Well, I like the old bands too. I theorize that today's RIAA music sucks so bad because the talented folks won't touch a major label with a ten foot pole. Back then you couldn't make a record without an RIAA label, but artists with talent and originality don't need them any more.
However, I already have a large collection of the old stuff, and stuff I don't have there's always garage sales (isn't there supposed to be a "b" after the "r" in "garage sale"?) and used record stores. My best sounding CDs are ones I've sampled from vinyl, my worst sounding CDs are ones I've sampled from cassette (although many of the cassette CDs sound very good too and some of the ones from LP have scratches).
I mean, John Bohnam is dead. You're not going to get any new Led Zeppelin.
The original author, back in 1968, can be forgiven for not knowing about distributed computing networks.
That's the thing about telling the future, you're supposed to know all about these things that nobody has even thought about, let alone invented. From my last/. journal of last year:
OK, it's that time of year again. The time of year when everyone and their dog waxes nostalgic about all the shit nobody cares about from the year past, and stupidly predicts the next year in the grim knowlege that when the next New Year comes along nobody will remember that the dumbass predicted a bunch of foolish shit that turned out to be complete and utter balderdash.
I got a chuckle out of the "smooth plastic roads". First, if roads were smooth it would take a LONG time to get the car stopped. And accelleration wouldn't be easy either; didn't the author ever hear of friction and its uses? Maybe he was an engineer, the one who designed the round nylon shoelaces I bitched about in that K5 article a few years ago that seem to have gone the way of the dodo (thank God). I guess eventually the short-bus engineers run over themselves with their short busses and the more intelligent ones take over.
Secondly, the streets here in Springfield are so full of potholes it's like driving on the moon. Apparently the auto manufacturers have noticed this, because I heard a car ad that extolled "suspension for today's roads". The ad didn't say whether it's California's good, ice-free roads or the midwest's roads that are crater filled from the freeze-thaw cycle and harsh chemicals and salt used to thaw and evaporate the ice and snow.
Don't people do any reasoning at all when they write thes articles?
OTOH some time in high school (late 1960s) my schitzophrenic friend Tom prognosticated that some day we'd be playing records in our cars. I told him that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard; how would you keep them from getting scratched up? How would you keep them from skipping? He had no answers and didn't know why he thought so but was certain it would happen. But he turned out to be right, we now have CDs and afaik they don't make car stereos without CD players any more.
I agree with that, but it seems that promotion (getting airplay) is the only thing a lanbel can do for an artist.
they don't directly employ artists
Actually they do. Under US copyright law, all phonorecordings are "works for hire" thanks to the RIAA labels buying congresscritters back in the 1950s.
Does Lynard Skynard's Workin' for MCA still have the (intentional) hum at the beginning of the song on CD like it did on the LP? My CD was ripped from an LP.
Seven years of hard luck, comin down on me From the florida border, yea up to nashville tennessee I worked in every joint you can name, mister every honkytonk Along come mr yankee slicker, sayin maybe youre what I want
(chorus) Want you to sign your contract Want you to sign today Gonna give you lots of money Workin for mca
9000 dollars, thats all we could win But we smiled at the yankee slicker with a big ol southern grin Theyre gonna take me out to california gonna make me a superstar Just pay me all of my money and mister maybe you wont get a scar
(chorus)
Suckers took my money since I was seventeen If it aint no pencil pusher, it got to be a honkytonk queen But Ill sign my contract baby, and I want you people to know That every penny that I make, Im gonna see where my money goes
Well, stealing music is only a misdemeanor with a few hundred dollar fine if you get caught. copyright infringement is a civil matter that can cost thousands upon thousands if you get caught.
So is it any wonder that those guys steal it rather than infringe copyright?
Myself, I'd rather buy indie music on CD from the bands themselves. $15.99? Hell, $10 is too much, most of the time they'll sell me two or three CDs for ten bucks. And it cost them a hell of a lot more to get them recorded, stamped, and packaged than it costs the major labels.
No matter what you think about WalMart, they're in the right on this one. As evil as WalMart may be, the major record labels are far more evil.
Now THAT'S reassuring... (not). When my retina tore (w/ no detachment) a little ove a year ago, a laser was used to weld it back together. This surgery involves needles in the eyeball.
I mentioned it in a couple of journals (in passing): Behind my sig linked from the Zaphod quote; this one is about having my 20/400 vision corrected to better than 20/20 using a new technology (FDA approved in 2003) in my left eye; the other is still 20/400. I'm now a cyborg. You will be assimilated. resistance is not only futile, you won't resist, when the time comes you'll beg to join us! Bloody Sunday The Bleeding Eyeball Blinded By the Light and finally the latest one, I'm in a REAL bad mood
I doubt I'll do a proper journal until I get the surgery done and off my mind.
It's getting a lot better than it used to. I admit it kind of pisses me off that my wireless keyboard's media controls won't work in Linux, although they run Winamp just fine. And that although Linux works fine on my monitor, I get garbage on my 42 inch TV set. It's infuriating that the hardware people won't open their specs enough that GNU folks can't write the drivers, although I can see how even that might cause problems for them.
2) seamless game support. That (and the third, ubiquitous software support in general) is a chicken-and-egg problem (the egg came first). There must be some solution.
Amarok is (IMO) the best music player on the planet
I can see how the blackberry might be problematic (don't have one), but I doubt most desktop users are running an exchange server, and I imagine most folks administering hundreds (let alone thousands) of machines are running Unix, not XP.
Most Windows users are using spreadsheets, email, the internet, word processors, etc. Your run of the maill vanilla apps. Linux runs all of them.
I agree, for what you do just using one OS would be quite a task. I bet your Solaris machine is the most useful.
Originated by Robert Machemer[1] and facilitated by Thomas M. Aaberg, Sr in late 1969 and early 1970, the original purpose of vitrectomy was to remove clouded vitreous - usually containing blood. The success of these first procedures led to the development of techniques and instruments to remove clouding and also to peel scar tissue off the light sensitive lining of the eye - the retina - membranectomy, to provide space for materials injected in the eye to reattach the retina such as gases or liquid silicone, and to increase the efficacy of other surgical steps such as scleral buckle.
An explosion of new instruments and surgical strategies through the 1970s and 1980s was spearheaded by surgeon/engineer Steve Charles, M.D.[2] More recent advances have included smaller and more refined instruments for use in the eye, the injection of various medications at the time of surgery to manipulate a detached retina into its proper position and mark the location of tissue layers to allow their removal, and for long term protection against scar tissue formation.
I have a detached retina. The surgical procedure involves sticking three needles in my eye (photo in the Wikipedia article)
I wonder, if the RIAA sued you and lost, could you counter-sue for slander? Somehow I doubt it, but it sure would be sweet!
Actually considering the names they call us (their former and present customers) we should probably instigate a class action slander suit. Yo ho ho and all that.
If it were, how would the multinational corporations bully people with SLAPP suits? Can't have those pesky citizens interfering with the corporate's God given and (bought) congress' legislated right to tell the non-monied to STFU or else, now can we?
I keep seeing this and just don't get it. I'm running XP dual boot with Mandriva 8/KDE and the only thing the Linux side won't do is play MS games and run that tax software that costs as much as H&R Black charges to do it for you.
So what, exactly, is so great about Windows anyway? What makes it superior. What does Linux have to do to change the perception of "not being good enough"?
1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in "A mighty fortress is our God." Compare mixed metaphor, simile (def. 1). 2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.
I don't see how "information wants to be expensive" is a metaphor. What's more, the example I just put shows that the other side in the freedom war (those who want freedom and those who oppose it) can play the same game. What, exactly, is it a metaphor for? Sorry, I think th ephrase "information wants and ice cream cone" sounds no more unrealistic than "information wants to be free".
I still maintain that "when information isn't free, neither are you" is a far better slogan. If someone tries to turn it around it becomes patently false. It's literally true, and it isn't trying to be cute. And I'm sure someone can come up with a far better slogan than that even.
But at one time they were on top. What was the name of the spreadsheet that made computers necessary for business? Before IBM? I don't remember, but I do remember it ran on Apple.
Google is the company that does no evil
No, their motto is "do no evil". It's corporate bullshit, no different than "at Ford, quality is job 1". They may in fact intend to do no evil, they may be the least evil of all corporations, but they do in fact do evil. Thay did, after all, help China censor people. Not as evil as Yahoo who ratted out a chinese guy who went to prison. But make no mistake, no matter how hard they try to be benevolent, it is impossible for a big corporation to not do evil.
The love of money lets corporations live, but it is the root of all evil.
Microsoft sits atop its throne as ruler of an evil empire.
Well, they will most likely not rule forever, but I don't see them not being evil any time while I'm alive. Maybe in my unborn grandchildrens' geezerhood.
Will this state of affairs last forever?
Nothing lasts forever.
You must not remember the days when everybody loved that scrappy upstate Bill Gates.
Nobody is loved by everybody. Nobody has ever been loved by everybody. But I do, in fact, remember when all Microsoft had was BASIC. At the time I neither loved nor hated him, and in fact still don't. I think his company's business methods are disgusting and his wares are the worst in the business, but I don't hate him or Microsoft.
It's that same [level of] success and its own questionable privacy practices that will lead to Google's PR downfall and propel it into a position of disdain going forward.
I tend to agree.
Trust me, the future of Apple and Google may look bright from an economic standpoint, but these companies will be hated one day too.
Apple MAY be some day hated, but I don't see it. There's no telling what the future holds, but they've been around as long as Microsoft but have managed to not piss off all their paying customers
Sad, but true.
What's so sad about it? They're corporations! Why is it sad that a corporation may be hated?
Slashdot Mirror
They got ho's on the moon? Sign me up!
Well, I like the old bands too. I theorize that today's RIAA music sucks so bad because the talented folks won't touch a major label with a ten foot pole. Back then you couldn't make a record without an RIAA label, but artists with talent and originality don't need them any more.
However, I already have a large collection of the old stuff, and stuff I don't have there's always garage sales (isn't there supposed to be a "b" after the "r" in "garage sale"?) and used record stores. My best sounding CDs are ones I've sampled from vinyl, my worst sounding CDs are ones I've sampled from cassette (although many of the cassette CDs sound very good too and some of the ones from LP have scratches).
I mean, John Bohnam is dead. You're not going to get any new Led Zeppelin.
-mcgrew
You know, I'd be a lot more scared if it WAS a vasectomy! I really should get one but damn...
That's the thing about telling the future, you're supposed to know all about these things that nobody has even thought about, let alone invented. From my last
I got a chuckle out of the "smooth plastic roads". First, if roads were smooth it would take a LONG time to get the car stopped. And accelleration wouldn't be easy either; didn't the author ever hear of friction and its uses? Maybe he was an engineer, the one who designed the round nylon shoelaces I bitched about in that K5 article a few years ago that seem to have gone the way of the dodo (thank God). I guess eventually the short-bus engineers run over themselves with their short busses and the more intelligent ones take over.
Secondly, the streets here in Springfield are so full of potholes it's like driving on the moon. Apparently the auto manufacturers have noticed this, because I heard a car ad that extolled "suspension for today's roads". The ad didn't say whether it's California's good, ice-free roads or the midwest's roads that are crater filled from the freeze-thaw cycle and harsh chemicals and salt used to thaw and evaporate the ice and snow.
Don't people do any reasoning at all when they write thes articles?
OTOH some time in high school (late 1960s) my schitzophrenic friend Tom prognosticated that some day we'd be playing records in our cars. I told him that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard; how would you keep them from getting scratched up? How would you keep them from skipping? He had no answers and didn't know why he thought so but was certain it would happen. But he turned out to be right, we now have CDs and afaik they don't make car stereos without CD players any more.
I agree with that, but it seems that promotion (getting airplay) is the only thing a lanbel can do for an artist.
they don't directly employ artists
Actually they do. Under US copyright law, all phonorecordings are "works for hire" thanks to the RIAA labels buying congresscritters back in the 1950s.
Does Lynard Skynard's Workin' for MCA still have the (intentional) hum at the beginning of the song on CD like it did on the LP? My CD was ripped from an LP.
Seems arbitrary. I notice you stuck up for the union
My union dues come out of MY pocket. Why shouldn't a musician's come out of his? Nobody makes you join a union, you know.
I thought all you guys stole all your music.
Well, stealing music is only a misdemeanor with a few hundred dollar fine if you get caught. copyright infringement is a civil matter that can cost thousands upon thousands if you get caught.
So is it any wonder that those guys steal it rather than infringe copyright?
Myself, I'd rather buy indie music on CD from the bands themselves. $15.99? Hell, $10 is too much, most of the time they'll sell me two or three CDs for ten bucks. And it cost them a hell of a lot more to get them recorded, stamped, and packaged than it costs the major labels.
No matter what you think about WalMart, they're in the right on this one. As evil as WalMart may be, the major record labels are far more evil.
-mcgrew
Now THAT'S reassuring... (not). When my retina tore (w/ no detachment) a little ove a year ago, a laser was used to weld it back together. This surgery involves needles in the eyeball.
I mentioned it in a couple of journals (in passing):
Behind my sig linked from the Zaphod quote; this one is about having my 20/400 vision corrected to better than 20/20 using a new technology (FDA approved in 2003) in my left eye; the other is still 20/400. I'm now a cyborg. You will be assimilated. resistance is not only futile, you won't resist, when the time comes you'll beg to join us!
Bloody Sunday
The Bleeding Eyeball
Blinded By the Light
and finally the latest one,
I'm in a REAL bad mood
I doubt I'll do a proper journal until I get the surgery done and off my mind.
1) ubiquitous hardware driver support,
It's getting a lot better than it used to. I admit it kind of pisses me off that my wireless keyboard's media controls won't work in Linux, although they run Winamp just fine. And that although Linux works fine on my monitor, I get garbage on my 42 inch TV set. It's infuriating that the hardware people won't open their specs enough that GNU folks can't write the drivers, although I can see how even that might cause problems for them.
2) seamless game support.
That (and the third, ubiquitous software support in general) is a chicken-and-egg problem (the egg came first). There must be some solution.
Amarok is (IMO) the best music player on the planet
I'll have to try it, I've been using XMMS.
I can see how the blackberry might be problematic (don't have one), but I doubt most desktop users are running an exchange server, and I imagine most folks administering hundreds (let alone thousands) of machines are running Unix, not XP.
Most Windows users are using spreadsheets, email, the internet, word processors, etc. Your run of the maill vanilla apps. Linux runs all of them.
I agree, for what you do just using one OS would be quite a task. I bet your Solaris machine is the most useful.
If the equipment needs to be secured against active subversive behavior by one of the members of your surgical team
So long as none of them are on this list I probably don't have a lot to worry about.
Thank you!!!! The snarks had me worried =)
They modded you funny but DAMN...
Now they'll mod ME funny =(
At least its a vitrectomy and not a vasectomy...
I wonder, if the RIAA sued you and lost, could you counter-sue for slander? Somehow I doubt it, but it sure would be sweet!
Actually considering the names they call us (their former and present customers) we should probably instigate a class action slander suit. Yo ho ho and all that.
Why isn't this the standard, anyway?
If it were, how would the multinational corporations bully people with SLAPP suits? Can't have those pesky citizens interfering with the corporate's God given and (bought) congress' legislated right to tell the non-monied to STFU or else, now can we?
-mcgrew
Damn I don't know how to say this without sounding like a troll, so please forgive me, but er, well, um...
These are engineers, right? The ISO, I mean?
I hope none of those guys designed the equipment my eye surgeon will be using when I have my vitrectomy (shudder).
-mcgrew
I keep seeing this and just don't get it. I'm running XP dual boot with Mandriva 8/KDE and the only thing the Linux side won't do is play MS games and run that tax software that costs as much as H&R Black charges to do it for you.
So what, exactly, is so great about Windows anyway? What makes it superior. What does Linux have to do to change the perception of "not being good enough"?
-mcgrew
No, until you have an entry on Uncyclopedia you're nothing. Please congratulate your mom for me.
Very good points, I think you convinced me.
Well yes, it is in their interest to make sure the markets are good. But what if they decide it isn't in their interest? Then what?
Now look who's being too literal! And-
1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in "A mighty fortress is our God." Compare mixed metaphor, simile (def. 1).
2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.
I don't see how "information wants to be expensive" is a metaphor. What's more, the example I just put shows that the other side in the freedom war (those who want freedom and those who oppose it) can play the same game. What, exactly, is it a metaphor for? Sorry, I think th ephrase "information wants and ice cream cone" sounds no more unrealistic than "information wants to be free".
I still maintain that "when information isn't free, neither are you" is a far better slogan. If someone tries to turn it around it becomes patently false. It's literally true, and it isn't trying to be cute. And I'm sure someone can come up with a far better slogan than that even.
Apple is the innovative underdog
But at one time they were on top. What was the name of the spreadsheet that made computers necessary for business? Before IBM? I don't remember, but I do remember it ran on Apple.
Google is the company that does no evil
No, their motto is "do no evil". It's corporate bullshit, no different than "at Ford, quality is job 1". They may in fact intend to do no evil, they may be the least evil of all corporations, but they do in fact do evil. Thay did, after all, help China censor people. Not as evil as Yahoo who ratted out a chinese guy who went to prison. But make no mistake, no matter how hard they try to be benevolent, it is impossible for a big corporation to not do evil.
The love of money lets corporations live, but it is the root of all evil.
Microsoft sits atop its throne as ruler of an evil empire.
Well, they will most likely not rule forever, but I don't see them not being evil any time while I'm alive. Maybe in my unborn grandchildrens' geezerhood.
Will this state of affairs last forever?
Nothing lasts forever.
You must not remember the days when everybody loved that scrappy upstate Bill Gates.
Nobody is loved by everybody. Nobody has ever been loved by everybody. But I do, in fact, remember when all Microsoft had was BASIC. At the time I neither loved nor hated him, and in fact still don't. I think his company's business methods are disgusting and his wares are the worst in the business, but I don't hate him or Microsoft.
It's that same [level of] success and its own questionable privacy practices that will lead to Google's PR downfall and propel it into a position of disdain going forward.
I tend to agree.
Trust me, the future of Apple and Google may look bright from an economic standpoint, but these companies will be hated one day too.
Apple MAY be some day hated, but I don't see it. There's no telling what the future holds, but they've been around as long as Microsoft but have managed to not piss off all their paying customers
Sad, but true.
What's so sad about it? They're corporations! Why is it sad that a corporation may be hated?
They are on the verge of becoming a world superpower
On the verge? What would happen to our economy if we had a falling out? Damned near everything you can buy these days is made there!
Plus, they have for decades had nuclear weapons.
They not only already are a superpower, they are more powerful than the US. I don't see how we could possibly hurt them, but they could destroy us.
Thank you, patriotic multinational corporations, for buying my government and ruining my once great nation.
-mcgrew
(yes, I'm in a bad mood)