Please don’t support these sites. Not only does software piracy hurt the developers that work hard to build the tools you use everyday, but these sleazy pirates don’t deserve to make a red cent on other people’s hard work.  Most of these software have some catch anyway, i.e., you can’t download updates or some online features won’t work, etc.

Ways you can find out if you’re at risk of downloading improperly licensed software?
1. If it’s a price that’s too good to be true, it’s probably because it isn’t true.
2. If there is no option for them to mail you a copy of the disk/manuals.
3. If there are some ridiculously complicated instructions to install the software.

If you are going to commit software piracy, at least do it for free. The minute you spend any amount of money for anything that has anything to do with software piracy, you are no longer the smart, resourceful netizen and have officially joined the ranks of online chumps.

Thanks for bearing with my rant. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

And just like 25 years ago, the rare opportunity was made for a direct comparison… er, I mean compilation of the today’s biggest and best egos… er, I mean talents in the music industry… er, I mean entertainment industry… er, I mean music industry.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am all for the effort by all that put this together and I really wish that I could post this up without taking away from their contribution because what they put together still amounts to a whole lot more than just sitting idle and not lending a helping hand.  Unfortunately, in the end the fruit of their efforts comes off as a haphazardly thrown together representation of today’s pop music and that culture which it represents.

The list of pop culture representatives is quite comprehensive (1) a YouTube success story – Justin Bieber (who by the way was the only kid that needed a lyric sheet for the recording session); (2) an American Idol finalist – Jennifer Hudson; (3) a country music crossover success – Jennifer Nettles; (4) a Disney tweeny bopper – Miley Cyrus; (5) the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls (they’re a cliche in a league all on their own); (6) auto-tune; and (7) that ever-so-popular out of place, awkward rap bridge.

I must say, though. Littered between the overused cliches and failed vocal imitations, were a few gem performances that remind us of the talented producers who put this together.  To name a few, (1) Jennifer Hudson reprising Stevie Wonder; (2) Jennifer Nettles owning Paul Simon’s part; (3) Mary J. Blige as Tina Turner; and (4) Wyclef Jean turning The Boss’ part into an emotional outcry for the people of Haiti.  I’m not sure how they pulled it off, but I’ll even admit they somehow even managed to make the awkward rap part work.  I’ll just chalk it up as a by product of the talent of LL Cool J and company.

That being said, I’m glad that over 70 celebrities who I’m sure could have easily said they had other things to do were able to get together and jump on the Haiti bandwagon.  In the end, the right people end up benefiting from their efforts and that’s what counts.

So get out there and download the complete album from iTunes.  Your purchase will go toward supporting those in need in Haiti.

Nevertheless, the PSHB community has been very welcoming and gracious and the  services that do support it have been well documented and pretty easy to work with.

I am now in the process of building a simple app that will perform as a subscriber in the Pubsubhubbub scenario. I was surprised that there aren’t very many publicly available services that utilize PSHB. Well, the protocol gets my vote and I hope that more and more services choose to adopt it.