Readers of Dilbert will recognize Elbonia as the fictional mud-filled country, and its totalitarian neighbor to the north, where Dilbert's company outsources work. Nonreaders of Dilbert now probably know enough to gather that one would not want to live in Elbonia. Like the characters of Dilbert, I have no desire to ever visit Elbonia, let alone live there. However, like the profit driven corporation, I send myself to deal with whatever evil stands in for the mud in whatever place stands in for Elbonia.
My current Elbonia is Tok, AK, but most of the places I have lived in the last year or so remind me of Elbonia in some way. I dream of escape, yet My beard is getting thicker, and I am starting to fear that I will never get all this mud off. The only hope I have in these camps are the reminders of civilization I bring with me. Unfortunately, all of my chocolate has melted in my 90 degree tent, and DRMs are preventing me from escaping with multimedia.
Apple, for various reasons, has been frustrating me for a long time now, so one day I decided that I should cut my final tie with the company, and move on from iTunes. Still wanting to pay for my music, I tried Google Play, and discovered that in places with limited and slow internet, it really isn't a good medium. I then tried Amazon, which is as convenient as iTunes, perhaps more, because you can buy music, rent movies, and ship garden tools to Florida if the mood takes you. Amazon even has less restrictive DRMs than Apple, provided you are using a Windows or Android operating systems. Playing iTunes files outside of iTunes proved too difficult to bother with, and thus, like a Dilbertian corporate slave, I went back to the most restrictive product to have the easiest access to the products I legally own.
Then, I bought a laptop with Windows 8. Windows 8 was buggy, difficult to use, and credited with slowing down the sale of new PCs because of its general horribleness. When it crashed, I switched to Ubuntu. On an open source operating system one should be able to access their music, but not their iTunes music, nor download their Amazon music (though Ubuntu is installing with a link to Amazon on the dock). Thus, while stuck in Elbonia, I am confronted with the realization that the things that remind me of a better place, are actually just reminding me of Northern Elbonia, where instead of a totalitarian state, it is a totalitarian corporation supported by the state. Or, it all just came full circle, and I am in the cubicle maze with Wally and Alice.
In the end, only a few things are inaccessible to me here, while I choose if I want an operating system that doesn't work (Windows 8), or one that doesn't do what I want (owing to DRMs). While I consider this, I have often considered that if I had stolen the media I cannot access, rather than paying for it, I wouldn't have any of these problems.
My current Elbonia is Tok, AK, but most of the places I have lived in the last year or so remind me of Elbonia in some way. I dream of escape, yet My beard is getting thicker, and I am starting to fear that I will never get all this mud off. The only hope I have in these camps are the reminders of civilization I bring with me. Unfortunately, all of my chocolate has melted in my 90 degree tent, and DRMs are preventing me from escaping with multimedia.
Apple, for various reasons, has been frustrating me for a long time now, so one day I decided that I should cut my final tie with the company, and move on from iTunes. Still wanting to pay for my music, I tried Google Play, and discovered that in places with limited and slow internet, it really isn't a good medium. I then tried Amazon, which is as convenient as iTunes, perhaps more, because you can buy music, rent movies, and ship garden tools to Florida if the mood takes you. Amazon even has less restrictive DRMs than Apple, provided you are using a Windows or Android operating systems. Playing iTunes files outside of iTunes proved too difficult to bother with, and thus, like a Dilbertian corporate slave, I went back to the most restrictive product to have the easiest access to the products I legally own.
Then, I bought a laptop with Windows 8. Windows 8 was buggy, difficult to use, and credited with slowing down the sale of new PCs because of its general horribleness. When it crashed, I switched to Ubuntu. On an open source operating system one should be able to access their music, but not their iTunes music, nor download their Amazon music (though Ubuntu is installing with a link to Amazon on the dock). Thus, while stuck in Elbonia, I am confronted with the realization that the things that remind me of a better place, are actually just reminding me of Northern Elbonia, where instead of a totalitarian state, it is a totalitarian corporation supported by the state. Or, it all just came full circle, and I am in the cubicle maze with Wally and Alice.
In the end, only a few things are inaccessible to me here, while I choose if I want an operating system that doesn't work (Windows 8), or one that doesn't do what I want (owing to DRMs). While I consider this, I have often considered that if I had stolen the media I cannot access, rather than paying for it, I wouldn't have any of these problems.
Not music related specifically but here is a media-related quest for legal acquisition. Keep up the interesting posting.
ReplyDeletehttp://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones
Adam, thanks for the link! Actually one of the things I have had problems with is Game of Thrones Season 2, which I own, but cannot watch (for now).
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