First impression of XM: not impressed

For those who haven't heard of XM, it's one of the 2 satellite radio providers in US (the other is Sirius) I have been very enthusiastic about such service ever since they emerge few years ago. Why? As you know, I'm a music junkie, who wants to listen to good music any time any where. If satellite radio is anything like satellite TV, it is going to provide far superior programming than its "free-over-the-air" counterpart. And it's going to catch on like a fire (or should I say, like WWW?)

Apparently I was wrong. I don't know of any of my friends interested in sat radio (let alone subscribed) Spending ~$100 on equipments and calling them for subscription is just too much trouble for me to try out the service. Finally, XM is going online and offering 3-day free trial. I can't wait to experience satellite radio for the very first time!

First of all, there are several problems I found with their online service:
- their audio streams contain lots of audio artifacts like pops and clicks. The most weird one sounds as if there are 2 sets of speakers positioned slightly differently and it's playing set A then suddenly switch to set B. (This analogy is the best I could describe it)
- songs are chopped off in the middle of playing. Then it repeats the same song again!
- poor UI (forcing me to use IE and PC is the least of my complaint!) It looks fancy for sure but that "floating" display of the current channel and song actually obstructs navigation up and down the channel list. And some real bugs like showing wrong song title appear quite often.

I'm sure these are technical glitches that should go away as XM fine tunes the service. However, I see bigger problem with their programming. Note this is kinda subjective as I focus on music channels and for 3 genre only: jazz, classical and rock. With multiple channels for each genre, I was expecting more modern music, not talking about extremely avant garde stuff, but more like Ornette Coleman, Shostakovich, Bartok since they could have dedicated some channels to mainstream/old school/more commercial stuff. Unfortunately, I don't see them taking advantage of the extra channels. Their choices of jazz and classical music sound too bland to me, no superior to the free local stations here (KCSM and KDFC.) They don't seem to have an extensive playlist either. And I saw too many tunes coming from compilation albums titled "XYZ, Vol. N" This can't be a good sign as I value the effort of DJ putting into playlist and see that as a potential advantage over those computer programmed (or simply shuffle?) stations (e.g. Yahoo Launch!) and those you-pick-what-you-want online music service (e.g. Rhapsody)

On the plus side, XM plays a good variety of heavy music: Liquid Metal plays the latest stuff. Bone Yard focuses on old school metal/rock (heavier than your everyday classic rock stations on the air.) And Squizz specializes in Nu-Metal (e.g. Korn, Linkin Park)

I guess my listening "profile" probably doesn't fit XM's main target audience too well. (Check out forums for jazz on XM: I don't see much complaint about lack of modern jazz. I do see comments on too much vocal in the main jazz channel, which I agree.) Nevertheless, I am certainly happy to see more competitions in the radio business. Maybe someday there will be one that get me hooked. In the mean time, I will stick with Digitall Imported and Radioio (whose jazz and classical programming is more appealing to me. And it's free!)

Fighting the Power

[Note: I have been editing this article for a while. It ended up sounding like the Sequel to my article above. This is yet another sad story about how rich people do whatever they want to get richer.]

See Fighting the Power Basically it's about investors spotting undervalued stations, buy them then improve the signal strength and rating, and sell quickly for profit.

One of these station is the Bay Area station 92.7. It was renamed to Power when it was bought. The investors pitched the ideal of creating a station for the local hip-hop community. That gave the local listeners high hopes. Unfortunately, their hopes were dashed when Power was sold quickly (and turned into a dance station after) Not only the listeners suffered, but also the ones who quit their previous radio station jobs to join Power for the ideal.

Monopoly one, meet monopoly two

You know I have never been happy about the music business being controlled by big record companies and big retailers. Well, finally something good come out of this: Wal-Mart Squeezing Record Labels to Cut CD Prices I like this line: "Monopoly one, meet monopoly two." (And if you're interested in arguments for and against capitalism/big corporations, check out the lengthy responses below that article.)

Travellers beware of rip-off

This gives a new meaning to rip-off. In preparation for an upcoming trip, I was told that locks on my luggages may get destroyed (literally ripped off!) by airport security (TSA) if somehow they think there are things suspicious in them.

So the advice from TSA is to get one of those TSA approved locks, so called Travel Sentry Certified locks.

You know what I found? Stories about such locks are destroyed by TSA personnel even though they are supposed to have keys to unlock them. Even worse, sometimes they break the zipper in addition to the lock on a soft case and render the case useless. (See the story from Seattle Times)

To be honest, I don't mind all these extra security measures. After all, it's for our own safety. However, the authority must follow procedures instead of acting like they could do whatever they like.

These travel sentry locks are sold for more than double the price of the normal ones. Now you tell me this is rip-off or not.

Cheney couldn't differentiate between .com and .org

This Vice President didn't invent internet. No wonder. See Cheney Blunder Lauded Anti-Bush Web Site

Mr. Ballmer, you went toooooo far

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, made a comment to an exclusive group of UK journalists in London that the most common format of music on an iPod is "stolen".

This is a really cheap shot and an insult to all iPod users. (For the record, the most common source of music on my iPod comes from CDs I paid for with my hard-earned cash!) Mr. Ballmer: where is your survey?

Please read Ballmer's iPod slur memory lapse for more details (and some good quotes of responses from readers)

Biology = next Computer Science?

Check out what Bill Gates said to students at UC Berkeley: Two Words from Bill Gates: Computer Science

Despite the title of the message, I think the real message from Bill Gates is that biology will be like computer science in the near future. That is, the booming bio technology industry will blossom and thus you will see a lot of job growth and money in that area.

Well, if biology is anything like computer science, it also mean its jobs will be offshored soon after the boom. So, don't think job security yet. (If you wanna be trained for local jobs, you'd better think optometrist, dental hygienist, plumber or locksmith.)