Absolutely. I can't express enough how satisfying it has been for me to discover quality music from artists I've never heard of before. And it isn't until you find an good alternative source of music that you realize how many great artists out there were passed up on by the major labels simply because they showed up at the wrong time. Being indie doesn't mean artists have no talent... it just means the major labels didn't think their style of music would sell in the current market.
I strongly urge anyone who has wide musical interests to check out EMusic. Especially if you like Jazz, Electronica, Blues, Punk, or Classical (all genres that haven't seen much mainstream sales), EMusic is fantastic. Even outside of those genres though, there are many "out of time" artists with great albums. I've found songs via EMusic that I firmly believe could have been "big hits" if they were released years before (or after).
The only drawback to EMusic is that there are soooooo many artists on there and you can expect to recognize very few (since they are indie). Using the EMusic service is like a journey through "Lost Music Land". I find most of my tips on the message boards there... lots of friendly people in the same boat... we're all just looking for great music.
Oh and one last comment about the quality of the MP3s, as that used to be a concern. These days almost all of the music is encoded using VBR (about 192kbps on average) using lame (can't remember the exact setting they use). I too wouldn't go anywhere near 128k CBR, so I waited for them to switch up to the better quality before I signed up.
Simply put, if you're willing to explore for music, EMusic is hands down the best place on the net to legally download unrestricted MP3s. Oh, and the RIAA won't appreciate it either if you're into that sort of thing.:)
It's modded funny, but there is a good idea deep in there. I've basically been thinking about this idea for years. Not quite like a card catalog system as he described, but more like an ever changing directory.
Um, this is what Yahoo! is. Perhaphs you've heard of it? Also, what is Google Directory if not "an ever changing directory"?
which quickly brought to mind an image of people trying to stick them into various ports on thier PCs. This could create and a whole new industry dedicated to cleaning floppy drives.
I first read the headline as:
Mentos as Document Retrieval Keys
which quickly brought to mind an image of people trying to stick them into various ports on thier PCs. This could create and a whole new industry dedicated to cleaning floppy drives.
I also have Siemens Gigasets (4015 & 4010). This phone (system) really is a geek's phone. I say system because you can go buy more phones and "register" them to your internal phone system (think about it like adding a PC to your LAN).
It does all the stuff you'd expect out of a "high-end" phone (voice mail, intercom, caller ID, headset port, phonebook, etc), but its also really sleek looking (no antennae on the outside:)! If anything it reminds me of a cell phone. Anyway, its got a ton of features and I've often wondered if it was hackable... there just has to be things you change in there if you only knew the codes.:)
Back to the poster's desire for a phone that runs off of AAs, this phone is a champ in that department too. It takes NiCD and NiMH... which was a huge selling point for me, as I've thrown away 3 cordless phones in the past few years due to dying/dead batteries. Plus, since I've got other stuff in the house that uses rechargable AAs, its really convenient.
>>frozen dinners might automatically give cookng instructions to microwave ovens.
>OR you could read the instructions
The real potential here is not to empower the lazy, but rather to actually get frozen food to cook right in a microwave oven. For instance, if manufacturers of microwave ovens and manufacturers of frozen foods (TV dinners) actually coordinated on a program like this, each dinner might cook differntly in every microwave... simply, it would cook in whatever manner was required to do the best job.
>>A wine lover could look on a computer screen and see what's in her wine cellar
>OR she could, i don't know, go down into her cellar? How far could it be?
The hidden power here isn't for the lady with the wine cellar as much as it is for say someone who has recently moved... and has 200 boxes sitting in his/her garage. Imagine being able to move-in and actually find where you put that hammer....
>>Prescription drug bottles could work together to send you a warning if the combination of pills you're about to swallow would be toxic.
>God forbid you acutally talk to your DOCTOR about all those pills your taking.
>The eyeglass thing is a red herring too. Been wearing glasses since 3rd grade, everytime I 'lose' them, they turn out to be on my face.
Think outside of the box here. This could be a real boon to the elderly. Whether or not the advances come in the form as described in the article or in some other ways (such as an elderly person being able to just call out to the room "where are my glasses" or "where is my medicine bottle"), being able to find items "lost" in your house is potentially very useful for those with failing memories.
There are a lot of good shows on TechTV... it all depends on your interests. For me personally:
Fresh Gear - gadgets galore... if you read/. you would probably like this show
Audiofile - where tech meets music... everything from mp3s to music creation gear to the tech behind making acoutic guitars
Extended Play - the only weekly program I know of that covers video/PC gaming (tho I'd imagine the channel G4 is offering quite a bit... wish I had that channel:)
The Tech Of... - they pick a topic (rollercoasters, race cars, etc) and well, talk about the tech of it:P
Yes, The Screen Savers plays a million times a day... but once you have a TiVo it doesn't matter what's on "right now" anyway! Buy a TiVo and then you can enjoy the "better programs" that apparently don't air whenever you happen to be channel surfing.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Absolutely. I can't express enough how satisfying it has been for me to discover quality music from artists I've never heard of before. And it isn't until you find an good alternative source of music that you realize how many great artists out there were passed up on by the major labels simply because they showed up at the wrong time. Being indie doesn't mean artists have no talent... it just means the major labels didn't think their style of music would sell in the current market.
I strongly urge anyone who has wide musical interests to check out EMusic. Especially if you like Jazz, Electronica, Blues, Punk, or Classical (all genres that haven't seen much mainstream sales), EMusic is fantastic. Even outside of those genres though, there are many "out of time" artists with great albums. I've found songs via EMusic that I firmly believe could have been "big hits" if they were released years before (or after).
The only drawback to EMusic is that there are soooooo many artists on there and you can expect to recognize very few (since they are indie). Using the EMusic service is like a journey through "Lost Music Land". I find most of my tips on the message boards there... lots of friendly people in the same boat... we're all just looking for great music.
Oh and one last comment about the quality of the MP3s, as that used to be a concern. These days almost all of the music is encoded using VBR (about 192kbps on average) using lame (can't remember the exact setting they use). I too wouldn't go anywhere near 128k CBR, so I waited for them to switch up to the better quality before I signed up.
Simply put, if you're willing to explore for music, EMusic is hands down the best place on the net to legally download unrestricted MP3s. Oh, and the RIAA won't appreciate it either if you're into that sort of thing. :)
Um, this is what Yahoo! is. Perhaphs you've heard of it? Also, what is Google Directory if not "an ever changing directory"?
Mentos as Document Retrieval Keys
which quickly brought to mind an image of people trying to stick them into various ports on thier PCs. This could create and a whole new industry dedicated to cleaning floppy drives.
I first read the headline as: Mentos as Document Retrieval Keys which quickly brought to mind an image of people trying to stick them into various ports on thier PCs. This could create and a whole new industry dedicated to cleaning floppy drives.
I was 64 bit gaming on that in the early 1980s! Oh wait, that was 64 kB. Almost the same thing I guess....
at least do it right! Its Athalon!
It does all the stuff you'd expect out of a "high-end" phone (voice mail, intercom, caller ID, headset port, phonebook, etc), but its also really sleek looking (no antennae on the outside :)! If anything it reminds me of a cell phone. Anyway, its got a ton of features and I've often wondered if it was hackable... there just has to be things you change in there if you only knew the codes. :)
Back to the poster's desire for a phone that runs off of AAs, this phone is a champ in that department too. It takes NiCD and NiMH... which was a huge selling point for me, as I've thrown away 3 cordless phones in the past few years due to dying/dead batteries. Plus, since I've got other stuff in the house that uses rechargable AAs, its really convenient.
>OR you could read the instructions
The real potential here is not to empower the lazy, but rather to actually get frozen food to cook right in a microwave oven. For instance, if manufacturers of microwave ovens and manufacturers of frozen foods (TV dinners) actually coordinated on a program like this, each dinner might cook differntly in every microwave... simply, it would cook in whatever manner was required to do the best job.
>>A wine lover could look on a computer screen and see what's in her wine cellar
>OR she could, i don't know, go down into her cellar? How far could it be?
The hidden power here isn't for the lady with the wine cellar as much as it is for say someone who has recently moved... and has 200 boxes sitting in his/her garage. Imagine being able to move-in and actually find where you put that hammer....
>>Prescription drug bottles could work together to send you a warning if the combination of pills you're about to swallow would be toxic.
>God forbid you acutally talk to your DOCTOR about all those pills your taking.
>The eyeglass thing is a red herring too. Been wearing glasses since 3rd grade, everytime I 'lose' them, they turn out to be on my face.
Think outside of the box here. This could be a real boon to the elderly. Whether or not the advances come in the form as described in the article or in some other ways (such as an elderly person being able to just call out to the room "where are my glasses" or "where is my medicine bottle"), being able to find items "lost" in your house is potentially very useful for those with failing memories.
Fresh Gear - gadgets galore... if you read /. you would probably like this show
Audiofile - where tech meets music... everything from mp3s to music creation gear to the tech behind making acoutic guitars
Extended Play - the only weekly program I know of that covers video/PC gaming (tho I'd imagine the channel G4 is offering quite a bit... wish I had that channel :)
The Tech Of... - they pick a topic (rollercoasters, race cars, etc) and well, talk about the tech of it :P
Yes, The Screen Savers plays a million times a day... but once you have a TiVo it doesn't matter what's on "right now" anyway! Buy a TiVo and then you can enjoy the "better programs" that apparently don't air whenever you happen to be channel surfing. :)
If the patent office can't understand something, it should deny the patent.
If the patent office can understand something, it should deny the patent.
I mean, isn't that the problem here? This is so obvious that it should have been denied at an initial screening....
Proxomitron did a nice job of filtering out the ad for me in both IE6 and Netscape 6.2 on Win98SE. I assume Linux has some similar proxy/ad-filter.