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Last year I visited Angel Glacier (Mount Edit Cavell, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada). The steep and winding road up to the start of the trail is one of the most enjoyable drives in Canada. It’s beautiful, of course, but it has very tight bends and crumbling roads – it’s an adventure preceding the main attraction.

When I visited first, last June, the glacier had only been melting for a short while, so the pool at the bottom was fairly small. I was lucky enough to find the biggest ice cube I have ever seen, though, just waiting to be rolled into a huge glass of rum and coke. Mmmm.

When I next visited, about a month later, the glacier had melted more and the pool had become a small lake. The ice cube had presumably been covered by water and melted. The exciting find on the second trip was an ice cave, where the glacier had receded in such a way as to show the gap between the ice and the rocks below. I walked in as far as I could see. Then, had my photo taken and left quickly. If the cave closed (and there were several avalanges minutes before and after my exploration), then I’d be there for a decade or so, I imagine.

Then again, at the rate of the glacier’s retreat, maybe not.

Every once in a while something takes me by suprise and I’m reminded of how the circle of life includes me, too. I was shown a photograph of me at a dinner, which I looked at for a moment and though “I don’t remember that.”

Then I looked at the girl in the photo and recognised the smile. The photo wasn’t of me, but of my parents, 25 years ago.

I know large companies put profit above all else. I also know that there are many, many companies who use unethical and cheap manpower to bring their products to market at a lower price. I know there are many out there that I don’t know about.

But I can only complain about those that I DO know of, and now Apple is in my bad books. Bad, bad Apple.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=14915

I suppose that makes them close to being as bad as Disney. Well, not really.

The Flintstones, advertising cigarettes. A lot can happen in 45 years…

Why is DRM (“Digital Rights Management”, applied to music tracks bought online and burned into many CD’s) “Evil”?

If I bought a CD from HMV and was asked by the cashier which CD player I was going to use it in, I would squint at her and think she was odd. If she then told me that she needed to know to ensure the CD I just paid for is used in a “fair way”, I would suggest that my having paid for the CD meant I can use it freely, as long as I keep it to myself, and THAT is Fair Use.

When it comes to online MP3 purchases we don’t ask these questions. Why are we not up in arms? Is it because people don’t know? Or are we so accepting and complacent a society that we just pay and accept any and all conditions attached to our purchase?

What DRM means to me

It means I can buy a song online and only play it on the computer I bought it on. I can’t take it to work, I can’t upgrade my computer and expect it to still play, I can’t copy it to “just any” MP3 player, I can’t play it through my networked Media Centre.

“Oh, so it prevents piracy then”, you say. Well, no. Not at all. If I want to pirate it, I can burn it to CD, then copy it back to my computer as a new file… That lets me copy it however I see fit. So why am I complaining? Well, why do I have to copy it twice just to make it usable?

Screw that, it’s easier to download the music for free. (And it’s legal in Canada!)

It is incredible that Steve Jobs, top-guy at Apple, actually said “If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own,” in 2002 when he accepted Apple’s technical Grammy Award. (Story Here.) Now iTunes requires iPod owners to buy from iTunes, and iTunes customers to own an iPod. Once an advocate, now a culprit of the came offence.

If you’d like to read up on this, check out these sites:

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ – The Campaign to Eliminate DRM
http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&ned=ca&q=apple+drm&btnG=Search+News – Google News collection of Apple DRM stories, with information on countries opposing the restrictions imposed by Apple.