Blogging From My BlackBerry/Music Industry Stuff

Ever since I got this BB Bold, which I've dubbed the BB Anthony since it's all customized now, I've been testing the hell out of it. Besides the BB being a very fickle and picky, call it 'ficky', the battery life isn't that great when you're using it constantly. The last time I was out it did well but yesterday I was out for a few hours and the battery was basically dead. The difference was my usage. Before I wasn't really texting and emailing. I was just running the mp3 player. However yesterday I fielded calls and was heavy on emails, texting, and the messenger.

Also, I ordered an 8GB memory card for 37 ($29.99 + 6.99 s+h) from tigerdirect.com. That's my favorite site for computer stuff. When I was building computers, I'd get everything from there - aluminum case, motherboards, processors, memory, and so on. I thought I'd share that since many of us are broke and that's the lowest price I could find. I still plan to get the Sansa View 32GB mp3 player. I'll probably use the 8GB card in that player. Yup, 40GB. Plenty of room for my mp3s and even a lil video *wink wink*

Speaking of mp3s, I read in the news that the RIAA is not going to continue pursuing individuals for downloading music. Instead, they'll ID people by their IP address and send a note to the ISP who may have the option to just disconnect you. I remember my friend saying, people will just get another service and do it again. Unfortunately, there aren't that many highspeed or broadband carriers in a specific area. For example, in NYC there's Verizon and AceDSL. Verizon owns all of the specific wiring in NYC. So, AceDSL basically leases service from them. In other words, you may see options but don't assume there are that many.

Aside from that, I've basically ID'd two problems. First of all, many people who share music, like myself at one point, don't do it online. You gotta go to friends. My friend and I shared GBs of music doubling both of our collections in minutes. We did this in person, external hard drive to laptop. That's really where folks get their music. And, no one can stop it nor track it.

The second problem is an issue of personal security. No, I don't mean people stealing your music, which I'm sure we've experienced from thieving friends and family. I am specifically referring to people jacking you WIFI connection. I could come into your neighborhood and if I see an open connection, connect to it and download as I please. I especially look for Linksys users because I know the password for the device is always "admin" and never has a username. Once in Boston, I found such a connection. I was there for a week. I used this person's connection as I pleased and then put a password on it and changed security settings. I think I named the connection "nosecurity" or something. And, I did this to teach a lesson. It could be worse. I could have been downloading music and movies making that person a target for RIAA not unlike my other friend.

Learn to use your WIFI security settings. My own WIFI is a Linksys as well and my security is tight, down to the WEP security and MAC address filtering which is set to PERMIT only certain MAC addresses. You'd have to be way more 1337 than little ol' me to get through that. LOL

And this concludes my first blog post from my BB Anthony.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T