I've always wondered why more airships aren't used. They're relatively low maintenance. Small crew (even remote). Put a few high enough armed with some very high precision cameras and you could even keep them relatively stationary and have them train their cameras on what's needed. Make them a weapons platform (smart bombs and/or missles) and you have potential for instantaneous ground support against insurgents in Iraq. But that aspect is scary talk in regards to domestic surveillence.:P
Imagine, the call to 911 comes in "Shots fired at so and so intersection", the airship gets the call and points their cameras in that area, scanning for a gun battle, fleeing cars/suspects, etc. Not a bad usage.
Of course, in today's day and age, they'll just be used to look for heat lamp signatures and bust pot growers.
The Green Zone is one of the most fortified positions in the world these days, and not too far from the Green Zone are some of the most lawless, low "security" areas that are extremely dangerous... It's not too far-fetched.
Since when did geeks on an internet site ever get anything right when it comes to things like "design", "fashion", "style" and "trendy"? Hrm?
I live in Los Angeles. I'm at the Beverly Center (mall with "upscale" stores) almost every day for work and you'd be surprised at what you'd see KIDS running around with these days. $250 jeans. $80 T-Shirts. $300 shoes. SLVRs, RAZRs, Sidekick3s. We're not talking rich kids, I'm talking about the kids that work shitty food court jobs, lusting after massively overpriced symbols of conspicuous consumption.
What do these kids want in a cell phone? THe ability to play the worst fucking music ever (reggaeton) through a shitty speaker on a cellphone? That's one of them. The ability to shoot video of them with a handgun looking tough, or fucking some random girl they met on myspace? that's another. OH yeah! THey want to fuck off on myspace on their cellphones (hey, there's an idea: get a person's phone # & myspace info and store it in the phonebook, so when they call, it can pull that person's pic off their myspace page and display it..). Etc.
Guess what? These kids will save their pennies. They'll beg/borrow/steal and they will get whatever it is they've got into their heads that they want, be it a $65 Coach purse, $270 Diesel jeans, $25 mascara, or anything else. I'm willing to bet you show a bunch of hyperactive teens that they can access myspace will make this the "must have" phone of the year, not to mention the fact that it plays videos and music.
So, all you self-righteous "geeks" out there: Shut the fuck up. No one has ever cared about what you want. That's why you're a geek and not a "popular" kid.
We're already dumping tons of unused fertilizers/pesticides/etc into the ocean from our major rivers. The runoff is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and other areas, creating giant "dead zones" from the rapid algal blooms and dieoffs that's destroying reef-building, etc. WOuldn't it be nice to be able to create large "algal farms" that would take the divereted river water, strain out a majority of the wastes, and then harvest the algae for energy (or even food)? We restore some semblence of sanity back into the gulf, we create energy! Now, the question is what kind of impact would this have on surrounding areas, how much would it cost to construct those ponds, not to mention locality.
Lots of animals and wildlife flora/fauna live in the deserts. Many of which are endangered. Many of which provide valuable eco-service to the land around them. It might not be prudent to just blot out the sun with solar collectors and think everything's going to be okay.
I'd rather see these on rooftops, supplementing power sources in a more local fashion where their impact will be minimal.
Unless he's riding on the sidewalk or on a highway where "motorized bicycles" are illegal, there shouldn't be a problem. In most states, powered bicycles under 49cc (he states 22cc for his) do not require things like registration, licensing, or insurance. Regular mopeds come to mind. You must still obey the rules of traffic and I'd be very wary of the typical cell-phone-yaking-SUV-driving-moron, but it's certainly doable. I've been considering picking up an old moped for transporation in Los Angeles (it beats my feet), but I'm not sure I'm *that* suicidal yet.
Firehed: I have no idea how I do it, but yes. If I keep stuff in their cases, it's fine. But once it hits the no-man's land that is my desk, bookshelf, whatever, it's good as toast. To be fair, I snapped the USB interface off because I had it in my pocket and crashed my bike and it snapped in my pocket.:)
i don't like 3.5" because it's still not very pocketable. I like the minidiscs because they were at that pocket size.:) Maybe I just wear really tight jeans.
I don't want larger Discs. It might just be me, but I'm pretty hard on CDs (especially CDRs), DVDs, and what not, especially when I'm doing multiple things. I throw them on the desk, intending to find their cases, sleeves, what have you, but inevitably, they get covered with a printout, or book and get lost. In the cleaning spree inspired by the spilled *drink_of_choice*, I discover the media, covered in scratches, nigh unreadable except by something like CD-Paranoia.
I like the Minidisc format. A lot. A small cartridge that protects your data (for the most part, I'm sure it can fuck up, too). Toss it on the desk and bury it in O'Reilly books, it's fine. Toss it in your messenger bag, you're good to go. I like UMDs, except I wish they had a flap over the "read" portion (damned, dirty cheetos!), but I'd settle for that design if nothing else were available.
Also, what about write times? What good is it to have a 500GB disc if it takes a week to write it?
As a consumer, I don't need 300gb of optical storage. Harddrives are cheap and so are firewire enclosures. I just want a cheap, high-density, easily transportable/protectable format that I can carry around with higher capacity than current flashdrives. BTW, I really hate it when you snap the USB end off your flashdrive. It really sucks when that happens.:)
I guess as a recap, I just want to see smaller, higher density formats rather than rehashing the same CD style media over and over. Of course, maybe I'm just a slob and I need a crash course in workplace sanitation.:)
At this point, I really don't care. I'd be happy if Apple and Apple game developers took the Nintendo road and quit trying to chase fps counts in FPSs and concentrated on making, you know, great games. Differentiate the Apple market by focusing on producing the coolest, oddest, quirky, whatever games possible. Apple has enough money, I'd love to see them open a games studio, but instead of trying to break records with budgets, concentrate on making the best gameplay out there.
I was "suckered" into buying a Monster cable for my guitar setup a few years ago because the music I was at didn't have a regular instrument cable in the length I wanted for some reason. I was pissed about it and the $50 I had to spend on it, but I had a gig that night and recording the next week, so I figured I'd rather have it now and bitch about it later.
Now, my band is (was?) known for having really wild, rambunctious, alcohol soaked shows. I've knocked over my half-stack/head numerous times, shattering tubes, loosening connections, etc. In other words, I'm really fucking hard on my gear. I found that my monster cable jacks were breaking every few months (the tip would just break off). So, every few months, I'd get a new cable, no questions asked. I've found that the 5 new cables I've received was well worth the $50 investment due to their "no questions asked" policy.:) But given the same choice now, I'd probably forgo their cables for a cheapie.
Is embrace Apple's style of content distribution. Create a PSP/iTunes style program that organizes a user's PSP movies. Offer movies for download at a reasonable price ($5.99-10.99?). Offer a synch mode that copies movies and other items to your PSP (would require a big flash card or a harddrive). Releasing a UMD burner would be a great option, as well.
If Sony won't do it, I'm sure Apple is working on it.:)
Sweet link to beatport. I didn't know about them. CD Baby does *not* sell digital downloads, however (unless I'm just not seeing something on their site), but sells tons of CDs for bands. I have a friend that works there in the warehouse.:) They *do* have some sort of deal with iTunes Music Store, IIRC.
That's pretty much my stand, as well. AuMatar is willing to take the time to setup a computer for grandma and put what he wants on it. I'm not (well, first reason being my grandma died in 1980). My family wants computer help? I tell em to buy a mac. They buy a PC? SOL, even though I am more comfortable on a PC than a Mac. Saves me time and headaches. If they were to buy a Mac, I'd tell em to take it to the Genius Bar...:)
Some people get off on telling people what to buy and what to run and where to go, I'd rather concentrate on sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll with the occasional bread-baking.:)
There are other reasons to use "energy efficient" bulbs, as well.
I replaced all the bulbs in my last house with the compact flouros and didn't have a problem. I like them because:
1) If my memory is correct, flouros are only more energy efficient if you leave them on for periods of time, the ballast consumes quite a bit of power on start-up. I actually used one of mine as my outdoors/porch light which would frequently see 24 hour service when I was out-of-town.
2) I tend to forget to turn lights off. This way, even if I forget, they don't seem to cost me a significant amount of money.
3) Long-lasting. I would blow standard bulbs monthly/bimonthly (bad power?). I installed compact flouros, and I never changed them again in over a year. This saved me considerable time and effort and was significantly safer. I had these really high 12-15" ceilings in that apartment, which would require my coffee table and a stepstool to reach the fixtures. It was somewhat harrowing.
I recognize that they're probably not for everyone or for every usage (for instance, the color of the light is a bit off as most flouros are. I would think artists might avoid them in the studio), but they have other uses besides their "energy efficientness".
From a purely physical standpoint, a miner *might* have the edge. Having been a working musician at one point, I can honestly say that road life can take its toll on your health and sanity. I've worked all manners of physical labor jobs, as well as so-called "intellectual" jobs. The physical labor jobs are just that: they're physical. They wear your body down. However, just about anyone CAN perform physical labor, at varying degrees of success. Not everyone can do something that requires the skillsets of a musician.
Why should a musician only be allowed 20 years? Why not 21 years? Why not 19? Why not 2 or 3 or 50 or even 100? What kind of objective criteria makes 20 years acceptable but the other choices unacceptable? Who makes that decision based upon what?
Most physicists, btw, are paid for their intellectal works in the form of a salary. I don't know many salaried musicians (none, actually). There are physicists/engineers out there who forego salaries and invent their own crap and then try and sell/market it. In some ways its very similar to the artist's dilemna.
And, last I checked, my internet connection was not free, so distributing my music actually costs me money. If we're going to assign "fairness" a dollar value of the cost of distribution or the cost of materials, think about the economies of scale many clothing manufacturers see by outsourcing production to cut-rate third-world manufacturers and yet their prices remain ever vigilantly high. Just because it costs them $3 doesn't mean they should have to sell it for $10. Etc etc.
The scarcity of Intellectual Property lies within the creator: The ability to create works of art, literature, music, etc is what is scarce. Not everyone can write and/or perform a song that can move people, or paint a picture that speaks to a person's soul, or write a novel that challenges a person's notion of ethics or whatever. Yeah, there's a lot of hacks out there, but let's face it: Genius is scarce. Look around your office. Unless you work at Google or something, chances are you think 90% of the people you work with are fucking idiots who will never create something useful in their lives. Our brains and our ability to create music, art, software, etc shouldn't be penalized just because a medium is easily copyable. We should still enjoy the profits of our abilities and our labor. Writing music is one of the most demanding tasks I've ever done. Practicing over and over, rearranging, listening, thinking, rearranging, recording. Just because you can copy my music with a press of the button doesn't mean I shouldn't have the right to determine who can distribute my work. Because it is work. Even though I can't reach and grab my product. A lot of folks are hung up on the whole notion that property can only be owned if you can actually steal it or take it. As an artist (and a software developer), I say you're wrong.
That's very accurate. These days, other than USENET, I really don't even know where to go to find music. Ever since Kazaa went into spyware mode, and limewire with its adware stuff, I gave up P2P applications for the most part (and I lost my kazaa lite copy). Of course, now that I'm on the mac, limewire is pretty decent for some things (without the annoying adware/spyware component), but I find that most music I want to check out is on iTunes. There's some exceptions, of course, but for the most part, I like the quality I get from iTunes Music Store, plus the videos (I'll probably be selling my nano for a Video iPod soon), well, it's like a mostly 1-stop shopping plan for exactly what I want. Amazon pretty much covers the rest.:) Not to mention that since I, you know, got a job, I can afford to buy music.
I know a lot of people bitch about the bitrate, and others the DRM, but for my specific usage, neither is an issue. The bitrate they use sounds absolutely fine on my iPod, and I only have 1 computer to worry about, so the so-called DRM is a non-issue.
How well has Intel improved the performance of its integrated graphics chipset? I'd like to see what I can look forward to if Apple decides to go with Intel and not ATI or nVidia. While I understand these aren't meant to be gaming "powerhouses", I'd still like to do some light gaming on it. (FWIW, I've play World of Warcraft, at around 20fps, on my old iBook G4 800 and my desktop P3 750 (ti4200), which was acceptable. I'd like to see at least this level of performance).
Maybe my brain is still a bit cloudy, but I certainly don't have a fucking clue as to what you just said.
Here's what I said, condensed and clarified: I'm not writing music to save the world, save the trees, and those other things that people call as "making a better society." I write music for the purely selfish reason that I dislike what I hear on the radio, so I try to play the stuff I want to hear. (I also play music because it gets me laid. Go figure.) The OP suggested that we should "make society a better place," without asking for whom it would be better for. Obviously, it's for HIM. With the advent of P2P and the internet and whatnot, it's increasingly clear to the average "struggling" artist that signing to a major label is not the only game in town. Yes, it's marginalizing (to a very small extent) the RIAA's influence over the big majors. However, listening to the radio, reading the numbers, the RIAA is still making billions, as are the Britney Spears and what not. The market is big enough to support a giant behemoth that is the current major music industry, AND it's big enough to support the indie labels and distribution channels, and it didn't take any hand-holding, kumbaya-singing, or any societal "feel-good" measures to make. As an exercise, go look at the iTMS and see who the #1 sellers are: that's right, they're still the same major label artists whom we all (here on/., it seems) could hear on the radio 10x a day. People still buy that shit even when they have one of the biggest, most convenient, and certainly most diverse independent catalogs at their disposal.
The music industry will make money. They might be slow to adopt certain technology, such as the iTMS where they have to compete with smaller artists that they can't push or control. This is a level-playing-field of sorts that didn't require any legislation, which is where I'm afraid most/.ers want to go. "Let's abolish copyright!" is completely the wrong answer. I enjoy copyright in that it protects *me* from, well, *you*. and the RIAA. And BMG, Sony, etc. It's also the same mechanism that protects the precious GPL. But when you take away my choice to choose how I wish to distribute my music (indie vs major)* just because you think it'll be better for, well, you, then I might remind you that it's me that's making the music and it's my choice. Not yours. Same goes with my software. I don't want someone telling me I *must* release my software as GPL. Unless I'm using some GPL stuff that would legally require me to do so, I have no such obligation.
*again, I'd say the reason why we have such a huge indie distribution channel these days is specifically because of the stifling effects the RIAA has had on the industry. There's certainly a DIY ethic that has grown up (and is still growing) that keeps vinyl around, small record shops in business, and what not. There are enough people out there seeking out "the good stuff," it seems, that anyone who really wants to look for the obscure, etc, they can find it. I thank Discord and SST for blazing those trails, and people like CDBABY!, Apple's iTMS, and myspace for helping put together the distribution channels that means I don't have to toil away endlessly for little recognition, if I don't want to. Just don't take away that option to "hit the jackpot", just because you think that musicians make too much money (see the OP). I'll take a system that allows for me to get filthy rich if I make it big over a "living wage" paycheck that just lets me live.
I've seen a bunch of great acts disappear, as well. And I've seen a bunch of acts toil their entire lives in a little corner of mediocrity, self-indulgent in their "We'll never sell-out" when the fact was: no one was buying anyway.
Here in the states, we have a system where you can CHOOSE the path you wish to go down. There are plenty of pretty-boy/girl bands with almost zero talent out there, but get produced, glossied up, some dance moves, and sell 10 million records. There's also quite a few of those bands that don't make it. The guy that was behind all those boy bands of the 90s, I can't remember his name, but he's got (or had) a school down in florida with 20 more, just like em. Who the hell were they? I have no idea. SO even the "purpose made" bands can fail.
The RIAA would like to have monopoly status on distribution. Of course they would. The reality is: they don't. I put out a record last year on a record label so small with a press run so small that it'd probably almost count as a demo. I never said that just because it "sells well, so it MUST be better", btw, I just said that someone's out there buying that garbage, and those millions encourage the record labels to take a few risks here and there in trying to find the next Nirvana, or even Smashing Pumpkins, or Nine Inch Nails, or some other "blood-sweat-n-tears" band. What I'm saying is, instead of bashing Britney Spears and that manufactured garbage, just don't buy the record. I'm sure you haven't bought them anyway, right? And it's not hurt the RIAA's bottom line, as made obvious by the enormous amount of Britney Spears that are sold every year. But those BS records (hrm, nice pun) make it possible that the powers that be might, just might, hear my band, or a friend's band, and say "Hey, we want to expand more into that direction" and it's like winning a lottery. I'll be glad to tell any "fair-weather" friend to go fuck themselves for bailing on a band over what label puts out the music. Hell, nothing pissed me off more than to hear the belly-aching over Green Day, a band that the punk scene wanted OUT of the scene, going to a major. And I'm betting Billy Joe is laughing all the way to the bank. He lost the respect by gaming a system he wasn't supposed to be playing. That's punk as fuck.
People are finding music they like, everyday. It's not my or your fault that some people don't like putting an effort into finding "alternatives" to mainstream music that might be "Even better". shit, let's put an end to Romance novels and force Bukowski and Vonnegut down everyone's throat while we're at it! Again: Millions of people think Britney Spears is just fine, whether it's the image, her "catchy tunes", or what, it's none of my business and certainly not in my best interests to deride anyone about their taste in music.
As a musician, I really don't give a fuck about making a better society. Take your utopian level playing field and shove it up your ass.
As a musician, I understand that P2P can be 100% instrumental in building marketshare, mindshare, and building an audience base that I can exploit by making touring a potentially profitable activity, rather than slumming it out on a couch or in the van night after night of playing two-bit shitholes. Using the internet, myspace in particular, my music reaches a pretty decent audience, and when it's time to hit the road, the system of "friends" in various towns ensures tour support and a buddy system (you help us in your town, when you come through ours, we're there for you). But, let's also be real. If at any given time a major record label were to come up to me and offer me high 6's or even a 7 digit contract to do things their way, you bet your sweet ass I, and my band, would sign that in a heartbeat. It's not our goal, it's not our dream, but if offered, we'd take it. And if that means the radio is filled full of Britney Spears and god-awful Nu-Metal, then by all means: do it. People like you bitch incessantly about how godawful Britney & co are, but someone's buying the stupid fucking records. It's like people who bitch about windows, and yet how much money did MS make from Windows last year? Someone's buying it. Hell, as a relevant corollary, I'm also a programmer. I'd rather see a system that allows for a Microsoft to exist than a giant population of "living-wage" programmers. It's that incentive to over-achieve, or even getting "lucky" that appeals to many people.
Bah, it's time to go to bed. Fucking rock-star lifestyle.
Because this is the one time of the year where the average/.er might actually have the opportunity to see a girl-they-work-with's ass, albeit in B&W on a crumpled sheet of paper in the trashcan? I'd say that's some "shit that matters". Or maybe that'll be the smear across the glass on the copier, so it helps to have a "heads up" before you go thinking it's chocolate and try to lick it off.
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I've always wondered why more airships aren't used. They're relatively low maintenance. Small crew (even remote). Put a few high enough armed with some very high precision cameras and you could even keep them relatively stationary and have them train their cameras on what's needed. Make them a weapons platform (smart bombs and/or missles) and you have potential for instantaneous ground support against insurgents in Iraq. But that aspect is scary talk in regards to domestic surveillence. :P
Imagine, the call to 911 comes in "Shots fired at so and so intersection", the airship gets the call and points their cameras in that area, scanning for a gun battle, fleeing cars/suspects, etc. Not a bad usage.
Of course, in today's day and age, they'll just be used to look for heat lamp signatures and bust pot growers.
The irony of that post being modded down. Apparently some people's irony meter is broken today.
WTF? Someone mod this idiot down.
Uh, Baghdad, anyone?
The Green Zone is one of the most fortified positions in the world these days, and not too far from the Green Zone are some of the most lawless, low "security" areas that are extremely dangerous... It's not too far-fetched.
Since when did geeks on an internet site ever get anything right when it comes to things like "design", "fashion", "style" and "trendy"? Hrm?
I live in Los Angeles. I'm at the Beverly Center (mall with "upscale" stores) almost every day for work and you'd be surprised at what you'd see KIDS running around with these days. $250 jeans. $80 T-Shirts. $300 shoes. SLVRs, RAZRs, Sidekick3s. We're not talking rich kids, I'm talking about the kids that work shitty food court jobs, lusting after massively overpriced symbols of conspicuous consumption.
What do these kids want in a cell phone? THe ability to play the worst fucking music ever (reggaeton) through a shitty speaker on a cellphone? That's one of them. The ability to shoot video of them with a handgun looking tough, or fucking some random girl they met on myspace? that's another. OH yeah! THey want to fuck off on myspace on their cellphones (hey, there's an idea: get a person's phone # & myspace info and store it in the phonebook, so when they call, it can pull that person's pic off their myspace page and display it..). Etc.
Guess what? These kids will save their pennies. They'll beg/borrow/steal and they will get whatever it is they've got into their heads that they want, be it a $65 Coach purse, $270 Diesel jeans, $25 mascara, or anything else. I'm willing to bet you show a bunch of hyperactive teens that they can access myspace will make this the "must have" phone of the year, not to mention the fact that it plays videos and music.
So, all you self-righteous "geeks" out there: Shut the fuck up. No one has ever cared about what you want. That's why you're a geek and not a "popular" kid.
Just another addition to what you're saying:
We're already dumping tons of unused fertilizers/pesticides/etc into the ocean from our major rivers. The runoff is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and other areas, creating giant "dead zones" from the rapid algal blooms and dieoffs that's destroying reef-building, etc. WOuldn't it be nice to be able to create large "algal farms" that would take the divereted river water, strain out a majority of the wastes, and then harvest the algae for energy (or even food)? We restore some semblence of sanity back into the gulf, we create energy! Now, the question is what kind of impact would this have on surrounding areas, how much would it cost to construct those ponds, not to mention locality.
Erm.. deserts are empty.. of what?
Lots of animals and wildlife flora/fauna live in the deserts. Many of which are endangered. Many of which provide valuable eco-service to the land around them. It might not be prudent to just blot out the sun with solar collectors and think everything's going to be okay.
I'd rather see these on rooftops, supplementing power sources in a more local fashion where their impact will be minimal.
Unless he's riding on the sidewalk or on a highway where "motorized bicycles" are illegal, there shouldn't be a problem. In most states, powered bicycles under 49cc (he states 22cc for his) do not require things like registration, licensing, or insurance. Regular mopeds come to mind. You must still obey the rules of traffic and I'd be very wary of the typical cell-phone-yaking-SUV-driving-moron, but it's certainly doable. I've been considering picking up an old moped for transporation in Los Angeles (it beats my feet), but I'm not sure I'm *that* suicidal yet.
Firehed: I have no idea how I do it, but yes. If I keep stuff in their cases, it's fine. But once it hits the no-man's land that is my desk, bookshelf, whatever, it's good as toast. To be fair, I snapped the USB interface off because I had it in my pocket and crashed my bike and it snapped in my pocket. :)
:) Maybe I just wear really tight jeans.
i don't like 3.5" because it's still not very pocketable. I like the minidiscs because they were at that pocket size.
I don't want larger Discs. It might just be me, but I'm pretty hard on CDs (especially CDRs), DVDs, and what not, especially when I'm doing multiple things. I throw them on the desk, intending to find their cases, sleeves, what have you, but inevitably, they get covered with a printout, or book and get lost. In the cleaning spree inspired by the spilled *drink_of_choice*, I discover the media, covered in scratches, nigh unreadable except by something like CD-Paranoia.
:)
:)
I like the Minidisc format. A lot. A small cartridge that protects your data (for the most part, I'm sure it can fuck up, too). Toss it on the desk and bury it in O'Reilly books, it's fine. Toss it in your messenger bag, you're good to go. I like UMDs, except I wish they had a flap over the "read" portion (damned, dirty cheetos!), but I'd settle for that design if nothing else were available.
Also, what about write times? What good is it to have a 500GB disc if it takes a week to write it?
As a consumer, I don't need 300gb of optical storage. Harddrives are cheap and so are firewire enclosures. I just want a cheap, high-density, easily transportable/protectable format that I can carry around with higher capacity than current flashdrives. BTW, I really hate it when you snap the USB end off your flashdrive. It really sucks when that happens.
I guess as a recap, I just want to see smaller, higher density formats rather than rehashing the same CD style media over and over. Of course, maybe I'm just a slob and I need a crash course in workplace sanitation.
At this point, I really don't care. I'd be happy if Apple and Apple game developers took the Nintendo road and quit trying to chase fps counts in FPSs and concentrated on making, you know, great games. Differentiate the Apple market by focusing on producing the coolest, oddest, quirky, whatever games possible. Apple has enough money, I'd love to see them open a games studio, but instead of trying to break records with budgets, concentrate on making the best gameplay out there.
I was "suckered" into buying a Monster cable for my guitar setup a few years ago because the music I was at didn't have a regular instrument cable in the length I wanted for some reason. I was pissed about it and the $50 I had to spend on it, but I had a gig that night and recording the next week, so I figured I'd rather have it now and bitch about it later.
:) But given the same choice now, I'd probably forgo their cables for a cheapie.
Now, my band is (was?) known for having really wild, rambunctious, alcohol soaked shows. I've knocked over my half-stack/head numerous times, shattering tubes, loosening connections, etc. In other words, I'm really fucking hard on my gear. I found that my monster cable jacks were breaking every few months (the tip would just break off). So, every few months, I'd get a new cable, no questions asked. I've found that the 5 new cables I've received was well worth the $50 investment due to their "no questions asked" policy.
Is embrace Apple's style of content distribution. Create a PSP/iTunes style program that organizes a user's PSP movies. Offer movies for download at a reasonable price ($5.99-10.99?). Offer a synch mode that copies movies and other items to your PSP (would require a big flash card or a harddrive). Releasing a UMD burner would be a great option, as well.
:)
If Sony won't do it, I'm sure Apple is working on it.
Sweet link to beatport. I didn't know about them. CD Baby does *not* sell digital downloads, however (unless I'm just not seeing something on their site), but sells tons of CDs for bands. I have a friend that works there in the warehouse. :) They *do* have some sort of deal with iTunes Music Store, IIRC.
That's pretty much my stand, as well. AuMatar is willing to take the time to setup a computer for grandma and put what he wants on it. I'm not (well, first reason being my grandma died in 1980). My family wants computer help? I tell em to buy a mac. They buy a PC? SOL, even though I am more comfortable on a PC than a Mac. Saves me time and headaches. If they were to buy a Mac, I'd tell em to take it to the Genius Bar... :)
:)
Some people get off on telling people what to buy and what to run and where to go, I'd rather concentrate on sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll with the occasional bread-baking.
There are other reasons to use "energy efficient" bulbs, as well.
I replaced all the bulbs in my last house with the compact flouros and didn't have a problem. I like them because:
1) If my memory is correct, flouros are only more energy efficient if you leave them on for periods of time, the ballast consumes quite a bit of power on start-up. I actually used one of mine as my outdoors/porch light which would frequently see 24 hour service when I was out-of-town.
2) I tend to forget to turn lights off. This way, even if I forget, they don't seem to cost me a significant amount of money.
3) Long-lasting. I would blow standard bulbs monthly/bimonthly (bad power?). I installed compact flouros, and I never changed them again in over a year. This saved me considerable time and effort and was significantly safer. I had these really high 12-15" ceilings in that apartment, which would require my coffee table and a stepstool to reach the fixtures. It was somewhat harrowing.
I recognize that they're probably not for everyone or for every usage (for instance, the color of the light is a bit off as most flouros are. I would think artists might avoid them in the studio), but they have other uses besides their "energy efficientness".
From a purely physical standpoint, a miner *might* have the edge. Having been a working musician at one point, I can honestly say that road life can take its toll on your health and sanity. I've worked all manners of physical labor jobs, as well as so-called "intellectual" jobs. The physical labor jobs are just that: they're physical. They wear your body down. However, just about anyone CAN perform physical labor, at varying degrees of success. Not everyone can do something that requires the skillsets of a musician.
Why should a musician only be allowed 20 years? Why not 21 years? Why not 19? Why not 2 or 3 or 50 or even 100? What kind of objective criteria makes 20 years acceptable but the other choices unacceptable? Who makes that decision based upon what?
Most physicists, btw, are paid for their intellectal works in the form of a salary. I don't know many salaried musicians (none, actually). There are physicists/engineers out there who forego salaries and invent their own crap and then try and sell/market it. In some ways its very similar to the artist's dilemna.
And, last I checked, my internet connection was not free, so distributing my music actually costs me money. If we're going to assign "fairness" a dollar value of the cost of distribution or the cost of materials, think about the economies of scale many clothing manufacturers see by outsourcing production to cut-rate third-world manufacturers and yet their prices remain ever vigilantly high. Just because it costs them $3 doesn't mean they should have to sell it for $10. Etc etc.
The scarcity of Intellectual Property lies within the creator: The ability to create works of art, literature, music, etc is what is scarce. Not everyone can write and/or perform a song that can move people, or paint a picture that speaks to a person's soul, or write a novel that challenges a person's notion of ethics or whatever. Yeah, there's a lot of hacks out there, but let's face it: Genius is scarce. Look around your office. Unless you work at Google or something, chances are you think 90% of the people you work with are fucking idiots who will never create something useful in their lives. Our brains and our ability to create music, art, software, etc shouldn't be penalized just because a medium is easily copyable. We should still enjoy the profits of our abilities and our labor. Writing music is one of the most demanding tasks I've ever done. Practicing over and over, rearranging, listening, thinking, rearranging, recording. Just because you can copy my music with a press of the button doesn't mean I shouldn't have the right to determine who can distribute my work. Because it is work. Even though I can't reach and grab my product. A lot of folks are hung up on the whole notion that property can only be owned if you can actually steal it or take it. As an artist (and a software developer), I say you're wrong.
That's very accurate. These days, other than USENET, I really don't even know where to go to find music. Ever since Kazaa went into spyware mode, and limewire with its adware stuff, I gave up P2P applications for the most part (and I lost my kazaa lite copy). Of course, now that I'm on the mac, limewire is pretty decent for some things (without the annoying adware/spyware component), but I find that most music I want to check out is on iTunes. There's some exceptions, of course, but for the most part, I like the quality I get from iTunes Music Store, plus the videos (I'll probably be selling my nano for a Video iPod soon), well, it's like a mostly 1-stop shopping plan for exactly what I want. Amazon pretty much covers the rest. :) Not to mention that since I, you know, got a job, I can afford to buy music.
I know a lot of people bitch about the bitrate, and others the DRM, but for my specific usage, neither is an issue. The bitrate they use sounds absolutely fine on my iPod, and I only have 1 computer to worry about, so the so-called DRM is a non-issue.
iTMS is a win for me.
How well has Intel improved the performance of its integrated graphics chipset? I'd like to see what I can look forward to if Apple decides to go with Intel and not ATI or nVidia. While I understand these aren't meant to be gaming "powerhouses", I'd still like to do some light gaming on it. (FWIW, I've play World of Warcraft, at around 20fps, on my old iBook G4 800 and my desktop P3 750 (ti4200), which was acceptable. I'd like to see at least this level of performance).
That just makes me think about how much Apple would make if they partnered with, say, Amazon for "physical" sales.
Maybe my brain is still a bit cloudy, but I certainly don't have a fucking clue as to what you just said.
/., it seems) could hear on the radio 10x a day. People still buy that shit even when they have one of the biggest, most convenient, and certainly most diverse independent catalogs at their disposal.
/.ers want to go. "Let's abolish copyright!" is completely the wrong answer. I enjoy copyright in that it protects *me* from, well, *you*. and the RIAA. And BMG, Sony, etc. It's also the same mechanism that protects the precious GPL. But when you take away my choice to choose how I wish to distribute my music (indie vs major)* just because you think it'll be better for, well, you, then I might remind you that it's me that's making the music and it's my choice. Not yours. Same goes with my software. I don't want someone telling me I *must* release my software as GPL. Unless I'm using some GPL stuff that would legally require me to do so, I have no such obligation.
Here's what I said, condensed and clarified: I'm not writing music to save the world, save the trees, and those other things that people call as "making a better society." I write music for the purely selfish reason that I dislike what I hear on the radio, so I try to play the stuff I want to hear. (I also play music because it gets me laid. Go figure.) The OP suggested that we should "make society a better place," without asking for whom it would be better for. Obviously, it's for HIM. With the advent of P2P and the internet and whatnot, it's increasingly clear to the average "struggling" artist that signing to a major label is not the only game in town. Yes, it's marginalizing (to a very small extent) the RIAA's influence over the big majors. However, listening to the radio, reading the numbers, the RIAA is still making billions, as are the Britney Spears and what not. The market is big enough to support a giant behemoth that is the current major music industry, AND it's big enough to support the indie labels and distribution channels, and it didn't take any hand-holding, kumbaya-singing, or any societal "feel-good" measures to make. As an exercise, go look at the iTMS and see who the #1 sellers are: that's right, they're still the same major label artists whom we all (here on
The music industry will make money. They might be slow to adopt certain technology, such as the iTMS where they have to compete with smaller artists that they can't push or control. This is a level-playing-field of sorts that didn't require any legislation, which is where I'm afraid most
*again, I'd say the reason why we have such a huge indie distribution channel these days is specifically because of the stifling effects the RIAA has had on the industry. There's certainly a DIY ethic that has grown up (and is still growing) that keeps vinyl around, small record shops in business, and what not. There are enough people out there seeking out "the good stuff," it seems, that anyone who really wants to look for the obscure, etc, they can find it. I thank Discord and SST for blazing those trails, and people like CDBABY!, Apple's iTMS, and myspace for helping put together the distribution channels that means I don't have to toil away endlessly for little recognition, if I don't want to. Just don't take away that option to "hit the jackpot", just because you think that musicians make too much money (see the OP). I'll take a system that allows for me to get filthy rich if I make it big over a "living wage" paycheck that just lets me live.
I've seen a bunch of great acts disappear, as well. And I've seen a bunch of acts toil their entire lives in a little corner of mediocrity, self-indulgent in their "We'll never sell-out" when the fact was: no one was buying anyway.
Here in the states, we have a system where you can CHOOSE the path you wish to go down. There are plenty of pretty-boy/girl bands with almost zero talent out there, but get produced, glossied up, some dance moves, and sell 10 million records. There's also quite a few of those bands that don't make it. The guy that was behind all those boy bands of the 90s, I can't remember his name, but he's got (or had) a school down in florida with 20 more, just like em. Who the hell were they? I have no idea. SO even the "purpose made" bands can fail.
The RIAA would like to have monopoly status on distribution. Of course they would. The reality is: they don't. I put out a record last year on a record label so small with a press run so small that it'd probably almost count as a demo. I never said that just because it "sells well, so it MUST be better", btw, I just said that someone's out there buying that garbage, and those millions encourage the record labels to take a few risks here and there in trying to find the next Nirvana, or even Smashing Pumpkins, or Nine Inch Nails, or some other "blood-sweat-n-tears" band. What I'm saying is, instead of bashing Britney Spears and that manufactured garbage, just don't buy the record. I'm sure you haven't bought them anyway, right? And it's not hurt the RIAA's bottom line, as made obvious by the enormous amount of Britney Spears that are sold every year. But those BS records (hrm, nice pun) make it possible that the powers that be might, just might, hear my band, or a friend's band, and say "Hey, we want to expand more into that direction" and it's like winning a lottery. I'll be glad to tell any "fair-weather" friend to go fuck themselves for bailing on a band over what label puts out the music. Hell, nothing pissed me off more than to hear the belly-aching over Green Day, a band that the punk scene wanted OUT of the scene, going to a major. And I'm betting Billy Joe is laughing all the way to the bank. He lost the respect by gaming a system he wasn't supposed to be playing. That's punk as fuck.
People are finding music they like, everyday. It's not my or your fault that some people don't like putting an effort into finding "alternatives" to mainstream music that might be "Even better". shit, let's put an end to Romance novels and force Bukowski and Vonnegut down everyone's throat while we're at it! Again: Millions of people think Britney Spears is just fine, whether it's the image, her "catchy tunes", or what, it's none of my business and certainly not in my best interests to deride anyone about their taste in music.
As a musician, I really don't give a fuck about making a better society. Take your utopian level playing field and shove it up your ass.
As a musician, I understand that P2P can be 100% instrumental in building marketshare, mindshare, and building an audience base that I can exploit by making touring a potentially profitable activity, rather than slumming it out on a couch or in the van night after night of playing two-bit shitholes. Using the internet, myspace in particular, my music reaches a pretty decent audience, and when it's time to hit the road, the system of "friends" in various towns ensures tour support and a buddy system (you help us in your town, when you come through ours, we're there for you). But, let's also be real. If at any given time a major record label were to come up to me and offer me high 6's or even a 7 digit contract to do things their way, you bet your sweet ass I, and my band, would sign that in a heartbeat. It's not our goal, it's not our dream, but if offered, we'd take it. And if that means the radio is filled full of Britney Spears and god-awful Nu-Metal, then by all means: do it. People like you bitch incessantly about how godawful Britney & co are, but someone's buying the stupid fucking records. It's like people who bitch about windows, and yet how much money did MS make from Windows last year? Someone's buying it. Hell, as a relevant corollary, I'm also a programmer. I'd rather see a system that allows for a Microsoft to exist than a giant population of "living-wage" programmers. It's that incentive to over-achieve, or even getting "lucky" that appeals to many people.
Bah, it's time to go to bed. Fucking rock-star lifestyle.
Because this is the one time of the year where the average /.er might actually have the opportunity to see a girl-they-work-with's ass, albeit in B&W on a crumpled sheet of paper in the trashcan? I'd say that's some "shit that matters". Or maybe that'll be the smear across the glass on the copier, so it helps to have a "heads up" before you go thinking it's chocolate and try to lick it off.
Season's greetings and shit.