Who the hell uses 128 kbps MP3 anymore? If you use iTunes, like a sizeable group of mainstream consumers, then you're getting 128 kbps AAC, which is indistinguishable from the source when it comes to loud, over-compressed pop music. When it comes to something like classical, that's when you probably need to move up to 160 or 192 (which iTunes doesn't offer, unfortunately). I don't have a clear idea of wma's quality, which is the other mainstream consumer digital music format. My point is that you probably have nothing to worry about concerning MP3 becoming the standard format, at least through official means of distribution. After all, it's too hard to DRM it and lock your customers into one unshiftable format and player.
That said, I really like Bleep, which distributes music in non-DRM, high-quality VBR MP3 and sometimes FLAC, both of which create sample-perfect representations of whatever's encoded with it.
As I stood in line at EB Games, waiting for my chance to buy a Wii (which I never got, they only had three), I saw a Zune on display with a little poster above it. The poster had some drunk-looking ugly bitch with the caption "Welcome to the social." Seriously, what? What does that mean? What message am I supposed to derive from that? Apple's marketing worked well because it stylishly bludgeoned you over the head with the device's purpose, but Microsoft isn't going to sell shit with a stupid, vague, pretentious phrase and a drunk bitch.
Ubuntu is sort of close... but by refusing to have anything proprietary it will never "just work" because graphics drivers and such aren't free as in beer yet.
Ubuntu 7.04 will have proprietary drivers installed by default to make way for AIGLX and Compiz or Beryl. And they are free as in beer, but they're not free as in speech.
There's a pretty big controversy a-brewin' at the wiki about the decision, but I think it's justified. Some compromises have to be made in order to survive a proprietary world, and it's still primarily free software. I don't want Ubuntu to be left behind as the last major OS without a compositing window manager after Vista launches. What really concerns me is how this'll go over after the Kororaa controversy.
There are really only three or four issues that actually affect users of previous versions. Many use a theme other than the default, and I can't really see how the preferences dialog is any more confusing. Not to say that those three or four issues aren't important, though I haven't experienced the much maligned memory leakage or crashing myself. These just seem too trifling to actually warrant skipping a version.
I never said anything against making money with music, I'm just saying it shouldn't be an incentive. You should make music because it's something you enjoy creating.
Slashdot Mirror
on second glance, you're right, I did kind of make it confusing. sorry 'bout that.
I meant the music store, yo.
Who the hell uses 128 kbps MP3 anymore? If you use iTunes, like a sizeable group of mainstream consumers, then you're getting 128 kbps AAC, which is indistinguishable from the source when it comes to loud, over-compressed pop music. When it comes to something like classical, that's when you probably need to move up to 160 or 192 (which iTunes doesn't offer, unfortunately). I don't have a clear idea of wma's quality, which is the other mainstream consumer digital music format. My point is that you probably have nothing to worry about concerning MP3 becoming the standard format, at least through official means of distribution. After all, it's too hard to DRM it and lock your customers into one unshiftable format and player.
That said, I really like Bleep, which distributes music in non-DRM, high-quality VBR MP3 and sometimes FLAC, both of which create sample-perfect representations of whatever's encoded with it.
As I stood in line at EB Games, waiting for my chance to buy a Wii (which I never got, they only had three), I saw a Zune on display with a little poster above it. The poster had some drunk-looking ugly bitch with the caption "Welcome to the social." Seriously, what? What does that mean? What message am I supposed to derive from that? Apple's marketing worked well because it stylishly bludgeoned you over the head with the device's purpose, but Microsoft isn't going to sell shit with a stupid, vague, pretentious phrase and a drunk bitch.
Ubuntu is sort of close... but by refusing to have anything proprietary it will never "just work" because graphics drivers and such aren't free as in beer yet.
Ubuntu 7.04 will have proprietary drivers installed by default to make way for AIGLX and Compiz or Beryl. And they are free as in beer, but they're not free as in speech.
There's a pretty big controversy a-brewin' at the wiki about the decision, but I think it's justified. Some compromises have to be made in order to survive a proprietary world, and it's still primarily free software. I don't want Ubuntu to be left behind as the last major OS without a compositing window manager after Vista launches. What really concerns me is how this'll go over after the Kororaa controversy.
There are really only three or four issues that actually affect users of previous versions. Many use a theme other than the default, and I can't really see how the preferences dialog is any more confusing. Not to say that those three or four issues aren't important, though I haven't experienced the much maligned memory leakage or crashing myself. These just seem too trifling to actually warrant skipping a version.
Thank God it stopped so quickly.
I never said anything against making money with music, I'm just saying it shouldn't be an incentive. You should make music because it's something you enjoy creating.
...then you shouldn't be making music.
blah blah blah Netcraft
For a second there I thought I had stepped into bizarro world with a title like that. Fortunately, with the summary I know I'm still at Slashdot.
The third horseman of the apocalypse...
Nazi.
"One point twenty-one gigawatts?!! ONE POINT TWENTY-ONE GIGAWATTS?! Great Scott!"