Though others have noted the news of Princess Anne's Bull Terrier killing the Queen's beloved little Corgi, I have come into possession of a royal family recording of the incident. The Queen's reaction, though warrented, is surprisingly frank and extreme. Most interesting is the family dynamic that it reveals. Who would have ever imagined that she uses such language?
I must caution that this is not the type of thing you want your children to hear.
Yes, I know, two months without an entry and then 2 in one day. Chalk it up to be distracted and lazy at the same time.
I've set a goal to try to post at least once a week from now on. We'll see how self-disciplined I can be.
Apple Computer announced yesterday that its iTunes music service customers had downloaded over 25,000,000 songs to date. This would be quite an accomplishment if it weren’t for the fact that Apple loses money on very song downloaded.
Now don’t get me wrong. The Mac is a great machine and the iPod sets a standard for portable digital music players that will not be surpassed for some time to come. But it takes some convoluted logic to beat your chest about running the biggest money pit of a music service in the industry.
I know, I know, iTunes is a loss-leader for iPod sales. At some point, however, the math has to catch up. If every iPod purchasers goes to iTunes and downloads bunches of music, it’s got to eat into those hefty iPod profits. From a business viewpoint, there is a finite market for players but a much, much larger market for the music to play on them. As player sales level off with the market being saturated with happy iPod owners, they will continue to download more and more music from iTunes. iPod profits will level off while iTunes losses will grow. To make things worse, iTunes is the only place to get Apple’s proprietary AAC format. They can’t even hope that some other poor fools will pick up the music biz side of the problem. How do you explain that to Apple investors? (“But, but, it’s such a cool player…”).
Apple has a long history of making kick-ass products while kicking themselves in the ass on the business side. Call it Apple Logic.
Christmas music drifts through the house and there is a foot of snow outside, making each window into a Christmas card. The stockings ARE hung by the chimney with care. The cookbooks and magazines have been bookmarked for their holiday recipes that will feed the visiting friends and family.
Walking through town you are greeted by people bustling along with shopping bags and smiles. Evergreens are tied to the tops of passing cars on their way home to spread the smell of the holiday throughout the house. All the stores twinkle with lights.
We are all closer at this time of year, even if thousands of miles separate us.
‘Tis the season.
