I'm impulsive when it comes to purchasing new music from iTunes, which no doubt makes Apple very happy. Inherent features of the iTunes Music Store, including other best selling songs by artists, and what others who purchased the song you're viewing also bought are very tempting tools to expand what may have been a $.99 or $9.99 purchase into something larger than that. And if you've had a chance to take a peek at my iTunes Library of late, you'll see I've already got thousands of songs to listen to - which if I sat down to consume in one gulp would take more than two and a half weeks of uninterrupted absorption. That means that some very good songs no doubt don't receive their fare share of attention, and it also suggests I don't need to purchase more songs, but instead listen to those I already have.

With that in mind, I looked into finding which songs I had purchased from the iTunes Music Store that hadn't been listened to more than say, 3 times, which would indicate a price of 33 cents per play or higher. I created a Smart Playlist consisting of songs in my "Purchased" playlist, and added another parameter that their "Play Count" was 3 or less. According to my real-time results, that consists of 53 items, and 6.4 hours total of entertainment to go - including one mix for 1 hour, 21 minutes.

So now, we're looking to fix my abhorrent spending habits, and we're becoming acclimated to those songs that so far have had a "Bad ROI".

Listening to ''Rush (Vinyl Version)'', by Purple Haze (Play Count: 1)

More in an irregularly occurring series...

Everyone and their mom has had to note that Robert Scoble, famed Microsoft blogger, is leaving the software monolith, and joining a Silicon Valley startup, PodTech, focused on podcasting. His notes previous to leaving were another good way to gain insight into the sometimes undecipherable mechanics of the Redmond company, and with the slowdown at Mini-Microsoft of late, the transparency just got a little darker.

Similar to the work done over at TechMeme, it now looks like Digg is going to jump from being 100% technology focused to also offering more vertical sites, for politics and other fare. TechMeme actually started as memeorandum.com for politics, before its technology site took off. The site also offers parallel pages for baseball and entertainment/gossip news.

And, not to pick on Microsoft too much, but The UK-based Inquirer suggests that the Origami themed ultramobile PCs (UMPCs) have been a market disaster and a technology flop. Just wait until Apple evolves and eats their lunch.

Listening to ''Feed Your Mind (Club Mix)'', by Oakenfold (Play Count: 1)

We haven't been the best users of Netflix lately. In fact, after putting Star Wars: Episode III on the queue months ago, the DVD has been collecting dust on the top of our DVD player, as we tried to find a good excuse to watch a show we weren't too excited about anyway. But surprisingly, Revenge of the Sith was actually much better than Episode I and Episode II, and if I were forced to watch all six episodes consecutively (kill me now), I'd actually not be opposed to seeing Episode III again.

I'm not a Star Wars nerd. Never have been. But I had roommates in the last few years before I got married who demanded to go to the midnight showings of Episode I and Episode II, and the anticipation well outweighed the final result. In this case, we had low expectations, and they were exceeded, which is always good. And best of all, we can restart our queue with Netflix, and best utilize my wife's summer vacation with a string of good DVDs.

Listening to ''In Church'', by M83 (Play Count: 2)

It wasn't too long ago that Dan Johnson's slow start to the season had some talking about his revisiting AAA Sacramento. After today's 2 home run game against the Yankees, leading the A's to a sweep of New York, DJ has a whole new look at life - one some think might be a bit too large, and too premature. The ANtics investigates...

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ANtics Archive: 2005/06 ANtics | PDF | Take The Poll