Cadillac CTS adds WiFi - Sirius XM weeps

Well, hot on the heals of my post on Sirius XM comes the announcement that Cadillac is now offering a $499 dealer installed option for in car WiFi for the CTS model. Since I own a 2008 CTS, this is a very interesting story. Apparently, it will cost $29 per month for 800Kbps service. This will make it very simple to access internet radio from an iPhone, iPod Touch, or other WiFi connected device and listen to any internet radio stream. Undoubtedly, this is a harbinger of the future and will probably become standard on all cars in the distant future.

Further proof that Sirius XM needs to change their business model now. I think they should go with commercials immediately and turn on the 60% of their radios that are currently dark in cars. Of course, they never will. They’re doomed.

55.8% of Sirius XM Radios Dark!

While reading this article in the Wall Street Journal today, I was struck by the fact that after the free trial for their pre-installed Sirius XM radio expired only 44.2% actually continued to subscribe.

As someone who recently elected to cancel my XM radio subscription, I was amazed but not surprised by this figure. I had long been skeptical of the value proposition of this service. When I did purchase a new car last year with XM, I did give it a listen and found little to hold my interest. As a lark, I did subscribe for a full year to give it a bit more time. I did find one channel, Fine Tuning, that piqued my interest. Unfortunately, when the great merger of XM and Sirius finally was culminated things changed for the worse. XM Radio customers clearly got the short end of the stick. My main area of music interests centers around Progressive, Jazz, Modern Classical, Celtic, Folk, and a host of other categories. With the elimination of Fine Tuning and Beyond Jazz as well, the value of XM really went off a cliff for me. Thus, I decided not to renew this month when my subscription expired.

Given Sirius XM's well documented revenue/debt problems, I am surprised at how unimaginative their business model is. There is still no iPhone app, despite there being dozens of internet radio apps already available for the iPhone. Their own internet radio stream has been a poor step child and poorly marketed. And now they are raising the price to compete better with all the free streams available (irony intended)!

Back to the 55.8% dark issue. I would suggest that Sirius XM implement a free commercial sponsored service of say 5 to 10 channels that featured a cross section of the full service and allow all currently dark radios to listen for free (albeit with commercial interruptions). It seems ludicrous to be so stubborn to have nearly 60% of your potential user base deaf to your service. With this service, I would suspect they would attract large advertisers and could generate a sizeable revenue stream. In effect, they could claim a 100% listener base rather than the almost 60% absent listeners they now have. I would think setting up such a service would add little expense to their existing operation. I have not seen such an idea suggested before and would strongly urge Sirius XM to consider it.

Domain renewal

Today, I renewed my domain and hosting for this blog. My blogging has been dormant for many months now but one day I may return to it? Even still, I consider my small little plot in cyberspace an essential requirement for life in the 21st century.

Rush plays Pat Metheny Group "Forward March"

Just listening to Rush Limbaugh and he is recreating the failed presidential bid of Michael Dukakis. He uses the odd but funny music of a seemingly out of tune marching band. I bet very few people will recognize this song as Forward Mach by the Pat Metheny Group from the First Circle album! Obviously this was a throw away bit of fun for PMG but it is funny to hear it used in this new context.

Excused!

Ah, I dodged a bullet and was dismissed as a juror. I was certain I was going to be called for a civil case involving personal injury and a car accident.

Judge Miller of Montgomery County (sixth circuit) asked a bunch of questions. I responded to one regarding previous jury experience. I was also later asked about my previous work experience since I was listed as retired. I answered that I previously worked for Microsoft which elicited a remark from Judge Miller asking me if I was a member of the Fortune 500 richest people to which I said no. This seemed to amuse some of the other jurors. Afterwards, a couple of the jurors commented to me that they thought it was inappropriate for Judge Miller to make such a remark. I chalk it up to the general egotism of those in the legal profession such as Eliot Spitzer.

Jury Duty

So, today I had to report for jury duty. I was threatened with jury duty a couple of years ago but didn't have to show. This time I actually had to report. I did serve on a jury back in the 80's so I guess it was my time again.

At least the jury waiting room has excellent wi-fi so I brought my laptop. It allowed me an opportunity to test out some remote access stuff I have been working on lately.

First, I have recently setup a Slingbox solo player so I wanted to try that out. It works flawlessly and is really cool to be able to watch anything on my Fios TV service either on my laptop or my Palm Centro pda/phone running on the Sprint EVDO service.

My next experiment was to test access to my Slimdevices Slimserver using the secure SSH tunnel protocol. I had been playing with this for a while and was pleased with my results. I also have been working to harden the security to keep the internet idiots out of my network. I've been meaning to write up some tips that I have discovered along the way including the ability to run a session completely off of a portable usb stick.

Anyway, I am pleased to report I can easily access my full slimserver music system using the Softsqueeze java client and listen to streaming music on my laptop. The slimserver has the ability to transcode music files on the fly using the lame mp3 engine so you can accommodate limited bandwidth. Since I store all my music in lossless FLAC, this is a very nice feature.

New Micro Center opens in Rockville, MD

I just returned from perusing the aisles of the brand new Micro Center computer store in Rockville, MD. Today is the first day they are open.

This is a gorgeous store. It outclasses every other electronics store in the region. It's almost like having a Newegg or Fry's in my backyard. This new store grew from the ashes of the horrible CompUsa (owned by Mexican telecom monopolist Carlos Slim) that once occupied this location. What a breath of fresh air.

It appeared there were many good deals to examine. For example, I noticed an Acer 24 inch LCD monitor for the low price of $299.

I will be a frequent visitor.

Questions with no answers

There are a few things about computing that seem to have no answer.

1. I cannot find a Windows based PC laptop that includes a 6 pin bus powered FireWire interface. All Apple laptops have this. All Windows based PCs only have 4 pin non bus powered interfaces. I find it very curious that no one has ever written an article about this. Since Apple invented FireWire (1394) could there be a patent limitation on this? You can buy desktop motherboards with 6 pin bus powered FireWire interfaces. Very odd. Having a bus powered FireWire interface on a laptop lets you run things like Audio interfaces (from Motu, M-Audio, etc.) without needing a power adapter and a tangle of wires
2. Why do no Windows Media portable players support WMA Lossless files? Apple iPods have supported Apple Lossless files for many years. Why does Microsoft and their partners think this is unimportant? Audiophiles care deeply about such things.

Auto Show 2007 - Washington, DC

Google has expanded its Picasa Web Albums. I've been posting some photos:

Auto Show 2007

Moduslink Vista Upgrade - Update 2

Somewhat surprisingly, my Windows Vista Express Upgrade disc arrived in the mail last Friday, March 2, 2006.

Thus, for me, ends a sad tale of simply trying to get what I paid for over three months ago.

My advice to Microsoft: next time skip this nonsense. There was nothing Express about this process. In the future, put the resources into hitting ship dates that mesh with selling periods (e.g. back to school, Christmas) and spare the consumer some grief.

Based on a Google of news stories and blogs, it is apparent that other consumers are still suffering the fallout of the Moduslink Vista Express Meltdown.