the air

Before everyone starts to argue that I am promoting music piracy, please know that I am in no way advocating the use of illegal tactics to obtain music. If you feel that this post advocates piracy, I strongly advise you to counter my arguments in the comments.

The RIAA is actively pursuing “pirates” who are illegally downloading the works of hundreds of artists through peer-to-peer networks such as Limewire, Kazaa, and the BitTorrent protocol. By no means is that an exhaustive list, however, you get the idea. However, I think the RIAA fails to understand why DRM, digital rights management, is a flawed concept that actually works against them. Their publicists and lawyers want you to think that DRM is a perfectly feasible model that is designed to give the user maximum flexibility. What they fail to acknowledge is the fact that DRM is actually a model that limits your flexibility to what the major corporations want.

We are all familiar with the fact that if you purchase your music on iTunes, you can only listen to your tracks using the iTunes software and/or the venerable iPod. However, what if your favorite music artist has an exclusive agreement with Apple and thus their songs are not available on any other service? Now let’s assume that most of your music has been purchased through Urge, a service by MTV and Microsoft that only supports the Zune portable media player. Such artists include both the Beatles and Elton John. In a way, this DRM infected world has now forced you to both abandon your Zune and purchase an iPod so that you may legally purchase and listen to your songs on an iPod while on the go. How is that offering the consumer more flexibility?

Now say if you engaged in music piracy and downloaded the songs off of some peer-to-peer network. Most likely, you will be able to select a player of your choice and listen to your “illegally” obtained music. The advantage here is the fact that you are not limited to any particular service or device. In fact, you are free to do what you want with the songs as you see fit. That is what I call flexibility for the consumer. Is that not what the purpose of every business should be? What I fail to understand is why the RIAA does not encourage companies to offer DRM in a format that allows total flexibility for the consumer and keeps them legal.

In essence, the RIAA needs to encourage companies to develop DRM technology that offers the same flexibility as illegally downloaded songs. What that means is that there should be a universal DRM format that every player will support. The competition will not be with the actual DRM technology but the hardware itself. Apple’s FairPlay DRM technology competes head on with Microsoft’s PlaysForSure and their new DRM scheme that only supports the Zune. By competing in the DRM technology market, companies themselves inadvertently are promoting illegal music transactions.

Before someone argues that the current state of DRM is a step in the right direction, realize that the current philosophy of DRM is simply flawed from the start. The RIAA is afraid of losing billions, yet they are not willing to take action to limit that loss by analyzing what is the root of the cause. Simply put, the main causes for piracy, in my opinion, are:

• The actual price of the product
• The ease of obtaining the product illegally
• The difficulty of actually using a legal version of the product
• The limitations of the legal product

I am certain that there are more reasons; however, I find that these four reasons constitute a significant portion of the roots of music piracy. Let’s face the music, pun intended, buying music is simply too expensive. Although you can buy tracks on iTunes for $0.99 each that can quickly add up if you purchase multiple tracks. Buying CD’s is not much cheaper either. Looking through the Sunday advertisements, I can see the prices range from $4.99 to almost $17.99 or even more for limited editions. You can buy albums on iTunes for the general price of $9.99. Occasionally, some albums are offered at lower rates, but they are still pricey compared to illegal means. As a college student, it is difficult to purchase the music I enjoy for low prices. The biggest advantage of iTunes is the fact that I can purchase those tracks I find interesting and not have to pay for the whole album that may be filled with crap music. Sure, $0.99 sounds like a fair price, but that can quickly add up if I decide to download 20 tracks. Heck, in one sitting, I can easily spend close to $50 and not even realize it until I see my credit card bill.

The cons of purchasing legal music versus downloading it illegally should be obvious by now. But what about the advantages of buying music legally? The only advantage is the fact that you will most likely not be sued by the RIAA. Do not give me the crap about supporting the artists because the major labels already have contracts with the artists and in fact, when you purchase the music, you are simply purchasing a license to listen to the music. What that means is that if the labels wanted, they can revoke or cancel the license at any time and not owe you a penny. Your money does not directly support the artist. In fact, your money pretty much pays for the extravagant marketing expenses and the lucrative executive salaries of the major music labels. But isn’t that a good thing? That depends on your point of view. I think that artists are not losing any money because their salaries are not directly proportional to sales. Most artists receive base compensation PLUS benefits associated to the sales. Rumor has it that most artists do not receive additional royalties from the sales of digital music tracks. Hence, if that rumor is true, then most artists are receiving royalties from CD sales. Therefore, if you are not purchasing CD’s and only buying legal digital music tracks, then you are also guilty of “hurting” the artist.

There is no easy solution to this problem. Companies will continue to waste millions of dollars promoting a technology that is encouraging rampant piracy. Stealing music simply makes sense because it gives you the flexibility to do what you want with the music without being forced to “buy” crap you don’t need/want.

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Spring break 2007 is now officially over. I know I have not posted in a couple of days mainly because I was on Spring Break and took a much needed break from my computer and my studies. This spring break was definitely fun because I got a chance to hang out with a bunch of my friends and play some basketball. The worst part about Spring break is when it comes to an end. Today is Monday, and I definitely do not want to go back to class. As much as I value education and going to class, I always have more fun when I’m not in class.

This past week has been quite slow and I have been unable to accomplish some of the things I wanted to. I have an exam tonight which I am studying for feverishly, but the professor has failed to tell us what exactly he will be quizzing us on. In addition, we have homework due today in that class and I have literally spent over 15 hours working on it. By no means is it hard, it is simply difficult to “model” the assignment in Excel because I only learned how to “model” it by hand. However, the advantage of doing the homework in Excel is that I can obtain an exact answer rather than an approximation.

This break also gave me a chance to catch up on my reading. I’m always up for reading new books and I found this one book, “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson. The story revolves around Daniel Burnham, a renowned architect that designed the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair and H.H. Holmes, a notorious serial killer of that time. Interestingly, the book is a work of non-fiction, but written as a fictional text. In other words, everything the book describes is true, but tone of the book is reminiscent of a novel. If you have read the book, please let me know what your thoughts were. Currently, I just started Part II of the book and hope to have it complete by the end of the week.

Now that I am back at school and assuming my normal routine, I should be back to posting regularly. If you were on spring break, hope you had loads of fun. If you have yet to have spring break, please take the time and enjoy it. And if you don’t have spring break, I’m sorry but you are definitely missing out.

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Now that St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, I feel this is a great time to bust some of the alcohol myths that everyone seems to follow. I’m a strong believer in educating people about alcohol, so here’s your chance to learn something new and helpful. And remember, please drink responsibly.

Myth 1: Liquor Before Beer

I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve heard my friends warn me that mixing beer with liquor/cocktails is a mistake. And every time I have done that, I have never had a hangover and they always look at me amazed. It never matters whether you drink beer before liquor or liquor before beer. The bottom-line is that you must always watch how much you consume. The more drinks you consume, the more likely you’ll have a hangover. However, “some research does suggest that the body absorbs carbonated drinks, such as a gin and tonic, more quickly than still beverages. It’s also possible that drinking beer over some mixed drinks on an empty stomach might slow your intoxication.”

Myth 2: Drink Responsibly

I don’t understand why people never get this, but excessive drinking is HARMFUL to your health. When your friends tell you that drinking can aid your health, remind them it only does so when you consume alcoholic beverages in moderation. Studies have shown that women who consume one 12 oz. glass of wine a day and men who consume up to 2 12oz. glasses of wine a day can promote healthier bones. If you drink more, you’re setting yourself up for bone loss. The moral is that this St. Patrick’s Day, drink your beverage in moderation.

Myth 3: Cold Coffee & A Cold Shower Help

Whoever said this is just lying right out of their ass. While caffeine could help negate the effects of alcohol, it does not compensate for reaction time. Essentially, alternating a cocktail with coke is not going to keep you alert or even sober you up. What about that cold shower? Alcohol has a bad tendency to act as a depressant. As such, it lowers your body temperature and slows your response time. That’s why you cannot and should not operate any machinery. A cold shower will also reduce your body temperature and if you are drunk, you could go into shock.

How To Sober Up

The person who invents a method to sober up instantly will become one of the richest persons in the world in a matter of minutes. Until then, we have to resort to other remedies. I recommend three different things you could do to alleviate the chances of a hangover. First, when you are done drinking for the night or have had enough, do not drink water. Instead, drink some Gatorade or Powerade. When you drink alcohol, your body loses a variety of nutrients which Gatorade can replenish. Hence, if you go to sleep by having a glass of Gatorade and continue drinking Gatorade when you wake up, you should experience a not-so-bad hangover or none at all. If you don’t have Gatorade/Powerade, eat a banana. One of the nutrients your body loses is potassium and a banana is full of potassium.

Second, eat some food high in protein or carbs. Having food while drinking or before/after drinking can slow the the body’s absorption of alcohol. Try to avoid fatty foods such as McDonald’s or Burger King. Instead, reach for some good chicken or steak if possible. You may also want to try and eat some pasta.

Lastly, if you don’t want a hangover, drink moderately. It is extremely important to know and respect your own limits. Remember, say no when you feel that you can no longer consume any more alcoholic beverages. If your friends encourage you or force you to have more alcohol, maybe you should reconsider them as “friends.” You do not have to drink to have a good time. So enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day parties and drink responsibly.

Source: MSNBC Article

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Leave it to New York City to develop and market a $1000 pizza. This is also the city that invented the world’s most expensive omelette as well. The lavish pizza is created by Nino Selimaj.  So what exactly does a $1000 omelette come with?

he record-priced pie will be topped with creme fraiche, chives, eight ounces of four different kinds of Petrossian caviar, four ounces of thinly sliced Maine lobster tail, salmon roe, and a little bit of spice with wasabi.

I’m not surprised by them adding caviar because that is pretty much the only way to quickly raise the price of any dish. However, this pizza will NOT be cooked. Now how exactly is that a pizza? I always thought that a pizza was supposed to be served warm and cooked throughly. No matter what they say, I still prefer my $6.99 large pizza at Papa John’s.

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I finally got around to updating the “Must Reads” and the Meet Nik pages. If you notice, the Must Reads has been replaced with World of Air. I really have no reason to change the name of the page, but I felt that World of Air is more fitting with the terminology I am using with my blog. If I find that it is harder for people to understand, I may change it to something more obvious.

In the Meet Nik section, I finally added the posts that help you “Learn About Nik”. In case you have not figured it out, Nik is me who is the author behind this extravagant blog. Zaib Kaleem, who did a review of my blog earlier, mentioned that he was expecting some of my posts to be listed under Meet Nik. As such, I finally got around to figuring out what posts needed to be listed where.

So what do you think of some of the subtle changes that I have made? Do you think that “World of Air” is too confusing considering it hosts the more popular posts that I enjoyed writing?

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