"This means that Bertelsmann can't do a damned thing about me saying "Bertelsmann" here. Bertelsmann Bertelsmann Bertelsmann."
Didn't I see that in Life of Brian?
Official: (to Matthias) You're only making it worse for yourself. Matthias: Making it worse? How can it be worse? Bertelsmann, Bertelsmann, Bertelsmann.
At best I'll be modded as Offtopic, or at worst, Troll, but:
What is that icon supposed to depict? I know it's something related to these kinds of discussions, and so have sought out other Web pages dedicated to free software and the like in the hopes of finding a larger version of it so I can divine what it really is.
But for now, it looks like a turd having delusions of being a Viking, with tomatoes for feet, clutching a blanket a la Peanuts' Linus, and a gape something like that of the more clueless characters from Dilbert.
Considering that the Word document file format is evolving into a different kind of beast altogether, I'd say you're really stretching the meaning of the word 'patch.' Apple would have to implement an entirely new parser (though in Core Foundation they've already got the underlying infrastructure to do it relatively easily).
The motion picture industry has already proven itself adept at buying laws that curb fair use. I think it unwise to underestimate said industry's mindset - they could attempt to buy laws that would, say, make text messaging impractical, either by placing a heavy tarriff on it to render it impractical, or simply having it banned outright.
"If only they would release a linux version of ANYTHING.
Where is it that you guys get your sense of entitlement, anyway? I suppose Apple giving back through Darwin and Konqueror development isn't enough for you?
"I'm sick of the hypocrisy from them."
I'm dying to hear your definition of 'hypocrisy.'
"They want everyone to code to their OS with it's skimpy little marketshare but they wont do the same in kind for other OS's with skimpy little marketshares."
That's called business. Take a course at your local community college - you might learn something.
"Instead they port stuff half assed over to windows."
That's a fairly audacious thing to say, given that iTunes hasn't even appeared for Windows yet. Oh, you're talking about Quicktime? Yeah, right. Sez you.
"If Apple would just form an alliance with other OS makers and form a strategy they could gang up on MS and make some headway, but noooooooooooo."
Maybe those "other OS makers" could at least get the desktop experience right first. In the meantime, Apple needs them like a diarrhea sufferer needs prunes. And besides, trying to compete with Microsoft is like squeezing your own head in a vise. Wise people learned this years ago, yet you still think it's a viable option?
I don't doubt what you say about your own experience, but read the article (or whatever it is) again. You too would find yourself in difficulties outside the United States if you needed to conduct a transaction with Apple. This would include buying new music, authorization/deauthorization issues, or changing account information.
Apple notes the IP address of the connection you are using during a transaction. They also note billing addresses, including the information you provide with your credit card. Any of this information could trip you up when you're overseas. This isn't caprice, but Apple protecting itself until licensing agreements abroad have been made.
It so happens I signed up for the 14-day trial only a couple of days ago.
Yes, they trade in mp3s, but the mp3s are encoded VBR and the bit rates vary from file to file. I know this probably depends on the content, but somehow I'd feel better having straight 192 kbps files.
As for emusic content, the best way I can describe it is that it's like sifting through the vinyl stacks at the local Goodwill store after they've been picked over. Yes, I did manage to find something for which I had been actively searching from the band Bush, but other than that, my experience was a thoroughly hollow one.
I'm sorry, but if there's no content (a subjective opinion, to be sure), there's no value.
Well, yeah, right now, but if Apple makes iTMS work the same way on Windows as it works on Macintosh, then here's what you can expect (assuming you go with an iPod - I have no idea what other makers will do with regards to AAC):
iTunes (the software you'd run that facilitates iTMS) downloads the tracks you buy from iTMS directly to your computer. They become a part of the entire library on your computer. Within the library, there's no distinction made based on whether you bought your tracks or ripped them yourself or downloaded them from other sources. There's also no distinction made whether they're AAC (protected or not) or mp3 or WAV or AIFF. (Perhaps ogg will join those choices one of these days - they shoehorned AAC in easily enough.) On both the computer and the iPod, they all play transparently, regardless of those factors.
Synchronization is the default way of transferring tracks to an iPod. This occurs when you connect an iPod to your computer. If you've added any tracks to your library, they'll appear on your iPod. If you've deleted them from your library, they'll disappear from your iPod. Same thing if you've re-ripped your tracks or otherwise modified them. iTunes gives you the option of changing that default behavior.
"can they even stop you from listening to them songs at their whim?"
Under this scheme, the only thing that would stop you is if a given WMA file had an expiration date. Otherwise, as long as you have a license to play the files on your computer, you're golden.
"you get it in WMA (Why?)"
Because of record companies' insatiable need for control, and because Microsoft pandered to that need.
"If I could buy the music legally in high quality ogg format..."
Nothing I've heard or read suggests that anyone's going with ogg anytime soon.
"...and then put it whereever I want (except trading to people)..."
In five months' time, assuming Apple keeps its promise of a Windows version of iTunes Music Store, you can have your music in high quality AAC format (okay, so it's not ogg), with DRM so loose it's almost unnoticeable.
Your ability to play your music won't be revoked, either by expiration or non-payment of a subscription fee, and you can count on this for every track you purchase from iTMS. You're limited to three computers, but that's two more than I've seen in any Microsoft scheme. Your restrictions in burning tracks (limited to ten) lies not in the tracks, but in the playlists you create that tell iTunes what to burn. When a playlist is "used up," you simply create another. You're not even stuck with the protected tracks you buy - iTunes allows you to convert them to unprotected AAC or mp3. Of course, you lose quality through the conversion, but at least you still have that option.
No, it's not Kazaa or 'tella, and it's not ogg, but given that iTMS has also got a good selection (no, there's no Madonna, 'Peppers, or Metallica, but that's only because they're all nimrods who won't play nice with anyone) it's about as good a deal as you can get for a pay service. Have patience.
The Museum's new location was the former home of Silicon Graphics. I may have overlooked that fact when searching their web page for it, but thought I'd mention it anyway.
The building has been empty for the past few years. It's good to see that it's being put to good use.
What I meant to say is that it's AOL that's kept modifying its AIM protocol to stymie the development of alternative AIM clients such as Fire. What BitKeeper's author proposes sounds very much like that.
I was in the Navy in my early twenties, and I had a work center supervisor who loved getting reactions out of people. Generally speaking, he was...odd. But in retrospect, some of the things he said then now seem eerily prescient.
In those days, I lived for rock 'n' roll. With my Sony TCD-5M almost always at my side (this was before there was any such thing as a Walkman), I was the running joke of the division. There was no factoid from the Rolling Stone Record Guide I couldn't recite.
When I made it for the first time to the exchanges in the Philippines (this was a long time ago), I loaded up on new audio gear, and set it up in one of our workspaces to play with it. That same afternoon, my supervisor showed up. He basically ignored the new gear strewn all over the workbench, but lingered over the attache case containing my cassettes. He simply turned to me and said, "Someday you won't care about any of this," and walked out.
I wish I knew where he is today so I could tell him he was right. It didn't happen overnight, of course. It's taken perhaps the past ten years for it to happen. The consolidation and subsequent homogenization of commercial radio, the ever-rising costs of CDs, and the antics of the RIAA, have worn me down. And just when I thought the RIAA whores couldn't do anything shittier, couldn't do anything more petty and just goddamed lousy, it surprises me with these latest tactics.
So as I said in the subject line: Fuck it. I never have finished reading A Tale of Two Cities. I think I will now. Not only that, but the work is in the public domain.
Stories such as this remind me of the time John Warnock stood before the attendees of a Seybold conference years ago and actually cried because Apple was threatening Adobe's PostScript font tech with its own TrueType. (Well, okay, I can't find any articles that back up my recollection, but perhaps that's what the author of this one meant by "visible dismay.")
In those days, Adobe had a stranglehold on the fonts market. Sure, there were players such as Bitstream and Agfa, but nothing compared to Adobe and the huge fees it was collecting per font. Then came Apple (along with Microsoft) who announced a competing technology that would be included with its operating systems, rather than as an add-on such as Adobe Type Manager, and if not make PostScript irrelevant, at least take a huge bite out of Adobe's margins. History tells us a truce was achieved, but at the time, my sympathy for Adobe was in the minus. Gouging your customers inevitably is bad business.
Now we have this. I personally haven't used Premiere in ages, and I can't say I know how it has evolved in the meantime. But while I was using it, I always had the unnerving feeling I was using a pee cee port that was an afterthought. A stagnant afterthought. (Not quite as bad as MS Word 6.0, but you get the idea.) After using FCP (and FCP Express), the question I have is: Why would I ever want to go back to Premiere?
Again, I'm thinking it's just desserts for Adobe. While I'm certain their reasons for redeveloping Premiere are exclusively retaliatory (just my opinion), Premiere is a fading star in as much the same way that Quark Xpress is. Ironic, in a way, that it's Adobe that's eating Quark's lunch.
Slashdot Mirror
"This means that Bertelsmann can't do a damned thing about me saying "Bertelsmann" here. Bertelsmann Bertelsmann Bertelsmann."
Didn't I see that in Life of Brian?
Official: (to Matthias) You're only making it worse for yourself.
Matthias: Making it worse? How can it be worse? Bertelsmann, Bertelsmann, Bertelsmann.
I remember that from Dilbert: "It's one of those smug Unix users!" "Here's a quarter, kid, go buy yourself a real computer."
Thank you. It's all clear to me now.
At best I'll be modded as Offtopic, or at worst, Troll, but:
What is that icon supposed to depict? I know it's something related to these kinds of discussions, and so have sought out other Web pages dedicated to free software and the like in the hopes of finding a larger version of it so I can divine what it really is.
But for now, it looks like a turd having delusions of being a Viking, with tomatoes for feet, clutching a blanket a la Peanuts' Linus, and a gape something like that of the more clueless characters from Dilbert.
Considering that the Word document file format is evolving into a different kind of beast altogether, I'd say you're really stretching the meaning of the word 'patch.' Apple would have to implement an entirely new parser (though in Core Foundation they've already got the underlying infrastructure to do it relatively easily).
The motion picture industry has already proven itself adept at buying laws that curb fair use. I think it unwise to underestimate said industry's mindset - they could attempt to buy laws that would, say, make text messaging impractical, either by placing a heavy tarriff on it to render it impractical, or simply having it banned outright.
"Goodtimes will make you fall in love with a penguin."
Well, that obviously explains Linux users, then. Must've been an effective virus.
Turnips? Gad. Someone's SCM efforts need overhauling.
While sane people will view the above as funny, I feel Valenti would find it immensely practical.
Don't give the old cod any ideas. Or his puppets in Congress.
You'll love it. :D
"And did I just date myself by mentioning Mr. Microphone?"
No, but you do appear a bit uncouth. I never mention the Telefunken U-47 that's in my pants.
(here's hoping someone gets the reference...)
"If only they would release a linux version of ANYTHING.
Where is it that you guys get your sense of entitlement, anyway? I suppose Apple giving back through Darwin and Konqueror development isn't enough for you?
"I'm sick of the hypocrisy from them."
I'm dying to hear your definition of 'hypocrisy.'
"They want everyone to code to their OS with it's skimpy little marketshare but they wont do the same in kind for other OS's with skimpy little marketshares."
That's called business. Take a course at your local community college - you might learn something.
"Instead they port stuff half assed over to windows."
That's a fairly audacious thing to say, given that iTunes hasn't even appeared for Windows yet. Oh, you're talking about Quicktime? Yeah, right. Sez you.
"If Apple would just form an alliance with other OS makers and form a strategy they could gang up on MS and make some headway, but noooooooooooo."
Maybe those "other OS makers" could at least get the desktop experience right first. In the meantime, Apple needs them like a diarrhea sufferer needs prunes. And besides, trying to compete with Microsoft is like squeezing your own head in a vise. Wise people learned this years ago, yet you still think it's a viable option?
"Steve wants to have his cake and eat it too."
Mmm, cake. The dining at Cafe Macs is wonderful.
I don't doubt what you say about your own experience, but read the article (or whatever it is) again. You too would find yourself in difficulties outside the United States if you needed to conduct a transaction with Apple. This would include buying new music, authorization/deauthorization issues, or changing account information.
Apple notes the IP address of the connection you are using during a transaction. They also note billing addresses, including the information you provide with your credit card. Any of this information could trip you up when you're overseas. This isn't caprice, but Apple protecting itself until licensing agreements abroad have been made.
It so happens I signed up for the 14-day trial only a couple of days ago.
Yes, they trade in mp3s, but the mp3s are encoded VBR and the bit rates vary from file to file. I know this probably depends on the content, but somehow I'd feel better having straight 192 kbps files.
As for emusic content, the best way I can describe it is that it's like sifting through the vinyl stacks at the local Goodwill store after they've been picked over. Yes, I did manage to find something for which I had been actively searching from the band Bush, but other than that, my experience was a thoroughly hollow one.
I'm sorry, but if there's no content (a subjective opinion, to be sure), there's no value.
Well, yeah, right now, but if Apple makes iTMS work the same way on Windows as it works on Macintosh, then here's what you can expect (assuming you go with an iPod - I have no idea what other makers will do with regards to AAC):
iTunes (the software you'd run that facilitates iTMS) downloads the tracks you buy from iTMS directly to your computer. They become a part of the entire library on your computer. Within the library, there's no distinction made based on whether you bought your tracks or ripped them yourself or downloaded them from other sources. There's also no distinction made whether they're AAC (protected or not) or mp3 or WAV or AIFF. (Perhaps ogg will join those choices one of these days - they shoehorned AAC in easily enough.) On both the computer and the iPod, they all play transparently, regardless of those factors.
Synchronization is the default way of transferring tracks to an iPod. This occurs when you connect an iPod to your computer. If you've added any tracks to your library, they'll appear on your iPod. If you've deleted them from your library, they'll disappear from your iPod. Same thing if you've re-ripped your tracks or otherwise modified them. iTunes gives you the option of changing that default behavior.
...the retail price of a CD jumps from $18.99 to $1899.
"can they even stop you from listening to them songs at their whim?"
Under this scheme, the only thing that would stop you is if a given WMA file had an expiration date. Otherwise, as long as you have a license to play the files on your computer, you're golden.
"you get it in WMA (Why?)"
Because of record companies' insatiable need for control, and because Microsoft pandered to that need.
"If I could buy the music legally in high quality ogg format..."
Nothing I've heard or read suggests that anyone's going with ogg anytime soon.
"...and then put it whereever I want (except trading to people)..."
In five months' time, assuming Apple keeps its promise of a Windows version of iTunes Music Store, you can have your music in high quality AAC format (okay, so it's not ogg), with DRM so loose it's almost unnoticeable.
Your ability to play your music won't be revoked, either by expiration or non-payment of a subscription fee, and you can count on this for every track you purchase from iTMS. You're limited to three computers, but that's two more than I've seen in any Microsoft scheme. Your restrictions in burning tracks (limited to ten) lies not in the tracks, but in the playlists you create that tell iTunes what to burn. When a playlist is "used up," you simply create another. You're not even stuck with the protected tracks you buy - iTunes allows you to convert them to unprotected AAC or mp3. Of course, you lose quality through the conversion, but at least you still have that option.
No, it's not Kazaa or 'tella, and it's not ogg, but given that iTMS has also got a good selection (no, there's no Madonna, 'Peppers, or Metallica, but that's only because they're all nimrods who won't play nice with anyone) it's about as good a deal as you can get for a pay service. Have patience.
The Museum's new location was the former home of Silicon Graphics. I may have overlooked that fact when searching their web page for it, but thought I'd mention it anyway.
The building has been empty for the past few years. It's good to see that it's being put to good use.
"What have I learned from all this? Basically how to learn. Everything else is just details."
If I had any moderator points to use, I'd have used one to mod you up just for that.
What I meant to say is that it's AOL that's kept modifying its AIM protocol to stymie the development of alternative AIM clients such as Fire. What BitKeeper's author proposes sounds very much like that.
"That sounds waaaaaaaaay too much like Microsoft for me."
You're giving him waaaaaaaaay too much credit. That sounds too much like AOL.
I was in the Navy in my early twenties, and I had a work center supervisor who loved getting reactions out of people. Generally speaking, he was...odd. But in retrospect, some of the things he said then now seem eerily prescient.
In those days, I lived for rock 'n' roll. With my Sony TCD-5M almost always at my side (this was before there was any such thing as a Walkman), I was the running joke of the division. There was no factoid from the Rolling Stone Record Guide I couldn't recite.
When I made it for the first time to the exchanges in the Philippines (this was a long time ago), I loaded up on new audio gear, and set it up in one of our workspaces to play with it. That same afternoon, my supervisor showed up. He basically ignored the new gear strewn all over the workbench, but lingered over the attache case containing my cassettes. He simply turned to me and said, "Someday you won't care about any of this," and walked out.
I wish I knew where he is today so I could tell him he was right. It didn't happen overnight, of course. It's taken perhaps the past ten years for it to happen. The consolidation and subsequent homogenization of commercial radio, the ever-rising costs of CDs, and the antics of the RIAA, have worn me down. And just when I thought the RIAA whores couldn't do anything shittier, couldn't do anything more petty and just goddamed lousy, it surprises me with these latest tactics.
So as I said in the subject line: Fuck it. I never have finished reading A Tale of Two Cities. I think I will now. Not only that, but the work is in the public domain.
I hear Max Weinberg's album is really selling well!
Stories such as this remind me of the time John Warnock stood before the attendees of a Seybold conference years ago and actually cried because Apple was threatening Adobe's PostScript font tech with its own TrueType. (Well, okay, I can't find any articles that back up my recollection, but perhaps that's what the author of this one meant by "visible dismay.")
In those days, Adobe had a stranglehold on the fonts market. Sure, there were players such as Bitstream and Agfa, but nothing compared to Adobe and the huge fees it was collecting per font. Then came Apple (along with Microsoft) who announced a competing technology that would be included with its operating systems, rather than as an add-on such as Adobe Type Manager, and if not make PostScript irrelevant, at least take a huge bite out of Adobe's margins. History tells us a truce was achieved, but at the time, my sympathy for Adobe was in the minus. Gouging your customers inevitably is bad business.
Now we have this. I personally haven't used Premiere in ages, and I can't say I know how it has evolved in the meantime. But while I was using it, I always had the unnerving feeling I was using a pee cee port that was an afterthought. A stagnant afterthought. (Not quite as bad as MS Word 6.0, but you get the idea.) After using FCP (and FCP Express), the question I have is: Why would I ever want to go back to Premiere?
Again, I'm thinking it's just desserts for Adobe. While I'm certain their reasons for redeveloping Premiere are exclusively retaliatory (just my opinion), Premiere is a fading star in as much the same way that Quark Xpress is. Ironic, in a way, that it's Adobe that's eating Quark's lunch.
"Oh yeah, and some really gay pink OS/2 shirts..."
I'm sure you guys didn't need t-shirts like that to identify you as the happy, enthusiastic attendees that you were.
Oh, wait...