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• 1. Because existing online payment systems generally suck. Because I'm the lazy american consumer, and if you want my money, it is the onus of you, the content provider, to make the transaction all nice and convenient.
• 2. Because I'm enough of a privacy freak that I'll use a CC only when utterly necessary, and pay cash whenever possible. Existing net payment systems are all keyed off of CC or checking account data, none of which offer a lot of privacy. This is very unlikely to change, as anti-money-laundering-laws are a large obstacle in the way of any potential anonymous e-cash system.
• 3. Because I'm not a great fan of banks and big corporations, and don't like to give them money. If 20% of my donation to xyz.org is a hidden transaction fee to some e-cash broker or bank (who may then resell the data to marketers or other banks), then I'd just as soon forget the whole thing, throw out the middleperson, and snail-mail cash or a money order directly to xyz.org.
• 4. Because I put a great deal of time and energy into creating my own content (music), which I do out of personal enjoyment, and because I have a big enough ego to therefore not feel quite so bad if I'm freeloading somebody else's content.
• Because when I allocate resources towards arts/entertainment/creativity, I like to feel like it means something. I almost never buy new books or music anymore (though I do buy a lot of used books/CDs), but I'm more than happy to support local bands, go to local small theater, give fat tips to street performers, etc. Because I like to get involved in creativity in a way more personal and meaningful than "CLICK HERE TO DONATE".

All that said, I'm admittedly writing from a perspective where I've never had to deal with $1000-a-month server bills, or worry about going broke from rampant popularity. And that's a real issue for some people, and I agree that people who create good content deserve to be rewarded and supported in their efforts, in a way that doesn't compromise their creativity.

But I don't see a magic solution to these issues emerging anytime soon - if ever. Because there really are a lot of intertangled issues involved, and it's taken this long (*ages* in internet time) just to get people to start asking the right questions, and thinking about the whole issue in a suitably nuanced manner.

I'll also mention that, from where I sit, the most useful thing people can do is get involved somehow on a personal level -- create your own content, write a substantive fan letter to the creator of your favorite semi-obscure site, talk about the issues with your less-techie friends and family. I completely agree that a good, popular site can't happen without money, but I also think that untangling these dilemmas is at least as much a cultural issue as an economic one.

QUOTATION DIVISION.

Teach them COBOL first. Then threaten them with a lifetime of doing that, if they don't learn Java/C++ well enough.

MESSAGE BODY DIVISION.

The only problem with that is that I don't think you can really appreciate the clunkiness of COBOL unless you've already got some experience in a good language. Someone who has zero programming experience just might not have the gut-level aversion to COBOL that comes with time and experience.

Personally, I'm glad that I spent that semester studying COBOL. It's pretty interesting as a historical relic, it let me learn a lot about punch cards, and it taught me to steer clear of the stuff in the real world.

SIGNATURE DIVISION.

NAVIGATE WEB BROWSER TO http://ishmail.prmsystems.com/hh.html .

Distribute their music themselves on websites that they can build and get hosted for free.

Keep dreaming. Do you really think think this will happen?

Additional hardware including a hard-disk drive, liquid-crystal display (LCD), keyboard and mouse will be offered to help customers access the new features.

Note that the monitor being discussed is a special LCD monitor, and not a standard VGA hookup. Why? Because the PS2 is a DVD player, and the DVD Consortium has apparently dictated that DVD players aren't allowed to output an RGB signal, because Macrovision only works along a composite signal path.

Reservoir Zig

You sissies and your monitors...why don't you program like real men, using flashing LEDs to let you know what's going on.

Ahh, you too have no idea how coddled and pampered you really are. When I learned to code, LEDs weren't yet in widespread use, and all of the computers used HEDs (heat emitting diodes) for status displays. The only way to tell if a bit was set was to touch a HED and see if your fingers got burned. It was no fun at all coming off of an all-night hacking binge with my fingers covered in tiny pinpoint-sized burns from a particularly gruelling debugging session, only to go to work for twelve hours manufacturing watch springs in a dangerous sweatshop just so I could afford the computer time and a bit of coal to fuel young Timmy's iron lung.

I'm just glad I wasn't there the night that some fool decided to mess around with the system clock multiplier, causing all the HEDs to set fire to the console, burning down not only the data center but also two adjacent nursing homes and a Salvation Army warehouse used to store surplus 72oz cans of bean w/bacon soup.

Reservoir Zigs

The only thing I can't figure out is why they're called "CD-R", Compact Disc Readable?

Um, "CD Recordable"? You have to admit that "CDW" sounds like you have a mouth full of oatmeal.

Reservoir Zig

I'll have to give some thought as to whether I want to adopt the Open Audio license for my own music, but it's always nice to hear of such iniatives, even if they don't prove revolutionary in and of themselves -- they are still indicators of a refreshing trend. It also would certainly help if the EFF were able to get a few big-name musicians behind the Open Audio License, to raise awareness.

I'll also mention that people interested in open/copylefted music should check out my website -- there's a good selection of mp3 ranging in styles from house/drum & bass to hip-hop and psychedelic punk.

I'll have to give some thought as to whether I want to adopt the Open Audio license for my own music, but it's always nice to hear of such iniatives, even if they don't prove revolutionary in and of themselves -- they are still indicators of a refreshing trend. It also would certainly help if the EFF were able to get a few big-name musicians behind the Open Audio License, to raise awareness.

I'll also mention that people interested in open/copylefted music should check out my website -- there's a good selection of mp3 ranging in styles from house/drum & bass to hip-hop and psychedelic punk.

It really saddens me to see how the space program has gotten shoved in the background over the past decade or two. Sure, it's a horrendously expensive endeavor in the short term, but I can't think of ANY better long-term investment, with returns in technology, economic wealth (I'd wager there's gold - and things even more valuable - in them there asteroids), and essential resources (stick a big array of solar panels in orbit, and you've got insane amounts of free energy, forever). And with overpopulation and global industrialization progressing at their current rate, humanity better start thinking NOW about where it's going to go as a species once things start to get truly shaky, even if that's a century or two down the road. Getting lots of people off the planet, one way or another, looks like the best long-term option from my perspective.

In the short term, too, I think the space program has many benefits. It gives people something to dream about, and a way to express the pioneer spirit now that all of available land masses on earth have been more or less spoken for. When I was growing up, in the late 70s-early 80s, the space program was one of the first things to get me REALLY fired up about learning. Following the progress of the Voyager missions, the Mars probes, and the first Space Shuttle flights was utterly mind-blowing. I suspect that these interests had plenty to do with my getting interested in computers, which has proved rewarding in all sorts of ways. But then, a few years later, between the arms race of the cold war and the explosion of the Challenger, the U.S. cooled off on the space race, and hasn't regained the same momentum since.

There are plenty of arguments that money for the space program can be better spent. Not just on increased military spending and tax cuts for the rich, but for things like food and education. How can a nation spend billions building space probes when so many of its own people are going hungry, homeless, and without medical care? That's a sticky question.

But in the long term, I think that if anything holds the keys for humanity's long-term success as a species, it's probably the space program.

Note to President Bush: if you succeed in getting me that $1600 tax cut you've talked about, you can send my share to NASA. They've got much cooler things to spend the money on than I do.

All your mp3 are belong to us.

The Top Ten Most Wanted List is a hoot, filled with dire language describing people who "force clicks on banners" (i.e. click a banner to download a file) as having "Stole $2000". I'm picturing some guy pointing a gun at a user's head, screaming "CLICK IT!", then afterwards going to rob a convenience store.

Some of the other comments are great also: "distributor of banner click software....heavy duty dude...beware!" Now I'm envisioning some cold-blooded ruffian fingering his glock as he puts the finishing touches on a Perl script.

All your forced clicks are belong to us.

so what if Scott Adams "sold out"? What was he rebelling against in the first place? Ice cream? You're not making any sense, moron. I think it's great that Dilbert is featured on Ben & Jerry's ice cream, it's more of an honor than anything. More than you can say about your pathetic life, Hemos, you phoney rebel.

I read Hemos' comment as implying that it was Ben & Jerry (ice cream co. with a hippy left-wing image) who were selling out by pimping Dilbert -- after all, Scott Adams has come out and said plainly enough that he's in it for the money, and will license his properties to pretty much anybody (I lost most of what little respect I had for Adams when I heard about his licensing Dilbert for use in IBM employee handbooks).

But personally, at this stage in the game, I have a hard time getting myself worked up over cartoon characters being used to sell shoddy merchandise. After Warner Bros. stores opened every half mile from coast to coast, I just stopped caring.

All your shameless plugs are belong to us.

Great idea! And someone should sell a Doom breakfast cereal that I could eat while I watch the Doom breakfast serial.

Don't be glib. It's clear that CmdrTaco is waxing nostalgic for the days before ethernet became common, when we'd all squeeze in a little deathmatch over the RS232 connection before work.

All your MP3 are belong to us.

Just for fun, I ran the "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US" through Babblefish (sic)

I translated the phrase to different languages and back to English, and got the following:

• Italian: "all your base is belongs to we"
• Portuguese: "all its base is in them belongs"
• English -> German -> French -> English: "Your whole lower part being to belong us". Wow.

All your beats are belong to us.

Oh.. so you think managers have the best perspective on how to use peoples skills. heh.. right.

Actually, in my 6-7 years of being a paid coder & admin, I've found that the supervisors and CIOs I've had to work with have been, by and large, pretty reasonable, intelligent folks. There have been some who had PHB tendencies or had a different work style, but in the great majority of cases they've been smart people who knew a lot about computers.

Upper management and interdepartment politics, on the other hand, have often been the bane of my existence. But there *are* plenty of shops that have competent IT departments. That doesn't mean that I've never had to work with incompentent people, or people with maddeningly strange personalities, but by and large I've been pretty successful in being able to use my skills effectively and learn new things at every job I've had.

All your base are belong to us.

If you are making what I would classify as "parasitic" music ie. DJ stuff, some techno, some hip-hop you can pick up some software for a few hundred bucks and maybe one decent mic and you are set

As opposed to, say, "parasitic" music like Elvis Presley, or most early rock & roll, or Robert Johnson's producers, all of which ripped off earlier blues styles and musicians wholesale without credit or compensation?

(Now go download some symbiotic music to listen to).

I've been a bedroom-studio musician for a little under a decade, and it's been really wonderful seeing how the expanse of technology has allowed me to do things that would have been difficult or impossible to do 20 years ago without an expensive studio.

As others have mentioned in this thread, Tascam's introduction of the Portastudio in the late 70s was the REAL revolution, and that was my first really important purchase. I recorded my first full tape around 1993, using a combination of acoustic instruments, Casio CZ-1000 keyboard, Tascam 4-track, and an Atari ST as a primitive sequencer/sampler. The Atari ST, at 8mhz and 4MB of RAM, could loop beats and samples at all of 8-bit 22khz I think, but it made a GREAT MIDI sequencer - it ran Cubase, and was far more stable and reliable than anything I've used on a PC.

Computers themselves have been a big part of the tech boom for musicians, but it's also driven down the price of electronics in general. For a few hundred dollars, you can pick up a used Akai or Roland sampler with power that would have cost tens of thousands of dollars a couple of decades ago. And while I'm not sold on the ability of just a PC and software to be an all-in-one production station, it's made a BIG difference. With a fast machine and a good recording card (i.e. not a consumer-level one), it's no big deal having 24 tracks or more of high-quality digital audio. And that software DOES come in handy for editing and post-production tasks, and the advent of the CD burner means that you can cut a perfect-quality copy of your work instantly -- tape hiss is a thing of the past.

Overall, I've probably spent about $3-$5K on my studio over the past decade, not counting the computer upgrades every couple of years that I would have done anyway. From this setup, I've put out at least half a dozen self-produced tapes and CDs (ranging from electronic music to psychedelic punk) that haven't made me a living, but have gotten me a couple of club gigs and radio play on both sides of the Atlantic. I think that's pretty cool. (but don't just believe me,listen for yourself!)

I'm really glad I got into home recording before the PC explosion hit, though, because it made me go out and learn a lot of fundamental information about sound engineering that I might not have gone out and learned otherwise. It's a GOOD thing that I don't have to fool with bouncing tracks or setting up MIDI tape sync or wrestling with quite as many patch cables as I used to, but I'm glad that I know how, since it gives me a wider perspective of recording technology. Learning how to really use a 4-track will prepare you for aspects of a full-blown studio that no amount of Cakewalking ever will. And there are countless cool effects possible with a mixer and tape recorder that are well-nigh impossible to reproduce purely in the digital domain.

So by all means, computers are great - get out there and make some music with them - but don't forget that low-tech is an important part of the picture as well.

For those, like me, who choose not to do business with amazon in any form, it appears that one can add 's1.amazon.com' to one's Junkbuster blockfile, and it'll replace the whole 'tip jar' banner with a broken link and an ALT tag reading "amazon honor system". Much less obstrusive, and it still lets you browse amazon.com normally, as far as I can tell.

I have mixed feelings about micropayment systems, but one thing you CAN do to encourage and reward people's efforts is to take a minute to send fan mail to sites/artists/musicians that you really like. Personally, a few meaningful comments about my work give me a lot more encouragement than the few bucks a month a micropayment system might result in.

the first time we entered his classroom we were met loud Bob Dylan-songs.

The bitterly ironic thing about this is that Bob Dylan is a vocal proponent of further extending the term of copyright. It deeply saddened me to learn this -- I'd always sort of lumped Bob into the category of cool folk singers like Woody Guthrie (who released all of his songs into the public domain).

Don't give these people your money. Go listen to some free music instead.

notice how many people *are* using png? not a lot...

I am, at least for the titles on my, erm, original MP3 page. Irony abounds.

For those who like Paul Barman and C64 (I'm really glad to see both of them merit an appearance on /.!), might I also recommend the following:

• Del The Funky Homosapien - Del has a definite obsession with comics, manga, and video games. The song "Proto-Culture" on his latest album "Both Sides of the Brain" is an homage to console gaming, referencing everything from Colecovision to Dreamcast.
• Buck 65. This MC from Canada goes off on all sorts of interesting topics. (i.e. "Making Love With Your Disk Drive"). You can get Buck 65's album (and lots of other great underground hip-hop) at sandbox.pair.com.
• My site contains a couple of original mp3 tracks that could be construed as geek rap, as well as some other goodies for any other hip-hoppers out there. Check it out.