more on CDs...

When I was a little girl, my parents had most audio tapes and CDs were brand new. I wanted to start collecting my favorite music, and I had to make a choice: tape or CD. I decided that I wanted something that (while more expensive) would last me a lot longer. I still have all those same CDs today. I had about a hundred then. I have almost two hundred now. I don't remember when exactly I bought my first Mannheim Steamroller CD, but it was something on the order of 1994, so I've had nearly a decade to collect them. If I only bought some 20 disks a year... do the math. I recently started playing American McGee's Alice, so I bought the soundtrack from Amazon.com. I don't like to pay over $15 a CD, and this one was listed as under, though when you add in S/H it comes to about $17.

Anyway, the link for that article yesterday broke after they rotated the columns, so here's the link to the SF gate article again, hopefully working better now.

Registering Software Vs. Pure Greed

A friend and me were going to do some online gaming, and the server the game used was Gamespy. To use the server, you have to register, supplying your real name, birthdate, home address, and email address. That's fine. I can (just barely) tolerate that. In order to play the game you need a file. The file is located on another server - Fileplanet.com - which you have to surscribe to for $7 a month. At that point I drew the line - there's no way.

Okay, I spend the money to buy a game (like Command & Conquer) and now I need to pay more money to play it? This is like Everquest (Evercrack) or Ashryn's call or something. There has to be a point in whcih I draw the line. I don't subscribe to play a game, and I don't pay two different people to play the same game.

I'm not a total creep, I pay for software, and register shareware versions if I feel they work well. But there are points I just have to draw the line. No way man. I paid for my copy of the game, now bugger off.