Meandering thoughts...

A few weeks ago, on my old VAIO, I installed whatever it is that Amazon wants you to install in order to be able to watch their videos. (A workable, if potentially expensive solution to insulating potentially mischievious software - the word "Veoh" comes to mind, here - from files that I and I alone should control.) I began a subscription to the new Terminator series, and have downloaded the first few episodes.

Amazon offers their DRMed product for several portable devices, but not the iPod. To get iPod versions of these videos, apparently, you need to buy them from the iTunes store.

As far as I know, there is no utility out there to convert Amazon-restricted video into iPod video.

In a flash of fatigue-induced pseudo-lucidity last night, it occurred to me that, since the prices of episodes from Amazon and from iTunes are comparable (within 10 cents of each other), and since the only reason I would have to pay iTunes for content that I've already acquired for the Amazon system is to be able to play the content on an iPod, then from my point of view as the consumer, the sub-$2 price paid for each episode is being paid very nearly entirely for the ability to read the data in such a way that it is usable (i.e., I get sound and a picture).

In other words - and here is possibly where my lucidity took a turn for the nearest large tree - the value of the content itself is nearly zero - what I'm paying for is the ability to view it.

Apropos of which I plan, from now on, to avoid using the term "digital rights management" and to use the more accurate term "digital restrictions management," because none of what is being done in the name of "rights" is of a positive nature as it applies to me, the consumer.

Cheers...

Stumbling among the electrons...

It occurs to me that it's way too easy to go astray with today's electronics.

We finally mated Galina's Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop with its charger after an extended period, and I'm not quite sure what happened, but not too long ago, Galina woke me up in the middle of the night because she was sitting up in bed, shaking her laptop. Apparently it had made some kind of noise after being charged for about 12 hours.

Today, pressing the power button got you to the BIOS spash screen (big Dell logo and a prompt to hit F2 for Setup or F12 for a Boot Menu), but no further. The keyboard was unresponsive. Pressing the power button and keeping it depressed - a tactic that turns off a variety of laptops and desktops - also did nothing.

Removing the plug from the power supply shut the unit down quicker than hitting your thumb with a hammer. After reinserting the power supply cord and hitting the power button, I was able to press F2 and get a response from the machine, but that was about it before the unit went comatose. There was no joy in the "c'mon 'n do something" department.

After noodling around on the Internet for a few minutes to see if this problem had been experienced by Someone Else™, I decided to see what would happen if I removed the battery, as that had been mentioned as a possible fix (that didn't work) to a problem that sort of, kind of resembled the fix I was in. I mean, it's not as if I was getting desperate, or anything.

Naturally, without its battery, the Dell boots up without a problem.

Reinstalling the battery re-lobotomizes the machine. The noise Galina heard was, doubtless, the battery giving up its ghost with extreme prejudice.

There's a moral in there, somewhere.

* * *Later, I was presented with a "dead" cell phone, a Nokia, whose screen simply said "Insert SIM card." It was apparent to me the owner had no idea what the message meant.

I pried off the battery compartment cover, removed the battery, removed and reseated the SIM card, reinserted the battery, slapped on the cover, and hit the power button.

The problem was cured.

* * *I am not that good at troubleshooting, but apparently better than most folks.

Scary.

Cheers...