Say it with me everyone, "There is no National Sales Tax in the US". Sales tax is left up to the individual States. The laws are pretty clear that you pay sales tax for Internet transactions only if you and the business are from the same State, and even then, only if the State has a sales tax. Oregon doesn't, and it is pretty convenient to buy expensive electronic gadgets online, ship them to my parents in Oregon, who then mail them to me in Texas. Beats paying an extra 8.5 percent (if you can stand the wait).
It is ironic. Just think, they are spending tax money to fund a group that has the responsibility for finding unreported revenue. I bet they even spend more to do this than they actually uncover.
"Thrown out" or ruled unconstitutional? My undertanding that one judge in one case ruled against it, yet the provisions still stand. The next steps will be to get the provisions "thrown out" but as of right now, it's just a ruling, no?
There's a reason some of my friends and I call it the "My Little Pony Act." I mean, come on, who could be against that! There's always the "Free Beer!" Act, but "Patriot" act stirs up all the right emotions with jingoistic delight to obscure all the flaws just long enough...
And when you say Oregon, you mean Portland. I grew up in Oregon. Outside of Portland and Eugene, it is more backwards, redneck, in-bred than where I live now (Texas). And THAT'S saying a lot! And futhermore, we Oregonian Republicans are really where the Democrat party wants to be. The problem is, none of us Oregonian Republicans want to be associated with the mainstream Democrats and none of the mainstream Democrats can stand the term Republican, even if Oregonian Republicans are more liberal than your run-of-the-mill Southern Democrat.
Another political story that has nothing to do with technology:-( (Unless you want to focus on the improper fingerprint id). Oh well, at least I can mix up my day a little bit.
I actually know Judge Aiken on a first name basis (my mom was her courtroom clerk for years) and this is right in line with her hard-charging, proactive style. Not that this is a bad thing, but sometimes I get the feeling she is trying just a little too hard and goes out of her way to make eye-opening decisions like this. I don't totally disagree with her ruling but I'm willing to bet there are thousands of people who are much smarter than me that do.
And even MORE importantly than that, if you have only ONE sample, and nothing to compare it to, you REALLY won't know it is better or worse than other types of files. In otherwords, if you have 1000 128kbs MP3 files, you won't know what you are missing (if anything at all, still debatable). It tends to be tech nerds who dread the thought that there might be a better tech out there and they are missing out (hence the preoccupation with specs).
Wow, really? I guess I'm not looking in the right place. I just assumed that the few pirated tracks I have are piss poor because of the type of people associated with trying to hoarde as much free stuff as possible.
How can you beat iTunes on price when you don't have any content (see my post above)? If you don't sell something you aren't beating the price of the customer who is selling it.
Well, I'm always eager to try new music stores, but this is what EVERY search I tried came back with.
"Amazon.com does not yet offer the complete cataloge. Not all record labels have approved all of their music for sale as MP3s, but we're working to expand selection."
Here is just a smattering of music I own that isn't available on Amazonl.mp3 (yet).
Dave Matthews Band
Foo Fighters
John Mayer
Trivium
White Stripes
Los Lonely Boys
Fall Out Boy (hey, don't laugh, I have a wife who has "music" too)
Kelly Clarkson (again, wife)
Rush
Led Zeppelin
The Who
Paul Simon
Dixie Chicks
(I think that is a large enough sample of various music I listen to)
So either there is something wrong with their search engine, or there simply is no content! I've been looking for 15 minutes and haven't found a single (non-jazz) artist that I have in my 5000 song iTunes library! I they have are karaoke and tribute versions.
But they do have most of the Hardbop jazz stuff (yay!) to include my favorite, Hank Mobley. Albeit most of those tracks are $1.94, so I guess I don't mind DRM so much and I won't be switching to Amazon until the get a much larger library.
2.3 million songs isn't nearly enough. Can I buy the Foo Fighters new album? A few months ago, I couldn't buy ANY Foo Fighters album, nor any other mainstream rock bands. Maybe that's changed, but of course, you have to pay them money to find out.
LOL, you are blaming Apple for the strong pound rate???? I've seen it all. I just moved back to the states from the UK. EVERYTHING is twice as much, just because of the dollar conversion rate. Then tack on your 18% value added tax... How can you give credit to Amazon for making their store work in the UK, when they don't even have a store in the UK??? At least there is a UK iTunes store for people who don't like circumventing laws. Since I was working for the US Government, I had access to the US store, using my government postal address in the UK. My wife and I noticed that a lot of good music that plays in England isn't available in the US iTunes store, but is available on the UK iTunes store. So yeah, we didn't mind paying $2 for a song that we liked and heard every day on the radio, because nobody in America has ever heard of it and it isn't available on US iTunes store.
Well that's not really fair saying his music isn't the most important thing on his harddrive. Who are you to say what's important to him? Most home users do what...surf the web, play some games, send some email and listen to music, no? I would say my music and my digital photos are my two most important things, by far. Everything else I can get from any computer hooked up to the internet anywhere.
I have all my songs on at least 7 devices. I highly doubt my three hard drives will crash and burn all at the same time my video iPod dies (these are the only devices big enough to hold ALL my music).
While I personally like the conept of eMusic, it is pretty clear that most consumers don't want subscription plans. I remember a while back I signed up for the free trial period, and it was a complete mess of a system. And the selections sucks. 2.3 million tracks, of which I've never heard of 2 million.
Modded down for MODERATION, however? How does my point that people who screw up their consumer device should not expect to get services such as warranty work for the things they screwed up? Note, I didn't say anything about skilled hacking, which, you know, doesn't actually screw up your phone.
My kids' schools don't allow cell phones either. I wouldn't have it any other way, truthfully. Those parents who clamor that their kids NEED cellphones should be directed to the front office to show them that, gasp, schools have phones too!
This is the stance most administrators take. At the school I worked at overseas (American Military base), people would complain about the kids at the gym or bowling alley after school. Well, these kids ARE military dependents and DO have a right to use these facilities too. How is this the school's problem again?
Most of my fellow grad students in Education felt that the school curriculum should extend to all aspects of the local community, however, which would mean schools have to take interest in kids' wellbeing 24-7. I don't agree, but it seems to be a popular ideology in the Education field. Thankfully, most administrators deal in reality, have salaries, and can get fired, whereas your average college student just has a lot of ill-conceived ideas;-)
I worked in an American school in England for two years. I lost track of how many students transferred to our school from UK schools, parents citing "lack of discipline" on behalf of the UK system. Now, given the huge bullying problem in their schools, and the relative lack of bullying in the American schools in Europe, I would think there is some sort of correlation between administrators actually doing something about the problem and the amount of bullying that goes on. With that said, however, England has a culture of bullying that is far more prevalent in daily life than that of America, so school administrators have a much larger task at hand. I had never even heard the term "bullying" before I moved there, but it was in the news everday. It is a bit unfair to hold the English schools accountable for society's larger ills.
Don't take this as a flame, but my wife and I 'theorize' the problem in the UK stems from a culture of loitering. Let me explain, because I know it sounds inflammatory. In Harrogate, where we lived, most kids come from very posh families (that's "rich" for my American friends) yet they dress and act like homeless people. This is cool. This is what they do. Given there is hardly anything for young people to do in Harrogate, and especially young people with money who have no concept of being productive so as to have money, they just hang around the public squares, doing, well, nothing. Eventually this nothing turns into boredom, which turns into no good. People are beat up, harrassed, bullied, etc. because the poor spoiled rich kid who doesn't actually have to do anything to pay for his cider and smokes doesn't understand the concept of accomplishment and reward. Instead, he gets handed some cash by posh mum, and he runs off and gets drunk off cider and then loiters around downtown. Not that it is much different in the US, but bored kids seem to have more avenues than just hanging around outside McDonalds in downtown Harrogate harrassing all the by-passers for fun.
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Say it with me everyone, "There is no National Sales Tax in the US". Sales tax is left up to the individual States. The laws are pretty clear that you pay sales tax for Internet transactions only if you and the business are from the same State, and even then, only if the State has a sales tax. Oregon doesn't, and it is pretty convenient to buy expensive electronic gadgets online, ship them to my parents in Oregon, who then mail them to me in Texas. Beats paying an extra 8.5 percent (if you can stand the wait).
It is ironic. Just think, they are spending tax money to fund a group that has the responsibility for finding unreported revenue. I bet they even spend more to do this than they actually uncover.
Unless they somehow got it ratified as an Ammendment TO the Constitution. Oh shit, they are watching, and now they know. Dammit, I suck.
And in hindsight, both Bush Sr, and Clinton took an awful lot of bad raps. They are both looking pretty stellar in comparison to what we have now.
"Thrown out" or ruled unconstitutional? My undertanding that one judge in one case ruled against it, yet the provisions still stand. The next steps will be to get the provisions "thrown out" but as of right now, it's just a ruling, no?
There's a reason some of my friends and I call it the "My Little Pony Act." I mean, come on, who could be against that! There's always the "Free Beer!" Act, but "Patriot" act stirs up all the right emotions with jingoistic delight to obscure all the flaws just long enough...
And when you say Oregon, you mean Portland. I grew up in Oregon. Outside of Portland and Eugene, it is more backwards, redneck, in-bred than where I live now (Texas). And THAT'S saying a lot! And futhermore, we Oregonian Republicans are really where the Democrat party wants to be. The problem is, none of us Oregonian Republicans want to be associated with the mainstream Democrats and none of the mainstream Democrats can stand the term Republican, even if Oregonian Republicans are more liberal than your run-of-the-mill Southern Democrat.
I actually know Judge Aiken on a first name basis (my mom was her courtroom clerk for years) and this is right in line with her hard-charging, proactive style. Not that this is a bad thing, but sometimes I get the feeling she is trying just a little too hard and goes out of her way to make eye-opening decisions like this. I don't totally disagree with her ruling but I'm willing to bet there are thousands of people who are much smarter than me that do.
And even MORE importantly than that, if you have only ONE sample, and nothing to compare it to, you REALLY won't know it is better or worse than other types of files. In otherwords, if you have 1000 128kbs MP3 files, you won't know what you are missing (if anything at all, still debatable). It tends to be tech nerds who dread the thought that there might be a better tech out there and they are missing out (hence the preoccupation with specs).
What an completely inappropriate response to a legitimate question. Then again, I never really did like Navy guys.
How can you beat iTunes on price when you don't have any content (see my post above)? If you don't sell something you aren't beating the price of the customer who is selling it.
"Amazon.com does not yet offer the complete cataloge. Not all record labels have approved all of their music for sale as MP3s, but we're working to expand selection."
Here is just a smattering of music I own that isn't available on Amazonl.mp3 (yet).
Dave Matthews Band
Foo Fighters
John Mayer
Trivium
White Stripes
Los Lonely Boys
Fall Out Boy (hey, don't laugh, I have a wife who has "music" too)
Kelly Clarkson (again, wife)
Rush
Led Zeppelin
The Who
Paul Simon
Dixie Chicks
(I think that is a large enough sample of various music I listen to)
So either there is something wrong with their search engine, or there simply is no content! I've been looking for 15 minutes and haven't found a single (non-jazz) artist that I have in my 5000 song iTunes library! I they have are karaoke and tribute versions.
But they do have most of the Hardbop jazz stuff (yay!) to include my favorite, Hank Mobley. Albeit most of those tracks are $1.94, so I guess I don't mind DRM so much and I won't be switching to Amazon until the get a much larger library.
2.3 million songs isn't nearly enough. Can I buy the Foo Fighters new album? A few months ago, I couldn't buy ANY Foo Fighters album, nor any other mainstream rock bands. Maybe that's changed, but of course, you have to pay them money to find out.
LOL, you are blaming Apple for the strong pound rate???? I've seen it all. I just moved back to the states from the UK. EVERYTHING is twice as much, just because of the dollar conversion rate. Then tack on your 18% value added tax... How can you give credit to Amazon for making their store work in the UK, when they don't even have a store in the UK??? At least there is a UK iTunes store for people who don't like circumventing laws. Since I was working for the US Government, I had access to the US store, using my government postal address in the UK. My wife and I noticed that a lot of good music that plays in England isn't available in the US iTunes store, but is available on the UK iTunes store. So yeah, we didn't mind paying $2 for a song that we liked and heard every day on the radio, because nobody in America has ever heard of it and it isn't available on US iTunes store.
Well that's not really fair saying his music isn't the most important thing on his harddrive. Who are you to say what's important to him? Most home users do what...surf the web, play some games, send some email and listen to music, no? I would say my music and my digital photos are my two most important things, by far. Everything else I can get from any computer hooked up to the internet anywhere.
I have all my songs on at least 7 devices. I highly doubt my three hard drives will crash and burn all at the same time my video iPod dies (these are the only devices big enough to hold ALL my music).
While I personally like the conept of eMusic, it is pretty clear that most consumers don't want subscription plans. I remember a while back I signed up for the free trial period, and it was a complete mess of a system. And the selections sucks. 2.3 million tracks, of which I've never heard of 2 million.
So can I not be a 400 year-old wise mage, when I'm neither old, nor wise?
Modded down for MODERATION, however? How does my point that people who screw up their consumer device should not expect to get services such as warranty work for the things they screwed up? Note, I didn't say anything about skilled hacking, which, you know, doesn't actually screw up your phone.
Well, not caring about what idiots think of you could be the solution to this problem, for one?
My kids' schools don't allow cell phones either. I wouldn't have it any other way, truthfully. Those parents who clamor that their kids NEED cellphones should be directed to the front office to show them that, gasp, schools have phones too!
Most of my fellow grad students in Education felt that the school curriculum should extend to all aspects of the local community, however, which would mean schools have to take interest in kids' wellbeing 24-7. I don't agree, but it seems to be a popular ideology in the Education field. Thankfully, most administrators deal in reality, have salaries, and can get fired, whereas your average college student just has a lot of ill-conceived ideas ;-)
Don't take this as a flame, but my wife and I 'theorize' the problem in the UK stems from a culture of loitering. Let me explain, because I know it sounds inflammatory. In Harrogate, where we lived, most kids come from very posh families (that's "rich" for my American friends) yet they dress and act like homeless people. This is cool. This is what they do. Given there is hardly anything for young people to do in Harrogate, and especially young people with money who have no concept of being productive so as to have money, they just hang around the public squares, doing, well, nothing. Eventually this nothing turns into boredom, which turns into no good. People are beat up, harrassed, bullied, etc. because the poor spoiled rich kid who doesn't actually have to do anything to pay for his cider and smokes doesn't understand the concept of accomplishment and reward. Instead, he gets handed some cash by posh mum, and he runs off and gets drunk off cider and then loiters around downtown. Not that it is much different in the US, but bored kids seem to have more avenues than just hanging around outside McDonalds in downtown Harrogate harrassing all the by-passers for fun.