A few years ago, I used PureTracks.com for my purchased music, before I owned an iPod. Music on that service was relatively expensive, at $1.29 - $1.49 per track. I paid $14.99 for a whole album on there once.

Once I got an iPod, I turned to iTunes for my purchased music.

So I have a bucket full of PureTracks DRM music on my system that I have not listened to in a long time. I just opened up Windows Media Player to check, and I have not played music using Windows Media Player since March 2005!

Now, for the first time, someone has cracked the Windows Media Player license scheme. It can, as far as I can tell, extract the decryption key from Windows Media Player itself. Once it has that, it can decrypt the music permanently.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=114916

I know this is illegal under the DMCA (copyright circumvention), but I am not American so it does not apply to me. Tonight I decrypted dozens of WMA files, and imported it into iTunes. I can now listen to these songs again, for the first time in 1.5 years.

I usually don't do this. Heck, I still own 100's of MB of songs purchased and locked up under iTunes DRM. But to have one media player, and to listen to songs on my one portable device of choice (iPod) - that has to be my right as a consumer. I cannot fathom a law or a judge that would say that even though I purchased this music, I somehow can't play it on my computer or my music player. It's not stealing - it's Fair Use!

And in an ironic twist: The first time I tried running the program against my WMA files, it failed. So I ran Windows Media Player myself, and tried to play the music, and Windows Media Player said I had to download a mandatory update in order to continue. Once I had done that, FairUse4WM worked! Thank goodness for security updates!

On September 11, 2001, looking at the tragedy that was unfolding live on CNN, I was dumbstruck. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It hadn't occurred to me until that day that this type of terrorism could ever happen - using a plane as a missile. And as each subsequent piece of news trickled in that morning and afternoon, I couldn't believe it could get any worse. Yet with each passing hour it still did.

Of course - I was glued to CNN all day and all night watchnig replay after replay. Every once and a while, some new camcorder video would come in, and you could see the plane hit the tower from another angle. There was the smoke and ash that filled the streets. I think horrific is the only appropriate word for what happened that day...

And here we are 5 years later. And oh how the world has changed.

Anyways, my prayers go out to the 9/11 victims and their families. This really is one of the great tragedies of human history.

A few years back (well, many years now actually)... Microsoft gave me a free copy of Visual Studio 6 Professional Edition for taking and passing a MCSD beta exam.

At the time, I was amazed because I think the software retailed for like $1000. It was like winning $1000 in a lottery - well, not exactly but still... free expensive software.

Nowdays, Microsoft offers their Visual Studio Express products free. I am using Express to assist with a big Open Source development project from home, and it's incredible that it is free. In fact, they may have lost a sale of the retail version of Visual Studio 2005 to me, because I don't need it.

Yesterday I heard that Borland is offering it's Turbo products free - Turbo C#, Turbo Delphi, Turbo C++. Wow again. So if I wasn't using Express already, I would definitely try Turbo C#.

Java people have Eclipse, which I hear is really good. Are there any other really good free development tools out there? Let me know.

Sorry, unconverted.

There are only three circumstances where employees should have the right to unionize:

* Low wage jobs, which I define to be less than $50,000 per year

* High risk jobs, where health and safety needs to be monitored

* Abusive employers, as decided by the Labour Relations Board

I also think employers should be given another weapon to fight a strike. The ability to fire or replace any number of employees without cause with only standard severance.

That is, once your employees are on strike, you can then decide it is a good time to reorganize your work force, letting go some of your least productive workers and hiring some replacements.

So, you go on strike, you risk losing your job because if your employer can find someone better, they will.

If not, you're safe.

Ah, September the 4th. The holiday known as Labour Day up in Canada.

I made the mistake of coming in to work today. I have a big meeting tomorrow that I have to prepare for. But outside my office window a parade is going on. Yes, an actual parade. The unions are parading in celebration. Celebrating what? I don't know. Labour I guess. Celebrating cushy union jobs for life.

The music is nice though. Steel bands. Singers. Thousands and thousands of people marching. I think an hour of this might convert me to their cause.

I've been having a blast with my XBox 360. As you may recall, I bought one a few weeks ago and have been having a great time with it. I've mostly used it to play games - from Need for Speed Most Wanted, to Tiger Woods 06. And I have been enjoying the XBox Live Arcade a lot too - purchased a couple of games from there.

A little while ago I installed Windows Media Center on one of my PC's - mostly because the XP Pro key I have didn't work. I have stacks of official Microsoft XP Pro CD's and no working keys. But Media Center PC has been just as good - even better. Media Center is XP with a PLUS.

Media Center kind-of integrates with the 360. Well, actually, it is supposed to be full integration. My XBox 360 is a media center pc for my living room television. But MCE only runs Windows Media WMV file fornats. Since all of my videos are more compressed than that (DivX mostly), I haven't been able to play streaming videos on my XBox.

Until today.

Today is the day I found VLC360. VLC360 is an ingenious little app that converts DivX and other movie types to Windows Media format ON THE FLY. So, as far as my XBox is concerned, I am playing WMV files. But the files are stored on my computer in DivX or xvid. It's amazing really. The person who came up with this idea and was able to implement it so nicely is a genious, no doubt about it.

If you have an XBox 360, and you have a Media Center PC, get this app. I have a REAL media center now. Wow!

OK, so the prosecutors in Colorado proved me wrong.

I was absolutely sure that they had some other evidence. After investigating this guy for several months, and having him under surveillance in Thailand, they finally decided they had enough to put him away for life. Investigate first, arrest second, right?

Uh, wrong.

Prosecutors decided to take a gamble. Like the "glove" from the OJ Simpson case - "If it don't fit, you must acquit." Sometimes you take a gamble and win, and sometimes you lose.

So, they will attempt to convict this guy on "possessing child porn" from 5 years ago. But prosecutors in California think he might have served most of the jail time already. So he'll be a free man in a matter of weeks.

Oh well. This case will probably never be solved. Another in a long line of unsolved murders.