Those RCs are very incremental changes. RC6 was of release quality, but Justin keeps improving it while AOL sort out whatever problems they're having. As I said, "imminent" is defined by AOL.
I was rather more optimistic about things until yesterday. Most of Winamp3 is now open-sourced (except the skinning and scripting engine), and there are people working on a fully open-source version of Winamp3, now known as wasabi.player (and much improved since the old, old release which is still on the winamp.com frontpage).
A new version is imminent. Unfortunately AOL are still debating the definition of "imminent" (it's finished, just the actual release is held up for unknown reasons).
I dunno why they say that - the Thames speed limit is 8 knots above Wandsworth, and even below there they can stop you if they think you're affecting other craft.
I remember saying this about 3 months ago here on slashdot, but the Linux port really is nearly finished (about 170 files left to port out of 1200). Winamp3 build #499 will be released with linux support. Should be out in the next month or three.
OK, I hate doing things like this, but let's do some sums.
Let's say the studio and engineer time required to record an album costs $20,000 - that's about 2 weeks of 9-hour days in a decent studio. As a sound engineer myself, I think that's overpriced. A talented and non-tempremental artist shouldn't need as much studio time - 4 hours' studio time to record a 4-minute track is plenty IMHO.
Glass mastering is $500, and printing/pressing is $1.00 per CD. These are deliberately inflated - if you're doing a million CDs they're going to be much cheaper. So for 10,000 copies, the cost per CD is $3.05. For 100,000 copies, it's $1.20. For a million copies, it's $1.
So that means for even the smallest run, you've got a MINIMUM of $8.95 profit on the recording to play with, per CD. That's $89,500 on 10k CDs, $895,000 on 100k, or more than $9 million on 1m CDs. That goes to the publicity, the record companies' pockets, to other production (yes, videos are expensive. I think music videos are a waste of time. I also think you can make a decent video on $10k), and to the artist, and remember it's a minimum. Now, personally, I cannot see how they can eat up that much money. But somehow 90% of that disappears by the time it gets to the artist. Explain me that one.
You hit the nail on the head there - you're probably just comparing the quality of the source equipment, and not the actual media. The only way to compare an MP3 well with a CD is to play them both through the same source - i.e. a computer with a decent sound card.
Anyhow, the question with compression is not whether you can hear the compression artifacts, but whether you can tolerate them. I am perfectly content with MP3 192kbps (VBR) or Vorbis q5 for normal listening - for the most part I don't notice the artifacts unless I'm actively listening for them.
Yes: alt-preset-standard uses better psychoacoustic models. It should be transparent on the very large majority of samples. There is it's cousin alt-preset-extreme, with an average of about 256kbs. I haven't heard any artifacts with extreme yet.
Bleh, the idea of that was that since windows messages aren't cross-platform, support isn't included in the distribution - not a particularly stunning argument. I think there'll probably be a WM api component included with 3.1, but I make no promises.
Their main aim is to get the Windows version functional first, and you can hardly blame them for that. There was an internal linux build released last month - I've tried it and it is indeed fairly functional (skinning works, it plays MP3 and oggs), although it still has a way to go. Unfortunately it's not publically available and I can't give you a date when it will be.
Winamp3 is an attempt at completely rewriting Winamp so it's cross-platform (there is a linux version). Also, the component/plugin architecture is much better - Winamp3 has MUCH more development potential. However, it was released much too early by management (even the developers agree with this). Version 3.1 should be much improved. Perhaps calling it version 3 is a misnomer - Winamp 2 is still very much under active development, and a new version will be out soon.
If Winamp 2 is perfect for you, why is there any reason to try anything different? (heheh, there will be soon;))
I was under the impression that _all_ numberplates which incurred a fine would be checked by hand. I hope so, I'm not going to trust.NET with my numberplate;).
The charge is predicted to raise about £200 ($500) million, which by law must go back into London's transport system. It's a chicken-and-egg situation - they have enough cash problems with the tube as it is, so until they get any more, they can't improve it. All it's problems, however, don't stop the tube being one of the most efficient and extensive city transport systems in the world.
It uses a standard and well-documented serial protocol, which means you can quite easily write your own driver apps. Or alternatively there's LCDC for Windows (shareware, but worth it) or lcdproc for Unix.
I own one of these displays (an LCD one), and it's better than anything else on the market (hello Henry;). They make loads of models, not just expensive VFDs. Here are some links:
Matrix Orbital, the manufacturer - they sell direct. Matrix Orbital forums, with loads of photos. LCDC, the best driver software around for MO LCDs. Does everything:). Kustom PCs - a UK distributor
To redact is just another word for edit, it comes from a latin derivation so it's not an Americanism or anything:).
It's used in this sort of context to mean blanked out or removed - something they don't want to release (this is the irony in most freedom of information legislation - the government are allowed to redact whatever they want).
It's a fantastic achievement in engineering, or at least it will be if it takes off. It's common technology... in aircraft, industrial equipment, and spacecraft. Expensive vehicles, to say the least. But gyro-stabilisation is hardly common around the home.
It's not easy to get any product off the ground. To get a completely new concept, with custom parts, gyros, redundant control and so on to sell, and to become a common consumer item is the challenge. Not really the technology itself. If that happens, it will certainly have changed the world, although probably not in the ways Kamen intends.
What? Only one bug report for the implementation of XForms? Good God no duplicates!
If you'd looked a bit harder you'd have seen that that bug is over a year old. Indeed the last comment on it is from the coder who is going to impliment it, in a month or so.
I've found CloudMark to be quite ineffective, blocking quite a few opt-in lists, including for some odd reason the Netcraft monthly survey e-mail. I personally think that Spamassassin on the server is definitely the way to go.
First re-occupied and declared a country in 1967 when the limits of UK territorial waters were 3 nautical miles. They were later extended to 12 miles but international law states that they're still an independent country (if the UK extended their territorial waters by 500 miles they wouldn't then have a claim on France and Ireland - the boundary is drawn half way between countries in this case).
They got attacked by some Dutch in the 70s but fought back and reclaimed it. The UK government has never actually acknowledged it's existence, but the British citizens working on Sealand have their income classed as overseas.
Slashdot Mirror
Those RCs are very incremental changes. RC6 was of release quality, but Justin keeps improving it while AOL sort out whatever problems they're having. As I said, "imminent" is defined by AOL.
Hmm, that'd be me. Being rather melodramatic.
I was rather more optimistic about things until yesterday. Most of Winamp3 is now open-sourced (except the skinning and scripting engine), and there are people working on a fully open-source version of Winamp3, now known as wasabi.player (and much improved since the old, old release which is still on the winamp.com frontpage).
Both NYTimes and slashdot jumped the gun there, he certainly does still work for AOL. Read his .plan.
A new version is imminent. Unfortunately AOL are still debating the definition of "imminent" (it's finished, just the actual release is held up for unknown reasons).
Let's try that again. Preview button, pfft.
Two Nullsoft employees (Brennan and Aus) were laid off yesterday. Winamp will continue though.
Two Nullsoft employees (Brennan and Aus) were yesterday. Winamp will continue though.
So you'd really prefer to pay for our service than see ads? Fine then.
I dunno why they say that - the Thames speed limit is 8 knots above Wandsworth, and even below there they can stop you if they think you're affecting other craft.
I remember saying this about 3 months ago here on slashdot, but the Linux port really is nearly finished (about 170 files left to port out of 1200). Winamp3 build #499 will be released with linux support. Should be out in the next month or three.
Yup. If it starts in "easy", he owns it (the garish orange colour scheme tends to give it away too).
OK, I hate doing things like this, but let's do some sums.
Let's say the studio and engineer time required to record an album costs $20,000 - that's about 2 weeks of 9-hour days in a decent studio. As a sound engineer myself, I think that's overpriced. A talented and non-tempremental artist shouldn't need as much studio time - 4 hours' studio time to record a 4-minute track is plenty IMHO.
Glass mastering is $500, and printing/pressing is $1.00 per CD. These are deliberately inflated - if you're doing a million CDs they're going to be much cheaper. So for 10,000 copies, the cost per CD is $3.05. For 100,000 copies, it's $1.20. For a million copies, it's $1.
So that means for even the smallest run, you've got a MINIMUM of $8.95 profit on the recording to play with, per CD. That's $89,500 on 10k CDs, $895,000 on 100k, or more than $9 million on 1m CDs. That goes to the publicity, the record companies' pockets, to other production (yes, videos are expensive. I think music videos are a waste of time. I also think you can make a decent video on $10k), and to the artist, and remember it's a minimum. Now, personally, I cannot see how they can eat up that much money. But somehow 90% of that disappears by the time it gets to the artist. Explain me that one.
You hit the nail on the head there - you're probably just comparing the quality of the source equipment, and not the actual media. The only way to compare an MP3 well with a CD is to play them both through the same source - i.e. a computer with a decent sound card.
Anyhow, the question with compression is not whether you can hear the compression artifacts, but whether you can tolerate them. I am perfectly content with MP3 192kbps (VBR) or Vorbis q5 for normal listening - for the most part I don't notice the artifacts unless I'm actively listening for them.
Yes: alt-preset-standard uses better psychoacoustic models. It should be transparent on the very large majority of samples. There is it's cousin alt-preset-extreme, with an average of about 256kbs. I haven't heard any artifacts with extreme yet.
Bleh, the idea of that was that since windows messages aren't cross-platform, support isn't included in the distribution - not a particularly stunning argument. I think there'll probably be a WM api component included with 3.1, but I make no promises.
Their main aim is to get the Windows version functional first, and you can hardly blame them for that. There was an internal linux build released last month - I've tried it and it is indeed fairly functional (skinning works, it plays MP3 and oggs), although it still has a way to go. Unfortunately it's not publically available and I can't give you a date when it will be.
Winamp3 is an attempt at completely rewriting Winamp so it's cross-platform (there is a linux version). Also, the component/plugin architecture is much better - Winamp3 has MUCH more development potential. However, it was released much too early by management (even the developers agree with this). Version 3.1 should be much improved. Perhaps calling it version 3 is a misnomer - Winamp 2 is still very much under active development, and a new version will be out soon.
;))
:).
If Winamp 2 is perfect for you, why is there any reason to try anything different? (heheh, there will be soon
Yes I am a Winamp3 apologist
I was under the impression that _all_ numberplates which incurred a fine would be checked by hand. I hope so, I'm not going to trust .NET with my numberplate ;).
The charge is predicted to raise about £200 ($500) million, which by law must go back into London's transport system. It's a chicken-and-egg situation - they have enough cash problems with the tube as it is, so until they get any more, they can't improve it. All it's problems, however, don't stop the tube being one of the most efficient and extensive city transport systems in the world.
It uses a standard and well-documented serial protocol, which means you can quite easily write your own driver apps. Or alternatively there's LCDC for Windows (shareware, but worth it) or lcdproc for Unix.
I own one of these displays (an LCD one), and it's better than anything else on the market (hello Henry ;). They make loads of models, not just expensive VFDs. Here are some links:
Matrix Orbital, the manufacturer - they sell direct. :).
Matrix Orbital forums, with loads of photos.
LCDC, the best driver software around for MO LCDs. Does everything
Kustom PCs - a UK distributor
To redact is just another word for edit, it comes from a latin derivation so it's not an Americanism or anything :).
It's used in this sort of context to mean blanked out or removed - something they don't want to release (this is the irony in most freedom of information legislation - the government are allowed to redact whatever they want).
It's a fantastic achievement in engineering, or at least it will be if it takes off. It's common technology... in aircraft, industrial equipment, and spacecraft. Expensive vehicles, to say the least. But gyro-stabilisation is hardly common around the home.
It's not easy to get any product off the ground. To get a completely new concept, with custom parts, gyros, redundant control and so on to sell, and to become a common consumer item is the challenge. Not really the technology itself. If that happens, it will certainly have changed the world, although probably not in the ways Kamen intends.
What? Only one bug report for the implementation of XForms? Good God no duplicates!
If you'd looked a bit harder you'd have seen that that bug is over a year old. Indeed the last comment on it is from the coder who is going to impliment it, in a month or so.
I've found CloudMark to be quite ineffective, blocking quite a few opt-in lists, including for some odd reason the Netcraft monthly survey e-mail. I personally think that Spamassassin on the server is definitely the way to go.
OK so here's a quick summary of sealand:
First re-occupied and declared a country in 1967 when the limits of UK territorial waters were 3 nautical miles. They were later extended to 12 miles but international law states that they're still an independent country (if the UK extended their territorial waters by 500 miles they wouldn't then have a claim on France and Ireland - the boundary is drawn half way between countries in this case).
They got attacked by some Dutch in the 70s but fought back and reclaimed it. The UK government has never actually acknowledged it's existence, but the British citizens working on Sealand have their income classed as overseas.