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Its been almost three wasted hours now just attempting to be able to get my Zune setup. Its funny because I understand computers and this should not be so hard, I almost feel bad for those who are not quite as computer literate.

First off, it took me forever, at least a dozen attempts to get the Zune Marketplace software installed, for some reason it kept stopping. Finally got that all set, plugged in the Zune, updated the software to the current 2.5 and I thought I was ready to download music and sync. Oh how wrong I was.

With little time, I gave up last night and picked up this morning. I have spent way too much time and am considering a return. It comes down to an issue with DRM on my computer, which is funny because its a Windows XP Home machine with SP3 installed. I have used it for nothing other than some basic web surfing, in fact the only other program installed, other than what came with the computer, (its a Compaq) was Firefox.

In my attempt to download music, I was greeted with this error.

Naturally I went to the “web help” but was not given anything useful, in fact I was given nothing.

After this I called tech support, only to spend an hour on the phone with them attempting all the same crap that I already tried. I finally told him I had enough when he began asking me to uninstall and reinstall numerous items.

I just want to download and listen to music.

Well that is enough for today, I may try again tomorrow, but until then it looks pretty bad for the Zune.

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As promised I have gone ahead with the purchase of the Zune, its here and at first glance it seems pretty nice. I still have to charge it up and get my account setup with the Marketplace. Sadly, I am kind of strapped for time today so some of that will have to wait till tomorrow before I get any further into my Zune experience.

In the meantime check out my unboxing set on Flickr.

Wow, shocking news coming from such as die hard Mac fan, and regular user since the OS 9 days but I have decided to grab a Zune of my own, just to see what it really is like. Now before you think I am crazy or have lost my mind, I want to make it clear that I am not swearing off the iPod or iPhone and will actually continue to use my Shuffle on my daily runs and my iPhone daily as well.

But the allure of the subscription based model has enticed me to give it a try, I did consider Napster or some of the others, but also have been Zune-curious for a while. I love music and cannot always listen to all the new stuff that I want, because buying tracks and CD’s on a regular basis gets really expensive. The idea of paying $14.95 a month now seems like a good deal, at least to me. I plan to use the Zune Marketplace to download and listen to music, and continue to use iTunes for my podcasts (which reside on my iPhone) and also for any music that I want to purchase. I have no plans to purchase anything additional from the Zune Marketplace.

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While I don’t consider myself a gossip blogger in any sort, this case was local, so the media coverage was over and above. Our local news channel, Bay News 9 was in the courtroom and has been broadcasting for the past several hours, most of which I have either been watching or had on in the background and listened while I was doing other work. I will also also mention that I have mixed feelings about the whole case simply because I was once 17-years old, and its safe to say that I was not always the best behaved. Anyway the case details, or actually the verdict

The sentence was handed out, he received:

• 5-years probation
• 500 community service hours
• No alcohol during probation
• Must attend DUI School and Defensive Driving School
• 3-years without a drivers license

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