You should not have to install a piece of software to use a fucking music store. Do you have to install eTunes to use eBay? Do you have to install amaTunes to use Amazon?

There is not a single thing wrong with installing a piece of software to accomplish a given task. Just try using the World Wide Web without a browser, and see how your day goes.

Windows wasn't the first OS or even graphical OS to market. ...Doing it right is more important than doing it first.

In fact, "doing it right" may have nothing to do with the concept, and everything to do with how you sell and license the concept. Windows is an excellent example of this.

There are a number of words in your post that the average consumer will not recognize, nor care about: FLAC, AAC, OGG, RockBox, Amarok, Magnatune, etc.

Until the masses care, most capitalists will not.

I don't suppose you've ever considered a third party solution?

After reviewing a number of options (Mozy, Crashplan, etc.) I ended up with JungleDisk too. I don't care about my music library, but I do have a photo library similar to yours -- just about 41gb. JungleDisk does incremental backups (only files that have changed) and can be configured to save X number of old versions for you. If you add their JungleDisk Plus service ($1/month) you get block-level and resumable backups, and web access to the files. But the thing that really sold me on JungleDisk was the bandwidth throttling -- during the day I could set it to something small (say 200kbps) so everyone else in the house can still do what they want online, while at night it has no limits.

I use local backups too, but for ten years of valuable photographs, I want offsite storage too, and this is more convenient than cycling drives or tapes offline. I'm not thrilled that Rackspace bought them, but at least JungleDisk is just software, and uses Amazon/S3 instead of Rackspace's servers.

My cousin came up to me during a holiday party and told me her web browser had become blurry ever since she plugged in a new mouse -- and she wondered if the new mouse (which needed no drivers) had installed some kind of virus.

Meanwhile, one of those great tech support videos (sound absolutely required).

Yeah, I can believe this happens elsewhere on a more regular basis. The emergencies were from exactly what you said: snapped trees, downed powerlines, etc. My neighbor had one 40-foot elm split down the middle and land on his roof, and a similarly-sized maple tree uprooted from the weight of the ice -- as it fell, it took out the transformer on a nearby power pole, then landed on his truck. Ouch.

Natural disasters seem to be all the rage lately.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Northeast was hit by a major ice storm. At the peak, ~1.4 million people were without power across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and upstate New York. FEMA declared emergencies in several areas, and each state declared emergencies and disaster areas in additional areas. Like a lot of people, I lost power for several days, which means I also lost heat and water (not on municipal water or on piped gas). This guy had the presence of mind to take a few pictures of the ice layers... it was kind of astonishing, at least to me.

One of the article pages had an ad for "The Tesla Shield: Transformational Technology for Mind Body and Soul" (courtesy of the Google Ad Network on that page). Wow. It's a nice reminder that people still buy this crap. Only $200 for the base model, although you can spend up to $2000 for the "Eye of Horus" version which "Incorporates Upgraded Internal Componentry PLUS Hyperspace Radionics Function PLUS 12 Specially Selected Precious Gemstones Chosen For Their Therapeutic And Metaphysical Properties: Diamond, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, Lapis lazuli, Garnet, Turquoise, Quartz, Opal, Aquamarine, Topaz."

Safari doesn't create a different version of the web page. It shows the original HTML version, just graphically scaled down. So EMG should be suing all the other cell phone browser companies. As the article notes:

Now, it seems to me that this is a description of what every single mobile phone on the market does. Every mobile phone EXCEPT the iPhone, that is. Remember all those commercials touting how the iPhone doesn't display a simplified Web site, but the full Web page? ... The press release issued by EMG claims that the iPhone uses the same method as their invention. So, doesn't every other mobile phone do this as well? Should a patent granted last month hand over intellectual property rights for every single handheld device that accesses the Web?

I was thinking we should rename the "slashdot effect" to SLASHZILLA! It's like taking a rage-filled rampage all over your bandwidth....

%3