Sour Swinger Predominantly follows my Army & Iraq Deployment. Also has some Geek, School, and other talk.

While perusing my Google Reader, I noticed a Slashdot article shared by Clint. Sheboygan City gave a cease and desist order to a lady who linked to the police department’s website. Her website rags quite a bit on the city so that’s probably part of the reason they didn’t like the linking. Thankfully she stood her ground and sued back. The cease and desist order was then retracted. I wonder why some people don’t think before they act. Linking to a website is no different then listing an address in a phonebook.

Of course this whole thing is very absurd. Too absurd to even hold a discussion about. Instead, I’m simply providing all the links to said articles and said police station. Just because I can. Its part of that thing called freedom. Btw, here’s the RateMCop link for the Sheboygan Police officers.

Sheboygan Police Website Entrance They need to fix this page. The title is set as New Page 1. WTF???
Sheboygan Police Main Page
Sheboygan Police Contact Information
City of Sheboygan

For a few years now, I’ve been faithfully using AllTunes to download music from AllOfMP3 (now MP3Sparks). First trouble began when credit card companies would no longer accept payments for AllOfMP3. However I was still able to make direct credit card purchases through Chronopay. Even when AllOfMP3 was shut down and no one was able to download music, I still found myself unrestricted. By this past Christmas it became harder to refill my balance. I had to go through CMPASS which in turn accepted money through Paypal. It was a pain, but I managed to refill my balance. In addition, I managed to setup a new account with money as a gift to one of my cousins.

Now, here I sit frustrated that I can no longer refill my balance. For some reason Paypal can longer be used. I tried payment through SMS, but my phone carrier does not like that. Direct phone calls are not accepted in the US and a wire transfer will cost $35…not worth it especially since I have to do it in $10 increments.  Exhausted after extensive searching and tries, I’m finally throwing in the towel.

Does this mean I’ll now pay $1 dollar per DRM infected song…FUCK NO!

Music is not worth that much, especially with such restrictions. I’ve learned of some other alternative sites: MP3Fiesta, MP3Sales, SoundsBox. Over the next week, I’ll check them out. If I can’t find a suitable replacement, I’ll be forced to return to piracy.

UPDATE: 21 Jul 08: I’ve gone ahead and created accounts with said three alternatives.  Began purchasing and conducting evaluation.  Will post a review soon.

UPDATE: 14 Sept 08: I know, I’ve been lazy as hell but an upcoming Iraq deployment will do that. I’m about half-way down. Will finish review before I ship out in a couple days.

Today, I spent most the day in the computer lab working. I was completely thrown off when I briefly left. My timing couldn’t have been better for right outside the building was an anti-war protest marching around the campus. Most of the roads were closed off (causing some backed up traffic) and a ton of police ensuring everything stayed orderly. Luckily, I always carry my camera with me, and I started snapping pictures.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions and I have absolutely no qualms with an anti-war protest. However the group running this protest is called POG (Pittsburgh Organizing Group). They do a lot of radical protesting with the most recent one being a surprise protest on a Carnegie Mellon research building. They were originally announcing a raid on a military recruitment office and were going to make an attempt to force the recruiters into cages. While all the focus was there, they instead charged that CMU building and blocked the entrances.

Those types of protest tarnish their cause and name more then anything. Equally bad is they are more then anti-war. They are anti…well…everything really. To include anti-recruiting and anti-military. While I can understand an argument for not being in Iraq, the anti-recruiting/military is just plain stupid. Were America not to have a military, how could we defend ourselves? What stability could be provided? I’m pretty sure an invasion would shortly follow.

It’s because of their radical tactics and thinking that I have a strong disdain for them. And when a Libertarian is saying someone else’s thinking is radical…you know its radical. But now I’m faced with a dilemma, do I post the pictures of the protest? This group thrives off media attention. Something they were proud of getting so much of in their Carnegie protest. Would posting those pics help them? Isn’t that what they want, attention? In which case it might have been better to not blog this. On the counter side, sometimes straight out ignoring things can be just as bad. I’ll have to sit and think on it for a bit. See what response I garner from this post. For now, I’ll just upload pics of the police.

Btw, the march itself consisted of a couple hundred people. Small considering how many people live in Pittsburgh. They did managed to get a news chopper to follow them a bit, but the amount of onlookers was quite laughable. Perhaps 50 or so at most. The talk I heard was pretty split between disgust and agreement with the protesters.

The police did an excellent job of maintaining order and acting professional. Considering all the trouble POG has caused them, I’m sure it was hard for them. They brought on a lot horses who took up the rear of the march, while motorcycles took point.