DISQUS

I donno, Paul. Both of those apps are ugly. I mean, how hard is it to display a huge list of songs? You're right about Songbird's bad font, but Spotify pisses away the advantage by choosing a horrible low-contrast color scheme; i had an easier time reading titles in the former.

And what's with the messed up spacing? Both apps appear to chew up the whole screen, yet shove everything to the left leaving a big empty space on the right. What about a bit of a margin between that bulky useless sidebar and the list? Or maybe use it to display info on the currently playing track, or a nice animation or something. Heck, since you're blocking my view of everything else, maybe let me see incoming emails? Or at least a clock? Or, god forbid, put some frickin' labels on those tiny little buttons?

Ugh. I'm sure the differences you focus on are more noticeable in use than in screenshots, but i'm simply disgusted by how *both* apps look like shoddy iTunes / Napster knock-offs circa 2001. For shame...

Heh... I'm not gonna pretend to know who Stephen Fry or this "Barack" guy are; maybe they're just the most cool and interesting people ever and totally worth watching in excruciating detail...

...But socks? Even odd ones? No thanks, i'm sticking with Zombo.com.

Wow...

It's an appealing idea, and certainly nothing new...

Here in the Rockies, as with many former frontier areas from Alaska to Australia, there are no shortage of tales of those entrepreneurs who came looking for just the sorts of freedoms that you describe and Graham lauds. Those Mountain Men were of the rare sort who will seek out those freedoms in spite of even the most terrifying obstacles, and their many unmarked graves are a testament to their success in obtaining at least the second of them.

Of course, the savvy ones soon figured out that the ability to eat regular meals and wake up in a strong, bear-proof shelter can be rather more appealing than the freedom to freeze to death on a lonely chasm somewhere. And, sorta like Graham, they stopped while they were ahead and set up a trading post to aid those that came after. Or, depending on your perspective, coax them into trading their achievements for sustenance.

Thinking of yourself as a lion is a nice ego trip. But we're not lions. We do work best in cooperative, specialized groups. And Paul, i'm sure you can correct me on this if i'm off-base... but i suspect that if an impala tries to pretend it's a lion, this illusion would be quickly and brutally shattered. ;-)