Let's face it; not every house in the world has a modem yet. But naturally, I was shocked when I found out that my vacation house in southern France had no phone or Internet connection at all. How the hell was I supposed to fill in those two weeks without surfing the web? Luckily my MacBook was brand new, so I had some stuff to check out, but obviously that wasn't going to last for a long time.

I guess that if you own a MacBook yourself, you've found out that it's loaded with features. And after I watched a bunch of movies I put on it a week before my arrival at the house, I just went searching for stuff I had not discovered yet in the Tiger OS. Well I definitely had fun with Photo Booth, although it's kind of sad to sit there making strange faces of yourself.

Then there's GarageBand. I must say I didn't really know what it was at first (I thought it was a program to make notes compose your classical music or something), so it really surprised me it was the way it was. Well... it didn't take me too long to find out I sucked at that stuff, so I abandoned it more or less.

Oh and the fun I had with the dictionary widget! I looked up some English words I didn't quite understand (I'm Dutch, give me a break), and now I know them. Handy! But that was about the only useful widget as the other ones required a connection. I had the usual fun with Photoshop CS2 but it wasn't quite as fun when you can't take pictures from the web. Also, I hoped 203 songs and a couple of (video) podcasts in iTunes were enough for two weeks. Sadly, I got bored with all of them after a while, so I had to make my own tracks in GarageBand... and they were crap.

Of course I pretty much knew there wasn't a modem in my house, but surely one of the neighbours has a unsecured wireless connection? Okay, there was one, but it was WAP protected. Too bad. After a while I gave up. I went to the pool and to McDonald's.

So kids, always check whether your new house in the mountains has a connection. If not, you better start "borrowing" some movies while you still can.

Another Apple Expo is confirmed to be Jobs-less. Nope, it isn't a typo. Jobs-less as in no Steve Jobs.

This time, the charismatic Chief Executive passes on to give a keynote address at the largest annual Apple trade show in Europe. This was confirmed by organizer Reed Expositions spokesperson, Clementine Tisserand.

"There will be no keynote at this year's show" she said, adding that the decision was not made by Reed. The expo is slated to run from September 12 -16 at Porte De Versailles in Paris, France.

It is worth mentioning also that such non-appearance is not the first of its kind. Because of one reason or another, Jobs has failed to attend their company's expos since the year 2003.

It will be remembered that the new iPods and new fall Mac computer line were introduced using special media events last year of September and October.

Most Silicon Valley executives seem to have forgotten some lessons they have learned way back in business school or while they're taking their MBAs - that important moral lesson happens to be put the customers first, above profits, above income, above anything. This is what CNet Executive Editor, Charles Cooper, believes. His opinions focused on the incompatibility of the iTunes Music Store to non-Apple mp3 players.

He mentions that the decision to make the iTunes incompatible to others was a good business decision that most likely contributed to why Apple's iPod is the best selling mp3 player around, and why Creative is being portrayed as a green-eyed monster jealous with the attention and profits that the rival's product is getting. The iPod + iTunes combo entailed big money and profits, but did they put out their customers first? Well, certain European countries don't think so.

We have mentioned the problem that Apple had with France and Denmark with regards to why the iTunes is incompatible with non-Apple mp3 players. Apple has until the end of July to explain to regulators in Norway, Denmark and Sweden why songs sold on iTunes could not be played on rival devices. Harsh words have been exchanged, lawsuits have been filed...but the pervading question is still, "how are the consumers?"

From my understanding of what Mr. Cooper wrote, he believes that Apple will be pressed to bring down the walls it has erected i.e. the incompatibility of iTunes with other mp3 players, to guarantee that the momentum behind its great invention continues into the next decade. I couldn't agree more with him.

Apple has been known for its good customer care activities, I believe that customer care should not be the means to continue propagating a product, thus it should be the reason why a product exist in the first place. The profits is of course part of the equation, but the problem is that businessmen have been focusing on things they can't control instead of things that are within their reach. Customer service is something they can control, and, for the sake of damage control, make the iTunes compatible with others.

In a recent lawsuit filed by Apple in an E.U. court, the French government had been accused of "state-sponsored piracy." At the heart of the matter is an European Copyright law governing digital music downloads.

Despite Apple's cry of "foul!," the intention of this law would require that any music downloaded from any online music merchant needs to be playable on any digital music device. This could potentially rob Apple of a monopoly. On the other hand, it would be helpful to those downloading music if and when they chose to switch to a different portable music player, or transfer their downloads to a PDA or cell phones. The law is an attempt to create a standard music format that is playable on any device or platform.

Otherwise, users would be required to re-purchase the same tunes each time they wished to change devices.

The issue is far from simple; like laws in any democratic society, it must balance the needs and desires of both sides. From Apple's perspective, it is being forced to make its proprietary music format compatible with devices manufactured by rival companies. The French law does contain some loopholes; French artists whose performances are sold exclusively though iTunes may require that their works be made available solely in the iPod format. Additionally, the law must take patent protections into consideration. However, if Apple fails in its lawsuit, it may pull out of the French market.

Every new piece of technology that is developed is a two-edged sword. At one time, the ability to play music live was considered a valuable and useful skill. David was retained by King Saul to play the harp for him. In ancient Celtic society, bards were at the right hand of the King and could pass judgement on him. More recently (18th and 19th centuries), musicians were retained by wealthy patrons as household servants and nearly every town had its community band or orchestra.

Thomas Edison changed all of that. Now, anyone could have music any time - without the expense of live musicians.

The format in which recorded music has been kept has changed dramatically in little over a hundred years. Since 1900, we've come from bulky, spring-driven, wind-up machines the size of packing crates to slim, pocket-sized devices - and the sound quality has improved immeasurable.

Still, up until the compact disk, the format was uniform. A wax disk playable on an Edison gramophone was playable on an RCA Victrola. Audio reel-to-reels worked with players manufactured by Teac or Sony. CD's could be played on your JVC home stereo or your Sony Discman.

None of these companies seemed to suffer much from an interchangeable format. Quite the contrary, most of them prospered, and consumers wound up getting better and less expensive machines.

Considering that the "Law of the Marketplace" seems to drive everything and is fervently embraced by everyone nowadays, perhaps Apple should simply stop fighting the issue and let the marketplace decide what's best.

French lawmakers gave their final approval to the government-backed legislation that could force Apple to open up iTunes to rival MP3 companies. With this move, Apple may consider closing iTunes France and pulling its iPods from French retail shops.

The vote was the final legislative step before the copyright bill becomes a law. Apple may still be able to fight back if the last-ditch procedural challenge filed by the opposition Socialists and Greens gets a nod from the courts. The law can only take effect after the challenge is exhausted, a process that gives Apple several weeks to rethink its plans for the French market.

The law expects companies to share the required technical data with any rival that wants to offer compatible music players and stores. This means that any artist's work that is legally acquired should be playable on any digital device.

At present, songs purchased from iTunes can only be played on iPods. iPods can't play songs downloaded from its rivals store like Sony's Connect and Napster.

Apple has yet to comment on this development. Perhaps it's still mulling over the idea of abandoning France, or finding ways to take advantage of the Senate loophole that would allow the company to dodge data-sharing requirements by signing new deals with record labels and artists.