This guy has broken my heart too many times this season.

Everyone who cares about DRM should read Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Music. (thx Macalope) Here are a few choice excerpts:

. . . Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

I knew I liked this guy.

It seems that Macrovision's CEO, Fred Amoroso, has formally responded to Steve's "Thoughts on Music". Luckily, John Gruber of Daring Fireball has translated the letter from PR-speak to plain English. Worth a read.

As I have mentioned before, I love Battlestar Galactica. But the last few episodes have caused me to ponder the unthinkable: Has Battlestar Galactica jumped the shark?

SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't been keeping up with the current season of Battlestar Galactica, you may want to skip this post.

Saturday evening, Sophia and I dined at one of the finest restaurants in the world—the French Laundry. The experience was simply spectacular. While it was by far the most expensive meal I have ever eaten, it was also the most satisfying.

Sophia took on the task of writing up our experiences at Comic Con this year. (Thanks hon!)

Read all about it here!

I'll be attending Comic Con this year! The last time I was at Comic Con I was an exhibitor, so it may be a little depressing this time around. If you will be attending ComicCon this year and want to show your moral support by buying me a drink (or just saying hello), feel free to drop me a line. Sophia and I will be there Friday and Saturday, in sunny San Diego.

We arrived at the Las Vegas Airport on July 2^nd at around 10am. The aircraft made a slightly harder-than-normal landing which seems to be the norm for Southwest Airlines these days. We waited for our bags to arrive at the carousel for half an hour. Once we had our luggage, we were ready to go.

Because it was so early in the day, we couldn't go to the hotel immediately---checkin wasn't until 3pm. So, we headed over to the strip to eat at Le Village buffet at the Paris.

The past few 4^th of July weekends for me have been quite boring, if not outright depressing. Well, that pattern will be broken tomorrow when Sophia and I fly to Las Vegas!

We will be there thru the 4^th, and returning early enough on the 5^th to get to work on time.

So yeah. Fun times.