The people who make shareware/freeware music apps for Windows generally do seem to get it right, as far as the musicians are concerned.
There's Stomper, a fantastic drum synth that comes absolutely free, except that you have to send a copy of the music you make with it to the programmer. Sounds fair to me.
Or try FruityLoops, granted, it's not free, but it's cheap and exactly what musicians like: buttons to push and a lot of blinking lights. That seems to be what a lot of programmers seem to forget: musicians (myself included) are stupid. They don't like to involve themselves with technical stuff when they're doing music. Which is why FruityLoops is so popular-it's a drumsequencer that behaves just like you'd expect.
The guy who makes Buzz apparently seems not too thrilled about porting. Too bad, but then, speaking from experience, a lot of musicians find that program to be too complicated anyway. That doesn't mean, though, that the people who make the programs above won't be either. At the very least, looking at their software, Linux programmers may learn a little bit about musicians and their preferences. Sure, a few topnotch studios only work with pro-tools on a Mac, but the vast majority of musicians use much less elaborate, much cheaper software. Why do you think Acid is as popular as it is?
If linux music tools become simple and musicianly, a lot of musicians will make the transition, if only because linux is free and musicians are cheapskates.
I'd love to see DJ's start using MP3's now that there's that dual "turntable" plugin for winamp
I hope they don't. Sure, mp3's are fine if you're using them to replace cassette-copies. But face it..the sound quality really isn't that good, especially compared to vinyl, which is what most DJ's and others who know use. Don't believe me? Try mp3-ing a recording that uses a lot of subtle reverbs (high-end, supposedly "noisy" information). You'll find that it gets rather severely mangled.
Next, consider bass frequencies. MP3 compression takes out subbasses that the human ear can't perceive. These subbasses are however very important in defining the quality of the discernible audio (they cause the speaker cones to distort in certain characteristic shapes. the other vibrations - frequencies - get added on this distortion). Furthermore, they give the listener a thump in the stomach he or she seems to find pleasurable, especially on a dancefloor, where most DJ's operate. So let's hope DJ's avoid mp3's like the plague.
because it shows the recording industry (meaning the majors) are getting so scared they're doing very stupid things to make sure their downfall takes longer. Just like Hitler had Germany bombed to oblivion because he couldn't win the war, in fact.
Supposing they actually manage to get this scheme in place. That would totally destroy the whole infrastructure of the Internet. Most sites with illegal MP3's and warezzzz tend to be put up on remote parts of totally legitimate servers, without the administrators of those servers knowing about it. Now they block every server that sends out MP3's. They'll block out a lot of servers that are very important in routing other, legal packets as well. My guess is that the Internet will come to a grinding halt if they really manage to pull this off, especially in Europe (look at a map again in case you're wondering why).
They're doing this because they're scared shitless. Think about it...in principle every artist can now distribute his or her own music now. I myself do this a lot...just take the finished master of a track (which in my case is always a WAV-file anyway), MP3 it and dump it on the net. If you're good and you're lucky, a large number of people will hear your song. There's no drawback to circumventing the major labels, getting on one takes a lot of luck (and a nice pair of breasts) as well, so why bother? Of course in the past artists would get advances (out of their own pockets, I might add) to record their tracks in a professional studio, something which is hideously expensive. Nowadays, though, with hardware prices being as low as they are, there's not that much need for such expensive studios anymore. Just get yourself a USD1000 pc, and twice that on software and a decent mic, and you're in business. Only two years ago, that kind of money could barely get you a HD-8 track recorder, now it gets you unlimited tracks and much better sound quality (Rolands use compression, you know). Lots of artists can manage to save up USD3000 for basic equipment, so there's no need for record labels in that respect as well.
The majors aren't stupid, they see this as much as you and I do. They can see that pretty soon their multibilliondollar swindles will be out of business and there's nothing they can do. So what do they do? They put up a fight for no reason but to make life miserable for the rest of us. Too bad they're going down no matter what. Should we be upset that they're trying to destroy the Internet? A little bit..but not too much. In the end, we'll win anyways. Don't forget what Germany looks like today, only 55 years after it was blown to bits.
Has a single technological innovation ever appeared on European soil, in the entire history of the human race? No.
Mills. Enhanced agriculture. Printing press (ok, ok, but the Chinese kept it to themselves). Law. Rationalism. The nation state. Cars. Flight. Rockets.
Without the United States to leech off, those barbarians would still be fighting with swords.
Gunpowder (China, yes, but they used it for fireworks only. Europeans were smarter).
According to the article, their primary objective is finding out whether a certain company in Europe bribes an Asian/Latin American company to get business. They're spending millions of American tax dollars on this (I would assume).
Maybe they should spend USD 300 a year on a European newspaper subscription instead. The economics pages usually will say which company bribed which Asian/Latin American government. Just last week there was a page-long article in a dutch newspaper about how Shell (the oil company) had to spend millions of dollars in bribes to get an exploration contract in Turkmenistan.
Furthermore, in a number of countries, they're about to pass regulation that will force companies to explicitly state how much money they've spent in bribes in their yearly summaries (or whatever they're called).
It seems a bit lame to me that the American government has to get the CIA to report on this
OK, I'd hate to do this on Slashdot, seeing as that it's usually such a hotbed of fine and intelligent discussion, but here goes (karma? what karma?): FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU AND YOUR MOM AND YOUR GOAT, TOO.
But, Slashdot being as civilized as it is, I'll of course do some explaining as to what motivates this outburst.
Windows software sucks because the core system of Windows sucks. The core system of Windows was primarily written in C by real programmers. Because this system is so unstable, cute little programs that need to perform some simple task the author couldn't find a real programmer to program, become unstable and sucky as well.
Programmers do kernels and drivers and serious programs that will be used by many. We (ordinary mortals) thank them for that. We use their masterpieces every day and couldn't live without them. Programmers do not condescend to code little gems such as programs that will catalogue our MP3 collection for us, allow us to have little sheep walk across our screens just because we like sheep and that rip out every other bit out of a sound file just because we're curious to see what that sounds like. We don't ask the venerable programmers to do this, instead we buy VB for about $100 if we can spare it (hell, we've just spent three times that on Windows, so who cares) or we get Python for free and we do it. Not in a very elegant way, but it gets the job done. If you like the gadget we cooked up, we'll give it to you. If you don't, don't bug us. We've already payed our respects to the real programmers by being dependent on their software, haven't we?
This is not directed at all programmers who feel their craft can only be practiced with tools like C/C++, it's directed at those who are too elitist to see that sometimes programmers overlook simple tasks that can easily be performed by laymen with laymen tools.
Now for 10k pieces, the price-per-piece is US$1.04. Labels run more than that and own their presses and mastering equipment, meaning that they pay cost-only (film, plates, paper, ink) for their runs. So you can safely drop that per piece cost down to less than $.25/piece.
Now where is the rest of your $17 going? A bit to the artist, a bit for studio costs (mixing, recording time, etc.), a bit for marketing... and the rest is profit and corporate lawyer money.
A bit for marketing? Do you have any ideas how expensive videos are? Then there's all the other costs. I once read that Michael Jackson breaks even at two million units sold or something like that. Record companies have a lot of overhead. Granted, it's stupid overhead, but still. Out of the 17 bucks a cd costs, probably only only $1 or so goes to the record company.
Furthermore, out of those USD17, 5 go to the store. Then deduct the profit that needs to be made by the distributor.
Sounds to me like record companies aren't profit huggers, they're just really bad at operating a business. That's why they're fighting MP3's - they're so stupid they don't recognize free promotion opportunities. They'd rather shoot a one million dollar video. Idiots.
Apparently there's a telephone company in Sweden that's already doing this, and supposedly they're going to expand their "service" to the rest of Europe.
I'm not so sure. Every non-computer addict I talk to over here in the Netherlands (parents, grandparents) would gladly leave MS behind if they could. I've had quite a few members of my family come up to me to ask if they could see this "linux-thing" and whether or not I'd recommend that they use it. So I think you're exagerating the Bill-fondness of the average joe. Maybe in America Windows-jokes are only common among "geeks", but over here everyone seems to make and appreciate them.
My answer to the question "should I put linux on my computer?" btw, is always "No. wait a few months." Corel was "semi-ok", maybe Corel 2 will be ok, and then you'll see everyone and their grandma switch.
but wouldn't this disclosure of new tools and functions be a little redundant? If you're new to a program, you will ask someone to tell you how to do basic things. Then, if you've got the inclination, you'll discover the shortcuts and fancy stuff on your own. Seems to me like such a system exists naturally, not in the software or the hardware but in the human mind.
To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd.
Frankly, the average joe is too dumb to use something like linux.
Let's turn this around: frankly, the average linux-programmer lacks the skill to make joe use linux.
It takes skill to be able to create an interface that people can use whose lives revolve around other things besides computers. Not everyone has that skill. There's a lot of talented linux programmers out there who are very good at creating a stable, flexible core-operating system. There's not a whole lot of skilled interface designers. My guess is that this is due to the fact that being a good interface-designer requires having to be exceptionally good at programming, graphic design and psychology, all at the same time. It's hardly surprising there's not a whole lot of these uebergeniuses around. The alternative is to get a group of people whose combined skills approach the ideal. For its time, I think the Apple Lisa/Mac team was such a group. And if you'll recall, large numbers of people recognized their skills and went out to buy Macs, even though they were then, as now, ridiculously expensive.
We can only hope that such a team will form in the linux community and come up with a new and usable interface paradigm suitable for today's computing power. Most likely, however, as soon as someone does manage to assemble a team like that, it will be bought up by some large corporation. The company that manages to achieve a truly new, workable interface will dominate the market for the next ten years, at least. Betcha Bill Gates would gladly offer half his assets to such a team.
The reason why this is so important is not because the average joe is "dumb", but because the average joe thinks it's a waste of time to fumble with config files and xservers. Only a very small group people actually enjoy this. Most mortals just want to get their work done, go home and look at porn on the Internet.
Fact: this same story was posted here on 26/02 (`Mating human cells with circuitry). It was rightly posted here. It's an interesting topic. Then if it's posted here AGAIN the message that points out it was posted before is considered to be flamebait? I understand the need for moderation, but this is fucked. Betcha it was the guy who posted the story who moderated the original comment down.
Yup, it's inspiring news to be sure. Too bad the same story was also posted here on Slashdot on feb. 26 (Mating human cells with circuitry). Goes to show story submissions should be moderated as well: -1 redundant.
extensive pirating hasn't hurt the majors (small, decent indie labels tend not to be members of RIAA), for, as we all know, major labels suck (most of the time). However, it is hardly surprising.
99% of the population tend to view computers as scary grey boxes. Probably around 50% of the population listens to music. That means a large part of the music-buying audience is afraid of computers. These people probably do not stuff their harddisks with illegal MP3's. I don't know why the majors even bother to complain about MP3's at all. Probably just to open their mouth.
Another reason why this isn't surprising is that CD's and records (food for the enlightened) tend to be seen more as collectible items than as carriers of music. Most people buy CD's/Records because they want something tangible, something they can cuddle and sniff, and something that has liner notes they can read. This also explains why Audio-CD pirating never took off that much (except in Russia and the Far East, where people simply can't afford to buy a CD at the official price). If you like a CD, you want to have an original. Cheap copies are not collectibles. If you just want to hear a certain song, you'll tape it from someone. Nowadays, you'll have someone copy the CD for you or you'll get an MP3 (if you're a member of the digerati). There is no indication, however, that there are more people now ripping and copying cd's than there were people taping records before. It's just that the MP3 "revolution" has made hometaping a little more visible. And just like hometaping never "killed music", MP3 will not either.
Which is a shame, though, because the only "music" MP3 would kill would be major label music (try to find illegal Pan Sonic MP3's. You can't. It's all Britney Spears). And, as we all know, the majors are evil.
I've had a number of cd's get cracked, a few even had little chips broken off. They've been perfectly usable since, however. Only the parts with the cracks or the missing bits fail.
I'm guessing this is because the first edge of oxidation around the cut stops any further oxygen from creeping in.
I might be wrong though, and just have been lucky, but some cracked CD's are still usable after four years. So I suppose it's ok to cut your own cd's. The absence of a protective coating around any edges will, however, ensure that any hand-cut cd doubles as an effective murder weapon.
Notice, however, that they will ALL fit in either the small ridge or the large ridge. And apparently the small ridge seems to work fine for small round cd's
Centrifugal nyaah... but just draw a shape, any shape and then draw some lines that indicate the centripetal force when it's spinning. Anything that is kept spinning will never ever end up "going to be pushing upwards at an uneven speed". Things that spin may push upwards evenly if they are allowed to, i.e. when there's air to lift off on beneath and if there's space above to lift off in.
This doesn't make small-sized cd's a good idea, though. I've bought a couple, and they've all seemed to get lost.
But check your facts again. The pilgrims did found a large part of the community that later on became an independent U.S.A. Granted, the motivation for wanting independence from England was financial rather than religious, but the motivation to leave Europe and build a new society was, for the most part the one I described: fleeing religious tolerance.
Of course, some other communities in the New World were not founded on religious principles, such as Virginia (tobacco) and New York (came cheap). The dominant strain in New World society, however, has always been a vicious and intolerant fundamentalism that still exists today.
One could argue, in fact, that those Americans who oppose this religious lunacy are equally intolerant and vicious in their opposition, and hence show themselves to be worthy descendents of Puritan society.
P.S. This is not just Euro-arrogance, a lot of Americans I know hold the same views.
You definitely have a point. You have even more of a point because a large part of this discussion focusses on school libraries. These are environments where people are supposed to learn something. They usually carry only books which are required for science projects, English essays etc. Nowadays, of course they must have Internet access. That does not mean, however, that they should give students access to pornography (or, in fact, cookie recipes). School libraries are paid for by a community. The community pays for them to be educative, not to give access to every bit of information out there. It is not necessary to fund, as a community, a resource for looking up porn.
I'm not in the least bit fundamentalist, but I tend to agree with the other side in this debate. Yes, some of them are fundamentalist bigots. In fact, without their maniacal drive, this probably wouldn't be such an issue, as most "normal" people would tend to leave it be. However, in their maniacal drive they have stumbled upon something. Should we, the community, pay for our kids to watch porn out of a budget we have reserved for their education? I think not. They can go elsewhere for that (and pay for it out of their own pockets). If we do, however, I think the community should pay for my weekly dose of porn-movies as well. Or at least my phone bill should be subsidized.
I think Internet-censorship in school libraries is highly desirable, even if it's not perfect;it's better to have at least some form of protection than none.
Of course America isn't founded on religious freedom.
The Founding Fathers were puritanical protestants who fled Europe because they found the religious climate there to be too permissive.
Some of them lived in the Netherlands for a while after escaping England. They had escaped England because they thought that the official state religion (Church of England), reeked too much of Catholicism. Holland, they felt, would be a better environment for them because it had just fought a war of independence against Spain for the purpose of establishing a protestant country.
Unfortunately (for the pilgrim fathers, at least), Dutch society was nowhere near as puritanical as they had expected. In fact, a large majority of the people were still Catholics. And the government, which consisted, then as now, primarily of wealthy merchants, had no interest in disrupting the prosperous status-quo by forcing everyone to become (the right kind of) Protestant.
Feeling disgusted, the pilgrim fathers left Holland again after a few years (i.e, as soon as they could) to found "America". There, in a so-called "empty country", they could live in a strictly puritanical New Jerusalem without any filthy Catholics spreading their corruptive influence. Reread The Scarlet Letter if yr curious as to what that was like.
In fact, lots of religious groups left Europe for the same reason, such as the Mennonites (Amish), and a wide variety of other sects.
The conclusion must therefore be that it is not surprising that the descendents of these religious maniacs, the present-day Americans, will go to great lengths to enforce their fundamentalism on society. They want no corrupting influence from noone.
As a European, I find these strained attempts to censor the Internet (or the president, for having sex with an intern) slightly amusing, and rather curious. However, seen from a historical perspective, it is hardly surprising.
Slashdot Mirror
Yo, I got root, nigga
I got root
And all them Microslut bitches gon' suck on my big
Linus dick.
(repeat 1000 times)
Of course, if linux is like any form of music, it's like punk rock - fuck the majors, we'll do it ourselves.
How much major label crock do you remember from the 80's? And how many punk bands?
There's Stomper, a fantastic drum synth that comes absolutely free, except that you have to send a copy of the music you make with it to the programmer. Sounds fair to me.
Or try FruityLoops, granted, it's not free, but it's cheap and exactly what musicians like: buttons to push and a lot of blinking lights. That seems to be what a lot of programmers seem to forget: musicians (myself included) are stupid. They don't like to involve themselves with technical stuff when they're doing music. Which is why FruityLoops is so popular-it's a drumsequencer that behaves just like you'd expect.
The guy who makes Buzz apparently seems not too thrilled about porting. Too bad, but then, speaking from experience, a lot of musicians find that program to be too complicated anyway. That doesn't mean, though, that the people who make the programs above won't be either. At the very least, looking at their software, Linux programmers may learn a little bit about musicians and their preferences. Sure, a few topnotch studios only work with pro-tools on a Mac, but the vast majority of musicians use much less elaborate, much cheaper software. Why do you think Acid is as popular as it is?
If linux music tools become simple and musicianly, a lot of musicians will make the transition, if only because linux is free and musicians are cheapskates.
I hope they don't. Sure, mp3's are fine if you're using them to replace cassette-copies. But face it..the sound quality really isn't that good, especially compared to vinyl, which is what most DJ's and others who know use. Don't believe me? Try mp3-ing a recording that uses a lot of subtle reverbs (high-end, supposedly "noisy" information). You'll find that it gets rather severely mangled.
Next, consider bass frequencies. MP3 compression takes out subbasses that the human ear can't perceive. These subbasses are however very important in defining the quality of the discernible audio (they cause the speaker cones to distort in certain characteristic shapes. the other vibrations - frequencies - get added on this distortion). Furthermore, they give the listener a thump in the stomach he or she seems to find pleasurable, especially on a dancefloor, where most DJ's operate. So let's hope DJ's avoid mp3's like the plague.
Supposing they actually manage to get this scheme in place. That would totally destroy the whole infrastructure of the Internet. Most sites with illegal MP3's and warezzzz tend to be put up on remote parts of totally legitimate servers, without the administrators of those servers knowing about it. Now they block every server that sends out MP3's. They'll block out a lot of servers that are very important in routing other, legal packets as well. My guess is that the Internet will come to a grinding halt if they really manage to pull this off, especially in Europe (look at a map again in case you're wondering why).
They're doing this because they're scared shitless. Think about it...in principle every artist can now distribute his or her own music now. I myself do this a lot...just take the finished master of a track (which in my case is always a WAV-file anyway), MP3 it and dump it on the net. If you're good and you're lucky, a large number of people will hear your song. There's no drawback to circumventing the major labels, getting on one takes a lot of luck (and a nice pair of breasts) as well, so why bother? Of course in the past artists would get advances (out of their own pockets, I might add) to record their tracks in a professional studio, something which is hideously expensive. Nowadays, though, with hardware prices being as low as they are, there's not that much need for such expensive studios anymore. Just get yourself a USD1000 pc, and twice that on software and a decent mic, and you're in business. Only two years ago, that kind of money could barely get you a HD-8 track recorder, now it gets you unlimited tracks and much better sound quality (Rolands use compression, you know). Lots of artists can manage to save up USD3000 for basic equipment, so there's no need for record labels in that respect as well.
The majors aren't stupid, they see this as much as you and I do. They can see that pretty soon their multibilliondollar swindles will be out of business and there's nothing they can do. So what do they do? They put up a fight for no reason but to make life miserable for the rest of us. Too bad they're going down no matter what. Should we be upset that they're trying to destroy the Internet? A little bit..but not too much. In the end, we'll win anyways. Don't forget what Germany looks like today, only 55 years after it was blown to bits.
Mills. Enhanced agriculture. Printing press (ok, ok, but the Chinese kept it to themselves). Law. Rationalism. The nation state. Cars. Flight. Rockets.
Without the United States to leech off, those barbarians would still be fighting with swords.
Gunpowder (China, yes, but they used it for fireworks only. Europeans were smarter).
Lastly:
America.
Maybe they should spend USD 300 a year on a European newspaper subscription instead. The economics pages usually will say which company bribed which Asian/Latin American government. Just last week there was a page-long article in a dutch newspaper about how Shell (the oil company) had to spend millions of dollars in bribes to get an exploration contract in Turkmenistan.
Furthermore, in a number of countries, they're about to pass regulation that will force companies to explicitly state how much money they've spent in bribes in their yearly summaries (or whatever they're called).
It seems a bit lame to me that the American government has to get the CIA to report on this
But, Slashdot being as civilized as it is, I'll of course do some explaining as to what motivates this outburst.
This is not directed at all programmers who feel their craft can only be practiced with tools like C/C++, it's directed at those who are too elitist to see that sometimes programmers overlook simple tasks that can easily be performed by laymen with laymen tools.
Now where is the rest of your $17 going? A bit to the artist, a bit for studio costs (mixing, recording time, etc.), a bit for marketing... and the rest is profit and corporate lawyer money.
A bit for marketing? Do you have any ideas how expensive videos are? Then there's all the other costs. I once read that Michael Jackson breaks even at two million units sold or something like that. Record companies have a lot of overhead. Granted, it's stupid overhead, but still. Out of the 17 bucks a cd costs, probably only only $1 or so goes to the record company.
Furthermore, out of those USD17, 5 go to the store. Then deduct the profit that needs to be made by the distributor.
Sounds to me like record companies aren't profit huggers, they're just really bad at operating a business. That's why they're fighting MP3's - they're so stupid they don't recognize free promotion opportunities. They'd rather shoot a one million dollar video. Idiots.
Apparently there's a telephone company in Sweden that's already doing this, and supposedly they're going to expand their "service" to the rest of Europe.
Maybe that's because Netscape ignores every standard the W3C sets.
My answer to the question "should I put linux on my computer?" btw, is always "No. wait a few months." Corel was "semi-ok", maybe Corel 2 will be ok, and then you'll see everyone and their grandma switch.
but wouldn't this disclosure of new tools and functions be a little redundant? If you're new to a program, you will ask someone to tell you how to do basic things. Then, if you've got the inclination, you'll discover the shortcuts and fancy stuff on your own. Seems to me like such a system exists naturally, not in the software or the hardware but in the human mind.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and, by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
etc. etc.
You get the point.
Let's turn this around: frankly, the average linux-programmer lacks the skill to make joe use linux.
It takes skill to be able to create an interface that people can use whose lives revolve around other things besides computers. Not everyone has that skill. There's a lot of talented linux programmers out there who are very good at creating a stable, flexible core-operating system. There's not a whole lot of skilled interface designers. My guess is that this is due to the fact that being a good interface-designer requires having to be exceptionally good at programming, graphic design and psychology, all at the same time. It's hardly surprising there's not a whole lot of these uebergeniuses around. The alternative is to get a group of people whose combined skills approach the ideal. For its time, I think the Apple Lisa/Mac team was such a group. And if you'll recall, large numbers of people recognized their skills and went out to buy Macs, even though they were then, as now, ridiculously expensive.
We can only hope that such a team will form in the linux community and come up with a new and usable interface paradigm suitable for today's computing power. Most likely, however, as soon as someone does manage to assemble a team like that, it will be bought up by some large corporation. The company that manages to achieve a truly new, workable interface will dominate the market for the next ten years, at least. Betcha Bill Gates would gladly offer half his assets to such a team.
The reason why this is so important is not because the average joe is "dumb", but because the average joe thinks it's a waste of time to fumble with config files and xservers. Only a very small group people actually enjoy this. Most mortals just want to get their work done, go home and look at porn on the Internet.
Fact: this same story was posted here on 26/02 (`Mating human cells with circuitry).
It was rightly posted here. It's an interesting topic.
Then if it's posted here AGAIN the message that points out it was posted before is considered to be flamebait?
I understand the need for moderation, but this is fucked. Betcha it was the guy who posted the story who moderated the original comment down.
Yup, it's inspiring news to be sure. Too bad the same story was also posted here on Slashdot on feb. 26 (Mating human cells with circuitry).
Goes to show story submissions should be moderated as well: -1 redundant.
99% of the population tend to view computers as scary grey boxes. Probably around 50% of the population listens to music. That means a large part of the music-buying audience is afraid of computers. These people probably do not stuff their harddisks with illegal MP3's. I don't know why the majors even bother to complain about MP3's at all. Probably just to open their mouth.
Another reason why this isn't surprising is that CD's and records (food for the enlightened) tend to be seen more as collectible items than as carriers of music. Most people buy CD's/Records because they want something tangible, something they can cuddle and sniff, and something that has liner notes they can read. This also explains why Audio-CD pirating never took off that much (except in Russia and the Far East, where people simply can't afford to buy a CD at the official price). If you like a CD, you want to have an original. Cheap copies are not collectibles. If you just want to hear a certain song, you'll tape it from someone. Nowadays, you'll have someone copy the CD for you or you'll get an MP3 (if you're a member of the digerati). There is no indication, however, that there are more people now ripping and copying cd's than there were people taping records before. It's just that the MP3 "revolution" has made hometaping a little more visible. And just like hometaping never "killed music", MP3 will not either.
Which is a shame, though, because the only "music" MP3 would kill would be major label music (try to find illegal Pan Sonic MP3's. You can't. It's all Britney Spears). And, as we all know, the majors are evil.
I'm guessing this is because the first edge of oxidation around the cut stops any further oxygen from creeping in.
I might be wrong though, and just have been lucky, but some cracked CD's are still usable after four years. So I suppose it's ok to cut your own cd's. The absence of a protective coating around any edges will, however, ensure that any hand-cut cd doubles as an effective murder weapon.
Notice, however, that they will ALL fit in either the small ridge or the large ridge. And apparently the small ridge seems to work fine for small round cd's
This doesn't make small-sized cd's a good idea, though. I've bought a couple, and they've all seemed to get lost.
Now all they have to do is figure out how patterns of pulsing neurons form thoughts, ideas and actions.
Of course, some other communities in the New World were not founded on religious principles, such as Virginia (tobacco) and New York (came cheap). The dominant strain in New World society, however, has always been a vicious and intolerant fundamentalism that still exists today.
One could argue, in fact, that those Americans who oppose this religious lunacy are equally intolerant and vicious in their opposition, and hence show themselves to be worthy descendents of Puritan society.
P.S. This is not just Euro-arrogance, a lot of Americans I know hold the same views.
I'm not in the least bit fundamentalist, but I tend to agree with the other side in this debate. Yes, some of them are fundamentalist bigots. In fact, without their maniacal drive, this probably wouldn't be such an issue, as most "normal" people would tend to leave it be. However, in their maniacal drive they have stumbled upon something. Should we, the community, pay for our kids to watch porn out of a budget we have reserved for their education? I think not. They can go elsewhere for that (and pay for it out of their own pockets). If we do, however, I think the community should pay for my weekly dose of porn-movies as well. Or at least my phone bill should be subsidized.
I think Internet-censorship in school libraries is highly desirable, even if it's not perfect;it's better to have at least some form of protection than none.
The Founding Fathers were puritanical protestants who fled Europe because they found the religious climate there to be too permissive.
Some of them lived in the Netherlands for a while after escaping England. They had escaped England because they thought that the official state religion (Church of England), reeked too much of Catholicism. Holland, they felt, would be a better environment for them because it had just fought a war of independence against Spain for the purpose of establishing a protestant country.
Unfortunately (for the pilgrim fathers, at least), Dutch society was nowhere near as puritanical as they had expected. In fact, a large majority of the people were still Catholics. And the government, which consisted, then as now, primarily of wealthy merchants, had no interest in disrupting the prosperous status-quo by forcing everyone to become (the right kind of) Protestant.
Feeling disgusted, the pilgrim fathers left Holland again after a few years (i.e, as soon as they could) to found "America". There, in a so-called "empty country", they could live in a strictly puritanical New Jerusalem without any filthy Catholics spreading their corruptive influence. Reread The Scarlet Letter if yr curious as to what that was like.
In fact, lots of religious groups left Europe for the same reason, such as the Mennonites (Amish), and a wide variety of other sects.
The conclusion must therefore be that it is not surprising that the descendents of these religious maniacs, the present-day Americans, will go to great lengths to enforce their fundamentalism on society. They want no corrupting influence from noone.
As a European, I find these strained attempts to censor the Internet (or the president, for having sex with an intern) slightly amusing, and rather curious. However, seen from a historical perspective, it is hardly surprising.
http://www.rug. nl/rugcis/rc/ftp/origami/archives/a0022x/arc00229. txt