Errr...as one of the other posters mentioned, every night, went out to the next door neighbors house with a screw driver and unplugged the line from the home.
Pull the loop and everything in the house goes dead. The phone company used these as a way to test if the phone was really bad or if it was an inside line issue -- for which they could charge a lot of money for.
So, once we pulled this, she had no service inside.
Seriously, did any of you miscretins ever do anything wrong? Or did I luck out with the whole age of being born at a time I didn't have to worry about law enforcement shooting to kill for even thinking of unauthorized access of telecommunications lines.
That was probably more than a lifetime ago for some of you. I miss the whole early 80s computer scene...
"I always wanted to run a BBS as a kid, but could never afford a phone line."
Should have done like I did. I ran a C64 BBS out of my parents garage. They put strict rules on the modem, so I ended up grabbing a 50ft. cord and running it to the back of my next door neighbor's silverbox (or whatever it was we called it back then...the outside phone junction). She was old and slept most of the time and was not supposed to get calls after 5PM anyways (she'd leave the phone off the hook), so from 9PM until I got up to go to school, the BBS was running. And with strict rules as to when it was up and when it wasn't...back then all the BBS lists had hours of operations listed.
That didn't stop the idiots from calling her up during the day though -- just to see -- and she kept harassing my parents about knowing the aliens were trying to get her because she heard them sneak around at night -- never stealing anything -- and they called her during the day with their wierd chatter:-)
Even when it wasn't advertised, it cost $99 to replace the battery.
I spent 3x that on my first gen iPod.
And as the market found a niche, folks found a way to make batteries that last twice as long as Apple's battery and offer them for $30 (more if they have to do it for you...to the point it is almost as effective to have Apple do it and re-up the warentee at the same time).
So yeah, if your facts were correct, it would have been ridiculous, but they aren't.
And having said that, only an idiot would think a battery would last forever...
You see, us Mac users are too dumb to realize that batteries cannot last forever. Take into note the dumbasses that were suing Apple because their battery life died 2 years after using their iPods 24/7.
So you see, we have no clue that batteries actually die. And even less of a clue that they actually will cost us money when they do die.
I'm glad you have pointed this out to us.
Having said that, I will echo the other sentiments that I have a wireless mouse and I only change the batteries about once a year -- and since moving to rechargables, I recharged them about 6 months ago and haven't had a need to pop them in the charger since.
I never wanted DST here in Indiana either until I started having to deal with folks outside of the Indiana border on a regular basis.
I still think DST is a pretty moronic idea, but standards are important when you are dealing with people that have no clue as to how your system works. And if it means better international business -- I'm all for it (for instance, from what I understand, its a hassle for airlines coming into Indiana -- every airport has laws governing take off and landing schedules, and the change means they adjust the schedule twice a year, or offer limited flight hours to make certain the routes are the same summer and winter).
Looks like perfectly good Vic20/C64/C128 loading to me:-)
Then again, it could be that old Tandy / Commodore rivalry I always saw in the old computer users groups of the 80s. Don't worry, we always kick your Trash-80 asses.
You are right...it takes a while to troubleshoot a Mac because the problems happen so rarely.
On the PC, I have to troubleshoot all the time...I don't look at it as time unproductive, I look at it as time educating myself for when it happens to the next person at work, or friends, or next door neighbors.
Macs? I'll see a problem and it is a waste of my time...I'll never find anyone with that exact problem again and its 3 hours wasted.
I'm kinda doing the same. I'm going to go the psych route, but I'm a local geek for my university (I manage a small office that does R&D for psychometric instruments and assessment tools).
Knowing the market out there, depending on how you want to go, there is a LOT of need for folks that can think both logically and know technology.
I'm not sure how much you can do without a masters in this field (though I have done a lot of consulting in this area without a degree in either area...though I'd cheated my name on a few publications and work a few conferences in this area a year).
But really, the tech side of things is needed.
As for the music major...nah...you'd never make any money with this:-) I make more on the music side these days than with computers or psych, but I think if I had taken actual classes, it'd be just like my lit degree when I never want to write fiction again.
Send me an email if you are interested in CS and Psych...
"A wonderful Mac user decided to start up an Airport and serve DHCP."
Heh! I did that once:-)
I run a small office for my university as well as being the geek for a larger department and thus felt justified by installing an airport for my own needs. We are confined to a 1930s office building in the basement, so its not like I was transmitting into space -- there is so much concrete here that it blocks anything more than 30 feet from the wireless -- just enough so that we didn't have to plug in everytime someone needed to do a presentation or pull out their personal laptop to throw some info on the LAN.
Anywho, a few weeks later I find out that our network operations people are scouring the building looking for a rogue DHCP server thats killing peoples connections...turns out it was my device.
Who'd have thunk Apple would have set the damn device to transmit DHCP on the LAN side of things...it was all supposed to happen on the wireless and the local ethernet port. The thing was so well built for its time and so easy to run (unlike most of the other wireless devices when it first came out) that I didn't even think about it.
I know I have just upgrade to the top of the line Shure in ear monitors for the stage...on stage, I don't listen to LOUD LIVE INSTRUMENTS, I listen to very quiet instruments and honestly, I can't hear much of anything with the in-ears properly inserted (sometimes I have to pop them in and out). Heck, I've used on planes as a means to get to sleep while sitting next to the engine (its a whole different set of freaking out over being on a plane when you only 'hear' what is absorbed through the body and not through them there earholes).
I care about my ears...and the only musicians I know that have ears this bad are the idiots that like it loud. I keep a few sizes of standard plugs in my gig bag because I don't know who is going to be with me and I know my friends actually care about their ears as well.
As for dirty windows? An out of phase ride is very easy to hear when they are being picked up by the overheads and others...most of the time it just doesn't matter though. Sometimes we switch phasing because of musicial decisions...and half the time, we switch something and then switch back and don't realize. It just doesn't matter. We can hear it, but who cares.
But HiFi enthusiasts are freaks and idiots. I could care less if I can identify what kind of rosen a soloist is using so long as I can hear him. I listen to music and not bits. I'd recommend you do the same. Fill in the gaps yourself...think like a musician....:-)
I have one synth that can send and receive velocity using MSB and LSB, but I don't know of any shipping synth that can use it (and it is a bit more latent than standard midi -- shame there wasn't mLan back then).
Does it sound any better? Not much because the built in samples use only 16 layer of velocity and no accompanying synthesis to filter the inbetween velocities.
But yeah, even on most other controllers, most synths ignore any 14bit resolution except on pitch bend and thats a special type of CC anyways.
"That said, I think Apple should leave the kids alone."
Apple isn't threatening any of these guys with anything. You might be thinking of another case where someone pirated Apple's software. All Apple is asking is that they give information about who gave them the information -- they haven't threatened anyone with anything.
Yeah, but most people listening don't want 'decent' -- they want great.
I'm not saying what you hear on the radio is great, but most home bands that I listen to just sound flat / one dimensional. Unless you are part of their following, I wouldn't waste me time listening to them.
But all in all, this was all technically possible and was employed by many artists even before the internet. I have 200 vinyl albums printed up to sell to friends and fans back in the 80s by myself and then had to get another 1000 printed up a few weeks later and sold them (along with 45s) at various shows and area record stores (of which, all the bands I knew would trade stacks of albums so that if you ended up at a record store somewhere that you never saw, you could drop off a dozen bands records at once). Again, without the internet.
Too many people look at the RIAA as something they can't go against and need to survive. You need the big guys only if you are greedy and think you will make a million dollars (adjust for inflation) and willing to gamble. Sometimes it works out in your favor, but just like in the casino, you will probably fail. But everyone acts like this is a brand new idea and they are dead wrong...there are no new ideas and everyone outside of the industry that thinks they have a new idea to chage it is dead wrong because its already been tried by someone within and most likely it works and has been pioneered but new artists always go for the cash because their ego precludes them from stopping at just owning a house in the suburbs like most of us do.
Blah blah blah...I can rant all day and it won't change anyones attitude.
No, artists don't have to sign contracts. Several of my friends have been making a living for YEARS outside the grid, so to speak. This was before the internet took hold.
All in all, the RIAA never did anything to stop you from distributing your works over the internet. No laws were passed to make non-specific music files illegal. Laws were passed via influence of the RIAA and other content providers to protect their works. Even back in the day, certain artists were given permission to upload their songs online. I remember going to a crappy first generation site to pull out AIFs that would go into a tracker type application that one could hear remixed versions of the song -- and it took fricken all night to get these -- from RIAA endorsed artists.
The RIAA doesn't care about your content unless they have a stake in it.
As for the studio down the street -- still not true. Too many bedroom studios are starting up and killing real studios. This is great for Techno and other electronic art forms, but for real live musicians -- the studio down the street sucks. Its not the equipment you have -- I know the studio I have in my house is far better equipped than the one I woodshedded in that was a major studio, but I'm still just one person. I can provide specific services, but I send out for other items.
Back in the day, you'd be able to watch a mastering engineer do his tricks and actually comment on what was going on and have your concerns taken into account. With the small local studios, either you get a shitty mastering job with someone that uses presets or you send out as well and hope that you get what you wanted, because you will be paying a second time if you didn't get what you wanted. I know enough to send detailed notes or even drive down to Nashville when I need this done, but most locals aren't going to want to let any $$$ out of their pockets.
Same with mic libraries or guitar libraries. Few small studios have these. I get by through trading from a few between professional friends, renting them from a supply company and call mic companies for eval units when that doesn't work. Most locals don't have the pull to get eval units, most don't want to spent money on someone else to rent them (or charge such a low rate they can't), and always feel they are in competition with someone else that might have nothing to do with their style of production.
But all in all, if you want the same job as a big recording studio, its going to cost the same if you go to a small studio. Most of the big acts I know actually record in smaller studios these days. But these guys are never 'local'.
The sad fact is that you get what you pay for. A hobbiest is never going to have the knowledge of a pro and even if he has the 'knowledge', he won't have the experience. I will pay someone to know by ear what frequencies to tweak and do it without having to run an analyzer on post out on a forum and wait a day to get their answers -- at the same time, I run forums to help people get to the level my friends are at.
There are differences, big differences, but at the same time, you are right -- the divide is getting smaller. Luckily enough for me and my friends, its now less about equipment and more about expertise. Anyone with $5k and a laptop can put up a decent room. Not everyone can make that room sound great.
Why? Reading through your link, you obviously did very little research. Shit, you'd have had to turn a blind eye to any number of random links that pointed you towards this site simply to be exposed to it -- either that or you are one of the sheeple like everyone else you rail against and simply picked AoM because it looked popular.
Yeah, but its dead simple for a lable to state they won't sell the hit song except as a part of the entire album.
Quite a few artists do this -- I've seen a number of albums where I needed only one, but to get it, I need to buy everything. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense because the song thats listed as Album Only isn't even a popular one...other times its obvious its because of licensing issues (for instance, one of the labels I'm consulting for is putting out a greatest hits of some older acts -- some of the artists on there only licensed the songs to be for that particular compilation and not to be distributed any other way -- their biggest concern would be that we sublicense this out again to another label with a product they didn't sign in for, and their management wants to control their image -- but all in all, we are allowed to put these online as part of the compilation).
But back to the point, the very first incarnation of the iTMS allowed for lables to force Album Only and this new contract as nothing to do with this.
"Watch FNC during the day during "hard news" coverage (i.e., FOX & Friends, FOX News Live, Special Report, the FOX Report), NOT op-ed (i.e., Hannity and Colmes, O'Reilly Factor) and find any inaccurate or overly one-sided reporting."
Ok, you consider Fox and Friends to be 'hard news coverage'. Its on right now. Everything is slanted to the republican point of view. For instance, it was just outed a few weeks ago that the White House was employing a 'reporter' that wasn't reporting for a legitimate newspaper, had been using a false name that was ok'd by the secret service and had questions vetted personally by their press secretary to softball back to him during the press conferences -- sometimes getting secret information that normally took a 3 month background check by standard White House employees, but they skipped most of it to ensure that he could ask the right questions.
*YET* while in Russia, at a press conference with Russian president Putin, they are bitching that Putin had 2 questions thrown in "to make Bush look stupid and Putin's positions look acceptable to the Russian public".
What? Did the forget the Gannon issue already?
This was an example from 10 minutes ago.
The Fox arguement went on to say Putin was solely elected by the Rich and Powerful and those gullible enough to believe that supporting the Rich and Powerful was the right thing. Jeezus Fucking Christ...there is a reason these guys are best of friends except when one or the other is pointing out the others 'flaws'.
The problem with Fox news is that they have no clear cut distinction between their op-ed and their hard news. At the same time, this is why I like watching it because you don't have to guess at what side they are pushing you towards. Then again, liberal news is so disorganized that they really don't know what side of the debate to push you to (because there are no talking point faxes sent out by the DNC ever day) and as such, you do get a better reporting otherwise because they don't have such hard lines of what is the official view point.
For the record, I'm an independant. I didn't vote for the president, but otherwise, I voted for mainly republicans in the last election (along with a few greens and other unelectables where I didn't like the two choices -- I'd love a 3rd and 4th party where they were less polarized and more common sense).
But no, anyone that even trys to state that Foxnews isn't 90% partisan opinion is a fucking idiot.
This is off topic, and I hope its voted down (and thats not a cry to vote it up -- I have more than enough Karma and its worth it), and at the same time, I hope the idiots that voted the parent as insightful need to have their moderation revoked and that topic modded offtopic just like this should be. Morons.
Again, I was told something similar. As a youth, I ended up studying state laws and asking a state board -- and they all said it was possible.
So yes, as a kid, that has no excuse -- especially if your entire point is proving you are smarter than everyone else. Its part of the process. They won't like you for it, they will lie to you, they will put up every obsticle possible. Thats life. Its not right. But you get on with it and either route around the damage or you sit there gritting your teeth how everyone screwed you over or you realize that this does no one any good and just purpetuates the whole situation that the smartest in society just don't know how to deal with the 'normals'.
All in all, I would have quit school and moved on to my college if my school wouldn't have let me do what I wanted. In hind sight, that would have been the better plan.
I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm just saying there is ALWAYS another option. ANYWAYS. Any situation. ANY.
How do they transfer credits when a student comes in from another High School?
How do they transfer credits from foreign students that where we'd be in our last two years of high school, they are in either trade schools or the equivelent of our junior / community college system?
As this wouldn't be a problem for either of these, there are transfer processing in place. Unfortunately, you didn't learn to convince them to take these.
As as for simply transfering to another institution -- its not you current school's decision to make. Its your prospective school's decision. By this mentality, if your parents wanted to send you to private school -- you'd have to get the permission of your local high school first. It doesn't work this way and never has.
In the past, the GED was limited to only those that had been out of school for X Amount of years or were Y Age. These days, its easier to get a GED and go it yourself.
Sometimes it is a pain in the ass. I ended up getting my GED before I did the college thing. It wasn't very hard. My high school wanted nothing to do with my college activities until they thought they were going to lose potential funding -- each student brings in between $1500 and $4000 for most public schools (depending on poverty levels and otherwise). On the high end, you've lose one tenth of a teacher's salary and it hurts. I also ended up getting my diploma from my high school in the end.
Surprisingly my principle was MUCH more responsive about all of this than the school board. The school board wanted nothing to do with it. They told me the same. But the fact is, if you have credit from another accredited institution at an equal or higher level, they have to accept it...you might have to jump through some paperwork to do it though.
People want to do as little work as possible, and most in education are just standard persons that never had to deal with a gifted student or thought anything outside the norm was bad or an attempt to subvery to system. People feel threatened and refuse to budge. This is the way of life on anything. Learn it early, and your life will be so much easier.
But yeah, flat out, I was told I couldn't do this, and legally as my school could not provide me with the education I needed (and my parents had to pay to have this independantly verified -- all in all, it wasn't much and was covered by insurance) -- I had the choice to go somewhere where it was appropriate, which included going to another local high school (where I started my japanese study program) and then to the local college (where I took both the language studies as well as programming and otherwise).
Just because something is hard or an obsticle is in your path doesn't mean its impossible. Personally, I think this is a good thing -- it encourages those that need to think on their own to do so. Its part of the learning exercise. If you can't get around it, then you aren't ready to progress. Simple as that.
"Sometimes it doesn't matter how smart and motivated the kid is, the school simply will not teach anything more advanced than "Typing II" or "Introduction to Computer Programming". He can always learn things outside of school, but that's hardly "in school", is it?"
Well, this is exactly why most school systems allow for students to take AP or other courses at community colleges. When I was 15, I was taking half a day at a local college studying both programming and Japanese language and then heading back for the rest of the regular school day (when I felt like it).
I'm now 33. My position in academia occasionally requires me to help these students get placed into appropriate courses so they can be allowed to take part in programs like this. So, I know in the last 18 years this has had to spread because every university I've worked with has had something like this.
But that might take some motivation on the part of the parents and the kid. Its 'outside of high school', but its definately not "hardly in school".
Unfortunately, it is a genetic defect related to psorasis -- which is generally a skin disorder. It attacks for no reason other than my body is confused as to what is a foreign body or not. Or something like that (too complicated to go into in a/. comment).
But yeah, proper balance and otherwise will extend the life, but it won't prevent it.
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No, but he was one of the lead developers of one of the greatest digital instruments out there, the Kurzweil K2000.
That was mid-80s, so you've had two decades of Moog that could play midi.
Errr...as one of the other posters mentioned, every night, went out to the next door neighbors house with a screw driver and unplugged the line from the home.
Pull the loop and everything in the house goes dead. The phone company used these as a way to test if the phone was really bad or if it was an inside line issue -- for which they could charge a lot of money for.
So, once we pulled this, she had no service inside.
Seriously, did any of you miscretins ever do anything wrong? Or did I luck out with the whole age of being born at a time I didn't have to worry about law enforcement shooting to kill for even thinking of unauthorized access of telecommunications lines.
That was probably more than a lifetime ago for some of you. I miss the whole early 80s computer scene...
"I always wanted to run a BBS as a kid, but could never afford a phone line."
:-)
Should have done like I did. I ran a C64 BBS out of my parents garage. They put strict rules on the modem, so I ended up grabbing a 50ft. cord and running it to the back of my next door neighbor's silverbox (or whatever it was we called it back then...the outside phone junction). She was old and slept most of the time and was not supposed to get calls after 5PM anyways (she'd leave the phone off the hook), so from 9PM until I got up to go to school, the BBS was running. And with strict rules as to when it was up and when it wasn't...back then all the BBS lists had hours of operations listed.
That didn't stop the idiots from calling her up during the day though -- just to see -- and she kept harassing my parents about knowing the aliens were trying to get her because she heard them sneak around at night -- never stealing anything -- and they called her during the day with their wierd chatter
Where there is a will, there is a way.
Even when it wasn't advertised, it cost $99 to replace the battery.
I spent 3x that on my first gen iPod.
And as the market found a niche, folks found a way to make batteries that last twice as long as Apple's battery and offer them for $30 (more if they have to do it for you...to the point it is almost as effective to have Apple do it and re-up the warentee at the same time).
So yeah, if your facts were correct, it would have been ridiculous, but they aren't.
And having said that, only an idiot would think a battery would last forever...
Throw batteries away???
I. Don't. Understand. What. You. Are. Saying.
You see, us Mac users are too dumb to realize that batteries cannot last forever. Take into note the dumbasses that were suing Apple because their battery life died 2 years after using their iPods 24/7.
So you see, we have no clue that batteries actually die. And even less of a clue that they actually will cost us money when they do die.
I'm glad you have pointed this out to us.
Having said that, I will echo the other sentiments that I have a wireless mouse and I only change the batteries about once a year -- and since moving to rechargables, I recharged them about 6 months ago and haven't had a need to pop them in the charger since.
I agree.
I never wanted DST here in Indiana either until I started having to deal with folks outside of the Indiana border on a regular basis.
I still think DST is a pretty moronic idea, but standards are important when you are dealing with people that have no clue as to how your system works. And if it means better international business -- I'm all for it (for instance, from what I understand, its a hassle for airlines coming into Indiana -- every airport has laws governing take off and landing schedules, and the change means they adjust the schedule twice a year, or offer limited flight hours to make certain the routes are the same summer and winter).
Looks like perfectly good Vic20/C64/C128 loading to me :-)
Then again, it could be that old Tandy / Commodore rivalry I always saw in the old computer users groups of the 80s. Don't worry, we always kick your Trash-80 asses.
Dude!
Yer an ijit!!!
Ya could have figured I was joking by reading the f'n words.
:-)
Note, I said joking, not funny.
You are right...it takes a while to troubleshoot a Mac because the problems happen so rarely.
On the PC, I have to troubleshoot all the time...I don't look at it as time unproductive, I look at it as time educating myself for when it happens to the next person at work, or friends, or next door neighbors.
Macs? I'll see a problem and it is a waste of my time...I'll never find anyone with that exact problem again and its 3 hours wasted.
I'm kinda doing the same. I'm going to go the psych route, but I'm a local geek for my university (I manage a small office that does R&D for psychometric instruments and assessment tools).
:-) I make more on the music side these days than with computers or psych, but I think if I had taken actual classes, it'd be just like my lit degree when I never want to write fiction again.
Knowing the market out there, depending on how you want to go, there is a LOT of need for folks that can think both logically and know technology.
I'm not sure how much you can do without a masters in this field (though I have done a lot of consulting in this area without a degree in either area...though I'd cheated my name on a few publications and work a few conferences in this area a year).
But really, the tech side of things is needed.
As for the music major...nah...you'd never make any money with this
Send me an email if you are interested in CS and Psych...
"A wonderful Mac user decided to start up an Airport and serve DHCP."
:-)
Heh! I did that once
I run a small office for my university as well as being the geek for a larger department and thus felt justified by installing an airport for my own needs. We are confined to a 1930s office building in the basement, so its not like I was transmitting into space -- there is so much concrete here that it blocks anything more than 30 feet from the wireless -- just enough so that we didn't have to plug in everytime someone needed to do a presentation or pull out their personal laptop to throw some info on the LAN.
Anywho, a few weeks later I find out that our network operations people are scouring the building looking for a rogue DHCP server thats killing peoples connections...turns out it was my device.
Who'd have thunk Apple would have set the damn device to transmit DHCP on the LAN side of things...it was all supposed to happen on the wireless and the local ethernet port. The thing was so well built for its time and so easy to run (unlike most of the other wireless devices when it first came out) that I didn't even think about it.
Embarassing...
Again, its the creative vs. the uncreative.
:-)
We want content, not perfect little bits.
I know I have just upgrade to the top of the line Shure in ear monitors for the stage...on stage, I don't listen to LOUD LIVE INSTRUMENTS, I listen to very quiet instruments and honestly, I can't hear much of anything with the in-ears properly inserted (sometimes I have to pop them in and out). Heck, I've used on planes as a means to get to sleep while sitting next to the engine (its a whole different set of freaking out over being on a plane when you only 'hear' what is absorbed through the body and not through them there earholes).
I care about my ears...and the only musicians I know that have ears this bad are the idiots that like it loud. I keep a few sizes of standard plugs in my gig bag because I don't know who is going to be with me and I know my friends actually care about their ears as well.
As for dirty windows? An out of phase ride is very easy to hear when they are being picked up by the overheads and others...most of the time it just doesn't matter though. Sometimes we switch phasing because of musicial decisions...and half the time, we switch something and then switch back and don't realize. It just doesn't matter. We can hear it, but who cares.
But HiFi enthusiasts are freaks and idiots. I could care less if I can identify what kind of rosen a soloist is using so long as I can hear him. I listen to music and not bits. I'd recommend you do the same. Fill in the gaps yourself...think like a musician....
Yeah, velocity is 7bit -- 127 values.
I have one synth that can send and receive velocity using MSB and LSB, but I don't know of any shipping synth that can use it (and it is a bit more latent than standard midi -- shame there wasn't mLan back then).
Does it sound any better? Not much because the built in samples use only 16 layer of velocity and no accompanying synthesis to filter the inbetween velocities.
But yeah, even on most other controllers, most synths ignore any 14bit resolution except on pitch bend and thats a special type of CC anyways.
"That said, I think Apple should leave the kids alone."
Apple isn't threatening any of these guys with anything. You might be thinking of another case where someone pirated Apple's software. All Apple is asking is that they give information about who gave them the information -- they haven't threatened anyone with anything.
Yeah, but most people listening don't want 'decent' -- they want great.
I'm not saying what you hear on the radio is great, but most home bands that I listen to just sound flat / one dimensional. Unless you are part of their following, I wouldn't waste me time listening to them.
But all in all, this was all technically possible and was employed by many artists even before the internet. I have 200 vinyl albums printed up to sell to friends and fans back in the 80s by myself and then had to get another 1000 printed up a few weeks later and sold them (along with 45s) at various shows and area record stores (of which, all the bands I knew would trade stacks of albums so that if you ended up at a record store somewhere that you never saw, you could drop off a dozen bands records at once). Again, without the internet.
Too many people look at the RIAA as something they can't go against and need to survive. You need the big guys only if you are greedy and think you will make a million dollars (adjust for inflation) and willing to gamble. Sometimes it works out in your favor, but just like in the casino, you will probably fail. But everyone acts like this is a brand new idea and they are dead wrong...there are no new ideas and everyone outside of the industry that thinks they have a new idea to chage it is dead wrong because its already been tried by someone within and most likely it works and has been pioneered but new artists always go for the cash because their ego precludes them from stopping at just owning a house in the suburbs like most of us do.
Blah blah blah...I can rant all day and it won't change anyones attitude.
I'm a bit late to the game but --
No, artists don't have to sign contracts. Several of my friends have been making a living for YEARS outside the grid, so to speak. This was before the internet took hold.
All in all, the RIAA never did anything to stop you from distributing your works over the internet. No laws were passed to make non-specific music files illegal. Laws were passed via influence of the RIAA and other content providers to protect their works. Even back in the day, certain artists were given permission to upload their songs online. I remember going to a crappy first generation site to pull out AIFs that would go into a tracker type application that one could hear remixed versions of the song -- and it took fricken all night to get these -- from RIAA endorsed artists.
The RIAA doesn't care about your content unless they have a stake in it.
As for the studio down the street -- still not true. Too many bedroom studios are starting up and killing real studios. This is great for Techno and other electronic art forms, but for real live musicians -- the studio down the street sucks. Its not the equipment you have -- I know the studio I have in my house is far better equipped than the one I woodshedded in that was a major studio, but I'm still just one person. I can provide specific services, but I send out for other items.
Back in the day, you'd be able to watch a mastering engineer do his tricks and actually comment on what was going on and have your concerns taken into account. With the small local studios, either you get a shitty mastering job with someone that uses presets or you send out as well and hope that you get what you wanted, because you will be paying a second time if you didn't get what you wanted. I know enough to send detailed notes or even drive down to Nashville when I need this done, but most locals aren't going to want to let any $$$ out of their pockets.
Same with mic libraries or guitar libraries. Few small studios have these. I get by through trading from a few between professional friends, renting them from a supply company and call mic companies for eval units when that doesn't work. Most locals don't have the pull to get eval units, most don't want to spent money on someone else to rent them (or charge such a low rate they can't), and always feel they are in competition with someone else that might have nothing to do with their style of production.
But all in all, if you want the same job as a big recording studio, its going to cost the same if you go to a small studio. Most of the big acts I know actually record in smaller studios these days. But these guys are never 'local'.
The sad fact is that you get what you pay for. A hobbiest is never going to have the knowledge of a pro and even if he has the 'knowledge', he won't have the experience. I will pay someone to know by ear what frequencies to tweak and do it without having to run an analyzer on post out on a forum and wait a day to get their answers -- at the same time, I run forums to help people get to the level my friends are at.
There are differences, big differences, but at the same time, you are right -- the divide is getting smaller. Luckily enough for me and my friends, its now less about equipment and more about expertise. Anyone with $5k and a laptop can put up a decent room. Not everyone can make that room sound great.
Why? Reading through your link, you obviously did very little research. Shit, you'd have had to turn a blind eye to any number of random links that pointed you towards this site simply to be exposed to it -- either that or you are one of the sheeple like everyone else you rail against and simply picked AoM because it looked popular.
Research before you act like an idiot that lives in a fantasy world.
Yeah, but its dead simple for a lable to state they won't sell the hit song except as a part of the entire album.
Quite a few artists do this -- I've seen a number of albums where I needed only one, but to get it, I need to buy everything. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense because the song thats listed as Album Only isn't even a popular one...other times its obvious its because of licensing issues (for instance, one of the labels I'm consulting for is putting out a greatest hits of some older acts -- some of the artists on there only licensed the songs to be for that particular compilation and not to be distributed any other way -- their biggest concern would be that we sublicense this out again to another label with a product they didn't sign in for, and their management wants to control their image -- but all in all, we are allowed to put these online as part of the compilation).
But back to the point, the very first incarnation of the iTMS allowed for lables to force Album Only and this new contract as nothing to do with this.
"Watch FNC during the day during "hard news" coverage (i.e., FOX & Friends, FOX News Live, Special Report, the FOX Report), NOT op-ed (i.e., Hannity and Colmes, O'Reilly Factor) and find any inaccurate or overly one-sided reporting."
Ok, you consider Fox and Friends to be 'hard news coverage'. Its on right now. Everything is slanted to the republican point of view. For instance, it was just outed a few weeks ago that the White House was employing a 'reporter' that wasn't reporting for a legitimate newspaper, had been using a false name that was ok'd by the secret service and had questions vetted personally by their press secretary to softball back to him during the press conferences -- sometimes getting secret information that normally took a 3 month background check by standard White House employees, but they skipped most of it to ensure that he could ask the right questions.
*YET* while in Russia, at a press conference with Russian president Putin, they are bitching that Putin had 2 questions thrown in "to make Bush look stupid and Putin's positions look acceptable to the Russian public".
What? Did the forget the Gannon issue already?
This was an example from 10 minutes ago.
The Fox arguement went on to say Putin was solely elected by the Rich and Powerful and those gullible enough to believe that supporting the Rich and Powerful was the right thing. Jeezus Fucking Christ...there is a reason these guys are best of friends except when one or the other is pointing out the others 'flaws'.
The problem with Fox news is that they have no clear cut distinction between their op-ed and their hard news. At the same time, this is why I like watching it because you don't have to guess at what side they are pushing you towards. Then again, liberal news is so disorganized that they really don't know what side of the debate to push you to (because there are no talking point faxes sent out by the DNC ever day) and as such, you do get a better reporting otherwise because they don't have such hard lines of what is the official view point.
For the record, I'm an independant. I didn't vote for the president, but otherwise, I voted for mainly republicans in the last election (along with a few greens and other unelectables where I didn't like the two choices -- I'd love a 3rd and 4th party where they were less polarized and more common sense).
But no, anyone that even trys to state that Foxnews isn't 90% partisan opinion is a fucking idiot.
This is off topic, and I hope its voted down (and thats not a cry to vote it up -- I have more than enough Karma and its worth it), and at the same time, I hope the idiots that voted the parent as insightful need to have their moderation revoked and that topic modded offtopic just like this should be. Morons.
Again, I was told something similar. As a youth, I ended up studying state laws and asking a state board -- and they all said it was possible.
So yes, as a kid, that has no excuse -- especially if your entire point is proving you are smarter than everyone else. Its part of the process. They won't like you for it, they will lie to you, they will put up every obsticle possible. Thats life. Its not right. But you get on with it and either route around the damage or you sit there gritting your teeth how everyone screwed you over or you realize that this does no one any good and just purpetuates the whole situation that the smartest in society just don't know how to deal with the 'normals'.
All in all, I would have quit school and moved on to my college if my school wouldn't have let me do what I wanted. In hind sight, that would have been the better plan.
I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm just saying there is ALWAYS another option. ANYWAYS. Any situation. ANY.
Get it?
How do they transfer credits when a student comes in from another High School?
How do they transfer credits from foreign students that where we'd be in our last two years of high school, they are in either trade schools or the equivelent of our junior / community college system?
As this wouldn't be a problem for either of these, there are transfer processing in place. Unfortunately, you didn't learn to convince them to take these.
As as for simply transfering to another institution -- its not you current school's decision to make. Its your prospective school's decision. By this mentality, if your parents wanted to send you to private school -- you'd have to get the permission of your local high school first. It doesn't work this way and never has.
Fine -- transfer to another institution.
In the past, the GED was limited to only those that had been out of school for X Amount of years or were Y Age. These days, its easier to get a GED and go it yourself.
Sometimes it is a pain in the ass. I ended up getting my GED before I did the college thing. It wasn't very hard. My high school wanted nothing to do with my college activities until they thought they were going to lose potential funding -- each student brings in between $1500 and $4000 for most public schools (depending on poverty levels and otherwise). On the high end, you've lose one tenth of a teacher's salary and it hurts. I also ended up getting my diploma from my high school in the end.
Surprisingly my principle was MUCH more responsive about all of this than the school board. The school board wanted nothing to do with it. They told me the same. But the fact is, if you have credit from another accredited institution at an equal or higher level, they have to accept it...you might have to jump through some paperwork to do it though.
People want to do as little work as possible, and most in education are just standard persons that never had to deal with a gifted student or thought anything outside the norm was bad or an attempt to subvery to system. People feel threatened and refuse to budge. This is the way of life on anything. Learn it early, and your life will be so much easier.
But yeah, flat out, I was told I couldn't do this, and legally as my school could not provide me with the education I needed (and my parents had to pay to have this independantly verified -- all in all, it wasn't much and was covered by insurance) -- I had the choice to go somewhere where it was appropriate, which included going to another local high school (where I started my japanese study program) and then to the local college (where I took both the language studies as well as programming and otherwise).
Just because something is hard or an obsticle is in your path doesn't mean its impossible. Personally, I think this is a good thing -- it encourages those that need to think on their own to do so. Its part of the learning exercise. If you can't get around it, then you aren't ready to progress. Simple as that.
"Sometimes it doesn't matter how smart and motivated the kid is, the school simply will not teach anything more advanced than "Typing II" or "Introduction to Computer Programming". He can always learn things outside of school, but that's hardly "in school", is it?"
Well, this is exactly why most school systems allow for students to take AP or other courses at community colleges. When I was 15, I was taking half a day at a local college studying both programming and Japanese language and then heading back for the rest of the regular school day (when I felt like it).
I'm now 33. My position in academia occasionally requires me to help these students get placed into appropriate courses so they can be allowed to take part in programs like this. So, I know in the last 18 years this has had to spread because every university I've worked with has had something like this.
But that might take some motivation on the part of the parents and the kid. Its 'outside of high school', but its definately not "hardly in school".
Unfortunately, it is a genetic defect related to psorasis -- which is generally a skin disorder. It attacks for no reason other than my body is confused as to what is a foreign body or not. Or something like that (too complicated to go into in a /. comment).
But yeah, proper balance and otherwise will extend the life, but it won't prevent it.