Why Do I Have To Create a Google Account to Get Support for Third-Party Software?

I’m an avid user of RSS to follow the news, and I use NetNewsWire to manage my RSS feeds and read the news that interests me. I’ve been having a problem with the program occasionally (that is, often enough that it’s annoying) retrieving RSS items on some feeds that are a year old. This happens for a couple of feeds every week or so; for others once a month. (It doesn’t happen for all feeds.)

Now, since I paid for this program, I went to the developers web site this morning to find out how to contact support. I was surprised – stunned, to be honest – to find that the only way they provide support is through Google Groups. There is no support e-mail, no support form on the website; you have to post your problem on Google Groups, publicly, in order to get support.

Since I don’t use Google any more, I don’t have a Google account, and don’t plan to create one to post to a group to get support. (And, frankly, the whole question of providing support via a public forum is one reason why I stopped using Google. I don’t want my discussions with this company’s technical support being public.)

So while I purchased the program, I can’t get support for it in any way that I approve of. I feel very disappointed that the developer has chosen this route as the only avenue for support, and this confirms my feelings about his not being in touch with his users. (There are other issues with the software, which, while not problems, suggest that he’s not very flexible, notable the use of Google Reader to sync the program from one computer to another.)

I’ll use NetNewsWire for a while, but I’m now, once again, in search of a new RSS reader. Companies who don’t want to provide support correctly don’t deserve to get my money. I feel disappointed that I paid for this software.

Note: I have nothing against forums on web sites for users to ask questions, and I do use them regularly. But they are not Google Groups, they are forums the developers have built, and there is always an e-mail address or a form to request support.

Book Notes: Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens

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It is, of course, nothing more than chance that the day after I finish Christopher Hitchens’ memoir Hitch-22, I come across this statement on the Vanity Fair web site:

I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.

(The engagements he mentions refer to his book tour.)

Ah, Hitch, all that smoking and drinking is catching up to you. Let’s hope you win this battle.

But on to the book. If you don’t know Christopher Hitchens, he’s a polemicist, contrarian, journalist and defender of human rights. He’s been everywhere, from Cuba as a your revolutionary to Afghanistan as a reporter covering the recent war. He’s been to Iraq, both before and during the war, to India, covering the “case” of Mother Theresa, and to Bosnia as the hostilities started. He likes to claim that he’s the only writer to have been to all three countries that make up the “axis of evil”: Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

This “memoir” is a loose collection of recollections and essays that give an overview of his life as a politically engaged journalist. Many people first heard about Hitchens a couple of years ago when his book God is Not Great was released. Hitchens went on a “crusade” to show how “religion poisons everything” and was involved in numerous debates (all polite and friendly) with religious figures around the US and UK. Unlike other “new atheists,” Hitchens is rather agressive in both his beliefs (or lack thereof) and his argumentation. He pulls no punches, and this can be seen in most of his writing, and in this memoir.

Hitchens has been scorned by the left for undergoing many changes in his political beliefs over the years, starting out as a Troskyist, and ending up, as he says in the last chapter of Hitch-22, a “skeptic,” far more willing to look at multiple ideas than to accept the tenets of a party or group. This has led him to famously support the Bush war in Iraq, though, as he points out in the book, he was for the war long before it became a war. Together with a small group of human rights activists, after seeing what Saddam Hussein’s regime was doing to Iraqis, he fought for regime change in Washington. His literary friends include Martin Amis, Ian McEwen, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, James Fenton and many others.

Hitchens was born in the UK but became American after 9/11, having lived in the US since the early 1980s. He writes for a number of magazines, having run the gauntlet of left-leaning (and leftist periodicals), long writing for The Nation, and now a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and a regular contributor to The Atlantic, Slate and other publications.

What impresses me most about Hitchens is the quality of his writing. He has acerbic wit, and his sentences sparkle. His arguments are very convincing (even if you don’t always agree with him, which can be difficult), and he pulls no punches. This memoir is 100% Hitchens: from the descriptions of his days in school to the present, he tells it like it is (or was), with a style that glitters.

I listened to the audiobook version of this work, read by Hitchens himself. While I wouldn’t classify this as an excellent reading – Hitchens takes commas for periods, and this makes the reading a bit fragmented – hearing him tell his story in his own voice was worth the price of admission.

If you want an interesting read about politics, growing up, literary circles, and plain old contrarianism, Hitch-22 is a great book. You may not agree with all of Hitchens’ opinions, but at least he’s committed to them and presents them without waffling. Would that we had more political journalists willing to write like Hitch.

There’s a very moving interview about the book, but where Hitch also discusses his cancer, death and mortality, from the Charlie Rose Show.

Music Review: Franz Schubert Complete Songs

Music Review: Franz Schubert Complete Songs
Hyperion Records
40 CDs plus book containing song texts, 2005. List price GBP 180.

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In 1987, Hyperion Records began what turned out to be a colossal project: the recording of all of Franz Schubert’s songs (or lieder), a total of 729 songs performed by over 60 soloists. Some of these songs are for male voice, others for female voice, and others for several singers together. (In comparison, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s landmark recording of all the lieder for solo male voice includes 463 songs on 21 CDs; now available at a bargain price.) Originally released on 37 CDs, over a period of 18 years (the amount of time it took Schubert to compose all these songs, before his early death), this new set presents the songs in chronological order.It is hard to understate the monumental scope of this set. Never before have all of these songs been available together, and never before have listeners been able to appreciate the broad scope of Schubert’s compositions.

Beginning with an idea by accompanist Graham Johnson, and continued as a labor of love (and a relative commercial success), Hyperion Records managed to bring together many of the great lieder singers of the time, even providing showcases for young singers who would go on to become essential performers in this genre. From “classic” singers such as Ann Murray, Janet Baker and Peter Schreier, to new finds like Ian Bostridge and Matthias Goerne, this set is full of great voices. Even the grandfather of Schubert lieder, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, makes a cameo appearance, reading some poems that are part of the cycle Die Schöne Müllerin, by Wilhelm Müller, which Schubert did not set to music.

Added to this set (and scheduled for a separate release in 2006) are three discs of songs by Schubert’s friends and contemporaries, including Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and others, giving the listener an overview of the type of lieder that was part of his influences. But it is the 37 discs of Schubert’s songs that are important here; the “extras” are just that, like special features on a DVD.

Listening to this set in chronological order is enlightening, as one can grasp the evolution in the subtlety and depth of Schubert’s compositions. Starting with his earliest songs, written in his teens, and progressing through his final year, as he was 31, the journey is long, yet rewarding. Schubert’s music is the most accomplished of the genre, and the excellent choice of soloists – along with the brilliant accompaniment by Graham Johnson – imbues a great deal of variety and a rich palette of vocal colors. Unlike the Fischer-Dieskau set (which, I must confess, is one of my favorite sets of classical music), where one listens to the range and expanse of a single, masterful voice, the Hyperion set gives the listener a chance to discover the music in more variety. For those who do not like Fischer-Dieskau, this set can be an eye-opener. However, it will never, for me, replace the Fischer-Dieskau set…

While I do not like all the singers on this set, most of them are excellent. Many of the singers lack the immersion that Fischer-Dieskau had in this music, but others are revelations. The recordings by Brigitte Faessbender are excellent, as are those by Stephen Varcoe, a singer I was not familiar with before. Thomas Hampson’s recordings here show him in his prime, and many of the other male singers – Philip Langridge, John Mark Ainsley and Anthony Rolfe Johnson rise to the occasion, providing many delightful performances. (You’ll notice my preference for male voices for this music, but this does not mean that there are not many excellent female voices in this set; Edith Mathis’ performance of An die Musik is one of the highlights of the set, and Arleen Auger is excellent.)

One of the revelations in this set, for me, is the many songs for several singers, including those with chorus. These songs are a little-known and rarely recorded facet of Schubert’s work, and this set allows listeners to discover just how many such songs there are, and the general tone of joviality they express.

In addition to the 40 CDs in this set, Hyperion includes a book (258,096 words, as Hyperion specifies on the box) containing an introduction by Graham Johnson and the complete texts of all the songs. While this is laudable, there are a few negatives to this book. The type is relatively small (fine for teenaged eyes, perhaps, but that is clearly not the target audience for this set), and the English translations of the songs, in a column next to the German originals, are in italics, making them even harder to read. (For a different take, and easier readability, John Reed’s Schubert Song Companion is a good investment.) Broken down by year, with an introduction for each year talking about Schubert’s activities, the texts appear chronologically, as they do on the discs. The back of the book contains an index by title and by poet, composer or translator, but, alas, not by singer.

Purchasers of the original CDs in this series will be familiar with the copious notes by Graham Johnson that accompanies these discs; unfortunately, these notes are not included in the set, and are scheduled to be released in book form in the near future. (Yale University Press will be publishing this book, and, hopefully, will not charge their usual “scholarly” price, so music lovers will be able to acquire these notes.)

All in all, this set is essential for any serious fan of Schubert’s lieder, or lieder in general. While it is not cheap, the per-disc price is relatively low; congratulations are in order to Hyperion for having release the set at such an affordable price. While other recordings of Schubert’s lieder will be made, this set will clearly remain the benchmark for his music; with the exception, of course, of the Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recordings. To be honest, no serious fan of Schubert’s lieder should be without either of these sets, so start socking away the money if you don’t have both of them.

Remembering Jerry

On this day, 15 years ago, Jerry Garcia passed away.

If you get confused, listen to the music play.

Take Control Books 50% Off Sale

Now through August 3, all Take Control books are 50% off (including mine). If you don’t know the great Take Control book series, it’s a set of ebooks about using the Mac and related software and hardware. Check out the sale now.

And if you’re interested, I’ve got a new Take Control book coming out at the end of August… I’ll be posting more here soon.

Kindle Prices Plummet

Amazon has introduced another new Kindle model, and this time the prices are starting to get low enough that this device may, indeed, become a commonplace appliance. The 3G version – which lets you get books almost anywhere, over the 3G network, is $189. But the real news is the wi-fi only model, which, for most people, is more than sufficient. Since Amazon has to pay for the 3G access, this allows them to offer a much cheaper wi-fi model: only $139. I’ll predict that there will be a $99 Kindle by Christmas, and the future of these devices will begin. At less than $100, people will easily buy ebook readers.

However, the iPad is still going to keep on selling like gangbusters, because of the many things it does. Will Apple release a smaller iPad designed more for ebook reading, at a lower price point? Time will tell.

Cult of Mac Endorses App Piracy

I used to thing the Cult of Mac blog, was interesting, even though I found lead author Leander Kahney to be often a windbag. But after publishing an article not only endorsing app piracy but explaining, step by step, how to do it, I was quite shocked. The decision to publish such an article is so incredibly stupid and contemptuous of the developers that the blog often claims to support, that it can only be seen as link bait.

So the corrected version comes as even more of a surprise.  This sort of comment is so idiotic that I really wonder of such journalists should be allowed to write for any “major” web site:

The intent for the Superguide is to be straightforward and frank — a one-stop shop for everything people want to know about jailbreaking. We don’t condone piracy, but it’s a fact that a lot of people jailbreak their devices to experiment with things like Installous. I find it dishonest and hypocritical when publications skirt around issues like this; like publishing BitTorrent guides and pretending that no one’s going to download a pirated movie.

However, it’s obviously disingenuous to say we condemn piracy in a post that shows readers how to pirate software. Personally, I’ve always believed publishing information is one thing and acting on that information is another. I’ve always liked publications that informed me about things we’re not supposed to do. I can then make my own moral decision whether to act on that information or not

The thing is, this has always been Kahney’s blog; its name comes from the title of a book he wrote. So it’s him or nothing, as far as I know. But this crap about publishing it because it’s available elsewhere doesn’t fly; if people are looking for such information, they’ll find it, but that doesn’t mean you should not only publish it but endorse such illegal activity. Kahney’s attempted explanation is disingenuous and suggests that he’s really not aware of what he’s writing about. I hope people stop reading his blog; I know I will.

Library of America Launches New Blog

I’m a big fan of the Library of America, a non-profit organization that publishes excellent volumes of works by America’s great authors. Just for the many volumes of Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William James alone, this would be a great enterprise. But they publish great authors from the founding fathers to contemporaries, such as Philip K. Dick and Philip Roth.

Their new blog, Reader’s Almanac, will feature posts related to the authors and volumes in their collection. I’m looking forward to their posts, as a way of learning more about the many great authors I’ve discovered as a subscriber to their series. (I have more than 100 volumes from the Library of America already.) If you are interested in American literature, you should check it out.