Brett points out a potential temporal anomaly in…

Brett points out a potential temporal anomaly in my earlier NC rant. I checked the elapsed time meter on my mp3 player - it only read 30 minutes. It felt like a lot more. Apparently the first 10 minutes of the call weren't recorded as Ellen Shankman (I believe) indicates around this time that they've wasted the last 40 minutes. Anyways, that wasn't the real purpose of this post anyways. In chatting with Brett about his MD problems, I suggested that he look into getting a used Nomad Jukebox to replace his Sony. A quick Google search indicated that they weren't quite as cheap as I had suggested, but also pointed to some great software that breathes new IP-enabled life into this IP-friendly (read: not broken) device. I can't wait to get this installed and start playing with it. Part of my adversion to the record companies lies with the fact that every single CD I own has been ripped out to MP3 so that I can play with my bits (don't go there) as I see fit. The actual CD's have basically become nothing more than expensive back-ups for my MP3 collection. NotMad now lets me *use* my CD collection anywhere I find a web-browser. Neat. What's really neat is that it perfectly illustrates the latent value that accrues to companies like Creative because they are open and the specific harm that accrues to company's like Sony because they are purposely closed.