One thing I've never understood is why Apple doesn't offer a subscription service as an option in iTunes. It could just be a DRM issue, where the changes to the protected AAC format, and potentially the iPod software, would be too much of a hassle. I doubt it, though - I think Apple has the technological savvy to get it done if they want to.
I wish they would. I'd love, for instance, to pay $15 a month and be able to listen to anything in the iTunes music store . . . as long as I'd be able to download & keep a song for every dollar spent, if I wanted to cancel the subscription. As I see it, everybody wins - Apple gets the steady revenue stream of knowing I'll "buy" at least $15 of music a month, and I get to explore the entire catalog, and more easily find new music. posted by Miles 10:30 AM
Sometimes I could swear there's a pattern in my data. Not in any one experiment, but across all of them. You know how, in an ideal world, every experiment is done double-blind to guard against experimenter bias creeping into the data? Well, it's like that, except the exact opposite: it feels like every experiment I run produces the result I least expected. That's not the reality, of course; if I step back and examine this one series of studies that's confounding me at the moment, I'm about 3 for 6. In part, it's just that the unexpected results hit me harder. Still, 3 for 6 feels kind of lousy. Fundamentally, (theoretically?) all data is good data, and when the data tells you to modify your theory, you modify your theory, and get closer to the truth. But if you go 3 for 6, that means you've modified your theory 3 times, and you start questioning whether you're making progress, or just stupidly meandering around in theoretical circles.
Much of the time, I love science.
Today, science has stamped "return to sender" on my metaphorical valentine.
Arrest This Man, He Talks In Maths 
Thursday, February 16, 2006