When you get a chance, you should take a look at my friend Erick Eidus’s ramblings. He’s an interesting character, full of off-beat observations about life. We share a love of Seinfeld & mobile phone software.

I used to take Claritin-D for my hay fever. An aside: I switched to Sudafed because I realized that the decongestant was all that I needed, and the loratadine was useless.

Problem is, the decongestant (pseudoephedrine) keeps me awake.

Now, Claritin-D comes in a 12-hour and 24-hour version. I can’t take the 24-hour because then I’ll be up all night & zombified the next day. But at the same time, I’m a normal human so I am awake for 16 hours a day; hence if I take the 12-hour medicine, I’m sniffing & congested for 4 hours a day. Why can’t I buy a 16-hour medicine?

So now, I take Sudafed, which comes in 3-hour increments. But that’s less convenient…

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Music services: Kazaa vs. the paid services

Paid music services are multiplying like rabbits. There’s y! music, napster to go, rhapsody, Apple iTunes, etc. Wireless carriers are also joining in the game.

Question is, how do they compare with Kazaa and similar P2P services?

Pros for Kazaa

• Free
• Widest selection
• Availability of music is not limited by composer, performer, and record label restrictions. e.g. The copyright holder of the Beatles catalog still refuses to make their songs available on legal services, but the songs ARE available on Kazaa for free. Funny how the world works.
  
• Bootlegs and rarities
  
• Pre-release CDs. This is huge; often times, a CD’s tracks become available a month before the official release. One artist did a free concert at his CD release party; he noticed that most of the fans already knew all the words to his songs!
• Users can do whatever they want with the music. They can put the songs on any PC or portable music player or car MP3 player. Music is fully owned.

Cons for Kazaa

• Searching for music is still cumbersome.
• You often get a ton of duplicates.
• The RIAA has contracted with several companies to flood the P2P networks with fake MP3s. When these are downloaded, you often hear part of the song and then noise or silence.
• If you want a full album, you have to figure out the individual tracks & get them.
• Even though Kazaa generally has a wider selection, from time to time it’s hard to find a particular track on Kazaa that’s readily available on a paid service.
• Downloading is usually faster from a paid service.
• No way to compensate the artists. Though you can try to buy the T-shirts & go to the concerts.