Self-publishing books used to have a bad reputation. That has changed a little bit over the past couple of years, but there definitely is the sense that people who get published "for real" must be better writers, and certainly have more cred. I decided to self-publish my novels for a number of reasons, after long consideration and contemplation. These reasons are both philosophical as well as deeply personal.

I admit it - I never read those long legalese agreements on software or websites. It's just too much of a pain. Well, it might be time to read them.

As you might know, everyone is trying to get into the movie downloading business. Apple just released iTunes 7, with the iTunes store that has movies. And Amazon launched "Unbox" - it's own movie downloading service.

I am someone who tends to think that conspiracy theories are sometimes just silly, and generally, gross oversimplifications of a very complex reality. A couple of stories from EFF that came across my e-desk that have made me think up my own conspiracy theory, and it's not pretty. Here's the basic information.

I've talked about the idiotic antics of record companies before. There is the Sony DRM fiasco, the censoring of mashup albums, and now, they are stifling innovation by scaring software developers.

I imagine by now, you've heard about the Sony Music CD brou-ha-ha. In the interest of laying it all out for those who might not have heard details, and explain why you should care, try my hand at providing an explanation. In addition, this serves my not-so-noble purpose of procrastinating from reading the Gospel of Mark for tomorrow.

I came across this website pretty much by accident. As I mentioned a while ago, in one of my old blog posts on intellectual property, there is a nascent movement of musicians and the like, trying to create an alternative to the recording industry. I found another website that is part of this, but unlike the other sites, this site has a broad range of genres.