Pick out a few CDs that you think are wonderful, and search for them on Amazon.com or CDNow. When you find it, look at the section that is something like "People who bought this release also bought:" and try out a couple of those artists. Also, try multiple CDs by several artists this way and see if some names start popping up in all of them.
Second, many of the artists mentioned also release DJ mixes of other people's music. Indeed several of these artists only release DJ mixes and write just the occasional track. Read the tracklistings closely and also note who may have remixed the tracks you like. Some of these artists may be hard to find (DJs like to pick that great rare track only they have), so try online auction sites. Many of these artists would love to sell their own releases rather than just rely on the royalties from others' DJ mixes they're featured on!
Third, figure out which subgenres you like. Maybe you love Techno (yes this is a subgenre, not an all-encompassing term) but hate Speed Garage. Maybe Hard House is great but Acid House isn't. Look for the words that keep popping up on your favorite mixes. There are tons of electronic music history sites on the internet that can help you understand what sets these very different styles apart.
Finally, buy something random that you're not sure if you will like that is in the cheapo used section of the store. I've found some duds for sure, but I've also found wonderful albums for 3 bucks that either didn't do that great in the States or just never found its audience. Online radio sites are great too, especially since they show artist and track information. Go to Shoutcast and listen to many different electronic stations.
A sundial described in 1300 BCE reveals that the Egyptians determined a daily cycle to be made up of ten hours of daylight from sunrise to sunset, two hours of twilight and twelve hours of night. Their calendar year was divided into 36 decans, each ten days long, plus five extra days, totaling to a 365 day year. Each decan was equivalent to a third of the zodiacal sign and was represented by a decanal constellation. The night corresponded to about twelve decans, half a day to eighteen decans. Similar to the system used in Oriental clocks, the night was thus divided into twelve hours, with seasonable variations of the hour's length. Later, Hellenistic astronomers introduced equinoctial hours of equal length.
The Babylonians (in about 300-100 BCE) performed astronomical calculation in the sexagesimal (base-60) system. This was extremely convenient for simplifying time division, since 60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10. What we now call a minute derives from the first fractional sexagesimal place; the second fractional place is the origin of the second.
Base 10 has 1,2,5,10 as factors Base 12 has 1,2,3,4,6,12 Base 16 has 1,2,4,8,16
Based on the argument of factors alone, hexadecimal just doesn't cut it. It would be even more of a nightmare to do thirds in this system, in my opinion. Also we'd have to relearn everything (OK not all of us!) and in the process we eliminate a good prime factor (5) and avoid another (3).
What about a One Time Pad that is one less than the length of the ciphertext? It seems to me like having the first and last number the same doesn't compromise the security of the message one bit!
"cyberbuffs are afflicted with 'insufficient perspective, disdain for history, unnecessary futurology and technophilia.'"
I wanted to make sure these accusations hold water, so I performed a highly scientific analysis on the Internet. From the looks of it, he characterized cyberbuffs incorrectly on each count!
Google results for:
"insufficient perspective" - 31
"sufficient perspective" - 293
Perspective is obviously sufficient more often than not on the Internet!
"disdain for history" - 52
"passion for history" - 2490
For every Internet user with a disdain for history there are 500 others with a passion!
"unnecessary futurology" - 1
"necessary futurology" - 0
Looks to me like the author made this one up. No mention of futurology being either necessary or unnecessary except for a copy of his article itself!
"technophilia" - 3,810
"technophobia" - 10,900
This is perhaps the most shocking result of all! I guess if you're scared of technology you're more likely to use the Internet? Strange but true.
Just think of the potential!
on
Microsoft Freon
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· Score: 1
Microsoft Exec: So this device allows our customers to record themselves playing Halo to show off to their friends?
XBox Engineer: Oh, um, well we forgot about that feature.
Microsoft Exec: OK, hmm, can we release a software patch?
XBox Engineer: We'd love to, but we've lost the source code.
Microsoft Exec: What happened to it?!
XBox Engineer: Well you made us store it with Digital Rights Management, but there was a bug in the DRM server and...
Microsoft Exec: Blah blah blah! That means nothing to me. (Divine Inpsiration) Hey!!! What do you think about this... We can make a cable that takes the output from the XBox and inputs it into the TiVo thingy!
XBox Engineer: Well, that should work...
Microsoft Exec: Man, we could probably sell something like that for 50 bucks a pop!
There's a key difference in their works
on
Space Music
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· Score: 4, Funny
John Cage: 4 minutes and 33 seconds
This song: 4 minutes (right ascension) and 33 light-seconds
There probably wouldn't have been so much of a problem if it weren't for this little "innocent" joke.
From the article:
They say they are claiming copyright on a piece of mine called 'One Minute's Silence' on the Planets' album, which I credit Batt/Cage just for a laugh. But my silence is original silence, not a quotation from his silence."
Moral of the story? Don't put jokes in your legal info! There's always someone who doesn't find it that funny, or who is ready to one-up your abilities by creating a comedic artistic performance known as "Litigation".
It's the same idea as saying that your P2P audio distribution system is for avoiding RIAA fines. Considering how horrible the system is for artists anyway, putting in additional names of people that don't exist certainly doesn't help licensing matters. What if someone wanted permission to put your performance in their silent movie? They would go out searching for this Cage fellow and never get anywhere! Then they'd be forced to fill their silent film with white noise instead. (And of course they'd make sure that's its unique from other white noise performances)
Where is the Free Software alternative? Shouldn't something like this be open source? To me it seems like software like WebTrends won't work with everything all the time. Upgrades to fix bugs would help I'm sure, but in the time it takes to fix them you've lost some hits forever. Better to have a GPL'd alternative IMHO.
Have you guys played their game, Spheres of Chaos? Sure, it's just asteroids but believe me there's quite a twist. Everything you hit explodes into a billion rainbow-colored pixels.
It's so simple I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it myself. This game is beautiful and takes very little processor.
Judging by the fact that they have their game compiled for Linux as well (at about one-third the size as the Windows version, which both together make us less than 1 mega^H^H^H^H mebi^H^H^H^H million bytes) they'll probably go this direction with the Streamer app as well.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone checked to see if the http interface is open to the public or is just restricted to localhost? Maybe we can start controlling other people's streams (e.g. knocking off the idiot who's doing the corrupt stream name)
If you do this, then maybe the RIAA wouldn't be able to charge you the full amount for your broadcast. If all streams that end up in AOL subscribers go through a handful of these routers originally, it might look like only a handful of listeners are actually tuned in to your station.
Or we could just challenge the legality of the rates, that'd probably hold up better in court.
Agreement between companies similar to GPL
on
Analyzing Palladium
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· Score: 1
If a major competitor to these people (Sun, Apple, whoever) made a new policy that they will only collaborate with or purchase from other companies that do not use Palladium.
This might seem self-destructive in that most other companies wouldn't be able to meet this requirement. If this is started early enough, however, we could see companies splitting into two camps:
Palladium companies who use MS Office and provide for the majority.
Non-Palladium companies who enjoy less competition in their market and can continue to produce for non-Palladium platforms such as (hopefully) MacOS and Sun stuff, and whatever else. Sure they can't use MS Office, but that's OK, there are good alternatives, and they're not working with Palladium-powered companies anyway.
If these spectrums are freed up, maybe the less successful wireless carriers will get wacky and convert to broadcasting television again. They'll have their own specific frequencies and, if sufficiently national, towers in every major city. Then they can make their own national Wheel-of-Fish-quality shows that can only be picked up by old televisions. I wonder if there are any regulations against this behavior.
Expect a sudden burst in popularity of those old grainy Zenith knob TVs we all have sitting in our attics.
I read about this from Moby's journal before Launch.com decided to make it into a story.
If you read Moby's journal post for 6/16/2002, which I imagine is where Launch.com is getting its information, Moby never tries to directly apply this theory to his album. In reference to 18, he only says:
i've written about this before, but i thought i'd address it again, especially in light of the fact that i have a new-ish record in stores.
Now he does apply this to Weezer vs. Pink, which I think is appropriate. Weezer fans probably are more likely to know how to operate and own a CD-burner, in my personal opinion. I know a few fans of Pink, and considering these people are also often the same who ask me questions about simple programs a lot, I don't think any of them are burning any CDs. I know this isn't an absolute, but it's real a phenomenon most certainly.
Now I wonder, how many people out there who are arguing against his theory have burned CDs themselves? Sure, a true fan would support an artist by buying the album, but, in the case of Pink and similiar artists, all fans, not just the "true" fans, are buying CDs. The main point is that the threshold for buying is much lower for these Top 40 artists who actually get the names of their songs announced on air (while others usually don't it seems lately).
I'd like to end my post with something Moby also put in his, a sort of disclaimer:
again, i'm not editorializing. i'm just pointing out a strange phenomenon and wondering at what effect it will have on the future of music. this whole issue of burning and downloading is too big and too complicated for me to really voice my opinion on it (not to mention the fact that having an opinioin on burning and downloading is kind of like having an opinion on the weather. meaning that having an opinion about the weather isn't really going to change anything.)
ok, that's it.
good night.
moby
Let's just hope that you drink plenty of caffeine and aren't narcoleptic!
You could just have it blast the infernal Celine Dion song from Titanic first, ensuring you are dead. Even if you're in a deep coma you'll leap up awake and turn it off just to save your sanity.
Godwin's Law
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
Corollary of Practicality
There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, the thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups.
After writing up the paper and printing it in color (back in the day before cheap color printing), the Signetics engineers retire to the local bar.
After laughing it up for a bit, their boss walks in. He is visibly angry.
Boss: "Miller! Wilson! Did you waste our money again? I found the Write-Only Memory specs! That's it! The six-foot fan was one thing, but now you guys have crossed the line. How are you going to explain yourselves?"
Miller:(angrily to Wilson) "I thought you said he wouldn't be able to read it!"
According to NASA, there's no way that meteorite could have any bacteria from humans.
Hmm, that puts it around 11,000 BC. Maybe it was taken back to Mars by The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones. It could have been off Fred's loincloth. I bet it was a strepto-rock-us bacterium.
I think this is it...
The guy in the room across the hall from me showed me it one time.
Vakhitov, Artem; Makarov, Vadim; Hjelme, Dag Roar
Large pulse attack as a method of conventional optical eavesdropping in quantum cryptography. Journal of Modern Optics 48(13): 2023-2038. 2001.
ISSN 0950-0340.
The reason a one-time pad cipher isn't necessarily "perfect" is that it must be transmitted from the sender to the receiver, which brings up a Catch-22. How do I send this key while ensuring it doesn't get intercepted? Encrypt it! Hmm, a one-time pad cipher is the most secure way. Oh wait, now how do I send that key?
Quantum cryptography addresses this problem by creating a secure communication channel that is detected at the single-photon level. Because detection of a single photon changes it, any eavesdropper can easily be detected when unexpected results are found.
The property of the system that simultaneously makes it both secure and unfit for sending anything other than a one-time pad is that a random portion of the bits sent by the source are rendered useless. When the receiver picks an incorrect detection scheme, the results are ambiguous. The two parties compare notes on what methods they used, and then eliminate all the ambiguous bits. They can't know beforehand which ones will be thrown away. The way to check for eavesdroppers is to use an insecure channel to compare (and then throw away) a portion of the results to see if there are any discrepancies.
After the key is sent, the encoded message can be sent on an insecure channel, since both parties can be sure they have the same key. A one-time pad cipher can never be cracked because, for instance, a 1 kbit message can have any 1 kbit key as its cipher. Therefore the number of keys to check would be 2^(1024). Even after this is completed (well after the end of the world?) the decoded message is found along with every other possible 1 kbit combination. Any possible 1 kbit file can would be found among the results. This is no better than writing a program that fills memory with files that contain the numbers from 0 to 2^(1024)-1.
Some researchers are actually attacking the implementation of quantum cryptography rather than the theory. The devices used in QC actually send light down the fiber optic lines that damages the equipment on both ends resulting in predictable behavior. However, there are already safeguards developed against these type of attacks. Essentially it comes down to this question: "Is there a perfect implementation of Quantum Cryptography?"
Another question to consider is whether the RadLight installation program removes Ad-Aware if you cancel the installation before it is completed. I'm not sure about the specifics, but I don't think a license counts if you never fully install the software onto your computer.
I'm pretty sure we can assume that aborting the installation does not restore Ad-Aware. To me, this seems like even more compelling evidence that RadLight's activities are illegal.
I'm really not that impressed. I mean, come on, the XBox has been able to listen in on all the telephones in your house from the very beginning.
"Oh, what Bill?... Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell them that? Sorry."
Re:The employee is always right.
on
Worst Buy
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· Score: 1
Actually no. I've heard that moving the cathode ray tube within 24 hours or so of being on can be damaging. I always make sure to wait at least a full day before I store it in my packing foam in my locked closet.
Slashdot Mirror
Second, many of the artists mentioned also release DJ mixes of other people's music. Indeed several of these artists only release DJ mixes and write just the occasional track. Read the tracklistings closely and also note who may have remixed the tracks you like. Some of these artists may be hard to find (DJs like to pick that great rare track only they have), so try online auction sites. Many of these artists would love to sell their own releases rather than just rely on the royalties from others' DJ mixes they're featured on!
Third, figure out which subgenres you like. Maybe you love Techno (yes this is a subgenre, not an all-encompassing term) but hate Speed Garage. Maybe Hard House is great but Acid House isn't. Look for the words that keep popping up on your favorite mixes. There are tons of electronic music history sites on the internet that can help you understand what sets these very different styles apart.
Finally, buy something random that you're not sure if you will like that is in the cheapo used section of the store. I've found some duds for sure, but I've also found wonderful albums for 3 bucks that either didn't do that great in the States or just never found its audience. Online radio sites are great too, especially since they show artist and track information. Go to Shoutcast and listen to many different electronic stations.
Base 12 has 1,2,3,4,6,12
Base 16 has 1,2,4,8,16
Based on the argument of factors alone, hexadecimal just doesn't cut it. It would be even more of a nightmare to do thirds in this system, in my opinion. Also we'd have to relearn everything (OK not all of us!) and in the process we eliminate a good prime factor (5) and avoid another (3).
What about a One Time Pad that is one less than the length of the ciphertext? It seems to me like having the first and last number the same doesn't compromise the security of the message one bit!
I wanted to make sure these accusations hold water, so I performed a highly scientific analysis on the Internet. From the looks of it, he characterized cyberbuffs incorrectly on each count!
Google results for:
- "insufficient perspective" - 31
- "sufficient perspective" - 293
Perspective is obviously sufficient more often than not on the Internet!- "disdain for history" - 52
- "passion for history" - 2490
For every Internet user with a disdain for history there are 500 others with a passion!- "unnecessary futurology" - 1
- "necessary futurology" - 0
Looks to me like the author made this one up. No mention of futurology being either necessary or unnecessary except for a copy of his article itself!- "technophilia" - 3,810
- "technophobia" - 10,900
This is perhaps the most shocking result of all! I guess if you're scared of technology you're more likely to use the Internet? Strange but true.This song: 4 minutes (right ascension) and 33 light-seconds
From the article:
Moral of the story? Don't put jokes in your legal info! There's always someone who doesn't find it that funny, or who is ready to one-up your abilities by creating a comedic artistic performance known as "Litigation".
It's the same idea as saying that your P2P audio distribution system is for avoiding RIAA fines. Considering how horrible the system is for artists anyway, putting in additional names of people that don't exist certainly doesn't help licensing matters. What if someone wanted permission to put your performance in their silent movie? They would go out searching for this Cage fellow and never get anywhere! Then they'd be forced to fill their silent film with white noise instead. (And of course they'd make sure that's its unique from other white noise performances)
Where is the Free Software alternative? Shouldn't something like this be open source? To me it seems like software like WebTrends won't work with everything all the time. Upgrades to fix bugs would help I'm sure, but in the time it takes to fix them you've lost some hits forever. Better to have a GPL'd alternative IMHO.
It's so simple I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it myself. This game is beautiful and takes very little processor.
Judging by the fact that they have their game compiled for Linux as well (at about one-third the size as the Windows version, which both together make us less than 1 mega^H^H^H^H mebi^H^H^H^H million bytes) they'll probably go this direction with the Streamer app as well.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone checked to see if the http interface is open to the public or is just restricted to localhost? Maybe we can start controlling other people's streams (e.g. knocking off the idiot who's doing the corrupt stream name)
Or we could just challenge the legality of the rates, that'd probably hold up better in court.
This might seem self-destructive in that most other companies wouldn't be able to meet this requirement. If this is started early enough, however, we could see companies splitting into two camps:
Expect a sudden burst in popularity of those old grainy Zenith knob TVs we all have sitting in our attics.
Now I wonder, how many people out there who are arguing against his theory have burned CDs themselves? Sure, a true fan would support an artist by buying the album, but, in the case of Pink and similiar artists, all fans, not just the "true" fans, are buying CDs. The main point is that the threshold for buying is much lower for these Top 40 artists who actually get the names of their songs announced on air (while others usually don't it seems lately).
I'd like to end my post with something Moby also put in his, a sort of disclaimer:
You could just have it blast the infernal Celine Dion song from Titanic first, ensuring you are dead. Even if you're in a deep coma you'll leap up awake and turn it off just to save your sanity.
After laughing it up for a bit, their boss walks in. He is visibly angry.
According to NASA, there's no way that meteorite could have any bacteria from humans.
Hmm, that puts it around 11,000 BC. Maybe it was taken back to Mars by The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones. It could have been off Fred's loincloth. I bet it was a strepto-rock-us bacterium.
robolemon notices name of second author of paper.
robolemon puts head into the ground, ostrich-style.
Guess I was wrong.
I think this is it... The guy in the room across the hall from me showed me it one time. Vakhitov, Artem; Makarov, Vadim; Hjelme, Dag Roar Large pulse attack as a method of conventional optical eavesdropping in quantum cryptography. Journal of Modern Optics 48(13): 2023-2038. 2001. ISSN 0950-0340.
Quantum cryptography addresses this problem by creating a secure communication channel that is detected at the single-photon level. Because detection of a single photon changes it, any eavesdropper can easily be detected when unexpected results are found.
The property of the system that simultaneously makes it both secure and unfit for sending anything other than a one-time pad is that a random portion of the bits sent by the source are rendered useless. When the receiver picks an incorrect detection scheme, the results are ambiguous. The two parties compare notes on what methods they used, and then eliminate all the ambiguous bits. They can't know beforehand which ones will be thrown away. The way to check for eavesdroppers is to use an insecure channel to compare (and then throw away) a portion of the results to see if there are any discrepancies.
After the key is sent, the encoded message can be sent on an insecure channel, since both parties can be sure they have the same key. A one-time pad cipher can never be cracked because, for instance, a 1 kbit message can have any 1 kbit key as its cipher. Therefore the number of keys to check would be 2^(1024). Even after this is completed (well after the end of the world?) the decoded message is found along with every other possible 1 kbit combination. Any possible 1 kbit file can would be found among the results. This is no better than writing a program that fills memory with files that contain the numbers from 0 to 2^(1024)-1.
Some researchers are actually attacking the implementation of quantum cryptography rather than the theory. The devices used in QC actually send light down the fiber optic lines that damages the equipment on both ends resulting in predictable behavior. However, there are already safeguards developed against these type of attacks. Essentially it comes down to this question: "Is there a perfect implementation of Quantum Cryptography?"
I'm pretty sure we can assume that aborting the installation does not restore Ad-Aware. To me, this seems like even more compelling evidence that RadLight's activities are illegal.
Just make sure at least one remains at the end...
"This song's blowing up the charts!"
"Oh, what Bill?... Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell them that? Sorry."
Actually no. I've heard that moving the cathode ray tube within 24 hours or so of being on can be damaging. I always make sure to wait at least a full day before I store it in my packing foam in my locked closet.