Listen, average consumer might buy Zune, because people actually start with buying a device they like, then worry about where to buy songs. They could then buy any plays-for-sure media they wanted, if MS actually supported PFS.
Why would a consumer not prefer that to this? It would mean they could get music everytime they saw it somewhere online (other than iTMS). Simple.*
I don't think you have any idea what most people want. You just know what most people are used to.
* No DRM is simpler and better. But just for the sake of this discussion, where you somehow think that vendor lock-in for media is better, we'll ignore that.
The copied Windows CD is not necessarily genuine though too. It could have been modified in some way. Hell, it could have a virus. It could be cracked, which definitely wouldn't be genuine.
Not that any of those are very likely for most downloads. But MS is just offering to verify that you've installed Genuine Windows. The only way they can have any certainty is if it's one of the controlled copies licensed to that hardware, or produced and as yet unused.
This boils down to main issue of the digital revolution which is the pathological belief of a large number of individuals that if it's easy to copy then there is no harm in stealing it regardless of the resources put into creating it.
In this case, I'd think it actually boils down to the other main issue of the digital revolution: that most people involved in the digital revolution are too retarded to keep their certificates and original media--the actual things they purchased.
Basically every time I've asked anyone I know in real life where their Windows CD or OEM CDs are, *none* of them knew. That's like 0 out of 10, excluding me.
Of course, it's probably the only appliance in the house that forces you to keep a piece of paper with it just for the hell of it, so I can't really blame them.
First of all, WMA has been shown to be the worst (or second worst) CODEC in all the audio tests that have been done.
Third, AAC was developped by Dolby and was shown to be the best or second best CODEC in all the audio tests that have been done. As for the bitrate, AAC is more efficient with 128kbps than MP3 or WMA.
Any good ABX listening test compares codecs at similar bitrates. So it's not very relevant in a comparison of 240-355 kbps WMA vs. 128 kbps AAC. The WMA likely sounds *much* better than the AAC.
Except that if you allow a higher bitrate for WMA, you either are losing storage space to get the same quality, or you could get an even higher quality for the same higher bitrate.
This sounds a lot like something that Drupal has built in, called a news aggregator. You can set the same thing up yourself very easily by installing drupal and enabling that module.
I'd prefer if they improved the current Wikipedia by implementing an (optional) reputation system to identify experts in particular fields. That way the data would all stay in one place where all the people are and that all the people are using for research already, yet we'd accomplish the same thing of having known experts have more influence on an article.
All they'd need to do is create a verification system where you could submit your credentials and identifying information (if you wished), then tag your user id with an "expert" tag that linked to your areas of expertise. They wouldn't necessarily even need to give those experts more power, just identifying them in the revision history would cause their version to survive (sometimes being reverted back to) unless it was too radical or misinformed (which can still happen even with experts).
Yesterday was Zune Day - it's sort of like Earth Day, but without the trees. At any rate, this feature was unveiled to a bunch of music and gadget bloggers, and the zune insider from Microsoft (zuneinsider.com) also discussed it as well.
In that case, sorry to spoil the party. I heard Zune also wraps baby food in DRM! If you want to feed your baby, you're going to have to pay Micro$oft for it again!
The software maker said Thursday that its portable Zune media player, scheduled to be available around the holiday season, will include wireless technology to let people share some of their favorite songs, playlists or pictures with other Zune users who are close by. Those users can listen to the songs three times over three days before deciding whether to purchase it themselves.
"The idea is to legitimize peer-to-peer sharing in a healthy way that works for everybody," said J Allard, a Microsoft vice president in charge of the Zune product line.
Microsoft said the song-sharing capability will be available for most songs available through its forthcoming Zune Marketplace service, although some music publishers won't allow it.
It sounds like it could be a case of Microsoft only caring about talking about the songs they are selling themselves, without explaining the details of what you can do with songs you get elsewhere.
It's worth discussing the possibility that it would adversely affect CC files or other files you obtained elsewhere, but I still think it's a little too much speculation to make it sound like it definitely will affect CC files. It sounds like nobody outside of MS (if even they know), knows whether it will affect non-Zune-store files.
If I 'emulate' enough features in the code, I can do away with both packages AND still get a performance boost. Probably. However, the whole point of having a seperate package do it is so I dont have to work more than needed.
Also, the whole point of having some of those features in the database, rather than emulating them in code, is to reduce duplication. If he's talking about any integrity checks, or input validation, or even querying strategies, it makes a whole lot more sense to write it once in the database, then use that same functionality in every application that needs it. It makes it a whole lot harder to make mistakes, especially when you're talking about more than one programmer maintaining it.
Considering all the FUD that gets commentary and analysis about MS and Vista recently, it would be nice to know exactly where he got the information that Zune would also wrap non-WMA, non-DRMed files in a DRM layer.
You only got a +1 Insightful to 2. Both your posts deserved the +1's. I often get that on stories that I post to that are up to 6 stories old. I wouldn't expect to get +5 when I post that late though.
It's skewed to overmod the top page of posts, but oh well. I tend to trust the mods near the top, then dig deeper into the posts further down the page looking for stuff that didn't get modded well enough.
Same here. It's the first codec from MS that I actually like. I was very impressed with the downloads I bought from Amazon. Some looked better than DVD quality. I'm also glad they're using a standard that will be supported by other players.
It's still true that iPod doesn't play them though, which was my point. Whether Zune does is unclear, although the article seemed to suggest it plays the rest of the WMV codecs, so you'd assume it might play VC-1.
I should note that the ones from Amazon that I was impressed with were WMV9 Advanced Profile (fourcc WVC1), not WMV9 Main Profile (fourcc WMV3).
I just do work for my family and friends, but I always ask about where their important files are? do they use Outlook and need their email inbox backed up? are there any other programs you use besides the web and office that need their files backed up? etc, etc, several different ways, several different times.
And then I still go through Program Files, Documents and Settings, C: root, and any other partitions for anything to back up anyway. Then ask again. I'm really paranoid about it, but people really have no clue what needs to be backed up and what doesn't.
Now that DVD burners and USB sticks are so cheap, I'd probably just backup liberally without bothering to ask what's important. For a business, it wouldn't be that hard to keep backups for a few days. They'll know what's gone right when they get it back anyway.
HyperCard was pretty impressive. I learned to program in HyperCard in 6th grade. I made this presentation that played the individually-coded notes of Row Row Row Your Boat with a boat that moved across the screen, transitions, hyperlinks, all sorts of cool stuff for a 6th grader. It was a great early introduction to web programming, closely resembling a mix of HTML and Flash...and that was in 1992.
I wish I still had it. That HyperCard stack was probably the single most significant thing that got me into programming.
I've heard so much hype that I had to look it up to be sure it was the same boring thing that Winamp supported in the 90s. Yep, same thing, just for portables. Not very exciting, and definitely not a must have. Well, maybe if you're stuck on Pink Floyd.
It is yet to be shown that the Zune + Windows delivers a great user experience like the iPod + Mac. iTunes and its store make the whole process seamless.
One significant feature of the Zune/Windows experience may be that you don't need to shop at only one store (iTMS). Amazon Unbox already has portable device features built into their video service. Others will likely spring up soon.
Only one of those stores needs to have a seamless "Zune/store experience" for it to be a success.
If it plays VC-1, it's already better than iPod Video. Microsoft's implementation of VC-1 is very competitive with H.264, and you'll likely see an equal split between formats.
(Amazon Unbox is probably the biggest distributor of VC-1 files so far)
I'm thinking if Apple had a choice, they would not put DRM onto their files.
I think you drank a bit too much of the Apple-flavored Kool-Aid.
DRM doesn't just protect the interests of the RIAA. It also locks you into Apple's product. That benefits Apple, perhaps even more so than the record companies.
"Serious" = wants more than Myspace messages and Hotmail, but not "serious" enough to setup/contract their own email server and stop using unprofessional webmail.
$1.50 for a 10 MB audio file is rather ridiculous. I could host the same thing for pennies, and I don't even have a huge university network (bigger tubes than the internet uses), just a cheapo hosting account.
Also, from ind-music.com:
Newsflash If you have come to this site looking to purchase the audio lecture notes for Professor Robert Schrag, please take note that the files have been temporarily removed at the request of Dr. Schrag. In the meantime, check out some great indie bands in our Music Store.
Sure, he deleted his cookies when he was done (I do too)
I don't know why you would delete cookies when you're done, rather than prevent them in the first place.
I prefer to block all cookies, then set exceptions for the sites I need to login to. It's pretty easy to do in Firefox, especially if you block-by-default and install Permit Cookies. With that extension, just press Alt-C when you actually want to allow a cookie.
You end up with 10-20 cookies that you really want, and none that you don't want. Easy to manage.
Slashdot Mirror
Listen, average consumer might buy Zune, because people actually start with buying a device they like, then worry about where to buy songs. They could then buy any plays-for-sure media they wanted, if MS actually supported PFS.
Why would a consumer not prefer that to this? It would mean they could get music everytime they saw it somewhere online (other than iTMS). Simple.*
I don't think you have any idea what most people want. You just know what most people are used to.
* No DRM is simpler and better. But just for the sake of this discussion, where you somehow think that vendor lock-in for media is better, we'll ignore that.
Yeah man, check this one out:
http://images.slashdot.org/slashdotlg.gif?picture
Crazy stuff. Don't click it!
The copied Windows CD is not necessarily genuine though too. It could have been modified in some way. Hell, it could have a virus. It could be cracked, which definitely wouldn't be genuine.
Not that any of those are very likely for most downloads. But MS is just offering to verify that you've installed Genuine Windows. The only way they can have any certainty is if it's one of the controlled copies licensed to that hardware, or produced and as yet unused.
In this case, I'd think it actually boils down to the other main issue of the digital revolution: that most people involved in the digital revolution are too retarded to keep their certificates and original media--the actual things they purchased.
Basically every time I've asked anyone I know in real life where their Windows CD or OEM CDs are, *none* of them knew. That's like 0 out of 10, excluding me.
Of course, it's probably the only appliance in the house that forces you to keep a piece of paper with it just for the hell of it, so I can't really blame them.
Any good ABX listening test compares codecs at similar bitrates. So it's not very relevant in a comparison of 240-355 kbps WMA vs. 128 kbps AAC. The WMA likely sounds *much* better than the AAC.
That said, I'd use MusePack (MPC) or Vorbis.
And neither option is available with iTMS.
In both cases, iTMS loses.
This sounds a lot like something that Drupal has built in, called a news aggregator. You can set the same thing up yourself very easily by installing drupal and enabling that module.
Here's an example of how it can look:
http://911source.org/aggregator
Or you can browse by category:
http://911source.org/aggregator/categories
I'd prefer if they improved the current Wikipedia by implementing an (optional) reputation system to identify experts in particular fields. That way the data would all stay in one place where all the people are and that all the people are using for research already, yet we'd accomplish the same thing of having known experts have more influence on an article.
All they'd need to do is create a verification system where you could submit your credentials and identifying information (if you wished), then tag your user id with an "expert" tag that linked to your areas of expertise. They wouldn't necessarily even need to give those experts more power, just identifying them in the revision history would cause their version to survive (sometimes being reverted back to) unless it was too radical or misinformed (which can still happen even with experts).
In that case, sorry to spoil the party. I heard Zune also wraps baby food in DRM! If you want to feed your baby, you're going to have to pay Micro$oft for it again!
Won't somebody think of the children!?!
From that article:
It sounds like it could be a case of Microsoft only caring about talking about the songs they are selling themselves, without explaining the details of what you can do with songs you get elsewhere.
It's worth discussing the possibility that it would adversely affect CC files or other files you obtained elsewhere, but I still think it's a little too much speculation to make it sound like it definitely will affect CC files. It sounds like nobody outside of MS (if even they know), knows whether it will affect non-Zune-store files.
Also, the whole point of having some of those features in the database, rather than emulating them in code, is to reduce duplication. If he's talking about any integrity checks, or input validation, or even querying strategies, it makes a whole lot more sense to write it once in the database, then use that same functionality in every application that needs it. It makes it a whole lot harder to make mistakes, especially when you're talking about more than one programmer maintaining it.
Considering all the FUD that gets commentary and analysis about MS and Vista recently, it would be nice to know exactly where he got the information that Zune would also wrap non-WMA, non-DRMed files in a DRM layer.
Does it really do that? Anyone have a source?
You only got a +1 Insightful to 2. Both your posts deserved the +1's. I often get that on stories that I post to that are up to 6 stories old. I wouldn't expect to get +5 when I post that late though.
It's skewed to overmod the top page of posts, but oh well. I tend to trust the mods near the top, then dig deeper into the posts further down the page looking for stuff that didn't get modded well enough.
Same here. It's the first codec from MS that I actually like. I was very impressed with the downloads I bought from Amazon. Some looked better than DVD quality. I'm also glad they're using a standard that will be supported by other players.
It's still true that iPod doesn't play them though, which was my point. Whether Zune does is unclear, although the article seemed to suggest it plays the rest of the WMV codecs, so you'd assume it might play VC-1.
I should note that the ones from Amazon that I was impressed with were WMV9 Advanced Profile (fourcc WVC1), not WMV9 Main Profile (fourcc WMV3).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC-1
I just do work for my family and friends, but I always ask about where their important files are? do they use Outlook and need their email inbox backed up? are there any other programs you use besides the web and office that need their files backed up? etc, etc, several different ways, several different times.
And then I still go through Program Files, Documents and Settings, C: root, and any other partitions for anything to back up anyway. Then ask again. I'm really paranoid about it, but people really have no clue what needs to be backed up and what doesn't.
Now that DVD burners and USB sticks are so cheap, I'd probably just backup liberally without bothering to ask what's important. For a business, it wouldn't be that hard to keep backups for a few days. They'll know what's gone right when they get it back anyway.
HyperCard was pretty impressive. I learned to program in HyperCard in 6th grade. I made this presentation that played the individually-coded notes of Row Row Row Your Boat with a boat that moved across the screen, transitions, hyperlinks, all sorts of cool stuff for a 6th grader. It was a great early introduction to web programming, closely resembling a mix of HTML and Flash...and that was in 1992.
I wish I still had it. That HyperCard stack was probably the single most significant thing that got me into programming.
You can't be a fully CSS compliant browser without passing the ACID test.
You can pass the ACID test without being fully CSS compliant.
Or to put it another way, the ACID test is just a subset of CSS, not all of it.
Mmmm...not so much.
I've heard so much hype that I had to look it up to be sure it was the same boring thing that Winamp supported in the 90s. Yep, same thing, just for portables. Not very exciting, and definitely not a must have. Well, maybe if you're stuck on Pink Floyd.
One significant feature of the Zune/Windows experience may be that you don't need to shop at only one store (iTMS). Amazon Unbox already has portable device features built into their video service. Others will likely spring up soon.
Only one of those stores needs to have a seamless "Zune/store experience" for it to be a success.
If it plays VC-1, it's already better than iPod Video. Microsoft's implementation of VC-1 is very competitive with H.264, and you'll likely see an equal split between formats.
(Amazon Unbox is probably the biggest distributor of VC-1 files so far)
I think you drank a bit too much of the Apple-flavored Kool-Aid.
DRM doesn't just protect the interests of the RIAA. It also locks you into Apple's product. That benefits Apple, perhaps even more so than the record companies.
"Serious" = wants more than Myspace messages and Hotmail, but not "serious" enough to setup/contract their own email server and stop using unprofessional webmail.
"serious" is a relative term, apparently.
Also, from ind-music.com:
Are you sure? I once tried to buy a refurbished PC from their Small Business section and they cancelled my order.
I don't know why you would delete cookies when you're done, rather than prevent them in the first place.
I prefer to block all cookies, then set exceptions for the sites I need to login to. It's pretty easy to do in Firefox, especially if you block-by-default and install Permit Cookies. With that extension, just press Alt-C when you actually want to allow a cookie.
You end up with 10-20 cookies that you really want, and none that you don't want. Easy to manage.