One reason why I don't own an iPod.

From the "Computing Q&A" column in a recent issue of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Q: I would like to find a media player that has the music features of an iPod and a decent screen, but also with built-in FM radio. Is there such a device?

A: In fact, many players now on the market can fit that bill. Models from Creative, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony and others feature color displays rivaling those found in the iPod Classic and the iPod Nano, along with built-in FM tuners, so you can listen to radio as well as saved music. Microsoft's Zune, a direct competitor to the iPod, also sports onboard FM.

Why Apple hasn't seen fit to fit an FM tuner into its iPods is unclear. One possible explanation: Why let people listen to music for free over the radio when you can force them to buy it on iTunes?

I think that the comment about forcing people to buy music on iTunes is right on the money. Apple's marketing strategy with respect to online music is very much about using its dominance in the online sales market (via iTunes) to leverage iPod sales--and vice versa. I am not sure how many of the other major manufacturers of MP3 players are integrated with an online sales service the way that Apple's is, but if any are, certainly nothing else in online sales has the dominance that iTunes has. Since Apple's iPods are so coupled with their online music sales--one exists to support the other--Apple has a vested interest in using iPods to help promote iTunes sales.

This seems to be a clear example of a monopolistic practice. It is little different, in my view, from what Microsoft was doing for years with Internet Explorer.

That is one reason why, just on principle alone, I own a non-Apple MP3 player. In any case, having an FM receiver is one of the things that I specifically look for in a player.

611 Calories burned

The Bay Area Bike to Work Day web page has a calculator that tells you have many calories you burn by bicycling to work, and also how many pounds of toxic emissions you save.

According to this page, my round trip bike commute burns 611 calories.

Criticize the war and praise the warmonger

Jackie Speier was sworn in as Tom Lantos's replacement in the House of Representatives, and she gave a speech severely criticizing the Iraq war. A group of whiny Republicans who couldn't handle the existence of anti-war language on the House floor walked out (which makes me wonder just how common it is to hear strong anti-war language in that venue.)

But here's the irony. According to the article in the SF Chronicle, she began that same speech "by praising her predecessor, Lantos, who died in February of esophageal cancer after serving in Congress for 27 years." She went on about how irreplaceable he was. How interesting. Lantos was one of the biggest warmongers in the House. Not only did he favor the current Iraq war, but he was also a key factor in the first Iraq war in 199o. He was the chief Congressional promoter of the false allegations of Iraqi soldiers ripping Kuwaiti babies from their incubators. It was precisely this lie that Lantos had spread that convinced enough people in Congress to vote in favor of authorizing the first Gulf war. Would there have been a second Iraq war without the first one? One can thus draw a straight line from Lantos to the current mess in Iraq.

Partisian politics is funny that way. Speier and Lantos are fellow Democrats. Far be it for her to criticize Lantos for his complicity in the very war that she turned around and blasted. She is part of the same party machine that Lantos was, and she knows that principle only goes so far; she will not bite the hand that feeds her.

War Crimes

The Dean of the UC Berkeley Law school has published a memo stating that, despite John Yoo's complicity in the Bush administration's policy on torture, Yoo's job is safe at UC Berkeley.

Does"academic freedom" give one the right to actively collude with war criminals, up to and including providing those war crimes with legal cover?

Art and popular music

It is rare when artistic quality and popularity converge, but somehow it managed to happen in the case of the Beatles, who were both the greatest pop act in world history, and also pop music's greatest artistic geniuses. It is rather amazing, given how popular so much of the word's musical fluff is, that the Beatles have managed to hold onto the record for the most number one hits (20). But the news that Mariah Carey now has 17 number one hits and may very well surpass the Beatles some day only serves to confirm that we live in a hopeless world. The one great convergence between artistic genius and popularity will finally crumble in the face of superficiality.

Admittedly, Carey has has two decades to reach this plateau, while the Beatles did their thing in a span of about six years or so. But still.