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I still use it. It's fast and doesn't contain much of the junk there is out there today, and I don't need a full blown application to sync my music.

The original developer, Justin Frankel went on start a new company "Cockos" ( http://cockos.com/ ) after leaving AOL to develop a professional multi-track digital audio workstation named Reaper ( http://reaper.fm/ ).

Here's his personal site on his updates:
http://1014.org/

Reaper's window's only (although it runs on Wine), but lately he's been working on porting it to Linux, in a world where digital workstations are for the most part, Mac and Windows only. Audio drivers for professional-grade analog-digital audio interfaces are still lacking, but having a pro-grade application is a start. Plus he seems to be linking Valgrind a lot, which is helping him detect memory leaks easier.

Great mutlitracking software, simple enough and straightforward if you know your way around other DAW environments like Pro-Tools or Cubase, keyboard shortcuts can be easily customized.

I'm sorry, but Ardour is not "great". I believe in Linux and OSS, but if you need to make a living in music or sound, you are not going to be using Ardour. The music production community is always open to new technologies, and if Ardour were anything like a professional-quality application, it would be used.

There are many great ways to use Linux in a production environment. You can have a Linux box as your sample server, use it to off-load effects and plugins and for rendering. But we still have a ways to go before Linux can be used for DAW production. You can get it done, but it's not nearly optimal.

At least once a year, a take a run at the latest incarnation of Ardour. If you're a database programmer and want to play like Jonathan Coulton in your spare time, then fine. You can make Ardour work the same way you can use a folding camping shovel to dig a foundation. But if you want to dig a lot of foundations, you're going to want to invest in a back-hoe. And there is no Linux back-hoe for music.

NOTE: The fine people at Cockos, who make Reaper and their active community (which is the finest DAW software at the moment, in my opinion) support the use of their software in Linux using Wine. http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=26690

They also encourage the use of Linux in production and post-production via gigabit connections (for offloading processes and rendering and plugins and sample streaming, as I described above). If you are a dedicated Linux zealot, I would suggest starting with Reaper. It's very inexpensive compared to ProTools and it's much more robust and even refined.

Or, if you don't wanna pirate stuff, get Reaper: http://www.cockos.com/reaper/

Cheap ($225 if you're making more than $20k, $60 for personal or small-scale commercial use), excellent quality, friendly upgrading. The sum total of the "copy protection" is that if you aren't registered, it will remind you that they are asking money for it. It does not restrict or limit itself in any way. Extremely flexible and powerful.

The world has changed, and overall I think it's for the better.

The RIAA is on the verge of complete irrelevance. We don't need your expensive studios when a laptop, some microphones, recording interfaces, and a low-cost but excellent DAW are available to anyone who can save up a couple thousand for them. And we don't need your distribution channels . . . we have facebook, bandcamp, itunes, a million others.

The middleman looks so sad trying to get between his customers and his suppliers after they figure out they don't need his sorry ass.

Reaper is non-DRM laden (has a nag screen), is way more powerful, has an update schedule that makes Linux look pokey, and the manual is free and always updated.

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/index.php

I have 35GB of photos. I keep my "master" copy on my main HDD on my computer at home. I have a USB HDD plugged into it which is a generic backup device; I use pathsync to back up my photos there.

I can use my work hard drive for storage, so I also keep a copy on my work HDD as one off-site backup - I can connect to the office network via VPN, mount my work drive on my home PC and I can also use pathsync - though if I have many gigs of new photos I'll just copy them on my phone and bring them.

I also have a simple personal web hosting account at GoDaddy with some stupid amount of storage, so I just randomly FTP up copies of images when I remember.

One big concern I have is making sure the images aren't getting corrupted in transit or by disk failure, so I'm thinking about putting together a simple system to regularly verify them all via md5 to ensure there's not any changes that I'm not expecting. A side effect of this system is it would easily help me figure out exactly how many copies I have of all these images and where they are.

PathSync (GPL)

an interactive directory (path) synchronizer for windows

PathSync can analyze two directories and show the user a list of differences between the directories.

The user can select what actions should occur (which files to overwrite, which to delete, which to ignore), and allow PathSync to synchronize.

I use this in a jiffy, it works by comparing the dates and file sizes of the files; and what's there or missing; and just copy/delete to make a clone of the source.

Furthermore, it's portable (just copy the directory) although I am not sure if it leaves anything behind in the registry

Bonus is that it can save/load the settings that you use before.

Not exactly what you're after but worth a mention anyway, I reckon:

PathSync by Cockos (Justin Frankel of Winamp fame's new company).

It has some automation features as well; haven't used them so can't vouch for them.

The problem with that stuff (cool as it is) it that it's easy to get lost in all the technology, and lose sight of what you're after. If you're a real geek, you've probably already got at least one musical instrument you can play - guitar, piano, zither... Whatever. Doing it yourself will be a lot more impressive than paying some dude to do it for you. I taught myself how to play a handful of instruments, and I'm pretty much the klutziest guy I know. Have a look at something like How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons for a good book that demystifies making music.

Here's a quick lesson: if you've got access to a piano, you'll notice that the black keys are grouped in a repeating pattern of 3 and 2. The scale of notes (starting with the leftmost of the 3 black keys) spells out a F# major pentatonic scale (F# G# A# C# D#). It's the same scale that windchimes are tuned to - play those keys, and you won't hit a bad note. (For those curious, it's a "gapped" scale, with the notes B and F (technically E#) removed, which gets of the potential dissonance between the notes A# and B and F and F#. Play the F# with your left hand, and then noodle around on the black keys with your right hand. Change the note your left hand plays for variety (the progression F#, B, C# is particularly nice) and you've got it made. This isn't rocket science.

If music's not your gig, write a poem, or make a drawing, or whatever. Just make it honest. When my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were broken up, she came over one day and snuck a look into my desk, and found a bunch of poems I had written about how miserable I was feeling without her. (No, I hadn't planned on her ever reading them - I'm pretty damned shy. Why do you think I'm posting as an Anonymous Coward?)

Anyway, she had already heard from me how I felt, but it wasn't until she actually read my private stuff for herself that she believed it.

It's not the slickness of the production, or the heartfelt sound of the singer's voice that's going to win her over. It's putting a chunk of your heart on the line, and doing something that's authentically you. (Unfortunately, that doesn't typically include writing her some elegant code).

Windows comes preinstalled on any new PC purchase so your 600 dollar remark is moot. Besides, considering as new as Vista is, anyone doing recording on Windows right now will shy away from it until thier hardware and/or software is certified by the manufacturer to run without issue.

As for the bundled software comment, do a search on any music supplier's site and you'll find that at least 80% of the audio interfaces for sale there DO have OEM recording/editing software included. If perchance that you don't get any software with your hardware, then go download Reaper. It's shareware (only 40 bucks for a license), almost as full-featured as all of the more expensive DAW software, and supports a multitude of plug-in formats (VST, VSTi, DX, DXi, and even ReWire)

http://www.cockos.com/assniffer/

No kidding. And while we're on the subject, he's also working on a program called Assniffer ;).

Have you seen the name of their products?

Here's a packet sniffer called Assniffer.

Other "cool" innovations - the PHP source for their page generation! With (omgzzss11!1one) AUTO-CENTERING OF TEXT!

Good thing their front page says they're developing "technologies that some people might find interesting. Maybe."

But they should've added, "...if they snicker at every obnoxious, grade-school dick joke" since that's apparently the theme they've chosen for this crap.

i've met the original nullsoft guys. they are about as cool, talented, and as interested in open source as it comes.

AOL lacks all of these attributes, hence the closed-source, closed-door, closed-down-operation.

glad to know that the spirits behind winamp are not dead.