We are talking about kids, which you may be a part of -- I don't know -- and kids are not the most reputable sources of what is good for themselves:-)
Is there anything inherently wrong with banning the sales of Playboys to children? If your dad wanted you to have a copy, he can still get your a copy of this. It puts the decision making skills on the parent instead of letting society govern your morals. Some would believe that this is the gov't controlling your morals, but as long as my parents could buy it and give it to me, I'm cool with it.
hell, I had my dad buy my first copy of the Anarchists Cookbook -- I don't think he knew what it was about, but Paladin Press took his check never-the-less:-) And no, I would have no problem with that being under the guise of controlled speech for a minor.
People tend to forget we get our freedoms in small doses until we are able to handle them all. Today a good friend of mine asked me about what was necessary to buy a gun...she is 33. I don't think she is mature enough to buy one. I might take her to the range and teach her how to shoot (the last time we were shooting, were were both in our early 20s and she was a bit reckless then and I decided I wasn't going to continue the exercise).
Nope, not everyone needs all the freedoms we are given -- certain rights come with maturity and I'm a firm believer that one should have to earn these freedoms. I don't believe they are an absolute. When I was younger, I most certainly did. As I grew up, I soon learned that even at my age most people are not mature enough to understand the freedoms given to them BUT at a certain point ya just have to let someone have these freedoms. I don' think 18 is too long of a wait to buy your own copy of pornography or bomb making books without your parents consent, nor do I think its too late to allow folks to buy video games where they shoot cops and other authority figures.
Ya gotta remember who the folks were that he didn't care for...he was dealing directly with the Rampart division of LAPD. A division that was known for shooting first, planting weapons second. Known for forging evidance and having other cops back them up on this. Taking money from drug dealers and if you didn't give them the money asked for, you could be assured if they thought you were a criminal you'd end up dead or in jail with a mountain of proof that didn't exist.
When all of this came out, Ice-T was interviewed on the subject and just said I Told you So...
Personally, I've had a few run ins with the cops over the years. They say it only takes 20 years for a liberal to become conservative without changing a single opinion...I say that it takes one false imprisonment to change an otherwise conservative to a liberal. In my case, I had blue hair or bleached blonde hair or a number of other wacky colors that didn't fit into my hillbilly hometown's idea of what was right. My nose is crooked to this day and its hard to breathe from one nostril from where an officer broke it because I got smart with him by invoking my rights -- I was a minor at the time, and I couldn't do anything about this because when it came to pressing charges, I was told my father needed to be a part of this and his opinion was (at the time, his opinion has changed since) that if someone get their face beat in by a cop, they must have deserved it (yeah -- handcuffed to a chair -- I could REALLY defend myself).
I have had several encounters like that growing up. Here in Indianapolis, I had two run ins with the law...those guys were nothing but professionals. I've also seem my african american friends harrassed for no reason (I guess they had bigger problems here as my hometown didn't have no 'unwanteds' living there) and once in an admitted 'hooptie' that had darkened windows and falling apart (though still within the legal limits) I had a cop pull me over after following for about 2 miles (on the way to a security job I was working trying to get through school...man I HATED those uniforms) -- when I opened the window, the officers attitude from 10 seconds earlier changed...he got friendly and I made reference that I 'understand' why he was pulling me over because my car looked like it shouldn't be in this neighborhood and this was just a car to get me through the winter because I didn't want to have my decent car on the streets this time of the year -- he responded, "Yeah, if you were a 'nigger' you'd be on the ground right now". he said it like a good ol' boy thinkin' I believed the same...
I mentioned it to another security guard that was an off duty officer and he supposedly turned in the report...
But the fact is there are good and bad officers -- the good out rank the bad most of the time. In some neighborhoods, its unfortunate but folks are going to see more of the bad than the good -- and in the Rampart area that Ice-T grew up in, most of the officers that were good STILL let the bad do what they wanted to do and covered for them. I wouldn't have a very decent attitude about them if this is all I was ever exposed to. I've had a friend from South Africa get locked up here for speeding tickets...tried bribing the officers on the spot thinking this was the appropriate thing to do as thats how all the police officers they've dealt with in the past (almost lost his student visa but had a decent judge). Peoples experience and views on police officers will be shaped by what they see around them.
Bringing it home, I don't see a problem with banning certain types of games for those under a certain age. I'm sure in my youth they would have tried to ban DopeWars if the cops knew about the BBS Games:-) In retrospect, yeah -- this was innocent, but its not something I would consider falling under protected speech for a 15 year old. It was FAR more innocent than some of the shit I see today. Just as first hand reactions to the bad police officers can shape ones views, this sort of stuff can reinforce those reactions.
"Unfortunately, that is not always such a simple decision."
Of course its a simple decision. You report it to the police AND your boss.
Then again, any computer repair person that seems to think that looking at GIFs on a persons computer or reading text documents or looking at internet cache or history or any of the other things like that are NOT pursuing duties as defined by computer support. The last time my server crashed, I don't remember running to my picts directory to figure out what was going on. Last time I had to set up a backup for my computer, I either do my home directory OR my entire computer. Last time I needed to check to see why Adobe Photoshop wasn't working on someones computer (they shared the serials with someone down the hall), I didn't need to open up any images -- and that was the most OBVIOUS time I would have needed to see this stuff.
There is NOTHING a computer repair person should be doing that involves touching anyones files. If the person is found to be possessing child pornography because of your snooping, its a VERY easy decision as to what you should do. It should also be an equally simple decision to your boss that you should be fired and criminal charges should be held against you for computer trespass. You are not a police officer or a moral enforment agent...
"signed version licence: 5 pound charge, binary only, no redistribution allowed."
"This might really fit the "spirit" of the GPL better than releasing a signed binary with GPLed source (but no key) where the user can't reproduce the exact executable from the source."
Hmmm...Why do that? Considering its open source software, let people do what they want with it. If folks are willing to turn off the security on their phone, let them use the unsigned. Let the pay for the signed ones...how can ya do this and STILL be in the spirit of GPL?
Sign the sucker and give the key to anyone that wants to compile it. Give the EXACT options need to compile it so that the binaries are identical and that the key still lines up...
BUT if I'm not wrong, isn't there a way to read the phone number or some other unique identifier for these phones? Put in a licensing code in there that forces folks to register the software if they want to use it utilizing that unique ID.
With this in place, if someone wants to compile the software, cool as hell. They can get it running and use your key to activate it in the phone. They STILL have to get to you to open up the software (put in a public key in the software and key it against the UID -- of course YOU are the only one with the private key)...if someone wants to remove this, they are welcome to do so, BUT they'd either have to run the unsigned version OR pay the $500 for the signing fee. There would be NO other way to compile this and have the signing authorize the file if they modify the code.
It fits the GPL and while it might not agree with the spirit of some of the folks in the OS world, it fits nicely with those of that believe things like the BSD is far freer and less religious than GPL. The signing actually makes it a little closer to a happy medium than either extremes of BSD (COMPLETELY altruistic) and GPL (Pray to RMS as he is your high priest).
Heh! I'm surprised I didn't see anyone else suggest this -- just don't be greedy, and if you want to me nice, you'll give away the software for the key gen as soon as you get the $500 you needed...
Because instead of having 4 studios that are full purposed, folks build their own studios and spend the money on their own equipment than they would have normally at the big boys.
In the end, it STILL costs the industry the same amount of money or probably more.
That and the human element has gone up steadily as the pricing of the hardware has gone down. before the Home Recording Revolution occured, I was able to charge $20 an hour to show up and help someone with their gear...generally I was paid for by the studio I was in. NOW I show up at someones home, read the manual to them and charge them $75 an hour and I'm not even what I'd call professional (I've worked with several professional artists in the past and I'm going to be the head music tech for an up coming Al Green show next month, so I work with folks that are VERY professional...still pretty much a hobby for me so I can support my university and its research addiction).
And what happens AFTER folks finish their home opus? They generally head to the bigger studios to polish it up. Producers are going to ask a LOT of front money to work on this -- along with their own engineers that retrack certain items -- and they will STILL ask for points (though that generally comes out of the artists share...EVERYTHING comes out of the artists share:-) What kind of studios are they going to be running? Ones that are $100k - 300k in just equipment.
Looking at my HOME studio, I have 2 K2600s ($5500 each), Digital Mixer ($3k), Mac G4 ($3k), PC ($1k)Audio Interfaces for both Macs and PCs ($2k), Software (DAW -- Logic Audio $1k / Softsynths & Effects $2k). Thats almost $25k right there (Heh! Glad most of this was comped as I couldn't afford it). There is NO WAY IN HELL that Vig's entire studio is $15k at Stone tries to make out...I wouldn't be surprised to know it was on order of $150k at the MINIMUM.
BTW the $500 version of the CHEAP Protools is NOT Protools...its a cheap immitation with the same interface. its designed solely as a learning tool to get folks use to what the big boys use and hooked so that they can go into the studio with a little preknowledge OR convince them to buy the more expensive stuff.
Theres no doubt about it, recording a major label album is going to cost a lot of money. Indie albums will be MUCH less.
Don't take my word for it, I run one of the largest Logic user groups dedicated to digital audio. Take a look at:
http://community.sonikmatter.com
and check out our user forums. These folks know what they are doing and we have quite a few folks that have worked on albums that have resulted in precious metal on the wall. Again, I'm just a hobbiest that been caught up with the big boys because I was a geek when they needed technology taken care of and don't consider myself to be anywhere near their calibre -- but its a fucking shame to see that my bedroom studio is bigger and better than Butch Vig's if we are going to take this article at face value.
Nah -- they might not charge ya per DAY until you hit the $20 limit, but I charged a few songs and then 2 days later I got a bill detailing my purchases.
In the meantime, Apple billed my card $1 as a holding place. If you cancel the service, they will STILL charge you...you can bill cards that have been closed by the end user. I've done before -- its its linked to an account the user still has, like a card attached to a bank account, it will probably still go through -- I also had this happen to me where someone that worked in a gas station was giving her friends free gas with my Debit Card and I closed my card (as the bank couldn't block it and the police wouldn't do anything about this). I changed cards and had the old one deactivated and it STILL was able to get into my bankaccount...as the bank was uninterested in helping, I ended up closing my bank account as it was easier than filling out forms every other week.
But back to the point, you can probably fraudulently buy stuff with this, but if its not someone elses card, *YOU* will probably get stuck with the bill, and if it isn't your card, Apple has all the IP#s and times ya accessed the site:)
Record Companies fix cd prices, but no more than any other industry. The fact that this is ENTERTAINMENT and nothing more gives me pause at even thinking that this stuff needs regulation (even though I've been on the bad side of a label once in my life).
But right now, the market is willing to pay what they are paying. Anytime there is a scaricity of product, folks will resort to illegal activities to get around it (even if the scarcity is artificial).
Personally, I don't think sharing and copying tracks from FRIENDS is wrong. If you want to burn a few friends a mix cd, this should be in your right -- I actually like the fact that Apple is allowing you to do this in a limited way. No burning 1000 discs for friends and giving them out, but 3 or 4 is fine. Heck, at one point it was even stated that the price of the CD was based on the fact that being digital meant that you could make better copied than from an analogue source. Same with Music CDRs --you pay a license to be able to do limited sharing and its built into the price of the M-CDR.
How does this fit with todays laws? I don't know -- I've only followed how the folks that are getting busted are sharing THOUSANDS of songs to thousands of people:) Normally the industry doesn't care about the smaller fish, but the do put up a scary face anyways.
As for whom they market them to -- the Cig industry also markets towards the youger generation. You might not have much money, but it all goes towards entertainment.
Just be a little more selective about your music. You don't have to own EVERYTHING just because its there. Buy from the Indie folks -- those are generally supporting real live people -- and not some image. They sell cheaper because they have less overhead and less to loose if an artist fails. They generally have better rates towards the artists as well (err...not always...I know a few labels that will dick over the artist even more and then use the fanbase against them because its just a stupid artist going after a purely ultruistic label that doesn't want to sell out -- and the artist MUST want to sell out -- the indies aren't as squeeky clean as they like to pretend -- take a look at the scheming that went on at Alternative Tentacles a few years back).
When I was in college, I worked on campus when it was available (actually the job I have now was directly responsible for that...instead of being a workstudy, I now manage my departments research and development). Before that, I did security work -- it paid well enough that I could sit at a desk all night long, study and as soon as the last folks were out of the building, sleep ($9 isn't much, but 10 years ago, to get through school, it was plenty). Over the holidays, I generally worked at UPS because it paid extremely well and it was only 4 hours a night.
I didn't have to resort to pirating games or selling blood (that was simply to make our expenses go a bit more -- less blood == faster drunk). I DID visit the local alternative record store quite a bit...the sold a lot of used stuff. There is NOTHING wrong with used...and its at the right price for a lot of people. I could buy 4 cds for the price of one new one. Does that mean regularly priced cds were overpriced and the used ones were what the rest SHOULD have been sold for? Fuck no...it was a perfectly legitimate price for used.
Its moronic to think that everything should be priced so everyone can afford everything. There will be a few folks that WANT everything out there. They will be in the minority. The rest will purchase one or two cds a month regardless of how much they cost.
Being a college student is a time of living hell for a lot of kids. That doesn't mean that we should subsudize your entertainment habits just because you can't afford more. Graduate, get a good job and you will realize there is quite a bit else that just isn't fair in life. I'm only 31 and I'm looking at a new living room suite...why can't they price this at $200 for the whole thing??? Why should I spent $2k on the entire thing (ok, I have no idea what these go for as I just started looking last weekend).
I've been in your situation, but I never whined about it...you are not unique and your experiences do not make you different than the other several million in your shoes today or have been in your shoes in the past.
I've followed your comments for months -- mainly because you talk out your ass more than anyone else that seems to follow the same threads I do.
But $0.50 a song. Seriously dude -- get a job, move outta the parents basement and get over it. If you can't spend $15 for an album, you've got some major economic problems in your life that ya need to get straightened out.
I do this same thing. I have my Airport connected to the DLink and then to the router.
The ONLY thing I don't like about this situation is that I don't think the DLink was intended to be a fulltime device. After about 2 days it becomes unbearably slow and I have to reboot it. It only takes a few seconds (and then a minute for my computers to figure out it needs to rerequest an IP...should just go dedicated behind the NAT) and then everything is fine.
Still, for the price, I strongly suggest a DLink...I only paid $15 with a mail-in rebate:P
Now that you are talking SoundFonts, I know you've never worked indepth with any serious synthesizer or sampler.
SFs BARELY work at DLS2 Levels, meaning there is very little articulation to them. A piano is more than just a note recorded and then played back when you hit a key on your controller.
If you don't know this, its not really worth discussing this anymore. If you were interested in being educated, that would be different, but you are out of your league here.
Apple is the only one of the big 3 that isn't charging a per stream fee. The end user pays through the purchase of QT Pro, but you can still use the free version -- just not with as many frills.
This sucks as I won't install Real on ANY system, and WMP is just as bad (and buggy on my Mac).
Some of the DSP cards sound great, but the software ones don't have quite the full range of sound that a dedicated machine does.
That and its the stability issue. I am teching for a benefit concert in about 2 months. I can't have a synth thats going to crash infront of 2000 people (estimated).
if we were talking pure techno stuff, I might give you that. I need pianos that react like pianos...Gigasampler is the best thats out there and it BARELY gives ya LowPass filters and on-release samples. It does it, but not half as well as my Kurz. The Kurz IS a bit snobby...its for folks that need electronics to react organically. Hell, its pretty much the geeks synth because it has the most tweakability of any hardware synth around. With it, you can even get electronic sounds that feel like they were played by hand and not pinged out of a metal box.
Give it a few years, and you might be right. As I mentioned, the DSP cards in computers give them a fighting chance. The 96Khz cards allow the nyquest magic to work without aliasing quit a bit better than the old natively processedd computer sounds (its the ONLY benefit as few can hear past 22khz, which is why 44khz was choosen as the magic number for CDs and otherwise -- though this only works out well when you can dither in realtime with nice smooth algs to avoid pissing nyquests ghost off) as well as 24+ bit cards (24bit allows better latency because of the 'limitations' of the medium...again, a side benefit because unless you are producing classical or anything else with WIDE dynamic peaks, there is NO need for 24 bit resolution).
Computers are getting there...thats the whole purpose of my website to educate folks towards music and technology issues. They aren't here yet. In a lot of the 'younger' musics, it doesn't matter...its good enough. For doing stuff that required precise timing (I'm working with R&B'rs and Jazzers that are anal enough that they will buy 4 keyboards and return 3 as they find the one that has its keybed a little more in touch with their preference -- slight variances in how this is set up can effect the latency -- just as it can on a piano).
Besides, you will ALWAYS need a controller...unless you simply want to make music with a mouse...in which case you aren't a musician, you are a composer. It pisses me off when folks can't figure out what they are. Its like DJs that use 3rd party samples, throw it into Acid and wonder why musicians get pissed off when they call themselves musicians...they are DJs...and there is nothing wrong with that...I have a good friend thats a DJ that can remix far better than I ever will, but he's not a musician. Same core knowledge sets, different skill sets.
It depends. What kind of music do you want to make?
Again, a lot of folks are happy with the punk rawk ethics...I'm not. I don't believe a pack of '57s and a few Crates recorded to 4 track is anything I want to listen to on many occasions. Yeah, there are some folks that do great things with this, but its not something I find consistant.
Personally, I just paid off my newest synth. K2600XS that cost me $5500. I have an older 2600 that doesn't have all the options but cost me $4000. They are as slick as they come and FAR cheaper than my baby grand I have sitting at home.
Thats $10k on JUST synths alone. I could buy ALL the instruments and mixing equipment for most garage bands and throw in a few hours of recording on that price.
I've got about $25k wrapped up in my project studio...Its not much...it takes up most of my former piano room and now I've expanded this into my bedroom (hardwood floors / my bathroom has new thick marble tiling thanks to my landlord's remodel -- perfect for recording acoustic spaces...actually some of the bigger locals have asked to borrow my project studio as it sounds so real:)
The point of this is that I'm not anywhere near the top of the food chain in spending money on equipment. Some folks I know have thought this was extravagant, but not when you realize even the small studios will have around $100k worth of gear when they add it all up. Generally its not even a money making proposition...if you break even and feed the family, you are happy because you are following your dreams and not being a corporate slave (heh! I go down the middle on this...day time its suits and yelling at insubordinates...at night and weekend its Yes Sir, Ok I'll Move The Mic Three Inches To The Right Sir).
So, back to your questions now that I've provided some background...I believe it is worthwhile to sink so much into the masters. Of course, there will be some bands that take this to extremes. Look at some mainstreme 'garage' bands...they will spend months at a time recording a 4 piece that never really changes their timbres or style. They will spend millions to get it right and even when their albums are flops by previous standards, they still bring in a profit for the company.
Quite a few others spend quite a bit (not near this much...I helped record a band that was a hit in the adult contemporary area for under $15k, though their marketting and otherwise pushed a 0 at the beginning of this)...and the ones that make money are generally 1 out of 20 -- I'm making up this number but its somewhere around there that actually make anything, so just follow the logic, not the numbers:-) This means, the 1 band has to make enough money to support the other 19 slackers.
In the end, we pay for this. Well the suckers that like the pop crap do. I like slick music, but I don't care for most of the chart toppers. Would you rather these other bands not get a chance at all? I'm glad I can walk into BestBuy and find thousands of artists...they've got more today than the specialty shop I use to go to...I'll still hit it when I'm in my hometown visiting my dad, but its sad that if I can't find a rare disc there, I know I'll find it at BestBuy.
The current charges for these things give us choices. Just as paying $2 per song in a cafeteria system isn't going to help the artist, because they didn't just record one song -- they recorded a dozen of differing styles and otherwise, some of which are only going to appeal to their biggest fans. We COULD go back to the days of 45s where artists would make one hit and a B side and you'd probably never hear from them again because they got the $1500 and were told thats all that was needed.
So, IMHO, I'd rather have artists supporting other artists though higher sales and giving us more choices as consumers -- as well as the consumers supporting artists so they can actually be artists instead of day labourers that make one hit and are never heard of again.
It goes back to the major lables representing the major artists. And yes, it does make it back to them in some ammount.
As for what it costs to produce a CD? You sir are a fucking moron. It costs nothing to DUPE a cd, it costs quite a bit to get that cd to a product that can be duped.
This is where the OS'rs and the pirates are all a bunch of fucking morons. You look at the media cost and nothing else. Think about it, the next night you are working, wait til you get everything swept into a nice pile, and then have your supervisor show up and take that nice pile and sweep it into the dust bin. I guess you are only worth the 3 seconds to too to get that pile into the trash can.
Don't make ignorant comments in my field, and I won't make any more janitor joke. Deal?
In Canada, they give taxes back to major artists for their CDR sales. Who gets 90% of all the money? Celion Dion and Bryan Adams -- Folks that don't need it and folks that aren't generally the target of most peoples 'piracy' efforts.
The big guys will get the cut and this will be run by the major labels and they will do anything they can to not to give it to any of the other labels.
As for cheaper CDs???????? I don't know where you are buying CDs, but they are very reasonably priced. Should we make EVERYTHING affordable so that those that can't buy them can now buy them? How bout a sliding scale? If you make $0-$7500 you pay $2 a CD because 'thats how much it really costs' (noting the sarcasm), $7501 - $15000 and you pay $7 because you can aford it. $15001 - $29000 ya pay $15 and over that, you pay $25 a disc because you need to subsudize everyone.
Seriously, if folks know how much it cost to produce a CD (and I'm not talkin garage or punk that can be recorded in a day -- but dumb ass/.'rs always use these as an example because they personally don't like slick music), ya wouldn't be bitching about the cost. Considering most CDs never make a profit, most popular CDs are subsudizing other less popular ones. Unless of course, you'd like less choice...its just as much of a socalist scheme as a sliding scale pricing, but on that allows more choice to the consumer. Personally I like overly slicked musics that take forever to get right and HATE punk crap that sounds like they were ultimately trying to make sure every first take was captured (I've played in these bands before and got bored by their work ethics).
Gawd, I hated those cheats back when I was in college. I had upgraded my 486 to a DX and maxed out the memory to like 32 megs and somehow my computer was designated as the official gaming station.
One friend would come in and as soon as anyone wasn't looking would pop in the cheat codes and thus he could play for hours (the rule was one you died, you gave up the controls to someone else). It got the the point where my girlfriend would literly pull the pul out of the wall to get him off of the machine so we could 'get some sleep'...being a bud, I never kicked my friends out...just made comments that 'Hey I think its time to go to bed now', in which the dumbfuck would state "Thats cool...I'll turn the lights off after I'm finished".
Using a cheat code once or twice after finishing a level (or when stuck on it for days) is one thing...using it during normal gaming is just fucking pathetic in ANY instance. Hell, I play a few online quake-based games where I end up just not shooting back once I know the other guys are cheating...I got the rest of my team to just walk out into the fire for about an hour til the guy decided it was too easy and quit (like it wasn't too easy when he could make a spinning frag from the otherside of the map and frag ya without breaking a sweat anyways).
Anywho, seeing the frickin Doom cheats just brought back too many bad memories.
The same thing could be said of a pay phone...or going to a REAL airport as these things are becoming popular diversions while waiting on a plane (while flying late last year, I pulled out the iBook only to see 2 seperate networks available that I could access my email for free).
The point is that we shouldn't have to worry about every little probably that can arrise by criminals. Should I install bulletproof glass on all my windows? If I don't, am I liable for anyone in my house that gets shot in a drive by shooting? Its rediculous that criminals can get away with so much, but when it involves computers and they are hauled away, Slashdoties get all up in arms about the punishment not fitting the crime. Bullshit...if you misuse someone elses property, there is not maximum punishment large enough.
There are enough anonymous places to do this stuff from these days...maybe I should just put up my X10 Cam (err...older model...I stopped buying from them once they went all nutty a few years ago with the spam) out and capture the license plates of everyone that uses it...but if I did that, I'm sure someone would post a note about it saying I was oppressin' them or something.
I don't believe its the equivelent of leaving your doors and windows open -- its the equivelent of putting a sign up saying 'Hey Use My Restroom If You Need To...And Then Get Out".
I personally don't see anything wrong with this...I have 512k DSL and no bandwidth cap (I explained to the guys threatening to cap it that the reason I have 512 over the 198k was that I needed business class DSL). I run a wireless line unsecured -- I actually VPN my powerbook and my G4...so I don't have to worry. Anyone that wants to use my lines are more than welcome if they want to stop infront and pull up a wireless connection -- hell friends do it occasionally...I'll see a friends car sitting outside occasionally:)
Seriously, if someone has an unsecured wireless, use it. Don't transmit anything ya need to worry about (or better yet, set up a VPN between your home server) and don't waste too much bandwidth. Personally I don't care if someone asks or not -- maybe I should set up iChat w/ Rendevous so people CAN ask if they are that anal about the whole thing, but I don't care...and if I do, I just shut off anything but the MAC addresses I have authenticated (or pull the plug).
I run both Win2k and Redhat 8.0 on my Mac. I find it MUCH more efficient to grab my terminal and SSH into my 8.0 box than it is to pull the GUI up for the virtual RH box.
Of course, occasionally I'll use Remote Desktop on the Mac to pull up the Win screen (cause for some damn reason, resizing the screen sometimes screws it up...I haven't took the time to figure that out yet).
Dealing with the demo of the new 6.0, I've even noticed it has built in VNC if you wanted to admin the stuff that way...
It really is a slick application...I just need to get off my ass and upgrade before the demo runs out...
Judges deal with some ambiguity...for the most part, if their case is entirely predicated on ambiguity, they will throw the shit out.
As for "Is this short for "I think it's just not going to work?" " -- No this was short for "Its just not going to work..."
It wasn't a hard sentence structure to follow, nor do I mean anything more than I said.
As for evidence...yeah -- common sense and paying attention to the law for 30+ years. It something that/.'rs can't seem to do...they all seem to think the law was entirely put there to fuck with them and it was an invention of only 5 minutes ago with no precidence.
I got the karma -- this one IS a troll -- I'm just sick of arguing with dumbasses:-)
And as I also go on to say it works in smaller settings, but what do you do when it gets to the point of a global scale?
Plese Provide Evidance That You Gave Money To These Spammers And If You Can't, You Are Guilty. Then again, we could get Bushie to approve this law by executive order noting his current bend.
And then what do we do what a company hires an untraceable spammer to send out a million messages with its competitors names?
I know as a youth, one of my hometowns stores fliered the city with a competitors name and fake coupons for a rediclous amount off to give them a bad name when their competition was at its worst.
It finally came out the other guys had done this, but the other store decided to make a promo out of it and honor the coupons anyways...backfiring on the others.
In a smaller town, this sort of thing can be traced back to the source rather easily. On the internet, how are you going to police the fact that PacificMed's greatest competitor (would that be AtlanticMeds) by doing the same sort of thing? Find a spammer in Asia (or one that works for your local college that will simply use Asian relays) and pay them $1000 to send out a million spams either to get them in legal action or simply to give them a black eye in the public's mind.
I disagree. There are no analogues for most of what happens in the audio world to that what happens in the generic widget. As such, items have to be paralleled to that which it intuitive to the target user.
For instance, the average user knows what a trash can is. As such, it makes sense to a novices eyes that a trash can is used for throwing out what you want. Apple use to break interface rules by using this motif to eject discs or unmount drives...they've actually fixed this by having the trash can morph into something else when you select one of these items (in the case of a CD you are building, it will turn into a Burn button). No -- its STILL not the best interface one can use, but its something that is pretty well consistant.
As for Cubase, I agree with the fact that its looks suck. They try to use the real world paradigm a little too much. Logic does well by splitting the line and making it accessable to folks that have knowledge in the physical world as well as expanding the knowledge to that which makes sense in a more virtual world. Past that, since Apple's purchase of Logic Audio, they've been consistantly fixing the interface to be more inline with their internal widgets when it makes sense.
Not all Audio apps have to be skinned for the sake of being skinned. Personally, I'd like a more standard interface to a lot of my plugins. I'm sick of seeing Cool K-Rad (or whatever the kiddies are saying these days) interfaces and make them more functional. I'm sick of seeing knobs that says Meathook and a slider that says Angry Kitten...all with their own custom interfaces. However, these guys learn from the real world where musician tools are often creative nightmares intended to be explored more than they are to be completely understood.
The more professional of a plugin and you will see more professional of an interface. And personally, I'm SERIOUSLY sick of user skinnable applications where a client asks me to come in and I can't tell that he's actually running the same application I am at home undernethe all that chrome.
Trust me, the pros all complain about this stuff. Cubase users on average don't because they are just happy to have found a cracked version to run (last I talked with folks from Steinberg, they said off the record that they estimated the illegal users outweighed the legal ones 3:1).
As for Apple's internal guidelines -- this is changing. There are guides as to when its appropriate to use the Brushed Metal look. For the most part, if you are designing a virtual representation of a physical item, BM is the way to go. At one point it wasn't spec'd and it breaks some of the guidelines from the OS9 days, but it fits in with the OSX guidelines from a good UI POV. There are still some things that obviously need changed, but I think Apple is getting back to being Interface Nazi's like they use to be.
Quite honestly, if you want to talk credibility, ya need to read through your own post again and do some research. I shouldn't have to write a thesis just because someone reads half a line of my post and can't be bothered to understand it in the great whole of the text.
You don't know what you are talking about. Thats as plain stated as I can make this.
The Mac is designed for folks that don't have the time or desire to deal with computers as anything but the tools they are -- they get their work done and get on with life.
Linux is designed for computer enthusiasists that want to know intimate details about their computer -- which you really have no choice under most of the popular distributions to do otherwise.
Linux is NEVER going to hit the #2 spot among those that need a professionally design GUI and consistancy and ease of use. Apple on the other hand is taking great steps to make certain they ARE the top of the list for usability by folks that need this purpose.
Past that, whats the entire purpose of OSS? Software that doesn't suck. The Mac can run with some modifications a good deal of the software that doesn't suck from the Linux / BSD worlds. In such, they are taking over a good portion of mind share from those that would have otherwise used a pure unix workstation. The leaders of/. profess to enjoy their Macs quite often and vocally.
What does Linux have going for it? Its a GREAT server environment. Its not 'enterprise' software by the definition of a lot of tech managers, but IMHO, its FAR more stable in most aspects than some of the Enterprise Ready crap I have to deal with day in and out (yeah, I program Windows Apps....unfortunately...as well as administering some of these boxes). Its cheap and its efficient. No OS Tax and I can take out to pasture Windows machines and turn them into powerhouse servers.
What doesn't it have for it? Quite a bit that the common user needs -- and especially in the music realm.
What doesn't Apple have? Cheap Servers. Who the hell cares...I have Intel for this...and when I need to develop for that Intel box, I can pull out my iBook and have ALL the same tools on it that I need. I have Perl, PHP, Apache, Sendmail, MySQL. The developer that cares about having a decent working environment will be running Macs. Heck, I even have VPC running Redhat 8.0 on my iBook incase I need to try out compiled stuff that I occasionally have to deal with when speed becomes and issue and I can't patch things with a scripted language (though the Bluecurve desktop is pretty slow on the 'book...I generally simply SSH into the VPC from the Mac side anyways and do everything in Terminal).
Macs and Linux have NOTHING in common from a common users perspective and as such, Linux will never take over their mindshare. This is Apples Advantage.
Macs and Linux have quite a bit in common when you get into the Sysadmin minds. Mac Users can now use Linux servers with exceeding ease and connectivity without having to install and configure Appletalk on the server side of things. This is a plus for the Linux Admin.
Macs and Linux also have a lot in common for the Developers. No Mac Developer is going to pick up a Unix box to develop against. A Linux Developer will feel at home on a Mac with X11 or Terminal as well as the semi-standard unix directory system. Advantage Apple.
The way I see it, servers are increasingly going Linux. Thats bad for M$. Desktops will stay Apple or M$. Developers will migrate SOMEWHAT to Apple -- though I wouldn't predict droves, thus your argument is simplistic and again bullshit.
This is NOT a troll -- Mod me down if you so desire, but don't mod this as a troll.
Slashdot Mirror
We are talking about kids, which you may be a part of -- I don't know -- and kids are not the most reputable sources of what is good for themselves :-)
:-) And no, I would have no problem with that being under the guise of controlled speech for a minor.
Is there anything inherently wrong with banning the sales of Playboys to children? If your dad wanted you to have a copy, he can still get your a copy of this. It puts the decision making skills on the parent instead of letting society govern your morals. Some would believe that this is the gov't controlling your morals, but as long as my parents could buy it and give it to me, I'm cool with it.
hell, I had my dad buy my first copy of the Anarchists Cookbook -- I don't think he knew what it was about, but Paladin Press took his check never-the-less
People tend to forget we get our freedoms in small doses until we are able to handle them all. Today a good friend of mine asked me about what was necessary to buy a gun...she is 33. I don't think she is mature enough to buy one. I might take her to the range and teach her how to shoot (the last time we were shooting, were were both in our early 20s and she was a bit reckless then and I decided I wasn't going to continue the exercise).
Nope, not everyone needs all the freedoms we are given -- certain rights come with maturity and I'm a firm believer that one should have to earn these freedoms. I don't believe they are an absolute. When I was younger, I most certainly did. As I grew up, I soon learned that even at my age most people are not mature enough to understand the freedoms given to them BUT at a certain point ya just have to let someone have these freedoms. I don' think 18 is too long of a wait to buy your own copy of pornography or bomb making books without your parents consent, nor do I think its too late to allow folks to buy video games where they shoot cops and other authority figures.
clif
Ya gotta remember who the folks were that he didn't care for...he was dealing directly with the Rampart division of LAPD. A division that was known for shooting first, planting weapons second. Known for forging evidance and having other cops back them up on this. Taking money from drug dealers and if you didn't give them the money asked for, you could be assured if they thought you were a criminal you'd end up dead or in jail with a mountain of proof that didn't exist.
:-) In retrospect, yeah -- this was innocent, but its not something I would consider falling under protected speech for a 15 year old. It was FAR more innocent than some of the shit I see today. Just as first hand reactions to the bad police officers can shape ones views, this sort of stuff can reinforce those reactions.
When all of this came out, Ice-T was interviewed on the subject and just said I Told you So...
Personally, I've had a few run ins with the cops over the years. They say it only takes 20 years for a liberal to become conservative without changing a single opinion...I say that it takes one false imprisonment to change an otherwise conservative to a liberal. In my case, I had blue hair or bleached blonde hair or a number of other wacky colors that didn't fit into my hillbilly hometown's idea of what was right. My nose is crooked to this day and its hard to breathe from one nostril from where an officer broke it because I got smart with him by invoking my rights -- I was a minor at the time, and I couldn't do anything about this because when it came to pressing charges, I was told my father needed to be a part of this and his opinion was (at the time, his opinion has changed since) that if someone get their face beat in by a cop, they must have deserved it (yeah -- handcuffed to a chair -- I could REALLY defend myself).
I have had several encounters like that growing up. Here in Indianapolis, I had two run ins with the law...those guys were nothing but professionals. I've also seem my african american friends harrassed for no reason (I guess they had bigger problems here as my hometown didn't have no 'unwanteds' living there) and once in an admitted 'hooptie' that had darkened windows and falling apart (though still within the legal limits) I had a cop pull me over after following for about 2 miles (on the way to a security job I was working trying to get through school...man I HATED those uniforms) -- when I opened the window, the officers attitude from 10 seconds earlier changed...he got friendly and I made reference that I 'understand' why he was pulling me over because my car looked like it shouldn't be in this neighborhood and this was just a car to get me through the winter because I didn't want to have my decent car on the streets this time of the year -- he responded, "Yeah, if you were a 'nigger' you'd be on the ground right now". he said it like a good ol' boy thinkin' I believed the same...
I mentioned it to another security guard that was an off duty officer and he supposedly turned in the report...
But the fact is there are good and bad officers -- the good out rank the bad most of the time. In some neighborhoods, its unfortunate but folks are going to see more of the bad than the good -- and in the Rampart area that Ice-T grew up in, most of the officers that were good STILL let the bad do what they wanted to do and covered for them. I wouldn't have a very decent attitude about them if this is all I was ever exposed to. I've had a friend from South Africa get locked up here for speeding tickets...tried bribing the officers on the spot thinking this was the appropriate thing to do as thats how all the police officers they've dealt with in the past (almost lost his student visa but had a decent judge). Peoples experience and views on police officers will be shaped by what they see around them.
Bringing it home, I don't see a problem with banning certain types of games for those under a certain age. I'm sure in my youth they would have tried to ban DopeWars if the cops knew about the BBS Games
blah
clif
"Unfortunately, that is not always such a simple decision."
Of course its a simple decision. You report it to the police AND your boss.
Then again, any computer repair person that seems to think that looking at GIFs on a persons computer or reading text documents or looking at internet cache or history or any of the other things like that are NOT pursuing duties as defined by computer support. The last time my server crashed, I don't remember running to my picts directory to figure out what was going on. Last time I had to set up a backup for my computer, I either do my home directory OR my entire computer. Last time I needed to check to see why Adobe Photoshop wasn't working on someones computer (they shared the serials with someone down the hall), I didn't need to open up any images -- and that was the most OBVIOUS time I would have needed to see this stuff.
There is NOTHING a computer repair person should be doing that involves touching anyones files. If the person is found to be possessing child pornography because of your snooping, its a VERY easy decision as to what you should do. It should also be an equally simple decision to your boss that you should be fired and criminal charges should be held against you for computer trespass. You are not a police officer or a moral enforment agent...
clif
"signed version licence: 5 pound charge, binary only, no redistribution allowed."
"This might really fit the "spirit" of the GPL better than releasing a signed binary with GPLed source (but no key) where the user can't reproduce the exact executable from the source."
Hmmm...Why do that? Considering its open source software, let people do what they want with it. If folks are willing to turn off the security on their phone, let them use the unsigned. Let the pay for the signed ones...how can ya do this and STILL be in the spirit of GPL?
Sign the sucker and give the key to anyone that wants to compile it. Give the EXACT options need to compile it so that the binaries are identical and that the key still lines up...
BUT if I'm not wrong, isn't there a way to read the phone number or some other unique identifier for these phones? Put in a licensing code in there that forces folks to register the software if they want to use it utilizing that unique ID.
With this in place, if someone wants to compile the software, cool as hell. They can get it running and use your key to activate it in the phone. They STILL have to get to you to open up the software (put in a public key in the software and key it against the UID -- of course YOU are the only one with the private key)...if someone wants to remove this, they are welcome to do so, BUT they'd either have to run the unsigned version OR pay the $500 for the signing fee. There would be NO other way to compile this and have the signing authorize the file if they modify the code.
It fits the GPL and while it might not agree with the spirit of some of the folks in the OS world, it fits nicely with those of that believe things like the BSD is far freer and less religious than GPL. The signing actually makes it a little closer to a happy medium than either extremes of BSD (COMPLETELY altruistic) and GPL (Pray to RMS as he is your high priest).
Heh! I'm surprised I didn't see anyone else suggest this -- just don't be greedy, and if you want to me nice, you'll give away the software for the key gen as soon as you get the $500 you needed...
clif
Because instead of having 4 studios that are full purposed, folks build their own studios and spend the money on their own equipment than they would have normally at the big boys.
:-) What kind of studios are they going to be running? Ones that are $100k - 300k in just equipment.
In the end, it STILL costs the industry the same amount of money or probably more.
That and the human element has gone up steadily as the pricing of the hardware has gone down. before the Home Recording Revolution occured, I was able to charge $20 an hour to show up and help someone with their gear...generally I was paid for by the studio I was in. NOW I show up at someones home, read the manual to them and charge them $75 an hour and I'm not even what I'd call professional (I've worked with several professional artists in the past and I'm going to be the head music tech for an up coming Al Green show next month, so I work with folks that are VERY professional...still pretty much a hobby for me so I can support my university and its research addiction).
And what happens AFTER folks finish their home opus? They generally head to the bigger studios to polish it up. Producers are going to ask a LOT of front money to work on this -- along with their own engineers that retrack certain items -- and they will STILL ask for points (though that generally comes out of the artists share...EVERYTHING comes out of the artists share
Looking at my HOME studio, I have 2 K2600s ($5500 each), Digital Mixer ($3k), Mac G4 ($3k), PC ($1k)Audio Interfaces for both Macs and PCs ($2k), Software (DAW -- Logic Audio $1k / Softsynths & Effects $2k). Thats almost $25k right there (Heh! Glad most of this was comped as I couldn't afford it). There is NO WAY IN HELL that Vig's entire studio is $15k at Stone tries to make out...I wouldn't be surprised to know it was on order of $150k at the MINIMUM.
BTW the $500 version of the CHEAP Protools is NOT Protools...its a cheap immitation with the same interface. its designed solely as a learning tool to get folks use to what the big boys use and hooked so that they can go into the studio with a little preknowledge OR convince them to buy the more expensive stuff.
Theres no doubt about it, recording a major label album is going to cost a lot of money. Indie albums will be MUCH less.
Don't take my word for it, I run one of the largest Logic user groups dedicated to digital audio. Take a look at:
http://community.sonikmatter.com
and check out our user forums. These folks know what they are doing and we have quite a few folks that have worked on albums that have resulted in precious metal on the wall. Again, I'm just a hobbiest that been caught up with the big boys because I was a geek when they needed technology taken care of and don't consider myself to be anywhere near their calibre -- but its a fucking shame to see that my bedroom studio is bigger and better than Butch Vig's if we are going to take this article at face value.
clif marsiglio
cofounder sonikmatter
Nah -- they might not charge ya per DAY until you hit the $20 limit, but I charged a few songs and then 2 days later I got a bill detailing my purchases.
:)
In the meantime, Apple billed my card $1 as a holding place. If you cancel the service, they will STILL charge you...you can bill cards that have been closed by the end user. I've done before -- its its linked to an account the user still has, like a card attached to a bank account, it will probably still go through -- I also had this happen to me where someone that worked in a gas station was giving her friends free gas with my Debit Card and I closed my card (as the bank couldn't block it and the police wouldn't do anything about this). I changed cards and had the old one deactivated and it STILL was able to get into my bankaccount...as the bank was uninterested in helping, I ended up closing my bank account as it was easier than filling out forms every other week.
But back to the point, you can probably fraudulently buy stuff with this, but if its not someone elses card, *YOU* will probably get stuck with the bill, and if it isn't your card, Apple has all the IP#s and times ya accessed the site
clif
Record Companies fix cd prices, but no more than any other industry. The fact that this is ENTERTAINMENT and nothing more gives me pause at even thinking that this stuff needs regulation (even though I've been on the bad side of a label once in my life).
:) Normally the industry doesn't care about the smaller fish, but the do put up a scary face anyways.
But right now, the market is willing to pay what they are paying. Anytime there is a scaricity of product, folks will resort to illegal activities to get around it (even if the scarcity is artificial).
Personally, I don't think sharing and copying tracks from FRIENDS is wrong. If you want to burn a few friends a mix cd, this should be in your right -- I actually like the fact that Apple is allowing you to do this in a limited way. No burning 1000 discs for friends and giving them out, but 3 or 4 is fine. Heck, at one point it was even stated that the price of the CD was based on the fact that being digital meant that you could make better copied than from an analogue source. Same with Music CDRs --you pay a license to be able to do limited sharing and its built into the price of the M-CDR.
How does this fit with todays laws? I don't know -- I've only followed how the folks that are getting busted are sharing THOUSANDS of songs to thousands of people
As for whom they market them to -- the Cig industry also markets towards the youger generation. You might not have much money, but it all goes towards entertainment.
Just be a little more selective about your music. You don't have to own EVERYTHING just because its there. Buy from the Indie folks -- those are generally supporting real live people -- and not some image. They sell cheaper because they have less overhead and less to loose if an artist fails. They generally have better rates towards the artists as well (err...not always...I know a few labels that will dick over the artist even more and then use the fanbase against them because its just a stupid artist going after a purely ultruistic label that doesn't want to sell out -- and the artist MUST want to sell out -- the indies aren't as squeeky clean as they like to pretend -- take a look at the scheming that went on at Alternative Tentacles a few years back).
clif
Please, indeed.
When I was in college, I worked on campus when it was available (actually the job I have now was directly responsible for that...instead of being a workstudy, I now manage my departments research and development). Before that, I did security work -- it paid well enough that I could sit at a desk all night long, study and as soon as the last folks were out of the building, sleep ($9 isn't much, but 10 years ago, to get through school, it was plenty). Over the holidays, I generally worked at UPS because it paid extremely well and it was only 4 hours a night.
I didn't have to resort to pirating games or selling blood (that was simply to make our expenses go a bit more -- less blood == faster drunk). I DID visit the local alternative record store quite a bit...the sold a lot of used stuff. There is NOTHING wrong with used...and its at the right price for a lot of people. I could buy 4 cds for the price of one new one. Does that mean regularly priced cds were overpriced and the used ones were what the rest SHOULD have been sold for? Fuck no...it was a perfectly legitimate price for used.
Its moronic to think that everything should be priced so everyone can afford everything. There will be a few folks that WANT everything out there. They will be in the minority. The rest will purchase one or two cds a month regardless of how much they cost.
Being a college student is a time of living hell for a lot of kids. That doesn't mean that we should subsudize your entertainment habits just because you can't afford more. Graduate, get a good job and you will realize there is quite a bit else that just isn't fair in life. I'm only 31 and I'm looking at a new living room suite...why can't they price this at $200 for the whole thing??? Why should I spent $2k on the entire thing (ok, I have no idea what these go for as I just started looking last weekend).
I've been in your situation, but I never whined about it...you are not unique and your experiences do not make you different than the other several million in your shoes today or have been in your shoes in the past.
clif
Hanz --
I've followed your comments for months -- mainly because you talk out your ass more than anyone else that seems to follow the same threads I do.
But $0.50 a song. Seriously dude -- get a job, move outta the parents basement and get over it. If you can't spend $15 for an album, you've got some major economic problems in your life that ya need to get straightened out.
clif
I do this same thing. I have my Airport connected to the DLink and then to the router.
:P
The ONLY thing I don't like about this situation is that I don't think the DLink was intended to be a fulltime device. After about 2 days it becomes unbearably slow and I have to reboot it. It only takes a few seconds (and then a minute for my computers to figure out it needs to rerequest an IP...should just go dedicated behind the NAT) and then everything is fine.
Still, for the price, I strongly suggest a DLink...I only paid $15 with a mail-in rebate
clif
Now that you are talking SoundFonts, I know you've never worked indepth with any serious synthesizer or sampler.
SFs BARELY work at DLS2 Levels, meaning there is very little articulation to them. A piano is more than just a note recorded and then played back when you hit a key on your controller.
If you don't know this, its not really worth discussing this anymore. If you were interested in being educated, that would be different, but you are out of your league here.
clif
Exactly,
Apple is the only one of the big 3 that isn't charging a per stream fee. The end user pays through the purchase of QT Pro, but you can still use the free version -- just not with as many frills.
This sucks as I won't install Real on ANY system, and WMP is just as bad (and buggy on my Mac).
clif
Dude...
You are SOOOOO wrong on this point.
Some of the DSP cards sound great, but the software ones don't have quite the full range of sound that a dedicated machine does.
That and its the stability issue. I am teching for a benefit concert in about 2 months. I can't have a synth thats going to crash infront of 2000 people (estimated).
if we were talking pure techno stuff, I might give you that. I need pianos that react like pianos...Gigasampler is the best thats out there and it BARELY gives ya LowPass filters and on-release samples. It does it, but not half as well as my Kurz. The Kurz IS a bit snobby...its for folks that need electronics to react organically. Hell, its pretty much the geeks synth because it has the most tweakability of any hardware synth around. With it, you can even get electronic sounds that feel like they were played by hand and not pinged out of a metal box.
Give it a few years, and you might be right. As I mentioned, the DSP cards in computers give them a fighting chance. The 96Khz cards allow the nyquest magic to work without aliasing quit a bit better than the old natively processedd computer sounds (its the ONLY benefit as few can hear past 22khz, which is why 44khz was choosen as the magic number for CDs and otherwise -- though this only works out well when you can dither in realtime with nice smooth algs to avoid pissing nyquests ghost off) as well as 24+ bit cards (24bit allows better latency because of the 'limitations' of the medium...again, a side benefit because unless you are producing classical or anything else with WIDE dynamic peaks, there is NO need for 24 bit resolution).
Computers are getting there...thats the whole purpose of my website to educate folks towards music and technology issues. They aren't here yet. In a lot of the 'younger' musics, it doesn't matter...its good enough. For doing stuff that required precise timing (I'm working with R&B'rs and Jazzers that are anal enough that they will buy 4 keyboards and return 3 as they find the one that has its keybed a little more in touch with their preference -- slight variances in how this is set up can effect the latency -- just as it can on a piano).
Besides, you will ALWAYS need a controller...unless you simply want to make music with a mouse...in which case you aren't a musician, you are a composer. It pisses me off when folks can't figure out what they are. Its like DJs that use 3rd party samples, throw it into Acid and wonder why musicians get pissed off when they call themselves musicians...they are DJs...and there is nothing wrong with that...I have a good friend thats a DJ that can remix far better than I ever will, but he's not a musician. Same core knowledge sets, different skill sets.
So thats a long way of say, I disagree...
clif
sonikmatter
It depends. What kind of music do you want to make?
:)
:-) This means, the 1 band has to make enough money to support the other 19 slackers.
Again, a lot of folks are happy with the punk rawk ethics...I'm not. I don't believe a pack of '57s and a few Crates recorded to 4 track is anything I want to listen to on many occasions. Yeah, there are some folks that do great things with this, but its not something I find consistant.
Personally, I just paid off my newest synth. K2600XS that cost me $5500. I have an older 2600 that doesn't have all the options but cost me $4000. They are as slick as they come and FAR cheaper than my baby grand I have sitting at home.
Thats $10k on JUST synths alone. I could buy ALL the instruments and mixing equipment for most garage bands and throw in a few hours of recording on that price.
I've got about $25k wrapped up in my project studio...Its not much...it takes up most of my former piano room and now I've expanded this into my bedroom (hardwood floors / my bathroom has new thick marble tiling thanks to my landlord's remodel -- perfect for recording acoustic spaces...actually some of the bigger locals have asked to borrow my project studio as it sounds so real
The point of this is that I'm not anywhere near the top of the food chain in spending money on equipment. Some folks I know have thought this was extravagant, but not when you realize even the small studios will have around $100k worth of gear when they add it all up. Generally its not even a money making proposition...if you break even and feed the family, you are happy because you are following your dreams and not being a corporate slave (heh! I go down the middle on this...day time its suits and yelling at insubordinates...at night and weekend its Yes Sir, Ok I'll Move The Mic Three Inches To The Right Sir).
So, back to your questions now that I've provided some background...I believe it is worthwhile to sink so much into the masters. Of course, there will be some bands that take this to extremes. Look at some mainstreme 'garage' bands...they will spend months at a time recording a 4 piece that never really changes their timbres or style. They will spend millions to get it right and even when their albums are flops by previous standards, they still bring in a profit for the company.
Quite a few others spend quite a bit (not near this much...I helped record a band that was a hit in the adult contemporary area for under $15k, though their marketting and otherwise pushed a 0 at the beginning of this)...and the ones that make money are generally 1 out of 20 -- I'm making up this number but its somewhere around there that actually make anything, so just follow the logic, not the numbers
In the end, we pay for this. Well the suckers that like the pop crap do. I like slick music, but I don't care for most of the chart toppers. Would you rather these other bands not get a chance at all? I'm glad I can walk into BestBuy and find thousands of artists...they've got more today than the specialty shop I use to go to...I'll still hit it when I'm in my hometown visiting my dad, but its sad that if I can't find a rare disc there, I know I'll find it at BestBuy.
The current charges for these things give us choices. Just as paying $2 per song in a cafeteria system isn't going to help the artist, because they didn't just record one song -- they recorded a dozen of differing styles and otherwise, some of which are only going to appeal to their biggest fans. We COULD go back to the days of 45s where artists would make one hit and a B side and you'd probably never hear from them again because they got the $1500 and were told thats all that was needed.
So, IMHO, I'd rather have artists supporting other artists though higher sales and giving us more choices as consumers -- as well as the consumers supporting artists so they can actually be artists instead of day labourers that make one hit and are never heard of again.
It goes back to the major lables representing the major artists. And yes, it does make it back to them in some ammount.
As for what it costs to produce a CD? You sir are a fucking moron. It costs nothing to DUPE a cd, it costs quite a bit to get that cd to a product that can be duped.
This is where the OS'rs and the pirates are all a bunch of fucking morons. You look at the media cost and nothing else. Think about it, the next night you are working, wait til you get everything swept into a nice pile, and then have your supervisor show up and take that nice pile and sweep it into the dust bin. I guess you are only worth the 3 seconds to too to get that pile into the trash can.
Don't make ignorant comments in my field, and I won't make any more janitor joke. Deal?
clif
sonikmatter.com
Thats the problem.
/.'rs always use these as an example because they personally don't like slick music), ya wouldn't be bitching about the cost. Considering most CDs never make a profit, most popular CDs are subsudizing other less popular ones. Unless of course, you'd like less choice...its just as much of a socalist scheme as a sliding scale pricing, but on that allows more choice to the consumer. Personally I like overly slicked musics that take forever to get right and HATE punk crap that sounds like they were ultimately trying to make sure every first take was captured (I've played in these bands before and got bored by their work ethics).
In Canada, they give taxes back to major artists for their CDR sales. Who gets 90% of all the money? Celion Dion and Bryan Adams -- Folks that don't need it and folks that aren't generally the target of most peoples 'piracy' efforts.
The big guys will get the cut and this will be run by the major labels and they will do anything they can to not to give it to any of the other labels.
As for cheaper CDs???????? I don't know where you are buying CDs, but they are very reasonably priced. Should we make EVERYTHING affordable so that those that can't buy them can now buy them? How bout a sliding scale? If you make $0-$7500 you pay $2 a CD because 'thats how much it really costs' (noting the sarcasm), $7501 - $15000 and you pay $7 because you can aford it. $15001 - $29000 ya pay $15 and over that, you pay $25 a disc because you need to subsudize everyone.
Seriously, if folks know how much it cost to produce a CD (and I'm not talkin garage or punk that can be recorded in a day -- but dumb ass
clif
sonikmatter.com
Gawd, I hated those cheats back when I was in college. I had upgraded my 486 to a DX and maxed out the memory to like 32 megs and somehow my computer was designated as the official gaming station.
One friend would come in and as soon as anyone wasn't looking would pop in the cheat codes and thus he could play for hours (the rule was one you died, you gave up the controls to someone else). It got the the point where my girlfriend would literly pull the pul out of the wall to get him off of the machine so we could 'get some sleep'...being a bud, I never kicked my friends out...just made comments that 'Hey I think its time to go to bed now', in which the dumbfuck would state "Thats cool...I'll turn the lights off after I'm finished".
Using a cheat code once or twice after finishing a level (or when stuck on it for days) is one thing...using it during normal gaming is just fucking pathetic in ANY instance. Hell, I play a few online quake-based games where I end up just not shooting back once I know the other guys are cheating...I got the rest of my team to just walk out into the fire for about an hour til the guy decided it was too easy and quit (like it wasn't too easy when he could make a spinning frag from the otherside of the map and frag ya without breaking a sweat anyways).
Anywho, seeing the frickin Doom cheats just brought back too many bad memories.
clif
The same thing could be said of a pay phone...or going to a REAL airport as these things are becoming popular diversions while waiting on a plane (while flying late last year, I pulled out the iBook only to see 2 seperate networks available that I could access my email for free).
The point is that we shouldn't have to worry about every little probably that can arrise by criminals. Should I install bulletproof glass on all my windows? If I don't, am I liable for anyone in my house that gets shot in a drive by shooting? Its rediculous that criminals can get away with so much, but when it involves computers and they are hauled away, Slashdoties get all up in arms about the punishment not fitting the crime. Bullshit...if you misuse someone elses property, there is not maximum punishment large enough.
There are enough anonymous places to do this stuff from these days...maybe I should just put up my X10 Cam (err...older model...I stopped buying from them once they went all nutty a few years ago with the spam) out and capture the license plates of everyone that uses it...but if I did that, I'm sure someone would post a note about it saying I was oppressin' them or something.
clif
I don't believe its the equivelent of leaving your doors and windows open -- its the equivelent of putting a sign up saying 'Hey Use My Restroom If You Need To...And Then Get Out".
:)
I personally don't see anything wrong with this...I have 512k DSL and no bandwidth cap (I explained to the guys threatening to cap it that the reason I have 512 over the 198k was that I needed business class DSL). I run a wireless line unsecured -- I actually VPN my powerbook and my G4...so I don't have to worry. Anyone that wants to use my lines are more than welcome if they want to stop infront and pull up a wireless connection -- hell friends do it occasionally...I'll see a friends car sitting outside occasionally
Seriously, if someone has an unsecured wireless, use it. Don't transmit anything ya need to worry about (or better yet, set up a VPN between your home server) and don't waste too much bandwidth. Personally I don't care if someone asks or not -- maybe I should set up iChat w/ Rendevous so people CAN ask if they are that anal about the whole thing, but I don't care...and if I do, I just shut off anything but the MAC addresses I have authenticated (or pull the plug).
clif
Shit, I do this all the time.
I run both Win2k and Redhat 8.0 on my Mac. I find it MUCH more efficient to grab my terminal and SSH into my 8.0 box than it is to pull the GUI up for the virtual RH box.
Of course, occasionally I'll use Remote Desktop on the Mac to pull up the Win screen (cause for some damn reason, resizing the screen sometimes screws it up...I haven't took the time to figure that out yet).
Dealing with the demo of the new 6.0, I've even noticed it has built in VNC if you wanted to admin the stuff that way...
It really is a slick application...I just need to get off my ass and upgrade before the demo runs out...
clif
Judges deal with some ambiguity...for the most part, if their case is entirely predicated on ambiguity, they will throw the shit out.
/.'rs can't seem to do...they all seem to think the law was entirely put there to fuck with them and it was an invention of only 5 minutes ago with no precidence.
:-)
As for "Is this short for "I think it's just not going to work?" " -- No this was short for "Its just not going to work..."
It wasn't a hard sentence structure to follow, nor do I mean anything more than I said.
As for evidence...yeah -- common sense and paying attention to the law for 30+ years. It something that
I got the karma -- this one IS a troll -- I'm just sick of arguing with dumbasses
clif
And as I also go on to say it works in smaller settings, but what do you do when it gets to the point of a global scale?
Plese Provide Evidance That You Gave Money To These Spammers And If You Can't, You Are Guilty. Then again, we could get Bushie to approve this law by executive order noting his current bend.
Its just not going to work...
And then what do we do what a company hires an untraceable spammer to send out a million messages with its competitors names?
I know as a youth, one of my hometowns stores fliered the city with a competitors name and fake coupons for a rediclous amount off to give them a bad name when their competition was at its worst.
It finally came out the other guys had done this, but the other store decided to make a promo out of it and honor the coupons anyways...backfiring on the others.
In a smaller town, this sort of thing can be traced back to the source rather easily. On the internet, how are you going to police the fact that PacificMed's greatest competitor (would that be AtlanticMeds) by doing the same sort of thing? Find a spammer in Asia (or one that works for your local college that will simply use Asian relays) and pay them $1000 to send out a million spams either to get them in legal action or simply to give them a black eye in the public's mind.
clif
I disagree. There are no analogues for most of what happens in the audio world to that what happens in the generic widget. As such, items have to be paralleled to that which it intuitive to the target user.
For instance, the average user knows what a trash can is. As such, it makes sense to a novices eyes that a trash can is used for throwing out what you want. Apple use to break interface rules by using this motif to eject discs or unmount drives...they've actually fixed this by having the trash can morph into something else when you select one of these items (in the case of a CD you are building, it will turn into a Burn button). No -- its STILL not the best interface one can use, but its something that is pretty well consistant.
As for Cubase, I agree with the fact that its looks suck. They try to use the real world paradigm a little too much. Logic does well by splitting the line and making it accessable to folks that have knowledge in the physical world as well as expanding the knowledge to that which makes sense in a more virtual world. Past that, since Apple's purchase of Logic Audio, they've been consistantly fixing the interface to be more inline with their internal widgets when it makes sense.
Not all Audio apps have to be skinned for the sake of being skinned. Personally, I'd like a more standard interface to a lot of my plugins. I'm sick of seeing Cool K-Rad (or whatever the kiddies are saying these days) interfaces and make them more functional. I'm sick of seeing knobs that says Meathook and a slider that says Angry Kitten...all with their own custom interfaces. However, these guys learn from the real world where musician tools are often creative nightmares intended to be explored more than they are to be completely understood.
The more professional of a plugin and you will see more professional of an interface. And personally, I'm SERIOUSLY sick of user skinnable applications where a client asks me to come in and I can't tell that he's actually running the same application I am at home undernethe all that chrome.
Trust me, the pros all complain about this stuff. Cubase users on average don't because they are just happy to have found a cracked version to run (last I talked with folks from Steinberg, they said off the record that they estimated the illegal users outweighed the legal ones 3:1).
As for Apple's internal guidelines -- this is changing. There are guides as to when its appropriate to use the Brushed Metal look. For the most part, if you are designing a virtual representation of a physical item, BM is the way to go. At one point it wasn't spec'd and it breaks some of the guidelines from the OS9 days, but it fits in with the OSX guidelines from a good UI POV. There are still some things that obviously need changed, but I think Apple is getting back to being Interface Nazi's like they use to be.
Quite honestly, if you want to talk credibility, ya need to read through your own post again and do some research. I shouldn't have to write a thesis just because someone reads half a line of my post and can't be bothered to understand it in the great whole of the text.
Clif Marsiglio
Sonikmatter
Bull Fucking Shit.
/. profess to enjoy their Macs quite often and vocally.
You don't know what you are talking about. Thats as plain stated as I can make this.
The Mac is designed for folks that don't have the time or desire to deal with computers as anything but the tools they are -- they get their work done and get on with life.
Linux is designed for computer enthusiasists that want to know intimate details about their computer -- which you really have no choice under most of the popular distributions to do otherwise.
Linux is NEVER going to hit the #2 spot among those that need a professionally design GUI and consistancy and ease of use. Apple on the other hand is taking great steps to make certain they ARE the top of the list for usability by folks that need this purpose.
Past that, whats the entire purpose of OSS? Software that doesn't suck. The Mac can run with some modifications a good deal of the software that doesn't suck from the Linux / BSD worlds. In such, they are taking over a good portion of mind share from those that would have otherwise used a pure unix workstation. The leaders of
What does Linux have going for it? Its a GREAT server environment. Its not 'enterprise' software by the definition of a lot of tech managers, but IMHO, its FAR more stable in most aspects than some of the Enterprise Ready crap I have to deal with day in and out (yeah, I program Windows Apps....unfortunately...as well as administering some of these boxes). Its cheap and its efficient. No OS Tax and I can take out to pasture Windows machines and turn them into powerhouse servers.
What doesn't it have for it? Quite a bit that the common user needs -- and especially in the music realm.
What doesn't Apple have? Cheap Servers. Who the hell cares...I have Intel for this...and when I need to develop for that Intel box, I can pull out my iBook and have ALL the same tools on it that I need. I have Perl, PHP, Apache, Sendmail, MySQL. The developer that cares about having a decent working environment will be running Macs. Heck, I even have VPC running Redhat 8.0 on my iBook incase I need to try out compiled stuff that I occasionally have to deal with when speed becomes and issue and I can't patch things with a scripted language (though the Bluecurve desktop is pretty slow on the 'book...I generally simply SSH into the VPC from the Mac side anyways and do everything in Terminal).
Macs and Linux have NOTHING in common from a common users perspective and as such, Linux will never take over their mindshare. This is Apples Advantage.
Macs and Linux have quite a bit in common when you get into the Sysadmin minds. Mac Users can now use Linux servers with exceeding ease and connectivity without having to install and configure Appletalk on the server side of things. This is a plus for the Linux Admin.
Macs and Linux also have a lot in common for the Developers. No Mac Developer is going to pick up a Unix box to develop against. A Linux Developer will feel at home on a Mac with X11 or Terminal as well as the semi-standard unix directory system. Advantage Apple.
The way I see it, servers are increasingly going Linux. Thats bad for M$. Desktops will stay Apple or M$. Developers will migrate SOMEWHAT to Apple -- though I wouldn't predict droves, thus your argument is simplistic and again bullshit.
This is NOT a troll -- Mod me down if you so desire, but don't mod this as a troll.
Clif Marsiglio
Sonikmatter.com