The beleagured computer maker announced today that it would be closing all 188 of its retail stores, putting 2,500 people out of work. Boo. Hoo. Maybe if Ted Waitt stopped talking to cows and buying rivals that Dell was going to put out of business anyway, he wouldn't be putting 2,500 people in the unemployment lines.

It seems like more and more vendors are jumping in to the USB micro/mini-drive game these days. Iomega has a hip-looking USB 2.0 version, but for the money I think I would prefer the versatility of Victorinox's USB Swiss Army Knife. With my total mailbox currently over 600 MB, it's not like I can take my e-mail around with me on either one anyway. And it is just me, or does anyone else think that USB flash memory drives are still too expensive for the capacity you get? Especially in light of what you can get in the form of SD or CF cards. I know, the USB drives don't require a reader like the aforementioned cards, but I still think they should be cheaper for what you get in storage space.

Get your Dick Tracy on with the new LaCie Data Watch, which jams 128 MB of flash memory in to a decent-looking, black analog watch for 70 bucks. Works with Mac OS 9 and up, but the only version of Windows you can use is XP. I'm tempted. (via MacMinute)

Sweetie, can I have one? I promise to use it and my other powers only for good...

In the Feburary 2d issue of BusinessWeek, Robert D. Hof has a column on why the latest technology isn't always the best (paid registration required). No Luddite, Hof is just worried that our culture may be on so much of a digital kick, that we push too soon to the wayside analog technologies that are time-tested and, in some cases, still superior. The latter example Hof focuses on is photography, and film. For most people, there isn't much difference between a 4x6 print from a digital camera versus a 35mm camera. Not much of a difference, that is, unless you're shooting for detail, where even the top-of-the-line digital cameras still can't match up against their film counterparts. My wife and I still tote a 35mm camera with us on vacation, as sort of a backup to our digital. On our first trip to Kaua'i, I took two shots of the Kalalua Valley, the most widely photographed spot in the South Pacific. One was with my digital, the other with Kelly's 35mm film camera. I'm so glad I took the second picture with the film camera. For one, it came out much better than the one from my digital, as some of the clouds in the area had moved out (the trade winds there move those clouds in and out pretty quick). Second, I have plans to get the print blown up, courtesy of a friend and his plotter. I couldn't do the latter with the digital photo, as its resolution limits its print size. Hof's point is well taken. He also mentions the audio realm, which hearkened me back to a discussion we had on the ATPM staff list. We have several audiophiles on staff, notably Evan, whose latest audio fetish is reel-to-reels dubbed from the studio masters. While most of us couldn't tell the difference between a MP3, the CD it was ripped from, or the master, guys like Evan, David, and others won't touch the compressed digital stuff, especially when it comes to genres like classical, jazz, blues, and other non-mainstream music. Like Hof, I still have a battery-powered, non-digital timepiece, which, unlike my Mac, has never gotten out of sync except when the battery actually died. There are some analog things worth hanging on to, as the digital world still has a long way to go. Nothing Luddite in using what still works the best.

If you're not subscribing to the NYT's Circuits e-mail list (free registration required), you're missing out on some classic Pogue, who this week talks about Gateway's big-screen plasma displays:

Cut to last week. I saw a TV ad for Gateway's plasma flat-screen TV, trumpeting its success as the "Number 1 bestselling plasma in America."

Well, duh -- the thing costs $2,500 for a 42-inch model (after rebates). No wonder it's so popular, considering that most 42-inch plasmas are white-hot even at $6,500.

So how does Gateway get away with it? As I wrote when I reviewed this screen last March, the Gateway TV's are not, in fact, HDTV sets. "Instead of composing the picture from 1280 by 720 tiny square pixels, as a 42-inch HDTV screen does, these screens offer only 852 by 480 pixels, a lower resolution that the industry calls enhanced definition (EDTV). If you stand four inches from any plasma set, the coarse EDTV pixel grid does a convincing impression of a screen door."

In short, Gateway is selling the cubic zirconia of plasma screens: a cheap imitation that will fool your family and friends. You're getting all the status and that Bill-Gates's-house chic of a plasma screen at less than half the price. Only you need to know that you didn't actually bite the big bullet and blow the big bucks. You know your computer company is in trouble when (a) you feature ads where you talk to a cow, and the cow talks back, and (b) when you have to move beyond selling computers to selling lame plasma displays that aren't as good as the real thing. To quote Michael Dull from about five years ago, "If I were in charge, I'd shut it down and give the money to the shareholders."

Jeff Knapp writes in to MacInTouch with his experience with the new Windows-only Wal-Mart music store. It seems that one can use a Mac to view the store, register, and even download files. The no-Mac clause comes in the form of the DRM being used by Windows Media Player, as Mr. Knapp was unable to play any of the songs he downloaded. He summarized:

The user experience (non-compatibility issues aside) is OK, not great, but OK - certainly not the smooth, fluid experience iTMS is. Even if it were Mac compatible, I would be reluctant to use it because of this intrusive, "phone home" thing that appears to be happening. Otherwise, I see no reason to want to use it over the iTMS other than price. That, and it is Wal-Mart...

MDJ has a dead-on assessment in today's issue of how Microsoft is seeking to co-op the online music market:

Nonetheless, even more companies are jumping into the fray, helping Microsoft's attempts to portray its completely proprietary and highly-restrictive Windows Media format as "standard" and QuickTime as "proprietary."

[...]

The proliferation of "music stores" pleases Microsoft greatly. The company wants to point to about a hundred different services, all selling songs at US$0.99 each, and say that 9 of them use Windows Media and only one does not - iTunes Music Store. This is how new monopolies are born, and Microsoft doesn't even seem to be leveraging Windows to do it. The company simply added capabilities for highly restrictive and revocable rights into Windows Media, and content creators are flocking to it, pleased at being able to keep purchasers from using their songs or video how they please. Fortunately, Apple has all the bulk of the mindshare right now when it comes to buying music online. Magazines, polls, sites, et al are lining up to declare the iTunes Music Store or the iPod as product of the year, or including them in some sort of Top 10/20/50/100 list. Not to mention that while files downloaded from the iTMS do contain a form of digital rights management (DRM), said form isn't anywhere near as restrictive as that of the Windows Media format. Not to mention that what some of the other online music services are peddling are nothing more than revamped subscription formats. People who buy digital music don't want to subscribe to it. They want to buy it, download it, pop it in to a MP3 player, burn it to a CD, and get on with their lives. They don't want to keep paying for the same song again and again. This is the life those services trumpeting WMA are trying to lock consumers in to. Personally, I haven't bought anything from the iTunes Music Store. I like my CDs, with a physical item that contains the mastered AIFF files. I like my liner notes. I like being able to rip my CDs at any rate I wish, rather than have to take the rate an online service delivers in. The dirty secret of the iTMS is that you can pay just a couple of bucks more for a full album from Amazon and get all of that. Michael and I have had variations of this conversation on more than one occasion, and he is of like mind. That said, if I were an online music buying fiend, there is no doubt it would all be from the iTunes Music Store. Best selection, even if it's not complete. For a DRM system, it's pretty fair. Quite simply, it's the best, Chairman Gates can't stomach that, and Matt D. & company take Microsoft to task over it.

A good interview with Steve Jobs over on RollingStone.com. Having had discussions about the music biz with folks who have worked in it, including my new boss, I have to say that I think Steve's remedy for the music biz to increase its profits is dead-on.

It will be interesting to see if the President issues a call to go back to space later this month, or next. This is very sobering: bq. Every American who has died in a spacecraft has done so within one calendar week: The Apollo 204 fire on January 27, 1967; the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986; and the loss of Columbia on February 1, 2003. Perhaps NASA should take note of the above dates and scrub that portion of the calendar from any future misisons. Naysayers should take note of a myriad of advancements in their daily lives that would not be possible without the United States' involvement in space exploration. And I'm not talking about Tang...