of their arguments along with various counter arguments. "A Scientific Guide to the Bible" contains things like "The missing day" (No, there is no way to determine whether there is a missing day), "How evolution violates the 2nd law of Thermodynamics" (No, that only applies to closed systems, Earth is not a closed system, the sun is a massive energy source), "Evidence of the flood" (No, Plate Tectonics explains that and if Noah and his sons were the only surviving males of a so-called world wide flood we'd all share the same mitochondria DNA and no UV won't make the kinds of genetic differences in 4,000 years or 40,000 years for that matter). And so on.

So eventually they stopped coming. I didn't debate them because I was trying to squash their faith. I debated them because I wanted to be convinced. I don't consciously choose to be agnostic. It is a matter of looking at the evidence available to me and coming to a conclusion. I don't consider evolution a "theory", I consider it established fact. I also don't consider evolution to contradict the bible. Heck, the Old Testament is based on Judaism and Genesis is pretty dramatically altered from what is preached in Judaism. So there's no reason to believe we should take the modern English translation of the bible literally. Not that it matters anyway because for me, personally, the bible doesn't add up. As a collection of stories that (generally) try to make us better people, it is successful. But as a way of trying to understand life and the world, I don't think it works there. As time goes on, evidence mounts against such things in my view and so I'm left again with the "I don't know".

I don't know:

• How life began on Earth other than it probably got started around 3 billion years ago in single called life forms.
• How the universe came to be in the first place.
• Whether there is a supreme being in the universe.

The evidence available doesn't allow me to make a definitive conclusion. If I had to guess, I would bet that if there is a supreme being, it is not interested in us in any personal way. But on the others I have no idea. Despite what some though a few decades ago, some electricity through a methane atmosphere won't create amino acids and even if they had, amino acids need a lot more help than just existing to get life. But like I said, not knowing the answers to these things doesn't automatically open the door to a super being being the answer. It's not like religion wins by default. I suspect my grand mother didn't know how the television worked. Probably didn't have the foggiest idea. But I am certain that she didn't believed it was magic.

The problem with religion is that people get so militant about it. Ever heard of the atheist group calling themselves "The brights"? That's pretty arrogant. Especially since atheism requires faith. Where some would throw up their hands and say "God did it" the "Brights" throw up their hands and say "Nothing did it". While I suspect there is no "God" in any sense that we think of one, I'm not prepared to go to the step of having faith that that is the case. I just don't know. On the other hand, excessively religious people bother me too. Not because they're religious but they suffer from a similar kind of arrogance as "The brights". These are the people who buy into the canned "anti-science" arguments and spit them out as fact when in reality they're just parroting nonsense. You can identify those people because they readily identify themselves "Well, you know that many TOP scientists (what's a "top" scientist?) have 'proven' evolution just doesn't work 'scientifically'." Yea, well unlike the parrots many people have actually looked at both sides at great length and made their own conclusions thank you very much.

But in the end, I just don't know. And that's why I'm not an atheist. I guess I'm an agnostic. I don't think I'll ever know. I don't foresee a day when they'll discover something that will prove one way or the other. Though admittedly, if they can create single celled life forms in a lab that might seriously persuade me that life, as we know it, occurred spontaneously as opposed to some sort of "intelligent design".

Btw, for the email starts pouring in from atheists, I realize that many atheists term themselves as such because they have rejected organized religion hence "a-theists". I am using a definition that not all agree -- atheists believe that there is no God. I am taking the view that I do not know whether there is a god and don't have a belief either way at this point hence I'm using the term "agnostic".

My wife and I and friends played paint ball today. There we were in our camoflauge battling it out. What a work out. I realized something today. I am way WAY out of shape. My wife did remarkably well, especially considering it was her first time out there.

How many guys are lucky enough to have a wife who will shoot at them with a gun? Er, nevermind.

Right now JoeUser just strikes me as being really slow. At first, I thought it was all the database stuff. But now, the home page is done at an HTM and it's still slow for me. The Joeuser header bar at the top shows up and sometimes it stalls on me there and I have to hit refresh.

Seems CSS may not be so wonderful after all.

Is anyone else running into this?

Jark, admin of deviantART has a very good and thorough review of iTunes. Highly recommend you check it out.

I've now added us to Blog Street.

What I like about Blog Street is 1) It's a really good idea and 2) It really let's you see just how many blogs are out there.