In Praise of iTunes

So I work here, in this little office, in a facility where people are in, and are out, and other people are in. Some -- the ones who make eye contact in the hallways, say hello, try to strike up a conversation or at least converse back when I do -- are nice. Some -- the ones who walk down the hallway, eyes down -- aren't.

In this building there are probably 50 shifting people. And out of these, every day there are four or five who have iTunes loaded onto their computers. These computers sit on a common network. The network allows everyone who has iTunes set to share see the music of everyone else who has iTunes set to share.

This is so incredibly cool. I don't know these people. It's possible that the people who share their music are the people who walk down the halls with their heads down (after all, some of their music SUCKS). But knowing that I can listen to other people's music, that they WANT me to listen to it, and that they can listen to mine...without knowing me...and yet getting to know me...this rocks hard. Right now, one person is listening to my music. My name is on my office door. I hope the person makes an introduction.