"What I want to know though is is apple selling more quicktime pro licenses. It's the only way to get good fullscreen viewing of protected content."
Actually iTunes has a feature that will play the protected content in full screen WITHOUT QTPro.
Its in the preferences...I found it just recently...it might be under Videos or Advanced. I can say I was 'midly' miffed that after two months of paying for QTPro6 an automatic update grabbed QT7 and disabled the standard full screen option (Yeah I know I can disable the mac updates -- but I like the idea that its there more often than not -- probably because I administer a few dozen PCs and servers at work and its a force of habit:-)
" Although I'm fairly disappointed in the way Apple delivers their TV content (too small, can't burn to DVD, etc)"
While I'm not going to disagree with you about the DVD aspect (this bit me in the ass yesterday as I was trying to get a few friends to watch BSG on my Mac -- my screen is almost as big as my TV -- but in the wrong room).
BUT it actually seems pretty decent to me. While watching the Resurrection Ship PtII episode -- I ended up seeing details that I didn't earlier (such as the cy-clones floating into space as their ship was disintegrating around them -- in the hotel room I originally watched it I just saw debris). Yeah it's Lossy (and so is DVD...but less so), but it scales pretty well. Personally I'm amazed at how much quality they can pack into a 'too small' package...then again, I just ordered BSG Season 1 on DVD and will probably do so for 2 as soon as that's over.
"in addition I'd like to add that MS Access' GUI is freaking painful to use."
Not really -- not if you don't want to have to keep a dozen tables straight in your mind and text it all out.
I generally use Access's GUI to mock up my joins and otherwise in MySQL -- of course, you STILL have to know what you are doing because the Access code will not work out of the box 9 times out of 10 on a complicated query but it will get you close enough that the rest is pretty easy to solve.
Then again, most of the nerds I've met that have made these same claims have all been looking at a single database with maybe two or three tables and of course its f'n easier to pull out the console and type from there instead of utilizing a GUI.
And I have other tools at my fingertips that are much more in line with building queries for MySQL that have the proper syntax -- but those are generally not installed on clients machines while Access is and I can easily teach a client how to make the appropriate changes from Access to MySQL (pretty standard changes).
If I were the Prof, I wouldn't have given you the A -- anyone can be a smartass. Teaching others to use the tools they use efficiently even if its not your tool of choice? That takes real knowledge.
But all in all, back to the original topic I use MySQL on Linux, PC and my Mac with no problem...
"You won't get big items, like plasma TVs, for free but many times the companies will sell it to you for a stupidly low price. I remember one year when RCA was the official TV of CES and had their displays scatter throughout the convention center. Instead of packing the $3,000 TVs home, they offered it anyone who was willing to pay $500 for it."
This is ENTIRELY the reason to stick around until the last day of a show. I picked up quite a bit at the last music show I went to...instead of holding it in LA or Nashville as normal, they switched to my hometown for the summer show and I made out like a bandit. Picked up a $2000 drumkit that I talked the guy into for $100 -- in comparison, I got ripped as I had another hundred saved aside for gear that was only around $500 wholesale...other than I sold it for three times that much on eBay a few days later as it still hadn't entered the stores yet -- yeah, I told the guy it would make a great ebay jokingly and he specifically asked me if there was a local "We Ebay It For You" store because he wasn't going to cart the crap back (apparently these stores really do exist on the West Coast).
But yeah, this is common knowledge in the industry -- I just think Slashdot needs to shut its f'n mouth sometimes because its ruining it for the rest of us -- doesn't someone have a patent method on this so that we can get this entire thread DCMA'd or whatever you call it:-)
Oh yeah -- most of the time to take things off the floor, you need either an exhibitor or a presentor pass -- so generally it keeps the slacker lookieloos outta the way (I find that to be the case more times than not for both music and tech shows), so I guess I shouldn't be too worried.
"...actually fit all the way into your ear canal. These actually are pretty good at blocking out exterior noises..."
I use a pair of these (unnamed because I work with one of the guys that designed these on a a seperate project and don't want to seem biased)...they fit in ear and you can actually get moldings to make it ever MORE isolating. The good $300 earphones designed for stage and listening.
All in all, in the time I've been using these -- I am able to turn the volume WAY down in comparison to what I had them up to with the simple non-canal buds.
If you need to hear whats going on around you, these aren't the best...but if you want to protect your hearing, I gotta say inner ear is the way to go (unless of course, you are an idiot that HAS to turn everything up -- because then you will just kill your ears quicker than anything else).
"No. They should, however, be required to license theirs to people who will pay a reasonable fee, because they have a monopoly"
Why? They already have several formats folks can put their music onto the iPod with. They aren't restricting ANY company from putting their music on the machine unhindered.
In fact, the opportunity to do so is the opposite of a monopoly. They have freed the machine to use WAV / AIFF / MP3 / AAC and a video format -- all of which could be used on the machine.
What? They should be also forced to open up a 5th format that is key to Apple's business plan? Apple gives several viable ways to get the songs onto the machine and others think Apple should give more?
If this were Microsoft, I don't think ANY of us would be complaining? What? That Microsoft released an OS that required us to pay for their office components -- but if we wanted to use F/OSS equivelents they'd more then encourage us to do so -- in fact direct us to where we can get this stuff...or if someone wanted to charge for software but couldn't hook into their encryption -- I don't think that would stop anyone from releasing software for an OS that has the kind of market share M$ has. Its a bullshit argument and usually these If It Were Microsoft arguments usually are (just as much as the whole bitching about Microsoft generally is...I can't stand the company most of the time because they make second rate products, but I have nothing against them making a buck so long as its done legally).
"they all told me that I will have to wait until the name expires"
And what is wrong with that?
Someone obviously paid to reserve the domain and there isn't a legal requirement that anyone actively uses the domain...I know I have worked with one business that has failed and the owners are waiting for a time to restart again...all the while folks are *DEMANDING* that they sell the domain name to them because they liked the name and started a business elsewhere with the same name.
So why your want of something should overrule someone elses ownership of that same thing?
I get the same...and I'm on a Mac using firefox -- so I highly doubt if its adware.
I saw this first last week asking me to take an OSTG survey at work -- and I thought I had my pop-up blocker off. Nope. And my flash block was off as well -- so it couldn't be that hole either. I wasn't too upset because I thought it was specifically for/. and its parent company...and then a few days later, the same thing with a non OSTG advertisement.
Slashdot it going downhill and thats sad (then again, I know people on my site are complaining that I've had to monotize it to keep it running...but popups / popunders and annoying DHTML are something no reputable site should ever use). If this is the future of this site, Digg and others will get my reading (and I'll make certain to never buy another overpriced gizmo or tshirt from Thinkgeek).
I concur...I have a 1st Gen 5G iPod that still gets use and I don't know the last time I upgraded the firmware (and it still works with iTunes6) and have never visited an iPod message board.
Maybe once...as I was looking to see what the best battery upgrade was (there are batteries that give 2x the lifetime than was originally in the machine...I think I can treat my iPod to a $30 upgrade every few years:-).
But seriously, iPod users don't need dedicated forums...
This is very off topic, but its been several days since the article was posted and no one is probably reading this any more -- so:
*RUNNING* linux give you no fucking freedom what so ever.
Bragging about running it gives you no freedom either.
And yes, you are running linux because of the image it gives you and nothing else. Your words have demonstrated this.
Software should not be about freedom -- it should solely be a tool. Can you get your job done with this tool in the most efficient manner? If so, then it is the best. What does running an iBook restrict you from doing? I run F/OSS applications from my Powerbook all the time and then upload the results to a Linux server. Having OSX on the server does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for me...it would be retarded for me to run my server apps on this (and actually this subject came up with a friend from Apple as well...we were discussing if it would make any business sense to use XServers simply to prove to our customers that we could deal with these...our customers don't deal with them, and as such, the friend from Apple even suggested that it would be money spent badly and then he encouraged me to put the savings into a 60Gig iPod...those bastards!!!)
So how does running Linux on a Laptop give you in the way of tools? I haven't met an application on Linux that couldn't be compiled on an iBook yet...
So ask yourself, why are you doing this. Is it for the geek cachet? Do you have customers that expect you to be running Linux? If so, there is a reason to do this (I keep a few distributions on my hard drive that I can pull up under VirtualPC -- for the few times I need to show a client how to do something that would be exactly the same way it would be in THEIR environment...personally, I hate dealing with Linux desktops, but I have one current client that set his office up this way because he felt it was the easiest way to keep the office staff more productive and have to keep a fulltime geek on board...and since upgrading him to a Powerbook, he's been considering that that may be the way to keep them productive without the need for an OS that no one knows).
If not, then you are more than likely turning away customers. When I was dealing more with general tech support (most of my business is around the music industry these days -- but I have a FEW clients that I've taken on as a favor).
Either way, you have only proven my point far more than I have proven yours. Computers are tools -- they are not freedom. If Linux were the beter choice in OSs for a laptop, I'd say you were choosing the right OS, but its not. Its a rather fine OS that I get usage out of every day. Its not something I'd use to be productive on the desktop because my time is money...and the $1500 I spent on my Powerbook was made up within the first 2 weeks of its ownership. I would have spent 2 weeks alone getting a laptop working close enough that I could SOMEWHAT get my job done. Maybe you don't value your time as much as I do...
Note: This is not a slam on your...it is just an open communication and thats it.
"PS- I don't hate mac users. I just hate the ones that walk around with a false sense of superiority."
Much like someone that would give up a perfectly good machine for one that is running an OS that is considered experimental at best on Laptops just for the cache it provides them?
You mean those kinda people?
I use Linux all the time...hell, I use it to run several servers for my business based around supporting Apple's pro line for the beautiful folk (well, so they say, the fuckers I deal with are as ugly as they get:-)
"I wouldn't feel comfortable knowing my doctor is walking around with digital imaging of my insides on the same device he's currently using to listen to music."
These images are VERY bandwidth intensive -- at least for smaller hospitals and otherwise. CDs and otherwise might not work...DVDs might these days.
BUT why would you feel and different knowing your doctor is listening to the same device that he has your images on?
I know in my office, I specifically had to choose PDAs and other equipment that could be used for private usage as well as institutional data...otherwise they'd sit in everyones drawers and are never there when needed. On our laptops, I've installed a few games and make certain they have DVD players...it encourages the staff to have these with them at all times.
I can see iPods being the same sort of thing. Needs images, pull out the iPod and plug it in. Yeah, I hope these things are encrypted (I have to make certain our psychometric data carried on our equipment is because we have a LOT of personal information in our files -- and its really not that difficult to train someone to do this as rote). But all in all, chosing a device that will be used regularly is a wise decision because it means the system will be used -- even if it just means the doctors are bringing their iPods and downloading patient info just to prove they have a reason to have it.
BTW -- my doctor's office has a modem connecting it to the outside world, even though its 15 feet away from an Internet2 feed (private office in a university hospital -- does get access to the publicly paid for toys). I can't even get my records up to him without either bringing them myself or making an appointment two week out just to make certain they get to him before I do.
"I'll buy tracks at fifty cents USD, but not $1.49 or $1.29, and frankly, I haven't bought at $0.99 either."
"but rather a local used CD store."
This just proves you really aren't a target candidate for this type of online store and there is nothing wrong with that.
Folks that buy used this way really don't want complete selection nor are they worried about the timeliness of their purchase. I buy online BECAUSE I want something that I can't get used (and believe me, most of the stuff I buy IS used) because no one has sold it yet, OR because I need it now and don't feel like getting into my car and driving across town to save $4 on the purchase (lets see...a couple weeks ago with gas prices of almost $3, 15 miles there and 15 miles back to the closest USED store -- 30 miles city to the gallon means at least one gallon was wasted, ok -- I could have saved a single $ considering most used is $5.99 -- unless its newish, then its between 8.99 and 10.99 and I LOSE money on the deal).
But you aren't the target audience for this stuff. As someone that has worked in music (and still occasionally does the odd project when I can take enough time away from my research and other university duties to head towards lalaland for a week or two) at $.99 you are getting things cheap...on average. Even the 'throw aways' are not throw aways to fans...most of the time, they just don't fit with the stereotype of what it being played on the radio (or would you rather the music industry demand ALL tracks be devoid of artistic integrity so long as they can make it on the radio). Over time, I generally end up loving the throw aways more than I do the hits...then again, if you are talking 'popstars', you might be right. And at the same time, deserving what ever crap you may be buying. I don't think I've *EVER* bought an album that had filler except maybe the odd popsong that got caught in my head and I felt it would be well worth the price of admission to spend $14.99 to exorcise it out through the over playing of that one song (its happened before).
But you are right about used stuff...as a consumer, I don't care how much something cost to make, if I can get it *legally* cheaper I generally do (though these days, its ordering off of Amazon and grabbing used from there....found a $30 double cd import for $5 the other day almost new looking...and it only cost me $4 in shipping). Past that, I love the iTMS.
"or for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00."
They are describing a few types of organizations...
No license is needed for:
a) private, non-commercial activities OR
b) not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind OR
c) for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00.
The key to these is the OR clause. I've looked into this for other friends companies and this was what their lawyers stated upon reading this. Yeah -- the patent part sucks, but they've sorta ammended their views and only go after companies that are making a BIG profit...and I think anyone making $100k can't claim they are a small player and should have to pay to the development in things like this.
As for the $2k -- that is the 2% of $100k...thus the minimum.
I think you are safe...but go for AAC anyways...I like it more than MP3 (the high end doesn't sound as brittle).
No, the message is muddied by the cobranding of F/OSS software and propoganda throughout the site.
And the idea that Ogg isn't supported natively on either Mac nor the PC is a perfect example of why this is a bad idea.
Do I know how much licensing for MP3 usage is? Sure -- if you are making less than $100k a year, its absolutely free. Its not worth Fraunhofer / Thompson's time for anything less.
If you are making over this amount, then we are talking a royalty rate of 2%. Thats right, if you are bringing in over $100k, you might have to pay a small token amount in royalties. I don't know about you, but I pay a *LOT* more than that for my licensing / taxes / software for my online business (I have worked for the music industry in the past, and still do consulting within this area...$2k ain't much if you want to be taken seriously).
So $10k? Where did you get that number? Obviously not from folks that license the product:
If you are worried about royalities (and want to stay unencumbered by DRM), take a serious look at AAC. The only charge there are for encoders / decoders. It looks as though your site is already encouraging an assbackward software package to encode into OGG on the client side...so why not just use iTunes to do the conversion -- that too is free. I know there are several free encoders on the Linux side as well (because I had to batch transcode several gigs of waves over to this and it was faster to just use a spare linux box and let it do this in the background).
But if you want to see the royalty rates on AAC, take a look at Dolby's site:
As for being able to play music -- I can't play it without a wierd format that isn't supported by my hardware. At least all my current hardware can play WAV / MP3 / AIF / AAC all without having to transcode it. So, yes, it matters, because I can't hear it. I didn't buy from the iTMS either until it was supported by a large (more than 10%) of the players sold.
But yeah, its part of my job to know this stuff. Again, I agree with your commitment to open source, but don't take it as a religion. Use the best tool for the purpose. Otherwise, it looks at those you are more about promoting F/OSS than you are promoting another means to an end for musicians -- which again is a noble cause. Why don't you do an experiment? Set your store up to sell both Ogg and MP3 (or AAC) and tell the end use they have to pick which format before buying (give them the choice to download all 3 if they want once the experiment is over) and stop the experiment just before $99999 in sales (or whatever you hit for the year) and see what sold the most. You might be surprised...hell, if ya published it, *I* might be surprised.
Sorry if my last post seemed antagonistic in any way -- I didn't mean it that way, but the "Since you seem to know everything about online music though" comment seems as though I was. No, I understand the marketting of musicians and this is one of the reasons the big industry is starting to fail -- they are more about marketting themselves and promoting what is good for the industry but not necessarily what is good for the artist. And this is exactly what I see when I visited the site.
Any reason you sell in Ogg Vorbis? Seems a good way to shoot yourself in the foot just to appease the geek squad?
To be honest, I felt the same way about Apple's AAC when they first started off. *NOTHING* supported AAC except iTunes and the iPod. Well, if you exclude the wierd stuff that played everything. At least, they had a few billion in the bank to push it to the masses, whilst you have geek angst backing you up.
Personally, I can't stand the tone of Ogg. If you are playing garage metal (or garage anything) you may not notice it. Same with most MP3s...they sound better at higher rates, but I generally go with AAC (unDRM'd) these days as it doesn't sound as shrill at the same bitrate.
If you ever get your store working in a decent file format, send me an email! This is the one and only reason I'm not going to invest more time looking at your site. All in all, finding a way to listen to music shouldn't be about politics...the music should be the message, not the file format you listen to it in.
BTW -- WFT with the java music player for the samples? Are you interested in promoting the music as all or are you just trying to profess your love for the RMS and all things OpenSource? I like what you are trying to do, but I think its failing at the core message. You've got to decide if you are selling music or the OpenSource religion.
"I'm still waiting for the day that iTunes hosts *FREE* albums."
While not free, I've noticed several albums in iTunes that were around under a dollar...which is wierd when you realize that each song bought individually were.99 each.
This is $0.49 (I bought it a couple weeks ago thinking it was a mistake). Not a bad deal, considering someone has to pay for the bandwidth and storage fees.
I have a friend that sells exclusively through the iTMS these days (after getting dropped from his lable) and he mentioned that while you *HAVE* to charge $0.99 per song, you can charge what ever you want per the album (i.e., make the album $300 while the individual songs might only come to $9.99 if bought seperately).
Why not encourage people to use this loophole. Put up a lot of album only songs that are within the $1 range for the entire set. I'd be glad to drop that kind of money on unknowns...
As much as I hate it, they do have to follow the law of the land.
If the US government had asked them to turn over email for accounts that originated in the US and were maintained on US servers, and the courts agreed with this decision -- they'd turn it over too...just the same way you'd roll if the gov't and the court system told you to do something.
What? You think that just because they are a US company that they don't need to follow the laws in countries they do business?
Again, I don't agree with it either...but so long as they maintain a physical business presence there, they need to follow the law like anyone else.
"Just as there is a lot of difference between writing C and actually knowing how to program."
And that was my point to Seamas...a LOT of people know how to pull up a C compiler and get something executable. A lot of people understand what OO is about in the C++ (or even objectiveC if you are on OS X), but I've met few that used oo for anything other than passing complicated variables around.
But here is where I object to this:
"Much as the PHP and Perl and Java people would like to deny it, a language that hides away the system complexities cannot be classed in the same category as a language that allows full control of the system, as C and Assembly."
Bullshit. Most of the folks I know that program anything in C use libraries. Most folks in Asm use some sort of toolkit. Few today are programming from the metal up. Even those programming drivers aren't really touching much of the hardware because everything is abstracted these days. Hell, I was helping a friend with an ASIO driver and it was amazing how little you had to know about the architecture to get it done (and beyond that, it was still above my head -- I just have a little experience in this area working with other developers that I was able to throw a few cents in here or there:-).
So yeah -- it takes away system complexities and instead allows one to focus on USER complexities. Those are far more complicated than any f'n system any day of the week. This is probably why I stopped calling myself a programmer about 10 years back and started calling myself a developer. A programmer is more interested in the code. A developer is interested in the final results. The end user doesn't give a fuck about code -- they care about can they use this. And this is one of the problems in the F/OSS communities -- most are more interested in coding than they are the end product.
That to me is the difference between a developer and a programmer. A programmer will use the languages he knows to give the best result. A developer will choose the language that best represents the clients needs. When I need a desktop application done, I could care less what it was written in, so long as it is seamless. In the past, I've used Hypercard with a C backend. I've used VisualBasic (well not too much, I never cared much for this) and these days, I use RealBasic. If its a web app -- I can get the job done with ASP or PHP -- depending on the needs of the client.
As for Pointers -- when was the last time you were programming a modern language and decided you might need a pointer? They are useful if you are working on streaming media (at least thats the only area I've seen need for it in the last several years...and I've found ways around that). All in all, other than coming outta a low level language and thinking that pointers are my hammer, there must be some nails to push in -- there is litle reason anyone should be poking around with direct memory access.
Given the choice between C and a higher language? I'll use the one that gets my job done in a way that is maintainable and efficient. Even my hardcore number crunching rarely needs anything more (though the few times I've had to deal with real time, yeah, C was my first and only choice).
A good C developer is not a good web developer. Different skill sets. But a good developer can switch languages and learn far faster than a good 'programmer' can.
"I do, however, think that most people who go around writing PHP and calling themselves "software developers" are not developing actual software in the manner of a Drupal or a PHPNuke."
Dude -- you are such a snob.
Most people that program ANY language are not developing anything in the manner of an application with the complexity of Drupal or Nuke. It goes without saying 99% of everything is shit.
So what.
So you hear someone that claims to program in PHP is a software developer and turn your nose up immediately without even looking at what they've done.
Trust me -- I work on a lot of other peoples code in a number of languages -- very little of it is up to what I would call competent for a programmer, let alone a developer. At least I see their code before passing judgement on them. And even then, I know if someone were to scrutinizee code I've thrown out there for something a boss had promised to someone else without telling me (nor giving the client realistic deadlines), I'd probably think I was a shitty developer too.
But yeah, you are a snob. And considering you aren't a developer -- you have no reason to be one. You are doing it purely for the ever so fashionable vicious snear and not for the problems you will have in working with the idiots that claim they are something they aren't.
"If a person has correct answer but got it only by mistake then what good is it?"
Because by knowing how a test works, it tells a LOT about the student. There is a lot of science behind item response theory...for instance, a right answer on a specific item may tell you that the student has guessed. That's right...the reliability of the item may be that over 70% of the people that passed the test got it wrong, while 70% of the people the failed got it right. Quite a bit can be figured out about the student by what they got right or wrong.
In fact, the classic 3 parameter model guessing is a BIG part about the calibration:
(difficulty and discrimination being the other two parameters)
Of course, this come more into play when you get into computer adaptive testing, but it still important on the standard multiple choice test (at least if its standardized).
As for math and computer science...I've never designed a CS test using multiple choice, but math is very useful. Again, adaptive testing with multiple choice is better, but its not like math is rocket science...as an instructor mentioned recently, math is not about memorizing formulas or otherwise, its about learning how to think creatively while breaking down a problem and coming up with a solution. If you can figure out the answers that don't belong and figure out the rest without having to do the problem, you've demonstrated knowledge about the ideas behind the problem in front of you...its just like the complaints we got about an essay rater we were working on several years back (it graded structure, not content)...people were submitting brilliantly written nonsense and then complaining that we were scoring it high -- the fact that someone was able to figure out ways around the writing rubric to game the system meant that they pretty much deserved the high scores they received because they were good writers -- regardless of the nonsense (unlike my own writing...this is not a good example of such writing).
All in all, this all depends on what you are after -- demonstration of mastery or for a diagnostic (or maybe to prove your students know as much as the students down the hall or the school across the state). Luckily, most educators are taught testing methods before they leave school and probably have a little more clue as to what they are looking for than students that think a test may just be multiple choice bullshit (though that could be considered negative face value:-)
Beyond that, you can buy a user replacable battery that minimizes the battery life issue *AND* gives like 3 times the standard play time for only $30.
My 1st Gen iPod is only now starting to show signs of its age...but I'd really be happy with a battery that can play 'up to 24 hours' (if their advertising is correct -- I'd be happy with even double the original 6 hours I was getting -- it would be enough for any road trip I'm up for).
Note -- I don't know the validity of that site -- I was about to buy one of their competitors batteries and saw this and now thinking of waiting around to see if I hear anything else before picking up any of them...but all it all, they all sound pretty user servicable and not a big deal to swap out.
Slashdot Mirror
Thats almost as good as the instructions I read over here:
5 08692 :-)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=174376&cid=14
"What I want to know though is is apple selling more quicktime pro licenses. It's the only way to get good fullscreen viewing of protected content."
:-)
Actually iTunes has a feature that will play the protected content in full screen WITHOUT QTPro.
Its in the preferences...I found it just recently...it might be under Videos or Advanced. I can say I was 'midly' miffed that after two months of paying for QTPro6 an automatic update grabbed QT7 and disabled the standard full screen option (Yeah I know I can disable the mac updates -- but I like the idea that its there more often than not -- probably because I administer a few dozen PCs and servers at work and its a force of habit
" Although I'm fairly disappointed in the way Apple delivers their TV content (too small, can't burn to DVD, etc)"
While I'm not going to disagree with you about the DVD aspect (this bit me in the ass yesterday as I was trying to get a few friends to watch BSG on my Mac -- my screen is almost as big as my TV -- but in the wrong room).
BUT it actually seems pretty decent to me. While watching the Resurrection Ship PtII episode -- I ended up seeing details that I didn't earlier (such as the cy-clones floating into space as their ship was disintegrating around them -- in the hotel room I originally watched it I just saw debris). Yeah it's Lossy (and so is DVD...but less so), but it scales pretty well. Personally I'm amazed at how much quality they can pack into a 'too small' package...then again, I just ordered BSG Season 1 on DVD and will probably do so for 2 as soon as that's over.
"in addition I'd like to add that MS Access' GUI is freaking painful to use."
Not really -- not if you don't want to have to keep a dozen tables straight in your mind and text it all out.
I generally use Access's GUI to mock up my joins and otherwise in MySQL -- of course, you STILL have to know what you are doing because the Access code will not work out of the box 9 times out of 10 on a complicated query but it will get you close enough that the rest is pretty easy to solve.
Then again, most of the nerds I've met that have made these same claims have all been looking at a single database with maybe two or three tables and of course its f'n easier to pull out the console and type from there instead of utilizing a GUI.
And I have other tools at my fingertips that are much more in line with building queries for MySQL that have the proper syntax -- but those are generally not installed on clients machines while Access is and I can easily teach a client how to make the appropriate changes from Access to MySQL (pretty standard changes).
If I were the Prof, I wouldn't have given you the A -- anyone can be a smartass. Teaching others to use the tools they use efficiently even if its not your tool of choice? That takes real knowledge.
But all in all, back to the original topic I use MySQL on Linux, PC and my Mac with no problem...
"You won't get big items, like plasma TVs, for free but many times the companies will sell it to you for a stupidly low price. I remember one year when RCA was the official TV of CES and had their displays scatter throughout the convention center. Instead of packing the $3,000 TVs home, they offered it anyone who was willing to pay $500 for it."
:-)
This is ENTIRELY the reason to stick around until the last day of a show. I picked up quite a bit at the last music show I went to...instead of holding it in LA or Nashville as normal, they switched to my hometown for the summer show and I made out like a bandit. Picked up a $2000 drumkit that I talked the guy into for $100 -- in comparison, I got ripped as I had another hundred saved aside for gear that was only around $500 wholesale...other than I sold it for three times that much on eBay a few days later as it still hadn't entered the stores yet -- yeah, I told the guy it would make a great ebay jokingly and he specifically asked me if there was a local "We Ebay It For You" store because he wasn't going to cart the crap back (apparently these stores really do exist on the West Coast).
But yeah, this is common knowledge in the industry -- I just think Slashdot needs to shut its f'n mouth sometimes because its ruining it for the rest of us -- doesn't someone have a patent method on this so that we can get this entire thread DCMA'd or whatever you call it
Oh yeah -- most of the time to take things off the floor, you need either an exhibitor or a presentor pass -- so generally it keeps the slacker lookieloos outta the way (I find that to be the case more times than not for both music and tech shows), so I guess I shouldn't be too worried.
"...actually fit all the way into your ear canal. These actually are pretty good at blocking out exterior noises..."
I use a pair of these (unnamed because I work with one of the guys that designed these on a a seperate project and don't want to seem biased)...they fit in ear and you can actually get moldings to make it ever MORE isolating. The good $300 earphones designed for stage and listening.
All in all, in the time I've been using these -- I am able to turn the volume WAY down in comparison to what I had them up to with the simple non-canal buds.
If you need to hear whats going on around you, these aren't the best...but if you want to protect your hearing, I gotta say inner ear is the way to go (unless of course, you are an idiot that HAS to turn everything up -- because then you will just kill your ears quicker than anything else).
And wasn't most of the autobiography directly from interviews Haley had with X?
As such, it seems to fit most of the bill.
"No. They should, however, be required to license theirs to people who will pay a reasonable fee, because they have a monopoly"
Why? They already have several formats folks can put their music onto the iPod with. They aren't restricting ANY company from putting their music on the machine unhindered.
In fact, the opportunity to do so is the opposite of a monopoly. They have freed the machine to use WAV / AIFF / MP3 / AAC and a video format -- all of which could be used on the machine.
What? They should be also forced to open up a 5th format that is key to Apple's business plan? Apple gives several viable ways to get the songs onto the machine and others think Apple should give more?
If this were Microsoft, I don't think ANY of us would be complaining? What? That Microsoft released an OS that required us to pay for their office components -- but if we wanted to use F/OSS equivelents they'd more then encourage us to do so -- in fact direct us to where we can get this stuff...or if someone wanted to charge for software but couldn't hook into their encryption -- I don't think that would stop anyone from releasing software for an OS that has the kind of market share M$ has. Its a bullshit argument and usually these If It Were Microsoft arguments usually are (just as much as the whole bitching about Microsoft generally is...I can't stand the company most of the time because they make second rate products, but I have nothing against them making a buck so long as its done legally).
"they all told me that I will have to wait until the name expires"
And what is wrong with that?
Someone obviously paid to reserve the domain and there isn't a legal requirement that anyone actively uses the domain...I know I have worked with one business that has failed and the owners are waiting for a time to restart again...all the while folks are *DEMANDING* that they sell the domain name to them because they liked the name and started a business elsewhere with the same name.
So why your want of something should overrule someone elses ownership of that same thing?
I get the same...and I'm on a Mac using firefox -- so I highly doubt if its adware.
/. and its parent company...and then a few days later, the same thing with a non OSTG advertisement.
I saw this first last week asking me to take an OSTG survey at work -- and I thought I had my pop-up blocker off. Nope. And my flash block was off as well -- so it couldn't be that hole either. I wasn't too upset because I thought it was specifically for
Slashdot it going downhill and thats sad (then again, I know people on my site are complaining that I've had to monotize it to keep it running...but popups / popunders and annoying DHTML are something no reputable site should ever use). If this is the future of this site, Digg and others will get my reading (and I'll make certain to never buy another overpriced gizmo or tshirt from Thinkgeek).
I concur...I have a 1st Gen 5G iPod that still gets use and I don't know the last time I upgraded the firmware (and it still works with iTunes6) and have never visited an iPod message board.
:-).
Maybe once...as I was looking to see what the best battery upgrade was (there are batteries that give 2x the lifetime than was originally in the machine...I think I can treat my iPod to a $30 upgrade every few years
But seriously, iPod users don't need dedicated forums...
This is very off topic, but its been several days since the article was posted and no one is probably reading this any more -- so:
*RUNNING* linux give you no fucking freedom what so ever.
Bragging about running it gives you no freedom either.
And yes, you are running linux because of the image it gives you and nothing else. Your words have demonstrated this.
Software should not be about freedom -- it should solely be a tool. Can you get your job done with this tool in the most efficient manner? If so, then it is the best. What does running an iBook restrict you from doing? I run F/OSS applications from my Powerbook all the time and then upload the results to a Linux server. Having OSX on the server does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for me...it would be retarded for me to run my server apps on this (and actually this subject came up with a friend from Apple as well...we were discussing if it would make any business sense to use XServers simply to prove to our customers that we could deal with these...our customers don't deal with them, and as such, the friend from Apple even suggested that it would be money spent badly and then he encouraged me to put the savings into a 60Gig iPod...those bastards!!!)
So how does running Linux on a Laptop give you in the way of tools? I haven't met an application on Linux that couldn't be compiled on an iBook yet...
So ask yourself, why are you doing this. Is it for the geek cachet? Do you have customers that expect you to be running Linux? If so, there is a reason to do this (I keep a few distributions on my hard drive that I can pull up under VirtualPC -- for the few times I need to show a client how to do something that would be exactly the same way it would be in THEIR environment...personally, I hate dealing with Linux desktops, but I have one current client that set his office up this way because he felt it was the easiest way to keep the office staff more productive and have to keep a fulltime geek on board...and since upgrading him to a Powerbook, he's been considering that that may be the way to keep them productive without the need for an OS that no one knows).
If not, then you are more than likely turning away customers. When I was dealing more with general tech support (most of my business is around the music industry these days -- but I have a FEW clients that I've taken on as a favor).
Either way, you have only proven my point far more than I have proven yours. Computers are tools -- they are not freedom. If Linux were the beter choice in OSs for a laptop, I'd say you were choosing the right OS, but its not. Its a rather fine OS that I get usage out of every day. Its not something I'd use to be productive on the desktop because my time is money...and the $1500 I spent on my Powerbook was made up within the first 2 weeks of its ownership. I would have spent 2 weeks alone getting a laptop working close enough that I could SOMEWHAT get my job done. Maybe you don't value your time as much as I do...
Note: This is not a slam on your...it is just an open communication and thats it.
"PS- I don't hate mac users. I just hate the ones that walk around with a false sense of superiority."
:-)
Much like someone that would give up a perfectly good machine for one that is running an OS that is considered experimental at best on Laptops just for the cache it provides them?
You mean those kinda people?
I use Linux all the time...hell, I use it to run several servers for my business based around supporting Apple's pro line for the beautiful folk (well, so they say, the fuckers I deal with are as ugly as they get
"I wouldn't feel comfortable knowing my doctor is walking around with digital imaging of my insides on the same device he's currently using to listen to music."
These images are VERY bandwidth intensive -- at least for smaller hospitals and otherwise. CDs and otherwise might not work...DVDs might these days.
BUT why would you feel and different knowing your doctor is listening to the same device that he has your images on?
I know in my office, I specifically had to choose PDAs and other equipment that could be used for private usage as well as institutional data...otherwise they'd sit in everyones drawers and are never there when needed. On our laptops, I've installed a few games and make certain they have DVD players...it encourages the staff to have these with them at all times.
I can see iPods being the same sort of thing. Needs images, pull out the iPod and plug it in. Yeah, I hope these things are encrypted (I have to make certain our psychometric data carried on our equipment is because we have a LOT of personal information in our files -- and its really not that difficult to train someone to do this as rote). But all in all, chosing a device that will be used regularly is a wise decision because it means the system will be used -- even if it just means the doctors are bringing their iPods and downloading patient info just to prove they have a reason to have it.
BTW -- my doctor's office has a modem connecting it to the outside world, even though its 15 feet away from an Internet2 feed (private office in a university hospital -- does get access to the publicly paid for toys). I can't even get my records up to him without either bringing them myself or making an appointment two week out just to make certain they get to him before I do.
"I'll buy tracks at fifty cents USD, but not $1.49 or $1.29, and frankly, I haven't bought at $0.99 either."
"but rather a local used CD store."
This just proves you really aren't a target candidate for this type of online store and there is nothing wrong with that.
Folks that buy used this way really don't want complete selection nor are they worried about the timeliness of their purchase. I buy online BECAUSE I want something that I can't get used (and believe me, most of the stuff I buy IS used) because no one has sold it yet, OR because I need it now and don't feel like getting into my car and driving across town to save $4 on the purchase (lets see...a couple weeks ago with gas prices of almost $3, 15 miles there and 15 miles back to the closest USED store -- 30 miles city to the gallon means at least one gallon was wasted, ok -- I could have saved a single $ considering most used is $5.99 -- unless its newish, then its between 8.99 and 10.99 and I LOSE money on the deal).
But you aren't the target audience for this stuff. As someone that has worked in music (and still occasionally does the odd project when I can take enough time away from my research and other university duties to head towards lalaland for a week or two) at $.99 you are getting things cheap...on average. Even the 'throw aways' are not throw aways to fans...most of the time, they just don't fit with the stereotype of what it being played on the radio (or would you rather the music industry demand ALL tracks be devoid of artistic integrity so long as they can make it on the radio). Over time, I generally end up loving the throw aways more than I do the hits...then again, if you are talking 'popstars', you might be right. And at the same time, deserving what ever crap you may be buying. I don't think I've *EVER* bought an album that had filler except maybe the odd popsong that got caught in my head and I felt it would be well worth the price of admission to spend $14.99 to exorcise it out through the over playing of that one song (its happened before).
But you are right about used stuff...as a consumer, I don't care how much something cost to make, if I can get it *legally* cheaper I generally do (though these days, its ordering off of Amazon and grabbing used from there....found a $30 double cd import for $5 the other day almost new looking...and it only cost me $4 in shipping). Past that, I love the iTMS.
No, I work with professionals that can tell the difference.
A fool would make blanket statements with no proof, nor experience to back it up.
"or for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00."
They are describing a few types of organizations...
No license is needed for:
a) private, non-commercial activities OR
b) not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind OR
c) for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00.
The key to these is the OR clause. I've looked into this for other friends companies and this was what their lawyers stated upon reading this. Yeah -- the patent part sucks, but they've sorta ammended their views and only go after companies that are making a BIG profit...and I think anyone making $100k can't claim they are a small player and should have to pay to the development in things like this.
As for the $2k -- that is the 2% of $100k...thus the minimum.
I think you are safe...but go for AAC anyways...I like it more than MP3 (the high end doesn't sound as brittle).
No, the message is muddied by the cobranding of F/OSS software and propoganda throughout the site.
e nseFAQ.html
And the idea that Ogg isn't supported natively on either Mac nor the PC is a perfect example of why this is a bad idea.
Do I know how much licensing for MP3 usage is? Sure -- if you are making less than $100k a year, its absolutely free. Its not worth Fraunhofer / Thompson's time for anything less.
If you are making over this amount, then we are talking a royalty rate of 2%. Thats right, if you are bringing in over $100k, you might have to pay a small token amount in royalties. I don't know about you, but I pay a *LOT* more than that for my licensing / taxes / software for my online business (I have worked for the music industry in the past, and still do consulting within this area...$2k ain't much if you want to be taken seriously).
So $10k? Where did you get that number? Obviously not from folks that license the product:
http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/emd.html
If you are worried about royalities (and want to stay unencumbered by DRM), take a serious look at AAC. The only charge there are for encoders / decoders. It looks as though your site is already encouraging an assbackward software package to encode into OGG on the client side...so why not just use iTunes to do the conversion -- that too is free. I know there are several free encoders on the Linux side as well (because I had to batch transcode several gigs of waves over to this and it was faster to just use a spare linux box and let it do this in the background).
But if you want to see the royalty rates on AAC, take a look at Dolby's site:
http://www.vialicensing.com/products/mpeg4aac/lic
As for being able to play music -- I can't play it without a wierd format that isn't supported by my hardware. At least all my current hardware can play WAV / MP3 / AIF / AAC all without having to transcode it. So, yes, it matters, because I can't hear it. I didn't buy from the iTMS either until it was supported by a large (more than 10%) of the players sold.
But yeah, its part of my job to know this stuff. Again, I agree with your commitment to open source, but don't take it as a religion. Use the best tool for the purpose. Otherwise, it looks at those you are more about promoting F/OSS than you are promoting another means to an end for musicians -- which again is a noble cause. Why don't you do an experiment? Set your store up to sell both Ogg and MP3 (or AAC) and tell the end use they have to pick which format before buying (give them the choice to download all 3 if they want once the experiment is over) and stop the experiment just before $99999 in sales (or whatever you hit for the year) and see what sold the most. You might be surprised...hell, if ya published it, *I* might be surprised.
Sorry if my last post seemed antagonistic in any way -- I didn't mean it that way, but the "Since you seem to know everything about online music though" comment seems as though I was. No, I understand the marketting of musicians and this is one of the reasons the big industry is starting to fail -- they are more about marketting themselves and promoting what is good for the industry but not necessarily what is good for the artist. And this is exactly what I see when I visited the site.
Focus on the musicians and nothing more....
Any reason you sell in Ogg Vorbis? Seems a good way to shoot yourself in the foot just to appease the geek squad?
To be honest, I felt the same way about Apple's AAC when they first started off. *NOTHING* supported AAC except iTunes and the iPod. Well, if you exclude the wierd stuff that played everything. At least, they had a few billion in the bank to push it to the masses, whilst you have geek angst backing you up.
Personally, I can't stand the tone of Ogg. If you are playing garage metal (or garage anything) you may not notice it. Same with most MP3s...they sound better at higher rates, but I generally go with AAC (unDRM'd) these days as it doesn't sound as shrill at the same bitrate.
If you ever get your store working in a decent file format, send me an email! This is the one and only reason I'm not going to invest more time looking at your site. All in all, finding a way to listen to music shouldn't be about politics...the music should be the message, not the file format you listen to it in.
BTW -- WFT with the java music player for the samples? Are you interested in promoting the music as all or are you just trying to profess your love for the RMS and all things OpenSource? I like what you are trying to do, but I think its failing at the core message. You've got to decide if you are selling music or the OpenSource religion.
"I'm still waiting for the day that iTunes hosts *FREE* albums."
.99 each.
/ viewAlbum?playlistId=18294623
While not free, I've noticed several albums in iTunes that were around under a dollar...which is wierd when you realize that each song bought individually were
For instance:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa
This is $0.49 (I bought it a couple weeks ago thinking it was a mistake). Not a bad deal, considering someone has to pay for the bandwidth and storage fees.
I have a friend that sells exclusively through the iTMS these days (after getting dropped from his lable) and he mentioned that while you *HAVE* to charge $0.99 per song, you can charge what ever you want per the album (i.e., make the album $300 while the individual songs might only come to $9.99 if bought seperately).
Why not encourage people to use this loophole. Put up a lot of album only songs that are within the $1 range for the entire set. I'd be glad to drop that kind of money on unknowns...
As much as I hate it, they do have to follow the law of the land.
If the US government had asked them to turn over email for accounts that originated in the US and were maintained on US servers, and the courts agreed with this decision -- they'd turn it over too...just the same way you'd roll if the gov't and the court system told you to do something.
What? You think that just because they are a US company that they don't need to follow the laws in countries they do business?
Again, I don't agree with it either...but so long as they maintain a physical business presence there, they need to follow the law like anyone else.
This is as much for you as it is for Seumas...
:-).
"Just as there is a lot of difference between writing C and actually knowing how to program."
And that was my point to Seamas...a LOT of people know how to pull up a C compiler and get something executable. A lot of people understand what OO is about in the C++ (or even objectiveC if you are on OS X), but I've met few that used oo for anything other than passing complicated variables around.
But here is where I object to this:
"Much as the PHP and Perl and Java people would like to deny it, a language that hides away the system complexities cannot be classed in the same category as a language that allows full control of the system, as C and Assembly."
Bullshit. Most of the folks I know that program anything in C use libraries. Most folks in Asm use some sort of toolkit. Few today are programming from the metal up. Even those programming drivers aren't really touching much of the hardware because everything is abstracted these days. Hell, I was helping a friend with an ASIO driver and it was amazing how little you had to know about the architecture to get it done (and beyond that, it was still above my head -- I just have a little experience in this area working with other developers that I was able to throw a few cents in here or there
So yeah -- it takes away system complexities and instead allows one to focus on USER complexities. Those are far more complicated than any f'n system any day of the week. This is probably why I stopped calling myself a programmer about 10 years back and started calling myself a developer. A programmer is more interested in the code. A developer is interested in the final results. The end user doesn't give a fuck about code -- they care about can they use this. And this is one of the problems in the F/OSS communities -- most are more interested in coding than they are the end product.
That to me is the difference between a developer and a programmer. A programmer will use the languages he knows to give the best result. A developer will choose the language that best represents the clients needs. When I need a desktop application done, I could care less what it was written in, so long as it is seamless. In the past, I've used Hypercard with a C backend. I've used VisualBasic (well not too much, I never cared much for this) and these days, I use RealBasic. If its a web app -- I can get the job done with ASP or PHP -- depending on the needs of the client.
As for Pointers -- when was the last time you were programming a modern language and decided you might need a pointer? They are useful if you are working on streaming media (at least thats the only area I've seen need for it in the last several years...and I've found ways around that). All in all, other than coming outta a low level language and thinking that pointers are my hammer, there must be some nails to push in -- there is litle reason anyone should be poking around with direct memory access.
Given the choice between C and a higher language? I'll use the one that gets my job done in a way that is maintainable and efficient. Even my hardcore number crunching rarely needs anything more (though the few times I've had to deal with real time, yeah, C was my first and only choice).
A good C developer is not a good web developer. Different skill sets. But a good developer can switch languages and learn far faster than a good 'programmer' can.
Ok, now I'm rambling so I'll shut up here...
"I do, however, think that most people who go around writing PHP and calling themselves "software developers" are not developing actual software in the manner of a Drupal or a PHPNuke."
Dude -- you are such a snob.
Most people that program ANY language are not developing anything in the manner of an application with the complexity of Drupal or Nuke. It goes without saying 99% of everything is shit.
So what.
So you hear someone that claims to program in PHP is a software developer and turn your nose up immediately without even looking at what they've done.
Trust me -- I work on a lot of other peoples code in a number of languages -- very little of it is up to what I would call competent for a programmer, let alone a developer. At least I see their code before passing judgement on them. And even then, I know if someone were to scrutinizee code I've thrown out there for something a boss had promised to someone else without telling me (nor giving the client realistic deadlines), I'd probably think I was a shitty developer too.
But yeah, you are a snob. And considering you aren't a developer -- you have no reason to be one. You are doing it purely for the ever so fashionable vicious snear and not for the problems you will have in working with the idiots that claim they are something they aren't.
"If a person has correct answer but got it only by mistake then what good is it?"
:-)
Because by knowing how a test works, it tells a LOT about the student. There is a lot of science behind item response theory...for instance, a right answer on a specific item may tell you that the student has guessed. That's right...the reliability of the item may be that over 70% of the people that passed the test got it wrong, while 70% of the people the failed got it right. Quite a bit can be figured out about the student by what they got right or wrong.
In fact, the classic 3 parameter model guessing is a BIG part about the calibration:
http://www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt181b.htm
(difficulty and discrimination being the other two parameters)
Of course, this come more into play when you get into computer adaptive testing, but it still important on the standard multiple choice test (at least if its standardized).
As for math and computer science...I've never designed a CS test using multiple choice, but math is very useful. Again, adaptive testing with multiple choice is better, but its not like math is rocket science...as an instructor mentioned recently, math is not about memorizing formulas or otherwise, its about learning how to think creatively while breaking down a problem and coming up with a solution. If you can figure out the answers that don't belong and figure out the rest without having to do the problem, you've demonstrated knowledge about the ideas behind the problem in front of you...its just like the complaints we got about an essay rater we were working on several years back (it graded structure, not content)...people were submitting brilliantly written nonsense and then complaining that we were scoring it high -- the fact that someone was able to figure out ways around the writing rubric to game the system meant that they pretty much deserved the high scores they received because they were good writers -- regardless of the nonsense (unlike my own writing...this is not a good example of such writing).
All in all, this all depends on what you are after -- demonstration of mastery or for a diagnostic (or maybe to prove your students know as much as the students down the hall or the school across the state). Luckily, most educators are taught testing methods before they leave school and probably have a little more clue as to what they are looking for than students that think a test may just be multiple choice bullshit (though that could be considered negative face value
clif (speaking for myself and not my office)
I spend $50 at Apple at least once a year...
Beyond that, you can buy a user replacable battery that minimizes the battery life issue *AND* gives like 3 times the standard play time for only $30.
My 1st Gen iPod is only now starting to show signs of its age...but I'd really be happy with a battery that can play 'up to 24 hours' (if their advertising is correct -- I'd be happy with even double the original 6 hours I was getting -- it would be enough for any road trip I'm up for).
http://www.truepowerbatteries.com/index6.php
Note -- I don't know the validity of that site -- I was about to buy one of their competitors batteries and saw this and now thinking of waiting around to see if I hear anything else before picking up any of them...but all it all, they all sound pretty user servicable and not a big deal to swap out.