Yawn.
The innertubes are all abother about market share again.
Market share doesn’t matter. Market share is a number you talk about if you don’t know what matters, or if you’re talking to people who don’t know what matters. Sometimes both.
Apple is selling stuff. Lots of stuff.
If you want to see numbers that matter, look HERE.
Everything else is merde de toro, as they say in France.
Bookmark that link and go back to it in about three weeks. That’s what 8% looks like when it’s vertically integrated.
…
I passed my College Statistics class with a 3.4 GPA. I’m six credits from the BS. I just know there’s a joke in there someplace. It would be a cheap shot, though. And at my expense. Moving right along.
Jas made the Dean’s List. 3-3.9s and a 3.7. I feel like such a slacker by comparison. A proud slacker, but a slacker nonetheless.
…
I just downloaded OS X v10.5.4. Bloviation, then installation.
…
You may have noticed this isn’t really going anywhere.
…
The iPhone 3G has visible screws. This is news. Huge news. John Gruber even mentions it. Well, here at Rip Ragged, we don’t just sit on our hands and snivel about these things. You can’t sit on your hands and drink beer at the same time. We contacted our deep-cover Apple operative and found out the real story.
A source very close to California (way closer than Pierre, South Dakota) has informed us that they aren’t screws at all. The screw-head-like devices on the top of the iPhone 3G are actually control knobs. The one on the left is the Vertical Hold. The one on the right is Fine Tuning.
…
DRM reared its ugly head again. This time Rhapsody has announced that it will sell DRM-free tracks that will work on iPods.
At the top of a recent flamewar, MacDailyNews opined that all these companies, the RIAA, and the Rotary Club in Ames, Iowa, are in collusion to break the back of iTMS.
In collusion? That sounds a little harsh.
Apple is in a bunker with a machine gun and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Behind Apple is a sheer cliff. In front is a large, barren, flat patch of ground with miles of clear visibility.
The record companies and the other music services, armed with kitchen utensils and stainless steel flatware, keep charging at the bunker from the same direction with the same strategy. That’s a conspiracy?
This is why I’ve never been much of a conspiracy theorist. In order to make a conspiracy work, you have to have people smart enough to organize and accomplish something and humble enough to not fight over who gets the credit if it succeeds. They’ve succeeded in looking arrogant and stupid, but not at denting Apple’s business. Humility, then, becomes a non-issue by default.
Another key aspect of a successful conspiracy is secrecy. The Rockettes could dance naked at a State Funeral more secretly than the RIAA has conducted their suicidal assault on the iTunes Music Store.
The RIAA has no worries about me accusing them of conspiracy. Stupidity? Greed? Self-flagellation? Okay. Conspiracy to be pompous, stupid, and self-defeating in public isn’t even a misdemeanor offense. It’s funny, that’s all.
…
Dear RIAA
1. Figure out what Apple does that works.
2. Do it better.
3. You win.
The steps can only be accomplished in that order. The alternative is a one-step process:
1. You lose.
Sincerely,
Your Banker
P.S. If you ever materially damage Apple’s business model by unfair trading practices, you’ll be an Apple subsidiary within weeks. Apple could buy EMI and donate it to the Salvation Army for the tax write-off and still have change left over for a couple of chip manufacturers. Just think what their lawyers could do to you. Dumbasses.
…
I think my escargot is still a little nervous about this. Maybe I’ll just have a side of fries instead.
19 responses so far ↓
1 Sarah // Jul 1, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Umm… “merde do toro” would be half French and half something else - possibly Spanish. I think “taureau” is the French work you are looking for. Perhaps “merde do toro” is what they say on the French-Spanish border?
Oh and gratz on your statistical success.
2 digitalcowboy // Jul 1, 2008 at 8:07 pm
You’re so naive, Rip. What difference does it make if Apple is adding a Billion plus to the shareholder equity every quarter?!?!
Huh? Really. What difference?
Most of the pundits say they’re doomed. The majority of paid fools certainly can’t possibly be wrong. It’s a consensus of experts. Just like global warming.
Not only is Apple doomed. We’re all doomed. DOOMED!
Besides that, I saw Castro on Unique Whips tonight installing a “cutting edge Microsoft Zune media system” in two brand new Toyotas. You think he got his own TV show pimping cars for foolish celebrities without knowing the trends?
Apple is DOOMED! DOOMED!
That is all. (For now.)
3 Rip // Jul 1, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Man. I am out of touch. I didn’t even know they had TV in Cuba.
4 Rip // Jul 1, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Oh, and what I meant was “bullshit.” Pardon my French.
5 zacksback // Jul 1, 2008 at 9:19 pm
C’mon,we all know “merde do toro” is Swedish for ‘booger’
(Uncle Rip! DC took all the ‘dooms’ and didn’t fill the jar back up again!)
6 Nxxx // Jul 1, 2008 at 9:33 pm
What happens if someone stands on top of the cliff and drops rocks on Apple?
7 Huh? // Jul 1, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Well, everyone can keep right on selling their mp3 and AAC encoded files… I ain’t buyin’.
Nope. Not gonna do it.
CD quality audio is bad enough. I’m not going to waste my money on an even worse sounding version.
Now, a band with their finger on the future is Nine Inch Nails. Say what you will about their music, they just released their new album online and included as one of the versions, a full set at 96k/24bit. THAT, my friends, is progress.
Oh… did I mention that it was free?
Now, I realize that not everyone has the equipment to play such hi-res audio files, but I do, doggone it. I want to hear what the engineer heard during mixdown. Not some dithered, truncated, compressed facsimile. Give me uncompressed. Give me lossless, even. But… just give it.
Give.
Me.
My.
Music.
I’ll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for putting up with my rant. Looks like someone over there with an armful of rocks wants to use it.
8 Nxxx // Jul 2, 2008 at 12:18 am
Hey Huh?,
You should get out more and listen to live music, not butchered-with-electronic-geegaws.
As I personal favour, if you are willing to meet my first class travel costs and a two week stay in your nearest five star hotel, I will be willing to provide a personal concert for you consisting of
1) One chorus of Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West on Tenor Saxophone in concert F
Major
2) One chorus of Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West on Boehm Flute in concert G Major
and
3) One chorus of Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West on an Akai EWI4000S/Apple GarageBand in any key you like.
Please provide Huh? with smelling salts as he has been overcome by my generosity.
9 Caped Cod // Jul 2, 2008 at 2:50 am
Thank God that have ears that can’t hear the difference between 1.5%, 0.5%, and 0.05% total harmonic distortion. My CD quality music is as good as I need - after 35 years of working in a 60 hz hum. Mp3 is more convenient, but doesn’t sound any different to me.
10 Caped Cod // Jul 2, 2008 at 2:50 am
Thank God that I have ears that can’t hear the difference between 1.5%, 0.5%, and 0.05% total harmonic distortion. My CD quality music is as good as I need - after 35 years of working in a 60 hz hum. Mp3 is more convenient, but doesn’t sound any different to me.
11 Rip // Jul 2, 2008 at 3:33 am
At adequate volumes my ears can tell the difference between Three Dog Night and Leo Sayer. The file format is less crucial than the wattage.
12 Huh? // Jul 2, 2008 at 7:06 am
Why, thank you Nxxx, for the offer. Unfortunately, my travel expense budget is a bit strapped at the moment. It is good to see someone with more… cultured… tastes in music around here, though.
13 Alexandra // Jul 2, 2008 at 7:06 am
Stupid statistics made me graduate with a 3.9 instead of a 4.0.
14 blank // Jul 2, 2008 at 8:43 am
On conspiracies:
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” –Hanlon’s Razor
“But paranoid conspiracy theories are so much fun!” –blank
“Even paranoids have real enemies.” –Delmore Schwartz
On sound quality:
Huh?, your analysis is dead-on, that’s why I only buy iTunes Plus, vinyl, or as a last resort, CDs.
15 zacksback // Jul 2, 2008 at 10:57 am
Enjoy your auditory capabilities while you can. It doesn’t last. Mine is down now to where CD quality is better than the ears. Truly sux.
16 zacksback // Jul 2, 2008 at 10:59 am
errata: “Mine are down……”
(I should probably drink more)
17 Rip // Jul 2, 2008 at 11:56 am
The lack of auditory capability has its advantages.
If you say, “What?” three times, somebody else takes out the trash. It’s a beautiful thing.
18 Huh? // Jul 2, 2008 at 5:03 pm
If I try that, I’ll just be talking to myself, and take the trash out anyway…
19 Nxxx // Jul 2, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Happy Fourth from your UK cousins.
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