Cool Mac Gear

First they fire the redheads
Yeah, I'm mad. I'm also cynically befuddled that more writers in this so-called Mac community haven't stood up to raise a fist for Henry Norr. I have to figure that it's due to people being young (history-disadvantaged) and scared (of thinking different, losing advertisers, etc.), and that's the charitable excuse. Astoundingly, it seems not to have occurred to everyone that the next poor slobs on the unemployment rosters could well be US if someone doesn't like the way we talk, the churches we go to, or the countries that our daddies come from. This ain't no disco, this ain't no time card, this ain't no foolin' around.

To whomp a stiffening equine corpse, technology writer Norr was canned because his bosses didn't like his views, and so far they're getting away with it. I'm not debating who filled what out how because that's not the issue, just the pretext. Some of you -- a tiny minority of my correspondents, Zoroaster be praised -- are quick to jump on Norr for how you think you know he marked his time card to account for being in the pokey, a venue that most certainly found him depressed, upset. and sore (sick, maybe?). The same minority that questions Norr's integrity finds nothing wrong with the San Francisco Chronicle's missing managerial WMDs, of course. (With a "hoo!" and a "hah!" and a "hey-nonny-nonny ding-dong," say I.)

It all seems so bizarre, like appointing monitors from our own ranks to make sure we stand up straight while marching to the ovens. "They're taking away all our rights," he gurgled with the jackboot on his neck. Who dey? All who in the name of fighting crime, defending our ideals, and saving the economy do just the opposite at the expense of those with little power. Do you realize what's at stake when we accept that it's all right to punish some because of how they vote (in effect)? "Hey, it's okay to bash the French, so what's the beef?" Oops, you're right. Well guess what? Suppose I hit the lottery, buy myself a paper, then fire everyone who wears a flag pin on his lapel. Maybe by then I won't even have to say they took a pencil home or stole a stamp. Whatchoo gonna do then?

Don't forget to build computers, guys
[NOTE: The Monday Apple press releases about the iTunes Music Store and the new iPods are live at Applelinks!] So Apple's in the music biz. That's great! No, really. It's a wonderful thing. I seriously think this is a very good gig for Apple and and it's bound to raise your pulse. Unfortunately, I also think the music business is a poor excuse for fun and that Apple's gonna catch a wad o' slop along the way. It's the digital copyright mess, you see, and history is relevant in this case too.

Before there were people who saw a way to make money off something as simple and human and pleasurable as singing (teaching, playing, copying) someone else a song, music was culture and belonged to everyone. Parents would sing lullabies to their children. A guy would sit down with a guitar and show another how to play the blues. If you bought a record, you could make a tape and give it to your girlfriend. There was money to be made, all right. Just ask Elvis, if you can find him, though Colonel Parker got the keys to the vault. The point is that music -- like food, good stories, hairstyles, and the way you danced on Friday night -- spread out among the people through whatever means they had at their disposal . The singers, musicians, band leaders, club owners, managers, and the kids who shined their shoes all got paid in one way or another and the beat went on.

Now we have a different situation altogether. Not only are our shoes unshiny, but money-sucking Hollywood ghouls and their Congressional co-conspirators have manufactured something out of nothing and put the power of the government behind an apparatus to make us pay for, well, nothing, really. You buy a piece of plastic with some copyrighted songs (so far so good), but you also have to pay for not being able to listen to them the way you'd like. To put it all another way, you buy the music and suffer the practical price of suppressed convenience, all this nonsense and waste ostensibly purposed to prevent you from building an international criminal empire to suck the blood from honest, hardworking CEOs. "Hey, wait a minute!" You're damn right.

Here comes the wad
Now Steve Jobs ain't no fool. He knows all this and so do you, most likely. He also really loves the music. This has always been obvious to me and goes a long way toward mitigating all those nasty bedside manner stories in my book, but then I'm biased in favor of sunny skies, rock & roll, and Macintosh computers. Until he steps on me and makes me cry, I'm all for anything the Apple CEO is personally pumped about and this thing has to count for one of those. The problem is, he has to compromise.

No one has the details yet, as this is written, but what I have heard makes me queasy. By the time you read this we'll all know how much Apple had to give away to get the other companies on board. The only thing I know for sure is that the service will be slick as sucking noodles up your nose for buying songs and getting them into your iPod or Mac. It's what'll happen next that everyone will fuss about to some degree, even if the Apple folks have given everything the gloss and shine we all expect. At least it's them (so far) and not Microsoft (bow your heads tonight to pray for continued obstinance and cultural disconnect in the brontosaurus pens of Redmond).

Interesting, the way I've talked about a thing I won't be using soon. People in the business seem to think we're all on broadband, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of you who read this stuff are pulling in the packets faster than my dialup AirPort modem. Okay for you then, but I can't spare the bandwidth to download music and still get all my work done. If I ever revert to a life of semi-leisure like I once enjoyed when my dear sweetie worked her body to the bone, why then we'll see. I definitely like the idea of buying single songs. Some of us who love the music too remember when that was the only way we could, in fact. So tell me, Steve-babes:

Is there gonna be a "B" side?

Senior Applelinks editor and columnist John H. Farr is delighted to hear from one and all, generally speaking.

And by the way, Applelinks reader Steve Consilvio has alerted us to his version of what he says constitutes a meaningful and effective business plan for Apple. Linked here with no endorsement implied, you can find it at his new Weblog if you scroll down far enough: www.behappyandfree.com. (There. I said I'd give ya a link and so I did. You know where to send the check.)

Buy cool stuff right here:

Like pictures of el Norte?

Salon Weblog: all new stories!

(Hey, read this too. Cool images! "What It Is About El Rito,")

Cool Mac Gear