SOTU, florida, qtrax and my dog: predictions

big day today. let's see what's on tap, and my predictions.

1. Our Glorious Leader's FINAL state of the union thankfuckinggod. lemme guess -- the union is FINE and soze the economy. here's $600 to prove it -- but make sure you SPEND it quick. using it to pay down your credit card debt is un-american.

2. florida GOP primaries. will the giuliani faithful emerge from their foxholes and deliver their man to victory? my magic 8-ball says Cannot Predict Now, demonstrating that it is more even-handed and candid than your average media organisation.

here's one more reason to like rudy, though: tamper-proof ID cards that will allow you to "work, pay taxes, GET ONLINE, become a citizen, follow the rules..."



art is resistance, friends.

3. Qtrax, the record industry's answer to illegal downloading, goes live at midnite (for Windoze; macs wait 'til march). in the works for 5 years, qtrax is a gnutella-based peer-to-peer app that allows you to legally and for free download from a library of 25M songs. with the blessing of EMI, universal & warner, qtrax ponied up $30M USD to launch the site and hopes to run a profitable biz off selling adspace to the likes of ford, mcdonalds and microsoft. while supporting artists, of course.

prediction? i don't know, but i suspect the 10M users who patronise pirate bay aren't going to convert in droves, and qtrax's centralised, locked-down solution doesn't seem to address the new one-to-one relationship between artists and their fans. the radiohead and saul williams business model is much more fitting but admittedly risky insofar as it assumes people have the basic decency, and means, to support the artists they enjoy.

here's the qtrax deal-breaker for me:

Automatic updates and downloads
You agree that in order for QTRAX/QTRAXMAX to work properly, QTRAX/QTRAXMAX will from time to time automatically download updates to your computer in order to update the QTRAX/QTRAXMAX software. You hereby irrevocably consent to allow such automatic updates to take place.
(from the legal disclaimer)

here in the united states of amerika we don't "irrevocably consent" to anything, much less third-party control over our computurz.

4. afternoon run with the J-dog. my predictions? - he will wheel 360s in the air when i don my inov-8s and murmur "yessss"; he will bark like a maniac for the first 5min, poop out around 5miles and take a shortcut to cut out the final 200m right before the stream crossing. at 7pm D will wonder 'where is the dog?' and find him in my laundry basket where he will sleep through the State of the Union and polling countdown as, hopefully, will i.

UPDATE:
Free music downloads site in chaos as record giants pull out: Warner Music said it had not authorised the use of its tracks by Qtrax - and later Universal Music Group and EMI followed suit, saying they did not have licensing deals with Qtrax and discussions were continuing.

oops. who didn't get around to ironing out that little detail?