those things you talk about all require additional HARDWARE in order to function. All the software in the world won't add GPS functions to a camera that doesn't have accessability to GPS hardware.
I bought a 3MP digital camera for $99 and that was about a year ago. today you can get a 5MP for about that price. Anyone who wants a digital camera can get one for less than a week's salary at the mcdonald's. You may not be able to hack the CPU, but so what? they're cheap, low end commodity goods anyway and not something you can typically "overclock" or even tweak - even the JPEG compression is often done in the hardware of the cheap, dedicated camera controller chip.
But all the parts are there - the image sensor, the camera body itself, the connector for the memory card. You can combine all that with a $100 DSP protoboard and go to town. How much more "open" do you need?
Where I live the nearest theater is like 40 miles away. And until only a couple years ago there wasn't even a theater with decent sound. They had bought one multichannel sound system and were using part of it across four screens. I know this because I did some contract work for them. They had two channel mono - front and surround - in each theater. And the prints usually looked like shit.
Yes, I got a better experience at home sitting in front of a 27" monitor with teeny little hifi speakers.
I do think this is a stupid idea. They may have high hopes, but I don't see DRM content competing wiht pirated content unless they are of substantially higher quality. Possible I suppose, but not likely given the comparisons thus far (commerce is motivated by money, the head end of the piracy chain - the "rippers" - are motivated to produce the highest quality rip out there)
Yeah, well, that's great and all but you won't be doing anything on the net unless you are running trusted hardware... People's arguments that an "alternative" network will show up to solve that is bullshit. Just wait till your online banking, your taxes, and your foo are all on the "secure" Internet.
Nevermind that, but it may become illegal (through creative lobby) to own and operate an unlicensed/unprotected piece of hardware. Enjoy finding an ISP that will let you connect.
I can't believe this shit gets modded +5 insightful. It's called the internet, dumbass. As in international.
As in World-Wide fucking Web.
Don't like the rules? Fucking move. You won't be alone on the highway.
All that, and you seem to have overlooked one fantastic lesson. You complain about people who make all this money while robbing artists, then trivialize it when it's one or two or ten?
In that very long rant, the one thing I heard over and over was "screw the man cuz he's got money."
When you perpeptuate that legacy content IN ANY WAY you are not "fucking them in the ear" you are just helping preserve their power. Those direct payments you claim you'd be OK with? It ain't gonna happen so long as the artist is tied to one of the old school majors - and pirating their content only sends the message to the artists that hey, there really IS something to be had from this, cuz I couldn't even give away my shit before they hyped me on MTV.
Youyr hypocrisy is fucking your own self - and every artist who longs to be free, and every geek who embraces freedom.
Cheating corporations isn't screwing them. Cheating corporations only proves to the corporations - and to the lawyers, and to the public when it comes out on the news that you were cheating them - that they really do have something of value. Hey, if it had no value why would you cheat themn out of it?
If you want to "fuck'em in the ear" stop cheating at the game. Leave them to their game and go elsewhere. Go offshore where thousands of great artists go unknown in the US. Go to Magnatune where artists actually get paid. Freedom is not won from being a hang-around-the-fort-indian.
Hey AC, I thought it was clear from my comments I don't agfree witht this nonsense either. In factr, much as I hate those hollywood lobbyists, I was offended enough to seriously consider narcing the business to the enforcers.
I believe in FREEDOM of information exchange. I didn't like Napster because it was commercial, I have never supported the commercial p2p networks, and the day MP3.com abandonded their own artists and tried to co-opt madonna they lost my support as well.
Commercial piracy is an affront to the ideals I hold about the free flow of information. Any of those people paying five bucks a CD could just as easily have grabbed a $100 laptop and headed for the library, where they could have downloaded the stuff themselves. Obviously, that was more effort than they considered worthwhile for the material - in which case, they should simply do without.
"We will, however, go after people who upload the material (willingly or by default [this includes BitTorrent]) or who distribute the material for others, and press criminal charges if they request payment. After all, if fewer people are uploading, then downloading will be harder.
Uh, chief.. this is what they already do.
Perhaps there have been lawsuits against DOWNLOADERS, but I'm not aware of any. P2P applications make "downloaders" into instant "uploaders" as well, which is hwere they get into trouble. I've downloaded perhaps 100GB or more of "copyrighted material" from the internet and I've never been approached with any sort of order. I doubt the ??AAs even know who I am, because I don't "share" their material and the only "peers" I use are usenet servers.
And yes, some of us can hear a tremendous difference between "original" files and MP3 encoded files. Even at 320kbps I can often tell when music has been "MP3'd." I am fully aware most folks are deaf to these differences - the fact that adoption of the higher quality and truly free OGG has been so slow is fantastic proof of this.
"Little Susy or grandma" might not be the crux of the problem, but "real pirates" are just as likely to be the guy living next door nowdays. They may not be running processing plants like the mob, but I've seen plenty of "village geeks" selling downloaded movies and CDs. At the call center where last I 9-5'd there were several people with fast home connections and DVD burners who regularly sold downloads to other employees on the floor.
This was not just onesy-twosey stuff. Any given week I'm sure one fellow sold 20 or 30 CDs at five bucks a pop. Multiply this by 1000's of businesses across the country and it's easy to see how it can really add up.
What amazes me is people really cannot tell the difference (or don't care) between a real CD and a POS CDR burnded from MP3s. I would be indignant about the pirates SELLING this stuff, but given these people are buying something akin to a cassette tape all you can really say is "it's their money to waste."
as a former windows power user who transitioned completely only about a year ago, let me offer this advice:
Pick up an ubuntu cd, give it a partition, and use it more than the two minutes it takes to conclude it's not windows.
Seriously. Forget windows is even there for a week. Pretend someone stole your old computer and all they left you with is this weird piece of shit doppelganger that sorta looks like your old pc, but everything's just a little "off."
Accept the fact transitions are not always easy, and give this doppelganger a week of your computing life. Then go back to windows.
And make sure you have some clean clothes handy, because you're going to need a shower afterward.
Duuuhh... Blockbuster had my address, too. Right on the fucking "blockbuster card" application. If it's good enough for them when I go home and rent from BLOCKBUSTER over the fucking internet, why isn't it good enough for them in the store?
Idiot.
They also had my address associated with the fucking credit card.
I haven't rented from a store in a very long time. recently I decided I really wanted to see "Hero" so I stopped at Blockbuster. I didn't have my card because it's been so long, I asked to fill out a new one.
Then she asked for my credit card. Duh, no problem. Then she asked me for my fucking DRIVERS LICENSE.
To rent a movie.
And they already have my credit card number.
So I told her Blockbuster can go to hell, I went home and rented from Netflix. Then, whn the movie came, I ripped it to my hard drive because sometimes I fall asleep, and I fucking hate hearing that menu trailer loop over and over in my sleep.
DVDs are NOT the most convenient media. I've had to shitcan several because they just quit playing over time. They're also not the highest quality, nor are they first run. Go download one of the "dtv-lol" avi rips of the latest season of Enterprise and see for yourself why I download AVIs. Hell, I don't even bother with trying to watch it on TV anymore.. the local station's video quality is worse than the 350MB AVI some guy in Toronto "broadcasts" from his apartment.
is why people would wager upwards of 70 Million on a project that left them "stuck with what they had."
I dunno. I looked at all the pics, the webcam, and it still looks to me like it just sucks. It looks like a big shopping mall - which is probably what it will end up. Except probably not even then, because it's an hour away from the population. Maybe they could devote one end to apartments - then people could move in and never have to leave or go outside. All the benefits of life in the GDR at twice the price - but without those cold Russian winters. Yeah, that's the ticket.
But your us-centric perspective on this is pretty telling. Actually, if you look at the site you might even find a nekkid kid running around the lagoon. They're tiny pics and one can't be sure, but it does look like that one kid is naked. Oooh, call the cops.
Now, answer me this: when a third (at least) of molestations involve an adult with children, how do you keep out those evil molestors? How do you know who might be molesting their own kid? How do you even know who in your own extended family is or isn't?
When they talk to the families of these people on the evenng news you nevr hear someone say "Yeah, it's too bad.. I knew he was evil from the minute he moved in next door, but I let my kid sleep over there with his kids anyway..."
So you get a "cheap" AMD cpu, what are you going to run it on? S3? And AMD chipset?
Nvidia and ATi have absolute shit support for linux. I cannot fathom how AMD can have such a great fanboi image when the only decent and SUPPORTABLE graphics support you can get is either ancient Matrox cards or ancient ATi cards.
Intel documents their chipsets and shares that information with pretty much anyone who asks. Their only restraint lately has been in the wireless support, and to fix that we need to clear up the FCC regulatory issues (ie an act of Congress - look to laws regarding cellphones and scanners and retrofited amateur equipment).
AMD offers a decent chip at a fair price, but for graphics you're screwed. Intel's onboard graphics may not be the hottest on the market, but at least it is supportable by the linux community and not technology locked away in some ivory tower.
I used to really respect his dad and would have loved to see him as president. OTOH I had great disdain for michael powell when I first saw the direction things were heading and the way the right seemed to embrace him.
Then his daddy went in front of the UN and lied through his teeth rather than stand his ground and resign. Because he was so widely respected that act alone could have raised enough stink to both prevent us entering this stupid war so soon and possibly even have prevented the re-election of the potted plant in the white house.
In the same time I've seen powell jr take a principled stand toe to toe with both sides of the aisle. Lots of people screamed about the broadcaster deregulation, fact is if the corporations make broadcast such a wasteland that's just more beer for this "new media" thing. If they lock up their signals behind encryption so people get frustrated just trying to use their tvs the way they're used to they'll find alternatives. In every action where he's taken the most vocal stand I've agreed in principle 100%. I don't like the crackdowns re: censorship, but you can thank talk radio and a housefull of pandering politicians for that nonsense. On matters where it came down to actual leadership, michael has shown twice the cojones of retired soldier daddy.
So there's the irony. I've lost all respect for dad, but likewise would throw my otherwise very old school liberal vote for jr. in a heartbeat if he proved even reasonably knowledgable on presidential matters. I doubt he'll run, but I'd love to see it. I'd love to be able to help put a geek in the whitehouse.
Because when I first saw the price and specs on the thing the first notion that popped into my head was trying one of them and putting ubuntu on it.
Then I saw the other machine that has an "Athlon 4" CPU in it (whatever that is) for fifty bucks more and comes with built-in wireless networking. "Oh boy," I thought, and headed over there to check that one out. And of course, the one that has wireless networking comes with XP.
Gonna be real easy "taking over the desktop market" when you can't even get installed in a machine with wireless networking support...
And yes, the fact that it's halfway across the world does make me a little more cautious, especially since the service they provide is borderline legal.
The service they provide is 100% legal within the jurisdiction it is presented. If it is not legal in your country, that is not their fault.
Playboy is not legal in some mideastern countries. Does that mean Playboy is likely to rip you off if you subscribe to their service?
Likely an unpopular opinion, but I don't see anything particularly great about macs, either. The basic case design has been around five years now - it's just not as square as most pc cases.
and I've never found what I would consider a unique or even attractive mass produced case. Every one of them is a square box with or without a panel of connectors either hidden behind a cheap flimsy door or stuck in the middle of the case like a complete afterthought.
If you're not willing to build it or have someone build it, I say "Good luck cuz yur gonna need it."
I remember reading about these wonderful new thin CRTs that used arrays of tiny electron guns and all sorts of gee whiz stuff. Let's see that was... about three years ago? They were just a few months away then...
LCDs are ok, but pretty much useless for graphics apps due to low contrast and washed out color. I'd love to have a thin CRT, but I'll believe it when I see it.
In the CD's liner notes, you write that you'll be "corrected on the Internet" if you flub some detail telling the Greendale story on stage. Sounds like the Net is a pain in your ass.
When I play a new song in concert, it's immediately uploaded. Everyone has heard it before I put the record out. For a while, that was a negative thing for me. But with Greendale, I started using it deliberately.
How do you mean?
During the acoustic tour in Europe, when I performed the show that's on the bonus DVD, I was aware that everything I said would be recorded, transcribed, and circulated. So every night I dumped in different information about different parts of Greendale. If you say something in one town, and the next night you add a little more, the Internet brings together these separate occasions. It makes you look at things as not being separate.
Don't you want to control the use of your material?
And what happens to indies and "upcoming artists?"
Don't forget we're pretty much less than a decade into this whole "download music" thing. Already there have been entire albums released only on the internet and have become "online hits" despite providing their creators no income. Just ask around and see how many hiphop fans have "the gray album."
The system WILl change. Artists will quickly realize the creative benefits of avoiding the major labels, the labels will end up being second tier distribution mechanisms - like cable TV. Artists will be able to reap first tier benefits online and work with those old school labels only when it suits them.
Don't underestimate the power of independance. Thomas Dolby is a good friend of CD Baby (which offers DRM free music downloads) and Magnatune has several artists that you may not immediately recognize (and what non-geek teenager nowdays knows Thomas Dolby?) but have been published on old school labels before offering some of their catalog under Magnatune's open license.
Artists get generally treated like shit by the labels, and most nowdays don't keep control of their music. It would be great if an Alice Cooper (who still owns his music) or Ted Nugent or Neil Young would sign with one of these online lablels, but don't think because it hasn't happened it never will.
So far as what YOU want... do you just want what you already know? You never look for new music? Unless this is true then you can't know "what you want" until you've checked out their artists. If it doesn't cost anything to do so (I don't know about this new site, but Magnatune offers free streaming and 128kbps previews of everything) then there's an awful lot of Free music out there already to be dismissing as "it's not what I want."
The paranoia about them evil russians is really absurd. Unless you're a bank I doubt you have anything to dread from "russian hackers" and if you are a bank geography isn't a defense. allofmp3.com isn't some get rich quick kiddie porn site; they've been there quite a while and are always trying to improve their service - how would it be in their interest to rip people off or to associate with those who do?
I use my mastercard. Been a year now, never had a problem.
BTW there is a US service that offers even higher quality and far better service. See this site.
Slashdot Mirror
those things you talk about all require additional HARDWARE in order to function. All the software in the world won't add GPS functions to a camera that doesn't have accessability to GPS hardware.
I bought a 3MP digital camera for $99 and that was about a year ago. today you can get a 5MP for about that price. Anyone who wants a digital camera can get one for less than a week's salary at the mcdonald's. You may not be able to hack the CPU, but so what? they're cheap, low end commodity goods anyway and not something you can typically "overclock" or even tweak - even the JPEG compression is often done in the hardware of the cheap, dedicated camera controller chip.
But all the parts are there - the image sensor, the camera body itself, the connector for the memory card. You can combine all that with a $100 DSP protoboard and go to town. How much more "open" do you need?
Where I live the nearest theater is like 40 miles away. And until only a couple years ago there wasn't even a theater with decent sound. They had bought one multichannel sound system and were using part of it across four screens. I know this because I did some contract work for them. They had two channel mono - front and surround - in each theater. And the prints usually looked like shit. Yes, I got a better experience at home sitting in front of a 27" monitor with teeny little hifi speakers. I do think this is a stupid idea. They may have high hopes, but I don't see DRM content competing wiht pirated content unless they are of substantially higher quality. Possible I suppose, but not likely given the comparisons thus far (commerce is motivated by money, the head end of the piracy chain - the "rippers" - are motivated to produce the highest quality rip out there)
Yeah, well, that's great and all but you won't be doing anything on the net unless you are running trusted hardware... People's arguments that an "alternative" network will show up to solve that is bullshit. Just wait till your online banking, your taxes, and your foo are all on the "secure" Internet.
Nevermind that, but it may become illegal (through creative lobby) to own and operate an unlicensed/unprotected piece of hardware. Enjoy finding an ISP that will let you connect.
I can't believe this shit gets modded +5 insightful. It's called the internet, dumbass. As in international.
As in World-Wide fucking Web.
Don't like the rules? Fucking move. You won't be alone on the highway.
All that, and you seem to have overlooked one fantastic lesson. You complain about people who make all this money while robbing artists, then trivialize it when it's one or two or ten?
In that very long rant, the one thing I heard over and over was "screw the man cuz he's got money."
When you perpeptuate that legacy content IN ANY WAY you are not "fucking them in the ear" you are just helping preserve their power. Those direct payments you claim you'd be OK with? It ain't gonna happen so long as the artist is tied to one of the old school majors - and pirating their content only sends the message to the artists that hey, there really IS something to be had from this, cuz I couldn't even give away my shit before they hyped me on MTV.
Youyr hypocrisy is fucking your own self - and every artist who longs to be free, and every geek who embraces freedom.
Cheating corporations isn't screwing them. Cheating corporations only proves to the corporations - and to the lawyers, and to the public when it comes out on the news that you were cheating them - that they really do have something of value. Hey, if it had no value why would you cheat themn out of it?
If you want to "fuck'em in the ear" stop cheating at the game. Leave them to their game and go elsewhere. Go offshore where thousands of great artists go unknown in the US. Go to Magnatune where artists actually get paid. Freedom is not won from being a hang-around-the-fort-indian.
Hey AC, I thought it was clear from my comments I don't agfree witht this nonsense either. In factr, much as I hate those hollywood lobbyists, I was offended enough to seriously consider narcing the business to the enforcers.
I believe in FREEDOM of information exchange. I didn't like Napster because it was commercial, I have never supported the commercial p2p networks, and the day MP3.com abandonded their own artists and tried to co-opt madonna they lost my support as well.
Commercial piracy is an affront to the ideals I hold about the free flow of information. Any of those people paying five bucks a CD could just as easily have grabbed a $100 laptop and headed for the library, where they could have downloaded the stuff themselves. Obviously, that was more effort than they considered worthwhile for the material - in which case, they should simply do without.
"We will, however, go after people who upload the material (willingly or by default [this includes BitTorrent]) or who distribute the material for others, and press criminal charges if they request payment. After all, if fewer people are uploading, then downloading will be harder.
Uh, chief.. this is what they already do.
Perhaps there have been lawsuits against DOWNLOADERS, but I'm not aware of any. P2P applications make "downloaders" into instant "uploaders" as well, which is hwere they get into trouble. I've downloaded perhaps 100GB or more of "copyrighted material" from the internet and I've never been approached with any sort of order. I doubt the ??AAs even know who I am, because I don't "share" their material and the only "peers" I use are usenet servers.
And yes, some of us can hear a tremendous difference between "original" files and MP3 encoded files. Even at 320kbps I can often tell when music has been "MP3'd." I am fully aware most folks are deaf to these differences - the fact that adoption of the higher quality and truly free OGG has been so slow is fantastic proof of this.
"Little Susy or grandma" might not be the crux of the problem, but "real pirates" are just as likely to be the guy living next door nowdays. They may not be running processing plants like the mob, but I've seen plenty of "village geeks" selling downloaded movies and CDs. At the call center where last I 9-5'd there were several people with fast home connections and DVD burners who regularly sold downloads to other employees on the floor.
This was not just onesy-twosey stuff. Any given week I'm sure one fellow sold 20 or 30 CDs at five bucks a pop. Multiply this by 1000's of businesses across the country and it's easy to see how it can really add up.
What amazes me is people really cannot tell the difference (or don't care) between a real CD and a POS CDR burnded from MP3s. I would be indignant about the pirates SELLING this stuff, but given these people are buying something akin to a cassette tape all you can really say is "it's their money to waste."
from someone who can't spell "whiner" or construct a statement of opinion in his own words?
BTW Strummer married an American (Helen Foley) and produced an album for her. Apparently he didn't think the US was so completely bad...
Why didn't you just insult his mother while you were at it?
Thank god some linux communes have moved troglodytes like you off to the edges of the village.
Watch out for the hyaenas...
as a former windows power user who transitioned completely only about a year ago, let me offer this advice:
Pick up an ubuntu cd, give it a partition, and use it more than the two minutes it takes to conclude it's not windows.
Seriously. Forget windows is even there for a week. Pretend someone stole your old computer and all they left you with is this weird piece of shit doppelganger that sorta looks like your old pc, but everything's just a little "off."
Accept the fact transitions are not always easy, and give this doppelganger a week of your computing life. Then go back to windows.
And make sure you have some clean clothes handy, because you're going to need a shower afterward.
Duuuhh... Blockbuster had my address, too. Right on the fucking "blockbuster card" application. If it's good enough for them when I go home and rent from BLOCKBUSTER over the fucking internet, why isn't it good enough for them in the store?
Idiot.
They also had my address associated with the fucking credit card.
Jeezus - not only a moron, but a belligerent one.
I haven't rented from a store in a very long time. recently I decided I really wanted to see "Hero" so I stopped at Blockbuster. I didn't have my card because it's been so long, I asked to fill out a new one.
Then she asked for my credit card. Duh, no problem. Then she asked me for my fucking DRIVERS LICENSE.
To rent a movie.
And they already have my credit card number.
So I told her Blockbuster can go to hell, I went home and rented from Netflix. Then, whn the movie came, I ripped it to my hard drive because sometimes I fall asleep, and I fucking hate hearing that menu trailer loop over and over in my sleep.
DVDs are NOT the most convenient media. I've had to shitcan several because they just quit playing over time. They're also not the highest quality, nor are they first run. Go download one of the "dtv-lol" avi rips of the latest season of Enterprise and see for yourself why I download AVIs. Hell, I don't even bother with trying to watch it on TV anymore.. the local station's video quality is worse than the 350MB AVI some guy in Toronto "broadcasts" from his apartment.
is why people would wager upwards of 70 Million on a project that left them "stuck with what they had."
I dunno. I looked at all the pics, the webcam, and it still looks to me like it just sucks. It looks like a big shopping mall - which is probably what it will end up. Except probably not even then, because it's an hour away from the population. Maybe they could devote one end to apartments - then people could move in and never have to leave or go outside. All the benefits of life in the GDR at twice the price - but without those cold Russian winters. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Not exactly "back to nature."
But your us-centric perspective on this is pretty telling. Actually, if you look at the site you might even find a nekkid kid running around the lagoon. They're tiny pics and one can't be sure, but it does look like that one kid is naked. Oooh, call the cops.
Now, answer me this: when a third (at least) of molestations involve an adult with children, how do you keep out those evil molestors? How do you know who might be molesting their own kid? How do you even know who in your own extended family is or isn't?
When they talk to the families of these people on the evenng news you nevr hear someone say "Yeah, it's too bad.. I knew he was evil from the minute he moved in next door, but I let my kid sleep over there with his kids anyway..."
Idiot. You are not running Free code, you are running a proprietary bit of shit locked up by Nvidia.
Where are the GPL drivers? There aren't any, because these folks will not release enough information for the community to support them.
You might as well just run windows and be done with it.
So you get a "cheap" AMD cpu, what are you going to run it on? S3? And AMD chipset?
Nvidia and ATi have absolute shit support for linux. I cannot fathom how AMD can have such a great fanboi image when the only decent and SUPPORTABLE graphics support you can get is either ancient Matrox cards or ancient ATi cards.
Intel documents their chipsets and shares that information with pretty much anyone who asks. Their only restraint lately has been in the wireless support, and to fix that we need to clear up the FCC regulatory issues (ie an act of Congress - look to laws regarding cellphones and scanners and retrofited amateur equipment).
AMD offers a decent chip at a fair price, but for graphics you're screwed. Intel's onboard graphics may not be the hottest on the market, but at least it is supportable by the linux community and not technology locked away in some ivory tower.
I used to really respect his dad and would have loved to see him as president. OTOH I had great disdain for michael powell when I first saw the direction things were heading and the way the right seemed to embrace him.
Then his daddy went in front of the UN and lied through his teeth rather than stand his ground and resign. Because he was so widely respected that act alone could have raised enough stink to both prevent us entering this stupid war so soon and possibly even have prevented the re-election of the potted plant in the white house.
In the same time I've seen powell jr take a principled stand toe to toe with both sides of the aisle. Lots of people screamed about the broadcaster deregulation, fact is if the corporations make broadcast such a wasteland that's just more beer for this "new media" thing. If they lock up their signals behind encryption so people get frustrated just trying to use their tvs the way they're used to they'll find alternatives. In every action where he's taken the most vocal stand I've agreed in principle 100%. I don't like the crackdowns re: censorship, but you can thank talk radio and a housefull of pandering politicians for that nonsense. On matters where it came down to actual leadership, michael has shown twice the cojones of retired soldier daddy.
So there's the irony. I've lost all respect for dad, but likewise would throw my otherwise very old school liberal vote for jr. in a heartbeat if he proved even reasonably knowledgable on presidential matters. I doubt he'll run, but I'd love to see it. I'd love to be able to help put a geek in the whitehouse.
Because when I first saw the price and specs on the thing the first notion that popped into my head was trying one of them and putting ubuntu on it.
Then I saw the other machine that has an "Athlon 4" CPU in it (whatever that is) for fifty bucks more and comes with built-in wireless networking. "Oh boy," I thought, and headed over there to check that one out. And of course, the one that has wireless networking comes with XP.
Gonna be real easy "taking over the desktop market" when you can't even get installed in a machine with wireless networking support...
And yes, the fact that it's halfway across the world does make me a little more cautious, especially since the service they provide is borderline legal.
The service they provide is 100% legal within the jurisdiction it is presented. If it is not legal in your country, that is not their fault.
Playboy is not legal in some mideastern countries. Does that mean Playboy is likely to rip you off if you subscribe to their service?
Likely an unpopular opinion, but I don't see anything particularly great about macs, either. The basic case design has been around five years now - it's just not as square as most pc cases.
and I've never found what I would consider a unique or even attractive mass produced case. Every one of them is a square box with or without a panel of connectors either hidden behind a cheap flimsy door or stuck in the middle of the case like a complete afterthought.
If you're not willing to build it or have someone build it, I say "Good luck cuz yur gonna need it."
I remember reading about these wonderful new thin CRTs that used arrays of tiny electron guns and all sorts of gee whiz stuff. Let's see that was... about three years ago? They were just a few months away then...
LCDs are ok, but pretty much useless for graphics apps due to low contrast and washed out color. I'd love to have a thin CRT, but I'll believe it when I see it.
In the CD's liner notes, you write that you'll be "corrected on the Internet" if you flub some detail telling the Greendale story on stage. Sounds like the Net is a pain in your ass.
When I play a new song in concert, it's immediately uploaded. Everyone has heard it before I put the record out. For a while, that was a negative thing for me. But with Greendale, I started using it deliberately.
How do you mean?
During the acoustic tour in Europe, when I performed the show that's on the bonus DVD, I was aware that everything I said would be recorded, transcribed, and circulated. So every night I dumped in different information about different parts of Greendale. If you say something in one town, and the next night you add a little more, the Internet brings together these separate occasions. It makes you look at things as not being separate.
Don't you want to control the use of your material?
I can't control what people do. I don't want to. If they want to sell my music to someone else or send it to their friends, they can just as easily tape it off the radio as the Net. MP3 quality sucks. If they want quality, they can purchase a DVD-A.
And what happens to indies and "upcoming artists?"
Don't forget we're pretty much less than a decade into this whole "download music" thing. Already there have been entire albums released only on the internet and have become "online hits" despite providing their creators no income. Just ask around and see how many hiphop fans have "the gray album."
The system WILl change. Artists will quickly realize the creative benefits of avoiding the major labels, the labels will end up being second tier distribution mechanisms - like cable TV. Artists will be able to reap first tier benefits online and work with those old school labels only when it suits them.
Don't underestimate the power of independance. Thomas Dolby is a good friend of CD Baby (which offers DRM free music downloads) and Magnatune has several artists that you may not immediately recognize (and what non-geek teenager nowdays knows Thomas Dolby?) but have been published on old school labels before offering some of their catalog under Magnatune's open license.
Artists get generally treated like shit by the labels, and most nowdays don't keep control of their music. It would be great if an Alice Cooper (who still owns his music) or Ted Nugent or Neil Young would sign with one of these online lablels, but don't think because it hasn't happened it never will.
So far as what YOU want... do you just want what you already know? You never look for new music? Unless this is true then you can't know "what you want" until you've checked out their artists. If it doesn't cost anything to do so (I don't know about this new site, but Magnatune offers free streaming and 128kbps previews of everything) then there's an awful lot of Free music out there already to be dismissing as "it's not what I want."
The paranoia about them evil russians is really absurd. Unless you're a bank I doubt you have anything to dread from "russian hackers" and if you are a bank geography isn't a defense. allofmp3.com isn't some get rich quick kiddie porn site; they've been there quite a while and are always trying to improve their service - how would it be in their interest to rip people off or to associate with those who do?
I use my mastercard. Been a year now, never had a problem.
BTW there is a US service that offers even higher quality and far better service. See this site.