I have about 460 to 470 complete albums, all legally purchased as physical CDs if you care to know. All are ripped to MP3 and stored in following format:
MUSIC_ROOT/ARTIST/ALBUM
I looked for existing software to use for managing my collection and didn't find anything that I liked. So, I rolled my own using PERL and the browser as my interface. It all runs on a standalone Linux box in my A/V cabinet.
My software has been in development for about a year to year and half. No teasing, it is also about the coding experience, not just about the end result. It is also about free time and my being in the mood. It has been redesigned, rewritten, and tweaked many times over. The playback is by way of dynamically generated M3U playlists pointing to http streams.
A single track, a single album, and all albums by a specific artist can be played. Playlists shuffling is available. Random playlists from the entire collection and a specific genre had been possible until a couple months ago when I decided to rewrite the backend to use a database. I just now reimplementing by-genre browsing.
New music is uploaded by FTP, and I intend to do this by HTTP-upload down the road. It works very well, and I've been using a form of it since like week two of the project. It has also been heavily used by more than one computer playing different music. I also use it to load my iPod. The system will eventually be able to play through the stereo and support user-defined playlists. I love it and can't imagine having to use physical CDs again.
I suspect that Blockbuster's brick-and-mortor stores will begin closing as their customer base converts to their Netflix copycat. Inevidable cost cutting will close the stores that aren't sufficiently profitable, and due to this, the rental coupons will lose value in many markets. The stores will probably be allowed to float for a while until Blockbuster has taken enough customers from Netflix.
I feel about Netflix the same way you do. The value for me is in convenience and selection. I've paid way more per movie since the TV season started last September than what I could have paid by renting from a store, because I've been sitting on movies for many weeks before watching them. I didn't cancel, because I like having movies waiting. Netflix isn't for everyone; it is for me.
Although Netflix probably shouldn't use "unlimited" when marketing their service, the customer should not consider it to be unlimited. Although I do believe that Netflix is trottling some subscribers, the system limits what a person can rent in any given month, and this has nothing to do with a trottling policy.
The broadcasts will still be recorded. If only Congress would spend the time wasted on crap legislation like this one fixing real problems, perhaps they'd actually be worth keeping in office.
Telemarketers...never. I swear telcos are getting kickbacks from the telemarketing industry. Even if they don't, Telcos are making money off the caller ID and blocking services they sell to people that use these to minimize the calls.
That's exactly correct. The association and artist's family should be honored. They should appreciate that the artist is appreciated. Instead, it wants to be paid. This and the crap like it just irritates me.
Get a powered-interface adapter if you have an iPod and head unit with a CD changer port or RCA auxilary ports. $80 got me one from Blitzsafe for my Honda stereo, and it works great. I only have tiny dock connector cable hanging out from my dash.
I wouldn't pay for Satelite radio just to avoid commercials. I'd only pay for it to get content that I couldn't live without. I've not encountered this yet. I do take my iPod with me in the car everyday, and I rarely listen to radio if it is with me. I have grown tired of ads. They just seem to be more and more places and presented in more and more ways.
Although I do generally fast-forward through commercials, I have a DVR for the time-shifting. Watching a 60 minute program in 40 minutes is just a plus. With that said, I would not knowingly buy a DVR that force the viewer to watch ads.
In regards to radio, have you noticed tha channel surfing is nearly as affective at avoiding commercials with Clear Channel owned stations. In my neck of the world, Clear Channel stations seem to be in sync with one another in regards to commercial breaks and quite often play the same one at given moment. Okay, back to the topic.
In my case, it saves me time in one way. My team run an application on it that allows us to work with helpdesk tickets with a "real-time" connection back to the office. If not for my Blackberry, I'd have to make a phone call and setup my laptop. Both of which take signicantly more time for most tasks. I also like the over-the-air sync'ing of contacts. I care nothing about the rest of the Blackberry specific features, and my particular handheld sucks as a phone. My company is deploying a new model which is suppose to be more phone-friendly. I hope so.
I'd think that the FTC policy would consider junk fax and cell telemarking to be similar. It costs money to receive faxes with the paper and ink/toner. I'd say this similar enough to cell phone service that it shouldn't be allowed.
I partially agree with you to the extent that your statement should instead be "We're in Iraq to shift our military's 'sphere of influence' to better control THE REGION'S OIL".
What actually is happening isn't what we're ever told on this scale. I'll tell why we invaded Iraq, and it's not for the people living there. It never was. It was never for WMD. We invade to take control of the oil. Additional reason could also be as payback for a schoolyard argument between Saddam and another kid, I mean world power holder, loyal to the Daddy Bush Camp. Perhaps this person is actually in the Bush Camp. The payback and taking control of the oil is, perhaps, one in the same.
We're still in Iraq, because we're stuck. We'll be there in some capacity for a long time unless of course WWIII hits the theatres starring the "US Foreign Policy" and "The Rest of World that's finally had enough of US Foreign Policy".
I prefer to watch TV on my TV, not PC. Yes, with enough technical effort and the right setup, I could watch anything obtained by BitTorrent or the like on my TV. Though, I'd still not be okay with getting it that way.
Although Apple would love to make all of the money the 3rd parties are getting now, I'm confident that they don't have any interest in expanding their current offering to include even half of what is available now. I think they will keep Apple-branded accessories to a minimum and, in general, focus on higher-end accessories with style.
Most of my customers, very large companies, limit Exchange mailstores to 50MB to 75MB for Joe User. His boss gets a little more with 100MB.
I'm not at all surprise with 420GB for 320 people. I come across users often that have very large PST files. These 750MB to over 1GB PST's tend to belong to managers that insist on keeping everything, even mail that is 3 to 4 years old.
Some of our accounts are implement manditory email deletion. This is all part of a bigger minimal archiving policy to protect the company from future legal action.
I just don't get why I would want to do this. DVD is an excellent method for distributing movies. It doesn't matter if the movie is rented or purchased. So, again, how is the broken? Netflix brings the movie to me.
My first computer was an Atari 800XL, and I got it sometime in the mid to late 80's. I still have the 800XL, etc. This is the computer I began programming on, and I learned from looking at code examples in books and magazines. At some point my older brother had a C64, and this was probably before I got the 800XL. I'm not sure though. Although I spent a lot of time using Apple II's in Junior High and High School as well, I never did own one.
Good! With every new release, more junk is thrown into the kitchen sink. I'd very much like to seem Windows thoroughly streamlined with all as much of the truly non-OS components as possible tossed out.
Microsoft, charge for AV if you'd like. Just keep your tool optional and not packaged with the OS by default.
How about just actually kill Flash instead? So many sites use Flash to accomplish what HTML, Javascript, image maps, and animated pics could do without requiring me load a freakin' plug-in. I long for the days before broadband use was so widespread.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll likely share it with the world one day. It still is too much of a hack to release at this time.
-Slashdot Junky
I have about 460 to 470 complete albums, all legally purchased as physical CDs if you care to know. All are ripped to MP3 and stored in following format:
MUSIC_ROOT/ARTIST/ALBUM
I looked for existing software to use for managing my collection and didn't find anything that I liked. So, I rolled my own using PERL and the browser as my interface. It all runs on a standalone Linux box in my A/V cabinet.
My software has been in development for about a year to year and half. No teasing, it is also about the coding experience, not just about the end result. It is also about free time and my being in the mood. It has been redesigned, rewritten, and tweaked many times over. The playback is by way of dynamically generated M3U playlists pointing to http streams.
A single track, a single album, and all albums by a specific artist can be played. Playlists shuffling is available. Random playlists from the entire collection and a specific genre had been possible until a couple months ago when I decided to rewrite the backend to use a database. I just now reimplementing by-genre browsing.
New music is uploaded by FTP, and I intend to do this by HTTP-upload down the road. It works very well, and I've been using a form of it since like week two of the project. It has also been heavily used by more than one computer playing different music. I also use it to load my iPod. The system will eventually be able to play through the stereo and support user-defined playlists. I love it and can't imagine having to use physical CDs again.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
I suspect that Blockbuster's brick-and-mortor stores will begin closing as their customer base converts to their Netflix copycat. Inevidable cost cutting will close the stores that aren't sufficiently profitable, and due to this, the rental coupons will lose value in many markets. The stores will probably be allowed to float for a while until Blockbuster has taken enough customers from Netflix.
I feel about Netflix the same way you do. The value for me is in convenience and selection. I've paid way more per movie since the TV season started last September than what I could have paid by renting from a store, because I've been sitting on movies for many weeks before watching them. I didn't cancel, because I like having movies waiting. Netflix isn't for everyone; it is for me.
Although Netflix probably shouldn't use "unlimited" when marketing their service, the customer should not consider it to be unlimited. Although I do believe that Netflix is trottling some subscribers, the system limits what a person can rent in any given month, and this has nothing to do with a trottling policy.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
The broadcasts will still be recorded. If only Congress would spend the time wasted on crap legislation like this one fixing real problems, perhaps they'd actually be worth keeping in office.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
Telemarketers...never. I swear telcos are getting kickbacks from the telemarketing industry. Even if they don't, Telcos are making money off the caller ID and blocking services they sell to people that use these to minimize the calls.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
That's exactly correct. The association and artist's family should be honored. They should appreciate that the artist is appreciated. Instead, it wants to be paid. This and the crap like it just irritates me.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
Get a powered-interface adapter if you have an iPod and head unit with a CD changer port or RCA auxilary ports. $80 got me one from Blitzsafe for my Honda stereo, and it works great. I only have tiny dock connector cable hanging out from my dash.
b litzsafe-universal-ipod-interface-uii.html
http://www.blitzsafe.com/uii.html
Bought it here:
http://www.myradiostore.us/auxadapters/blitzsafe/
I wouldn't pay for Satelite radio just to avoid commercials. I'd only pay for it to get content that I couldn't live without. I've not encountered this yet. I do take my iPod with me in the car everyday, and I rarely listen to radio if it is with me. I have grown tired of ads. They just seem to be more and more places and presented in more and more ways.
Although I do generally fast-forward through commercials, I have a DVR for the time-shifting. Watching a 60 minute program in 40 minutes is just a plus. With that said, I would not knowingly buy a DVR that force the viewer to watch ads.
In regards to radio, have you noticed tha channel surfing is nearly as affective at avoiding commercials with Clear Channel owned stations. In my neck of the world, Clear Channel stations seem to be in sync with one another in regards to commercial breaks and quite often play the same one at given moment. Okay, back to the topic.
In my case, it saves me time in one way. My team run an application on it that allows us to work with helpdesk tickets with a "real-time" connection back to the office. If not for my Blackberry, I'd have to make a phone call and setup my laptop. Both of which take signicantly more time for most tasks.
I also like the over-the-air sync'ing of contacts. I care nothing about the rest of the Blackberry specific features, and my particular handheld sucks as a phone. My company is deploying a new model which is suppose to be more phone-friendly. I hope so.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
I'd think that the FTC policy would consider junk fax and cell telemarking to be similar. It costs money to receive faxes with the paper and ink/toner. I'd say this similar enough to cell phone service that it shouldn't be allowed.
Later.
-Slashdot Junky
I partially agree with you to the extent that your statement should instead be "We're in Iraq to shift our military's 'sphere of influence' to better control THE REGION'S OIL".
-Slashdot Junky
What actually is happening isn't what we're ever told on this scale. I'll tell why we invaded Iraq, and it's not for the people living there. It never was. It was never for WMD. We invade to take control of the oil. Additional reason could also be as payback for a schoolyard argument between Saddam and another kid, I mean world power holder, loyal to the Daddy Bush Camp. Perhaps this person is actually in the Bush Camp. The payback and taking control of the oil is, perhaps, one in the same.
We're still in Iraq, because we're stuck. We'll be there in some capacity for a long time unless of course WWIII hits the theatres starring the "US Foreign Policy" and "The Rest of World that's finally had enough of US Foreign Policy".
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
I prefer to watch TV on my TV, not PC. Yes, with enough technical effort and the right setup, I could watch anything obtained by BitTorrent or the like on my TV. Though, I'd still not be okay with getting it that way.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
That's awesome! You've got a wife that doesn't make you throw stuff like that out!
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
I have nothing more to say beyond what I wrote in the subject field.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
Even better, just call someone that can connect to Tivo's website using a PC. You know, like a parent, spouse, girlfriend, regular friend, kid, etc.
Why pay to have a cell phone do yet one more thing.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
Although Apple would love to make all of the money the 3rd parties are getting now, I'm confident that they don't have any interest in expanding their current offering to include even half of what is available now. I think they will keep Apple-branded accessories to a minimum and, in general, focus on higher-end accessories with style.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
Most of my customers, very large companies, limit Exchange mailstores to 50MB to 75MB for Joe User. His boss gets a little more with 100MB.
I'm not at all surprise with 420GB for 320 people. I come across users often that have very large PST files. These 750MB to over 1GB PST's tend to belong to managers that insist on keeping everything, even mail that is 3 to 4 years old.
Some of our accounts are implement manditory email deletion. This is all part of a bigger minimal archiving policy to protect the company from future legal action.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
I just don't get why I would want to do this. DVD is an excellent method for distributing movies. It doesn't matter if the movie is rented or purchased. So, again, how is the broken? Netflix brings the movie to me.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
My first computer was an Atari 800XL, and I got it sometime in the mid to late 80's. I still have the 800XL, etc. This is the computer I began programming on, and I learned from looking at code examples in books and magazines. At some point my older brother had a C64, and this was probably before I got the 800XL. I'm not sure though. Although I spent a lot of time using Apple II's in Junior High and High School as well, I never did own one.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
Good! With every new release, more junk is thrown into the kitchen sink. I'd very much like to seem Windows thoroughly streamlined with all as much of the truly non-OS components as possible tossed out.
Microsoft, charge for AV if you'd like. Just keep your tool optional and not packaged with the OS by default.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
How about just actually kill Flash instead? So many sites use Flash to accomplish what HTML, Javascript, image maps, and animated pics could do without requiring me load a freakin' plug-in. I long for the days before broadband use was so widespread.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky