Ding-dong! DRM is dead! It's official. Sony will be selling DRM-free MP3s on Amazon.com. Woot!

Amazon.com gets non-DRM music from Warner Music Group, a formerly staunch DRM proponent.

Quoted: News on - Amazon beats Apple to non-DRM Warner music

10 bizarre and incredible recordinds, all available for free in MP3.

Quoted: Includes the suicide tape from Jonestown, the only recorded true Castrato, a Russian Exorcism, the worst singer, highest singer, and more.

I can't tell if this is supposed to be serious or campy but it's pretty funny.

A glee club choir performing some punk classics from Pixies, Fugazi, and the Clash. Kind of fun.

This call with Verizon is painful and yet hard to turn away from. A user is repeatedly quoted .002 cents per kilobyte as the cost of his data usage in Canada and yet his bill clearly reflects that they charged .002 DOLLARS per kilobyte. Trying to convince the rep, supervisor, and the floor manager that these numbers are different turns out to be quite a hassle.

I've now listened to the whole call (all glorious 27 and half minutes) and cannot believe the control exhibited by the user in trying to explain these basic concepts to the folks at Verizon. When the manager states that she is 100% he was charged correctly, the caller tells her that he is going to post the recording on his blog and call corporate. It is amazing how blinded the folks in this call center are to their non-knowledge of math, to the point where their hubris and inability to try and understand keeps them from figuring out:

a) they were wrong
b) this user was charged 100X the repeatedly quoted price
c) many more users downstream are going to have this problem as well and they need to fix their quoted pricing.

Finally, another good looking MP3 player.

Saw this reviewed on CNet and it looked pretty nice in that Atari 2600 retor sort of way. As a designer item, it's totally overpriced but it's a flashy way to cruise around with a few tunes in your pocket.

Quoted: The Signeo SN-A800 by Marc Newsome is only 6.5mm (0.26”) thick. It is an MP3 player with a wonderfully retro design--available in Black, 1970s Blue, or 1970s Yellow. In addition to music playback, there is a built-in FM tuner, and the device can record from FM radio to MP3, and even take voice memos. Available with 512mb or 1gb of internal storage.

This is one of those random serendipitous occurrences - I received a friend request at MySpace from the "Inklein Quartet" (probably because I am a friend of the Kronos Quartet) and went to listen to their posted tracks. This one called "Lonely Whale Song" struck me as a Massive Attack meets Kronos, which is right up my alley. Check it out.

I'm still trying to find a place to purchase the whole album for a reasonable price. It's available for $9.99 on itunes but it's missing a track and I hate that. Their site says I can get it at cdbaby but they're out (and I'm on the waiting list). Amazon has it (on 4 - 6 week special order) for $19.00 and that's just more than I want to pay. Silver Platters here in Northgate doesn't have it either. Blech.

Let me know what you think. You have to get past the first 30 seconds to a minute for the song to really kick in.