'How are you supposed to get introduced to new music if you don't even know the name of the band?'
The best thing (IMO) about napster was finding songs by bands you already like and then browsing the collections of others who have those bands in their collections. I do this with my friends. That is a great way to discover bands you like without already knowing the band's name. (I find listening to Pop radio, less than successful)
If you find 20 people with musical taste similar to yours, you will find other bands you like in their collections.
I will continue to do this with my friends and co-workers etc. but with Napster I could do the same thing with thousands of people! And chat with them about it too!
A fundamental problem is, the music industry doesn't want you (necessarily) to find bands you like, they want you to buy music by the bands they are hyping.
This is all about time-stealing toys, not efficiency. In a recent visit to Chicago, I noticed that everyone on the street has a cell phone stuck to their head. But when I got close enough to listen, most of them were talking to someone about, the weather, the dog, what's for dinner. Same thing with email. 90% of it could be omitted or handled a different way. Wireless Web-PDA is more of the same.
It seems obvious, but you can keep your appointments and phone numbers in a little tiny book that doesn't require batteries or have even a remote chance of causing brain damage.
Wireless web is just more crap in your life. Don't buy in. Spend your time talking to the people in the room with you instead picking up the cell phone. Take time to eliminate time-consuming crap like checking sports scores and stocks (they won't change between now and when you get home) and use that time to connect with who and what's around you.
You'll be surprised how much more you'll get out of a day.
Anyone who can afford this crap can just as easily get a thing called a Set-Back thermostat. It only takes a tiny processor to remember what time to turn on the air conditioner and what temperature it should be at any given time.
What's more, it's automatic and takes none of your time once you set it up (10 minutes max).
So, okay, let's say you get this thing right? Instead of letting your thermostat take care of business, you want to stop what you're doing, log onto the remote control site, find your air conditioner and then screw with the controls. WHY!!!!????
This is certainly for people with nothing better to do. (like slashdot posters for example)
Scene 1: The Office
"Bob, I think my wife is cheating on me"
"How do you know Jim?"
"Take a look at these air conditioner settings for the last two weeks" (click, click)
"There certainly seems to be a pattern, Jim"
"That bitch! I'm calling my lawyer right now"
Scene 2: 3-AM parent's room.
"George does it seem cold to you"
(shivering) "Y-Y-Yeah, it d-d-does s-seem chilly"
(checks thermostat) "Billy! Have you been messing with the air conditioning again"
"It wasn't me Dad!"
"Well who was it then?"
"Dad, I gave Martin the password yesterday"
"You what?"
It's the same stupid argument. The underlying assumption is the that the only way for me to kill is with a gun. Total crap. I have the power of life and death already. I can stab you with a sharp stick, poison you, choke you, hit you in the temple with a rock, push you out a window or in front of a commuter train. There are a half dozen places I can hit you with my fist that will permanently disable or kill. It all comes down to what you choose to do, not what method you choose for doing it.
Of course people in France have no concept of defending themselves. They proved that for all time during WWII. Meanwhile Americans who learned to shoot from their Dads at the age of 12, were dying to defend them and the rest of the world. Your comments are short-sighted and self righteous.
I ask myself this question from time to time. I have been to a dozen other countries and find consistenly that their governments and standard of living are way below ours. Have you seen the plumbing in Europe? They don't even know what a window screen is. Who let the bugs in!
Medicine, Science, Education, Basic Individual rights. Where do people always go when their government is killing or jailing them arbitrarily. Boat people, Cuban refugees, people from everywhere come here. Have you ever heard of a boat full of Americans washing up on the shores of Australia? When a rich guy from Russia needs an operation, you can bet your bottom dollar they'll fly to the U.S.
Here's something else to consider. My guess is that you're under 30. You have really only been asking this important question (good for you, keep asking) for 10 years. I didn't give a crap about what country was best when I was 20. Anyway, the past 8 years have been dominated by a president that has been the laughing stock of the world. World opinion of the US is still high, but Clinton's lying, indescretion and almost total disregard for our Constitution has discredited us in ways that we are just beginning to understand.
I don't think that a Republican president, elected in a razor thin margin election can put everything right, but the Republican party is more known for defense of the constitution (among other things).
So give it a chance... My guess is in a few years the picture will be different. And for everybody out there, don't kid yourself. The USA has the longest running government in modern history. Everyone thinks we are a "new" country, but every significant government on Earth has seen a major upheaval except the United States. We haven't had a major governmental change since 1865. No significant country can claim that. And even then the USA survived. 224 years and going strong.
The US is the modern day equivalent of Rome.
I met a girl from Lithuania just last night who cried in the cerial aisle of the grocery store this week, partly because she couldn't believe how much we have here and how little they have in her country.
"explained Alan Greenspan, Chief US Economist"
Point of interest here; Allan Greenspan isn't Chief US Economist, he's the Chairman of Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States. This is arguably the most powerful economic institution in the world. He has his hand on your wallet so to speak. Take a few minutes to find out what he actually does. I'm sure it will be worth your time. If you think Bill Gates commands a financial empire you haven't seen anything yet.
Funny stuff!
All this argument about the economic viability of keeping QUALITY musicians active is nonesense.
Quality musicians in my experience are people who are driven to write and perform because they have something to say, not for the money. Some of the best musicians ever have lived lives of poverty. (same for writers, painters, sculpters, poets, photographers, cinematographers).
What does change is the size of the audience and now the audience's ability to show their appreciation directly to the musician.
The music industry is a pox on creativity and variety. They have their demographic studies and select (or create) musical acts to match them. this results in less and less variation in musical style.
The tipping model opens the floodgates to musicians (and writers, graphic artists, etc) of every conceivable style, who can get paid directly based on who likes what instead of having to break into the Music Business.
So if you're in it for the money. Good luck to you. If you have musical ideas you want people to hear, the internet is your best bet to be heard by as many people as possible.
Release us, oh PayPal, from the bonds of the art industries into the holy land of free expression.
The industry has nothing to do with quality music. Quality is solely dependent on on creativity and taste.
As an amateur musician (25 years) I can tell you that live music will always be live music and everything else will be a compromise. Everyone who has been to a concert knows that there is a feeling live music has and it can't be duplicated. The sheer distance between musicians dicatates a delay that can't be overcome. Even if you could, it would be much more expensive than airplane tickets and hotel rooms, so what is the point? Here's where this thing really pays off. If you want to play with a famous musician, the delay might be tolerable in a lesson-format. (I play, then you play) This would give musicians the ability to learn from other musicians all over the world. In my mind this piece of "Internet History" is technology mis-applied. How about guitar lessons with Al DiMeola or drum lessons from a percussionist in Soweto? True interaction in something-less-than-real-time would be very valuable here.
Slashdot Mirror
The best thing (IMO) about napster was finding songs by bands you already like and then browsing the collections of others who have those bands in their collections. I do this with my friends. That is a great way to discover bands you like without already knowing the band's name. (I find listening to Pop radio, less than successful)
If you find 20 people with musical taste similar to yours, you will find other bands you like in their collections.
I will continue to do this with my friends and co-workers etc. but with Napster I could do the same thing with thousands of people! And chat with them about it too! A fundamental problem is, the music industry doesn't want you (necessarily) to find bands you like, they want you to buy music by the bands they are hyping.Yes, you are a moron. But if you get wireless internet access, you'll be smarter than any 10 of us combined!!!
Hey, are there any other /. South Bender's out there?
This is all about time-stealing toys, not efficiency. In a recent visit to Chicago, I noticed that everyone on the street has a cell phone stuck to their head. But when I got close enough to listen, most of them were talking to someone about, the weather, the dog, what's for dinner. Same thing with email. 90% of it could be omitted or handled a different way. Wireless Web-PDA is more of the same.
It seems obvious, but you can keep your appointments and phone numbers in a little tiny book that doesn't require batteries or have even a remote chance of causing brain damage.
Wireless web is just more crap in your life. Don't buy in. Spend your time talking to the people in the room with you instead picking up the cell phone. Take time to eliminate time-consuming crap like checking sports scores and stocks (they won't change between now and when you get home) and use that time to connect with who and what's around you.
You'll be surprised how much more you'll get out of a day.
This is pure marketing BS.
Anyone who can afford this crap can just as easily get a thing called a Set-Back thermostat. It only takes a tiny processor to remember what time to turn on the air conditioner and what temperature it should be at any given time.
What's more, it's automatic and takes none of your time once you set it up (10 minutes max).
So, okay, let's say you get this thing right? Instead of letting your thermostat take care of business, you want to stop what you're doing, log onto the remote control site, find your air conditioner and then screw with the controls. WHY!!!!????
This is certainly for people with nothing better to do. (like slashdot posters for example)
Scene 1: The Office
"Bob, I think my wife is cheating on me"
"How do you know Jim?"
"Take a look at these air conditioner settings for the last two weeks" (click, click)
"There certainly seems to be a pattern, Jim"
"That bitch! I'm calling my lawyer right now"
Scene 2: 3-AM parent's room.
"George does it seem cold to you"
(shivering) "Y-Y-Yeah, it d-d-does s-seem chilly"
(checks thermostat) "Billy! Have you been messing with the air conditioning again"
"It wasn't me Dad!"
"Well who was it then?"
"Dad, I gave Martin the password yesterday"
"You what?"
Some things just don't need to be 'net-enabled.
Wow, you must be one rich SOB. The "moderate" sum for cracking the E-Week box is $50,000.00.
Moderate to you maybe, but a nice kick in the income ass to me.
It's the same stupid argument. The underlying assumption is the that the only way for me to kill is with a gun. Total crap. I have the power of life and death already. I can stab you with a sharp stick, poison you, choke you, hit you in the temple with a rock, push you out a window or in front of a commuter train. There are a half dozen places I can hit you with my fist that will permanently disable or kill. It all comes down to what you choose to do, not what method you choose for doing it.
Of course people in France have no concept of defending themselves. They proved that for all time during WWII. Meanwhile Americans who learned to shoot from their Dads at the age of 12, were dying to defend them and the rest of the world. Your comments are short-sighted and self righteous.
I ask myself this question from time to time. I have been to a dozen other countries and find consistenly that their governments and standard of living are way below ours. Have you seen the plumbing in Europe? They don't even know what a window screen is. Who let the bugs in!
Medicine, Science, Education, Basic Individual rights. Where do people always go when their government is killing or jailing them arbitrarily. Boat people, Cuban refugees, people from everywhere come here. Have you ever heard of a boat full of Americans washing up on the shores of Australia? When a rich guy from Russia needs an operation, you can bet your bottom dollar they'll fly to the U.S.
Here's something else to consider. My guess is that you're under 30. You have really only been asking this important question (good for you, keep asking) for 10 years. I didn't give a crap about what country was best when I was 20. Anyway, the past 8 years have been dominated by a president that has been the laughing stock of the world. World opinion of the US is still high, but Clinton's lying, indescretion and almost total disregard for our Constitution has discredited us in ways that we are just beginning to understand.
I don't think that a Republican president, elected in a razor thin margin election can put everything right, but the Republican party is more known for defense of the constitution (among other things).
So give it a chance... My guess is in a few years the picture will be different. And for everybody out there, don't kid yourself. The USA has the longest running government in modern history. Everyone thinks we are a "new" country, but every significant government on Earth has seen a major upheaval except the United States. We haven't had a major governmental change since 1865. No significant country can claim that. And even then the USA survived. 224 years and going strong.
The US is the modern day equivalent of Rome.
I met a girl from Lithuania just last night who cried in the cerial aisle of the grocery store this week, partly because she couldn't believe how much we have here and how little they have in her country.
"explained Alan Greenspan, Chief US Economist" Point of interest here; Allan Greenspan isn't Chief US Economist, he's the Chairman of Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States. This is arguably the most powerful economic institution in the world. He has his hand on your wallet so to speak. Take a few minutes to find out what he actually does. I'm sure it will be worth your time. If you think Bill Gates commands a financial empire you haven't seen anything yet. Funny stuff!
All this argument about the economic viability of keeping QUALITY musicians active is nonesense. Quality musicians in my experience are people who are driven to write and perform because they have something to say, not for the money. Some of the best musicians ever have lived lives of poverty. (same for writers, painters, sculpters, poets, photographers, cinematographers). What does change is the size of the audience and now the audience's ability to show their appreciation directly to the musician. The music industry is a pox on creativity and variety. They have their demographic studies and select (or create) musical acts to match them. this results in less and less variation in musical style. The tipping model opens the floodgates to musicians (and writers, graphic artists, etc) of every conceivable style, who can get paid directly based on who likes what instead of having to break into the Music Business. So if you're in it for the money. Good luck to you. If you have musical ideas you want people to hear, the internet is your best bet to be heard by as many people as possible. Release us, oh PayPal, from the bonds of the art industries into the holy land of free expression. The industry has nothing to do with quality music. Quality is solely dependent on on creativity and taste.
As an amateur musician (25 years) I can tell you that live music will always be live music and everything else will be a compromise. Everyone who has been to a concert knows that there is a feeling live music has and it can't be duplicated. The sheer distance between musicians dicatates a delay that can't be overcome. Even if you could, it would be much more expensive than airplane tickets and hotel rooms, so what is the point? Here's where this thing really pays off. If you want to play with a famous musician, the delay might be tolerable in a lesson-format. (I play, then you play) This would give musicians the ability to learn from other musicians all over the world. In my mind this piece of "Internet History" is technology mis-applied. How about guitar lessons with Al DiMeola or drum lessons from a percussionist in Soweto? True interaction in something-less-than-real-time would be very valuable here.