No Royal Road

After some casting about for a good way to improve my guitar playing, I've begun some remedial study of classical guitar technique. I've landed back with Aaron Shearer, whose Classic Guitar Technique got me started about 30 years ago. This time, though, I'm using Shearer's Learning the Classic Guitar method, a revised and even more thorough approach to guitar technique. Although I've been aware of the three books that make up Learning the Classic Guitar for years, I had never really looked at them carefully enough to see how Shearer's approach had changed. When I finally read some samples on Google Books, I was impressed with his gradual and straightforward system. It made good sense to me.  

Is this ethical?

Is it ethical to use psychological tricks to get people to buy things they don't need? For instance, this book suggests that they are ways to do this: 

Neuro Web Design

Stanford Laptop Orchestra

What a cool idea! An orchestra consisting of people with laptops making cool electronic music. And that's speaking as someone who spends most of his time making music on an acoustic guitar. 

• Apple's page promoting the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk)
  
• Local news video piece on SLOrk