You're right, the United States Post Office can't justify stealing customers for itself. Did you know that the only legal purpose of the Post Office is to make sure that every citizen has the right to communicate via letters to other citizens. It was very important in the late 1800's that everyone had the right to be heard, and communicate that the "Redcoats were coming"... etc.
But now it's big business, and they're in it for the money. They tried to screw newspapers that used Carriers to deliver, by disallowing a person's mail box to be used. It's against the law to use a mail box for ANYTHING besides holding offical postal mail. That is why you might see tiny mail boxes that say "Tribune" or something that newspapers get shoved in, and hangs below a real mail box.
UPS starts to make money, become popular. The Post Office has tried to take them out of business. They begin a parcel system, and now even spend your money (your money) on advertisements. Why do they need to compete against Fed Ex, UPS, etc? Back in the 1800's they did it because no one else could. Finally, we have a better, cheaper solution... why not let them take it over. Put them under FCC rules or something? Let capitalism take it's due coarse? We'll let normal business practices create a lean, mean postal machine. Just think how cheap UPS rates would be, if they didn't have to pay through the nose governmental restrictions. Or were allowed to use 'mail boxes'. Or were allowed to deliver to Post Office Boxes.
Now the Post Office tries to put supply companies out of business. They now undercut costs of envelopes, boxes, etc. And it's all from money you pay each time you lick a stamp. The U.S. Postal service already gets breaks from the government. There are many services (such as printing) that the Postal Service can get cheap from governemtent services, and they only have to pay a nominal "preferred customer" rate... just to keep it 'legal'.
And now, as if this isn't enough, they want to put ISP's out of business. Ok, maybe that's a little harsh, but come on... Hotmail email is pretty popular. What if the USPS does a good job with this new email idea... and puts hotmail out of business. (yea i know, boohoo microsoft). Yahoo, excite, and my beer.com email will go away. They worked hard for our eyeballs, and shouldn't have to compete against the government.
You're more right than me. I shouldn't have mentioned that in the same sentence.
But there is large a postal committe in the government that "looks" over the actions of the Postal Services, etc, and they are indeed tax-funded, much like any government committee. There are also government facilities run by tax-payers money like printing presses, etc, and these services are used by the Postal Office, at "preferred-discount" rates.
People arent being "branded" theives.. people are BEING theives. Copyrights exist to protect the creator as much as to spur them on to create new works. Sorry, but its true. And what spurs musicians on to create? for some, the sheer love of making music, for others, the sheer love of folding green. Sorry dude, but I'm not going to spend 10 months writing and recording songs, just to have some jackass on the net tell me it should be "free" simply because it can be transmitted by PC. That is theft, plain and simple, and theres no real argument about it. The law states that if you make a digital copy of music, and distribute it, you are a criminal.
Actually, it's been mentioned many times, and even in quotes from the RIAA that it's not illegal to share this stuff on a one to one basis for personal use. Now, granted, they were using this to argue something bigger and badder against ___fill in the blank____ but, it was mentioned non-the-less. This is confusing to me too... however, this proves that the copyright laws are confusing, lacking, and written for other instances besides what is going on.
Have you ever seen web sites that say "You can't download anything on here". Or, "You must delete these songs after 24 hours". These are loopholes that even the RIAA recognize. Downloading Metallica songs off of Napster is 100% legal, providing Metallica songs for others through Napster --- was maybe illegal, we're not sure yet. Being Napster, and providing these people to provide Metallica songs... well now we have one entity to sue. And they haven't won or lost yet either.
When a person starts to make MONEY off of copyrighted material.. that's when the hammer comes down. Napster's whole system is designed to profit from racketeering. It's no wonder they're in court.
MP3.com provided a means for people who owned their music to listen to it anywhere they had internet access. They got sued!
You keep on arguing until you're blue in the face, that my MP3 collection is illegal, and I'm making artists, that I'd never buy from anyway, starve to death.
Please keep in mind, that we're talking about a possible copyright infringment. Not theft. They are 2 completely different things. And not only that, but the law is being reviewed and rewritten now for copyrights. So you might as well wait see what the law actually SAYS before you start pointing fingers.
And while you're praising your holy self, the RIAA will be one step closer to their original goal: Charging us EACH time we hear a song. Even if we bought the CD. They'd cream their jeans the day they come up with a DIVX solution, where we get charged pennies each time we hear a song.
On a different note, I'd LOVE to put up digital copies of Katz' books on the internet for everyone to download. If we could set up a system so that within a few hours of release, we could provide the book.... I'd love to see what Katz would do. He'd probably 2-face it just like Napster did.
Everything you mentioned is true. But I'd like to comment on this:
What does this mean? Basically, if the uptake of the net as a tool for artists takes off over the next couple of years, it will become next to impossible for the conglomerates to stop.
Unfortunately the RIAA is smokescreening the world with all the lawsuits. Not to actually stop piracy, digital distribution, and alternatives, but to bide some time so that they can come out with their own solution. The ONLY solution.
I don't know why they can't be happy with $15 billion a year, and more next year... but they want ALL of it. They don't want anyone else making money off of them. You could tell them that they could double their profits next year, but Bubba.com would also make a couple million. Sue!
Sorry to bring up analogies of stuff I know about: newspapers.... but the United States Post Office reminds me of the RIAA. Did you know that the only legal purpose of the Post Office is to make sure that every citizen has the right to communicate via letters to other citizens. It was very important in the late 1800's that everyone had the right to be heard, and communicate that the "Redcoats were coming"... etc.
But now it's big business, and they're in it for the money. They tried to screw newspapers that used Carriers to deliver, by disallowing a person's mail box to be used. It's against the law to use a mail box for ANYTHING besides holding offical postal mail. That is why you might see tiny mail boxes that say "Tribune" or something, and hangs below a real mail box.
UPS starts to make money, become popular. The Post Office has tried to take them out of business. They begin a parcel system, and now even spend your money (your money) on advertisements. Why do they need to compete against Fed Ex, UPS, etc? Back in the 1800's they did it because no one else could. Finally, we have a better, cheaper solution... why not let them take it over. Put them under FCC rules or something?
Now the Post Office tries to put supply companies out of business. They now undercut costs of envelopes, boxes, etc. And it's all from tax money and from raising your stamp rates.
I've been waiting for Portable MP3 players to take over the world. Last Christmas they could have, with SDMI appliances failing to make it in time. But it hasn't happened! We're in big trouble, because it won't be long before the big companies come up with their own distribution model, digital format, and FUD. A lot of people say... hey, artists could make their own fan sites. I bet the RIAA will do it for them. They'll come up with a million reasons to stick with them... and the artists will. Free web sites, whatever. And with a$$holes like Metallica sticking up for the cause before it's even panned out proves this point. I mean even a "spokewoman" of mp3's, only did it because she got a million something in MP3.com stock. And MP3.com has sold out to boot!
Whatever good points you and anyone can come up with that the internet can do for artists, the RIAA or big 5 will steal it and make it their own. They can do it 10 times better because they have 1000 times the money. Yes, they're very slow to change, but with all the lawsuits and scare tactics, it'll bide them just enough time to do just that.
Rader
Re:How the rights of artists can be protected, tod
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Helping Artists Online
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The rant was informative, but it was stolen from someone else. While I think it's extremely lame that she's getting all the credit for it, I am at least happy that it's creating a buzz in many of the readers. Maybe it's a better alternative, since more people would listen to someone "more famous".
But I just wanted to puke when I read some response posts that were practically worshipping her (not you) for her "brilliance" and "courage". Bah! She's about as smart as her music is (heheh)
Yes! I've been a small fan of emusic.com for quite some time. For some of the albums, it still seemed expensive for $8.99 per album, considering I had to live with their mp3 rip, instead of my own. Not to mention that these are from Indie type labels (although well known ones). (note: there are plenty of albums under 8.99)
However, this never kept me from getting the albums I really wanted. Some as low as $3.99. One of the niches that emusic.com had for me was that they carried genres I liked, but were hard to find elsewhere. Napster, newsgroups, and even the record store. If you enjoy Punk, Post-Punk, Gothic, Industrial, and other non-top-40 genres, this is a great place to go.
Cleopatra Records is one of the largest Indie Labels in the world, and their selection is well represented on eMusic.com. I remember looking through Goth mags about 7 years ago, and my only link to gothic music was buying a few Cleopatra Compilations, since I didn't know exactly what I liked at the time (and thanks to the Big-5, they could give a rat's ass in informing me what I'd like through radio or advertisement). Maybe if I lived in a bigger city, I would have had more similar-minded friends and been exposed to the subculture more.
I hope eMusic's new subscription rate works out well. I'm testing it out with a 3-month subscription at $14.99 a month. (They charge monthly, not one big lump). So far so good. Now a person can REALLY test out new bands.
Maybe this is a bad analogy... but I consider the selection from emusic to be inbetween Mp3.com and Napster. I think mp3.com was a good idea at one time (and I still wish them luck) but it's full of unsigned artists (and for good reason). I would check out their Top-20 list in the genres I liked, and I didn't even like their "#1" band. The first band that got me hooked to mp3.com was Trance Control. I liked them so much I bought their DAM Cd within 60 seconds. However, since that time, I've only found a few bands I considered even above average. (your mileage may vary) At least emusic has a large selection of signed artists (just maybe signed with smaller labels) with a higher ratio of quality bands.
If you've never heard of "They Might Be Giants", "Violent Femmes", "The Jesus Lizard", "NOFX", "Bad Religion"... to name a few, then this post probably didn't mean much to you.
Rader
Re:This is the problem - but where's the solution?
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Two-Faced Napster?
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Yea, I'd like to see more PCI cards dedicated to specific tasks. It reminds me of the days where there Adobe Photoshop cards that had built in Filter algorithms so you could (er..duh) do Filters faster.
Now that CPU's are faster, the filters are pretty fast. Oh well, I like to see anything come out. To each their own.
--In an interview earlier this month, RIAA chief executive Hilary Rosen told CNET News.com that the industry stands by the Soundscan report.
Oohh... they're standing by the one statistic that represents what they want people to think! Where would we be if scientists tried to prove things with doctored data, instead of allowing the surprising facts come in (you know, like the first time we found out the moon wasn't made of cheese)
You know, this gets me all riled up. I think if someone came to me and told me I had to get rid of my 2,200 mp3 albums to save the artists, I would (except for that really really hard working metallica band...) But there's no way I'd even bother to piss in a record executive's mouth to save his life from dying of thirst.
My CD buying habits have certainly changed thanks to Napster, mp3 trading, etc. I never bought very many CD's to start with, but one thing I have noticed is that my purchasing habits of the main stream bands has gone down, while my purchasing of 'fringe' CD's have gone way up. From Zero to....whatever.
I've spent more on Emusic.com this year alone than all of normal CD's two years ago.
Main reason... I purchase Punk-O-Rama Volumes 1 through 5 at Emusic.com , or pick them up at the Public Library (and rip), and suddenly I'm caught up in the punk scene (not really, j/k) but it opens new doors to bands that I know I like now. Sure, there might be a few main ones like NOFX, Bad REligion, just to name 2, but what about others? These compilations and 'testing' via Napster clues me in. However, finding these type of genres on Napster is pretty low, so when a Punk band just released their new album on EMusic.com 2 weeks ago, I'm much more likely to purchase it, than try my bad luck in finding these online.
The BIGGEST improvement to my music life due to Napster/newsgroups/et al, would be the BLUES. I knew I liked the blues, knew I heard some songs I loved, but dind't know who played it, song name, nuthin'. I would NEVER have bought a blues CD at $17 a crack just to see if I liked it! Picture this... I take a crack at an album in a record store... Pay $17, take home, play once, hated it!Repeat?
Thanks to ripping a bunch of Blues compilation from the library, I now know who the kings of blues are, and know that I like them: John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, etc.
Not much of an argument for the RIAA, since all they want to sell is mainstream crud, and I can hear that crap on the radio anytime, and make my decision that way. But definately interest in non-mainstream music must be tripling as we speak.
I think that many people who usually buy a lot of CD's, still are. If you love music enough to buy that many at that price, you may continue to. However, we have to admit many of them have cut back drastically. As far as people like myself who never bought too many anyway (My total collection was only 120) then the sales went down to practically Zero, but my online sales have gone way up.
Here's your Pepsi guy that doesn't know anything about computers:
John Sculley is famous for his Newton and his days at Apple Computer. Before Amelio, before Spindler, John Sculley was steering the course at Apple. Hired by legendary founder Steve Jobs, who convinced him to leave Pepsi by asking Sculley if he wanted to "sell sugar water" for the rest of his life, Sculley became one of the leading figures in Apple mythology by heading the company from 1983 to 1993. Ironically, Sculley later ousted Jobs in a power struggle and then positioned himself as a technology visionary.
During his decade at Apple, the company's annual revenues rose from $600 million to $8 billion. True to his reputation as an unparalleled mass marketer, Sculley built Apple into a household brand.
Too lazy to link, but found at: www.msu.edu/~luckie/hallofame.htm
It wasn't a 'salesman' that sold Pepsi... we're talking top management. COO CIO CTO CFO, etc.
I think at that level, the most important part of your job is administration, marketing, and business sense, not computer knowledge. These type of people are suppose to be good at surrounding themselves with computer geniuses - the type of people you're thinking of.
It's the engineers that make a product brilliant, and martketing that makes the masses believe it's brilliant (whether it is or not). You and I both know that back in the early days of Apple, they had some shining geniuses working at Apple, making Jobs look good. Jobs made Apple HOT back then by doing what he does best: getting his workers into a frenzy to produce the best stuff available while 'only' working 100 hours a week!
Here's the quote from Jobs to John Sculley from Pesi Cola: "Do you want to sell sugar water to teenagers for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?"
And another quote (only one can be right, right?): "If you stay at Pepsi, five years from now all you'll have accomplished is selling a lot more sugar water to kids. If you come to Apple you can change the world."
Exactly! Apple didn't show ATI a lesson, they just shot themselves in the foot! You're suppose to cancel support, etc with a company that doesn't provide what they promise! Not because it personally took away one person's thunder. At the most they should have chewed them out, and then if necessary, cancel any future dealings with ATI.
This is the problem when one sociopath gets too much say-so in a company. Bring back those old, aging board members... they know how to make money. They don't have big egos, just big wallets!
Jobs just shot himself in the foot to relieve an imaginary stab in the back. He needs to take more LCD to fight back the flashbacks! Hee! (yea, i know i'm just jealous... i'd do anything to have the chance to screw up my own business)
I have to disagree with the people saying that 80GB is out of control. Even for the home user...
With video capture getting more and more popular, even mom and dad will need more room for their vids. And it never takes long for the software people to come along with something and fill up any remaining space!
Plus, anything bigger and nicer that comes out, drives down the cost of yesterday's model, which is just fine for me!
I have 2 hard drives on my machine. The first one is used for the Operating System and Applications only. It's 8 GB, and I'm constantly running out of space. True... my girlfriend seems to download her gymnastic videos to this drive instead of the other drive... but even after I clean it up, I'm still hovering around 7 GB just for apps, o/s, and 2 games.
Picture a family with one comptuer: where the kids both have their mp3's piling up from napster, games getting added on a monthly basis. dad sneaking some porn at night, and mom filling it up with cookbooks, and ligit video editing, and you have a system I wouldn't sell without atleast 20GB. It'll only get worse/better... So bring on the 80Gigs!
I'm still looking forward to the day that I can buy *ONE* hard drive that will hold my whole MP3 collection.
I hate to get all excited over rumours, but I can't see this happening. Not well. At least the part of pulling the plug on all the songs. 29 million users are going to get mad the day they show up and no Metallica & Hanson songs are available for download.
If they change gears, they're going to lose their popularity. Their venture capitalists are going to pine for the days of being sued and being so popular!
What could people "trade" that's about movies? Whole movies? Probably not. Trailers? Oooh... like I need to have ALL of those. Celebrity pictures? Maybe. Nude pictures? Probably not. I can't see how they could say 'yes' to this file, and 'no' to that file. Unless they wen't and 'tagged' all the files that are 'allowed', but if someone is going to tag all the 'allowed' files, then they might as well just provide all those files at one site.
If you have a tape player in your car, just get one of those CD->tape converters, and you have your solution! Does anyone know what you could do if you had a Cd player in your car though? They..uh, wouldn't have AUX in would they?
50 seconds of 'buffer' (or as they say, anit-skip) is great for cars. It's too bad the better MPTrip didn't come with the remote... With 200+ songs on one CD-R, you'r gonna want that to type track number in and move between the songs! If you had your favorite CD-R in a car, I'm sure that you'd memorize some of the numbers of your favorite songs!
Aaarrrghhhhh! Where's those mod points when you need them?
Maybe SETI is actually used by the NSA to crack the higher bit encryption that they're afraid of. Hell, with 30,000 years or whatever of computing power that SETI has racked up so far... we've helped NSA crack every 1,024 bit encrypted data gleaned from the Eschelon project!
I never thought I'd see the day when I was tricked so easily in turning my self in.:(
That is why I think the SETI project is such a success. Sure, it might not be for the cure for cancer (unless of course the first radio wave message we decode happens to be an alien broadcasting the cure for cancer....)
I think SETI appeals to a certain type of people that like the idea of parallel processing, like shiny dynamic graphics, aliens, computers and whatnot. Plus give them the biggest incentive of all: Number scores! Get the most SETI points, get ranked, Hell, I'm whoring for Karma right now!
But yea, it'll be a cold day in hell I help some oil company rip me off even more. I'm sure Starbucks could be next. Or the McScreenSaver? It'll take more than those 18 cent checks they mentioned! It's gotta be a cult following. With ranking points! Yea!
Is MAME something that "just" converts all the coin op machines? Or does it cover the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Intellivision, Nintendo, Sega, and other bizarre combos?
I ask because the article talked about the interviewee as the one who read and "uploaded" the ROM's from the old machines... So I was wondering if the same process was used for everything. Has anyone worked with the actual emulator code? I'm curious if they need to check to see "what type" of machine the game came from so that it knows what type of emulating to do.
Great, now we'll have to worship Mickey & Steve Jobs. Or should I say iMickey.
Maybe Steve will slowly change the face of Mickey into his own image. Slowly changing all past episodes...so that our kids will never know the difference.
M...I...C..... See you really soon! K...E...Y..... Why, Because we love you! J...O...B....S....Mickey Jobs! Mickey Jobs!
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But now it's big business, and they're in it for the money. They tried to screw newspapers that used Carriers to deliver, by disallowing a person's mail box to be used. It's against the law to use a mail box for ANYTHING besides holding offical postal mail. That is why you might see tiny mail boxes that say "Tribune" or something that newspapers get shoved in, and hangs below a real mail box.
UPS starts to make money, become popular. The Post Office has tried to take them out of business. They begin a parcel system, and now even spend your money (your money) on advertisements. Why do they need to compete against Fed Ex, UPS, etc? Back in the 1800's they did it because no one else could. Finally, we have a better, cheaper solution... why not let them take it over. Put them under FCC rules or something? Let capitalism take it's due coarse? We'll let normal business practices create a lean, mean postal machine. Just think how cheap UPS rates would be, if they didn't have to pay through the nose governmental restrictions. Or were allowed to use 'mail boxes'. Or were allowed to deliver to Post Office Boxes.
Now the Post Office tries to put supply companies out of business. They now undercut costs of envelopes, boxes, etc. And it's all from money you pay each time you lick a stamp. The U.S. Postal service already gets breaks from the government. There are many services (such as printing) that the Postal Service can get cheap from governemtent services, and they only have to pay a nominal "preferred customer" rate... just to keep it 'legal'.
And now, as if this isn't enough, they want to put ISP's out of business. Ok, maybe that's a little harsh, but come on... Hotmail email is pretty popular. What if the USPS does a good job with this new email idea... and puts hotmail out of business. (yea i know, boohoo microsoft). Yahoo, excite, and my beer.com email will go away. They worked hard for our eyeballs, and shouldn't have to compete against the government.
Rader
But there is large a postal committe in the government that "looks" over the actions of the Postal Services, etc, and they are indeed tax-funded, much like any government committee. There are also government facilities run by tax-payers money like printing presses, etc, and these services are used by the Postal Office, at "preferred-discount" rates.
Rader
Actually, it's been mentioned many times, and even in quotes from the RIAA that it's not illegal to share this stuff on a one to one basis for personal use. Now, granted, they were using this to argue something bigger and badder against ___fill in the blank____ but, it was mentioned non-the-less. This is confusing to me too... however, this proves that the copyright laws are confusing, lacking, and written for other instances besides what is going on.
Have you ever seen web sites that say "You can't download anything on here". Or, "You must delete these songs after 24 hours". These are loopholes that even the RIAA recognize. Downloading Metallica songs off of Napster is 100% legal, providing Metallica songs for others through Napster --- was maybe illegal, we're not sure yet. Being Napster, and providing these people to provide Metallica songs... well now we have one entity to sue. And they haven't won or lost yet either.
When a person starts to make MONEY off of copyrighted material.. that's when the hammer comes down. Napster's whole system is designed to profit from racketeering. It's no wonder they're in court.
MP3.com provided a means for people who owned their music to listen to it anywhere they had internet access. They got sued!
You keep on arguing until you're blue in the face, that my MP3 collection is illegal, and I'm making artists, that I'd never buy from anyway, starve to death.
Please keep in mind, that we're talking about a possible copyright infringment. Not theft. They are 2 completely different things. And not only that, but the law is being reviewed and rewritten now for copyrights. So you might as well wait see what the law actually SAYS before you start pointing fingers.
And while you're praising your holy self, the RIAA will be one step closer to their original goal: Charging us EACH time we hear a song. Even if we bought the CD. They'd cream their jeans the day they come up with a DIVX solution, where we get charged pennies each time we hear a song.
On a different note, I'd LOVE to put up digital copies of Katz' books on the internet for everyone to download. If we could set up a system so that within a few hours of release, we could provide the book.... I'd love to see what Katz would do. He'd probably 2-face it just like Napster did.
Rader
What does this mean? Basically, if the uptake of the net as a tool for artists takes off over the next couple of years, it will become next to impossible for the conglomerates to stop.
Unfortunately the RIAA is smokescreening the world with all the lawsuits. Not to actually stop piracy, digital distribution, and alternatives, but to bide some time so that they can come out with their own solution. The ONLY solution.
I don't know why they can't be happy with $15 billion a year, and more next year... but they want ALL of it. They don't want anyone else making money off of them. You could tell them that they could double their profits next year, but Bubba.com would also make a couple million. Sue!
Sorry to bring up analogies of stuff I know about: newspapers.... but the United States Post Office reminds me of the RIAA. Did you know that the only legal purpose of the Post Office is to make sure that every citizen has the right to communicate via letters to other citizens. It was very important in the late 1800's that everyone had the right to be heard, and communicate that the "Redcoats were coming"... etc.
But now it's big business, and they're in it for the money. They tried to screw newspapers that used Carriers to deliver, by disallowing a person's mail box to be used. It's against the law to use a mail box for ANYTHING besides holding offical postal mail. That is why you might see tiny mail boxes that say "Tribune" or something, and hangs below a real mail box.
UPS starts to make money, become popular. The Post Office has tried to take them out of business. They begin a parcel system, and now even spend your money (your money) on advertisements. Why do they need to compete against Fed Ex, UPS, etc? Back in the 1800's they did it because no one else could. Finally, we have a better, cheaper solution... why not let them take it over. Put them under FCC rules or something?
Now the Post Office tries to put supply companies out of business. They now undercut costs of envelopes, boxes, etc. And it's all from tax money and from raising your stamp rates.
I've been waiting for Portable MP3 players to take over the world. Last Christmas they could have, with SDMI appliances failing to make it in time. But it hasn't happened! We're in big trouble, because it won't be long before the big companies come up with their own distribution model, digital format, and FUD. A lot of people say... hey, artists could make their own fan sites. I bet the RIAA will do it for them. They'll come up with a million reasons to stick with them... and the artists will. Free web sites, whatever. And with a$$holes like Metallica sticking up for the cause before it's even panned out proves this point. I mean even a "spokewoman" of mp3's, only did it because she got a million something in MP3.com stock. And MP3.com has sold out to boot!
Whatever good points you and anyone can come up with that the internet can do for artists, the RIAA or big 5 will steal it and make it their own. They can do it 10 times better because they have 1000 times the money. Yes, they're very slow to change, but with all the lawsuits and scare tactics, it'll bide them just enough time to do just that.
Rader
But I just wanted to puke when I read some response posts that were practically worshipping her (not you) for her "brilliance" and "courage". Bah! She's about as smart as her music is (heheh)
Rader
However, this never kept me from getting the albums I really wanted. Some as low as $3.99. One of the niches that emusic.com had for me was that they carried genres I liked, but were hard to find elsewhere. Napster, newsgroups, and even the record store. If you enjoy Punk, Post-Punk, Gothic, Industrial, and other non-top-40 genres, this is a great place to go.
Cleopatra Records is one of the largest Indie Labels in the world, and their selection is well represented on eMusic.com. I remember looking through Goth mags about 7 years ago, and my only link to gothic music was buying a few Cleopatra Compilations, since I didn't know exactly what I liked at the time (and thanks to the Big-5, they could give a rat's ass in informing me what I'd like through radio or advertisement). Maybe if I lived in a bigger city, I would have had more similar-minded friends and been exposed to the subculture more.
I hope eMusic's new subscription rate works out well. I'm testing it out with a 3-month subscription at $14.99 a month. (They charge monthly, not one big lump). So far so good. Now a person can REALLY test out new bands.
Maybe this is a bad analogy... but I consider the selection from emusic to be inbetween Mp3.com and Napster. I think mp3.com was a good idea at one time (and I still wish them luck) but it's full of unsigned artists (and for good reason). I would check out their Top-20 list in the genres I liked, and I didn't even like their "#1" band. The first band that got me hooked to mp3.com was Trance Control. I liked them so much I bought their DAM Cd within 60 seconds. However, since that time, I've only found a few bands I considered even above average. (your mileage may vary) At least emusic has a large selection of signed artists (just maybe signed with smaller labels) with a higher ratio of quality bands.
If you've never heard of "They Might Be Giants", "Violent Femmes", "The Jesus Lizard", "NOFX", "Bad Religion" ... to name a few, then this post probably didn't mean much to you.
Rader
There's still time... :)
Rader
Now that CPU's are faster, the filters are pretty fast. Oh well, I like to see anything come out. To each their own.
Rader
--In an interview earlier this month, RIAA chief executive Hilary Rosen told CNET News.com that the industry stands by the Soundscan report.
Oohh... they're standing by the one statistic that represents what they want people to think! Where would we be if scientists tried to prove things with doctored data, instead of allowing the surprising facts come in (you know, like the first time we found out the moon wasn't made of cheese)
You know, this gets me all riled up. I think if someone came to me and told me I had to get rid of my 2,200 mp3 albums to save the artists, I would (except for that really really hard working metallica band...)
But there's no way I'd even bother to piss in a record executive's mouth to save his life from dying of thirst.
I've spent more on Emusic.com this year alone than all of normal CD's two years ago.
Main reason... I purchase Punk-O-Rama Volumes 1 through 5 at Emusic.com , or pick them up at the Public Library (and rip), and suddenly I'm caught up in the punk scene (not really, j/k) but it opens new doors to bands that I know I like now. Sure, there might be a few main ones like NOFX, Bad REligion, just to name 2, but what about others? These compilations and 'testing' via Napster clues me in. However, finding these type of genres on Napster is pretty low, so when a Punk band just released their new album on EMusic.com 2 weeks ago, I'm much more likely to purchase it, than try my bad luck in finding these online.
The BIGGEST improvement to my music life due to Napster/newsgroups/et al, would be the BLUES. I knew I liked the blues, knew I heard some songs I loved, but dind't know who played it, song name, nuthin'. I would NEVER have bought a blues CD at $17 a crack just to see if I liked it! Picture this... I take a crack at an album in a record store... Pay $17, take home, play once, hated it!Repeat?
Thanks to ripping a bunch of Blues compilation from the library, I now know who the kings of blues are, and know that I like them: John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, etc.
Not much of an argument for the RIAA, since all they want to sell is mainstream crud, and I can hear that crap on the radio anytime, and make my decision that way. But definately interest in non-mainstream music must be tripling as we speak.
I think that many people who usually buy a lot of CD's, still are. If you love music enough to buy that many at that price, you may continue to. However, we have to admit many of them have cut back drastically. As far as people like myself who never bought too many anyway (My total collection was only 120) then the sales went down to practically Zero, but my online sales have gone way up.
Rader
John Sculley is famous for his Newton and his days at Apple Computer. Before Amelio, before Spindler, John Sculley was steering the course at Apple. Hired by legendary founder Steve Jobs, who convinced him to leave Pepsi by asking Sculley if he wanted to "sell sugar water" for the rest of his life, Sculley became one of the leading figures in Apple mythology by heading the company from 1983 to 1993. Ironically, Sculley later ousted Jobs in a power struggle and then positioned himself as a technology visionary.
During his decade at Apple, the company's annual revenues rose from $600 million to $8 billion. True to his reputation as an unparalleled mass marketer, Sculley built Apple into a household brand.
Too lazy to link, but found at: www.msu.edu/~luckie/hallofame.htm
Rader
Their September schedule is for you and me, not million dollar companies.
Rader
I think at that level, the most important part of your job is administration, marketing, and business sense, not computer knowledge. These type of people are suppose to be good at surrounding themselves with computer geniuses - the type of people you're thinking of.
It's the engineers that make a product brilliant, and martketing that makes the masses believe it's brilliant (whether it is or not). You and I both know that back in the early days of Apple, they had some shining geniuses working at Apple, making Jobs look good. Jobs made Apple HOT back then by doing what he does best: getting his workers into a frenzy to produce the best stuff available while 'only' working 100 hours a week!
Here's the quote from Jobs to John Sculley from Pesi Cola:
"Do you want to sell sugar water to teenagers for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?"
And another quote (only one can be right, right?):
"If you stay at Pepsi, five years from now all you'll have accomplished is selling a lot more sugar water to kids. If you come to Apple you can change the world."
Rader
This is the problem when one sociopath gets too much say-so in a company. Bring back those old, aging board members... they know how to make money. They don't have big egos, just big wallets!
Jobs just shot himself in the foot to relieve an imaginary stab in the back. He needs to take more LCD to fight back the flashbacks! Hee! (yea, i know i'm just jealous... i'd do anything to have the chance to screw up my own business)
Rader
With video capture getting more and more popular, even mom and dad will need more room for their vids. And it never takes long for the software people to come along with something and fill up any remaining space!
Plus, anything bigger and nicer that comes out, drives down the cost of yesterday's model, which is just fine for me!
I have 2 hard drives on my machine. The first one is used for the Operating System and Applications only. It's 8 GB, and I'm constantly running out of space. True... my girlfriend seems to download her gymnastic videos to this drive instead of the other drive... but even after I clean it up, I'm still hovering around 7 GB just for apps, o/s, and 2 games.
Picture a family with one comptuer: where the kids both have their mp3's piling up from napster, games getting added on a monthly basis. dad sneaking some porn at night, and mom filling it up with cookbooks, and ligit video editing, and you have a system I wouldn't sell without atleast 20GB. It'll only get worse/better... So bring on the 80Gigs!
I'm still looking forward to the day that I can buy *ONE* hard drive that will hold my whole MP3 collection.
Rader
-- 47 GB SCSI hard drive for $600.
That's bigger than your "max" of 36, and cheaper than your 5 bazillion dollars you quoted.
This is an magazine ad I have pasted on my cubicle from last summer. Nice try.
Rader
Corel should just bow down to Microsoft and let Office reign supreme. Ever since the helpful magic paperclip, MS Office ruled!
Rader
If they change gears, they're going to lose their popularity. Their venture capitalists are going to pine for the days of being sued and being so popular!
What could people "trade" that's about movies? Whole movies? Probably not. Trailers? Oooh... like I need to have ALL of those. Celebrity pictures? Maybe. Nude pictures? Probably not. I can't see how they could say 'yes' to this file, and 'no' to that file. Unless they wen't and 'tagged' all the files that are 'allowed', but if someone is going to tag all the 'allowed' files, then they might as well just provide all those files at one site.
Rader
50 seconds of 'buffer' (or as they say, anit-skip) is great for cars. It's too bad the better MPTrip didn't come with the remote... With 200+ songs on one CD-R, you'r gonna want that to type track number in and move between the songs! If you had your favorite CD-R in a car, I'm sure that you'd memorize some of the numbers of your favorite songs!
Rader
Maybe SETI is actually used by the NSA to crack the higher bit encryption that they're afraid of. Hell, with 30,000 years or whatever of computing power that SETI has racked up so far... we've helped NSA crack every 1,024 bit encrypted data gleaned from the Eschelon project!
I never thought I'd see the day when I was tricked so easily in turning my self in. :(
Rader
I think SETI appeals to a certain type of people that like the idea of parallel processing, like shiny dynamic graphics, aliens, computers and whatnot. Plus give them the biggest incentive of all: Number scores! Get the most SETI points, get ranked, Hell, I'm whoring for Karma right now!
But yea, it'll be a cold day in hell I help some oil company rip me off even more. I'm sure Starbucks could be next. Or the McScreenSaver? It'll take more than those 18 cent checks they mentioned! It's gotta be a cult following. With ranking points! Yea!
Rader
I ask because the article talked about the interviewee as the one who read and "uploaded" the ROM's from the old machines... So I was wondering if the same process was used for everything. Has anyone worked with the actual emulator code? I'm curious if they need to check to see "what type" of machine the game came from so that it knows what type of emulating to do.
Game on!
Rader
Rader
Maybe Steve will slowly change the face of Mickey into his own image. Slowly changing all past episodes...so that our kids will never know the difference.
M...I...C..... See you really soon!
K...E...Y..... Why, Because we love you!
J...O...B....S....Mickey Jobs!
Mickey Jobs!
Rader