Adam's Blog

It's time for Facebook to suck it up and admit they screwed up with this "beacon" system. People everywhere are complaining that Facebook is not respecting their privacy. In at least one case, Facebook ruined Christmas. But more importantly, users - a fickle crowd, indeed - are more concerned about privacy than many people think. Perhaps only because I've yet to get abused by it have I not acted on my urge to close my account, but I am pissed nonetheless than a company like Facebook - which, until the last few weeks - was the "hot, young" company in Silicon Valley, but has recently crashed and burned in many people's minds, would do something like this. The beacon system is 100% designed for advertisers and Faecbook itself, not for users. And when you sell out your users, well, you sign your own death certificate. I could not agree any more with Scoble, who says Mark Zuckerburg ought to get his ass out there and apologize. Remember, Mark, Facebook is only worth 1 billion dollars on paper. Once your userbase distrusts you, you're done.

I have searched the internet high and low, but I could not locate a DRM free Bob Weir's "Ace" album for download on the internet. The only place I could find it was from eMusic.com. eMusic offers an amazing deal - sign up, you get 25 free MP3s. Then you go onto a subscription plan, $9.99 per month for 30 songs to more expensive plans that offer more downloads. So I signed up for my two week trial with the intention of downloading a few of the Wier songs and then cancelling. But I still had about 20 downloads left. So I downloaded the entire EP "The Tain," by the Decemberists, but instead of the five parts being individual songs, the entire EP is offered as one 18 minute song. So I downloaded some other random songs. While the selection is far from limitless, it's certainly very deep and incredibly varied. So, 24 songs later, despite my intention to rip off eMusic, I decided that they have earned my $9.99. The downloads go through the eMusic manager, which is really fast and really easy to use, and it's cross platform. Also, did I mention the downloads are non-DRM, fully-portable, already-tagged...

So the Writers Guild is on strike, and scripted TV has a definite drop dead point. All of your favorite shows are just burning off their remaining episodes and then: nuttin'. Reality TV, game shows, and good, old fashioned reruns. So, I've started cutting back on some TV. First to go: Las Vegas. Las Vegas had a good run a few years ago, but now it's just trash. The scripts suck, the interaction is infantile, the characters are flat and pointless and often annoying, and the premise is so fatally flawed it's laughable. Also, I wish somebody would shoot Delinda already, she's the most annoying character on TV. So Las Vegas got the boot from our DVR. Next is Grey's Anatomy. Admittedly, this one is primarily due to my wife - I would have dropped this show mid-way through season 2 if it wasn't for her. In the meantime, the show is absolutely horrible. Meredith is the whiniest, second-most annoying character on television, and needs a good slap in the face. George is lame, and Izzie is utterly annoying ever since the "I ate an entire tub of butter" speech from last season. Christina is cold and uninteresting, the Chief...

Ok, so the first 8 episodes of Heroes were mostly a letdown, but -- oh boy! - did tonight's episode, entitled "Four Months Ago" make up for it! It explained everything, perhaps a little too late, but actually had a good, solid, believable explanation for things. Peter's "amnesia?" This "Elle" character? Nathan and the burn-faced dude? Niki and her crazy antics? The "twins"? Everything -- explained! Tim Kring, well done. Now - please!! - keep it up.

If you purchased content from MLB in the last several years, you're screwed. It's gone. It's disappeared, it ceases to exist. I feel, even for this Red Sox fan, who purchased over $250 of content from Major League Baseball, who in turn, revoked DRM and made his content worthless. BoingBoing covered the MLB DRM fiasco too. The fact is, DRM is for suckers. It's BAD for the consumer, and it only benefits the content provider, who rarely has the best interest of the customer in mind. I am a big baseball fan, but thanks to this, I will never purchase content from MLB. Then again, I wouldn't have anyway if it was tangled in DRM. Either way, shame on you, Major League Baseball!

I'm not the only one wondering where the heck the excitement is with the TV show Heroes. Entertainment Weekly's TV Watch has been tearing it up lately. They directed me towards a "Heroes" feature article that was recently posted. Last season, I was vocal about where "Heroes" succeeded and failed. This year, of course, is no different. Heroes, where it was cool last year, is just dull this year. We have several storylines, but none are advancing with any meaningful devices. Let's examine: * Mohinder is working with HRG to infiltrate the company. He gives them Molly, and they... uh... lie her down in a bed. * Nicki is working with the company because... uh... I have no idea. They want to help her, or something, but I don't know what they've done other than make her a bit of a bodyguard. * The "twins" are the most hated new characters - the Paulo and Nicky of "Heroes," I think - but I find the whole power between them kind of interesting. Too bad their "coming to America" plotline has gone on about 4 weeks too long. * Sylar lost his power for unknown reasons we'll likely never be told,...

I've now had the iPhone for over a month. Let me just come out and say it: there's a reason this device has something like a 97% satisfaction rating. The thing is awesome. It's easy to love it: it feels like Apple, it's beautiful, it's easy to use, it's pretty first and utilitarian second. It really makes its competitors blush, particularly things like the Blackberry Pearl, which looks like an old terminal compared to a 24" cinema display: it's just not even comparable. There are surely missing features: no Flash is one, no current SDK is a big one, no copy/paste is often cited (but not a big deal for me), no way to mass remove images from the camera without first importing them into iPhoto, no iChat, and a big ball buster is the crippled Bluetooth profiles (no send file? No send contact? C'mon apple!) But the two biggest for me are as follows: * No voice dial. This is just silly. If you truly store all of your contacts, it's a REAL pain in the ass to call a random one. And secondly, what good is a headset if you have to fish the phone out of its...

Welcome to the world, Jillian. 10/16/07 @ 13:06 7lbs, 6oz, 19.25 inches.

We're at the hospital. We were just admitted - now it's just a waiting game.

I've been reading quite a bit lately about whether or not the Yankees should fire Joe Torre. On one hand, I believe that Torre is the best coach in the league and it would be silly to replace him for what amounts to an offensive collapse and the inability of our pitchers to perform. At the same time, I believe that some fresh blood would do the Yanks some good. The fact is simple: the Yankees first 50 games or so were a disaster. They lost about 30 of them, for one and they looked piss poor as a unit. As fans watched some of the most expensive players in baseball tank, other, smaller, less expensive ball clubs succeeded with young prospects. Now, I have maintained for about 3 years that the Yankees need to purge some of the their older veteran superstars and invest in some young talent; they have to expect to trade 2-3 years of post-season appearances in order to season their players with experience. But George Steinbrenner wouldn't ever do something like that. And that is why the Yankees are a $200 million plus club with no ring since the millenium. As a result, I advocate...