Rodger Dodger, free Toronto, and more Apple music
It's late, and I should be sleeping. Kate watched Rodger Dodger last night with Anna, while I was making pickled eggs for the show. With the Samples. All the Samples. They're still in the camera, but will be up some day soon.
Right. So, as I was saying, I watched Rodger Dodger. And lots of the Special Features, too. A good movie, in all. I like "shaky camera" action, kind of like NYPD Blue, with fast cuts and all hand-held action. Basic plot is 16-year old visits uncle in New York for training in being a "ladies man". We find out that the boy is more mature in his interactions with women than the man. Very interesting. Lots of interesting dialogue, including a discussion over the proper plural for a part of the female anatomy...
I'm going to try and fly to Toronto for free with Kate (ssshhh! don't tell Kate! via Boing Boing). No flights going this weekend, and next weekend Jessie is coming, so it'll have to be weekend after that.
Some people say Emusic already gets it. Other people are amazed at how Apple is getting micropayments to work.
Yes, using AAC is a type of lock-in, as is the owning-a-Mac-that-can-run-iTunes4 angle -- no excuses. So, Apple, please offer a choice of formats, including a "you'll have to wait because it's uncompressed" format for non-lossy types.
Usability is a big factor. For everything. Clicking through Emusic does not feel right. I don't associate music and a pleasurable browsing experience with that monstrosity of a website. But, but... it gives you a whack of MP3s. For low prices. It is, in fact, so low that it would almost be worth it (other than bandwidth charges), to just stream/download new stuff constantly. Instead of radio or your own collection.
So, back to my stream of consciousness. Using iTunes4 and browsing the "music store" is very similar to listening to your own music. Easy. Clean interface. I keep thinking that the web/web applications can/will approach the usability of a true application. But we all can tell the difference between response time - click, load, back, etc. etc. - and an actual application. This is one area where I want a Flash app. Or, Java Web Start, but nobody seems to understand that...
Well, bed time. My mom is reading right now, as was Evan a moment ago. Hi guys!
Comments
the dual 550 and the ASUS terminator
I heard the dual 550 was a major noisemaker, and have heard the ASUS terminiator PIII is whisper quiet, not so with the Terminator P4.
Is yours a Terminator PIII? Anyone know where I can find a PIII?
My Asus
is a Terminator K7 (1.5GHz 130nm Athlon XP) with 1GB RAM and 200GB WD.
The noise level is entirely dependent on the overall system power consumption being low enough to keep internal temperatures acceptable while the variable case fan stays at a low RPM, otherwise it roars. You may not be able to do this with a P4 mobo unless it's running at an unproductively slow speed.
This cooling/noise tradeoff applies to most systems.
btw, I'm running MSDOS, NT4, Win2K, WinXP, Mandrake9 and Redhat9 on this system in a multiboot configuration using NTLDR.
I had several PowerMacs to choose from that time, they were all similarly noisy, so I took the quickest one. Couldn't stand it by the 2nd day. eMacs aren't bad, but the fan in the iMac blows straight out the top immovably mere inches in front of your face and is irritating as w(h)ell.
Windows Media...
"...in the media seems to live in reality"...
sounds true consider the specs above. I remember reading a few weeks ago of how MS is working with a theatre chain that specializes in independent cinema to digitally distribute movies. Sounded like a great idea.
On the other hand Greg PCs are noisy, noisy, very noisy, disturbing unlike Macs.
beg to differ...
I couldn't stand the roar of the dual 550 PowerMac I briefly had 2 yrs ago. My Asus Terminator OTOH is inobtrusive from 5ft, half the size, many times faster even with only 1 CPU, and less than a third the cost.
WM9 for cinemas and HD-DVD. Many engineers who've done the tech evals have told me WM9 has the best lossy audio & video codecs in the biz, at low rate and broadband rates, all wrapped in comprehensive variety of authoring and distribution schemes. Adoption seems limited mainly by people's reluctance to deal with MSFT.
"...nobody in the media seems to live in reality"... consider Iraq.
doomed-9
A Slashdot story points to an article at ripper site Doom9 wherein author tries to test MPEG4-type codecs. Unfortunately, while his tests reflects a common usage of these PC software codecs, in engineering terms the results are pretty meaningless because he used DVDs as source rather than an uncompressed test signal. (The MPEG2 vid on DVDs is already compressed 10-20 times from the original and thus much information has already been removed.) His choice of scenes for the tests are exceedingly naive and fail to contain image characteristics which exercise key algorithms in vid codecs. Plus it's an amateur's mistake to draw his overly broad conclusions from these results.
The publication of ill-informed and ill-designed tests only confuses, and as usual for the topic of video, the Slashdot discussion is no better informed. It makes me pine for the old days when we'd have subject-matter-experts moderating Compuserve forums and Usenet newsgroups who can then set discussions on their proper paths. So if you want A/V info, go to someplace like AVS Forum instead, where the folks are more educated in these topics.
excuse me for mentioning this again
but nobody in the media seems to live in reality:
In Windows Media Player 9, there's been a music download service operating since the fall! It supports WM9 (by all reports a codec superior to AAC), a/v streaming, CD burning, playlisting, library & jukeboxing, DRM, and $0.99 micropayments to buy songs.
WMP9 ALSO has 3rd-party plugins to enable MP3 ripping and conversions, tag editor for WMA & MP3 files which does scrolling lyrics, skins, visualizations, and a cross-fading mixer. Plus it does WM9 video and you can buy & play the 5.1 surround sound versions of songs.
Need I say that MUCH better sound cards are available for PCs which allow you to enjoy the music you purchased online at higher fidelity than possible on a Mac? You can even use the SPDIF optical output to drive an external stereo system for the big sound.