I am a Chief Engineer of a major market radio station. This job used to be fun, but now it's a drag...and I work for one of the better stations!
I'm responsible for IT, Audio, RF and even janitorial stuff. The Production Director comes to me to have me buy HIM CD-R's! Salespeople have to be the most computer illerate people going.
I'm constantly being berated because obsolete equipment is being used in ways it was never designed for..and when it (frequently) doesn't work, guess whose fault it is? I mean, 166 MMX computers with 32 megs of RAM just don't open 25 page color Powerpoint presentations well.
My requests for newer, better, more reliable equipment fall on deaf ears. As CE, I'm responsible for a transmitter plant that's 30 years old and 20 miles away from the studio.
I swear that when I say: "I'm going to the transmitter", management hears: "I'm screwing off for the rest of the day".
Last week, I got a really bitchy phone call because the 'net was down (for 10 minutes by the way). I was 25 miles away running a remote broadcast. Next day I got a nasty email from the General Manager insisting that I be in the building during normal business hours. I replied "Okay...but don't expect any remote broadcasts to get on the air then". He called me up and asked why. "Because I set them up, run them and break them down" was my reply.
Two days ago I was scouting a remote location.
I got called that the 'net was down again. When I came back two hours later I got bitched out by a salesperson that he couldn't email presentations, and it was MY fault! Turns out that HE was screwing around with the FAX machine (god knows why) and somehow managed to unplug the DSL modem from the wall jack!
It felt good.. REAL good...for a few minutes at least....
Thanks for putting up with my rant...it feels good to get it out..
PS: mIssed the meet last night...Guess why?
A remote broadcast that lasted until 9 PM!
Microsoft also warned today that the era of "open computing," the free exchange of digital information that has defined the personal computer industry, is ending.
The company is trying to influence an industry consortium called the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, which has been trying to create a new standard that will build a cryptographic key system into future personal computers.
The idea has been challenged in the past by both civil liberties and consumer groups, who argue that it could potentially undercut privacy and intellectual property fair-use rights.
And also very clear that IP advocates see the digital revolution as a way to completely eliminate fair use rights....and Microsoft is leading the charge.
This is a well planned, deliberate crusade by corporate America to take away individual's rights. Just look at how they have Congress and the courts already in their pockets! The DMCA is one of the most blatent anti-consumer,
pro-corporate, special interest laws in history! And now the greedy bastards think even the DMCA isn't enough..they want to build additional 'protections' into the hardware and the OS software...and make software that doesn't have these 'pet things' illegal.
My hope is that the massive corporate greed that deregulation has spawned will finally let the American public see how the wool has been pulled over their eyes. Already Congress is running scared..they know that they allowed corporate greed to run unchecked and now it's biting them in the ass. Maybe they'll finally 'get it' with regards to the fact that the PEOPLE send their asses to Congress..not the RIAA and MPAA!
The story clearly says that he was busted for both copyright infringement (the illegal program disks) AND selling "unauthorized computer equipment"
Seems to me that the formet charge was vaild, while the latter was not.
Does this mean that if I sell an overclocked computer in Canada (read; a CPU being used in an "unauthorized way") that I can now go to jail?
This world has to start thinking like one earth! National boundaries are made by MAN not god! Radio signals don't stop at them. Water doesn't stop flowing natually by them. Same thing for air, sound, and 1001 other things...one being the Internet. Most problems that our earth has today are GLOBAL in nature. The concept of nation states is a throwback to an earlier time before the discovery of radio and other instant means of communication and before airline flight made our earth so tiny. The whole concept is obsolete and should be scrapped. Alas, we all know that that simply won't happen unless and until something threatens the entire earth on a global scale.
"I'm glad. It coundn't happen to a bigger bunch of assholes. MCI treated me like shit until I told them to pound sand and went with Sprint."
Speaking of Sprint....I wonder how glad THEY are taht their merger with Worldcom broke apart last year?
Look, the music industry wants to CONTROL DISTRIBUTION. Why? because then they can charge whatever they want for music. If there's competition, then the price will fall. That's capitalism. What the record industry is is a cartel...Cartels exist to keep prices UP. Look at OPEC for example.
The music industry is looking for an excuse for their poor sales. I can give them several, and one is THEM!
First off, they mainly market to teenagers, the ones most affected by recessions. It's the low income base jobs that go first in a recession, which means that many teens just don't HAVE the $$ to buy $20.00 Compact Disks. Also, many of these teenagers' parents are feeling the pinch too, which trickles down to the teens. Frankly, I'm surprised that sales have only dropped 10%...I would have expected a bigger drop. I wonder is anyone has studied other markets for teens like boutique clothing. A friend of mine manages a mall clothing store and he says that his sales are in the toilet. Of course, the music industry doesn't want to know this...because it plays ostrich to anything that doesn't agree with it's belief that downloading causes all its problems. I have an idea for these clueless idiots: Why not try to produce and market music for people who STILL HAVE $$ to spend: mainly 25-54 year old adults?
Secondly, we're about to wind up in a depression. Just look at the stock market recently. People are scared, and when we're afraid we save money instead of spending it. We buy necessities instead of frills. We keep the old car a bit longer instead of buying a new one. We don't remodel the house. We refrain on buying big ticket items...Just walk into the HDTV area of any Best Buy or Circuit City and look at how empty it is. I consider twenty dollar CD's as frills, because 20 bucks buys a meal for my family too.
I think that the music industry needs to take an objective look at why their sales are down...and stop guessing what their problems are. maybe then they just might find out that their problems are under their control and therefore solvable.
and I have a 1500/128 DSL connection that costs $52.00 per month. Four of us share this connection (and the cost of the DSL). Fortunately, when the condo was remodelled six years ago they used cat 3 wire for the phone connections. All I did was connect a 10 base T mini hub up to two unused cat 3 pairs going to each condo. The hub lives in the common area and is powered by an unused cat 3 pair.
I plugged the hub into my Linksys router/switch, which provides firewall and DHCP. An added bonus for them is that they get to access my MP3 server which has 5000 plus songs on it.
Each of us has broadband and it costs each $13.00 per month. All in all it seems to work out just fine..and we're even thinking about upping the connection to 7100/768 if we can get the fifth person interested. Alas, that would cost each of the five $40.00/month though.
Why? Simple...because it's easier to regulate a few big companies then millions of individuals. The Internet scares the Govt., because it's (now) a populist medium. Joe Citizen...or G.W. Bush are equals on the net, because an IP address is what it is regardless of who's on the computer connected to it. The Governnment can't regulate the 'net, and they want to. In some ways, the pendulum has swung all the way to the right. The communist block imploded because their govts. (try as they did) could not control their access to information about the rest of the world.When the USSR jammed RFE broadcasats, they shifted to another frequency. When Khomeni was kicked out of Iran, he used the Long distance telephone system to dial into Iran from France and disseminate his message, which was playing on thousands of cassettes within Tehran within hours. Now our Government wants to pull the same crap...Problem is, they can't. Information is a virus that can't be controlled. Just ask the former Soviets.
Now that Ogg 1.0 is out....
on
Ogg Vorbis 1.0
·
· Score: 2
Manufacturers and developers will begin to take Ogg seriously, especically since it's sound quality is better (or at least as good as MP3).
This is a good Friday..a very good Friday indeed....
Ahhh I remember..
I just got divorced.
I've had a vasectomy.
I won't come in your mouth.
I'll respect you in the morning.
and finally the #1 saying:
I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help you!
'nuff said?
Then we'd really be up shit's creek. I can see it now: you're driving along on the freeway at 75 MPH and your dashboard suddenly says: "New updates are automatically being installed".
Next thing you know the airbags all go off, the brakes stop working, the steering pulls hard to the right, and some voice begins saying: "Please move away from the car".
They have this tiny 'newsletter' (4 pages printed on 1/2 sheet of 8x11 paper) they send with the phone bill. Most people just throw it away. One month it mentioned that they were planning to market data to 'affiliates'...and how to call an 800 number to opt out.
To make a long story short, the TV stations and Newspapers got hold of it and the next thing you know Qwest is delaying its implementation and putting out BIG ads on how to opt out.
They even allowed you to opt out via the web, because the 800 number was being overloaded with too many calls. I actually got through on the 800 number and the woman there tried to talk me out of opting out!
So many people opted out that Qwest gave up the whole plan. Problem is is that the opt out is only good for a year so next year...... well you get the picture.
Is that this article is correct....and incorrect at the same time.
Yes, technology became plentiful and cheap...just look at the computing power of the average laptop.
Indeed, there's a rumor that the astronauts in space prefer to use bring along (and use) their personal laptops instead of the NASA computers because they're faster and better.
In this way this article is correct.
Where it's incorrect (at least in the U.S.) is that this whole trend has alarmed both the government and big business (RIAA, MPAA et al) and now THEY'RE together conspiring to try and reverse it. In other words, it's okay for Joe Citizen to disseminate information as long as he doesn't take $$ out of some company's pocket in the process. Do that, and you're going to be greeted by an angry company going to the member of Congress they have in their pocket seeking redress.
I used to work for "the evil empire (AKA Clear Channel)", at their Internet portal station Worldclassrock.com. They had intended to run all their net stations as regular radio stations with one single exception: the ability to click on the title and buy the record online. Seems to me that this would benefit the RIAA, not hurt it. At the time we ran about 12 different streams, only three of them approaching FM quality. Those three streams (64K Win Media, 64K Real G2, 96K Real G2) were constantly rebuffering even on big pipe broadband connections. I'll tell you this with certainty: making a good quality recording with real time streaming is almost impossible. There's simply too many interruptions to the stream! I think the reason downloading music files is so popular is that they don't happen in real time so the resultant file has time to become complete. Once again the RIAA has proven to the world how purely dumb they are.
The Free Congress Foundation, which opposes CSEA, criticized Monday evening's vote. Congress should stop chipping away at our civil liberties," said Brad Jansen, an analyst at the conservative group. "A good place to start would be to substantially revise (CSEA) to increase, not diminish, oversight and accountability by the government."
See? Even the conservatives are beginning to be up in arms over this organized assault on citizens' liberties. This is what happens when (clueless) politicians try to regulate something that they know SQUAT about!
File sharing doesn't hurt musicians or performers or music lovers. File sharing only hurts the record companies. Why? it's a new form of distribution, one that they can't control.
For decades, the record companies had a lock on two things: Promotion and distribution. Control these and you control it all. Now that the radio stations have taken promotion back, the record companies are screaming to Congress for redress.
File sharing threatens to take a big bite into their distribution model, so back to Congress they go for redress again.
The big lie here is the mantra thay say over and over and over: "We're doing this for the artists".
BULLSHIT! They're doing it almost 100% for THEMSELVES! The average artist makes practically nothing from their records. There is ample evidence to this fact. The artists make most of their money in performing and merchandising.
The sad (and scary) thing is that the most ignorant, clueless ones out there seem to be Congress and the courts...because they seem to simply take the RIAA and MPAA's statements completely at face value.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but cable Internet is quickly becoming useless. The prices keep going up, multi tiered access is right around the corner, they're harassing anyone who uses a router, forget about using VPN, newsgroups suck, IRC sucks, email sucks, etc. etc.
The glory days of unlimited cable Internet died with @home.
Right now, DSL is a much better choice...but for how long?
That hasn't even had a single service pack released yet. I have XP on but one machine and that's the way it's going to stay until it begins working correctly. Toolbars magically disappear and reappear, the speech reckognition keeps enabling itself and when it does it slows the machine down to a crawl, a Microsoft support person himself admitted to me that that IE6 (which XP forces you to use) is an unstable disaster that he won't even use on his machine, memory management is a joke....and on and on. Win 2K on the other and, is truly stable and has needed only two service packs as opposed to NT's six.
Even NT properly patched is much more stable then XP too.
Slashdot Mirror
And maybe he'll turn into a ostrich. Because, after all it no one TELLS you there's a problem then there isn't one. Right??
I am a Chief Engineer of a major market radio station. This job used to be fun, but now it's a drag...and I work for one of the better stations! I'm responsible for IT, Audio, RF and even janitorial stuff. The Production Director comes to me to have me buy HIM CD-R's! Salespeople have to be the most computer illerate people going. I'm constantly being berated because obsolete equipment is being used in ways it was never designed for..and when it (frequently) doesn't work, guess whose fault it is? I mean, 166 MMX computers with 32 megs of RAM just don't open 25 page color Powerpoint presentations well. My requests for newer, better, more reliable equipment fall on deaf ears. As CE, I'm responsible for a transmitter plant that's 30 years old and 20 miles away from the studio. I swear that when I say: "I'm going to the transmitter", management hears: "I'm screwing off for the rest of the day". Last week, I got a really bitchy phone call because the 'net was down (for 10 minutes by the way). I was 25 miles away running a remote broadcast. Next day I got a nasty email from the General Manager insisting that I be in the building during normal business hours. I replied "Okay...but don't expect any remote broadcasts to get on the air then". He called me up and asked why. "Because I set them up, run them and break them down" was my reply. Two days ago I was scouting a remote location. I got called that the 'net was down again. When I came back two hours later I got bitched out by a salesperson that he couldn't email presentations, and it was MY fault! Turns out that HE was screwing around with the FAX machine (god knows why) and somehow managed to unplug the DSL modem from the wall jack! It felt good.. REAL good...for a few minutes at least.... Thanks for putting up with my rant...it feels good to get it out.. PS: mIssed the meet last night...Guess why? A remote broadcast that lasted until 9 PM!
Microsoft also warned today that the era of "open computing," the free exchange of digital information that has defined the personal computer industry, is ending. The company is trying to influence an industry consortium called the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, which has been trying to create a new standard that will build a cryptographic key system into future personal computers. The idea has been challenged in the past by both civil liberties and consumer groups, who argue that it could potentially undercut privacy and intellectual property fair-use rights. And also very clear that IP advocates see the digital revolution as a way to completely eliminate fair use rights....and Microsoft is leading the charge. This is a well planned, deliberate crusade by corporate America to take away individual's rights. Just look at how they have Congress and the courts already in their pockets! The DMCA is one of the most blatent anti-consumer, pro-corporate, special interest laws in history! And now the greedy bastards think even the DMCA isn't enough..they want to build additional 'protections' into the hardware and the OS software...and make software that doesn't have these 'pet things' illegal. My hope is that the massive corporate greed that deregulation has spawned will finally let the American public see how the wool has been pulled over their eyes. Already Congress is running scared..they know that they allowed corporate greed to run unchecked and now it's biting them in the ass. Maybe they'll finally 'get it' with regards to the fact that the PEOPLE send their asses to Congress..not the RIAA and MPAA!
The story clearly says that he was busted for both copyright infringement (the illegal program disks) AND selling "unauthorized computer equipment" Seems to me that the formet charge was vaild, while the latter was not. Does this mean that if I sell an overclocked computer in Canada (read; a CPU being used in an "unauthorized way") that I can now go to jail?
This world has to start thinking like one earth! National boundaries are made by MAN not god! Radio signals don't stop at them. Water doesn't stop flowing natually by them. Same thing for air, sound, and 1001 other things...one being the Internet. Most problems that our earth has today are GLOBAL in nature. The concept of nation states is a throwback to an earlier time before the discovery of radio and other instant means of communication and before airline flight made our earth so tiny. The whole concept is obsolete and should be scrapped. Alas, we all know that that simply won't happen unless and until something threatens the entire earth on a global scale.
"I'm glad. It coundn't happen to a bigger bunch of assholes. MCI treated me like shit until I told them to pound sand and went with Sprint." Speaking of Sprint....I wonder how glad THEY are taht their merger with Worldcom broke apart last year?
Look, the music industry wants to CONTROL DISTRIBUTION. Why? because then they can charge whatever they want for music. If there's competition, then the price will fall. That's capitalism. What the record industry is is a cartel...Cartels exist to keep prices UP. Look at OPEC for example.
The music industry is looking for an excuse for their poor sales. I can give them several, and one is THEM!
First off, they mainly market to teenagers, the ones most affected by recessions. It's the low income base jobs that go first in a recession, which means that many teens just don't HAVE the $$ to buy $20.00 Compact Disks. Also, many of these teenagers' parents are feeling the pinch too, which trickles down to the teens. Frankly, I'm surprised that sales have only dropped 10%...I would have expected a bigger drop. I wonder is anyone has studied other markets for teens like boutique clothing. A friend of mine manages a mall clothing store and he says that his sales are in the toilet. Of course, the music industry doesn't want to know this...because it plays ostrich to anything that doesn't agree with it's belief that downloading causes all its problems. I have an idea for these clueless idiots: Why not try to produce and market music for people who STILL HAVE $$ to spend: mainly 25-54 year old adults?
Secondly, we're about to wind up in a depression. Just look at the stock market recently. People are scared, and when we're afraid we save money instead of spending it. We buy necessities instead of frills. We keep the old car a bit longer instead of buying a new one. We don't remodel the house. We refrain on buying big ticket items...Just walk into the HDTV area of any Best Buy or Circuit City and look at how empty it is. I consider twenty dollar CD's
as frills, because 20 bucks buys a meal for my family too.
I think that the music industry needs to take an objective look at why their sales are down...and stop guessing what their problems are. maybe then they just might find out that their problems are under their control and therefore solvable.
www.surfcity.net
and I have a 1500/128 DSL connection that costs $52.00 per month. Four of us share this connection (and the cost of the DSL). Fortunately, when the condo was remodelled six years ago they used cat 3 wire for the phone connections. All I did was connect a 10 base T mini hub up to two unused cat 3 pairs going to each condo. The hub lives in the common area and is powered by an unused cat 3 pair. I plugged the hub into my Linksys router/switch, which provides firewall and DHCP. An added bonus for them is that they get to access my MP3 server which has 5000 plus songs on it. Each of us has broadband and it costs each $13.00 per month. All in all it seems to work out just fine..and we're even thinking about upping the connection to 7100/768 if we can get the fifth person interested. Alas, that would cost each of the five $40.00/month though.
Why? Simple...because it's easier to regulate a few big companies then millions of individuals.
The Internet scares the Govt., because it's (now) a populist medium. Joe Citizen...or G.W. Bush are equals on the net, because an IP address is what it is regardless of who's on the computer connected to it. The Governnment can't regulate the 'net, and they want to. In some ways, the pendulum has swung all the way to the right. The communist block imploded because their govts. (try as they did) could not control their access to information about the rest of the world.When the USSR jammed RFE broadcasats, they shifted to another frequency. When Khomeni was kicked out of Iran, he used the Long distance telephone system to dial into Iran from France and disseminate his message, which was playing on thousands of cassettes within Tehran within hours. Now our Government wants to pull the same crap...Problem is, they can't.
Information is a virus that can't be controlled. Just ask the former Soviets.
Manufacturers and developers will begin to take Ogg seriously, especically since it's sound quality is better (or at least as good as MP3). This is a good Friday..a very good Friday indeed....
Ahhh I remember.. I just got divorced. I've had a vasectomy. I won't come in your mouth. I'll respect you in the morning. and finally the #1 saying: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help you! 'nuff said?
The irony here is that the graphics industry turned to JPEG after some company pulled the same stuff with GIF.
This crap just has to stop...and why can't the legal precedent obtained with RAMBUS apply here?
Then we'd really be up shit's creek. I can see it now: you're driving along on the freeway at 75 MPH and your dashboard suddenly says: "New updates are automatically being installed". Next thing you know the airbags all go off, the brakes stop working, the steering pulls hard to the right, and some voice begins saying: "Please move away from the car".
They have this tiny 'newsletter' (4 pages printed on 1/2 sheet of 8x11 paper) they send with the phone bill. Most people just throw it away. One month it mentioned that they were planning to market data to 'affiliates'...and how to call an 800 number to opt out. To make a long story short, the TV stations and Newspapers got hold of it and the next thing you know Qwest is delaying its implementation and putting out BIG ads on how to opt out. They even allowed you to opt out via the web, because the 800 number was being overloaded with too many calls. I actually got through on the 800 number and the woman there tried to talk me out of opting out! So many people opted out that Qwest gave up the whole plan. Problem is is that the opt out is only good for a year so next year...... well you get the picture.
Is that this article is correct....and incorrect at the same time. Yes, technology became plentiful and cheap...just look at the computing power of the average laptop. Indeed, there's a rumor that the astronauts in space prefer to use bring along (and use) their personal laptops instead of the NASA computers because they're faster and better. In this way this article is correct. Where it's incorrect (at least in the U.S.) is that this whole trend has alarmed both the government and big business (RIAA, MPAA et al) and now THEY'RE together conspiring to try and reverse it. In other words, it's okay for Joe Citizen to disseminate information as long as he doesn't take $$ out of some company's pocket in the process. Do that, and you're going to be greeted by an angry company going to the member of Congress they have in their pocket seeking redress.
I used to work for "the evil empire (AKA Clear Channel)", at their Internet portal station Worldclassrock.com. They had intended to run all their net stations as regular radio stations with one single exception: the ability to click on the title and buy the record online. Seems to me that this would benefit the RIAA, not hurt it.
At the time we ran about 12 different streams, only three of them approaching FM quality. Those three streams (64K Win Media, 64K Real G2, 96K Real G2) were constantly rebuffering even on big pipe broadband connections.
I'll tell you this with certainty: making a good quality recording with real time streaming is almost impossible. There's simply too many interruptions to the stream! I think the reason downloading music files is so popular is that they don't happen in real time so the resultant file has time to become complete.
Once again the RIAA has proven to the world how purely dumb they are.
enough said...
Which simply can't be done....if it could be, there'd be only one white pages, not the dozen or so that are available here in LA.
The Free Congress Foundation, which opposes CSEA, criticized Monday evening's vote.
Congress should stop chipping away at our civil liberties," said Brad Jansen, an analyst at the conservative group. "A good place to start would be to substantially revise (CSEA) to increase, not diminish, oversight and accountability by the government."
See? Even the conservatives are beginning to be up in arms over this organized assault on citizens' liberties.
This is what happens when (clueless) politicians try to regulate something that they know SQUAT about!
File sharing doesn't hurt musicians or performers or music lovers. File sharing only hurts the record companies. Why? it's a new form of distribution, one that they can't control. For decades, the record companies had a lock on two things: Promotion and distribution. Control these and you control it all. Now that the radio stations have taken promotion back, the record companies are screaming to Congress for redress. File sharing threatens to take a big bite into their distribution model, so back to Congress they go for redress again. The big lie here is the mantra thay say over and over and over: "We're doing this for the artists". BULLSHIT! They're doing it almost 100% for THEMSELVES! The average artist makes practically nothing from their records. There is ample evidence to this fact. The artists make most of their money in performing and merchandising. The sad (and scary) thing is that the most ignorant, clueless ones out there seem to be Congress and the courts...because they seem to simply take the RIAA and MPAA's statements completely at face value.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but cable Internet is quickly becoming useless. The prices keep going up, multi tiered access is right around the corner, they're harassing anyone who uses a router, forget about using VPN, newsgroups suck, IRC sucks, email sucks, etc. etc. The glory days of unlimited cable Internet died with @home. Right now, DSL is a much better choice...but for how long?
This article says it all....precicely. No ranting or raving...just the facts...
That hasn't even had a single service pack released yet. I have XP on but one machine and that's the way it's going to stay until it begins working correctly. Toolbars magically disappear and reappear, the speech reckognition keeps enabling itself and when it does it slows the machine down to a crawl, a Microsoft support person himself admitted to me that that IE6 (which XP forces you to use) is an unstable disaster that he won't even use on his machine, memory management is a joke....and on and on. Win 2K on the other and, is truly stable and has needed only two service packs as opposed to NT's six. Even NT properly patched is much more stable then XP too.
Ya think?