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Well two really. Two complaints.
One is, we bought this Samsung Syncmaster 997df CRT Monitor a couple of years back. Yes, I feared Samsung and, of course, wanted something fancy like a NEC or somesuch (I don’t really like the looks of LCD screens)… But we were swayed. We were swayed by two factors…
1) it was the cheapest 20″ (or something) monitor they had that wasn’t total crud and
2) it actually seemed to have a really nice picture…
So after all this time? What can I say? Well the picture is great! It is bright and richly colored and it’s never had the slightest problem!
The problem is the other monitors out there! I have this blog colored oh so very nicely in black and shades of gray… The screen shots are well colored, deep and rich. but when I go elsewhere (usually work) and view it, the dark pictures are so dark as to be indistinct and the headers and darker gray text is nearly invisible. And at work, we have generally nice monitors… big new NEC’s and all that. Anyway, I’m trying to brighten up the text, but it’s hard, because it looks so nice at home… Which, of course, is where I do this.
Complaint number two? This week I started listening to my pal Jon’s college radio show. I know… And (You’re thinking…). Well, the college that he works at is in New Zealand, so it’s been my first experience with Internet Radio, since I listen to it here at MUNTFM. In a strange timing situation, the next day I read about this atrocity, another horrible example of corporate greed and (yes) fraud and their government lap dogs…
The RIAA managed to scam through some (one would assume) corrupt judges with their heads stuck back in the 1950’s, a law requiring internet radio to pay more royalties than regular radio stations but also, and this is the killer part, also pay royalties to the RIAA for music that isn’t controlled by the RIAA. In other words, all music streamed over the internet radio stations will need to pay high royalty rates to the RIAA, no matter what the music is or who owns the rights to it. Of course, this is so absurd that it almost defies comment. It brings back memories of when they shut down mp3.com on some trumped up “piracy” charge when any one who spent time there knew that most of the music up there was placed there by the artists themselves and most never had any form of commercial release. Hopefully their next step will be admitting that they just can’t stand anyone listening to music or making music or making money from music without them getting the lion’s share of the money. I wonder if you would be sued by the RIAA if you made an original song and broadcasted it from your own website?
Anyway, enough from me. More and better opinions and details are available at:
Of course, Wil Wheaton at SuicideGirls
And