I've been using Rhapsody for over a year. I love it.
First, you can do all the normal stuff you'd expect from an on-demand streaming service; make playlists of songs, add entire albums to your library, listen to pre-programmed channels, or create your own channels by selecting a list of artists, etc.
The sound quality is high and the connections reliable. It's not for dial-up users. You need broadband.
In addition to streaming the songs most can be burned to CD for 79 cents/each. I seldom use this feature. I use this gadget to get the audio from my PC to the stereo while streaming.
Here's what really makes Rhapsody valuable to me:
The Rhapsody desktop app integrates the Muze database, the same database you'll find at music store kiosks for doing searches. With this you can do searches by artist, album, and song title. Also, for each artist you see similar artists, influencers, and followers, all hyperlinked together. I can spend hours just following links among artists, finding music new to me that I'm more likely to like.
Music is also categorized by genre, with a playlist of typical songs for the genre and a list of albums and artists considered important to the genre.
A small negative: I'd like to see the ability to search by genre and include boolean expressions in the search.
It seems to me many baseball fans would be more into being the manager of the team than a player. Being able to create a lineup, and 'strategize' during the game e.g. control when to bunt, hit-and-run, move around the fielders, etc.
This stuff is a huge part of the game for real fans. I couldn't tell from a quick read of the review whether the game includes this sort of role.
Jeneaux, after you get it running let us know if it includes anything like this.
After you finish Snow Crash, make sure you pick up 'Cryptonomicon', it's a great read.
Stephenson's book, 'In the Beginning Was the Command Line' is a good one to give to those non-tech friends who just don't get the whole 'Linux' thing. I've bought several copies over the years, but now it's a free download as a text file from Stephenson's web site.
Let's say 100 people visit the site. Let's say they all want to buy the game, but if given the chance to download a demo first, they will.
Of those 100, 50 hit the 'no demo available' page and make a purchase.
The other 50 hit the 'demo available page' and download the demo. They like it and come back to buy. When they come back to buy 25 will hit the 'no demo available page' and make their purchase. The other 25 hit the 'demo available' page and make their purchase.
The result: Of the 100 people 75 make the purchase from the 'no demo page' and 25 from the 'demo' page, thus proving demos are a bad idea???
Another thumbs up for 'Thinking in Java'. I can't think of a better book for someone intelligent, but new to programming. It covers lots of important concepts prior to introducing the language itself.
I have plenty of Java books nearby and this is probably the most dogeared of the lot.
The title says it all, 'Thinking in Java' gets the reader in the right mindset to understand a topic and 'why' things are the way they are.
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I've been using Rhapsody for over a year. I love it.
First, you can do all the normal stuff you'd expect from an on-demand streaming service; make playlists of songs, add entire albums to your library, listen to pre-programmed channels, or create your own channels by selecting a list of artists, etc.
The sound quality is high and the connections reliable. It's not for dial-up users. You need broadband.
In addition to streaming the songs most can be burned to CD for 79 cents/each. I seldom use this feature. I use this gadget to get the audio from my PC to the stereo while streaming.
Here's what really makes Rhapsody valuable to me: The Rhapsody desktop app integrates the Muze database, the same database you'll find at music store kiosks for doing searches. With this you can do searches by artist, album, and song title. Also, for each artist you see similar artists, influencers, and followers, all hyperlinked together. I can spend hours just following links among artists, finding music new to me that I'm more likely to like.
Music is also categorized by genre, with a playlist of typical songs for the genre and a list of albums and artists considered important to the genre.
A small negative: I'd like to see the ability to search by genre and include boolean expressions in the search.
Price: $10/month ($8 if paid quarterly). Not bad.
It seems to me many baseball fans would be more into being the manager of the team than a player. Being able to create a lineup, and 'strategize' during the game e.g. control when to bunt, hit-and-run, move around the fielders, etc.
This stuff is a huge part of the game for real fans. I couldn't tell from a quick read of the review whether the game includes this sort of role.
Jeneaux, after you get it running let us know if it includes anything like this.
In addition to resetting the admin password there are tools like this one which I've used many times to recover passwords from NT boxes.
Wal-mart has found a notebook they can sell for $14.95 that will be a hit with their target
demographic from Ohio Art.
After you finish Snow Crash, make sure you pick up 'Cryptonomicon', it's a great read.
Stephenson's book, 'In the Beginning Was the Command Line' is a good one to give to those non-tech friends who just don't get the whole 'Linux' thing. I've bought several copies over the years, but now it's a free download as a text file from Stephenson's web site.
Let's say 100 people visit the site. Let's say they all want to buy the game, but if given the chance to download a demo first, they will.
Of those 100, 50 hit the 'no demo available' page and make a purchase.
The other 50 hit the 'demo available page' and download the demo. They like it and come back to buy. When they come back to buy 25 will hit the 'no demo available page' and make their purchase. The other 25 hit the 'demo available' page and make their purchase.
The result: Of the 100 people 75 make the purchase from the 'no demo page' and 25 from the 'demo' page, thus proving demos are a bad idea???
I think 'emancipated' is the word you're looking for, unless they all went on a hunger strike. Then maybe they are emaciated!.
Another thumbs up for 'Thinking in Java'. I can't think of a better book for someone intelligent, but new to programming. It covers lots of important concepts prior to introducing the language itself.
I have plenty of Java books nearby and this is probably the most dogeared of the lot.
The title says it all, 'Thinking in Java' gets the reader in the right mindset to understand a topic and 'why' things are the way they are.
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