2) Instead of cheap earbuds, invest in some good IEMs. Yes, it is going to run you $100-300. Deal with it. If you can drop hundreds on a iPod, you can drop hundreds on good phones to go with it.
Agreed that good isolation headphones will let you listen at a much safer volume level. But there is no need to spend tons on pro-quality phones if you just want something that's going to block out the background noise better. Check out Koss "The Plug" or "Sparkplug" model--they're under $12 at Amazon and sound much, much better than most cheap headphones. They've easily given me the best bang-for-the-buck on any audio gear I've purchased over the years.
Your comment reminds of something I heard Jon Brion tell years ago at one of his regular Friday night shows at Largo in Los Angeles.
To paraphrase, Brion said that we could destroy every bit of evidence that the Beatles ever existed--every record, piece of sheet music, CD, radio archive, photograph, movie--anything that represented any portion of their work. We could destroy all that, and still, in a few hundred years, anyone you stopped on the street would still be able to sing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." Because even without any physical evidence of the Beatles' existence, they are now so ingrained in our culture that they are part of the human DNA and exist in every one of us at a cellular level.
Things like winning by a quantum difference (I know I'm misquoting this) being responded with things like: "No fair! You changed the result by measuring it" It adds a humour for the physicist in me.
Interesting... I always took that joke as a shot at the 2000 U.S. Presidential election. Specifically, going after the folks who complained that the votes in Florida shouldn't be recounted.
Thanks for the suggestion--I added the Firefly DVD set to the top of my Netflix queue. If the first disc gets me hooked, I'll continue with the series. I just hope I can get through them before Serenity finishes its theatrical run.
So, pretty much the artists are not being really paid too much, as anyone can tell you, where artists earn is in live performances. So, my opinion is that each RIAA CD people buy is only giving money to them [the RIAA] and almost nothing to the authors.
If people really want to support their artists they should go and watch them LIVE.
I hear this excuse all the time from people who try to justify (illegal) mp3 downloads--"the record labels rip off the artists anyway, so why should I support them?" To some degree, I can begin to understand how one might believe that enough to overcome the moral dilemma of stealing music. Sure, if the labels are stealing from the artists, why shouldn't you feel OK about stealing from the labels? Especially when you'll support the artist by going to see them live and buying a t-shirt at the show, right?
The problem is that when a band isn't selling records, a record label has little incentive to support them in the future. An artist can show overwhelming popularity, but without the album sales to back it up, why would a label invest more money in promoting them any further? I've seen it a dozen times with bands I know personally--sign a big-deal recording contract, the label doesn't recoup their investment, and the album gets shelved. At that point the band is really screwed, because they're usually locked into a three-album contract with a label that doesn't really want them any more. From there all they can do is break up (see Marvelous 3 v. Elektra for an example.)
It's true that bands make the most money from touring, so seeing them live really is the best way to support them. But remember that it's the record labels that invest in these bands in the first place to give them a shot to get out to the world. If everyone is downloading mp3s for free and no one is buying CDs, a record label isn't going to give the next band the chance to make it in the first place. Or that band who put out a phenomenal debut CD might not get the chance to make another one.
One more example: A friend in the industry told me that the Jimmy Eat World's Dreamworks debut Bleed American (which was unfortunately retitled after 9/11--but I won't get into that now) sold over 1.3 million copies, certifying it platinum. Sounds great, right? Well, the label hired a research group to take some polls and figure out exactly how many people actually had a copy of the album, whether it was purchased, downloaded, copied or whatever. They discovered that something like four million copies were out there. That's a pretty big difference in the eyes of the record company, and you can bet when it came time for the next record, Jimmy Eat World didn't get the same recording budget or care from the label as another artist who sold four million records.
Buying an artist's CD supports that artist, whether you're buying it from an unsigned band at their live show or from a big box retailer. Even if the artist only makes a dime from your $16 purchase, that other $15.90 tells the record label that it's worthwhile for them to keep putting out CDs for that artist. And to me, I'm willing to pay that money if it means the bands I like will get to keep making more music.
I never saw Firefly, but Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorite books. The trailers for Serenity haven't done much to get me interested in seeing it, nor has the marketing blitz they've tried to shove down my Tivo. Either the marketroids who put together the trailers are totally incompetent (quite likely), or else I might just end up disagreeing with OSC on this one (also likely.)
Either way, now I'm interested enough to find out more.
Strange! I rented Brazil via Netflix a few months ago, so I just checked to see if it was still there. You're correct--it doesn't show up anywhere in their catalog, and what's more interesting is that it was also removed from my rental history!
Similarly, I've had movies in my rental Queue that got moved to the "Saved" section later on, as if Netflix stopped carrying a particular title or ran out of stock. There never seems to be any notice of why this happens... I wonder what's going on?
Next-best tip: Use F5 and F6 for quick-n-easy converting to Hex and back (assuming scientific mode)
Sweet, thanks! That's way easier than going back and forth to click the little radio buttons. Though, still only slightly easier than it would have been for me to click the 'View' menu and find out the keyboard shortcuts myself.
btw... since when did/. start requiring the script-busting image recognition to post a comment?
I see a lot of comments about the memory footprint that Firefox occupies. I used to worry about that too, until I discovered that Firefox dynamically allocates memory usage depending on how much you have available. So try not to get hung up on how much RAM Firefox seems to be sucking up, because chances are it's only taking from what's available. I noticed this in practice when I added another 256MB of RAM to my system and Firefox's mem usage grew accordingly.
Damn, you got hosed by the DeathStar too? I think I lost at least two of the 30GB IBM drives I had. I forget which manufacturing plant they were from but they clearly had some quality issues there. I did have a few other 30GB Deskstars in machines at work, and those seem to have survived nicely. Still, after losing enough personal data TWICE, I won't touch another IBM drive ever again.
Funny thing is I can download a ton of movies... rr.com's usenet feed has it all.
Shhhhhh!!!
Dude, keep it down! Didn't you know that the [RI|MP]AA hasn't caught on to alt.binaries yet? Just keep your mouth shut and keep your newsreader chugging along, and everything will be okay...
The new 3.0 release of the excellent Ultimate Boot CD has Ettercap included with the INSERT live CD. If you're a Windows user, it's an easy way to boot into Linux and try it out without having to worry about compiling and what not.
Pentax Optio s4, s4i, s40 and Casio Exilim Z40 - all are identical under the skin, with the only difference being the case, batteries and (slight difference) the firmware.
Actually, the Pentax S4i has a larger LCD display than the S4 and S40 (1.8" vs. 1.6".) The only other real difference is the firmware change that allows you record unlimited length.AVI's (as long as you have space on your SD card)--though there may be a physical difference to handle the additional memory needed for continued video streaming.
The obvious difference in the S40 is the slightly bigger size to accomodate the AA batteries, but that's to serve a demand from people who don't want a camera with a proprietary battery. I haven't seen the Casio Z40 in person but if I remember the review correctly it's comparable to the Optio S4.
Anyway, they are all fabulous cameras--I've had my S4i for about a month and a half and I love it. Before that I used a Sony Cybershot U20 for a few years and prior to that a Kodak DC290. The Pentax is by far the best all-around (image quality, size, features) digital camera I've seen yet.
The incredibly funny standup comic Mike Birbiglia had a joke in his routine about that. It went something like this (paraphrased):
"I was watching TV the other day, and I saw a commercial that said downloading music from the internet was like walking into a store and stealing a candy bar. So I got to thinking, someone should take this to the next level.... if I could download
candy bars from the internet, I'd be on Twixster all day!"
The guy is really friggin' funny. Check out his site for more good stuff:
And while a search for 'Microsoft IIS' brings up over 800 hits, it's returning pages that contain either 'Microsoft' or 'IIS':
Document count: microsoft (839) iis (81) microsoft iis (28)
The results are totally skewed because of all the pages regarding advisories for Internet Explorer, Outlook, and so on. A more accurate comparison would be to query just 'IIS,' which returns around 80 documents.
Not that I believe IIS is inherently more secure than Apache, but I had to point out what I felt was a pretty big hole in your theory.
So iTMS and CD Baby absolutely rocks for an independent artist. It's almost definitely better than going the conventional route of getting a major label to press CDs and promote you.
Almost definitely better? So which is it, almost or definitely?
Either way, it's a little presumptuous to say that online distribution through CDBaby is better than a major label deal. I've dealt with Derek at CDBaby and he is a super guy providing a fabulous service, but it's really not a substitute for what a major label can do for a band. Sure, people can buy your CD online or download through iTMS, but how do they find out about your band in the first place? It's one thing for established artists that already have national and worldwide followings, but for bands building up on the underground, the major label can be crucial in bringing them to the next level.
Online distribution is nice, but it's more important to also have your CDs available in stores across the country. And while you can turn on some new fans through mp3's and online radio, FM radio and the ClearChannel monopoly are still the kings of getting your music out to the masses. That's not to mention the financial backing the label can provide, since someone has to pay your booking agent, publicist, manager, and so on.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a huge change in the model for breaking a band. But to say that CD Baby and iTMS is "definitely" better than the old way... well, that's going a little too far.
HOWEVER, if you come bearing A&W Sparkling Vanilla Cream Soda, I will greet you at the border myself.
No way, are you telling me that Canadians are hard up for A&W cream soda? And here I am, stuck in the USA with a massive craving for the pink Crush cream soda (aka soda mousse), and I have no way to get it! I think we need to set up some sort of international cream soda trade program.
Great post. Yours was the first that I saw that touched on the relative fullness of the theatre:
They mentioned that most theaters are only 20% full. Makes sense, as most people can't make showings at 2 in the afternoon on a work day. But regardless of how cheap tickets are people still can't make the showings.
I was just talking about this with my roommate... about how the movie experience is that much worse when the theater is full. I mean, I love seeing a movie on the big screen, but I hate sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with some asshole who can't figure out how to turn off his cell phone ringer. Especially where I live now in the city, the people love to shout at the characters on the screen ("You go, GIRL!") and throw stuff now and again. And these are grown adults...I think the last time I threw M&Ms at the screen I was in 7th grade and there was nothing else to do besides hang out at the mall. But I digress.
So yeah, it's a lot more enjoyable to see a movie at 5:30 on a Tuesday, when there are five other people in the theater and you can actually see the picture in peace. (And you can put your feet up too, gotta love the stadium seating.)
So what I'm saying is that even if it does mean paying a little less, I'd rather not go to a theater that's full all the time. Maybe I'm part of the minority here, but I just can't see this Easycinema being popular enough to support itself under their plan. I mean, I'm freaking dying to see Matrix Reloaded, but I'm willing to wait a little longer until after the crowds die down. After all, we waited what, three years since the last one?
I will admit though, there hasn't been another movie since the Matrix that got me doing kung-fu on the way out to the parking lot. And air guitaring Rage Against the Machine songs. My friends hated me for weeks.
Okay, next post starts after these important words:
Slashdot Mirror
2) Instead of cheap earbuds, invest in some good IEMs. Yes, it is going to run you $100-300. Deal with it. If you can drop hundreds on a iPod, you can drop hundreds on good phones to go with it.
Agreed that good isolation headphones will let you listen at a much safer volume level. But there is no need to spend tons on pro-quality phones if you just want something that's going to block out the background noise better. Check out Koss "The Plug" or "Sparkplug" model--they're under $12 at Amazon and sound much, much better than most cheap headphones. They've easily given me the best bang-for-the-buck on any audio gear I've purchased over the years.
Sounds like the little Gremlins bit that SomethingAwful pulled on SecondLife.
I've never even played the game, but I found this absolutely hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et1Qjyq3onM
Your comment reminds of something I heard Jon Brion tell years ago at one of his regular Friday night shows at Largo in Los Angeles.
To paraphrase, Brion said that we could destroy every bit of evidence that the Beatles ever existed--every record, piece of sheet music, CD, radio archive, photograph, movie--anything that represented any portion of their work. We could destroy all that, and still, in a few hundred years, anyone you stopped on the street would still be able to sing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." Because even without any physical evidence of the Beatles' existence, they are now so ingrained in our culture that they are part of the human DNA and exist in every one of us at a cellular level.
Now try stopping that with the DMCA...
Interesting... I always took that joke as a shot at the 2000 U.S. Presidential election. Specifically, going after the folks who complained that the votes in Florida shouldn't be recounted.
Okay, I'm dying to know... what's the better way?
(Please don't say it's velcro.)
Thanks for the suggestion--I added the Firefly DVD set to the top of my Netflix queue. If the first disc gets me hooked, I'll continue with the series. I just hope I can get through them before Serenity finishes its theatrical run.
I hear this excuse all the time from people who try to justify (illegal) mp3 downloads--"the record labels rip off the artists anyway, so why should I support them?" To some degree, I can begin to understand how one might believe that enough to overcome the moral dilemma of stealing music. Sure, if the labels are stealing from the artists, why shouldn't you feel OK about stealing from the labels? Especially when you'll support the artist by going to see them live and buying a t-shirt at the show, right?
The problem is that when a band isn't selling records, a record label has little incentive to support them in the future. An artist can show overwhelming popularity, but without the album sales to back it up, why would a label invest more money in promoting them any further? I've seen it a dozen times with bands I know personally--sign a big-deal recording contract, the label doesn't recoup their investment, and the album gets shelved. At that point the band is really screwed, because they're usually locked into a three-album contract with a label that doesn't really want them any more. From there all they can do is break up (see Marvelous 3 v. Elektra for an example.)
It's true that bands make the most money from touring, so seeing them live really is the best way to support them. But remember that it's the record labels that invest in these bands in the first place to give them a shot to get out to the world. If everyone is downloading mp3s for free and no one is buying CDs, a record label isn't going to give the next band the chance to make it in the first place. Or that band who put out a phenomenal debut CD might not get the chance to make another one.
One more example: A friend in the industry told me that the Jimmy Eat World's Dreamworks debut Bleed American (which was unfortunately retitled after 9/11--but I won't get into that now) sold over 1.3 million copies, certifying it platinum. Sounds great, right? Well, the label hired a research group to take some polls and figure out exactly how many people actually had a copy of the album, whether it was purchased, downloaded, copied or whatever. They discovered that something like four million copies were out there. That's a pretty big difference in the eyes of the record company, and you can bet when it came time for the next record, Jimmy Eat World didn't get the same recording budget or care from the label as another artist who sold four million records.
Buying an artist's CD supports that artist, whether you're buying it from an unsigned band at their live show or from a big box retailer. Even if the artist only makes a dime from your $16 purchase, that other $15.90 tells the record label that it's worthwhile for them to keep putting out CDs for that artist. And to me, I'm willing to pay that money if it means the bands I like will get to keep making more music.
-leigh
I never saw Firefly, but Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorite books. The trailers for Serenity haven't done much to get me interested in seeing it, nor has the marketing blitz they've tried to shove down my Tivo. Either the marketroids who put together the trailers are totally incompetent (quite likely), or else I might just end up disagreeing with OSC on this one (also likely.)
Either way, now I'm interested enough to find out more.
Similarly, I've had movies in my rental Queue that got moved to the "Saved" section later on, as if Netflix stopped carrying a particular title or ran out of stock. There never seems to be any notice of why this happens... I wonder what's going on?
Sweet, thanks! That's way easier than going back and forth to click the little radio buttons. Though, still only slightly easier than it would have been for me to click the 'View' menu and find out the keyboard shortcuts myself.
btw... since when did /. start requiring the script-busting image recognition to post a comment?
I see a lot of comments about the memory footprint that Firefox occupies. I used to worry about that too, until I discovered that Firefox dynamically allocates memory usage depending on how much you have available. So try not to get hung up on how much RAM Firefox seems to be sucking up, because chances are it's only taking from what's available. I noticed this in practice when I added another 256MB of RAM to my system and Firefox's mem usage grew accordingly.
Check out this thread for more: Memory leak ? - MozillaZine Forums
Damn, you got hosed by the DeathStar too? I think I lost at least two of the 30GB IBM drives I had. I forget which manufacturing plant they were from but they clearly had some quality issues there. I did have a few other 30GB Deskstars in machines at work, and those seem to have survived nicely. Still, after losing enough personal data TWICE, I won't touch another IBM drive ever again.
That's ridiculous. You do nothing but play God, and I think your octo-parrot would agree.
[points to a creature with the body and head of a parrot, but with tentacles instead of wings and legs]
Polly: Awk! Polly shouldn't be!
(credit: snpp)
Here's another "hell yeah" for you. Funny as anything I've read on /. in a long time. Keep 'em coming!
"...because I don't want ass prints on my shiny new door!"
Shhhhhh!!!
Dude, keep it down! Didn't you know that the [RI|MP]AA hasn't caught on to alt.binaries yet? Just keep your mouth shut and keep your newsreader chugging along, and everything will be okay...
The new 3.0 release of the excellent Ultimate Boot CD has Ettercap included with the INSERT live CD. If you're a Windows user, it's an easy way to boot into Linux and try it out without having to worry about compiling and what not.
Pentax Optio s4, s4i, s40 and Casio Exilim Z40 - all are identical under the skin, with the only difference being the case, batteries and (slight difference) the firmware.
.AVI's (as long as you have space on your SD card)--though there may be a physical difference to handle the additional memory needed for continued video streaming.
Actually, the Pentax S4i has a larger LCD display than the S4 and S40 (1.8" vs. 1.6".) The only other real difference is the firmware change that allows you record unlimited length
The obvious difference in the S40 is the slightly bigger size to accomodate the AA batteries, but that's to serve a demand from people who don't want a camera with a proprietary battery. I haven't seen the Casio Z40 in person but if I remember the review correctly it's comparable to the Optio S4.
Pentax Optio S4/S4i/S40 Comparison Chart
Anyway, they are all fabulous cameras--I've had my S4i for about a month and a half and I love it. Before that I used a Sony Cybershot U20 for a few years and prior to that a Kodak DC290. The Pentax is by far the best all-around (image quality, size, features) digital camera I've seen yet.
-leigh
http://www.birbigs.com
Your search query is flawed.
A query for 'Apache' indeed returns 180 results:
Document count: Apache (180)
And while a search for 'Microsoft IIS' brings up over 800 hits, it's returning pages that contain either 'Microsoft' or 'IIS':
Document count: microsoft (839) iis (81) microsoft iis (28)
The results are totally skewed because of all the pages regarding advisories for Internet Explorer, Outlook, and so on. A more accurate comparison would be to query just 'IIS,' which returns around 80 documents.
Not that I believe IIS is inherently more secure than Apache, but I had to point out what I felt was a pretty big hole in your theory.
-leigh
Comcast states, "if you are using service more than the average".
Well, wouldn't half of all users be over the average?
I recall something about a curve-shaped bell...
-leigh
Almost definitely better? So which is it, almost or definitely?
Either way, it's a little presumptuous to say that online distribution through CDBaby is better than a major label deal. I've dealt with Derek at CDBaby and he is a super guy providing a fabulous service, but it's really not a substitute for what a major label can do for a band. Sure, people can buy your CD online or download through iTMS, but how do they find out about your band in the first place? It's one thing for established artists that already have national and worldwide followings, but for bands building up on the underground, the major label can be crucial in bringing them to the next level.
Online distribution is nice, but it's more important to also have your CDs available in stores across the country. And while you can turn on some new fans through mp3's and online radio, FM radio and the ClearChannel monopoly are still the kings of getting your music out to the masses. That's not to mention the financial backing the label can provide, since someone has to pay your booking agent, publicist, manager, and so on.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a huge change in the model for breaking a band. But to say that CD Baby and iTMS is "definitely" better than the old way... well, that's going a little too far.
just my thoughts-
leigh
Bad CDs also make excellent coasters.
Yes, but busted hard drive platters make much better mirrors.
HOWEVER, if you come bearing A&W Sparkling Vanilla Cream Soda, I will greet you at the border myself.
No way, are you telling me that Canadians are hard up for A&W cream soda? And here I am, stuck in the USA with a massive craving for the pink Crush cream soda (aka soda mousse), and I have no way to get it! I think we need to set up some sort of international cream soda trade program.
Great post. Yours was the first that I saw that touched on the relative fullness of the theatre:
They mentioned that most theaters are only 20% full. Makes sense, as most people can't make showings at 2 in the afternoon on a work day. But regardless of how cheap tickets are people still can't make the showings.
I was just talking about this with my roommate... about how the movie experience is that much worse when the theater is full. I mean, I love seeing a movie on the big screen, but I hate sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with some asshole who can't figure out how to turn off his cell phone ringer. Especially where I live now in the city, the people love to shout at the characters on the screen ("You go, GIRL!") and throw stuff now and again. And these are grown adults...I think the last time I threw M&Ms at the screen I was in 7th grade and there was nothing else to do besides hang out at the mall. But I digress.
So yeah, it's a lot more enjoyable to see a movie at 5:30 on a Tuesday, when there are five other people in the theater and you can actually see the picture in peace. (And you can put your feet up too, gotta love the stadium seating.)
So what I'm saying is that even if it does mean paying a little less, I'd rather not go to a theater that's full all the time. Maybe I'm part of the minority here, but I just can't see this Easycinema being popular enough to support itself under their plan. I mean, I'm freaking dying to see Matrix Reloaded, but I'm willing to wait a little longer until after the crowds die down. After all, we waited what, three years since the last one?
I will admit though, there hasn't been another movie since the Matrix that got me doing kung-fu on the way out to the parking lot. And air guitaring Rage Against the Machine songs. My friends hated me for weeks.
Okay, next post starts after these important words: