Mark Mischke's Weblog

Why I stopped listening to music

I was always an avid music fan.  Music was a constant backdrop to my work and play.  I've never been into the music scene, lore, live performances or anything like that.  I just liked having tunes playing while I was doing things.  This faded away over the past few years.  Now, I almost never listen to music.

The heavyhanded tactics of the Recording Insustry Association of America (RIAA) have resulted in my passively distancing myself from the recording industry.  This has the unintended side effect of also distancing myself from the artists, who often have little say in RIAA policymaking.  Even indie bands and labels have gotten caught up in the receeding tide of my interest.

Barely a week goes by without news of some RIAA tactic that just seems... evil.  Suing young children or grandmothers who don't use computers for alleged online file sharing, attempts at (apparent) manipulation of due process of law, blanket lawsuits and the like.  Yuk!  Who are these creeps?

Even when music is purchased legally, it's locked down so tightly through encryption (a.k.a. Digital Rights Management, or DRM) that's it's too much of a pain in the butt to bother owning.  Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but when I bought a record, I could play it on any turntable, lend it to my friends, whatever.  It was like a book.  Once purchased, one person could use it at a time.  I fully understand the perceived threat of lost sales due to online file sharing, given the simplicity of digital duplication.  I don't believe it's real, though.  The RIAA talks about steadily declining sales, but they rarely mention the corresponding decline of music quality.  Perhaps consumers are fed up with spending $17.99 for a CD which only contains one or two decent tracks.  That's why I stopped buying CDs years ago.  I also believe that many file sharers wouldn't shell out for music if they couldn't get it for free.  In these cases, shared music seems more like free advertising than loss of sales.

As a consumer, I don't feel that it's my job to worry about the RIAA's real or perceived loss in sales due to music sharing.  I just want free and unhindered access to the music I paid for.  It's up to the RIAA to come up with some mechanism (realistic pricing, education, ad campaigns, etc.) to solve their business problems.  I don't advocate theft of copyrighted material.  Personally, I don't care one way or another if a person does 'steal' music.  I just don't advocate it.

I still occasionally buy the odd song from iTunes, but barely a few days pass before the apathy sets in once again.  Perhaps a revamping of the industry's business model could rekindle my interest in music, but I don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

Garmin c330 vehicle navigator

Ali got a Garmin StreetPilot c330 vehicle navigator for her birthday to complement her new Mini Cooper S.  We took it out for a trial run (the Garmin) yesterday on a trip up to the White Mountains.  We absolutely love the thing.  It's compact, stylish and mounts to the windshield via a very strong suction cup device.  I was amazed by how quickly the unit acquired a satellite lock and calculated/recalculated routes.  It's menu system is extremely easy to use and offers a wider array of configuration options than most of us will ever care about.  The voice prompts are clear and provide plenty of advance warning of upcoming turns.  The display is bright and easy to read.  If I were in the market for a nav system, I'd buy another c330 in a second.

I'm still using the nav system that I cobbled together from my iPaq, my Garmin Geko GPS and iNav iGuidance software.  Aside from the dangling wires that connect everything up and the limited volume, which can be an issue in a noisy Jeep, I remain very happy with the setup.  The c330 has, however, caused me to appreciate the benefits of a self-contained solution.

Getting back to the mountains

It's good to be getting back into hiking.  I'd only been up to the hills once last season, which is a far cry from my twice-a-month average during the five years prior.  This year, I've been out six times so far.

Yesterday, Ali, Abby (our Lab mix) and I tagged Mt. Osceola.  It's an easy 4,000-footer, but since this was Abby's 2nd mountain, we wanted to stack the deck in favor of her success.  Plus, neither Ali nor I had done Osceola before, and we were eager to check off another 4,000-footer from the list.  So far, I've done 26 out of the 48 (9 in Winter).  Ali's on her ninth, I believe (I had a several-year head start).

Osceola's (via Mt. Osceola Trail, from Tripoli Rd.) a nice hike.  The trail is a constant, easy grade, gaining 2200' over 3.2 miles.  If you view it in profile, it looks like the hypotenuse of a perfect triangle.  The summit views are unparalleled.

Perhaps the biggest impediment to hiking more often is the fact that we now live 1/2 hr. farther away from the Whites than we used to.  Now it takes a solid three hours to reach the closest mountains, and that's if we don't stop too many times along the way.  This can create quite an inertial barrier, but once we're in the hills, all of that driving proves to be well worth it.

Internet 'tubes'

U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R. AL) has taken a lot of flak for recent arguments he presented regarding Net Neutrality.  I don't think I agree with his political position, but that's not the focus of this post.  Sen. Stevens' 'crime' appears to be his use of the word 'tubes' to describe the architecture of the Internet: "The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's, it's a series of tubes,".

Geeks everywhere jumped on him for this, claiming that his 'tubes' analogy demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic Internet structure.  I don't know anything about Sen. Stevens.  I'd never heard of him prior to the 'tubes' controversy.  I do feel that he's been unduly criticised over his choice of terminology by a community that freely uses the terms 'pipes' and 'soda straws' to describe the same thing.

Fair is fair, right?  When a geek subscribes to a faster 'Net service, he or she typically refers to it as having gotten a 'bigger pipe'.  Similarly, we tease our less-fortunate colleagues who (still?) live in dial-up land as having 'soda straw' connections. 

My guess is that Sen. Stevens probably isn't really up to speed on Internet architecture.  Few lawmakers can keep pace with the technologies they're charged with regulating (again - not a subtopic for this particular post).  If the guy deserves criticism, let's not throw the stones which break the windows in our own glass houses.  Fallacious arguments only serve to dilute the credibility of the accuser.

One request.  As I know next to nothing about Sen. Stevens and I'm not yet well-informed about the Net Neutrality debate, kindly avoid these topics in any comments you might have.  Thx!