You read access controlled ebooks, you lose access to the file after a certain amount of time. The library has licenses to let a certain number of readers access a title. When your time expires and the file is gone, that title goes back into the pool. Anyone else have something like this? The company that provides the service is called netLibrary.
What eBook titles are available from MCPL? The Montgomery County Public Libraries eBook Collection includes Cliff's Notes to literary works and many Computer related titles. The Computer eBooks cover topics such as database management, HTML, the Internet, MS Office, networking, operating systems (Linux, Macintosh, Unix, Windows), and programming languages (ASP, Java, Javascript, Perl, and SQL) and more.
Computer Title List
The Publicly Accessible netLibrary eBook collection includes over 3,500 titles that are in the public domain. These are works of fiction, speeches, and government documents. When searching netLibrary, click the checkbox to include Publicly Accessible eBooks in your search.
And firmly believe the data layer needs to be at least two separate layers itself.
I know web apps are the name of the game. At the e-commerce dot com I used to work at we used all embedded SQL and it was a huge mess as processes locked with each other when the engine had too many simultaneous requests and none of the direct sql that was used bothered to specify WITH (NOLOCK) on the 98% of the code that was just doing reads. Maintenance went way down when we moved to stored procedures that had locking specified by the DBAs. There is often some overhead with connecting to the database too - if not for an actual connection then in instantiating variables to hold the results. If you need to query three separate times to get what you're lookign for, most web developers write three separate queries - its very rare to see embedded SQL that makes use of database variables as opposed to programming variables. So that helps too.
Stored procedures should be written to be atomic in nature, skipping the CRUD procs is what results in your 'you have to rewrite all the procs'. You need a group of low level procs that do insert, delete, etc that should be called by higher level scripting like procs. Then you just modify the lower level procs and the higher level ones are fine.
Why not store them in encrypted format? Decrypt them on the fly so that the clear text is nowhere in the code. I like to use an RC4 encryption routine, where the key is stored as another string which is base64 encoded, so you decode64 the key, feed it and the connection string to your RC4 module, and get back a clear text connection string which is stored only in memory in a local variable that I reset to "" as soon as I establish the connection. There's a nice free COM object to handle both base64 and RC4 at http://www.paipai.net/texts/asp-cast128-1.1.htm. The overhead for this is about nil as far as I can tell. Even the code is pretty secure - reading it without knowing what objCast was wouldn't tell you what the password was, only how it was formed, I would have had to tell you what the com object was, and where the strings were loaded from. I don't use open source databases myself so I can't speak to that, but I think you can do this same routine for any database connection. The key and the encoded connection string I store in a tiny XML doc on the web server, the text of the xml doc is read at application start up and stored as text as an application variable thereafter. Allows easy mods to the passwords without touching the code, and without any overhead for constant file access. By the way, the old MS theory of "write a COM object to return your connection string and you're safe" is incorrect. If you do so, you can open the DLL with Notepad and see the password and userid in cleartext. The rest of the file is a jumble of meaninglessness, but the one thing you wanted to secure isn't. It's when I discovered this on another forum that I switched to the above paranoid method.
Because it's clear what isnull does just from looking at it. Coalesce isn't. I've never ported systems from one database engine to another, only to other versions (not counting upsizing access). So I don't see how portable could actually offers a benefit for databases. People are too damned scared to move them even when they should.
How is the result of this "SELECT DISTINCT tblCalender.CalenderID AS ID, tblActivity.Activity AS ActivityType, tblCalender.ActivityDesc, tblProductFamily.ProductFamily, tblProductCategor y.ProductCategory, tblStage.Stage, tblStatus.Status" possibly going to be 3? 7 fields and 7 values unless i'm crazy.
Uh.... where did you get your DBAs? Do they understand that stored procedures offer performance benefits by reusing a stored execution plan? That stored procedures encourage code reuse just like function libraries in the procedural language of your choice? That by isolating a block of code away from being embedded in code it's much easier to put in the finnicky lock control statements that you generally don't want mucked about with by junior programmers? That by moving back to embedded SQL you are probably giving up control of locking mechanisms whatsoever? That you are quite likely moving sorting/selecting logic out to your embedding code, and away from the database engine that is much more optimized for these operations, offering advanced tools like cursors and temp tables?
If you're a programmer, you need to know how to specify what you want to feed into a stored procedure, and what you want to get out of it. If you can't write the proc yourself, you need to get someone to write it for you. Embedded SQL is a bad idea. You tie yourself to one table structure because you can't possibly change all the embedded code snippets. You miss out on debugging opportunities because you won't use PRINT statements in your sql. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I don't want to do maintenance on my code either, but it IS my job after all.
The educational software market is probably a perfect example for you. You never know if the school will be running windows, mac, or, very rarely, linux. And there aren't constant minor updates as business rules change, so the maintenance issue doesn't push for web instead of client app. Just PLEASE don't write any Math Blaster type apps:)
I can also see the use of this in certain scientific apps. Education and science aren't problem spaces I'm familiar with, and would seem to benefit from cross-platform compatibility, and to make more sense as a client app rather than a web app. The needs are particular to the problem space, for the problem space I work in (web databases, ecommerce, intranets) these abilities don't offer any value to the client so they don't sway me to java at all. It's partly personal prejudice too, I just don't like the C/C++/Java syntax style on an aesthetic level. We tend to make aesthetic judgements about things right off the bat, and then think of 100 auxiliary reasons to back up that judgement which are really beside the point.
Let's say I buy a game. It's not going to be written in Java. Let's say I buy music processing software. It's not going to be written in Java. That's all the software I buy personally, and it needs to be optimized for particular hardware/OS to have decent performance. What kind of apps are you talking about? Can you give an example, because I just don't see what commercial software you'd write that you wouldn't want to optimize for a particular hardware/OS.
So again, are you talking about custom business apps? Small-medium custom business apps have always been the focus of MS Studio, and it excels there.
But you say the client wants to sell this product for multiple OS's - what kind of product is this? When games have a Linux version, it's ported over. When something like Photoshop has releases for the Mac and Windows, the Windows one is ported over. I'm not talking out my ass here.... Photoshop, Premiere, ProTools, SoundForge, there are always separate versions written for the different OSs, and it's necessary. With anything really complex like that you'll want to take advantage of whatever's built into the OS or hardware (DirectX, OpenGL, AGP cards, etc). The differentiation of one product from another in a field is small in most cases, and getting every advantage you can from the OS you're running on helps your product stand out.
I just don't see the niche you're talking about if it's not back-end server software. Can you provide examples? Have you actually done this development yourself?
220 seconds to 1 second. This was obviously not a product you sold on the shelf. So was it a custom app for internal use in a company? Was this released? Did your project have performance requirements or code reviews? I can't imagine a business app needing 220 seconds to do anything.
Desktop stand alone? I thought you were talking server apps. Have you ever written a desktop standalone app in Java? Amazingly I've never bought a commercial standalone product that required the jvm to run, nor would I consider it. Or are you talking custom business apps? For small business custom business apps in a standard company (running windows) the economics of writing RAD in Visual Studio slaughter Java. You don't spend time defining classes and interfaces for a small custom app. In a company running Linux, well it's obviously a tech company and nobody there would listen even if MS were better for their problem, so sure Java might be fine. Even for business apps though, when you're on an intranet usually a web app would be my preference over client/server - managing software releases is a drag compared to just updating the web server, and in an IE environment you can offload a lot to client side vbscript so the response time is close to client/server.
that's very interesting. how does the jvm do at handling garbage collection, etc. for a typeless language like javascript when it's used to strongly typed java?
Write your components as web services. Now change the OS, language, database, whatever. Now you can write in code optimized for the particular hardware/OS you're on, while allowing the code to be called from anywhere - on the same box, on the same LAN, or by your business partners in Austin. So who cares if the code is portable?
My point was, this guy has never talked to his neighbor about the dog doo. Just whines about how people don't follow the law online. You have to deal with people directly to get results. The punching should be a last resort.
And your general approach. From what I've heard Longhorn will do this with the filesystem, but I haven't heard anything about registry.
Bloated registries with old, invalid data are one of the main places to cause windows problems. I find left over keys after doing the manufacturer uninstall all the time. Tying the registry record to the core application record in the new filesystem seems like a simple way to enforce referential integrity here at the one place where the lack of it causes so many headaches for windows users everywhere.
Everything you write in Java has to be written in Java. I know there are Java purists out there who may think that rocks, but it could be beneficial to be able to pick and choose languages for the task at hand. The multi-language innovation is really neat to me. Some languages make string processing a snap, some don't.
Web services don't have to be anything other than classes interacting through XML - isn't that enough? That's a significant advance in code re-use that I see, much more important than object oriented programming I think. So often code that has been written doesn't work for a new language version, a new business process requires significant changes and everything gets rewritten, or other incompatibilities crop up. Since the cardinal rule MS wrote for COM objects was 'the interface is sacred' (I know, do as I say, not as I do, and I agree there) that always bugged me. So now you write a web service. Can be used by all your other apps, you can port your other apps to different language/OS/etc and still take advantage of it. I don't care what technology is behind a web service, just that web services themselves are future-friendly and seem to lead to the semantic web quite nicely. MS's contribution here isn't revolutionary, but it will get more people using it. The main benefit of web services is that I don't care whether you're serving it up from.Net, Java, manually coded Perl, whatever. It seems to me MS studied Java's strengths, copied those, added new things Java didn't think of (other language support), and avoided some of Java's pitfalls (C# is a standard, as is.Net), and that including web services is really a separate thing aside from their incorporation in Visual Studio.NET.
Read my posts - I'm very consistent. I like the bands I like, period. I have no 'duty' to support indie bands. If I've never heard of a band, I couldn't care less about them. Some of the bands I like are big bands, some are small bands. Most of the music I buy is techno, and techno artists get big based on crowd reaction to their songs, NOT from RIAA promotion since there are still zero techno stations on the radio. I also listen to such radio friendly genres as death metal, gabber, punk, goth, industrial, etc. These genres have never depended on the RIAA for promotion of artists. Don't ever assume I'm a drone or that my tastes are dictated to me, they're not. RIAA promotion of songs usually just ruins a decent pop song for me as I hear it overplayed until I can't stand it anymore.
That is, in fact, the basis for my saying emusic is crap.
I mainly listen to techno/trance, and in that genre mp3.com is far superior to emusic's weak offerings.
When I do listen to rock, it's sure as hell not They Might Be Giants or the Pixies. I do love Miles Davis, but wouldn't seriously consider buying mp3s of his songs - he's one of the rare artists where I want to listen to the entire album when I listen to his music, and being able to buy singles is IMHO the main advantage of mp3 distribution. And one of the rare artists where the cd liner notes are usually extensive and informative. Miles Davis is really one of the poster children FOR cd distribution.
talk to the dog owner. if he doesn't straighten out, punch him in the face. the government is for protecting you from foreign aggression, and for building roads. not for handling your dog poo problem. people need to get in more fistfights and less lawsuits. shitty laws like this make me have less respect for any laws. unmarried sex is illegal in D.C. WTF? like you can outlaw sex and have it make a difference. or outlaw any other annoying thing your neighbor does. Oh no, look at the color he painted his house, lets force him to paint it one of our approved colors. whiny fucking nazis.
The recording companies routinely push bands to crank out filler songs to pad the few good songs they spent time crafting. It's a fact of life. The album sells on the basis of one or two hits which is the whole basis of the current radio marketing game.
Ever heard of one hit wonders? Lots of bands write one great, catchy, still humming it ten years later song - and NOTHING else worth paying attention to. I didn't say I really like the band - just the one song I've heard. iTunes will let you preview the other songs on the album to see if you're interested, but you're not FORCED to buy the music just because the one song you like is bundled with 10 others.
Change music to software. Would you like being forced to buy (and pay for) 10 games when you're only interested in one? On the rationale that "Gee, if you really like that development company then OBVIOUSLY you want every game they make, not JUST pac-man 2000". That makes no sense to me. Some bands make concept albums, and might not want 1 song being sold outside of the context of the other 10. But some bands write 10 pop-rock songs and are interested in selling them individually - and I'm interested in buying them individually. This doesn't mean I'm 'programmed' by ClearChannel, just that I'm skeptical of songs I haven't heard because I have in the past spent money on albums based on one really great song that was often very dissimilar in style as well as quality from the rest of the album.
They have none of the big bands. As you yourself say, they mainly have independents. Many of the labels and artists they have also sell mp3s directly. I'm sure some of the music is good. But if I want to wade through no-names for mp3s to listen to, I'll go the mp3.com where they're free.
iTunes is different. They have premium content. If I want to buy a song I heard on the radio that I liked, I WILL NOT find it on emusic. I may or may not find it on iTunes, but up to now the only alternative was buying a whole cd, or getting an illegal copy. One of the main justifications people gave for downloading music from Napster/Kazaa/etc was that they wanted only one song, didn't want to buy a whole cd, and the recording industry had stopped selling singles. Well, this is the start of the recording industry selling singles again, and MUCH cheaper than every before. Having seen big sales with no distribution/manufacturing costs on iTunes, many record companies may start to rethink MP3s but it will be a long time before they will consider unrestricted MP3s seriously.
emusic and all other competitors have crap. They have the low-profile, never heard of 'em bands who elsewhere give away their music for free.
I can get free mp3s at mp3.com - but they don't have any mp3s i want.
emusic doesn't have the high profile 'name' bands that people want, because they haven't been able to successfully license the right to sell their music. One reason is that they don't have much clout with the recording companies. Another reason is that they do sell unrestricted mp3s and we all know how terrified of mp3s the recording companies are. iTunes wouldn't have anyone I cared about if they had approached the recording companies asking to sell unrestricted mp3s.
BUT not the copyright holders of the premium, quality songs you probably want. Indies and small labels sell unrestricted MP3s. The huge record companies don't. As is their prerogative. If you want to buy 'Hotel California' for some specific reason and don't want to buy a whole Eagles cd for $16, you aren't going to find a legal MP3 version of it for sale. So your choice is copy it illegally, or buy the iTunes version for cheap. Your choice, but I think a lot of people appreciate having the choice of something over nothing.
BUT you only have to pay for the one song you want, not the 10 crappy filler songs you don't give a shit about.
For 99% of the people, this license will fulfill 99% of their needs while allowing them to avoid 85% of the cost they would otherwise have to pay to listen to a song they like. The benefit here is that mp3 naturally supports the sale of singles in a way that the cd format doesn't.
Slashdot Mirror
The site:
http://www.mont.lib.md.us/researchinfo/ebooks.asp
Excerpt:
And firmly believe the data layer needs to be at least two separate layers itself.
I know web apps are the name of the game. At the e-commerce dot com I used to work at we used all embedded SQL and it was a huge mess as processes locked with each other when the engine had too many simultaneous requests and none of the direct sql that was used bothered to specify WITH (NOLOCK) on the 98% of the code that was just doing reads. Maintenance went way down when we moved to stored procedures that had locking specified by the DBAs. There is often some overhead with connecting to the database too - if not for an actual connection then in instantiating variables to hold the results. If you need to query three separate times to get what you're lookign for, most web developers write three separate queries - its very rare to see embedded SQL that makes use of database variables as opposed to programming variables. So that helps too.
Stored procedures should be written to be atomic in nature, skipping the CRUD procs is what results in your 'you have to rewrite all the procs'. You need a group of low level procs that do insert, delete, etc that should be called by higher level scripting like procs. Then you just modify the lower level procs and the higher level ones are fine.
Why not store them in encrypted format? Decrypt them on the fly so that the clear text is nowhere in the code. I like to use an RC4 encryption routine, where the key is stored as another string which is base64 encoded, so you decode64 the key, feed it and the connection string to your RC4 module, and get back a clear text connection string which is stored only in memory in a local variable that I reset to "" as soon as I establish the connection. There's a nice free COM object to handle both base64 and RC4 at http://www.paipai.net/texts/asp-cast128-1.1.htm. The overhead for this is about nil as far as I can tell. Even the code is pretty secure - reading it without knowing what objCast was wouldn't tell you what the password was, only how it was formed, I would have had to tell you what the com object was, and where the strings were loaded from. I don't use open source databases myself so I can't speak to that, but I think you can do this same routine for any database connection. The key and the encoded connection string I store in a tiny XML doc on the web server, the text of the xml doc is read at application start up and stored as text as an application variable thereafter. Allows easy mods to the passwords without touching the code, and without any overhead for constant file access. By the way, the old MS theory of "write a COM object to return your connection string and you're safe" is incorrect. If you do so, you can open the DLL with Notepad and see the password and userid in cleartext. The rest of the file is a jumble of meaninglessness, but the one thing you wanted to secure isn't. It's when I discovered this on another forum that I switched to the above paranoid method.
Select certainly can insert data
Because it's clear what isnull does just from looking at it. Coalesce isn't. I've never ported systems from one database engine to another, only to other versions (not counting upsizing access). So I don't see how portable could actually offers a benefit for databases. People are too damned scared to move them even when they should.
How is the result of thisr y.ProductCategory, tblStage.Stage, tblStatus.Status"
"SELECT DISTINCT tblCalender.CalenderID AS ID, tblActivity.Activity AS
ActivityType, tblCalender.ActivityDesc, tblProductFamily.ProductFamily,
tblProductCatego
possibly going to be 3? 7 fields and 7 values unless i'm crazy.
Uh.... where did you get your DBAs? Do they understand that stored procedures offer performance benefits by reusing a stored execution plan? That stored procedures encourage code reuse just like function libraries in the procedural language of your choice? That by isolating a block of code away from being embedded in code it's much easier to put in the finnicky lock control statements that you generally don't want mucked about with by junior programmers? That by moving back to embedded SQL you are probably giving up control of locking mechanisms whatsoever? That you are quite likely moving sorting/selecting logic out to your embedding code, and away from the database engine that is much more optimized for these operations, offering advanced tools like cursors and temp tables?
If you're a programmer, you need to know how to specify what you want to feed into a stored procedure, and what you want to get out of it. If you can't write the proc yourself, you need to get someone to write it for you. Embedded SQL is a bad idea. You tie yourself to one table structure because you can't possibly change all the embedded code snippets. You miss out on debugging opportunities because you won't use PRINT statements in your sql. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I don't want to do maintenance on my code either, but it IS my job after all.
The educational software market is probably a perfect example for you. You never know if the school will be running windows, mac, or, very rarely, linux. And there aren't constant minor updates as business rules change, so the maintenance issue doesn't push for web instead of client app. Just PLEASE don't write any Math Blaster type apps :)
I can also see the use of this in certain scientific apps. Education and science aren't problem spaces I'm familiar with, and would seem to benefit from cross-platform compatibility, and to make more sense as a client app rather than a web app. The needs are particular to the problem space, for the problem space I work in (web databases, ecommerce, intranets) these abilities don't offer any value to the client so they don't sway me to java at all. It's partly personal prejudice too, I just don't like the C/C++/Java syntax style on an aesthetic level. We tend to make aesthetic judgements about things right off the bat, and then think of 100 auxiliary reasons to back up that judgement which are really beside the point.
Let's say I buy a game. It's not going to be written in Java. Let's say I buy music processing software. It's not going to be written in Java. That's all the software I buy personally, and it needs to be optimized for particular hardware/OS to have decent performance. What kind of apps are you talking about? Can you give an example, because I just don't see what commercial software you'd write that you wouldn't want to optimize for a particular hardware/OS.
So again, are you talking about custom business apps? Small-medium custom business apps have always been the focus of MS Studio, and it excels there.
But you say the client wants to sell this product for multiple OS's - what kind of product is this? When games have a Linux version, it's ported over. When something like Photoshop has releases for the Mac and Windows, the Windows one is ported over. I'm not talking out my ass here.... Photoshop, Premiere, ProTools, SoundForge, there are always separate versions written for the different OSs, and it's necessary. With anything really complex like that you'll want to take advantage of whatever's built into the OS or hardware (DirectX, OpenGL, AGP cards, etc). The differentiation of one product from another in a field is small in most cases, and getting every advantage you can from the OS you're running on helps your product stand out.
I just don't see the niche you're talking about if it's not back-end server software. Can you provide examples? Have you actually done this development yourself?
220 seconds to 1 second. This was obviously not a product you sold on the shelf. So was it a custom app for internal use in a company? Was this released? Did your project have performance requirements or code reviews? I can't imagine a business app needing 220 seconds to do anything.
Desktop stand alone? I thought you were talking server apps. Have you ever written a desktop standalone app in Java? Amazingly I've never bought a commercial standalone product that required the jvm to run, nor would I consider it. Or are you talking custom business apps? For small business custom business apps in a standard company (running windows) the economics of writing RAD in Visual Studio slaughter Java. You don't spend time defining classes and interfaces for a small custom app. In a company running Linux, well it's obviously a tech company and nobody there would listen even if MS were better for their problem, so sure Java might be fine. Even for business apps though, when you're on an intranet usually a web app would be my preference over client/server - managing software releases is a drag compared to just updating the web server, and in an IE environment you can offload a lot to client side vbscript so the response time is close to client/server.
that's very interesting. how does the jvm do at handling garbage collection, etc. for a typeless language like javascript when it's used to strongly typed java?
Write your components as web services. Now change the OS, language, database, whatever. Now you can write in code optimized for the particular hardware/OS you're on, while allowing the code to be called from anywhere - on the same box, on the same LAN, or by your business partners in Austin. So who cares if the code is portable?
They're angst ridden.
My point was, this guy has never talked to his neighbor about the dog doo. Just whines about how people don't follow the law online. You have to deal with people directly to get results. The punching should be a last resort.
How often do you port mission critical systems to other OS's? Or even other databases?
Did you grossly miscalculate the processing needs in the requirements phase? What's the deal?
And your general approach. From what I've heard Longhorn will do this with the filesystem, but I haven't heard anything about registry.
Bloated registries with old, invalid data are one of the main places to cause windows problems. I find left over keys after doing the manufacturer uninstall all the time. Tying the registry record to the core application record in the new filesystem seems like a simple way to enforce referential integrity here at the one place where the lack of it causes so many headaches for windows users everywhere.
Everything you write in Java has to be written in Java. I know there are Java purists out there who may think that rocks, but it could be beneficial to be able to pick and choose languages for the task at hand. The multi-language innovation is really neat to me. Some languages make string processing a snap, some don't.
.Net, Java, manually coded Perl, whatever. It seems to me MS studied Java's strengths, copied those, added new things Java didn't think of (other language support), and avoided some of Java's pitfalls (C# is a standard, as is .Net), and that including web services is really a separate thing aside from their incorporation in Visual Studio.NET.
Web services don't have to be anything other than classes interacting through XML - isn't that enough? That's a significant advance in code re-use that I see, much more important than object oriented programming I think. So often code that has been written doesn't work for a new language version, a new business process requires significant changes and everything gets rewritten, or other incompatibilities crop up. Since the cardinal rule MS wrote for COM objects was 'the interface is sacred' (I know, do as I say, not as I do, and I agree there) that always bugged me. So now you write a web service. Can be used by all your other apps, you can port your other apps to different language/OS/etc and still take advantage of it. I don't care what technology is behind a web service, just that web services themselves are future-friendly and seem to lead to the semantic web quite nicely. MS's contribution here isn't revolutionary, but it will get more people using it. The main benefit of web services is that I don't care whether you're serving it up from
Read my posts - I'm very consistent. I like the bands I like, period. I have no 'duty' to support indie bands. If I've never heard of a band, I couldn't care less about them. Some of the bands I like are big bands, some are small bands. Most of the music I buy is techno, and techno artists get big based on crowd reaction to their songs, NOT from RIAA promotion since there are still zero techno stations on the radio. I also listen to such radio friendly genres as death metal, gabber, punk, goth, industrial, etc. These genres have never depended on the RIAA for promotion of artists. Don't ever assume I'm a drone or that my tastes are dictated to me, they're not. RIAA promotion of songs usually just ruins a decent pop song for me as I hear it overplayed until I can't stand it anymore.
That is, in fact, the basis for my saying emusic is crap.
I mainly listen to techno/trance, and in that genre mp3.com is far superior to emusic's weak offerings.
When I do listen to rock, it's sure as hell not They Might Be Giants or the Pixies. I do love Miles Davis, but wouldn't seriously consider buying mp3s of his songs - he's one of the rare artists where I want to listen to the entire album when I listen to his music, and being able to buy singles is IMHO the main advantage of mp3 distribution. And one of the rare artists where the cd liner notes are usually extensive and informative. Miles Davis is really one of the poster children FOR cd distribution.
you're such a whiny bitch.
talk to the dog owner. if he doesn't straighten out, punch him in the face. the government is for protecting you from foreign aggression, and for building roads. not for handling your dog poo problem. people need to get in more fistfights and less lawsuits. shitty laws like this make me have less respect for any laws. unmarried sex is illegal in D.C. WTF? like you can outlaw sex and have it make a difference. or outlaw any other annoying thing your neighbor does. Oh no, look at the color he painted his house, lets force him to paint it one of our approved colors. whiny fucking nazis.
Great fucking song.
What the hell else did they ever do, and do I give a crap?
Mediocre artists also occasionally make one great piece.
The recording companies routinely push bands to crank out filler songs to pad the few good songs they spent time crafting. It's a fact of life. The album sells on the basis of one or two hits which is the whole basis of the current radio marketing game.
Ever heard of one hit wonders? Lots of bands write one great, catchy, still humming it ten years later song - and NOTHING else worth paying attention to. I didn't say I really like the band - just the one song I've heard. iTunes will let you preview the other songs on the album to see if you're interested, but you're not FORCED to buy the music just because the one song you like is bundled with 10 others.
Change music to software. Would you like being forced to buy (and pay for) 10 games when you're only interested in one? On the rationale that "Gee, if you really like that development company then OBVIOUSLY you want every game they make, not JUST pac-man 2000". That makes no sense to me. Some bands make concept albums, and might not want 1 song being sold outside of the context of the other 10. But some bands write 10 pop-rock songs and are interested in selling them individually - and I'm interested in buying them individually. This doesn't mean I'm 'programmed' by ClearChannel, just that I'm skeptical of songs I haven't heard because I have in the past spent money on albums based on one really great song that was often very dissimilar in style as well as quality from the rest of the album.
They have none of the big bands. As you yourself say, they mainly have independents. Many of the labels and artists they have also sell mp3s directly. I'm sure some of the music is good. But if I want to wade through no-names for mp3s to listen to, I'll go the mp3.com where they're free.
iTunes is different. They have premium content. If I want to buy a song I heard on the radio that I liked, I WILL NOT find it on emusic. I may or may not find it on iTunes, but up to now the only alternative was buying a whole cd, or getting an illegal copy. One of the main justifications people gave for downloading music from Napster/Kazaa/etc was that they wanted only one song, didn't want to buy a whole cd, and the recording industry had stopped selling singles. Well, this is the start of the recording industry selling singles again, and MUCH cheaper than every before. Having seen big sales with no distribution/manufacturing costs on iTunes, many record companies may start to rethink MP3s but it will be a long time before they will consider unrestricted MP3s seriously.
emusic and all other competitors have crap. They have the low-profile, never heard of 'em bands who elsewhere give away their music for free.
I can get free mp3s at mp3.com - but they don't have any mp3s i want.
emusic doesn't have the high profile 'name' bands that people want, because they haven't been able to successfully license the right to sell their music. One reason is that they don't have much clout with the recording companies. Another reason is that they do sell unrestricted mp3s and we all know how terrified of mp3s the recording companies are. iTunes wouldn't have anyone I cared about if they had approached the recording companies asking to sell unrestricted mp3s.
BUT not the copyright holders of the premium, quality songs you probably want. Indies and small labels sell unrestricted MP3s. The huge record companies don't. As is their prerogative. If you want to buy 'Hotel California' for some specific reason and don't want to buy a whole Eagles cd for $16, you aren't going to find a legal MP3 version of it for sale. So your choice is copy it illegally, or buy the iTunes version for cheap. Your choice, but I think a lot of people appreciate having the choice of something over nothing.
BUT you only have to pay for the one song you want, not the 10 crappy filler songs you don't give a shit about.
For 99% of the people, this license will fulfill 99% of their needs while allowing them to avoid 85% of the cost they would otherwise have to pay to listen to a song they like. The benefit here is that mp3 naturally supports the sale of singles in a way that the cd format doesn't.