I have found some indie music online that I liked, but I had to (unfortunately) listen to a lot of really bad music to find it.
I'll have to second that, I have found a lot of crap out there. To answer this and your other statement about "something that downloads songs it thinks I will like based upon past prefences", there was some sort of decentralized legal content delivery system that worked downstream. aka, people could choose channels that they trust and that channel was run by a person, deciding, supposedly based on their personal likes and dislikes, what would get sent downstream of the channel. I think you could also have it just randomly browse channels and download stuff whenever it was broadcast. It was all sorts of files, music especially, and basically, you would set it up to run in the background and it would collect some stuff overnight. Then the next day, or after however long, you could sort through and listen to all sorts of random crap.
Now if I remember correctly, it sucked, didn't really go anywhere and everything I ever got from it was craptastic... but...
My point is that, someone could create, say, some sort of open source program that takes advantage of this, transfers stuf to the ipod etcetera etcetera. Of one ould get a internet radio stream ripper and go to town. Although, if you have dialup, which I suspect you do, you would be better off with a decentralized p2p distribution or downstream channel distribution arcitechture (sp?)
The moral of the story? Get broadband? I dunno, I'm really just rambling.
You seem to be making the mistake of stating that the labels "good" and "bad" are directly correlated to "mainstream" and "inde". Just because something is "mainstream", does not at all mean it is good or bad. Mainstream refers only to the way it is distributed. Distribution does not automatically correlate to quality. And yes, I know, you could say that logically, the more people that want something, the better it must be. This point is becoming less and less valid with the politically influenced decisions (polotics between companies and corporations, not polotics as in George Bush, government) that control the mass media. Quite often, something is chosen to go mainstream for no particular reason.
My point is... I, personally, have a large music collection. It is an eclectic bunch of music, and I have many songs from both "mainstream" and "indie" artists. But I don't see them like that. Hell, that's why I call them songs, I don't even see them really as albums that much anymore. When I listen to music, I actually listen to it. I don't care what record label released it or who released it or how cool the lead guitar player guy is or what so and so's opinion on something is. I only care about how it makes me feel when I listen to it.
This is how it should be and which is why I only go to concerts for the atmosphere of all the other concert goers and to watch the cool lighting and staging effects (I'm a theater lighting major at school) I don't go so that I can get a glimpse of the rockstar or so I can feel like I'm "rockin out" with the band. I don't care about them personally, just the noises they make and arrange. The history and polotics behind it has no effect whatsoever on me. I'll listen to hard rock radio, classical music, wierd ass surreal atmospheric techno-polka rap ballads, whatever.
The point of my point, the music is what matters, not where it comes from and who made it or why. And the recording people should not be the bigger piece of the pie than the creating people, but that's how it is, and it should be changing. There is a lot of indie artists out there that is better quality than its mainstream counterparts, and a lot of mainstream that is better than the indie. Listen to the radio, if you hear something that catches your ear, go find it. Download and listen to random music, if you hear something that catches your ear, keep it. Just please don't change your mind after deciding you like it because of who distributes/releases it.
Oh and I do agree with you that if we hear it on the radio, we should be able to add it to our collection, seems kind of dumb not to be that way already. But downloading random music and listening to it is my version of listening to the radio to find new stuff.
Unfortunatley, that seems to be the American way, why do x when someone/thing else can do it for you (x the variable, not the hallucinegen...). You can sub so many things these days for x:
raising children
definging your taste in music/movies
forming opinions on news events
Managing your Digital Rights
building things
repairing your own stuff (like electronics)
imagining (like video games, see parent post)
thinking (in general, welcome to the American way)
Unfortunatley, the someone/thing else are the conglomerating corporate focus groups, looking for where the money is. The idea of legos, which someone buys once, and is used for so long afterwards, because they are so versitile, doesn't match with our one-time use throw-it-away culture. Legos may be a bit more expensive, but stretch that money over the amount of time that they can entertain a little kid and they become so much cheaper than video games. It's not that there isn't a market for Legos, it's just that it takes a lot more parenting toget legos to entertain your children than it takes to get video games to entertain. We may be witnessing a dying empire, but I for one, when I have kids, will give them Legos, even if I have to go antiquing to find them. (The Legos, not the kids...)
-P
I think so - it made Gomez Peer crap its pants as well, maybe it's "Microsofting" (-1 Flamebait) the other distributed computing programs. Anyone have Seti@home running?
"The deal means that Bollywood producers can now distribute movies, music and other large, rich media files online that would be too large and expensive to host on a traditional Web site," the statement said.
"We are starting with promotional content but we are in the process which will allow movies and songs on a pay-per-view mode in the new year," Saleem Mobhani, co-founder of IndiaFM, which is run by Virtual Marketing India, told Reuters.
Correct me if I'm wrong (I don't even need to ask for that), but isn't the driving idea behind Kazaa that the downloading becomes distributed over the many computers that have already downloaded the file? I mean, I know that it would be going through altnet, which I guess is different content, and specifically hosted from a corporate server, but if they're saying that they want to do it this way rather than host it off a website, aren't the "seeding" altnet servers going to continually be hit as hard as if one had hosted a website with the movies? The files won't become distributed among other Kazaa users because anyone that downloads loses the file after they watch it.
From the freep.com article:
"Verizon had argued at its trial that Internet providers should only be compelled to respond to such subpoenas when pirated music is stored on computers that providers directly control, such as a Web site, rather than on a subscriber's personal computer.
In his ruling, the trial judge wrote that Verizon's interpretation ``makes little sense from a policy standpoint,'' and warned that it ``would create a huge loophole in Congress' effort to prevent copyright infringement on the Internet.'' "
So the judges also told Verizon that part of their arguement was laughable as well.
X steps forward, Y steps back, you fill in the two variables, what do you think?
I think this ruling is like 3 steps forward, 1 step back.
Actually, at the risk of sounding extremely not cool on slashdot, I use Windows XP's IIS it to host my website. Although this is just temporary, until I can get a Linux box working, it does "just barely" work for me. My Linux nerdy friends all give me a lot of crap about it, but it does what i need it to, and it's easy to set up and easy to update. I never get any traffic to it and it's only used for when people need to see my resume and I send them a link. If there was any more than that, MS IIS would crap it's pants because of the 10 connection limit. I also do digital video editing, which requires tons of hard drive space, fast and often movement of that data, firewire (IEEE 1394) and a hefty processor load for rendering in Adobe Premiere. I also use dual monitor support so I can play back DVD movies and Family Guy episodes on my TV while still working on stuff on the main monitor. I use AutoCAD a lot for school projects (drafting class) and I do web design for myself and occasionally other people. So add Macromedia Studio MX to the list. I also have been working on copying some DVD videos of a class project that I have taken upon myself to translate into a bunch of SVCDs for classmates. And yes I do cruise the web, play games (Halo PC, Wolf:ET, WC3, Starcraft, HL:CS, UT, UT2K3, Q3A, etc...), and (I don't download music anymore, I rip it from friends' CDs) write papers in there too. And throughout this, I am usually running Trillian, Gomez Peer, Winamp and Firebird all at once...
Sorry for the run-on post, I do know what paragraphs are, but I'm drunk and typing fast feels neat when you're drunk.
I'm pretty happy with XP. I think the fact that it was only $20 through my school helped me like it more.;)
What school do you go to that sells it for $20.00? My school, University of Cincinnati sells it for around $6 or $7. I wonder if price is set by size of student body or average purchases. Also, we have a faculty edition that has no activation on it.
"People realize that that "activation" in XP is invasive, and undesirable. People will continue to need the ability to install the same purchased license on more than one machine. Being the last Windows that let you do this easily,"
At some universities that have a special agreement with Microsoft, like The University of Cincinnati, Faculty can get a legal liscenced copy of Windows XP Pro that never asks for activation, doesn't require registration, and can be installed an infinite number of times, presumably on an infinite number of computers. And they can purchase it from the University Bookstore for around US$6.95
...And if you know someone who works at the bookstore, you can get one of these covenanted faculty versions even if you may not exactly be "faculty"...
"The interface is clean and simple -- not like the fruity looking XP default one. With a little tweaking (and a good firewall, of course), you can make it relatively secure too."
Well with a little tweaking, you can make Windows XP look like Windows 2000 as well.
"Yes, I know MS sucks, but they did a great job with Win2k."
I have been running Windows XP Professional for a while now and although I am, as well, not too fond of the way Microsoft goes about business, (I hate them with a particularly fiery passion regarding their purchase of Bungie Software...) I admit that Windows XP, if used correctly will work better than Windows 2K, dare I say, even good enough for me to get stuff done, and even on a regular basis.
My computer is a custom build, I leave it on all the time, and I do all sorts of wierd things to it. It has survived - there is life after Microsoft. My ability to do this (leave it on, have it work under stress) actually increased after upgrading to XP (and a bit more when upgrading to XP pro) and increased a lot when I ditched my HP Laptop and went to this custom rig.
Of course, I also get MS Windows XP Pro from my college bookstore for $6.00, so if it weren't for the piracy busting price, I would be all over linux like a bum on a ham sandwich.
i can't beleive i said "unions are a misuse of power" I usually go by the rule "never say never, always say sometimes", but you are right, Unions are a double edged sword/mixed blessing. I wholeheartedly agree that unions are necessary, or should I say the idea of unions are necessary. The idea of centralization for the people, the "underdogs" is needed because companies that employ union workers are by nature, already centralized. Workers need to be able to react to their manager's actions as quickly as possible so that managers don't take advantage.
I come from the theater/stagehand business and unions here are more or less a pain. Especially in south-western Ohio where the IATSE is decentralized (independent from the rest of the world's IATSE) and therefor, making it impossible for workers that have gained their 4 years of experience in this union to go to any other union. There was a Steward who came to our theater school and tried to give a speech on unions and practically got shot down on the stage while answering questions because they basically say, regardless of how much time you have spent in college, u start out at the same pay level if you're a high school drop out or a college grad from a highly accredited tech theater school. That enraged the crowd because the union does not take into consideration the hard work that we have all put into college. It's "good old boy" unions like these that can sometimes cause problems. Sometimes I forget, after trying to work with IATSE that there are actual good normal unions out there serving their purpose.
-P
Slashdot Mirror
I have found some indie music online that I liked, but I had to (unfortunately) listen to a lot of really bad music to find it.
I'll have to second that, I have found a lot of crap out there. To answer this and your other statement about "something that downloads songs it thinks I will like based upon past prefences", there was some sort of decentralized legal content delivery system that worked downstream. aka, people could choose channels that they trust and that channel was run by a person, deciding, supposedly based on their personal likes and dislikes, what would get sent downstream of the channel. I think you could also have it just randomly browse channels and download stuff whenever it was broadcast. It was all sorts of files, music especially, and basically, you would set it up to run in the background and it would collect some stuff overnight. Then the next day, or after however long, you could sort through and listen to all sorts of random crap.
Now if I remember correctly, it sucked, didn't really go anywhere and everything I ever got from it was craptastic...
but...
My point is that, someone could create, say, some sort of open source program that takes advantage of this, transfers stuf to the ipod etcetera etcetera. Of one ould get a internet radio stream ripper and go to town. Although, if you have dialup, which I suspect you do, you would be better off with a decentralized p2p distribution or downstream channel distribution arcitechture (sp?)
The moral of the story? Get broadband? I dunno, I'm really just rambling.
-P
Technically, room temperature glass is always flowing, just reeeeeeeally slowly, but we still call it "solid glass"
-P
You seem to be making the mistake of stating that the labels "good" and "bad" are directly correlated to "mainstream" and "inde". Just because something is "mainstream", does not at all mean it is good or bad. Mainstream refers only to the way it is distributed. Distribution does not automatically correlate to quality. And yes, I know, you could say that logically, the more people that want something, the better it must be. This point is becoming less and less valid with the politically influenced decisions (polotics between companies and corporations, not polotics as in George Bush, government) that control the mass media. Quite often, something is chosen to go mainstream for no particular reason.
My point is... I, personally, have a large music collection. It is an eclectic bunch of music, and I have many songs from both "mainstream" and "indie" artists. But I don't see them like that. Hell, that's why I call them songs, I don't even see them really as albums that much anymore. When I listen to music, I actually listen to it. I don't care what record label released it or who released it or how cool the lead guitar player guy is or what so and so's opinion on something is. I only care about how it makes me feel when I listen to it.
This is how it should be and which is why I only go to concerts for the atmosphere of all the other concert goers and to watch the cool lighting and staging effects (I'm a theater lighting major at school) I don't go so that I can get a glimpse of the rockstar or so I can feel like I'm "rockin out" with the band. I don't care about them personally, just the noises they make and arrange. The history and polotics behind it has no effect whatsoever on me. I'll listen to hard rock radio, classical music, wierd ass surreal atmospheric techno-polka rap ballads, whatever.
The point of my point, the music is what matters, not where it comes from and who made it or why. And the recording people should not be the bigger piece of the pie than the creating people, but that's how it is, and it should be changing. There is a lot of indie artists out there that is better quality than its mainstream counterparts, and a lot of mainstream that is better than the indie. Listen to the radio, if you hear something that catches your ear, go find it. Download and listen to random music, if you hear something that catches your ear, keep it. Just please don't change your mind after deciding you like it because of who distributes/releases it.
Oh and I do agree with you that if we hear it on the radio, we should be able to add it to our collection, seems kind of dumb not to be that way already. But downloading random music and listening to it is my version of listening to the radio to find new stuff.
-P
Unfortunatley, that seems to be the American way, why do x when someone/thing else can do it for you (x the variable, not the hallucinegen...). You can sub so many things these days for x:
raising children
definging your taste in music/movies
forming opinions on news events
Managing your Digital Rights
building things
repairing your own stuff (like electronics)
imagining (like video games, see parent post)
thinking (in general, welcome to the American way)
Unfortunatley, the someone/thing else are the conglomerating corporate focus groups, looking for where the money is. The idea of legos, which someone buys once, and is used for so long afterwards, because they are so versitile, doesn't match with our one-time use throw-it-away culture. Legos may be a bit more expensive, but stretch that money over the amount of time that they can entertain a little kid and they become so much cheaper than video games. It's not that there isn't a market for Legos, it's just that it takes a lot more parenting toget legos to entertain your children than it takes to get video games to entertain. We may be witnessing a dying empire, but I for one, when I have kids, will give them Legos, even if I have to go antiquing to find them. (The Legos, not the kids...)
-P
I think so - it made Gomez Peer crap its pants as well,
maybe it's "Microsofting" (-1 Flamebait) the other distributed computing programs.
Anyone have Seti@home running?
It's about time that the monster (us) is used for good and not evil.
Oooh! I thought of another way...
Just Click here.
-P
From the Reuter's Article:
"The deal means that Bollywood producers can now distribute movies, music and other large, rich media files online that would be too large and expensive to host on a traditional Web site," the statement said.
"We are starting with promotional content but we are in the process which will allow movies and songs on a pay-per-view mode in the new year," Saleem Mobhani, co-founder of IndiaFM, which is run by Virtual Marketing India, told Reuters.
Correct me if I'm wrong (I don't even need to ask for that), but isn't the driving idea behind Kazaa that the downloading becomes distributed over the many computers that have already downloaded the file? I mean, I know that it would be going through altnet, which I guess is different content, and specifically hosted from a corporate server, but if they're saying that they want to do it this way rather than host it off a website, aren't the "seeding" altnet servers going to continually be hit as hard as if one had hosted a website with the movies? The files won't become distributed among other Kazaa users because anyone that downloads loses the file after they watch it.
From the freep.com article:
"Verizon had argued at its trial that Internet providers should only be compelled to respond to such subpoenas when pirated music is stored on computers that providers directly control, such as a Web site, rather than on a subscriber's personal computer.
In his ruling, the trial judge wrote that Verizon's interpretation ``makes little sense from a policy standpoint,'' and warned that it ``would create a huge loophole in Congress' effort to prevent copyright infringement on the Internet.'' "
So the judges also told Verizon that part of their arguement was laughable as well.
X steps forward, Y steps back, you fill in the two variables, what do you think?
I think this ruling is like 3 steps forward, 1 step back.
or you could just use a Cue Cat I have a box of 50 that I got for cheap from a RadioShack that was liquidating them.
Actually, at the risk of sounding extremely not cool on slashdot, I use Windows XP's IIS it to host my website. Although this is just temporary, until I can get a Linux box working, it does "just barely" work for me. My Linux nerdy friends all give me a lot of crap about it, but it does what i need it to, and it's easy to set up and easy to update. I never get any traffic to it and it's only used for when people need to see my resume and I send them a link. If there was any more than that, MS IIS would crap it's pants because of the 10 connection limit. I also do digital video editing, which requires tons of hard drive space, fast and often movement of that data, firewire (IEEE 1394) and a hefty processor load for rendering in Adobe Premiere. I also use dual monitor support so I can play back DVD movies and Family Guy episodes on my TV while still working on stuff on the main monitor. I use AutoCAD a lot for school projects (drafting class) and I do web design for myself and occasionally other people. So add Macromedia Studio MX to the list. I also have been working on copying some DVD videos of a class project that I have taken upon myself to translate into a bunch of SVCDs for classmates. And yes I do cruise the web, play games (Halo PC, Wolf:ET, WC3, Starcraft, HL:CS, UT, UT2K3, Q3A, etc...), and (I don't download music anymore, I rip it from friends' CDs) write papers in there too. And throughout this, I am usually running Trillian, Gomez Peer, Winamp and Firebird all at once...
Sorry for the run-on post, I do know what paragraphs are, but I'm drunk and typing fast feels neat when you're drunk.
I'm pretty happy with XP. I think the fact that it was only $20 through my school helped me like it more. ;)
What school do you go to that sells it for $20.00? My school, University of Cincinnati sells it for around $6 or $7. I wonder if price is set by size of student body or average purchases. Also, we have a faculty edition that has no activation on it.
"People realize that that "activation" in XP is invasive, and undesirable. People will continue to need the ability to install the same purchased license on more than one machine. Being the last Windows that let you do this easily,"
...And if you know someone who works at the bookstore, you can get one of these covenanted faculty versions even if you may not exactly be "faculty"...
At some universities that have a special agreement with Microsoft, like The University of Cincinnati, Faculty can get a legal liscenced copy of Windows XP Pro that never asks for activation, doesn't require registration, and can be installed an infinite number of times, presumably on an infinite number of computers. And they can purchase it from the University Bookstore for around US$6.95
"The interface is clean and simple -- not like the fruity looking XP default one. With a little tweaking (and a good firewall, of course), you can make it relatively secure too."
Well with a little tweaking, you can make Windows XP look like Windows 2000 as well.
"Yes, I know MS sucks, but they did a great job with Win2k."
I have been running Windows XP Professional for a while now and although I am, as well, not too fond of the way Microsoft goes about business, (I hate them with a particularly fiery passion regarding their purchase of Bungie Software...) I admit that Windows XP, if used correctly will work better than Windows 2K, dare I say, even good enough for me to get stuff done, and even on a regular basis.
My computer is a custom build, I leave it on all the time, and I do all sorts of wierd things to it. It has survived - there is life after Microsoft. My ability to do this (leave it on, have it work under stress) actually increased after upgrading to XP (and a bit more when upgrading to XP pro) and increased a lot when I ditched my HP Laptop and went to this custom rig.
Of course, I also get MS Windows XP Pro from my college bookstore for $6.00, so if it weren't for the piracy busting price, I would be all over linux like a bum on a ham sandwich.
i can't beleive i said "unions are a misuse of power" I usually go by the rule "never say never, always say sometimes", but you are right, Unions are a double edged sword/mixed blessing. I wholeheartedly agree that unions are necessary, or should I say the idea of unions are necessary. The idea of centralization for the people, the "underdogs" is needed because companies that employ union workers are by nature, already centralized. Workers need to be able to react to their manager's actions as quickly as possible so that managers don't take advantage. I come from the theater/stagehand business and unions here are more or less a pain. Especially in south-western Ohio where the IATSE is decentralized (independent from the rest of the world's IATSE) and therefor, making it impossible for workers that have gained their 4 years of experience in this union to go to any other union. There was a Steward who came to our theater school and tried to give a speech on unions and practically got shot down on the stage while answering questions because they basically say, regardless of how much time you have spent in college, u start out at the same pay level if you're a high school drop out or a college grad from a highly accredited tech theater school. That enraged the crowd because the union does not take into consideration the hard work that we have all put into college. It's "good old boy" unions like these that can sometimes cause problems. Sometimes I forget, after trying to work with IATSE that there are actual good normal unions out there serving their purpose. -P