I've tried a lot of media player programs for Windows: WinAmp2, WinAmp3, Real, RealOne, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch Jukebox, and for iPod use, MMJ, Ephpod, XPlay.
I'll be blunt here and say: They all fuckin' suck compared to iTunes. The short period where I had an iBook was a wonderful one, as I also had an iPod. iTunes is nearly flawless, besides the fact that (I think) it only works with iPods and no other portable music players.
The current non-iTunes media players for Windows have horrible support for iPods. Ephpod, a program designed to be used with the iPods, is a buggy one. And it's the only decent one I've found for Windows.
Why don't any others support playlists without requiring you to have a copy of the song for every playlist it is in?
Forgive me if this is wrong, but my experience has been that when I use a non-iTunes media player program that supports portable players, when I go to create a playlist and transfer it over to the player (iPod, at least), the program copies the files in that playlist over even if they already exist on the player (the exact same file). I've only been able to avoid this using Ephpod, but I've had lots of problems with this program.
I hope iTunes: Windows will mirror iTunes: Mac (the store too, but I'm referring to the program mainly).
There are other reasons for my dislike of all those other media player programs... slowness, bugginess, cool features done completely wrong, terrible media library issues.... the list goes on.
Sorry about that; I was not specific enough -- that wasn't a complaint about the device itself as the software used with it. When you use a media player (most conventional ones, at least) on your PC to create playlists and copy them over, it will copy the songs over to the device whether or not the song is already on it.
Of course it reads IDv3 tags... but it doesn't organize the music by them, into convenient categories like the iPod.
I fail to see how the terrible video support (before this new model) has been all that innovative, or other basic features it has. When you look at sheer innovation of the iPod, the Archos doesn't compare. With the iPod, I can get to exactly the song or album I want with zero trouble, and could right out of the box.
Sorry about my error regarding which came out first...
1. Copy Apple, without intuitive features
2. Create ads in which actors smash objects used in Apple ads
3. ???
4. Profit!!
Does this model support IDv3 tags? If not, chuck it in that wastebin. My friend has an Archos Multimedia 20, and it's bulky, a little slow, its menus are difficult to navigate through, and there's no IDv3 support allowing easy ways to find your music. It also makes duplicates of MP3s when you create playlists.
This has been one of my main complaints with Linux. For someone who grew up on DOS/Windows it's terribly difficult to adjust to the Linux environment because of the massive choices available. When I get into an OS, I want to be able to get around the system and perform complicated tasks as fast as possible.
Especially for a serious, well-educated computer user not interested in every single feature of Linux, all one wants is to set up the OS and have a very short period of getting used to the environment. Linux has yet to click with me (and many similarly skilled people) in this way.
I think that if a larger collaboration of developers got together and created an interface dedicated to user-friendliness, Linux would be much more popular. You'd have to craft it to look and feel like Windows in certain ways to help people horribly crippled by being trapped in Windows for such a long time. You could still include the option for powerusers to choose other interfaces like KDE et al, but would hide that away in a Control Panel's "Interface" section.
Automatic Updates is a feature that Microsoft already implemented. True, they won't install for you if downloaded automatically, but that's just another feature that could be added.
There's always been the option to not use Automatic Updates. I, for one, hate that system- and connection-slugging feature even with high-end hardware on a high-speed connection. So I disabled it, and I don't download the Automatic Update updates from WindowsUpdate.
What makes you think that Microsoft won't let you choose to not use Automatic Updates? The difference may be so subtle as to simply ask upon installing Windows XP SP2 (or Longhorn, for that matter) whether or not to activate Automatic Updates. I wouldn't doubt that you'd also be able to customize it to download but not install.
They could hire Apple's marketing department... but then they'd end up with a name like "iShush" for the device. That's not very intimidating.
Re:Super offtopic: reason was not oil
on
RIAA Quashed
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Thank you for the information! That was very interesting.
Well, I wasn't necessarily referring to oil itself. Of course I realize that the rest of the world would never allow the U.S. to directly keep Iraq's resources. But with a U.S.-friendly government instated, that leads to a number of economic benefits for the U.S. and to what you are saying, about the price of oil per dollar instead of per euro.
It also makes it much more profitable for the United States' economy as a U.S.-friendly government in Iraq would be more beneficial for U.S. corporations. They are more likely to be granted access to the oil and with better trade deals, not to forget security.
Opinions versus reactions
on
RIAA Quashed
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Beware... this may get off topic.
It's interesting to see how many people vehemently oppose the RIAA; of course, as a sane individual, I'm one of them.
At the same time, I'm not surprised that a greater amount of reaction hasn't been taken against the RIAA's abuses of the United States' legal system and its obvious government manipulation through corporate power.
Historically, humans are much more likely to take action when they oppose something that legally allows others to do something they don't like, as compared to when they support something (human rights, for example) being challenged or when they are merely indirectly affected by it. This is how ultraconservative legislation (for example) is often passed, when a minority supports it rather than the majority: Most individuals against the legislation quietly oppose the issue, without taking action. A very small minority will work intensely and consistently to get its way, and they usually succeed. This is compared to the opposition, which takes action in small amounts that aren't usually consistent (like opposition that fizzles out after a large protest), and the opposition tends to be less "fire-breathing" as the other side.
Good examples of this are Minnesota's state legislature revoking domestic partner benefits for state employees due to a budget crisis and the influence of fundamentalists, and perhaps (please don't flame) the questionable recent war in the Middle East. (Disregarding whatever figures CNN or FoxNews may spout, I happen to be among those who doubt the majority in the United States actually supported the war. Ever.)
(You know, the one for oil? Oops... I mean, the one to hoist an unfriendly regime? Oops... I mean, the war to free innocent people from corruption, torture, and terror by murdering them and continuing to cause instability and terror?)
Back on track... the lack of reaction taken against the RIAA is disappointing but not odd, especially with the obvious issue that filesharing copyrighted material is illegal. But this isn't about copyright infringement, it's about the RIAA exploiting its resources while people just kind of let it slide by and wait to see what happens. Great thanks to the EFF for doing something constructive about it.
It seems that, for the most part, the only other people speaking out and taking some action (however small) are the people who've been sued. That is not to forget the generous people who have donated to pay the enormous charges against RIAA victims.
Finally, I must confess that I personally have taken no real action to fight the RIAA, though I should.
Hey, even if it's semiethical since he took much time to develop the characters and lost them unfairly, assuming he crafted a character with the exact same items and attributes to replace it, it still promotes cheating...
I tend to think that online content subscriptions will never work, for many reasons. There is the instant gratification nature of the Internet, and the massive amount of control the user has in choosing what s/he views every nanosecond, versus zero control over television advertisements. (Okay, excluding porn ad popup trails.)
I often relate content subscriptions to online advertising, something that will only truly work if there is a major change in the way online content is presented, a change that people probably won't like. Who doesn't hate ads before video content on some free online sevices (ala Yahoo! Launch)... a service that hasn't matured enough to have a variety of ads?
I think non-free content can work, but only on small levels, when it targets small interest niches. Providing media that is commonly available from many sources and charging for it while it's otherwise free obviously doesn't work.
Essentially, you have to offer something in the form of content that is extremely unique and entertaining or particularly informative to a certain interest group, and you have to provide an insane amount of this, updated frequently throughout the day. A set of rich content that fits these qualities and also can't be exhausted after viewing it for a few hours. This sounds sort of like news, and a little like slashdot, but news doesn't work since it is otherwise readily available at no cost.
So, I think subscription content can work on small levels targeting certain interest groups with rich content that is not (mainly) news, yet is updated frequently throughout the day, is consistently unique, interesting, entertaining, and/or informative, and so much is available that users won't exhaust the content quickly.
What other types of stuff can you do this with besides music?
Why would you want to purchase books like these when you can find learning resources almost equivalent to them online? It takes some searching, but it's worth the effort, and you get a greater variety in writing and ways to explain concepts.
Oh, that's right... Java resources on the 'net stink like Depends.
Why is that, anyway? I've looked into (free) online tutorials and a variety of resources for other programming languages (HTML included or excluded). There seems to be a much larger availability of this information for everything but Java.
At least, it seems as if good Java tutorials thin out once you get past the basics. Java isn't fresh out of the coffee pot anymore, if you know what I mean...
Slashdot Mirror
Um... Diablo II was released on June 28, 2000. Got a time machine?
I've tried a lot of media player programs for Windows: WinAmp2, WinAmp3, Real, RealOne, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch Jukebox, and for iPod use, MMJ, Ephpod, XPlay.
I'll be blunt here and say: They all fuckin' suck compared to iTunes. The short period where I had an iBook was a wonderful one, as I also had an iPod. iTunes is nearly flawless, besides the fact that (I think) it only works with iPods and no other portable music players.
The current non-iTunes media players for Windows have horrible support for iPods. Ephpod, a program designed to be used with the iPods, is a buggy one. And it's the only decent one I've found for Windows.
Why don't any others support playlists without requiring you to have a copy of the song for every playlist it is in?
Forgive me if this is wrong, but my experience has been that when I use a non-iTunes media player program that supports portable players, when I go to create a playlist and transfer it over to the player (iPod, at least), the program copies the files in that playlist over even if they already exist on the player (the exact same file). I've only been able to avoid this using Ephpod, but I've had lots of problems with this program.
I hope iTunes: Windows will mirror iTunes: Mac (the store too, but I'm referring to the program mainly).
There are other reasons for my dislike of all those other media player programs... slowness, bugginess, cool features done completely wrong, terrible media library issues.... the list goes on.
Sorry about that; I was not specific enough -- that wasn't a complaint about the device itself as the software used with it. When you use a media player (most conventional ones, at least) on your PC to create playlists and copy them over, it will copy the songs over to the device whether or not the song is already on it.
Of course it reads IDv3 tags... but it doesn't organize the music by them, into convenient categories like the iPod.
I fail to see how the terrible video support (before this new model) has been all that innovative, or other basic features it has. When you look at sheer innovation of the iPod, the Archos doesn't compare. With the iPod, I can get to exactly the song or album I want with zero trouble, and could right out of the box.
Sorry about my error regarding which came out first...
1. Copy Apple, without intuitive features 2. Create ads in which actors smash objects used in Apple ads 3. ??? 4. Profit!! Does this model support IDv3 tags? If not, chuck it in that wastebin. My friend has an Archos Multimedia 20, and it's bulky, a little slow, its menus are difficult to navigate through, and there's no IDv3 support allowing easy ways to find your music. It also makes duplicates of MP3s when you create playlists.
This has been one of my main complaints with Linux. For someone who grew up on DOS/Windows it's terribly difficult to adjust to the Linux environment because of the massive choices available. When I get into an OS, I want to be able to get around the system and perform complicated tasks as fast as possible.
Especially for a serious, well-educated computer user not interested in every single feature of Linux, all one wants is to set up the OS and have a very short period of getting used to the environment. Linux has yet to click with me (and many similarly skilled people) in this way.
I think that if a larger collaboration of developers got together and created an interface dedicated to user-friendliness, Linux would be much more popular. You'd have to craft it to look and feel like Windows in certain ways to help people horribly crippled by being trapped in Windows for such a long time. You could still include the option for powerusers to choose other interfaces like KDE et al, but would hide that away in a Control Panel's "Interface" section.
Automatic Updates is a feature that Microsoft already implemented. True, they won't install for you if downloaded automatically, but that's just another feature that could be added.
There's always been the option to not use Automatic Updates. I, for one, hate that system- and connection-slugging feature even with high-end hardware on a high-speed connection. So I disabled it, and I don't download the Automatic Update updates from WindowsUpdate.
What makes you think that Microsoft won't let you choose to not use Automatic Updates? The difference may be so subtle as to simply ask upon installing Windows XP SP2 (or Longhorn, for that matter) whether or not to activate Automatic Updates. I wouldn't doubt that you'd also be able to customize it to download but not install.
They could hire Apple's marketing department... but then they'd end up with a name like "iShush" for the device. That's not very intimidating.
Thank you for the information! That was very interesting.
Well, I wasn't necessarily referring to oil itself. Of course I realize that the rest of the world would never allow the U.S. to directly keep Iraq's resources. But with a U.S.-friendly government instated, that leads to a number of economic benefits for the U.S. and to what you are saying, about the price of oil per dollar instead of per euro.
It also makes it much more profitable for the United States' economy as a U.S.-friendly government in Iraq would be more beneficial for U.S. corporations. They are more likely to be granted access to the oil and with better trade deals, not to forget security.
Beware... this may get off topic.
It's interesting to see how many people vehemently oppose the RIAA; of course, as a sane individual, I'm one of them.
At the same time, I'm not surprised that a greater amount of reaction hasn't been taken against the RIAA's abuses of the United States' legal system and its obvious government manipulation through corporate power.
Historically, humans are much more likely to take action when they oppose something that legally allows others to do something they don't like, as compared to when they support something (human rights, for example) being challenged or when they are merely indirectly affected by it. This is how ultraconservative legislation (for example) is often passed, when a minority supports it rather than the majority: Most individuals against the legislation quietly oppose the issue, without taking action. A very small minority will work intensely and consistently to get its way, and they usually succeed. This is compared to the opposition, which takes action in small amounts that aren't usually consistent (like opposition that fizzles out after a large protest), and the opposition tends to be less "fire-breathing" as the other side.
Good examples of this are Minnesota's state legislature revoking domestic partner benefits for state employees due to a budget crisis and the influence of fundamentalists, and perhaps (please don't flame) the questionable recent war in the Middle East. (Disregarding whatever figures CNN or FoxNews may spout, I happen to be among those who doubt the majority in the United States actually supported the war. Ever.)
(You know, the one for oil? Oops... I mean, the one to hoist an unfriendly regime? Oops... I mean, the war to free innocent people from corruption, torture, and terror by murdering them and continuing to cause instability and terror?)
Back on track... the lack of reaction taken against the RIAA is disappointing but not odd, especially with the obvious issue that filesharing copyrighted material is illegal. But this isn't about copyright infringement, it's about the RIAA exploiting its resources while people just kind of let it slide by and wait to see what happens. Great thanks to the EFF for doing something constructive about it.
It seems that, for the most part, the only other people speaking out and taking some action (however small) are the people who've been sued. That is not to forget the generous people who have donated to pay the enormous charges against RIAA victims.
Finally, I must confess that I personally have taken no real action to fight the RIAA, though I should.
Now let's not promote cheating, Cowboy... ;-)
Hey, even if it's semiethical since he took much time to develop the characters and lost them unfairly, assuming he crafted a character with the exact same items and attributes to replace it, it still promotes cheating...
I tend to think that online content subscriptions will never work, for many reasons. There is the instant gratification nature of the Internet, and the massive amount of control the user has in choosing what s/he views every nanosecond, versus zero control over television advertisements. (Okay, excluding porn ad popup trails.)
I often relate content subscriptions to online advertising, something that will only truly work if there is a major change in the way online content is presented, a change that people probably won't like. Who doesn't hate ads before video content on some free online sevices (ala Yahoo! Launch)... a service that hasn't matured enough to have a variety of ads?
I think non-free content can work, but only on small levels, when it targets small interest niches. Providing media that is commonly available from many sources and charging for it while it's otherwise free obviously doesn't work.
Essentially, you have to offer something in the form of content that is extremely unique and entertaining or particularly informative to a certain interest group, and you have to provide an insane amount of this, updated frequently throughout the day. A set of rich content that fits these qualities and also can't be exhausted after viewing it for a few hours. This sounds sort of like news, and a little like slashdot, but news doesn't work since it is otherwise readily available at no cost.
So, I think subscription content can work on small levels targeting certain interest groups with rich content that is not (mainly) news, yet is updated frequently throughout the day, is consistently unique, interesting, entertaining, and/or informative, and so much is available that users won't exhaust the content quickly.
What other types of stuff can you do this with besides music?
Sun has assets left?
Why would you want to purchase books like these when you can find learning resources almost equivalent to them online? It takes some searching, but it's worth the effort, and you get a greater variety in writing and ways to explain concepts.
Oh, that's right... Java resources on the 'net stink like Depends.
Why is that, anyway? I've looked into (free) online tutorials and a variety of resources for other programming languages (HTML included or excluded). There seems to be a much larger availability of this information for everything but Java.
At least, it seems as if good Java tutorials thin out once you get past the basics. Java isn't fresh out of the coffee pot anymore, if you know what I mean...