> I can't see ANYONE being happy with a recording > of Bach's Toccatta and Fugue in D minor or the > Beatle's Abbey Road as their reference in MP3 > format.
I've got my (original CD) copy of Abbey Road in MP3 format to listen to at work. It's great, and available at the touch of a key (instead of having to remember to bring the album in).
Compressed music is not a replacement for raw audio (which isn't what you get on a recording anyway) but rather is an alternative that allows the listener to access it in different ways.
> I personally prefer to obtain unencoded audio on CD
I think mp3.com have hit on a pretty ideal compromise. They sell CDs (I think they call them DAM CDs) with the original CD tracks as well as the MP3-compressed versions. This way you can put the CD in your CD-player and get the raw audio, but you can put the CD into your computer and grab the MP3s without having to rip/encode them yourself. As long as you only use 9/10 of the CD capacity (which is the case for most albums) there is room for the MP3s.
Try convincing the RIAA that all CDs should be released this way, though...
I seem to have messed up the URL in the message above. For the page on the LAME encoder, go to this page.
Before we get into legal arguments, I should mention that this encoder is distributed as a patch on the ISO encoder distribution and, as such, does not violate any patents. Compilation of this code in a country that allows software patents is at your own risk, however.
Mine is the same way. I've got it set up so that I can tell it to play up-beat blues tunes, or slow soul songs. My most common thing to do is just to have it play random songs or random albums, though.
I have a large music collection, and having it stored as MP3s gives me a greater level of access to it. Sure, the quality isn't quite as good, but that isn't always my top priority (although it sometimes is).
BTW, if people are interested in improving the quality of MP3s, they might want to consider helping out with a freely distributable encoder that is rapidly increasing in both speed and quality.
I'm not 100% sure, but as I understood it you can use DVDRoms as filesystems under Linux now -- it's just the special video storage modes we don't have drivers for.
Of course, there is still the issue that DVD burners are quite expensive still (although I expect they will go down in price). I just need access to one for a day or so to burn my music collection to a disc, though...
> You've got 64 albums online at your place of > employment? Don't you worry about getting fired > for trafficing in illegal stuff using company > resources?
No I don't. I have MP3 versions of 64 albums that I *own* on CD. This is a right I have as a music consumer (although the RIAA would *love* to take it away from me if they could).
I used to agree with the guy who wrote the article. I didn't really see the point of MP3s. I downloaded a few songs off the net (some legit, some not) and generally ended up deleting them.
Then I realized that on a 10 gig drive (which is pretty affordable these days) I could store over *200* albums. That blew me away! Then I realized that I could burn the whole lot onto a DVD. That *really* blew me away. Imagine taking your entire music collection over to a friends house in a single jewel case.
Now I'm an MP3 convert. I've written software to allow me to convert my CD collection into MP3 format ( Grip, a ripping/encoding tool and DigitalDJ, an SQL-based playback tool). I'm in heaven! I've got 64 albums online at work so far (taking up about 3300 megs of space).
> The whole point in laws like this is to empower local communities to show discretion.
It sure looked to me like the law was going to restrict libraries, not empower them. Whether you agree with the measure or not, it certainly isn't about empowerment.
>I keep hearing that a BSD license is BAD because it allows for 'code forking'. > Now having 32 different flavors of GNU/Linux is a GOOD thing?
Having multiple vendors isn't the same thing as a code fork. Multiple vendors is a *good* thing. Imagine if you could only buy a TV from one company? Now, if every electronics company used a different video format, that would be a bad thing (and be like a code fork).
I am glad to see competition in the distro market. It is the best way to get nicer installation tools (as we've seen with Caldera's distro).
You should try living in the UK. The lack of diversity in radio here is appalling. You're either listening to opera or the spice girls -- there's no middle ground.
Hmmm... Looks like they have an open source, free version and a closed-source commercial version.
This is, of course, fine. They can release their code under two licenses. If they don't hold the copyright on all of the GPL code they are using the the commercial version, however, they've got a problem...
I have to agree. Interoperability is good. Having a nice debugger that talks to your editor is very useful. They *do not* however, have to be the same program.
The biggest stumbling block with IDE's for me is always their editors. I have yet to find an editor that can even approach Emacs in "C" mode. To most of them, "indenting" means adding a few spaces when you go in a level.
While I'm all for a new format, development seems to have stalled. Meanwhile, the best thing to do is support the free CDDB servers. If a new format comes along, the free CDDB data can be transferred over.
As an application author, I declined to sign Escient's license agreement. My cd-player apps ( Grip and GCD) now come configured to use freecddb.org for lookup/submission. Does anybody know if there are any other free CDDB servers?
It doesn't matter whether Linux becomes mainstream or not. The important thing is that *we* have it. I've been burned in the past by commercial OS's that I spent buckets of time learning to program and creating software for (Amiga, primarily). Once the company is gone, development stops and there's *nothing* you can do about it.
Now I develop under Linux. The OS code is happily sitting here on my hard-drive. Nobody can take it away!
*That's* what Linux is about -- not trying to conquer the world. If, as a side-effect, we make the computer world a brighter place, so much the better.
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> I can't see ANYONE being happy with a recording
> of Bach's Toccatta and Fugue in D minor or the
> Beatle's Abbey Road as their reference in MP3
> format.
I've got my (original CD) copy of Abbey Road in MP3 format to listen to at work. It's great, and available at the touch of a key (instead of having to remember to bring the album in).
Compressed music is not a replacement for raw audio (which isn't what you get on a recording anyway) but rather is an alternative that allows the listener to access it in different ways.
--
> I personally prefer to obtain unencoded audio on CD
I think mp3.com have hit on a pretty ideal compromise. They sell CDs (I think they call them DAM CDs) with the original CD tracks as well as the MP3-compressed versions. This way you can put the CD in your CD-player and get the raw audio, but you can put the CD into your computer and grab the MP3s without having to rip/encode them yourself. As long as you only use 9/10 of the CD capacity (which is the case for most albums) there is room for the MP3s.
Try convincing the RIAA that all CDs should be released this way, though...
--
I seem to have messed up the URL in the message above. For the page on the LAME encoder, go to this page.
Before we get into legal arguments, I should mention that this encoder is distributed as a patch on the ISO encoder distribution and, as such, does not violate any patents. Compilation of this code in a country that allows software patents is at your own risk, however.
--
Mine is the same way. I've got it set up so that I can tell it to play up-beat blues tunes, or slow soul songs. My most common thing to do is just to have it play random songs or random albums, though.
I have a large music collection, and having it stored as MP3s gives me a greater level of access to it. Sure, the quality isn't quite as good, but that isn't always my top priority (although it sometimes is).
BTW, if people are interested in improving the quality of MP3s, they might want to consider helping out with a freely distributable encoder that is rapidly increasing in both speed and quality.
--
>(b) a DVD driver becomes a reality for Linux.
I'm not 100% sure, but as I understood it you can use DVDRoms as filesystems under Linux now -- it's just the special video storage modes we don't have drivers for.
Of course, there is still the issue that DVD burners are quite expensive still (although I expect they will go down in price). I just need access to one for a day or so to burn my music collection to a disc, though...
--
> You've got 64 albums online at your place of
> employment? Don't you worry about getting fired
> for trafficing in illegal stuff using company
> resources?
No I don't. I have MP3 versions of 64 albums that I *own* on CD. This is a right I have as a music consumer (although the RIAA would *love* to take it away from me if they could).
--
I used to agree with the guy who wrote the article. I didn't really see the point of MP3s. I downloaded a few songs off the net (some legit, some not) and generally ended up deleting them.
Then I realized that on a 10 gig drive (which is pretty affordable these days) I could store over *200* albums. That blew me away! Then I realized that I could burn the whole lot onto a DVD. That *really* blew me away. Imagine taking your entire music collection over to a friends house in a single jewel case.
Now I'm an MP3 convert. I've written software to allow me to convert my CD collection into MP3 format ( Grip, a ripping/encoding tool and DigitalDJ, an SQL-based playback tool). I'm in heaven! I've got 64 albums online at work so far (taking up about 3300 megs of space).
--
> All I want out of MP3 is to record my tapes and
> LPs onto my hard drive, squunch them into
> MP3 format, and burn them onto a CD, 100 at a
> time, so that I can play them in my car.
> Anybody with a How-To?
For the playing in the car part, you might want to check out Cajun
--
So, when do we start working on 'Y'?
--
> The whole point in laws like this is to empower local communities to show discretion.
It sure looked to me like the law was going to restrict libraries, not empower them. Whether you agree with the measure or not, it certainly isn't about empowerment.
--
>I keep hearing that a BSD license is BAD because it allows for 'code forking'.
> Now having 32 different flavors of GNU/Linux is a GOOD thing?
Having multiple vendors isn't the same thing as a code fork. Multiple vendors is a *good* thing. Imagine if you could only buy a TV from one company? Now, if every electronics company used a different video format, that would be a bad thing (and be like a code fork).
I am glad to see competition in the distro market. It is the best way to get nicer installation tools (as we've seen with Caldera's distro).
--
You should try living in the UK. The lack of diversity in radio here is appalling. You're either listening to opera or the spice girls -- there's no middle ground.
--
Hmmm... Looks like they have an open source, free version and a closed-source commercial version.
This is, of course, fine. They can release their code under two licenses. If they don't hold the copyright on all of the GPL code they are using the the commercial version, however, they've got a problem...
--
On a slightly offtopic note, does anybody know why the incoming.redhat.com ftp site has been down for the past week?
--
> Who on earth wants to use crappy IDE's anyway?
I have to agree. Interoperability is good. Having a nice debugger that talks to your editor is very useful. They *do not* however, have to be the same program.
The biggest stumbling block with IDE's for me is always their editors. I have yet to find an editor that can even approach Emacs in "C" mode. To most of them, "indenting" means adding a few spaces when you go in a level.
--
What happened to the LinuxCare story that was up a few minutes ago, but no longer seems to be there? Somebody regretting a spur-of-the-moment email?
Which part of "if you don't like my license, don't use my code" don't people understand?
> these don't have the generic title "productivity
> software" for nuttin'.
gcc is productivity software. word is for writing memos...
> but, why the hell isn't getting a stable,
> decent, clean code base up and running the #1
> priority?
because hacking in new features is more fun than fixing bugs...
Am I the only one who just wants a decent, fast browser? keep your mail/news/chat out of my browser!
While I'm all for a new format, development seems to have stalled. Meanwhile, the best thing to do is support the free CDDB servers. If a new format comes along, the free CDDB data can be transferred over.
As an application author, I declined to sign Escient's license agreement. My cd-player apps ( Grip and GCD) now come configured to use freecddb.org for lookup/submission. Does anybody know if there are any other free CDDB servers?
This URL might be asking for trouble. While it doesn't look like Escient have any legal claim on the protocol, the *have* trademarked CDDB.
> there's a danger that things'll get messy if everyone just downloads the whole
> CDDB and re-uploads it to cdindex.
End users have no licensing agreement with Escient, so it isn't clear that there is any problem here.
It doesn't matter whether Linux becomes mainstream or not. The important thing is that *we* have it. I've been burned in the past by commercial OS's that I spent buckets of time learning to program and creating software for (Amiga, primarily). Once the company is gone, development stops and there's *nothing* you can do about it.
Now I develop under Linux. The OS code is happily sitting here on my hard-drive. Nobody can take it away!
*That's* what Linux is about -- not trying to conquer the world. If, as a side-effect, we make the computer world a brighter place, so much the better.