Inland Utopia

It was 44.95 in 2008, now it is 46.95. However in 2010 expect your internet service to rise another 2.04 with Time Warner Cable. I am seriously pondering leaving TWC and going to Verizon for my internet services. 39.95 plus 2-3.00 of federal taxes is way better than 50.00 for my internet services.

I hope Time Warner enjoys losing some customers due to this ill-timed price increase. I know companies do need to make a profit, but they need to be tactful in this economic climate.

Emusic.com decided to enter in negotiations to attain the Sony catalogue of songs older than 2 years to their website. In order to pay for the new music they had to cut the number of downloads members can get with their monthly subscriptions. For the 9.99/11.99 subscribers you are not receiving 30 or 40 downloads you are receiving 24 or 30 now, and if you are having any of their expensive plans they got neutered big time which is making many of their big customers who pay for 90 downloads last month and now getting 50 downloads making them reconsider if they should follow thru with renewing their month to month plans.

If you have a yearly plan you will likely be grandfathered until your subscription runs out, then you will get the new pricing afterwards.

Hmmm… I am being downgraded from 40 to 30 downloads now. Will it be worth it?

I used emusic in the past to get into bands such as The Presets and Sparks which helped me get into following these bands by buying their latest releases or attending their shows. However since Emusic decided to increase their prices, it will be naturally up to the consumer to find other quality alternatives to stretch their entertainment dollar. People will not be eager to take risks in new and unheard music acts, which made emusic known for independent music if there is not an incentive for people to take a gamble on these new on the scene or unheard musicians.

I just ran out of downloads and I am looking towards alternatives, amiestreet has a interesting pricing system stuff thats new will be dirt cheap, then cap out to 9.99 or 11.99 based on how many people download the music, so if you buy it when it is just released you will save money in the long run.

Just consider your options, and maybe if emusic encoded their music at 256 instead of 192, maybe the grumbling would subsdie from the customer base.

For the second time in the last year, a slip of the mouse led to me purchasing an unwanted song. I wonder if Amazon makes good money from wayward clicks when you meant to click on something else. I think I am going to unlink my credit cards from Amazon so I do not get billed, how can they debit me if I have no bank accounts configured.

I wish the store had an option for people to confirm the purchase instead of instantly billing and downloading the music. I prefer using a shopping cart because it gives an extra layer of security so I do not end up buying a 169 dollar box set of Depeche Mode music because of the wrong click when you wanted to buy a remix of “I Feel Loved” and not the box set.

I tested out the feature and disabling your credit cards prevents you from clicking on the music on Amazon, so that is a good thing. I finally found the song I REALLY WANTED to buy and now I am prompted to list my credit card if I want to pay for it.

When I renewed my Siteground subscription in 2007 and 2008 it became 83.40, and now for 2009 its becoming 95.40. I understand the cost of doing business is going up, but they should give consideration to their long term customers who have been part of the service for awhile by offering them an opportunity to beat the cost increase by either getting a 2 year subscription at last year’s rate or paying a slight increase instead of the full 12.00 hike in their hosting fees.

The economy is becoming rough for all of us and we all do need to save money. However I do need to consider my options in who would become my hosting provider when my subscription ends. If my web site traffic is not as heavy, then maybe I could afford to get a reasonable hosting provider.

Mylene Farmer has a haunting electro-pop song called Dégénération.

Think of it as a mix between the movie Species and the Fifth element.

The video is displayed below the post.

There is not that much music outside of America right now that is catching my interest, but I will let you all know as time goes on.

Maybe its time to think Equal! We get introduced to two characters from the Equality New Jersey advertising campaign about the pluses and minuses of Marriage and Civil Unions. This advertising campaign is similar to the Apple PC versus Macintosh campaign.

Next ad is about tax filing with our civil unionized woman versus our married woman.

Next one is about the differences in a social atmosphere, which is awkward when you try to explain the constructs of civil unions at a party.

Then lastly the fourth one is called counsel equal, where the two women visit a counselor to discuss their differences.

I was interested in the free album offer used to promote the grand re-opening of the Real/Viacom music store. However when I tried to join they said if you place your credit card on the sign up details, we will subscribe you to Real Superpass which would cost you 13.33 a month if you did not cancel. So I decided to leave out my credit card details.

Also Rhapsody also prides itself on people being able to listen to 25 full length songs for free each month as long as you are a member of the site. When I tried to sign on with my details, I was never able to listen to a full length song.

As what they always say in economics, there is always no such thing as a free lunch. There is also coverage in Betanews explaining how disappointing their service is during its first few days it has been open.

For now, I am staying with itunes and Amazon for my major label online music needs. And if I am interested in imported music I will go with 7digital at least.

If you want to try something adventurous and independent, I also recommend emusic.com. I have been a member for two months and downloaded quality music from Cut Copy, Sparks, The Presets and Thom Yorke. There will be a link on my site about emusic.com, if you find their selection good join up today.

Mitt Romney’s candidacy took a major hit following the discovery of statements he made a decade ago that imply he isn’t sickened by gays.

Mitt Romney Defends Himself Against Allegations Of Tolerance

    I am a big enthusiast for trying out new software for my computer. After Internet Explorer’s reputation for being insecure and resource consuming, I have been using Firefox and Opera regularly for my Internet travels. Apple has recently released their preview edition of Safari for Windows XP and Vista and it seems useful for people who do not want any extra bells and whistles in their web browsing travels.When I am visiting web sites, I just want a browser that consumes less system resources and does not cause other tasks to hang in the process. The best feature in Safari is its feed reader, which rivals Firefox’s feed reader when its only read like a list of bookmarks. Another notable feature in Safari is the go back feature, so you can return to where you came from if the browser or the website redirected you somewhere else.

    Safari is a simple browser, that brings the minimalist ethos of Apple to the masses. My sister does own an Apple computer and she uses the browser because it gets the job done. If you are a technologist you may want to stick with Firefox and its hundred’s of extensions you can utilize to customize your browser.

Although being a beta product, Safari may end up becoming Number 3 in the browser market for Windows computer users.