If Apple did INDEED purchase MP3, what happens to all my music? Will it still be okay for people to make their own MP3 players? Or will we have to use QuickTime if we want the latest MP3 technology?
What does this do for illegal MP3s, if anything?
I don't know about others, but I'm getting a little paranoid about this sudden comercial interest in MP3. I think I'm going to start looking into other technologies, just in case. I'm not sure, but I hear that other formats exsist which are better compressed, and have higher quality (true?).
I wonder if people will even actually BUY MP3 files. I can see the advantage, but it's actually more expensive than ordinary CDs, when you account for the cost of a portable MP3 player, plus a computer, and one fast enought to play MP3s in the background, while other things are happen, like browsing the net. I have two computers, and this PII400 can handle anything, but my old P133 with 32MB of RAM slows down, and often skips, when I connect to the net while playing MP3s. Not everyone who listens to music has a good computer. And very few people have Portable MP3 hardware. At the same time, MANY MANY people have stereos with CD drives, and many people have portable CD PLayers. Plus, playing CDs on a stereo puts no strain on the computer, so one can do work on a slow computer while listening to music (unlike MP3; that's my experiance).
So is there really an MP3 market as big as the CD and tape market? I dunno... maybe there is.
But back to the original point, does this make a difference to people who use MP3s but no Apple software and hardware??
I purchased ViaVoice from IBM (for Win32) a while ago. The IDEA behind the technology is a good one. But the problem is, it's not only slower than typing, it's twice as frusturating, and may take up as much as 3x the time it takes to type the same document.
WHY?
(a) Accuracy -- My copy of IBM VoiceType came with a speaker-mic combination head set (made by Andrea). The documentation says that this is ideal for use with VoiceType. So I'm not going to blame my hardware for the inaccuracy of this product. It has trouble recognizing a lot of words. I don't have an accent, so that's not the problem. There are many technical reasons why this happens... but they don't matter to the enduser.
(b) Method of Speech: You can't just talking into the mic, like you normally talk. You have to pause between EACH word. But you MUST NOT pause or slow down while saying A WORD. This.. is.. a.. very.. unnatural way of speaking. Sometimes you forget to pause, or sometimes you accidently pause between multi-sylable words. This is one of the major causes of errors.
(c) Although this product DOES have support for editing the text through voice, it's quite impracticle. If you want to edit text that has already been typed, or you want to format text in a certain way, you're still going to have to use the keyboard, and possibly the mouse. You will find yourself trying to work with the mouse, keyboard and (now) trying to speak in a very unnatural way to the computer as well. It's not a matter of being HARD to do, it just doesn't make sense. It's easier to just type.
I think this application is not very usefull for typing large documents. What it IS usefull for is giving commands to the system through voice. I'm not sure how IBM plans on integrating this with Linux, because Linux systems vary greatly between eachother (unlike Windows, which has a very centralized control over the system, making it easy to make calls to all kinds of programs without knowing what the program really is). But if they can pull it off... maybe get it working with xterm or something, that would be great. And if they could get it working with an IRC and/or an ICQ client, that would certainly make life easier for many of us (that it would be kind of like a low-bandwidth alternative to audioconferencing... especially if you could get the IRC client to 'say' all the text as it scrolls by).
This is a good application, but the whole voicerecognition deal is really over-hyped. I hope IBM plans on porting some REAL software to Linux as well.
I know that no one really wants censorship. And it's pretty absurd in a democratic nation like Australia. BUT... I've been living in Saudi Arabia for the past year and a half. My Internet Access here is cesored. Basically, I can't view porn. I think some political sites are probably blocked too, but I've never come accross a political site which I was not allowed to view.
It may not suite some people, but it has its advantages. For one thing, Internet access can be made available anywhere in the country (resteraunts, schools, kindergardens even) without having to worry about people visiting offensive sites, and causing problems for everyone.
The high school I used to goto in Toronto, Canada has full, high speed Internet. This thing started where everytime a lab was left unattended, people would pull up a porno site on all the computers in the lab. When the teachers, or visitors came into the lab... you get the picture. They tried to setup a proxy, but they couldn't figure out how to make it work. In the end, Internet access was taken off the network, and was just put in the library, which is always monitored by someone. So students and teachers could no longer pull up information from the Internet, while in class. The fact of the matter is, the Internet MUST BE REGULATED in certain enviornments. Else, bad things happen. This is such an open and free medium that it has reached a level where entire nations have banned it (for example, Internet was banned in Saudi Arabia until late 1998).
I'm not saying that I promote censorship, nor am I saying that I'm against it. I'm just saying, it has its obviouse advantages.
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If Apple did INDEED purchase MP3, what happens to all my
... maybe there is.
music? Will it still be okay for people to make their own
MP3 players? Or will we have to use QuickTime if we want
the latest MP3 technology?
What does this do for illegal MP3s, if anything?
I don't know about others, but I'm getting a little paranoid
about this sudden comercial interest in MP3. I think I'm
going to start looking into other technologies, just in
case. I'm not sure, but I hear that other formats exsist
which are better compressed, and have higher quality (true?).
I wonder if people will even actually BUY MP3 files. I can
see the advantage, but it's actually more expensive than
ordinary CDs, when you account for the cost of a portable
MP3 player, plus a computer, and one fast enought to play MP3s
in the background, while other things are happen, like
browsing the net. I have two computers, and this PII400 can
handle anything, but my old P133 with 32MB of RAM slows down,
and often skips, when I connect to the net while playing
MP3s. Not everyone who listens to music has a good computer.
And very few people have Portable MP3 hardware. At the same
time, MANY MANY people have stereos with CD drives, and many
people have portable CD PLayers. Plus, playing CDs on a
stereo puts no strain on the computer, so one can do work
on a slow computer while listening to music (unlike MP3;
that's my experiance).
So is there really an MP3 market as big as the CD and tape
market? I dunno
But back to the original point, does this make a difference
to people who use MP3s but no Apple software and hardware??
I purchased ViaVoice from IBM (for Win32) a while ago. The IDEA behind the technology is a good one. But the problem is, it's not only slower than typing, it's twice as frusturating, and may take up as much as 3x the time it takes to type the same document.
... but they don't matter to the enduser.
.. is .. a .. very .. unnatural way of speaking. Sometimes you forget to pause, or sometimes you accidently pause between multi-sylable words. This is one of the major causes of errors.
... maybe get it working with xterm or something, that would be great. And if they could get it working with an IRC and/or an ICQ client, that would certainly make life easier for many of us (that it would be kind of like a low-bandwidth alternative to audioconferencing ... especially if you could get the IRC client to 'say' all the text as it scrolls by).
WHY?
(a) Accuracy -- My copy of IBM VoiceType came with a speaker-mic combination head set (made by Andrea). The documentation says that this is ideal for use with VoiceType. So I'm not going to blame my hardware for the inaccuracy of this product. It has trouble recognizing a lot of words. I don't have an accent, so that's not the problem. There are many technical reasons why this happens
(b) Method of Speech: You can't just talking into the mic, like you normally talk. You have to pause between EACH word. But you MUST NOT pause or slow down while saying A WORD. This
(c) Although this product DOES have support for editing the text through voice, it's quite impracticle. If you want to edit text that has already been typed, or you want to format text in a certain way, you're still going to have to use the keyboard, and possibly the mouse. You will find yourself trying to work with the mouse, keyboard and (now) trying to speak in a very unnatural way to the computer as well. It's not a matter of being HARD to do, it just doesn't make sense. It's easier to just type.
I think this application is not very usefull for typing large documents. What it IS usefull for is giving commands to the system through voice. I'm not sure how IBM plans on integrating this with Linux, because Linux systems vary greatly between eachother (unlike Windows, which has a very centralized control over the system, making it easy to make calls to all kinds of programs without knowing what the program really is). But if they can pull it off
This is a good application, but the whole voicerecognition deal is really over-hyped. I hope IBM plans on porting some REAL software to Linux as well.
I know that no one really wants censorship. And it's pretty absurd in a democratic nation like Australia. BUT ... I've been living in Saudi Arabia for the past year and a half. My Internet Access here is cesored. Basically, I can't view porn. I think some political sites are probably blocked too, but I've never come accross a political site which I was not allowed to view.
... you get the picture. They tried to setup a proxy, but they couldn't figure out how to make it work. In the end, Internet access was taken off the network, and was just put in the library, which is always monitored by someone. So students and teachers could no longer pull up information from the Internet, while in class. The fact of the matter is, the Internet MUST BE REGULATED in certain enviornments. Else, bad things happen. This is such an open and free medium that it has reached a level where entire nations have banned it (for example, Internet was banned in Saudi Arabia until late 1998).
It may not suite some people, but it has its advantages. For one thing, Internet access can be made available anywhere in the country (resteraunts, schools, kindergardens even) without having to worry about people visiting offensive sites, and causing problems for everyone.
The high school I used to goto in Toronto, Canada has full, high speed Internet. This thing started where everytime a lab was left unattended, people would pull up a porno site on all the computers in the lab. When the teachers, or visitors came into the lab
I'm not saying that I promote censorship, nor am I saying that I'm against it. I'm just saying, it has its obviouse advantages.