Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Pirates!
I changed the music file just a few days ago. In all honesty I sometimes wonder if anyone even notices, or if CONSUMED is one of those sites where you hit the Escape key just after all the words have loaded in order to spare yourself the assault on the eardrums. But then again I suppose there definitely are people like that, and it doesn't bother me at all, since I'm happy enough to find songs I like; I have no reason to be unhappy just because people don't like the songs I like. Yeah, that's something new I have come to realise, though unfortunately rather late in my life: that my life does not exist for other people, but for myself. All that after reading the "last" post on EMJEM, no less (and I'm somewhat devastated that EMJEM is no more; there goes another source of intellectual stimulation).
I am currently going through one of those phases; it's a Gundam Seed phase, and I am absolutely nuts about everything Gundam Seed, which is yet again another one of those things that I come to acquire somewhat late in its natural progression. Which means that I only start going mad about it when everyone else has gone mad about it and left it behind. But better late than never, I suppose, and I hardly regret coming to love the wonderful anime so late, because it's superb. The song is one of the numerous nice songs on the soundtrack, called Akatsuki no Kuruma, or Carriage of Dawn. Unfortunately that makes me think of microbiology, which is not particularly appealing, but it's a very nice song, so do take some time to listen and appreciate, though the quality is a little poor. More great numbers from the soundtrack will appear on this site regularly, so do look out for them if you're a Gundam Seed fan, like me.
And yeah, I realise, rather belatedly, that I'm going to go crazy about Gundam Seed Destiny later than anyone else, too.
To those people who wonder why I'm so chirpy even though the new IP laws are up and running, I will tell them I am still happily downloading anime, because, according to an article in the papers yesterday, "the man in the street who downloads a few pirated items will not be a target under this law". I know it's debatable how much "few" means, but I certainly don't download "hundreds of pirated files", just some anime fansubs which can hardly be in large enough quantity to run afoul of the law (Yeah I'm trying really hard to reassure myself here, please don't say otherwise and spoil my mood ^_^). Luckily for me I don't look to the Internet for movies and music because I don't normally take too much interest in movies and music anyway. Except for anime soundtracks, I almost never download music anymore. Other than that I'm only really crazy about Ayumi Hamasaki, and I buy all her albums. Her latest album, My Story, is fantastic, and it comes with a bonus DVD too, all at the amazingly reasonable price of S$18.90. How nice.
And really, I don't quite understand why, if music companies can sell music albums at less than twenty dollars, that software developers can't sell computer games at more reasonable prices? Years ago we used to buy original software for the perks that such purchases provided, such as a pretty box and the manual that won't come with the pirated version, but nowadays the boxes are getting smaller and the manuals are coming in electronic versions, and whatever the companies do to protect their software from being pirated, the pirates are able to circumvent those measures and stay a step ahead, except when the game involves online game-play and registration. So in what way is buying pirated software considerably worse than buying original versions, except the fact that you are not giving the credit where it's due?
I'm not saying that piracy is good, or in any way right, but we have to be realistic and look at the problem from a consumer's point of view, and understand that the consumer's choice is always influenced by the cost of the product, especially when the price difference is ten times or more. I say, cut software prices, and pirates will run out of business. There's no reason why we have to pay so much, and I don't think the amount of money that goes into development of computer games is many times greater than the amount that goes into the production of a music album like Ayumi Hamasaki's, so I still don't see the rationale for killing the consumer's pocket.
CONSUMED. The friendly webblog that is always bringing you viewpoints from the consumer's perspective, heh.
For all that I tend to dislike modern handphones for their being filled with functions that you won't use half the number of in any lifetime, I find myself being rather trigger-happy with the digital camera affixed to my new phone. The only catch is that the pictures have horridly low resolutions, so the camera is not particularly useful. I should really get a proper digital camera. As you can observe I'm perenially running several miles behind the crest of advancing technology and other trends, but yeah, I don't have a camera as yet. By the time I get one they might have gotten a 4 megapixel camera into the handphone already.
Call me a techno-dino but one of the things about my phone that irks me greatly is that every time I want to reply to a message I have to select 'Reply', then whether I want a 'Text message', 'Multimedia message', 'Picture message', etcetera, then after I select 'Text message' I have to select whether to begin with an 'Empty message' or with a 'Template', 'Yes', 'No', etcetera, before I can finally type the message. And I often forget myself and start typing the message before I get to the message window so I end up exiting to the main screen and having to go through all the bother again. I have to try very hard not to scream in frustration in public places. And after losing my phone once I'm extra paranoid and the other problem is that my phone is so imperceptibly light compared to my previous one that a million times every day I think it's not in my pocket and get a small heart attack before assuring myself that yes, it's still in my pocket. All this trouble for $200, why do I think it's not worth it?
P.S. If you don't quite realise the purpose of this long inane post it's to allow you to listen to the music file while you read it, so if you haven't, then, erm, never mind. I can only try so much *grin* No la I'm just joking. It doesn't matter. Seriously.
Avaris / 1/04/2005 08:49:00 PM
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