The Null Device
2000/11/18
Speak of the devil: The European Commission are holding a hearing into the marketing activities of a mob of third-world-baby-killing-bastards recently referred to in this hallowed blog. Let's hope they don't weasel out of it this time.
I just ordered Björk's Selmasongs over the Internet from WHSmith in the UK. Yes, I could have bought it here and it would have been cheaper, but there it's on an indie label/distributor, whereas here it's on Universal, and I'd feel dirty giving that particular mob of racketeers my money. Them and Sony Music at least.
<RANT>
Why this peculiar boycott? What differentiates Sony and Universal from the
rest of the major labels? Well, a company like Warner or EMI, whilst still
complicit in the share-cropping racket that is the recording industry, is
merely reactively evil; it is a large, dumb dinosaur fending off immediate
threats. Sony and Universal, however, are proactively evil. They
have a history of being aggressive in ripping off artists and consumers, and
in pushing for the abolition of freedoms and rights that conflict with their
ability to make a profit.
Witness, for example, Sony's Orwellian revenue-protection régime, which, if
they succeed, will block file sharing at your PC, your phone company and everywhere else, or Universal's declaration of war on Internet anonymity; not to mention
the well-documented history of artist rip-offs.
In short, Universal are the Nestlé of the recording industry. Don't buy their stuff. </RANT>
Another new logo... the grey blobs were looking rather ugly, so I decided to replace them. Still not too sure about the layout, but it'll evolve.
Open-source VMWare-alike Plex86 has passed another milestone: It now runs Windows 95 (in a window, under Linux). Which is theoretically impressive, though VMWare still has a sizeable lead (in terms of efficiency, I/O devices, &c.; I doubt whether Plex86 has a virtual SoundBlaster card yet). Still, to know that there's an open-source program of the sort in the offing is encouraging news.