Re:Must just be the majors. The indies are thrivin
on
iTunes Sales 'Collapsing'
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I have a nasty suspicion that a *lot* of people are technically ignorant to the extent that they believe buying it on iTunes is the only option to get it on to their iPod -- or that it is, in fact, faster.
In fact, building on your point about "hunting CDs down", I'd have to say that given the scenario where you want one favourite track of an old CD, and you know the CD is down in a box in a cellar, and you can't wait and you must have your music now (because you are a true child of the modern world and listening to music all the time wherever you are is a god-given right), then downloading that one track off iTunes is almost certainly faster than finding that CD in the box in the cellar, bringing it upstairs, ripping it.. ah, you get the picture.
and there are probably more kinds of lifecycles somewhere else on the constantly 404-ed MS pages.
Interesting facts from the two pages mentioned above:
- ALL versions of XP will be discontinued (i.e. no more licenses) "12 months after Vista launches"
- All non-business app software has a support lifecycle of five years
- All business software has a support lifecycle of ten, with the last five reduced to paid support and security fixes
Like I give a flying FUCK about someone who shoots innocent people dead at a high school.
He had problems? Good, he doesn't have them any more. Shame he had to force his ineptitute on other people.
Oh, and by the way -- you think the police officer enjoyed shooting this guy dead? If you're looking for victims other than the people who were actually hurt by this maniac, try the police force.
Entirely agree. People forget that we aren't just talking about the latest hotshot music download/rental service. DRM creeps in in lots of places. Take the following example:
Winter holidays, I'm with my folks, we make a few of thoes 30-second movies that digital still picture cameras can make and we decide to stitch them together into a film. So we check out what my dad has on his PC. Windows XP with Windows Movie Maker 1.0. OK, we'll give it a whirl. Actually, works well: the AVI clips are easy to import and stitch together and we add some transitions between them and some titles. (Reminder: this is just the kind of happy-family, "consumer" activity that all those NON-geeks and NON-download freaks out there do all the time.) So far so good. But now we want to add a soundtrack (since people were goofing around when we were taking the clips and anyway the sounds quality is crap). So we rip a suitably festive CD using Windows Media Player. Also works well, no problem, Track 5 -> Rip -> Done.
Now try importing that into Windows Movie Maker. Gee whiz -- you can't because it's "copyrighted material". Jesus H Christ, I just *copied* it to my hard drive, and now you're telling me that I can't *use* it there? Welcome to the wonderful world of DRM as it is today.
So what did I do? I quickly downloaded CDEX to my dad's PC and ripped it into a normal WAV. That worked a treat.
What does this story tell us? That DRM as used today is simply dumb. There's no way on earth that my using music off a CD that I have bought in a private home movie is not fair use. But Windows DRM forbids it because Windows DRM assumes my dad is a pirate.
I would tentatively suggest that populations of "in-between" creatures (whether land-to-water or water-to-land, or between two other environments) would probably have worse survival rates anyway. Such populations would be subjected to predators in *two* environments, as well as being as-yet not so well adapted to survive and breed under these new conditions, etc., etc. Just enough of a population to survive, but not enough to contribute significantly to the fossil record.
And of course, fossils of in-between creatures that successfully made the transition from land-to-water are going to be quite hard to find.
Balthasar has the following client list, according to their online gallery:
-- a Playboy model -- a yoga studio -- a music video promotion company -- a website 'for a science fiction character'
I've nothing against any of the above business strategies, but I would suggest that if that's the best Balthasar can conjure up, then the patent is their last hope.
Which is probably why the silly monkeys put the patent number on their start page, as if to prove that is the only thing they have of any real value.
I've had friends who got into publishing and journalism after school... and they weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer.
Wow, with friends like him, who needs enemies? *G
Anyway, taking up your point about the impossibility of reporting without commenting on the footage, the European TV channel EuroNews has a regular spot on its 24 hour news programme called "No Comment", where they do exactly that: they point the camera and turn off all commentary. Sound is still present. Here are some online examples.
I have found it one of the most interesting -- and frustrating -- things to watch in a news programme. Only the immediate context, e.g. a dusty street in Iraq, with women chanting, is clear, but the wider context -- which is what journalism provides -- is often impossible to guess at.
I think EuroNews knows exactly what it is doing: promoting journalism, not denying its effectivity. Their comment, that "images speak for themselves", and that you can "draw your own conclusion" from "unedited images" and "original sound" is disingenuous. No pictures are entirely unedited, and no sound is "original", either.
And, to answer the question about Time editors: well, no one is forcing you to accept Time's nomination. That's the whole point of a free press.
Whilst I agree with the basic tenet of arguments presented here -- that the RIAA will achieve precisely zero return on this policy (and whilst I think myself that the RIAA is probably only doing this to ensure that the whole file-sharing thing is kept in the news), I hope those of you who mention Kazaa and independent/unknown artists in one breath are trolling, and not seriously suggesting that up-and-coming artists turn to *Kazaa* as their distribution method of choice?
What would then be the recommended procedure for "distribution via Kazaa" for one of these artists?
1. Make MP3's of own music. 2. Decide to distribute via P2P to avoid record company overhead. OK. 3. Fire up Kazaa, and provide MP3s in shared folder. 4. Wait. 5. Wait. 6. Wait some more. 7. Finally, engage brain and realise that no-one is actually downloading any of your songs because...... you are an unknown/independent artist.
Someone please provide a list of artist who are actually using EMule, Kazaa, etc., to distribute their music. And no, I don't mean artists who don't mind the occasional bit of P2P to further what is already a good public image. I mean artists who are relatively unknown and who are using P2P to distribute.
I would guess a list of ten such artists would be hard to find.
Why? Because P2P doesn't let you create an image, that's why. And anyone who thinks image is unimportant for artists -- of any kind, independent or otherwise -- is a banana. Image is, unfortunately, what record companies provide. As well as all the other nasty stuff.
Check out a recent example where Steve Winwood released a track on to P2P. Went down a storm, boosted sales, everything. Yes, because this guy is, to quote the Wired article http://wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64128,00.htm l on this event, "A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer". So: Q.E.D, really. But even Wired doesn't get it (emphasis added):
Although Wincraft credits the P2P promotion for helping to increase sales of Winwood's album, it certainly hasn't vaulted the release to the top of the charts. But for indie artists, every bit of publicity counts.
What, pray, is a file on a P2P network publicising? Zilch, zip, nothing. It's just there. If you find it in your search, then you already KNOW what you are searching for. The chances of otherwise coming across it are simply that: chances.
A more sensible solution for indie artists into cheap superdistribution would possibly be something like Digital OnRamp, which (for a fee) distributes to the big music portals.
Otherwise, I can't see it happening. Apart from anything else, any distribution network with zero control of the content of a file is useless for self-promotion.
Lecture over. Comments welcome, thanks for listening:=)
People seem to have forgotten their local library in all this mania about downloading dubious-quality CD rips done by ten year-olds.
The main libary here in Hamburg, Germany has a pretty good collection and it will be a while before I have exhausted the few tens of Euros I spent on a yearly library card (it's not free but it is very very cheap) by ripping their entire classical, jazz and folk sections.
More power to libraries (a.k.a. "legal file-sharing via sneakernet"), I say!
I have read loads of comments so far, but not seen anything on analysing the date in terms of numerical significance. Here some ideas.
Obviously it's the 7th of the 7th, and 2+0+0+5 = 7. And seven is an important number in pretty much *any* religion/worldview one cares to name.
Also: a year ago today the USS Cole trial opened, charging six Yemenis with the attack. At that time an Al Qaida unit also said that they were going to open up a third front on the US (the other two being Iraq and Afghanistan) in Jemen. A link is here: http://www.command-post.org/gwot/2_archives/013399.html.
If indeed, you are the US army, you can simply fly stealth bombers over the landmines anyway.
It's a question of economics, not of warfare. Only poor countries need landmines since they give bang for the buck at the level their armies are at. A modern army wouldn't be stopped by them.
This tech. is exactly the same as this, which is done one mighty fuck of a sight better.
If you click on 'Enter Site'.. well, yes, it's a big ol' full-screen Flash film, although not browser-compatible (Mozilla shows me a distinct window, rather than full-screen in IE).
Still: it IS advertising, but well done. And imagine if THAT came up on MSN. Most users would be stuck ringing support:
Support: it's just a film, it's ok to click 'Herunterfahren' (German for shut down, btw.). User: But is says SHUT DOWN, I don't want to shut down!! Support:...
Cheers,
Nalfy
P.S. AS a version of Windows, it's also a damn sight easier to code than wine. *G
I'm surfing Unicast's "Gallery" at the moment on a Windows PC with Mozilla 1.3, and the *links* don't even work on the right-hand side of the Gallery (to 'More Examples', for example), let alone the demo 'Full Screen Interstitial' (for 'Jaguaar' [sic.] cars). Click: nothing happens.
I tried the same on IE and -- surprise, surprise -- big fat window, and movie, etc.
I doubt I shall be losing too much sleep over this technological innovation, which amounts to nothing more than exploiting IE (again).
Slashdot Mirror
Nail. Head. Bang!
Now that's what I call a nicely-done website.
I have a nasty suspicion that a *lot* of people are technically ignorant to the extent that they believe buying it on iTunes is the only option to get it on to their iPod -- or that it is, in fact, faster.
.. ah, you get the picture.
In fact, building on your point about "hunting CDs down", I'd have to say that given the scenario where you want one favourite track of an old CD, and you know the CD is down in a box in a cellar, and you can't wait and you must have your music now (because you are a true child of the modern world and listening to music all the time wherever you are is a god-given right), then downloading that one track off iTunes is almost certainly faster than finding that CD in the box in the cellar, bringing it upstairs, ripping it
What does he mean with "doesn't really expire"?
t .mspx
; %5Bln%5D;lifecycle
Doesn't he read his own website?
Every product has a planned lifecycle. New system was brought in only four years ago.
You got your basic Windows desktop license lifecycles, for example:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/defaul
And you got your product support lifecycles, e.g. Office 2000:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh
and there are probably more kinds of lifecycles somewhere else on the constantly 404-ed MS pages.
Interesting facts from the two pages mentioned above:
- ALL versions of XP will be discontinued (i.e. no more licenses) "12 months after Vista launches"
- All non-business app software has a support lifecycle of five years
- All business software has a support lifecycle of ten, with the last five reduced to paid support and security fixes
Like I give a flying FUCK about someone who shoots innocent people dead at a high school.
He had problems? Good, he doesn't have them any more. Shame he had to force his ineptitute on other people.
Oh, and by the way -- you think the police officer enjoyed shooting this guy dead? If you're looking for victims other than the people who were actually hurt by this maniac, try the police force.
Idiot.
Entirely agree. People forget that we aren't just talking about the latest hotshot music download/rental service. DRM creeps in in lots of places. Take the following example:
Winter holidays, I'm with my folks, we make a few of thoes 30-second movies that digital still picture cameras can make and we decide to stitch them together into a film. So we check out what my dad has on his PC. Windows XP with Windows Movie Maker 1.0. OK, we'll give it a whirl. Actually, works well: the AVI clips are easy to import and stitch together and we add some transitions between them and some titles. (Reminder: this is just the kind of happy-family, "consumer" activity that all those NON-geeks and NON-download freaks out there do all the time.) So far so good. But now we want to add a soundtrack (since people were goofing around when we were taking the clips and anyway the sounds quality is crap). So we rip a suitably festive CD using Windows Media Player. Also works well, no problem, Track 5 -> Rip -> Done.
Now try importing that into Windows Movie Maker. Gee whiz -- you can't because it's "copyrighted material". Jesus H Christ, I just *copied* it to my hard drive, and now you're telling me that I can't *use* it there? Welcome to the wonderful world of DRM as it is today.
So what did I do? I quickly downloaded CDEX to my dad's PC and ripped it into a normal WAV. That worked a treat.
What does this story tell us? That DRM as used today is simply dumb. There's no way on earth that my using music off a CD that I have bought in a private home movie is not fair use. But Windows DRM forbids it because Windows DRM assumes my dad is a pirate.
Nice analogy with human ancestors!
I would tentatively suggest that populations of "in-between" creatures (whether land-to-water or water-to-land, or between two other environments) would probably have worse survival rates anyway. Such populations would be subjected to predators in *two* environments, as well as being as-yet not so well adapted to survive and breed under these new conditions, etc., etc. Just enough of a population to survive, but not enough to contribute significantly to the fossil record.
And of course, fossils of in-between creatures that successfully made the transition from land-to-water are going to be quite hard to find.
Cheers,
Nalfy
This is a neat analogy, mod it up someone.
Balthasar has the following client list, according to their online gallery:
-- a Playboy model
-- a yoga studio
-- a music video promotion company
-- a website 'for a science fiction character'
I've nothing against any of the above business strategies, but I would suggest that if that's the best Balthasar can conjure up, then the patent is their last hope.
Which is probably why the silly monkeys put the patent number on their start page, as if to prove that is the only thing they have of any real value.
Cheers,
Nalfy
Wow, with friends like him, who needs enemies? *G
Anyway, taking up your point about the impossibility of reporting without commenting on the footage, the European TV channel EuroNews has a regular spot on its 24 hour news programme called "No Comment", where they do exactly that: they point the camera and turn off all commentary. Sound is still present. Here are some online examples.
I have found it one of the most interesting -- and frustrating -- things to watch in a news programme. Only the immediate context, e.g. a dusty street in Iraq, with women chanting, is clear, but the wider context -- which is what journalism provides -- is often impossible to guess at.
I think EuroNews knows exactly what it is doing: promoting journalism, not denying its effectivity. Their comment, that "images speak for themselves", and that you can "draw your own conclusion" from "unedited images" and "original sound" is disingenuous. No pictures are entirely unedited, and no sound is "original", either.
And, to answer the question about Time editors: well, no one is forcing you to accept Time's nomination. That's the whole point of a free press.
Cheers,
Nalfy
What would then be the recommended procedure for "distribution via Kazaa" for one of these artists?
1. Make MP3's of own music.
2. Decide to distribute via P2P to avoid record company overhead. OK.
3. Fire up Kazaa, and provide MP3s in shared folder.
4. Wait.
5. Wait.
6. Wait some more.
7. Finally, engage brain and realise that no-one is actually downloading any of your songs because...
Someone please provide a list of artist who are actually using EMule, Kazaa, etc., to distribute their music. And no, I don't mean artists who don't mind the occasional bit of P2P to further what is already a good public image. I mean artists who are relatively unknown and who are using P2P to distribute.
I would guess a list of ten such artists would be hard to find.
Why? Because P2P doesn't let you create an image, that's why. And anyone who thinks image is unimportant for artists -- of any kind, independent or otherwise -- is a banana. Image is, unfortunately, what record companies provide. As well as all the other nasty stuff.
Check out a recent example where Steve Winwood released a track on to P2P. Went down a storm, boosted sales, everything. Yes, because this guy is, to quote the Wired article http://wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64128,00.ht
What, pray, is a file on a P2P network publicising? Zilch, zip, nothing. It's just there. If you find it in your search, then you already KNOW what you are searching for. The chances of otherwise coming across it are simply that: chances.
A more sensible solution for indie artists into cheap superdistribution would possibly be something like Digital OnRamp, which (for a fee) distributes to the big music portals.
Otherwise, I can't see it happening. Apart from anything else, any distribution network with zero control of the content of a file is useless for self-promotion.
Lecture over. Comments welcome, thanks for listening :=)
Since evolution must theoretically evolve evolutionists, the fact that it patently doesn't is interesting.
Or where do we lay the boundary for evolution, then?
If humans and chimps are so identical, why are we using pigs for heart transplants?
Mod this up!
People seem to have forgotten their local library in all this mania about downloading dubious-quality CD rips done by ten year-olds.
The main libary here in Hamburg, Germany has a pretty good collection and it will be a while before I have exhausted the few tens of Euros I spent on a yearly library card (it's not free but it is very very cheap) by ripping their entire classical, jazz and folk sections.
More power to libraries (a.k.a. "legal file-sharing via sneakernet"), I say!
Quote From the website:
Eyes 5
Mouth 1
Neck 3
Arms 9x2
Torso 4
Sitting's fine, but something tells me that they have their priorities wrong here..
I have read loads of comments so far, but not seen anything on analysing the date in terms of numerical significance. Here some ideas.
9 .html.
Obviously it's the 7th of the 7th, and 2+0+0+5 = 7. And seven is an important number in pretty much *any* religion/worldview one cares to name.
Also: a year ago today the USS Cole trial opened, charging six Yemenis with the attack. At that time an Al Qaida unit also said that they were going to open up a third front on the US (the other two being Iraq and Afghanistan) in Jemen. A link is here: http://www.command-post.org/gwot/2_archives/01339
Anything else?
... it is (07:51 GMT) any rate offline:
Site Temporarily Disabled
This site has been temporarily disabled. If you
are the owner of the site, please contact
customer care.
Maybe someone should give the Admin contact
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Fossedal, Gregory foss@dcfund.net
a bell?
Cheers,
Nalfy
If indeed, you are the US army, you can simply fly stealth bombers over the landmines anyway.
It's a question of economics, not of warfare. Only poor countries need landmines since they give bang for the buck at the level their armies are at. A modern army wouldn't be stopped by them.
And so where do the poor countries go to buy 'em?
Thanx,
Nalfy
This tech. is exactly the same as this, which is done one mighty fuck of a sight better.
.. well, yes, it's a big ol' full-screen Flash film, although not browser-compatible (Mozilla shows me a distinct window, rather than full-screen in IE).
...
If you click on 'Enter Site'
Still: it IS advertising, but well done. And imagine if THAT came up on MSN. Most users would be stuck ringing support:
Support: it's just a film, it's ok to click 'Herunterfahren' (German for shut down, btw.).
User: But is says SHUT DOWN, I don't want to shut down!!
Support:
Cheers,
Nalfy
P.S. AS a version of Windows, it's also a damn sight easier to code than wine. *G
Beautifully put, if I may say so. :)
Nalfy
I'm surfing Unicast's "Gallery" at the moment on a Windows PC with Mozilla 1.3, and the *links* don't even work on the right-hand side of the Gallery (to 'More Examples', for example), let alone the demo 'Full Screen Interstitial' (for 'Jaguaar' [sic.] cars). Click: nothing happens.
I tried the same on IE and -- surprise, surprise -- big fat window, and movie, etc.
I doubt I shall be losing too much sleep over this technological innovation, which amounts to nothing more than exploiting IE (again).
Cheers,
Nalfy
"Then again, not every user knows there are alternatives to MSN, ESPN, etc..."
Nope, but they'll figure it out soon enough! Especially since MSN is default for most default PC installs!
Sometimes I have to applaud the shoot-self-in-footery of ad execs.
Cheers,
Nalfy
"...MSN, ESPN, Lycos and iVillage..."
Well, I would actually have to visit these sites pretty much for the *first* time to get any of this 'news'.
What it actually boils down to is: you know those crap sites which take an age to load? Guess what: they're going to take even longer!
Easiest filter in the world: Post-It note on monitor with writing: 'Nalfy, remember not to visit MSN. Ever.'.
Cheers,
Nalfy.
Quoth xRelisH: "...the worst thing she could do is buy $300 shoes, whereas what I could do is come home with a $1,000 video card, or worse."
;)
Quick tip: before you *do* get married, check out the current going prices for handbags and jewelry. Then re-think.
Nalfy
Ah, but you have to look at the last line of the Patent:
"Other embodiments utilizing the inventive features of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art." (italics mine)
It is admittedly, the venerable art of "Nth-Degree Bullshit", nonetheless: your skill level is clearly not high enough.
Cheers,
Nalfy