That's what this proposed iPod tax in the UK amounts to. The official line of bullshit is that the ability to copy CDs into digital formats (they call it "format shifting") represents a "value" for which the record companies are not being adequately compensated.

The reality, however, is simply that these dirty scumbag musicians and their filthy swindler record companies figure they don't have enough money already so they want to take a slice of the money I'm getting for my iPods. As if they have anything to do with the design and manufacture of iPods. No. Of course they don't. We design them. We write the software. We run the store. We source the parts and manufacture the iPods and sell them. Nonetheless these assholes want my money because people play their music on my devices. What up with that? Do the makers of TV shows go around saying they want a slice of every television that gets sold?

Thank God the hacks have been utterly dismissive of this ridiculous proposal by the UK music business. Their counterparts in the States just report stuff like this with a straight face, as if maybe it makes sense. Not so the Brits who just spew contempt. My fave is this guy in the Torygraph who says if you're going to tax people for "format shifting" then why not tax them for other things, like the ability to carry a CD out to your car, or to your living room, or the ability to open your patio doors and listen to music outside, or the ability to press "pause" button or even the ability to hear music better if you clean wax from your ears (ie "wax shifting")?

God, I love the Brits. I really do.

In an apparent attempt to lessen its reliance on Microsoft Windows, IBM has launched an internal pilot program designed to support employees who decide to switch to the Mac platform, according to Roughly Drafted. The pilot program ran from October 2007 through January 2008 and distributed 24 MacBook Pros to researchers at different sites within IBM...

A PC-versus-Mac shootout by Popular Mechanics scores the Mac way ahead in both price and performance. PopMech compared desktops and laptops, and not only did the Macs run rings around their Windows counterparts, they were cheaper to boot. The conclusion:

Our biggest surprise, however, was that PCs were not the relative bargains we expected them to be. The Asus M51sr costs the same as a MacBook, while the Gateway One actually costs $300 more than an iMac. That means for the price of the Gateway you could buy an iMac, boost its hard drive to match the Gateway’s, purchase a copy of Vista to boot—and still save $100.

My, how times have changed. A few years ago, the conventional wisdom was the opposite: PCs were cheaper and faster.

Somehow though, I don’t think conventional wisdom will change. Macs will always be regarded as premium computers — thanks to their fab design and quality fit and finish — even if that’s not actually true.