The USS Quad Damage

Never have I been more embarrassed to be in my age group. On insight tonight, they got a bunch of Gen Yers from Moreton to talk about politics. They were idiotic, didn’t know or care about what they were talking about, and wouldn’t have their minds swayed (or would have their minds swayed but wouldn’t know why). I’ll link the transcript when they have it available. The terrible thing about it really was that neither party’s policies were discussed much at all. I decided I’d look things up on the respective Labor and Liberal websites.

The labor website is nice enough, with the very first thing I see their key selling points. The list here’s pretty much cut-and-paste:

• Education revolution – Presumably more money in schools, TAFE, and Unis. No amount though;
• National plan to fix our hospitals – $2 billion;
• Decisive action on climate change – Ratify Kyoto, set targets, etc.;
• Balance and fairness in the workplace – Remove WorkChoices + AWAs. Add “sequins” for small businesses;
• Maintaining our national security – Phased withdrawal of troops; and
• A strong economy that delivers for working families – Keep surplus, try and improve housing affordability.

The liberal website has a lot of video on it, and a lot of it is pretty irrelevant. I don’t care what other Australians think of Liberal, I want what you’re actually going to do. Eventually I got to a fluffy page which talked more about the past than the future. Unfortunately, I can’t cut-and-paste here:

• …nfi.

Yeah I really couldn’t actually pick any policies, despite all the shit videos they have flying around, and the stuff Howard puts on that page, there’s no actual things he’s going to do. I think the plan is that they’ll put this stuff on the page later, but it’s not there now.

Now, everyone knows you’re not voting for a party, or a leader. You’re voting for a dude who represents you in federal parliament (lower house), and another dude who represents you in the senate. My federal member is Brendan Nelson for the libs or Victoria Brookman. At first sight, Nelson’s page is a lot more flash, with talk about what his dad said to him when he was a kid.

Nelson is a doctor, which makes him smart, but also a prick. The site also notes that random stuff is being done in Bradfield. The area is a very safe liberal seat (17.6%), and Brendan Nelson (Minister for Defense) has held the seat since ‘96 (when Howard got elected). Bradfield is one of the most affluent electorates in Australia. Basically, the guy reminds me of Matt Damon’s character in The Departed. I’d also like to take this time to say “Matt Damon”.

As a result, the labor candidate for Bradfield is pretty weak. She’s a 22 year old activist doing Psychology. So I’m wondering whether to vote for her considering she’s in a similar position to a certain commissar friend of mine. I’m afraid my vote’s going to waste either way. Clearly having a marginal seat gives you tons of free shit. Bradfield is dumb-arsed for not realising this. The greens member is a software designer (whatever that means). It even has her mobile number. Sweet. I guess I’ll vote for her.

Anyway, coming back to the Australia-wide debate, I have some concerns…

Concerns about Labor:

• Kevin Rudd is a pussy. He should’ve just told the families of the victims of the Bali bombers to go fuck themselves. Killing is wrong, period. That’s why we don’t do it in this country, and that’s why we should fight for it in others. Wanting people to die is vengeance, not justice.
• Kevin Rudd is a pussy. He’s got practically the same line as Howard. If people don’t vote for him, it’s because him and the libs are practically the same.

Concerns about Liberal:

• Howard is a toolbox. Year by year he’s removing money from the state governments. Moving more stuff up the chain to the federal government is retarded, but it’s invariably going to happen if you keep labor in state and libs in federal. I want more money closer to the people. Howard is direct anti-thetic to that.
• Howard is a toolbox. Some of the people in his government are racist, religious nut-jobs. The party is becoming more and more heavy conservative.
• Howard is a toolbox. He’s copped out on a lot of issues, like children overboard.

I should look into the senate some more.

In Rainbows by Radiohead, and now the new NiN album are both going to be sans record label, and available for “whatever you want to pay” on the internet. This means it’s now possible for me to get decent music on the intarwebs and pay what I want for it ($5 if I like the album, $1 if it’s OK, nothing if it’s shit). There are a couple of issues here, though:

1. There’s no centralised way for me to show that I’ve paid for, or downloaded the music. In case I want to download it again somewhere else, or show them that I’m actually playing it. I basically want some sort of audioscrobbler++ interface into the websites that I’m plugging into. I don’t mind the fact that both NiN will have a different place to download this music, but they’ll have no consistency between them. What they need is some sort of musical exchangey protocol which they can talk.
2. There may be no way to get the music before I pay for it. I may (for example) have to download the music for nothing, then listen to it for a bit, then be forced to download it again for the aforementioned $5. Different bands may have a different way to sell you the music (some might demand streaming, some might give you one format or another, some might try and add some features like video and images, who knows). It’d be nice if there was some software to manage that
3. I may download an album without paying for it, and I might forget to pay for it. My current workflow is to download / borrow / copy a friend’s album and listen to it, and if I like it, buy it when I go to JB, but really I’d want something similar to a 30 day trial (except maybe more like 30 listens) — “hey, you’re listening to this album a fair bit, you want to buy it?” Maybe I’d even auto-set it to spend $500 a year on whatever I listen to most (maybe more or less if I don’t listen to much music, or listen to a lot).

Point is, there’s actually a need for some software here. It’s not the record industry, but it’s the internet music industry. I also have some questions:

• Is the amount I’m paying here too cheap? I don’t think so. I’m a bit TA but not that much. The problem with music is that it doesn’t change, and while I wouldn’t call it disposable, you certainly need a lot of it. I would “envision” giving about $500 to the “music industry” (i.e. artists, here, not the record industry) a year, but I’d want about 100 hours of music for it (this isn’t that much, if you think about it).
• Are the goals unrealistic or dodgy or even against the very idea of getting music on the internet?
• Would it be possible for someone to offer this kind of service to an artist without charging them money?