I might just become addicted to the iTunes Music Store. I bought a couple of albums there this morning, for the first time, and I must say, it’s definitely the most user-friendly and usable music shopping experience on the net. And I’ve built a music shopping e-commerce engine, so I can speak from a bit of experience.

The tight integration with iTunes as a music library management system makes it work so well. The ability to browse, cross-reference, find what you’re looking for or get lost in the mix if you want, is extremely compelling. And at $0.99 a song, it’s very tempting from a spending standpoint. It’s so easy to purchase a track and have it automatically show up in your library a few moments later. There’s really no other way to do this and have it be so right. Buying music in a browser, downloading it, and then having to hunt for it to add to your jukebox and iPod is for the birds. With iTMS, I click the “buy song” button and the next thing I know, it’s on my iPod, ready to go.

Easy. Five Stars. Two thumbs up.

Pixar has ended negotiations with Disney to extend their partnership, and will seek other distribution starting in 2006.

By the way, if you haven’t seen the trailers for The Incredibles and Boundin’, go do it.

Check out PresidentMatch, apparently put on by AOL and Time (wait, aren’t they the same?)… It’s an issue match calculator, which lets you answer questions about how you feel on the issues (social, fiscal, etc.) and it finds the best presidential candidate for you.

I’m pleased to report that I matched 100% with President Bush, and only 31% with Kerry and Dean. Kusinich was down at 11%.

One word of warning: go ahead and answer everything (even though it says you don’t have to)… if you leave “no opinion” on questions, it seems to slant towards Dean. Maybe a bug? Maybe not… If you leave everything “no opinion”, Dean comes out on top, with everyone matching 100% (even Bush). But the results aren’t alphabetical… makes me think the weighting might be a little off.

While it’s nice to see that I agree in principle with President Bush, that doesn’t make me happy about some of the compromises he’s made to get things pushed through, though. Hopefully some of that will turn around in his second term.

So that’s how the left “protects free speech”?

Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean.

…

“I got down low and took his legs out,” said Franken afterwards.

Franken said he’s not backing Dean but merely wanted to protect the right of people to speak freely. “I would have done it if he was a Dean supporter at a Kerry rally,” he said.

So, protecting free speech means physically taking out someone exercising their right to what, speak freely?

“I was a wrestler so I used a wrestling move,” Franken said.

Oh, I get it now.

Astounding. The Associated Press reports:

The school honor roll, a time-honored system for rewarding A students, has become an apparent source of embarrassment for some underachievers.

As a result, all Nashville schools have stopped posting honor rolls, and some are also considering a ban on hanging good work in the hallways — all at the advice of school lawyers.

After a few parents complained their children might be ridiculed for not making the list, Nashville school system lawyers warned that state privacy laws forbid releasing any academic information, good or bad, without permission.

Some schools have since put a stop to academic pep rallies. Others think they may have to cancel spelling bees. Now, schools across the state may follow Nashville’s lead.

Well, let’s go ahead and get rid of grading, too. Might as well remove all homework, since the public school system to a great degree is a babysitting institution now, anyway.

via ToungeTied.

Wow, yesterday was crammed full of activity, and today isn’t much better. We’re exhibiting at LotuSphere 2004 this year, and wouldn’t you know it, we’re not quite ready. I’ve been working on getting things in shape this AM, and now I need to go do some client work to pay the bills.

Marketing is a pain. A necessary pain, but a pain nonetheless.

The Macintosh turns 20 today, having been launched in 1984 via the famous superbowl commercial.

Ran ears for the band over at Bent Tree this evening for a Effective Father’s conference they were hosting. Set went good. Tired.

Here’s a nice new use of RSS: Apple iTunes Music Store RSS Generator

This nifty little tool lets a user build a custom RSS feed for info from the iTunes Music Store. For example, if I want the 25 newest Pop additions, I can get a feed for that and will be updated in by RSS reader when it changes.

What’s better, double-click on the headline in your RSS reader and iTunes pops up, and takes you right to the album in the music store.

Very nice use of the technology.

Mr. Hyatt over at Surfin’ Safari has some interesting things to say about Safari and XML…