If you are sitting around waiting for 100% consensus that global warming is purely anthropogenic, make sure that you've got the Library of Congress handy to read while you wait. It'll never happen. The sun, volcanoes, and other natural sources have an effect, for sure, just the same as man's machines do.
My point is that a huge number of the best scientific minds on the planet have clearly stated that the planet is getting hotter due to anthopogenic influence on the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Read the evidence for yourself--there are hundreds of scientific papers on this subject available on line, at no cost. A few Google searches will turn up tons of raw data and information, as well as analysis, both pro and con.
On the other hand, for those that would to prefer to stick thier heads in the sand, go right ahead.
Less methane around to heat things up....this is A Good Thing for sure. Is Global Warming a real problem? The evidence that it is a problem is becoming undeniable. Even though the scientific evidence is not 100% certain, there is a great deal of evidence that global warming is happening, and the scientific community has made this clear many times over. See here and here for references. Much of the so-called uncertainty in this area (so far as the public and public policy is concerned) originates from the work of "scientists" such as S. Fred Singer, who are funded in large measure by oil companies and the PACs that represent them in Washington. A close look reveals that thier work has not stood up under intensive peer review, and is thus not taken seriously by the scientific community as a whole; Singer's work is useful only in that it gives industry and thier pet politicians a way to keep the wool pulled over the public's eyes.
A more pressing problem that receives far too little attention is the issue of overpopulation. The ecological, economic, and social problems that will be caused by the uncontrolled growth of the human population have the potential to make global warming look like a walk in the park.
The only way that this would have a powerful effect on Macromedia's market would be if the developer tools were greatly superior to Macromedia's, and I would be astonished if MS was able to pull off such a thing. Both the Shockwave and Flash dev tools are extremely mature, powerful products that MS is going to have a hard time topping, and even my grandmother's old p100 has a Flash Player on it--they're pretty much ubiquitous...
<tinfoil>Of course, if they accidentally break compatibility with the Flash player in IE, there could be some problems. Not that MS would ever do such a nasty thing.</tinfoil>
The hell with both of 'em! Having dealt with way to much Windows BS and way too much Linux BS, I just went out and bought a 6 month old G4 running OSX, a DVI to VGA adapter and a three button mouse.
Problem solved.
Comparing Linux and OSX on the desktop is like comparing the manuverability of a C130 to an F15: no comparison. I wouldn't use one for the job of the other; it is essentially impossible (currently.) Comparing Win 2000 or XP to OSX on the desktop is very similar, save that instead of a C130, Windows would be an Osprey VSTOL, the ones that crash and burn so frequently, but work pretty well when they are in the air.......
This tends to take some of the wind out of their arguments since most people will (correctly) conclude, "Well, temperatures have been rising and falling since the beginning of the planet. Are we really causing it?"
While it is correct to conclude that climactic fluctuation occurs naturally in the absence of anthropogenic influence, it is extremely foolish for us to thus conclude that the large quantities of greenhouse gases that we are releasing into the atmosphere are having no effect upon global temperatures. It is well established that we are currently in the midst of a warming trend, particularly in artic and subartic regions. Even if you stipulate that this warming would have occured in the absence of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, you cannot ignore the fact that these emissions would excacerbate the problem.
Yes, but most of what global warmer's use for data is surface readings from the last 100-150 years based on "direct observations." That's far too little data to make any conclusions.
This is incorrect. The scientifically accepted models of global warming are based both on directly observed climactic data and paleoclimatic data.
We actually have access to many thousands of years worth of climactic data, thanks to extracted ice cores, data from the ocean floor, and an number of other sources. For starters, have a look at The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's website for more information on the subject.
Cool! I always liked Diskmix-great system. We've got an old Allen & Heath that jacks into a C64 to run mute automation. The system is kind of worthless, and we never use it for production, but it is fun to fire it up and watch our clients' jaws drop. They can't seem to jive with a C64 sitting next to our main production rig.
Some of the older SSL (G series?)consoles ran thier total recall system off the C64; it was awful: you spent about half an hour turning knobs to fit what the system displayed onscreen, and if you didn't get it exactly right, it wouldn't let you move on.
It was kinda cool though, in a masochistic sort of way.
Although this article is right on target in a lot of ways, there is one essential factor that it does not address. This sort of on-the-go recording is great when you are out on tour and living out of a bus, are severely limited budget-wise, and are doing mostly electronic music. However, if your music relies on the recording of lots of acoustic instruments, this sort of setup falls flat. Sure, you can cut decent demos in this fashion, but not discs that are IMNSHO suitable for release (unless you are Guided By Voices, in which case all bets are off).
Recordings that are cut straight into a system like this tend to be sterile, flat, and in my opinion, quite dull. To really bring out the best in ANY recording, there is no substitute for big bulky tube mic pres, big bulky compressors, and lots and lots of different microphones to capture all of the colors of the sonic pallett. The laptop, in this case, is an excellent scratch pad.
If the record industry thinks that they are going to bring consumers back to the record stores just by cutting prices (and $12.95 still ain't cheap), they are missing the point. It is still content that drives record sales, and the content that the industry as a whole has been putting out over the last several years has been, with a few exceptions, dreck of the first order.
However, producing content that people will actually want to spend money on will require a complete change of mindset for the industry as a whole. Almost any CD released by the majors nowadays cannot properly be called an album, as most of the content cannot be described as anything but filler. Nobody wants to pay $12.99, $15.99, or even $9.99 for one or two *good* songs and a bunch of dreck.
So.....this means that SCO is (hypothetically) going to send me an invoice for $699 for each Linux box I'm running, having offered no actual proof that they own any of the code therein.
Cheeky bastards. I could just as reasonably send my clients an invoice for the use of the proprietary PHP code on my web page.
It has been said more than once here in Nashville that if Autotune was a time bomb, Music Row would have been wiped off the face of the earth some time ago.
In all seriousness, one of the first things that a lot of potential clients ask you is if you have "that pitch box," read as Antares Autotune. This is generally a good sign that this is not a client that you are going to enjoy doing vocals with. Heavy application of the autotune is SOP in a lot of studios around here, and the music has suffered greatly as a result.
For some textbook examples of how to deploy the Autotune in a production environment, just refer to anything by Shania Twain; she's the poster child for vocals enhanced by Antares! around here.
It seems relevant to discuss moving our friends and family to *nix, considering the unpleasantness that has been happening in the windows world over the last week or so. As such, I'll offer my experiences with this sometimes painful process, and hope that they are helpful.
I have had two good experiences with moving non-geeks to *nix thus far. On both occasions, we were providing a person who had little experience with computers or the net with a machine that would allow them to do the following:
1: Surf ye olde net with a minimum of fuss
2: Send and receive email, again sans fuss
3:Be able to cobble up the odd Word Doc or Spreadsheet
4: Not have to call thier tech support (ME) to fix things like virii, BSOD, etc.....
In my experience, these are the things that most folks want out of thier machines, and they don't need Windows to do it. Even as we speak, my Grandma is running Shrike (RH9) and having no problems. All she needed to know was where the internet button is and where the email button is, and no more problems! This required my presence for setup and a 5 minute tutorial on what button was what, but that was it.
With my sister, who was the 2nd guniea pig, the process was a bit more involved, as she needed mp3 support, a P2P client, and had an odd duck of a soundcard that needed ALSA to function, but she is now running along with no worries. Compiling ALSA and gnutella from source is not something that she would have cottoned to, but the point is that now that everything is up, she likes her system, has no trouble with it, and it required all of 30 minutes of my time to configure.
On the other hand, the times where I have had problems when trying to move a muggle to *nix have been when they have a pet program (i.e. photoshop, turbo tax, or something else that is WIN32/MAC only) that won't run on *nix and Wine won't run correctly. In this case I give up and resign myself to dealing with the virii as they appear.
I don't know if other people's experiences have been so smooth when moving muggles to *nix, but I think that in the aftermath of the last few virii to hit the Windows world, we'll see more and more of our friends and family that are willing to make the switch.
1st class red carpet treatment? Are you kidding? Try dingy hockey rink dressing rooms that smell like jockstraps, a deli tray from Kroger as the catering every night and having to sleep more often than not in a mildewy bunk in the back of your bus or Motel 6 on a good night. Groupies and the endless party......well, that isin't so bad, but it ain't quite what you see on Behind The Music.
Most touring artists are lucky if they can afford three square meals a day, and even the kids that have major label contracts and tour support are lucky to come back home after a year on the road with more than a thousand bucks in thier pocket at best to show for it.
This is more foolishness from an industry already rife with fools. 99% of the marjor label artists out there already make nothing off of thier record sales to begin with-even artists that have sold half a million albums generally haven't seen a penny's woth of royalties, via a process called recoupment. Recoupment means that the artist has to make back the money out of thier own royalites that the record label puts up for startup costs, which is everything from the recording sessions, new instruments, new clothes, makeovers, tour support (which is often very little), and various other costs of production.
When you consider that a very fortunate artist who has a good lawyer might make 8 cents on the dollar when a CD is sold, you can see that it takes a LOT of record sales for a band to recoup. Meanwhile, the record company is getting the other 92 cents for every dollar, and is still sticking the band with the tab for EVERYTHING, which has to be paid out of that measly 8% or less.
Labels rarely provide more than nominal tour support, particularly to thier 2nd tier artists (read as anyone who hasn't gone platinum.) The artist is expected to cover most tour costs via ticket sales and mechandising.
To come to the point, for the labels to go dipping thier fingers into the only viable revenue stream that most artists have is only taking the highway robbery that they are committing already and taking it to the next level. Not that we should expect any better, since the majors have behaved like scum for decades, and are not likely to change anytime soon.
Just my.02 dollars worth
If you'll read Ardour's documentation, you will see that because Steinberg will not release the headers for the VST files, they are not available to use with Ardour. Steinberg has not come out as hostile to Linux, but they aren't giving OSS developers any of thier cards, either.
Yeah, there are still a lot of console automation systems running on old c-64s, 286 machines, classics macs. My old Allen & Heath console uses a C-64 for mute automation, although we threw that system out years ago--it is easier just to do it manually.One friend of mine still uses a Mac classic for midi sequencing--he sees it as a talisman of sorts.
Slashdot Mirror
Please. If you believe that, you haven't done your homework, and by the way, I've got a lovely peice of swampland that I'd love to sell you cheap.....
If you are sitting around waiting for 100% consensus that global warming is purely anthropogenic, make sure that you've got the Library of Congress handy to read while you wait. It'll never happen. The sun, volcanoes, and other natural sources have an effect, for sure, just the same as man's machines do.
My point is that a huge number of the best scientific minds on the planet have clearly stated that the planet is getting hotter due to anthopogenic influence on the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Read the evidence for yourself--there are hundreds of scientific papers on this subject available on line, at no cost. A few Google searches will turn up tons of raw data and information, as well as analysis, both pro and con.
On the other hand, for those that would to prefer to stick thier heads in the sand, go right ahead.
Less methane around to heat things up....this is A Good Thing for sure. Is Global Warming a real problem? The evidence that it is a problem is becoming undeniable. Even though the scientific evidence is not 100% certain, there is a great deal of evidence that global warming is happening, and the scientific community has made this clear many times over. See here and here for references. Much of the so-called uncertainty in this area (so far as the public and public policy is concerned) originates from the work of "scientists" such as S. Fred Singer, who are funded in large measure by oil companies and the PACs that represent them in Washington. A close look reveals that thier work has not stood up under intensive peer review, and is thus not taken seriously by the scientific community as a whole; Singer's work is useful only in that it gives industry and thier pet politicians a way to keep the wool pulled over the public's eyes.
A more pressing problem that receives far too little attention is the issue of overpopulation. The ecological, economic, and social problems that will be caused by the uncontrolled growth of the human population have the potential to make global warming look like a walk in the park.
.....just my $0.02
Hmmm. Good idea. What are some other possibilities?
Small-town General Practicioner (MD)
Platinum (Single, that is) selling Recording Artist
Public defenders, and a few other species of attorney.
Former Child Stars....
Any other suggestions?
The only way that this would have a powerful effect on Macromedia's market would be if the developer tools were greatly superior to Macromedia's, and I would be astonished if MS was able to pull off such a thing. Both the Shockwave and Flash dev tools are extremely mature, powerful products that MS is going to have a hard time topping, and even my grandmother's old p100 has a Flash Player on it--they're pretty much ubiquitous...
<tinfoil>Of course, if they accidentally break compatibility with the Flash player in IE, there could be some problems. Not that MS would ever do such a nasty thing.</tinfoil>
Had I a few mod points, I would give your +1 insightful based on your sig alone......
The hell with both of 'em! Having dealt with way to much Windows BS and way too much Linux BS, I just went out and bought a 6 month old G4 running OSX, a DVI to VGA adapter and a three button mouse.
Problem solved.
Comparing Linux and OSX on the desktop is like comparing the manuverability of a C130 to an F15: no comparison. I wouldn't use one for the job of the other; it is essentially impossible (currently.) Comparing Win 2000 or XP to OSX on the desktop is very similar, save that instead of a C130, Windows would be an Osprey VSTOL, the ones that crash and burn so frequently, but work pretty well when they are in the air.......
This tends to take some of the wind out of their arguments since most people will (correctly) conclude, "Well, temperatures have been rising and falling since the beginning of the planet. Are we really causing it?"
While it is correct to conclude that climactic fluctuation occurs naturally in the absence of anthropogenic influence, it is extremely foolish for us to thus conclude that the large quantities of greenhouse gases that we are releasing into the atmosphere are having no effect upon global temperatures. It is well established that we are currently in the midst of a warming trend, particularly in artic and subartic regions. Even if you stipulate that this warming would have occured in the absence of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, you cannot ignore the fact that these emissions would excacerbate the problem.
Yes, but most of what global warmer's use for data is surface readings from the last 100-150 years based on "direct observations." That's far too little data to make any conclusions.
This is incorrect. The scientifically accepted models of global warming are based both on directly observed climactic data and paleoclimatic data.
It is worth noting at this point that even British Petroleum has released a statement on the subject of rapid global warming which acknowledges its exsistance and probable roots in greenhouse gas emissions.
We actually have access to many thousands of years worth of climactic data, thanks to extracted ice cores, data from the ocean floor, and an number of other sources. For starters, have a look at The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's website for more information on the subject.
Cool! I always liked Diskmix-great system. We've got an old Allen & Heath that jacks into a C64 to run mute automation. The system is kind of worthless, and we never use it for production, but it is fun to fire it up and watch our clients' jaws drop. They can't seem to jive with a C64 sitting next to our main production rig.
Some of the older SSL (G series?)consoles ran thier total recall system off the C64; it was awful: you spent about half an hour turning knobs to fit what the system displayed onscreen, and if you didn't get it exactly right, it wouldn't let you move on.
It was kinda cool though, in a masochistic sort of way.
Although this article is right on target in a lot of ways, there is one essential factor that it does not address. This sort of on-the-go recording is great when you are out on tour and living out of a bus, are severely limited budget-wise, and are doing mostly electronic music. However, if your music relies on the recording of lots of acoustic instruments, this sort of setup falls flat. Sure, you can cut decent demos in this fashion, but not discs that are IMNSHO suitable for release (unless you are Guided By Voices, in which case all bets are off).
Recordings that are cut straight into a system like this tend to be sterile, flat, and in my opinion, quite dull. To really bring out the best in ANY recording, there is no substitute for big bulky tube mic pres, big bulky compressors, and lots and lots of different microphones to capture all of the colors of the sonic pallett. The laptop, in this case, is an excellent scratch pad.
Here you can read up on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's research on the subject, if you are interested in the details.
If the record industry thinks that they are going to bring consumers back to the record stores just by cutting prices (and $12.95 still ain't cheap), they are missing the point. It is still content that drives record sales, and the content that the industry as a whole has been putting out over the last several years has been, with a few exceptions, dreck of the first order.
However, producing content that people will actually want to spend money on will require a complete change of mindset for the industry as a whole. Almost any CD released by the majors nowadays cannot properly be called an album, as most of the content cannot be described as anything but filler. Nobody wants to pay $12.99, $15.99, or even $9.99 for one or two *good* songs and a bunch of dreck.
Cool, thanks for the number--If nothing else, a slashdotting of thier IVR system would be a plus.
# Start SCO emulation
In the meantime, you'll be receiving an invoice for the time that I have spent replying to you.
So.....this means that SCO is (hypothetically) going to send me an invoice for $699 for each Linux box I'm running, having offered no actual proof that they own any of the code therein.
Cheeky bastards. I could just as reasonably send my clients an invoice for the use of the proprietary PHP code on my web page.
It has been said more than once here in Nashville that if Autotune was a time bomb, Music Row would have been wiped off the face of the earth some time ago.
In all seriousness, one of the first things that a lot of potential clients ask you is if you have "that pitch box," read as Antares Autotune. This is generally a good sign that this is not a client that you are going to enjoy doing vocals with. Heavy application of the autotune is SOP in a lot of studios around here, and the music has suffered greatly as a result.
For some textbook examples of how to deploy the Autotune in a production environment, just refer to anything by Shania Twain; she's the poster child for vocals enhanced by Antares! around here.
Hoping that this is not offtopic....
It seems relevant to discuss moving our friends and family to *nix, considering the unpleasantness that has been happening in the windows world over the last week or so. As such, I'll offer my experiences with this sometimes painful process, and hope that they are helpful.
I have had two good experiences with moving non-geeks to *nix thus far. On both occasions, we were providing a person who had little experience with computers or the net with a machine that would allow them to do the following:
1: Surf ye olde net with a minimum of fuss
2: Send and receive email, again sans fuss
3:Be able to cobble up the odd Word Doc or Spreadsheet
4: Not have to call thier tech support (ME) to fix things like virii, BSOD, etc.....
In my experience, these are the things that most folks want out of thier machines, and they don't need Windows to do it. Even as we speak, my Grandma is running Shrike (RH9) and having no problems. All she needed to know was where the internet button is and where the email button is, and no more problems! This required my presence for setup and a 5 minute tutorial on what button was what, but that was it.
With my sister, who was the 2nd guniea pig, the process was a bit more involved, as she needed mp3 support, a P2P client, and had an odd duck of a soundcard that needed ALSA to function, but she is now running along with no worries. Compiling ALSA and gnutella from source is not something that she would have cottoned to, but the point is that now that everything is up, she likes her system, has no trouble with it, and it required all of 30 minutes of my time to configure.
On the other hand, the times where I have had problems when trying to move a muggle to *nix have been when they have a pet program (i.e. photoshop, turbo tax, or something else that is WIN32/MAC only) that won't run on *nix and Wine won't run correctly. In this case I give up and resign myself to dealing with the virii as they appear.
I don't know if other people's experiences have been so smooth when moving muggles to *nix, but I think that in the aftermath of the last few virii to hit the Windows world, we'll see more and more of our friends and family that are willing to make the switch.
JHM
Makes you wonder if doing a search for Slashdot.com here would return goatse.cx as the first result.
1st class red carpet treatment? Are you kidding? Try dingy hockey rink dressing rooms that smell like jockstraps, a deli tray from Kroger as the catering every night and having to sleep more often than not in a mildewy bunk in the back of your bus or Motel 6 on a good night. Groupies and the endless party......well, that isin't so bad, but it ain't quite what you see on Behind The Music.
Most touring artists are lucky if they can afford three square meals a day, and even the kids that have major label contracts and tour support are lucky to come back home after a year on the road with more than a thousand bucks in thier pocket at best to show for it.
This is more foolishness from an industry already rife with fools. 99% of the marjor label artists out there already make nothing off of thier record sales to begin with-even artists that have sold half a million albums generally haven't seen a penny's woth of royalties, via a process called recoupment. Recoupment means that the artist has to make back the money out of thier own royalites that the record label puts up for startup costs, which is everything from the recording sessions, new instruments, new clothes, makeovers, tour support (which is often very little), and various other costs of production. When you consider that a very fortunate artist who has a good lawyer might make 8 cents on the dollar when a CD is sold, you can see that it takes a LOT of record sales for a band to recoup. Meanwhile, the record company is getting the other 92 cents for every dollar, and is still sticking the band with the tab for EVERYTHING, which has to be paid out of that measly 8% or less. Labels rarely provide more than nominal tour support, particularly to thier 2nd tier artists (read as anyone who hasn't gone platinum.) The artist is expected to cover most tour costs via ticket sales and mechandising. To come to the point, for the labels to go dipping thier fingers into the only viable revenue stream that most artists have is only taking the highway robbery that they are committing already and taking it to the next level. Not that we should expect any better, since the majors have behaved like scum for decades, and are not likely to change anytime soon. Just my .02 dollars worth
mmmmmm. Thanks for the clarification--+1 informative.
If you'll read Ardour's documentation, you will see that because Steinberg will not release the headers for the VST files, they are not available to use with Ardour. Steinberg has not come out as hostile to Linux, but they aren't giving OSS developers any of thier cards, either.
Yeah, there are still a lot of console automation systems running on old c-64s, 286 machines, classics macs. My old Allen & Heath console uses a C-64 for mute automation, although we threw that system out years ago--it is easier just to do it manually.One friend of mine still uses a Mac classic for midi sequencing--he sees it as a talisman of sorts.
This is the most useless, pathetic, miserable excuse for a troll that I have yet encountered on Slashdot. Be ashamed, be very ashamed.