EternalEmperor.com

After months of waiting the iPhone app for accessing Sirius XM has finally been released. It is however an unmitigated failure right out of the gate. Why? It requires a premium subscription to access something that you are already paying for. I have a regular online subscription for online content because I pay for my XM subscription on an annual basis. I see no need to turn over more money for something I am already paying for.
I suppose that someone at Sirius XM thinks this will make people pay extra so they can listen to that awesome Sirius XM content from their iPhones. Do they realize that people who have already paid for an iPhone most likely have an iTunes library. So there is already music I liked enough to pay for on my phone.

Now you may ask, “Lee, you have a giant iTunes library. Why do you want to listen to XM?” If you didn’t know before you now know that I have spent way too much money on CDs then way too much money on digital music. Why listen to Sirius XM? Am I a Howard Stern fan? Nope. And by the way Howard Stern channels are not available on the iPhone app for some reason. I am an Opie and Anthony fan. Why would a Computer Scientist who aspires to be a science fiction writer listen to Opie, Anthony and Little Jimmy? Who knows. Can you explain your friendship with all your friends? I find them amusing.

So bringing this rambling back around. Sirus XM has decided that someone like myself that pays annually for a product from a company that almost went bankrupt may not access the online content on their iPhone unless they pay an additional $2.99 a month.

Sorry folks, go tell the brilliant minds that came up with this way to encourage me to pay extra for this that it will just make me reconsider paying for an annual subscription when it comes up in the next few months. That is not an idle threat. I almost did not renew this year, but I was 2 days to late to cancel when I remembered that I had to make a phone call to stop from being charged. Be careful how much blood you try to wring from this stone. I have lots of options and most of them I have already paid for or they are free. Can you say Slacker Radio?

I remember a special on how long it would take things to decay if all the people left the earth some years ago. Now that idea is a television show. There is just one small problem, it is based on a silly premise.

The entire show is based on the idea that the entire planets population of humans disappears all at once. By disappear the show assumes that we humans have not left in space ships or have died off from disease. We just disappear.

How is this a problem? Because how we leave the planet is critical to figuring out how things fall apart.

If we all die of disease then there will be stack of bodies everywhere. The wildlife will eat well for a time, and then we will really nourish plants.

If we all got on spaceships or were teleported away in some planned excursion to another reality in a planned manner then we would shut down the power plants and open the gates so the animals can fun free and fend for themselves.

The idea that we all suddenly disappear does not make this fantasy or horror, it is just a bad premise. The producers chose one easy scenario and it allows them to take 10 minutes following the Queen of England’s Dogs around presuming how they would get out of Buckingham Palace.

Why not use the possible extinction scenarios and then talk about how the planet would react. It is just bad science and ultimately a waste of time. No research endeavor is good if it starts with a failed premise.