I have approximately 1000CDs that I carry on my 80GB Neuros in OGG format and they sound just fine to me.
I'll continue to buy CD's because there is only one electronic music store I will do business with, and that's eMusic.com. They are a great service with a great price, but since they believe in giving value to the customer, they don't use DRM and the most labels won't play ball with them. While the majority of the music I get these days is from eMusic, if they don't carry it, I'll buy the CD.
As far as iTunes, Napster and the rest go, their DRM is a pain in the butt and their selection is pathetic. eMusic doesn't have a good selection if you're looking for something specific, but if you explore what they do have, there is a tremendous wealth of great stuff waiting to be discovered. I have the highest subscription you can buy and I usually go through my downloads practically the day they get refreshed and have dozens and dozens of albums queued up for the future.
In the meantime, CD's aren't going anywhere for those of us who are actually interested in music.
It's not picky, it's fundamental English grammar. I'm sure it was a typo, because I do the same thing sometimes and I certainly know the difference.
It's more a sign of the pervasive lack of proofreading. Editing is a task that's been almost completely ignored on the Internet. I mean, there's too much information to put out to make sure you typed it in correctly! Heck even print editors are too busy making sure the material adheres to their political agenda or contains enough smut to bother checking spelling or grammar.
There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea that just because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with guaranteeing such a profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is supported by neither
statute or common law. Neither corporations or individuals have the right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.
- Robert Heinlein, "Life Line", 1939
I can see why they maybe don't want license all their stuff the same way: Someone will figure out a way to make money off of it.
While that doesn't hurt C-SPAN directly, by retaining full control over their information, they can make sure people don't go around selling it.
Of course, this is completely a guess. I think C-SPAN does a great job and I listen to them on the radion a lot. Backing down was the right thing to do, it's nice to see an organization, even if it's not a for-profit business, recognize that technology has changed the way we distribute media.
Now if we could only get the **AA companies to stop trying to fight the future and embrace it. All it takes is a business model that can be stated without the words "extort" or "violate" (or "screw").
Based on my experience, the most dangerous driving distraction is talking to my wife when she's in the car. That is far more distracting to me than talking on the phone or messing with the stereo or fumbling with my Mountain Dew. I guiess they need to ban my wife. Of course, I have an excellent driving record, but that won't stop lawmakers from passing so many regulations no person could ever know them all.
Of course, government is all about burdening people to gain negligible improvements while completely ignoring the cause of 99% of the problem. It's also all about appearing to address problems to the most ignorant, regardless of what is actually accomplished.
I think our whole society is auditioning for a Darwin award.
Seriously, I suspect that this would be useful for the same kind of people who would buy Elements or PaintShopPro (I own both), not professionals who would (and should) buy the full-blown package.
Although Adobe often has a dismal record with creating easy to use software, this could be a very exciting development and another long overdue nail in Microsoft's monopoly's coffin.
I got nothing against MS making software, some of their stuff is good, but they should compete fairly with other companies, and the lengths they go to in order to avoid that shows that even they realize they can't do so well competing on quality.
DRM isn't about creating opportunities for new business models, it's all about trying to breathe life into the rotting corpse of an archaic business model that became totally obsolete a decade ago.
It's all about trying to maintain a monopoly. It's about trying to avoid a changing marketplace and a changing customjer basse. The Internet broke their monopoly on distribution. It's breaking the monopoly on marketing and even huge corporate consolidation can't prevail against freedom of information. It's breaking the monopoly of choice, by offering alternatives to the mass-produced flavorless sludge to comprises 98% of popular media. Controlling every radio station in the country and limiting each to absurdly narrow programming hasn't secured it's future. It's a bullet in the head.
The media companies resent having to work for their money. They resent having to compete. They resent the fact that technology has transformed their industry and the marketplace, and they hate their customers for expecting more value rather than less for their hard-earned money.
DRM is their war against the future and that war was lost before it was even declared.
>Why do these companies keep purposely find new ways to piss off their (potential) customers?
Because until the last 10-15 years the media companies had a monopoly on distribution of content. Now they don't, and the customer is the only one they can take it out on because their 19th century business model no longer makes sense. It's vindictiveness, pure and simple. They resent the fact that they have to work harder to get the same money they used to be able to get for doing virtually nothing but putting the media on CDs or tapes or laserdiscs and shipping them off to the stores.
If nothing else, "it's" for "it has" is extremely common in usage... and the whole point of contractions is to represent how people speak, rather than something grammatical.
and guess what section of highway has the least accidents and fatalities?
The section with no intersections and straight uninterrupted stretches of road?
Correlation is not causation.
The problem with this legislation is that cell phones aren't the real problem, bad drivers are the real problem, but since our economy seems to require we rubber stamp driving applications, there will always be plenty of incompetent drivers to be distracted to catastrophe by cell phones or any of the dozens of other things drivers have to (or choose to) contend with while on the road.
Besides, I would guess that attractive women in sports cars are far more dangerous than cell phones... not themselves, but for all the distracted men around them. :-)
I would bet the UAW is at least as much at fault as the car companies themselves. After all, the unions have largely superceded their origins as a means of protecting the rights of workers and become, along with the Federal government, nothing but another giant leech sucking the blood of American productivity.
You know, we've spent 60 years trying to make software more and more power and useful, and it seems these days, the primary emphasis in software and hardware development is to literally make products that DON'T work.
Let's face it, the software and hardware industry has a hard enough time making things that just work, adding in this additional layer of complexity is ruining the usability of consumer electronics.
I wonder how many companies will be ruined and how back the economy will be affected before they finally figure out that deliberately breaking their products isn't good business.
On the post: Counting Crows' Keyboard Player Discusses The Music Industry
Re: Re: Where Do Some People Get Their Ideas
This is the single most ignorant statement about the music industry ever uttered in the history of mankind.
On the post: The Death Of The CD Is Greatly Exaggerated
Re:
I'll continue to buy CD's because there is only one electronic music store I will do business with, and that's eMusic.com. They are a great service with a great price, but since they believe in giving value to the customer, they don't use DRM and the most labels won't play ball with them. While the majority of the music I get these days is from eMusic, if they don't carry it, I'll buy the CD.
As far as iTunes, Napster and the rest go, their DRM is a pain in the butt and their selection is pathetic. eMusic doesn't have a good selection if you're looking for something specific, but if you explore what they do have, there is a tremendous wealth of great stuff waiting to be discovered. I have the highest subscription you can buy and I usually go through my downloads practically the day they get refreshed and have dozens and dozens of albums queued up for the future.
In the meantime, CD's aren't going anywhere for those of us who are actually interested in music.
On the post: Is Describing The Sporting Event You're Watching Copyright Infringement? How About Animating It?
Re: Your
It's more a sign of the pervasive lack of proofreading. Editing is a task that's been almost completely ignored on the Internet. I mean, there's too much information to put out to make sure you typed it in correctly! Heck even print editors are too busy making sure the material adheres to their political agenda or contains enough smut to bother checking spelling or grammar.
On the post: What Was It The Entertainment Industry Said About Not Killing Off New Consumer Devices?
Heinlein said it almost 70 years ago...
statute or common law. Neither corporations or individuals have the right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.
- Robert Heinlein, "Life Line", 1939
On the post: What Makes Griefers Grief?
Re:
On the post: C-SPAN Wisely Removing Restrictions On Its Content
I can see why...
While that doesn't hurt C-SPAN directly, by retaining full control over their information, they can make sure people don't go around selling it.
Of course, this is completely a guess. I think C-SPAN does a great job and I listen to them on the radion a lot. Backing down was the right thing to do, it's nice to see an organization, even if it's not a for-profit business, recognize that technology has changed the way we distribute media.
Now if we could only get the **AA companies to stop trying to fight the future and embrace it. All it takes is a business model that can be stated without the words "extort" or "violate" (or "screw").
On the post: Brace Yourself For Laws Banning Laptop Use While Driving
The most dangerous distraction...
Of course, government is all about burdening people to gain negligible improvements while completely ignoring the cause of 99% of the problem. It's also all about appearing to address problems to the most ignorant, regardless of what is actually accomplished.
I think our whole society is auditioning for a Darwin award.
On the post: Adobe To Offer Ad-Supported, Web-Based Version Of Photoshop
Re: Ablowbe
Seriously, I suspect that this would be useful for the same kind of people who would buy Elements or PaintShopPro (I own both), not professionals who would (and should) buy the full-blown package.
Although Adobe often has a dismal record with creating easy to use software, this could be a very exciting development and another long overdue nail in Microsoft's monopoly's coffin.
I got nothing against MS making software, some of their stuff is good, but they should compete fairly with other companies, and the lengths they go to in order to avoid that shows that even they realize they can't do so well competing on quality.
On the post: BitTorrent, EMI, And The MPAA All Misunderstanding DRM In The Same Day
It's all about trying to maintain a monopoly. It's about trying to avoid a changing marketplace and a changing customjer basse. The Internet broke their monopoly on distribution. It's breaking the monopoly on marketing and even huge corporate consolidation can't prevail against freedom of information. It's breaking the monopoly of choice, by offering alternatives to the mass-produced flavorless sludge to comprises 98% of popular media. Controlling every radio station in the country and limiting each to absurdly narrow programming hasn't secured it's future. It's a bullet in the head.
The media companies resent having to work for their money. They resent having to compete. They resent the fact that technology has transformed their industry and the marketplace, and they hate their customers for expecting more value rather than less for their hard-earned money.
DRM is their war against the future and that war was lost before it was even declared.
Rick (massive collector of legal, DRM-free music)
On the post: Only The Record Labels Could Think That Teasers For Music Videos Is A Good Idea
Re: Holy Stupidity Batman!
Because until the last 10-15 years the media companies had a monopoly on distribution of content. Now they don't, and the customer is the only one they can take it out on because their 19th century business model no longer makes sense. It's vindictiveness, pure and simple. They resent the fact that they have to work harder to get the same money they used to be able to get for doing virtually nothing but putting the media on CDs or tapes or laserdiscs and shipping them off to the stores.
On the post: Connecticut Government Decides To Make Things Easy For Identity Thieves
Our collective stupidity...
On the post: Three Root Servers Knocked Out By Attacks; Internet Keeps On Ticking
Re: h4x0rs
And the 9/11 terrorists were just testing the structural integrity of our skyscrapers.
On the post: NFL Wants To Remind You That Having People Over To Watch The Super Bowl On A Big Screen Is Copyright Infringement
I'll have to stick with not watching it because I just don't care.
On the post: World's Oldest (Sort Of) Newspaper Goes Internet-Only
Re:
If nothing else, "it's" for "it has" is extremely common in usage... and the whole point of contractions is to represent how people speak, rather than something grammatical.
On the post: Talking On A Cell Phone Isn't The Only Way To Distract A Driver
Re: Cell Phone Distraction
On the post: Super Bowl Ads Get Their Own Sponsors
Re:
On the post: Why You Can't Go To Your Local Newspaper For Restaurant Reviews
Re:
If you had to register just to look at MySpace or read a blog, then your comparison would actually make sense.
On the post: Company Gets Patent On Digital Downloads; Sues Everyone
Wow given the level of discourse around here...
On the post: Ford Makes The BSOD A Model Option
Re: Death to American car companies?
On the post: Newfangled DVD Copy Protection Apparently Cracked; Now The Real Fun Starts
The end of useful computers...
Let's face it, the software and hardware industry has a hard enough time making things that just work, adding in this additional layer of complexity is ruining the usability of consumer electronics.
I wonder how many companies will be ruined and how back the economy will be affected before they finally figure out that deliberately breaking their products isn't good business.
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