Value destroyed

Fortune.com:

Harder to fathom is the MSN TV 2 Player's inability to play music that has been downloaded through a PC from MSN's own Music Store. The Player had no problem with PC-created MP3 files and tunes ripped into the Windows Media Audio format from CDs but choked on music bought from MSN itself. An MSN representative said the incompatibility arises from the digital rights management (DRM) copy-protection system employed by the MSN Music Store to fend off pirates.

For the Fallen

For Remembrance Day, I have a special audioblog. This is Laurence Binyon, reading For The Fallen from the British Library's splendid collection The Spoken Word – Poets

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

BBC MP3s

Tom, our man on the inside at the Beeb:

There's this show on Radio 4 called In Our Time that's concerned with the history of ideas. Each week Melvyn Bragg brings together three guests (serious guests at the top of their fields) and they have a discussion around the major themes. It's kind of awesome if you're interested in science or history... Starting from shortly after last week's episode, now you can download and listen to the whole programme in non-DRM'd, easy to understand, iPod (and other media player) -compatible MP3 format!

Finally my campaign is bearing fruit. Get that In Our Time Electricity episode now.

Counting blogged votes

Having talked about vote links for well over a year now, it was about time someone started counting them, especially with tomorrow being election day in the US, and it might as well be me.
Presenting the Technorati Blogger Vote Count.
Instructions on how to add votes to your blog are there. Note that you can vote for or against each candidate individually.

What's wrong with this picture?

David Weinberger says:

When your wifi card doesn't work under XP, after spending three hours futzing with drivers, I suggest you try this:
Control Panel > Administrative tools > Services. Look for Wireless Zero Configuration. Click on it. If it's stopped, start it. If there's no start or stop button, double click on it and change "Startup type" to "Automatic."
Or you could get a Mac which, because it is a closed environment, tends to be easier to live with.

No David, the Mac is easier to live with because it's designers don't assume they control (or should control) all networking. Stuart, who invented Zero Configuration Networking, would say on seeing that Configuration dialog:

Which part of "zero configuration" did they not understand?