"He filters out pop and hiss to come up with his own masters that sound even better than the digital remasters you buy in the stores."
You'd probably be surprised at how many CD's were actually made by playing a virgin LP into the digital console. There are plenty where you can hear the stylus hitting the groove, and you can hear the characteristic noises. It's been a long time since A/A/D was very common, but, I'm a classical collector (and hence, very interested in digital preservation of analog media.) (I might digress a bit, and point out how much more ridiculous the copyright control arguments sound when you apply them to performances of 300 year old music). But I won't.
So, in many ways, an analog recording is superior to a consumer digital format. Sure, 48khz digital has far more dynamic range than anything that came before it, but there is still a question of precision on the sampling. Where analog rendering represents continuous curves and sympathetic waveforms, digital sampling is always an approximation of this. We're getting closer to where the integral is imperceptible, but, we weren't there yet when "They" decided 44.1Khz and 16bit was good enough. There are qualities of sound present in a vinyl LP recording (especially on orchestral music) which are lost on a digital sampling of that same recording.
It's subtle, and it may not be significant, but if it is important TO ME, then it's important, dammit.
"I don't understand how that will keep people from putting a microphone near the speakers. "
Even if you don't get that extreme, D-A/A-D copies on consumer equipment are generally noisy.
There are cards that will do D-A/A-D resampling pretty well, with about a -60dB noise floor, but these are expensive. And it's still a resampling unless you do it via sp/dif and sync'd to a clock.
So you can get a fairly decent, listenable recording with the method of resampling the audio out, but then, we felt that way about cassette tapes at one time also.
>And this is how they're protecting my "fair use" >rights to space-shift the music I've bought and >paid for?
No, this is how they're demonstrating that after telling you "you don't have any rights, so shut up and buy our product", you still buy the product.
I'm referring to the collective "you", because I realize you personally probably won't buy these things. But millions of people will. I choose not to pay people to insult me and try to take away my rights.
Ripping the cd and making the music more popular just helps them.
Do what I do. Make your own music. The money I didn't spend on CD's over the past 10 years has just about paid for my piano.
"The Mac got hit pretty hard with an autorun virus that ended up shipping on many cd's."
I hope that's true (but it's the first I'd heard of it.)
If it is true, it shows you just how big a task these producers have! They can't even trust their own distribution channels not to sabotage their product. That's pretty bad in my opinion.
Same with the film producers. I want to be a fly on the wall when someone finds out that the reason a video is out before the film release date is because an unknown major shareholder had secretly ordered it to be that way from DeLuxe Labs.
It's the media business equivalent of finding out the Secretary of State leaked the identity of a CIA agent in the field.
"So if the CD fails to remain usable through normal wear and tear, does that put the publisher in breach of contract?"
No, because,
"They've effectively granted me a license that they are going to renege on should the physical media degrade."
Yes, but they have also reserved the right to terminate that agreement at any time without any negotiation or notice to you, for any reason at all. So that means that the broken disc is grounds for them to terminate the license granted. It also means that if they woke up with a hangnail, it's grounds to terminate.
If you didn't like these terms, you shouldn't have done business with these people. If those terms happen to be illegal in your State, then you might have an argument.
The problem isn't that the publishers are crooks, the problem is that so many of us, the consumers, continue to accept the deal they offer and support them consistently with our money.
If we can just stop buying consumer products, we could bring about sociological and economic changes that would rival the industrial revolution itself. Not saying that's a good thing, mind you.
I'm pretty much immune to the advertising for most products. For instance, household cleaners. I know enough chemistry to understand the few active ingredients and how they work, so brand names are just irrelevant. Maybe a better example: Say, I need to lower the pH of my aquarium. Do I go to the pet store and buy an expensive "tropical fish pH reducer", or do I balance the pH myself with acetic acid or sodium bicarbonate? (I'll give you one guess). The only time "brand name" enters into it, is where I decide which antacid tablet contains the least crap besides the active ingredient.
Maybe an even better example. I'm immune to advertising that tells me which shaving lotion to use. Why? Because I've found that a simple hair conditioner makes a far better shaving lotion than anything in an aerosol can, and goes extremely further on the dollar.
I wish people could go back to making their own cleaning and hygiene products, growing their own food, making their own music, and generally tending towards self-sufficiency.
There is no reason for them to be there, other than I guess it says the lab will put them there in the contract.
I was lucky enough to have a sensor to switch the reels for me. I remember switching from carbon-arc to halogen lamps. I still have the shavings from my last arc lights. Soon after that, we got our first platter system, dolby sound, silver screens. Then we went out of business:-). Even then I wanted to cut out the cue frames. I did cut them out for Raider of the Lost Ark.
"You won't see the spots because they will only be in one or two frames"
I saw the spots. But then, I'm trained to watch for aberrations. I notice the reel-change flashes, every scratch, every splice, and every audio glitch. I can't believe they actually still put the reel-change flashes in. Nobody uses a two-projector system anymore. Every house runs a platter system these days; the flashes aren't needed.
I don't know if I buy the notion that the punches on the film affect compression. I also don't quite buy that most film piracy is done at the consumer level. I'd bet money that the bulk of the leaks are straight out of the back door of DeLuxe Labs, and are done on pro duplication and transfer equipment. (Yes, I have seen clips that were obviously made with a Sony pointed at a screen, but that doesn't explain the ones that look like a real transfer).
If the aberrations that get put on these frames identify a specific print, then it's a good idea for tracking the source. But I think they're gonna be real surprised when they find out the print leaks before this step of the process is even done.
So if the different frame does reinitialize the compression, that's pretty obvious and easy to fix. Hardly a deterrent. Cutting the frame out or fixing it isn't that big a job for someone who is motivated enough to deal with this kind of thing in the first place.
I could never break myself of the habit of chewing on the pocket clip, or chewing on the little end cap, or pulling the ink part out and putting it back in.
Telemarketer: Blah blah blah. Me: Is this an emergency? Telemarkter: Huh? Me: I'm sorry, but this number is for emergency calls only.
For a long time, I just answered the phone "Phoenix emergency..." Why have you called 9-1-1 sir?... They don't really have any way of knowing whether their call has been forwarded to 9-1-1 or not, but it absolutely gets you off the list, and the caller disappears FAST. (I don't give a crap that it's fraud, bear in mind that I'm a bit of a punkass on these things).
Another fun one:
Telemarketer: Blah blah blah. Me: Is this a business call? Telmarkter: Of course! Me: I'm sorry but this number is for personal calls only.
Depending on the State (Delaware?), Verisign could indeed have told ICANN that this was a question to bring before a judge and jury. They are entitled to a hearing, and they are actively waiving those rights by acceeding to the terms of the demand.
If any contract is in dispute, you can have a court settle... But it's not a good idea if the terms of the contract are legal, and if they clearly state your obligations, and it's obvious you will lose.
What gets me is the wording of "without so much as a hearing" because, had there been a hearing, that would be the final arbitration on the matter. The result of a hearing is pretty heavy, and that phrase makes it sound like courts give gentle recommentations and suggestions when they decide on these things.
Corts make ORDERS based on findings of FACT and LAW. A hearing to settle a contract dispute is a pretty big deal, and the Verisign people and their spokesperson know this. For crying out loud, they *will* file this as a lawsuit if the service doesn't go down as promised. Then we'll see how "not so much" a civil court hearing is.
"You know what ? I do miss the time when internic.net was the only registrar avaliable, and I had to pay US$50/year for each domain. I didn't have to put you with this kind of crap back then."
I miss when they were free. And my former employer got it in writing that they would ALWAYS be free, grandfathered in when the pricing structure went into effect. I wish that document had found its way on the plaintiff side of a lawsuit, but I'm sure there was fine print to take away what the large print offered anyway.
I wish we'd get off this whole naming addiction anyway. We don't seem to have any problem working with phone numbers.
We really needed an entirely separate infrastructure for "the web", and we could have left the rest of "the internet" alone. Oh well.
The thing that I was most hoping to come out of the whole linux movement, was that the industry would move back away from the monoculture of the X86 and Macintosh style machines, and into some real diversity. Yes, I do lump mac and pc into the same taxonomic group.
So we finally have a few very usable, very well designed operating systems, and what do we do? We run them on PC's and sometimes on macs. When someone releases a piece of software "for linux", they either mean, source that should run anywhere, or else they mean "binary for linux on an x86"
>Schemes like "sender pays" are untenable too >(and unfair - why should I pay yet another fee >to use bandwidth I'm already paying for once?)
If the spam is really that valuable to the sender (and it seems to be -- they fight tooth and nail to retain the privilege to send it), then a sender-pays strategy might end up subsidizing the whole system until the bandwith is free to you.
I'd stop filtering my spam if the spammers paid my cable bill.
"I'd be truly surprised if there weren't a worm in the works which would not only act as a mail relay, but which would take care to forward mail to every address listed in a person's address book."
Hasn't there been a couple like that?
What surprises me, is that there hasn't been one that takes each message in each folder, and mails it NxN to each recipient... Wonder how many embarrassing situations THAT would cause?
It's funny how they said "without so much as a hearing..."
A *hearing* would have been the final word on the matter, beyond which people could start paying fines and going to jail for contempt of court. They wouldn't let it get to that stage (courtroom), and they know it.
Funny how they spin that... "They didn't even file a suit and take us to court before they asked us to fulfull our contractural obligations. Those big dummy heads."
In other news, my mortgage company expected my check this month "without so much as a hearing"...
Oh, and my boss didn't even have to sue me to get me to come to work this week! Amazing.
"Said lawyer didn't do HIS job to notify the state about a wayward child."
Wayward isn't the right word here, but, you're right. The lawyer should be disbarred for this, if not subjected to the identical charges that the mother has on her.
I'm waiting for this whole thing to blow up into the faces of the establishment when it comes out that there were numerous lapses of process, or the smoking gun document comes out that shows the woman DID explain the predicament.
On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out she really couldn't have cared less if the kid died, or even if she had been hoping that would happen, for whatever sick reasons she had.
That you still have to house, feed, and clothe yourself? And that it's entirely possible to fail? Even if you do get into a program, you have to stay there, which means turning down any job opportunities outside where your university is?
"I know people that have been out of work for YEARS."
Do they still live indoors? Drive cars? Maintain custody of their children? Eat one or more meals a day? How?
I can't say I'd be saying yes to any of those questions SIX MONTHS after being unemployed. I'm asking, because I'd really like to know. Sort-of as a clue to making a survival plan if it happens.
"Seriously. If you were in the Indian government, what would YOU do?"
I'd place Indian professors into various universities that have MS source licenses.
I'd make it blatantly clear to them that they are spies, and that they will be executed for treason if the nature of their mission is leaked. I would use them as tools of espionage.
At the same time, I would use my existing spies who already have infiltrated MS and every other software company, to the same purposes that they are being used currently.
And this would be small potatoes compared to what I'd have going on in the weapons research area.
Slashdot Mirror
But it's not digital anymore, and we're right back where we were, quality wise, 20 years ago.
Maybe worse. My tape decks were better than the average sound card input circuit.
"He filters out pop and hiss to come up with his own masters that sound even better than the digital remasters you buy in the stores."
You'd probably be surprised at how many CD's were actually made by playing a virgin LP into the digital console. There are plenty where you can hear the stylus hitting the groove, and you can hear the characteristic noises. It's been a long time since A/A/D was very common, but, I'm a classical collector (and hence, very interested in digital preservation of analog media.) (I might digress a bit, and point out how much more ridiculous the copyright control arguments sound when you apply them to performances of 300 year old music). But I won't.
So, in many ways, an analog recording is superior to a consumer digital format. Sure, 48khz digital has far more dynamic range than anything that came before it, but there is still a question of precision on the sampling. Where analog rendering represents continuous curves and sympathetic waveforms, digital sampling is always an approximation of this. We're getting closer to where the integral is imperceptible, but, we weren't there yet when "They" decided 44.1Khz and 16bit was good enough. There are qualities of sound present in a vinyl LP recording (especially on orchestral music) which are lost on a digital sampling of that same recording.
It's subtle, and it may not be significant, but if it is important TO ME, then it's important, dammit.
"I don't understand how that will keep people from putting a microphone near the speakers. "
Even if you don't get that extreme, D-A/A-D copies on consumer equipment are generally noisy.
There are cards that will do D-A/A-D resampling pretty well, with about a -60dB noise floor, but these are expensive. And it's still a resampling unless you do it via sp/dif and sync'd to a clock.
So you can get a fairly decent, listenable recording with the method of resampling the audio out, but then, we felt that way about cassette tapes at one time also.
>And this is how they're protecting my "fair use"
>rights to space-shift the music I've bought and
>paid for?
No, this is how they're demonstrating that after telling you "you don't have any rights, so shut up and buy our product", you still buy the product.
I'm referring to the collective "you", because I realize you personally probably won't buy these things. But millions of people will. I choose not to pay people to insult me and try to take away my rights.
Ripping the cd and making the music more popular just helps them.
Do what I do. Make your own music. The money I didn't spend on CD's over the past 10 years has just about paid for my piano.
"How is this not a virus, and where can I sign up for the class action suit?"
It's not a virus, but it might be sabotage. There might even be a way to spin it into a homeland security issue.
"The Mac got hit pretty hard with an autorun
virus that ended up shipping on many cd's."
I hope that's true (but it's the first I'd heard of it.)
If it is true, it shows you just how big a task these producers have! They can't even trust their own distribution channels not to sabotage their product. That's pretty bad in my opinion.
Same with the film producers. I want to be a fly on the wall when someone finds out that the reason a video is out before the film release date is because an unknown major shareholder had secretly ordered it to be that way from DeLuxe Labs.
It's the media business equivalent of finding out the Secretary of State leaked the identity of a CIA agent in the field.
"So if the CD fails to remain usable through normal wear and tear, does that put the publisher
in breach of contract?"
No, because,
"They've effectively granted me a license that they are going to renege on should the physical media degrade."
Yes, but they have also reserved the right to terminate that agreement at any time without any negotiation or notice to you, for any reason at all. So that means that the broken disc is grounds for them to terminate the license granted. It also means that if they woke up with a hangnail, it's grounds to terminate.
If you didn't like these terms, you shouldn't have done business with these people. If those terms happen to be illegal in your State, then you might have an argument.
The problem isn't that the publishers are crooks, the problem is that so many of us, the consumers, continue to accept the deal they offer and support them consistently with our money.
(I don't support them. I just make my own music.)
Ahhh, you're getting there!
If we can just stop buying consumer products, we could bring about sociological and economic changes that would rival the industrial revolution itself. Not saying that's a good thing, mind you.
I'm pretty much immune to the advertising for most products. For instance, household cleaners. I know enough chemistry to understand the few active ingredients and how they work, so brand names are just irrelevant. Maybe a better example: Say, I need to lower the pH of my aquarium. Do I go to the pet store and buy an expensive "tropical fish pH reducer", or do I balance the pH myself with acetic acid or sodium bicarbonate? (I'll give you one guess). The only time "brand name" enters into it, is where I decide which antacid tablet contains the least crap besides the active ingredient.
Maybe an even better example. I'm immune to advertising that tells me which shaving lotion to use. Why? Because I've found that a simple hair conditioner makes a far better shaving lotion than anything in an aerosol can, and goes extremely further on the dollar.
I wish people could go back to making their own cleaning and hygiene products, growing their own food, making their own music, and generally tending towards self-sufficiency.
>And yeah, I still always see the cue marks.
There is no reason for them to be there, other than I guess it says the lab will put them there in the contract.
I was lucky enough to have a sensor to switch the reels for me. I remember switching from carbon-arc to halogen lamps. I still have the shavings from my last arc lights. Soon after that, we got our first platter system, dolby sound, silver screens. Then we went out of business
"You won't see the spots because they will only be in one or two frames"
I saw the spots. But then, I'm trained to watch for aberrations. I notice the reel-change flashes, every scratch, every splice, and every audio glitch. I can't believe they actually still put the reel-change flashes in. Nobody uses a two-projector system anymore. Every house runs a platter system these days; the flashes aren't needed.
I don't know if I buy the notion that the punches on the film affect compression. I also don't quite buy that most film piracy is done at the consumer level. I'd bet money that the bulk of the leaks are straight out of the back door of DeLuxe Labs, and are done on pro duplication and transfer equipment. (Yes, I have seen clips that were obviously made with a Sony pointed at a screen, but that doesn't explain the ones that look like a real transfer).
If the aberrations that get put on these frames identify a specific print, then it's a good idea for tracking the source. But I think they're gonna be real surprised when they find out the print leaks before this step of the process is even done.
So if the different frame does reinitialize the compression, that's pretty obvious and easy to fix. Hardly a deterrent. Cutting the frame out or fixing it isn't that big a job for someone who is motivated enough to deal with this kind of thing in the first place.
I could never break myself of the habit of chewing on the pocket clip, or chewing on the little end cap, or pulling the ink part out and putting it back in.
>or companies with which you have an existing
>business relationship.
So unless you're off the grid completely, you probably have a business relationship with one or more of the Five Corporations that Own Everything.
Telemarketer: Blah blah blah.
Me: Is this an emergency?
Telemarkter: Huh?
Me: I'm sorry, but this number is for emergency calls only.
For a long time, I just answered the phone "Phoenix emergency..." Why have you called 9-1-1 sir?... They don't really have any way of knowing whether their call has been forwarded to 9-1-1 or not, but it absolutely gets you off the list, and the caller disappears FAST. (I don't give a crap that it's fraud, bear in mind that I'm a bit of a punkass on these things).
Another fun one:
Telemarketer: Blah blah blah.
Me: Is this a business call?
Telmarkter: Of course!
Me: I'm sorry but this number is for personal calls only.
Depending on the State (Delaware?), Verisign could indeed have told ICANN that this was a question to bring before a judge and jury.
They are entitled to a hearing, and they are actively waiving those rights by acceeding to the terms of the demand.
If any contract is in dispute, you can have a court settle... But it's not a good idea if the terms of the contract are legal, and if they clearly state your obligations, and it's obvious you will lose.
What gets me is the wording of "without so much as a hearing" because, had there been a hearing, that would be the final arbitration on the matter. The result of a hearing is pretty heavy, and that phrase makes it sound like courts give gentle recommentations and suggestions when they decide on these things.
Corts make ORDERS based on findings of FACT and LAW. A hearing to settle a contract dispute is a pretty big deal, and the Verisign people and their spokesperson know this. For crying out loud, they *will* file this as a lawsuit if the service doesn't go down as promised. Then we'll see how "not so much" a civil court hearing is.
"You know what ? I do miss the time when internic.net was the only registrar avaliable, and I had to pay US$50/year for each domain. I didn't have to put you with this kind of crap back then."
I miss when they were free. And my former employer got it in writing that they would ALWAYS be free, grandfathered in when the pricing structure went into effect. I wish that document had found its way on the plaintiff side of a lawsuit, but I'm sure there was fine print to take away what the large print offered anyway.
I wish we'd get off this whole naming addiction anyway. We don't seem to have any problem working with phone numbers.
We really needed an entirely separate infrastructure for "the web", and we could have left the rest of "the internet" alone. Oh well.
The thing that I was most hoping to come out of the whole linux movement, was that the industry would move back away from the monoculture of the X86 and Macintosh style machines, and into some real diversity. Yes, I do lump mac and pc into the same taxonomic group.
So we finally have a few very usable, very well designed operating systems, and what do we do? We run them on PC's and sometimes on macs. When someone releases a piece of software "for linux", they either mean, source that should run anywhere, or else they mean "binary for linux on an x86"
>Schemes like "sender pays" are untenable too
>(and unfair - why should I pay yet another fee
>to use bandwidth I'm already paying for once?)
If the spam is really that valuable to the sender (and it seems to be -- they fight tooth and nail to retain the privilege to send it), then a sender-pays strategy might end up subsidizing the whole system until the bandwith is free to you.
I'd stop filtering my spam if the spammers paid my cable bill.
"I'd be truly surprised if there weren't a worm in the works which would not only act as a mail relay, but which would take care to forward mail to every address listed in a person's address book."
Hasn't there been a couple like that?
What surprises me, is that there hasn't been one that takes each message in each folder, and mails it NxN to each recipient... Wonder how many embarrassing situations THAT would cause?
It's funny how they said "without so much as a hearing..."
A *hearing* would have been the final word on the matter, beyond which people could start paying fines and going to jail for contempt of court. They wouldn't let it get to that stage (courtroom), and they know it.
Funny how they spin that... "They didn't even file a suit and take us to court before they asked us to fulfull our contractural obligations. Those big dummy heads."
In other news, my mortgage company expected my check this month "without so much as a hearing"...
Oh, and my boss didn't even have to sue me to get me to come to work this week! Amazing.
Full scholarship. Right. These are the people who act like giving you $1500.00 is some sort of leg up.
The FBI didn't per se have a problem with Al Capone's "services", but rather, the manner in which he reported his profits to the IRS.
"Said lawyer didn't do HIS job to notify the state about a wayward child."
Wayward isn't the right word here, but,
you're right. The lawyer should be disbarred for this, if not subjected to the identical charges that the mother has on her.
I'm waiting for this whole thing to blow up into the faces of the establishment when it comes out that there were numerous lapses of process, or the smoking gun document comes out that shows the woman DID explain the predicament.
On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out she really couldn't have cared less if the kid died, or even if she had been hoping that would happen, for whatever sick reasons she had.
So I won't be surprised either way.
>Do a PhD!
Do you realize how much it *costs* to do that?
How long it takes?
That you still have to house, feed, and clothe yourself? And that it's entirely possible to fail? Even if you do get into a program, you have to stay there, which means turning down any job opportunities outside where your university is?
(For me, that last one is the biggest challenge).
"I know people that have been out of work for YEARS."
Do they still live indoors? Drive cars? Maintain custody of their children? Eat one or more meals a day? How?
I can't say I'd be saying yes to any of those questions SIX MONTHS after being unemployed. I'm asking, because I'd really like to know. Sort-of as a clue to making a survival plan if it happens.
"Seriously. If you were in the Indian government, what would YOU do?"
I'd place Indian professors into various universities that have MS source licenses.
I'd make it blatantly clear to them that they are spies, and that they will be executed for treason if the nature of their mission is leaked. I would use them as tools of espionage.
At the same time, I would use my existing spies who already have infiltrated MS and every other software company, to the same purposes that they are being used currently.
And this would be small potatoes compared to what I'd have going on in the weapons research area.