Why do all these news articles have to be so black and white? Either it's the best thing since sliced bread, or the worst thing since the plague!! I've got my music at mp3.com, and they allow you to specify whether or not to allow your music to be used by mp3.com for promos or radio broadcasts, and you get 50% of the profits from CD sales. There's even a "pay for downloads" promo on at the mo... I'm also at amp3.com, which put ads on the front of your music, and pays you per download!
I'm quite aware of the potential probs with online music distribution, but it's definately not as bad as this article portrays...
Also, the article misses the major point that having your music on the internet does not eliminate the need to promote it effectively... After all, if anyone can make a CD, (which has now happened since the likes of mp3.com started their DAM CD programme last year) then every artist is going to have to convince surfer that theirs is more special than your average Joe Bloggs CD... Talking of which... Check out Adrenalin Sound Machine's music here and here!!!;)
"Due primarily to the fact that our federal government and mainstream press have now succeeded in setting up the American public for a costly, last-minute Y2K panic, I have decided to cease the publication of public articles on Y2K until January 1. I have reached this decision following two weeks of nearly torturous consideration on the subject."
Mind you, I expect conspiracy theory fans will have a field day anyway! "Oh, he must have been pushed by the FBI etc., etc."
Well, stuff all of you moaning idiots, I thought it was jolly good...
In any case, the only real problem was it didn't quite attack the real target ie no pages upon pages of lame flames from US-based Linux Bigots...;) No offence, I like Slashdot, but I hardly ever read the comments pages any more, as the attitude displayed is just so shitty.
I've been active on the Atari, Amiga and PC "underground" scenes- I can program on all of these platforms- and I'm now well into Linux, and am employed in a web technology job. (And I'm still keeping in touch with the other scenes.) and I don't think I've ever seen a scene that is so full of bad attitudes as the comments on Slashdot...
No offence, but here is a simple fact- there have been other systems besides Wintel and *nix, and some of them have actually been quite decent! (In the case of the Amiga, very decent indeed!!!) So remove the stick from your ass, learn to smile, grow a sense of humour, etc.,...
Oops, I'm going off topic... Ahem, anyway!! As soon as someone does a parody of the comments, then I expect we'll see some grumbling from/. regulars...
Well, I make music for fun, and allow people to download MP3s of my music and/or buy whole CDs of my stuff, and I've got a proper day job as well!!!! I have a lot of musical ideas myself, and I'm not exactly a trained musician, but I make music I can't afford studio time either, but that's OK because I just don't use a studio!!!! I haven't toured yet, as I haven't even began to think how to take my music into a live "gig". I don't make any money, but I've got money from my day job, and I make music for... (Check this original concept out, ShadowWalker) for enjoyment!!!!
I perfectly understand your point that if you're wanting to make a living from being in a band, you're going to have to draw the line somewhere between giving away stuff and charging for it, but firstly I don't think the RIAA is entirely interested in that- secondly, places like mp3.com give lots of exposure to countless thousands of really good bands/artists who have no record contract, and is thus a potential benefit to the music industry!!! If the RIAA is trying to curb open standards like MP3, what on earth is going to happen to sites like this? And what about people like me who do music for a hobby?
I know quite a lot of musicians myself, and they're impressed with the possibilities of the legit mp3 scene, particularly mp3.com's idea of letting you sell CD albums online (without needing a record contract...), and the people I talk to regularly on the mp3.com bbs are generally very aware of the various business and promotion issues involved in the music business...
That's good, I thought I was the only one who used made-up names when registering with various sites!!!!! Though I personally use po@teletubbies.co.uk as my "email" addr!!!!
I could sit through a film version of "Fly Fishing" by JR Hartley, but even I didn't sleep through "The Empire Strikes Back"!!!!!!!! Yes, you probably are the only one who has done this!!!! You might want to talk to my dad- without fail he seems to fall asleep when "Dr Strangelove" is on telly. He even fell asleep when he went to see it in the cinema (Twice!!!!!!!!!) when it was first out!!!!!!! === Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
Why, you dorky geek propellor-head linux nerds!!!!!!!!! Don't you realise that Bill Gates is bloody brilliant?!?!?! In the real world, everything's all about money, not Star Wars and sad arcane systems with software that only people with too much acne would want to run!!!! Before Windows 95 came along, I didn't know how to work a computer!!!!!!!! Bill Gates should be knighted for his services to the GUI, multitasking, and general productivity, but I expect those will be foreign words to the fanatical Linux evangelists who are jealous of Bill's well-deserved success!!! What you lot forget is that no-one's interested in what you sad no-life anoracks have to say...
Well, OK, Anonymous Coward hasn't actually said it yet, but it's only a flippin' matter of time isn't it?!??!?!;)
(Note- for all you slow people, the above comments are not too serious...)
Excuse, but I should point out that when the Nazis misappropriated Nietzsche's writings, it wasn't exactly with his approval!!!!!! (If I remember, it was his sister, who was a bit anti-semtic, in contrast to Nietzsche's own views- I think "vile" was the word he used for anti-semitism: not exactly the words of a Nazi supporter, is it?!?!?!) And if the Nazis supported Nietzsche's "God is Dead" statment (I'm not too sure you're taking it in it's proper context anyway!!!), then how come Hitler mentions God (in favourable terms) an awful lot in Mein Kampf?!?!? And how come a lot of the Christian churches actually supported Hitler!??!?!?! And why are you as "Christian" going to such lengths to FUD against athiests by attempting to link them with the bloody Nazis?!?!?!??!?
BTW Pascals Wager is only valid if there is only one God to choose from!!!! You cannot logically believe in the Gods of all the Christian denominations and Islam, and others, all at the same time, (More so since in most cases each require you to believe in only one God- theirs!!!) so you have to not belive in at least one God, in which case, the whole thing falls down!!!! I think the wager was just clever answer by Pascal , but as a serious reason for actually believing in a diety, it's just an excuse for lack of faith!!!!!!!!!
With the greatest of respect, postings like the one above are the reason why people in Europe tend to think that Americans are stupid!!!!!!
I honestly cannot believ that this crap is for real!!!!! Do you actually strain your braincells for one minute to think how incredibly stupid your post is??!?!?! I mean, Barney The Dinosaur is purple- by Jerry Falwell's "reasoning", he must be gay!!!!! And he's nice to people- obviously he's a God-fearing "Christian" Right person then!!!!!!!!
Forever shying away from imagine "tendancies", "supersititions"- what a paranoid attitude to a life you have. I really feel sorry for your children...
Whether Falwell is a kook or not, our culture is completely sex-saturated. It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to see that. Those messages DO go into much of the so-called entertainment programming, including children's programming.
Hmmm, interesting point, but I dunno if I agree with it... I would agree that a lot of society is sex-obsessed, but sex in the Teletubbies?!?!?!?! I mean, come on!!!!!!! I think it's more a case of people not understanding the programme, and picking out things that mean something to them in their lives, but are not neccessarily actually part of the programme!!!!! In other words, some of the Teletubbies prog is so completely open-ended that you can put any interpretation into the diverse stream of wierd ideas that it chucks out!!!! I think Jerry Falwell's statement tells us more about his state of mind than it does about the makers of Teletubbies!!!!!
I'm from the UK, and I'm getting steadily cheesed off with narrow minded (Usually block-head right-wingers who erroneously call themselves "Christians".) idiots who think that the Internet stops at US borders!!!!! I couldn't give a toss (pun intended?!?!) about whether you think I'm a "liberal" or not, as the word means something completely different over here, as opposed to the lazy brain-free right-wing insult that it seems to have sadly degenerated into over on your side of the pond!!!!!!!! It makes about as much sense as me calling you "Radio Rental"- even if you are!!!;)
"Liberal" as I understand it is a political term!!!! Yet you claim it's a "Christian" issue!!!!! Now call me a little naive, but I thought there was this thing in the US Constitution about a seperation of church and state!!!!!! Now, far be for me to tell you about your own country's flippin' consitution, but if you're trying to meddle in political issues using solely religious arguments, then surely that's unconstitional!!!!!!!!!
You may think you're a "Christian", but that's a little debatable, even amongst your own countrymen!!!!! Certainly, if Jerry Falwell and friends tried his stuff at a Christian mass in the UK, he would have a strait-jacket put on him, and would be carted off to the loony bin faster than you can say "Hoseanna In Excelious Deo"!!!!!!!!
I've been brought as Christian myself, and I don't undertsand you either!!!!!! To me, you sure don't sound like a Christian!!!! In fact, I would rather agree with an athiest than the vile hate-filled claptrap posted above!!!!!
We have a phrase for people like you in the UK- God Botherers... It's a really good phrase IMHO, as they're usually applied to people who use divine justification for being a real pain in the brown-eye!!!!! (As opposed to real Christians of course...)
If being gay is an "in thing", why don't you try being gay for a week, and see how flippin' fashionable it is!!!! (Don't worry, you can always whip yourself afterwards!!!!! Or whatever it is you lot do for penance!!!!!) Getting called names, or getting beaten to detah like that Sheperd bloke, and getting your funeral disrupted by insane God-botherers from Kansas- sounds really fashionable to me!!!!!!!!!!!!
Most gay people I know are far more Christian than you are!!!! At least they don't talk nonsense about people whom they don't know solely out of narrow-minded prejudice, and, like cowards, pretend diminished responsibility on account of their beliefs!!!!!!!
Anyone can quote the Bible- after all didn't Charles Manson have a go?!?!?;)
As a Christian, how do you account for the blatently obvious contradiction between the oft-quoted Leviticus passage, which supports the death penalty for, and the commandment about not killing?!?!
Being gay is supposed to be "shallow", (What, like blondes!??!?!?!) but you know this is what God really thinks because... Someone told you it it says so in a book!?!??!?!!? How naive and shallow is that?!?!?!?!
OK then!!!!!! I was talking to God a couple of minutes ago, and he/she/it/irrelevant said that you're talking rubbish, and that Jerry Falwell is a dirty old man who sees sexual innuendo in childrens TV!!!! Remember that this is directly from God, and not from a constantly re-translated and updated book, or from a dirty old man who sees sexual innuendo in childrens TV, so you can be sure this is accurate, and, being a Christian, you'll have to believe it won't you?!??!?!! And if I'm wrong, may God strike me down within the next 10 seconds... [Waits 10 seconds for Monty-Python style hand with lightning bolt]... 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Zero!!!! See!??!!? I'm right, you're wrong, and I've got the official divine seal of approval on my side!!!!!!
You might think that was a little blasphemous there, but at least I was making a joke... I consider you're stuff to be much more blasphemous- and you take it flippin' seriously!!!!!
Hmmm, this seems to have gone on a bit longer than I thought it would!!!! Still, hope you get my point.....
Hmm, wasn't Falwell the one who thought Bert and Ernie out of Sesame Street were an item!?!?!?!?!
Anyway, does anyone really expect loony right-wing pious twits from Bible-Belt-land to actually understand Teletubbies!?!??!?! After all, the show's aimed at young toddlers whose minds are developing and are open to new ideas!!!!! It's not aimed at old fossils whose minds are withered and are closed shut!!!!!!;)
Anyway, it's old news- it's part of a developing Teletubbies urban myth in the US, a bit like the gerbil-up-the-rectum story...
You know, if some time in the future (at some unspecified date) some sort of machine intelligence can be demonstrated, what's the bets that some of these "it'll never happen" quotes like the ones above are going to turn up in the future history books?!?!?!;)
I wouldn't be too surprised if there's some sort of machine intelligence going in the future, (Not before I become an real Old Fart of course!!!!!!) but it'll probably be completely different from human intelligence, as there's some things that computers can do much better than human!!!! (eg processing data!!!) And course, they'll be in a box marked "computer", not in a human frame!!!!! But on a network, there could be times when you might be communicating with a computer, and not be aware of it, which by Turing's Test, means that it must be intelligent!!!
(Yeah, OK, it might really be a computer, and it isn't really smart, and it doesn't have a "soul", but you would only really say that if you know for sure that it's computer at the other end- if you didn't, you would only have your communications to go on, and if you can't tell the difference between that and a normal human on that basis alone, then how can you say it isn't human??!?!?)
As for Moore's law hitting a brick wall, well of course that's going to happen sooner. But what's stopping people simply building more and bigger computers?!?! I think some readers are automatically associating anything "computer" like with just a computer in a single box like a PC in a "work room", but what about having loads of computers all over the place, working in parallel?!?!? There's this really good networking system I've heard of recently- it's called the "Internet" or something... ===
This sort of "Oh, it'll teach our kids to speak funny" bollox happened early on in the UK as well, and it's been proved completely wrong, as it's been demonstrated to help it's target audience (2-3 year olds) learn how to talk!!!!!!! The script is actually written by a qualified linguist, believe it or not!!!! There's a really helpful page by the Beeb with all the info....
As for "stoned teenagers", that's just because the UK seems to be really great at making really wierd childrens programs that people seem to read lots of differe nt meanings into!!!!! (eg the Magic Roundabout, Button Moon, Captain Pugwash, etc.) In terms of content, the prog is actually pretty similar to the 1970s pre-school kids show Playschool, and that was considered the epitome of education TV in the UK!!!!!!!
Well, I remember the 70s myself, and they were a load of rubbish!!!!!!!!! So I'm dreading this particular series over here in the UK (We're actually going to be getting a special UK version with the US producers wacthing over it!!!!), because you can be pretty sure it's going be the usual fantasy-based "Oh the 70's were really hip and stuff weren't they?!?!?!" type nonsense written by people who weren't old enough to remmeber that it was really a load of rubbish, and just rely on some Pulp or Oasis video for 70s fashions or whatever!!!! It's going to be like "Velvet Goldmine" only worse!!!!!! And even worse than that, it's going to be on ITV!!!!! As everyone knows, the phrase "ITV situation comedy" is a contradiction in terms!!! And remember the last time ITV tried importing a US comedy over here?!?!?! Any remember "The Brighton Belles"?!?!? (A remake of "The Golden Girls", believe it or not!!!!!!) Exactly!!!!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm quite aware of the potential probs with online music distribution, but it's definately not as bad as this article portrays...
Also, the article misses the major point that having your music on the internet does not eliminate the need to promote it effectively... After all, if anyone can make a CD, (which has now happened since the likes of mp3.com started their DAM CD programme last year) then every artist is going to have to convince surfer that theirs is more special than your average Joe Bloggs CD... Talking of which... Check out Adrenalin Sound Machine's music here and here!!! ;)
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
http://206.54.108.130/19991121.asp
"Due primarily to the fact that our federal government and mainstream press have now succeeded in setting up the American public for a costly, last-minute Y2K panic, I have decided to cease the publication of public articles on Y2K until January 1. I have reached this decision following two weeks of nearly torturous consideration on the subject."
Mind you, I expect conspiracy theory fans will have a field day anyway! "Oh, he must have been pushed by the FBI etc., etc."
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
In any case, the only real problem was it didn't quite attack the real target ie no pages upon pages of lame flames from US-based Linux Bigots... ;) No offence, I like Slashdot, but I hardly ever read the comments pages any more, as the attitude displayed is just so shitty.
I've been active on the Atari, Amiga and PC "underground" scenes- I can program on all of these platforms- and I'm now well into Linux, and am employed in a web technology job. (And I'm still keeping in touch with the other scenes.) and I don't think I've ever seen a scene that is so full of bad attitudes as the comments on Slashdot...
No offence, but here is a simple fact- there have been other systems besides Wintel and *nix, and some of them have actually been quite decent! (In the case of the Amiga, very decent indeed!!!) So remove the stick from your ass, learn to smile, grow a sense of humour, etc., ...
Oops, I'm going off topic... Ahem, anyway!! As soon as someone does a parody of the comments, then I expect we'll see some grumbling from /. regulars...
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
Er.. You can do mp3s in true-stereo as opposed to joint-stereo... I think you might need to get a better encoding program... :)
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
I perfectly understand your point that if you're wanting to make a living from being in a band, you're going to have to draw the line somewhere between giving away stuff and charging for it, but firstly I don't think the RIAA is entirely interested in that- secondly, places like mp3.com give lots of exposure to countless thousands of really good bands/artists who have no record contract, and is thus a potential benefit to the music industry!!! If the RIAA is trying to curb open standards like MP3, what on earth is going to happen to sites like this? And what about people like me who do music for a hobby?
I know quite a lot of musicians myself, and they're impressed with the possibilities of the legit mp3 scene, particularly mp3.com's idea of letting you sell CD albums online (without needing a record contract...), and the people I talk to regularly on the mp3.com bbs are generally very aware of the various business and promotion issues involved in the music business...
OK enough talk, check out my music at http://www.mp3.com/asm/!!!!
Old Fart!
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
No- how do they suck? ;)
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
That's good, I thought I was the only one who used made-up names when registering with various sites!!!!! Though I personally use po@teletubbies.co.uk as my "email" addr!!!!
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
Well, I never!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
I could sit through a film version of "Fly Fishing" by JR Hartley, but even I didn't sleep through "The Empire Strikes Back"!!!!!!!! Yes, you probably are the only one who has done this!!!! You might want to talk to my dad- without fail he seems to fall asleep when "Dr Strangelove" is on telly. He even fell asleep when he went to see it in the cinema (Twice!!!!!!!!!) when it was first out!!!!!!!
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
(Note- for all you slow people, the above comments are not too serious...)
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
Troll heaven on Slashdot!!!!!! ;)
===
Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
Excuse, but I should point out that when the Nazis misappropriated Nietzsche's writings, it wasn't exactly with his approval!!!!!! (If I remember, it was his sister, who was a bit anti-semtic, in contrast to Nietzsche's own views- I think "vile" was the word he used for anti-semitism: not exactly the words of a Nazi supporter, is it?!?!?!) And if the Nazis supported Nietzsche's "God is Dead" statment (I'm not too sure you're taking it in it's proper context anyway!!!), then how come Hitler mentions God (in favourable terms) an awful lot in Mein Kampf?!?!? And how come a lot of the Christian churches actually supported Hitler!??!?!?! And why are you as "Christian" going to such lengths to FUD against athiests by attempting to link them with the bloody Nazis?!?!?!??!?
BTW Pascals Wager is only valid if there is only one God to choose from!!!! You cannot logically believe in the Gods of all the Christian denominations and Islam, and others, all at the same time, (More so since in most cases each require you to believe in only one God- theirs!!!) so you have to not belive in at least one God, in which case, the whole thing falls down!!!! I think the wager was just clever answer by Pascal , but as a serious reason for actually believing in a diety, it's just an excuse for lack of faith!!!!!!!!!
===
... and it can be treated- by education!!!!!! ;)
===
With the greatest of respect, postings like the one above are the reason why people in Europe tend to think that Americans are stupid!!!!!!
I honestly cannot believ that this crap is for real!!!!! Do you actually strain your braincells for one minute to think how incredibly stupid your post is??!?!?! I mean, Barney The Dinosaur is purple- by Jerry Falwell's "reasoning", he must be gay!!!!! And he's nice to people- obviously he's a God-fearing "Christian" Right person then!!!!!!!!
Forever shying away from imagine "tendancies", "supersititions"- what a paranoid attitude to a life you have. I really feel sorry for your children...
===
Hmmm, interesting point, but I dunno if I agree with it... I would agree that a lot of society is sex-obsessed, but sex in the Teletubbies?!?!?!?! I mean, come on!!!!!!! I think it's more a case of people not understanding the programme, and picking out things that mean something to them in their lives, but are not neccessarily actually part of the programme!!!!! In other words, some of the Teletubbies prog is so completely open-ended that you can put any interpretation into the diverse stream of wierd ideas that it chucks out!!!! I think Jerry Falwell's statement tells us more about his state of mind than it does about the makers of Teletubbies!!!!!
===
Hmmm, this seems to have gone on a bit longer than I thought it would!!!! Still, hope you get my point.....
===
Anyway, does anyone really expect loony right-wing pious twits from Bible-Belt-land to actually understand Teletubbies!?!??!?! After all, the show's aimed at young toddlers whose minds are developing and are open to new ideas!!!!! It's not aimed at old fossils whose minds are withered and are closed shut!!!!!! ;)
Anyway, it's old news- it's part of a developing Teletubbies urban myth in the US, a bit like the gerbil-up-the-rectum story...
===
I wouldn't be too surprised if there's some sort of machine intelligence going in the future, (Not
before I become an real Old Fart of
course!!!!!!) but it'll probably be completely
different from human intelligence, as there's
some things that computers can do much better
than human!!!! (eg processing data!!!) And
course, they'll be in a box marked "computer",
not in a human frame!!!!! But on a network, there
could be times when you might be communicating
with a computer, and not be aware of it, which by
Turing's Test, means that it must be intelligent!!!
(Yeah, OK, it might really be a computer, and it isn't really smart, and it doesn't have a "soul", but you would only really say that if you know for sure that it's computer at the other end- if you didn't, you would only have your communications to go on, and if you can't tell the difference between that and a normal human on that basis alone, then how can you say it isn't human??!?!?)
As for Moore's law hitting a brick wall, well of
course that's going to happen sooner. But what's stopping people simply building more and bigger computers?!?! I think some readers are automatically associating anything "computer" like with just a computer in a single box like a PC in a "work room", but what about having loads of
computers all over the place, working in parallel?!?!? There's this really good networking system I've heard of recently- it's called the "Internet" or something...
===
Is it me or is this article similar to the "lurkers" article that Jon Katz did not so long ago?!?!?!
===
This sort of "Oh, it'll teach our kids to speak funny" bollox happened early on in the UK as well, and it's been proved completely wrong, as it's been demonstrated to help it's target audience (2-3 year olds) learn how to talk!!!!!!! The script is actually written by a qualified linguist, believe it or not!!!! There's a really helpful page by the Beeb with all the info....
As for "stoned teenagers", that's just because the UK seems to be really great at making really wierd childrens programs that people seem to read lots of differe nt meanings into!!!!! (eg the Magic Roundabout, Button Moon, Captain Pugwash, etc.) In terms of content, the prog is actually pretty similar to the 1970s pre-school kids show Playschool, and that was considered the epitome of education TV in the UK!!!!!!!
Old Fart!
So there!!!!