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TMBG Needs a New Dial-A-Song Machine
Ashileedo writes "Thought this was interesting. They Might Be Giants is down to their last Dial-A-Song machine, a Record-A-Call 675 circa 1983. For those who don't know, They Might Be Giants has a phone number you can call and listen to various recordings they've done" ...which is an American institution, in continual operation since the 1980s. (718)387-6962. "They're open to computer-based answering machines that can handle multiple files easily. Read more about it at
theymightbegiants.com."
They appeal to "the more technically minded fold out there -- if you know of any over the counter kick ass computer based answering machines that can handle multiple files easily, we're all ears!"
Could something like this work to build it. I can't wait to get home and play with it. I'm serious here lets build it, install it and give it to them. These boys used the term "geek rock" over 5 years ago this alone makes them worthy of our time and effort.
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Um, I'm curious as to why the above comment is flamebait. Are the moderators now offended at the idea that someone might cat a file into their dsp device? Or was it somehow implied that any enterprising band (such as They Might Be Giants) would only use Microsoft solutions, as anything costing less and being more useful would not appeal to a band with such means? Or was the attempt at humor in the above post just way too fucking far over the moderators heads?
Slow moving marsupials and the women that love them
Slow moving marsupials and the women that love them
Next time, on Geraldo...
Genius is a strong word... especially for a pop music artist.
I personally have looked for an area that needs attention, (i.e. I don't want to write yet another text editor, etc). I don't know of any answering machine type software for Linux.
If anyone is truly interested in a project to do this, or knows of one that is already going, let me know.
I wonder if this is the first actual slashdotted phone number?
Please say you'll do that to me...
Damn, you just got me hot!
You seem to start to apologize then go right back to kicking yourself in the ass.
I like TMBG, lots of people do. You don't. Lots of people don't. Why can't you accept the simple fact that you don't like their music, instead of saying it is crappy. Disliking != crap.
Promote free memes!
I hope to die peacefully in my sleep like grandpa, not screaming like his passengers.
See http://www.voyanttech.com/ for details.
Reliable DTMF detection is harder than you think. There is a TelCo test tape available for this purpose. From what I've heard, most DTMF decoders have difficulty with the test tape.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
This reminded me of an old joke line from the early 80s in the Orange County, CA area called Zygot, and I wondered if they were still around. I found this page, which documents a whole slew of the old joke lines, and has a lot of the old material on-line.
If anyone has fond memories of the old dial-a-joke recordings, you might find them here.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Dial-A-Song was /. long before /. existed. My best friend had a shirt in eigth grade (~8 years ago) with the words "Always Free/Always Busy" and the phone number (no, I'm not enough of a fan to remember it).
/* This post not warrantied for mission critical applications. */
Our dial-a-song won't work for long;
Served us well, don't get me wrong;
I like pong, Dial-a-song.
Slashdot man, Slashdot man;
Killing dial-a-song is his plan;
Posting our number like so much spam;
Bastardly man, Slashdot man;
That's all I feel like beating out.
Tell me what makes you so afraid
Of all those people you say you hate
Hmmm... I seem to remember that the macintosh 660AV that was packaged with that stupid apple modem the ummm... Goeport came with answering machine software that could do outgoing only and multiple recordings... you could have a menu for different mail boxes and those had their own outgoing message... Or maybe that was some extra software we bought... It was so very long ago... And seeing as how the ebay bids are pretty low $10-$50 this could work out well...
They are also one of the first bands to release an MP3 only album.
(TMBG to Release MP3 Album)
Sold through emusic.com, you could only obtain this album in MP3 format. No physical form of the album was released. So while they may not agree with the way Napster uses MP3's, they certainly aren't against the format itself.
(Long Tall Weekend)
--
--
You are a fucking moron.
They are also one of the first bands to release an MP3 only album.
(TMBG to Release MP3 Album)
Sold through emusic.com, you could only obtain this album in MP3 format. No physical form of the album was released. So while they may not agree with the way Napster uses MP3's, they certainly aren't against the format itself.
(Long Tall Weekend)
Actually, it's "Triangle Man, Triangle Man, Triangle man hates Particle Man. They have a fight, Triangle Wins. Triangle Man."
TMBG & The Offspring are a couple of the few better-known bands that have done a great job moving to the internet EARLY.
maybe TMBG wouldn't mind about Napster so much, if they would do a few things that The Offspring do: such as merchandise, tour dates (and maybe tour!) etc. Of course, maybe TMBG could start selling Napster t-shirts like The Offspring did! What a great sense of humor!
Rader
BTW which $10 voice modems off ebay do you like the best?
It's hard to find one which does everything correctly; especially one which is able to distinguish voice, fax and data calls AND has class 2 fax capabilities. I got a Hayes Accura 33.6 which is supposed to be one of the better ones for this but haven't tried to distinguish all 3 types of calls yet. I did have it doing voice and fax correctly. But when vgetty initializes the modem, it times out while trying to detect its type, and then takes a guess (correctly) that it's a Rockwell. So that's sortof lame. And I went round and round with isapnp with this modem, before finally getting it to settle on a fairly odd IO-interrupt combination (didn't want it on the standard serial port settings, because I wanted to be able to use both serial ports at the same time as the modem). A hardware-configurable modem which lets me put it on IRQ5 or something would be better.
I saw a TMBG T-Shirt:
Dial-A-Song:
(718) 387-6962
Always free. Always busy.
- AlanH
Talks about how TMBG had to change the songs around in order to prevent the answering machine from stop recording. (The answering machine stopped after it dedected a certain tone.)
They could also tell what songs are good and not so good by seeing how long people would listen before hanging up.
It's in the "second act". A good listen.
Shouldn't this be an "Ask Slashdot" article?
My other first post is car post.
The current Dial-a-Song is running on a crappy answering machine. In the liner notes for the album "Then", They describe how the sound of their music changed when they started Dial-a-Song, because they realized that certain sounds did not carry well over the phone lines: base and high pitch noises cause distortion, etc. Because of this, They began authoring music that would sound good over a phone line from their answering machine. At first, They had to do this by trial an error (TMBG is mostly an experimental band, anyways), but eventually They developed a sound out of it.
So, no, TMBG doesn't need powerful equipment backing this. They never have before and they don't need it now.
-no broken link
They're your only friend, they're not your only friend, but they're a little glowing, but really they're not actually your friend, but they are...
-toup
Try emusic.com for no less than nine albums of theirs in MP3 format. Not free, but not horribly expensive either ($8.99 USD). The coolest thing about emusic is their subscription service, which for as little as $10 a month you can download all you want. I have it and it's great. Oh, and the URL for the TMBG page on emusic is he re.
TMBG is a great band. But, they have publically decried Napster and P2P in general. Why should we help them with something that is run 1980's technology?
1. They aren't anti-Napster, nor anti-P2P. What they are against is the dilution of their own online community. When people download TMBG MP3s from Napster, they miss out on the large online community of TMBG fans, which TMBG has put a lot of effort into building. TMBG has little problem with fans sharing songs; TMBG has a big problem with Napster building their online community at the cost of TMBG's online community.
2. Why should we help them out? Because we're geeks. Because we like fixing problems. Because we think that maybe, just maybe, the world would be a better place if things worked right. There's an old axiom about courtesy--you aren't courteous to other people because they're superior people, but because you are. The same applies to helping others.
TMBG is to nerds what the Grateful Dead was to ... well, deadheads :) They are also one of the few big acts who have embraced MP3s as a distribution mechanism (I've bought 2 of their albums online). They sing songs about robots and Belgian painters. In my mind, they are perfect Slashdot material!!
P.S. they do not wear big suits.
ThinkGeek.com has a cool system where the music when you're on hold is played from an mp3 machine and a webpage is dynamically generated telling what songs are playing and what's up next, etc. I believe that the perl script they wrote to do this is released under the GPL.
Sometimes you by Force overwhelmed are.
Nah, a voicemail system is not what is needed, unless they still want to be able to get quality tracks like 13. :)
I have a project at work that I worked on in my spare time and is now in production. It's an automated attendant that uses Dialogic hardware. Unfortunately, it runs on NT because the Linux API was only recently released. But the app runs for months at a time, no stability problems. It is monitored by a Linux box that sends an page to my cellphone if the system goes down (it monitors a heartbeat, retrieved from the NT system via HTTP, with Apache running on the NT system).
My point is that I'm fairly qualified to design and program a system that plays music.
However, the problem with the slightly older Dialogic hardware is that the sound files it can play are all Dialogic ADPCM (6Khz or 8Khz sampling). Use CoolEdit to turn a decent soundfile into a Dialogic vox file. The quality is pretty bad.
The other issue is the number of phone lines needed for a system like this. For more than 20 lines, it may be far better to get T1 or ISDN PRI voice service. This means other Dialogic hardware that can accept T1 or PRI directly. I'm also a PBX and telecomm expert, I work with phone companies and design stuff and all that.
BTW, the automated attendant pulls data from Lotus Notes and provides a directory, validates extensions, and uses PBX digital integration (Voicebridge cards) to do all kinds of cool stuff to the PBX. If anyone wants some code, reply to this. I check.
Hello little man. I will destroy you!
And in runs on WinTel machines but, but Call Center might work. Heck, most "digital answering machine" software would do, wouldn't it? Granted, it couldn't play differing files and you'd want to set it to not record.
d a-dong-dong -da-dee-da-d ebba-D world destruction, Over and ovature, N do I need apostrophie, T need this torture :)
Dunno, but a possibilty.
Debba-da-dong-dong-da-dee-da-debba-debba-debba-
Ad in classifieds: Pandora's Box (no box) $5
hey, wow, i'm posting...
yes, they get it, they've had it, and they will keep making it...
dial-a-song has been around since the first album was out. also they've released two albums i believe in mp3 format only. they're purchaseable somewhere probably linked on the website. also dial-a-song is available linked through their website as a listenable experience online as well as by the phone. there ya go.
[)(]subliminal labs[)(]
Comment lines were awesome. They were like BBS's for people without computers. Hell, I even used them when I did have a computer (and one of those fancy 300 baud modems). There were a bunch of them in Southern California -- Feedback, Observatory, Phun Phone, etc. I don't know if they caught on in other parts of the country/world.
-- $SIGNATURE
Cellphones fry your brain, but pagers tickle your groinal region.
tcd004
I've been looking for uses of TellMe's VoiceXML stuff for a while, and now I have found it. It has superb audio quality for over-the-phone content, plus it can handle as many files as you want to stream, and it takes VOICE commands, no more dialing what song you want! Anyhow, I've already submitted this solution to them, and now its just a game of waiting and seeing what they think. I think its great, because it goes onto a 1800 number, its FREE, and can handle any number of simultaneous calls you would need. PLUS, you don't have to have the phone lines dedicated for a dial-a-song machine, you don't have to worry about equipment upkeep, and you don't have to worry about your last machine dying. Can't get any better. At any rate, hope they go that route, it's a good service.
Tellme can be found here
Jay Kramer
"What's this script do? unzip ; touch ; finger ; mount ; gasp ; yes ; umount ; sleep Hint for the answer: not everyth
TMBG is a great band. But, they have publically decried Napster and P2P in general. Why should we help them with something that is run 1980's technology? It seems to me that they are just trying to boost their online image with this sort of stunt.
Well, I was going to reply more thoughtfully, but it looks like others have beaten me to it. What I would like to point out is that TMBG does not resort to "stunts" in order to boost its online image. What they have done is given a free concert in Irving Plaza, which was broadcast live on the Internet via EMusic.com, simply to plug their latest album, "Long Tall Weekend", which was, mind you, entirely in MP3 format. TMBG has quite an online image. If they wanted to boost it, they'd do it, and they'd do it well.
/* Steve */
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of"-TMBG
Meet Rich Stallman
GNU's famous programmer
Wipe him off and shake his hand
Appreciate the man
TMBG are being supported by long distance telephone companies. This is a plot to get you to use long distance voice telecommunications! We see through their ruse!!
They have a mentality that people want to listen to music with a phone stuck to their heads. Boo! BOOO!! I say! Let this Dial-A-Song machine go the way of the Go-Bots, Strawberry Shortcake, the Snorks and everything else evil in the 80s!
=steve
--- rapper/producer/bachelorette party stripper
You';re older than you've ever been, and now you're even older. And now you're even older. And now you're even older. You're older than you've ever been and now you're even older. And now you're older still.
Time... Is marching on!
And Time... Is still marching on!!!
Jackass. You fucked it up. Karma WHore
Mod Me Down.
Ignore the submission guidelines.
When encryption is outlawed, ?o'AZ-,++o+i++##4AoA+-/-C++bI+/.+~
I haven't heard of it before, so my immediate urge was to dial the numbers. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I am at work, and the call is long distance. Others might not be so hesitant.
Hmm, I could use the free 2 minute call on TellMe.com...
OK! Here goes. Lets hope it still works...1800555TELL . . ."phone booth" . . .7183876962. . .login. . .commercial. . .connect
oops BUSY!
"redial" . . ."redial" . . ."redial"
hmm, must be a serial connection...I am getting tired of yelling "redial" into my speakerphone.
Hopefully the increased usage for the next month while all of the /.ers satisfy their curiosity won't kill the machine.
in related news : http://segfault.org/story.p htm l?id=3a100bfa-01ce7100
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
Is this what they want? http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk_code=rechr 100b
In the place I used to work, we had one of those fax on demand phone systems. Users could call in, press a few buttons, and have a fax sent to themselves.
I don't see how having music streamed over the phone line would be any harder. It would probably be easier.
On a related topic, I have been wanting to create an answering device running off a PC with a voice/CID modem which I can program to ring/not ring, play a certian message, or reroute calls based on time of call and caller ID data.
Basically, I'd like certain people to always be able to get in touch with me, but I don't want to leave my ringer on and get woken up at 6AM by some bozo trying to dial the Paper Warehouse.
Can anyone tell me if this would be possible with inexpensive hardware and a PC running Linux?
$10 voice modem ain't gonna sell many albums
That would be relevant if you werent listening to MP3s via the $0.02 tinny-speaker via the copper phonelines. I dont think HI-FI/quality output is necessary when the weakest link in the system is definatley out of there control...
Go back to doing what you do best, and /. the dial-a-song <a href="http://www.dialasong.com">website</a>. No adds, no nothing. Just hit the target.
Now get to work!
"What do I care, if life ain't fair,
If you look at me real sore.
I've paid my dues and you should too,
-- I care not for your foolish signatures.
Talk about Life imitating Humor...
I chuckled at this post, then went to look at my Segfault Slashbox. The newest item: Answering Machine Subjected to DDoS Attacks.
---
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
right on brother!!
great.. now the /. effect will take out their last machine.
good thinking!
---
Tell Me has a product called Studio that might do the trick. You are given an extension. Users call 800-555-Tell and say "Extensions" and then your extension, like "12345". It uses VoiceXML and is very cool. TMBG might get too much usage to qualify for the free version though.
T. Bradley Dean
tbdean
"Girl took me to meet her mom, her head exploded like an atom bomb"
LOL, what the hell am i listening to now?
"Drink drink drink
in a monkey suit"
weird english people
You can listen to any of their songs on mp3: www.tmbg.com
Did a really good job with the Malcom in the Middle theme song...WE HAVE GOT TO HELP THESE GUYS OUT! THEY ARE THE SH|!
How Jaded Are You?
They've "got it" since a little after many /. readers were first eating solid foods. :)
--
These are *MY* opinions.
These are *MY* opinions.
They will not be *YOUR* opinions until the Orbital Mind Control Lasers are operati
To quoteth They Might Be Giants, "You're older then you ever were, and now your'e even older. And now your even older, and now your even older."
You know, after reading this, your older then you ever were. And now your even older.
Rock 'n Roll, Not Pop 'n Soul
Rock 'n Roll, Not Pop 'n Soul
carldrawings.dk3.com
Basically, it's to get people to start moderating up people for being intelligent, and not ocus so much on modding down people, when modding people down really doesn't get anything done. It's alot easier to go about amplifying the signal around here, instead of trying to turn down the noise. * syringe alone created more noise than any 5 people together produced signal. Once I got to the point where I was posting at a defaul of 0, there is no good reason for me to be modded down, even when I post a huge rant about anally raping someone's mother with a bucher knife.
Mod Me Down.
Ignore the submission guidelines.
When encryption is outlawed, ?o'AZ-,++o+i++##4AoA+-/-C++bI+/.+~
I used to listen to this line all the time, then I went away to college. Why did that stop me? It costs a lot to call from here in Illinois, but back in Brooklyn it's a local phone call.
Shouts to Bklyn!
Q:Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A:All my autopsies have been performed on dead peop
siri
they might be giants already are a big merchandise + touring band.
look at their website for tshirts, shot glasses, cds, videos, etc..
The only band I personally know of (with a record contract) that tours more is the Bouncing Souls
------- Oh damn.... the Sigfile escaped... -Great OM
What would particle man do?
when Push Comes to Shove
the website is fine, but the phone number is Slashdotted!
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
You forgot the slogan of dial-a-song: "It's free if you call from work"
This American Life did a good piece about their Dial-a-Song, too. Host Ira Glass and team seem to be good friends and huge fans. Count on Public Radio to cover the important stuff!
They're giving their music away? Sure, it's over the phone, but still.. It's not a 967 number..
Would they be willing to stream over the net, using a Linux box with free mp3s?
Let me run right out and buy a few of their albums!
The REAL jabber has the /. user id: 13196
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
If you've got some cash, Praxon makes a phone system that will do just about anything.
I've done a dial-in mp3 server with vgetty before. You typed in the first 4 digits of the band's name, then it used Viavoice Outloud to generate a band list, then you chose the right band, then it would tell you the available songs, then you chose a song, and then it streamed the mp3 out of the phone. It's very trivial to implement. It's a $10 voice modem off eBay, a spare pentium, and 2 hours installing vgetty and writing a 100-line perl script.
If anyone is serious about wanting to do it this way I can provide assistance: bmetz (@) yahoo.com
What did you eat today? http://www.atetoday.com/
Back when I programmed Macs for a living (ok, I didn't make enough to live off of...) one of the projects I was assigned to involved connecting up a voicemail modem/software piece to a database (4th Dimension). I remember distinctly that the thing could play the silly MacInTalk voices out over it and you could record stuff in it's propietary format.
:-)
the kicker: this was 1992! The thing ran on an SE/30! Surely this has hit the mainstream by now...
As the resident computer guy for my company (and all around geek/nerd/what-have-you) I can honsetly say that TMBG is not my cup of tea. I don't hate them, and I can stomach listening to them (unlike most music on the radio), but I would much rather listen to something with some musical value (like Loreena McKennitt, or old school heavy metal, not that crap you hear passing for it now, like pre-90's, or most Pantera). I'm sorry, but TMBG=nerd band isn't quite accurate, as I'm definitely nerd material, and am no TMBG fan.
Slow moving marsupials and the women that love them
Slow moving marsupials and the women that love them
Next time, on Geraldo...
Maybe they'll write a song about it: "Slashdot set my house on fire"
It could be a duet with Hemos.
Tony
If they want to spend some money get a T1 and a voice card from either Natural Microsystems (http://www.nmss.com) or Dialogic (http://www.dialogic.com).
A little C or C++ coding and you've got a handy dandy system that can accept touch tones, play back music/voice/whatever, etc..
It'd be far more reliable than crap based on Winblows using analog phone lines.
Get ready to spend some $$$ though, those things aren't cheap.
...the information presented is accurate, it should stand on its own. If not, it should be refuted. But maybe you'd like to whine about meaningless things like karma and moderation, until those you rail against think you care about those things more than they do.
Fuck Slashdot
For the curious, this is the Massachusetts Republican Party.
CallAttendant Pro is very good. Completely programmable, it sort of works in a flow-chart-type thing where you can have unlimited steps and options (see screenshot)
El Karma: excelente(principalmente la suma de moderación hecha a los comentarios de los usuarios)
You could do it with the ISDN4Linux programs and some scripting...4 or 5 ISDN PCI cards would give you 10 lines. I4L has DTMF support built in and an answering machine that actually works very well.
Particle Man, Particle Man,
Particle Man thinks Linux can!
Stream mp3's, fast as you can,
Particle Man
Insert solo here
Put DMCA in a garbage can
If you need more servers, set up a LAN
Get a giant cooling fan
Particle Man!
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
I'm sure a large percentage of you out there got hooked when the catchy "Instanbul" song became popular in 1991...A much easier way to transition yourself into their music.
On a funnier note: You know how radio stations some times try to brag how hot they are... and they'll play small clips of hard-hitting songs they play? One station I know used to do this ad all the time for themselves: "This is isn't X-music (play some god-alwful slow song)...THIS is X-Music: (play some headbanger music) "
Well one day they were playing this clip, and they put a TMBG song as the 'bad' music! I almost had to pull over from laughing so hard. And dammit, I liked that song!
Rader
-Legion
Bayonne (www.voxilla.org/bayonne/) - GNU's official telephony project. Supports Pika, Acculab and Voicetronix hardware, and anything with support for linux's kernel-based telephony driver. I haven't used it, but probably a better place to start than Asterisk.
None of the hardware for this stuff is cheap -- I hope the folks working on this project have some cash to plunk down.
"The Man" is making them change to a more modern system. I say we all call the manufacturer and complain!!!
Using a PC with a few voice modems would work, unless they expect lots of traffic. It would probably be best to have a dialogic card which has much larger capacity compared to a single line modem (can handle either single or dual T1s per card 24-48 lines). If they expect to handle more than a few simultaneous calls, using the Dialogic cards would probably be the best solution. From that it's fairly simple to play sound files to a caller, convert mp3 to a dialogic vox file and stream it to the card. Hell, i could probably whip up a fairly good service for this kind of thing...wonder what kind of commercial interest there would be (is it worth my time?). It'd be possible to set up a box that could handle several different numbers, each to a different band's songs or with some kind of special announcement...or to have it as a music store front-end.
Yet Another Slashdotted Phone #...
/.ed phone number error "All circuits are busy"!
Well, at least I am getting a normal busy tone instead of the usual
Im an integrator for a company called Decisif.
We have a CTI suite called Focus with IVR (what they need), an ACD and Predictive Dialing.
Now Im surely preaching our product but has one important thing that others dont, flexibility.
MAJOR Flexibility, through scripting, and not some proprietary scripting language either (Im know some of you are going to shoot me for this...) but we use VB script.
Why ? you might ask, because, WHO cant code in vb, seriously.
We use Dialogic boards, and currently support Visual Voice pro 5, but we are working on our one voice module which should be finished soon.
In any case, I think TMBG should be looking into real telephony solutions for this wether it be ours or another companies.
As with every computer integration solution, there are possible drawbacks.
First, it seems a bit like taking a drink out of a firehose. Tobit's David is a full messaging platform, not just an answering machine software.
Second, the RandomWav! .DLL was written for an older version of David (5.2) and all of the documentation is in German.
But hey, what else is new?
Or, as the (Freetranslation.com translated) web site of RandomWav! puts it best: :-)
"To the good fortune, the Skript-Engine of David can be expanded, under Windows NT mithilfe by DLLs, whose functions in the Skripten can be used. Exactly here our Utility jumps into the Bresche: it is a DLL, lauffähig under Windows NT 4.0, that includes a function to the accidental selection of a file that corresponds to a delivered pattern. They can program so mithilfe of the Skript-Editors within David an Anrufbeantworter, that the Anrufer with an accidentally selected greeting delights! For which things can yet be used entirely to one side of of Messaging and Anrufbeantwortern this function, remains leave your imagination."
Good luck.
- philos
This functionality would be trivial with Tellme (800-555-TELL; www.tellme.com). See http://studio.tellme.com/mys tud io/showdirectory.cgi and check out the GRAFF extension (extension 47233). Something like that, or the Tellme Announcements (audio, phone-based BBS, basically) would be perfect.
So you're here to goad people into modding you down, simply so that you can say "Ha! The fscking moderators don't read the guidelines and actually mod things down!"
Pathetic, that's what it is. The last time I got moderator points I modded only one thing down (5 points, 5 moderations.) The only thing I modded down was something pathetic like you just wrote...flamebait deserves to get modded down.
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
to the children and to freedom loving people everywhere to help out. These boys were geek when geek wasn't cool. I don't know enough to code this for them but you can bet I'll be bugging everybody I know about it. Must go do freshmeat search. In any case basically the point of this post is that They Might Be Giants rule and I would love to be part of a team that helps them. I mean who here does not listen to them and feel geek pride everytime? I know I do. That having been said we had a very similar system about 5 years ago when I was in the Air Farce so if it could be done then and on Winders why not today and on *nix. Go team.
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Put a Phone Number on /. and see how long it gets tied up with geeks trying to call it :P
However, since that ISN'T the case, TMBG has done an awful lot for their fans; cheap / free concerts, give-away electronic versions of songs, freely available dial-a-song (except the toll cost), and they DO sell their music online in mp3 format - if I'm not mistaken, it's THEM selling it, not a big name label (I could be wrong there).
It's really not much different from a friend who's deeply into the Microsoft world asking for my help on recommending him a new component DVD player. I should refuse to help him because his OS has DVD playing support and mine doesn't?
Oh yah, and that whole 80s technology thing... trés passé. Off the top of my head, I've seen /. stories on Atari handhelds, various emulations of old tech, and basic old hacking of 80s equipment here in the past month.
So, anyways, my basic point is this; put up or shut up. If the 80s tech they've been using for the past ~20 years is such crap, perhaps you con offer up a better Linux based telephony solution? Oh right... emerging tech...
--- http://foo.ca
Is this the first time a phone number has been slashdotted? I can't recall any stories that had a phone number in the description.
Yeah yeah, you're right... everyone has the right to listen to their own tastes in (crappy) music. :) I spoke in the heat of the moment.
But Ec8or could kick TMBG's collective asses. Actually probably not.. those DHR kids are all pretty skinny...
Nobody can, nobody can©
Where's my cats's pajamas?
In the can© The big trash can©
Swing is a word?
Six feet down©
Three Eight Seven Six Nine Six Two Narrrrrrrrrrr
Three Eight Seven Six Nine Six Two
Three Eight Seven Six Nine Six Two
Three Eight Seven Six Nine Six Two
Swing is a word?
SIX FEET DOWN!
-the wunderhorn
#define OH_YES_INDEED 1
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
...to your post! How can you judge a band after listening to _one song_? John Linnel is a musical genius disguised as a geek rock pioneer. Show some respect.
gribbly.
maybe
Dial-a-song is free when you call from work.
let me understand this, the band is down to one working machine, so you post the number on /.? Are you trying to see if the slashdot effect can destroy non-web related hardware?
--
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
I think this the first time a phone number has been slashdotted.
I have Dial-A-Song on speed dial on my PCS.
Really.
Try not to choke on the irony there pal. Seriously, I didn't necissarily say that TMBG sucks ass, just that they aren't my cup-o-tea. Thank you oh great AC for letting me know what an ass I am for liking something different.
Slow moving marsupials and the women that love them
Slow moving marsupials and the women that love them
Next time, on Geraldo...
You're absolutely right. There are even fewer bands who have actually given out free albums, or hit songs. Korn released "Falling Away From Me" for free on their site, but they're nothing like the Smashing Pumpkins' last album which was released for free in its entirety over the web. The story is that the Pumpkins had a bad deal with Virgin Records, got pissed, and put their songs into 4 vynil disks----and then gave 21 copies to friends, and told them to distribute them as they like.
-----
Score 3? For what? Being wrong, at length? - smirkleton
But you could bungle the original statement and write
Yet
Oneother
Slashdotted
Phone number
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
There's an answering machine opposite me
that's part of my primitive ancestry
that used up cassette tapes
to play us funny songs for free
though I respect that a lot
I'd be fired if that were my job
after swearing at all the
countless screaming telemarketers
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Dude! They're covering the Rolling Stones?!?!!!
Awesome!
I'm Peggy.
Okay, it is Y.A.S.P.#. not Y.O.S.P.#.
My CTS is killing me anyway...Anyone know if I can sue laptop manufacturers for getting CTS from these shitty keyboards????
that repairs them. of course, the fee may not be cheap, but the upshot is, they're the only ones i've found, maybe they have a whole warehouse full of parts. :)
http://www.neiparts.net/tama chi nes/recordacall.php3
Who says the number is slashdotted? It only took me two tries using dialpad.
course, the song sounds like he's singing into a telephone handset instead of a microphone...
-Dorsey
-Dorsey
If you can't beat them, exploit them. *Then* beat them... -Milk & Cheese
If napster gets shut down, then maybe they could look this crowd up... :)
For years TMBG has given music on their web sites. They want fans to hear their musice, especially that which isn't mainstream enough to make it onto their albums (that says a lot). Their problem with P2P is that it disconnects fans from the band. They would like to see people coming to their web site to get music, they can then see concert and album announcements. All that is missed when Napserting for Why the Sun Shines
They have always had a good online presence, ehy released an entire album internet only. Why help them because they are cool.
As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
No need to reinvent the wheel: mvm will handle their needs including multiple simultaneous connections.
-- Anne Marie
Great, just what we need. Now even dial-a-song is slashdotted.
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.