Michael Hanscom

Enthusiastic ambivert. Geeky, liberal, friendly, curious, hopepunk; trying to be a good person. (he/him)

Apple woos indie labels for iTMS

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After the iTunes Music Store opened, there were two recurring comments from much of the Mac world: why was it US only, and what about independent labels? It’s commonly accepted that the intricacies of international copyright law are most likely what’s restricting the iTMS to the US for now, but aside from a few rumors, the question of whether the store would open up to more than just the major labels was still unanswered.

Yesterday, however, Apple hosted a special invitation only event for independent and smaller music labels, giving them information on how they could join with the iTMS. A representative from CDBaby was at the event, and has posted an extremely interesting rundown of Apple’s offer to indy labels, mixed in with a lot of information about the iTMS system.

Interesting reading, even just for the peeks into how Apple is handling all the behind-the-scenes details of the iTMS. From what I can see, I think this is just going to keep getting better and better.

That explains it

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I’m the commander. See, I don’t need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.

— Pres. George W. Bush, to Bob Woodward, in Bush at War

(via Tresy)

Related entries

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I’m experimenting with Adam Kalsey’s Related Entried Revisited MovableType modification. It uses a MySQL database query to create a list of entries that should be somewhat similar to each entry, and lists them in the right hand sidebar of each entry’s individual listing page.

Just glancing through what it comes up with, it seems to be grabbing an interesting mix. Some posts I’ve been fairly impressed with what it comes up with, others have seemed fairly random. I’ll leave it in for a bit to see what I think of it.

Could be?

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All of this blather coming from Bush trying to justify the invasion of Iraq with the (two? three?) trailers that have been found is driving me up the wall. I keep seeing various news reports trumpeting that we found these two trailers that “could be used to produce chemical weapons.”

Oh, really?

Look — give me a few gallons of bleach and a few gallons of ammonia, and my bathtub could be used to produce chemical weapons (depending on the mix, Chlorine Gas, Nitrogen Trichloride, or Hydrazine can be produced, none of which are particularly friendly). You’re faltering, Bush, and the world knows it.

Well, hey there, sailor!

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In an unusual act of patriotism, a Nevada brothel is offering free sex to troops returning from the U.S.-Iraq war.

The first 50 servicemen and women through the door will receive a sexy knockoff of their military-issued “TA-50” kits of personal hygiene items. Instead of toothbrushes and soap, Hof’s kits contain condoms, lubricant, an adult magazine and a certificate for free sex.

Thirteen men and three women in uniform have shown up so far to claim their gifts. All told, the free and discounted sex will cost Hof about \$50,000 — a worthy sacrifice, he said.

Okay…so maybe there are some benefits to joining the military! ;) Actually, in addition to the humor factor of the story, I was rather impressed that thirteen men and three women have taken advantage of the offer so far. Good for them! Most of the time in our culture, women don’t seem nearly as free to express their libido as men are — even in movies, those women that do are often portrayed as disturbed in some way (think Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction) — it’s always nice to see that tendency being shaken up a little bit.

Personally, I’m all for women expressing their libido more often.

And more obviously.

Especially around me. ;)

(via Prairie)