More Shuffle Stuff

Intrigued by the imbalance I experienced listening to the first 20 songs on my iPod shuffle, I decided to listen to a lot more. After listening to over 150 of my 895 songs, I can report, without hesitation, that the shuffle feature is, indeed, random, as advertised.

While seemingly unusual patterns emerge from time to time, listening to enough songs makes it clear that the "patterns" are random.

One other advantage that came from shuffling: There are a number of albums on my CD that I have no patience for. I could never sit through an entire Adi Ran or Sinai Tor album, for example. But I found myself much more able to deal with their weird stuff on a song by song basis. I even liked some of it (and admired much of it for it's freshness (weird though it may be).

Which brings me to a legal point (I'm sure you see the connection).

The Federal Trade Commission will have to rule on whether the proposed merger of Sirious and XM satellite radio firms would violate anti-trust law. I have seen some discussion about how to define the "market". Is it the market for satellite radio or all radio?

I have another thought. I think the market should also include iPods. Why would you pay $15 a month for satellite radio when you can just shuffle your iPod? I think iPods are the real competition.

(BTW, that's my expert legal opinion coming from a lawyer who knows zilch about anti-trust law. Ignorance has never stopped me from offering opinions before).