Years ago a little program revolutionized the music world.  Its name was Napster.

Napster wasn't the first way to find music on the internet.  Usenet and IRC had been around for years.  However, both of those solutions required a bit of tech-know-how to use and were not accessible to the mainstream user.  Enter Napster.  A clean, easy to understand interface and instant access for millions of people (many of them college students) to begin sharing and downloading music was born.

Along came Metallica and the RIAA.

Sure, they weren't the only ones, but they became the most vocal.  Lawsuits ensued, the service was shut down, the RIAA declared victory and then realized that, just like Obi-Wan Kenobi, "If you strike [it] down, [it] shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

My life has been like a horror filled version of the Calgon commercial; the kids, the bills, the job search, the hubby (or lack of him) etc.  I've just been a big ball of anxiety lately. 

It's funny how one little comment can just make your day.  I've already been going through major life um...challenges.  I know I have been overly sensitive and can get my feelings hurt if someone says boo to me.  Not to mention dealing with the trauma of a probable Obama nomina...

I had the pleasure of getting out for an evening of entertainment last nite.  Headed out to catch one of my favorite artists (musician) at a small club within driving distance.  In this case the artist was the former songstress for the TV show Ally McBeal, the lovely and talented Ms. Vonda Shepard.

Image from Viewimages.com

I became a fan of Vonda Shepard

As horrible and tragic as the cyclones and the lives lost in Myanamar are.  It is even more tragic that Myanamar officials seem more concerned with staying in power than helping their own people.  People are starving and devastated.  Myanamar has accepted help from a few neighboring countries but there are many more that are willing to help but being denied permission.  This situation is just horrendous and it breaks my heart.  I just watched a news report which showed a...

The day you've been waiting for has come.  No longer do you need to lay awake nights, anxiously anticipating the unvailing of...THE LEGO GUITAR&MY GUITAR ROOM!By way of review, for any of you who missed out on my announcement and update of this project.  The east wall of my Guitar Room has been woefully bereft of adornments.  After my daugher left for college, it didn't take me long to claim her old room as my Guitar Room and decorate it accordingly.  While the other wall...

When the blog is ready to be written, the news article appears...


In light of the recent goings on within JU, it seems rather appropriate I would stumble across this article from CNN.com/Living titled, Your blog can be group therapy.

The first blogger in the story stated she would commit suicide after 90 days of writing about her life. What would you do if one morning while sipping your coffee and reading what's new on JU you were to come across such an article?


The stories on JU ...

Today we announced that the subscription price for WinCustomize was going to go up $10/year from $20 to $30.  Now, of course we had to come up with a good justification for this, something that would fool the sheep of the forums into believing we did this for their own good and that they're getting the better end of the deal.

But, just between you and me?  Complete BS. 

As some of you may know, today's Angie's birthday, so as a gift the company bought her a new car... ...

This whole argument just drives me crazy.  So much for transcending race or the post-racial candidate.  Race is as big as an issue as any in this current campaign.  According to the linked article, if Hillary Clinton says she's "more electable" that is some kind of secret code for "I'm more electable because I am white".  This is such and complete and utter bullshit.  Why is the fact that 90% of blacks are voting for the black candidate not considered racist?  I gue...

Today marked the first day I spent on furthering development on my mod for World in Conflict for some time. I was forced to put it aside for some time because of university and lack of personal time in general. Now that I have some time to myself again I figured why not dedicate some of that to Realmod once again.

The World in Conflict mod kit. Its what makes it all happen. Since it was a while since I last worked on my mod, I decided to conduct a reevaluation of things and ideas I had i...

The congressional elections of 2008 in the United States of America have not even been held yet and the conservatives are already giving up the ghost of Republican candidates.  I keep hearing how many expect the "demos" to gain seats in the House and the Senate.  Some even think the "demos" will have a controlling majority of congress.

Well this can happen if no one does anything.  I learned to day that 435 House districts and 33 Senate districts will be h...

Or are you just twits? 

But seriously.  So after hearing all about Twitter for all these months, I finally signed up.  And you know what?  It'll be cooler once I'm back in the states and have a phone plan I can afford, because I'll be posting from my mobile phone.

Yeah, Twitter is tacky, but it's also rather fun.  I mean, stupid and tacky fun, but fun nonetheless.  Yet while most of the twits I follow are known in the Stardock family of sites, they're alm...

The proposed GAS TAX RELIEF is more fluff than help.  The figures for the basic consumer, not truck drivers or companies that drive many miles, range from $30 to $70 during the proposed summer break would not help the average consumer, I know, every little bit helps.

Let's look at the big picture. The state highways are the big reciepent of most of these funds and one governor has said that his state, and it is a sparcely populated one, would lose approximately 60 million dollars just du...

When it comes to skinning the OS, I'm a fanatic. I've been into changing the look and feel of the OS for nearly 15 years now.  From Object Desktop on OS/2 to working on the very first GUI skinning program on Windows, skinning is a passion of mine.

Over the years, I've seen a lot of programs, companies, and ideas come and go.  On the software side, there's been great programs like eFX and Chroma (to name two) along with the ubiquitous WindowBlinds.  On the content side, there'...

 

In light of the uproar over Miley Cyrus' "scandalous" photograph ,[http://forums.joeuser.com/310120/page/1/#1719278], so vastly overrated!   I’m all for protecting our children and I am not certainly in favor of them being forced to grow up before their time.  In other words, doing or getting involved in anything that is not for them because they are too young and don’t need to be involved with anything that would be bad for them!

Braeden, aka Sancho Nino made a comment on the blog that I wrote regarding the scandal, it was an interesting and enlightening response which made me go ‘hmmm..”  and gave me more food for thought.

 

      If you are one of the multitude of folks out there who think that somehow you will "get Mr. Exxon" with a magical tax on oil profits let me disabuse you of the notion. Such a tax would only hurt you the consumer and the economy at large.


     Firstly, costs are fungible. Whether these costs are material inputs, labor, or taxes makes no difference as all are equally redistributed not to the business itself but rather to the consumers who bu...