Thursday, March 23, 2006
Found A Cool Little Windows App Today
It's not as cool as the network locations management built into OS X, but it'll make having to use Windows at work all day long suck just a little bit less- Network Change TCP/IP. Also, it's not the most imaginitive name in the world, but it is free and the source code is available (but you'd have to have a copy of VB6 to use it).
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Why I Hate and Don't Care About DRM
DRM, or Digital Rights Management is one of the many scourges of the current state of the internet and battles over intellectual property. It's why I don't regularly buy tracks from Apple's iTunes Music Store even though I live in a household with 2 iPods and 3 Macintosh computers running iTunes. I just hate the idea of paying for something that may someday for reasons beyond my control just suddenly refuse to work any more.
Who knows? Maybe one day, like in the wet dreams of all those Windows fanboy idiots that think that Microsoft is actually innovative and don't realize just how much more badly their DOS 8.x PCs would suck if Microsoft hadn't had Apple to copy, Apple will go out of business. Or maybe for some unforseen legal reason due to legislation or licensing with the music business, Apple will stop making iTunes or they will release an update that doesn't support songs sold now under their current Fair Play technology (read the license agreement, I'm sure you've already agreed that they can basically do anything and that you have no guarantees whatsoever) and maybe then one day in the not too distant future all those billions of encrypted, copied protected songs that people have been buying from the iTunes Music Store will simply become unplayable? Or, mabye there will be some complicated, illegal or quasi-legal and messy process people have to go through to unencrypt their songs to be able to use them again. All the vinyl afficionados of the world will be laughing at the rest of us on that day.
That's why I still mostly buy CDs (and almost always used, can't stand the prices of new CDs) and then rip them to AAC files myself. However, I had this experience last Friday that changed my thinking on this a bit. For some weird reason, I really wanted to hear some early Japan. And, I mean early Japan- I wanted one of their butt shaking glam rock releases from 1978. It was a desire that verged on a need. It was the kind of hunger that if it was sexual could do damage to one's marital fidelity. I thought about driving over to a local CD shop to look for a used copy and realized that what I wanted was probably not going to be found used. I thought about looking for a new copy and again realized that I probably wouldn't find it and if I did, I did not want to pay $16.99 or $18.99 for a 30 year old recording that should by all rights cost $7.99 or less.
So, I checked on line. I checked with the Russians (www.allofmp3.com) and with the iTunes Music Store. Now, allofmp3.com has Japan's 1978 release "Adolescent Sex" and it would have only cost around $1.70 or so to buy from them as 192Kbs AAC files with no DRM. As far as I can tell, buying from these folks, while insanely cheap in dollars is a fair price in rubles and is also legal under international copyright law. However, I could not log in. And, as I've explained I REALLY wanted, no, NEEDED to hear this album. Well, the iTunes Music Store has it too. It's $9.90 for 128Kbps AAC files that have DRM.
So, reluctantly at first and then with gusto and about 3 clicks of the track pad on my iBook the files were happily depositing themselves into my iTunes music library and with much less effort than it takes to download from the russkies. Within minutes I was happily listening to David Sylvian's nasaly snarl on songs like "Wish You Were Black" and that killer riff with the siren noise that just amuses me so at the beginning of "Lovers On Main Street". But, then, no sooner than I had started enjoying my new purchase those thoughts about how I wanted the DRM off of these tracks started nagging at me. Just knowing that those restrictions were there was lessening my enjoyment of my newly purchased music.
So, I decided to download JHymn. JHymn is a piece of freeware that I'd read about a while ago that removes DRM from music purchased from iTMS (iTunes Music Store). I read the directions on the web page and then downloaded and attempted to run it. After a few clicks here and there and letting it connect to the iTMS to download my keys, I thought I was in business, but it could not convert my DRM'ed tracks to non-DRM'ed. I started to do some reading and discovered that with the release of iTunes 6, Apple had broken JHymn. I was about to give up and then it dawned on me- why not just do the easy thing, burn the tracks to an audio CD and then re-rip them? This has been the dirty little secret with the iTMS store since the beginning. I had even tried this a few years ago to see how an AAC file purchased from iTMS would sound when converted to an MP3 in this manner. I remember that the MP3 sounded fine, but maybe a little (what I would describe for lack of a better term) "flat". But, if you didn't have the original to compare it to, you would probably never notice.
So, I burned "Adolescent Sex" to an audio CD and then I ripped the audio CD to 192Kbps AAC files and started comparing. I put on my overpriced Philips headphones and turned the volume up and started listening as intently as I could to the originals and the new DRM-less files. I went back and forth between several tracks about a dozen times and I could not hear any difference. Then, I thought, what about 128Kbps AAC files? So, I re-imported one track from the audio CD as a 128Kbps AAC and compared it to the other two versions of the same track- again, I could not tell the difference. That settled it, I threw away the 192Kbps files and re-imported the entire CD at the same bitrate and format as the DRM'ed tracks.
So, I transferred the non-DRM'ed, re-imported tracks from my iBook to the eMac that is the central music repository in the household and imported them into the iTunes library on that machine and cranked up the glam rock through the house stereo. It sounded great. I made a decision right then and there to put any other files that I've purchased (there are very few) from iTMS through this same process and to never again have DRM'ed tracks in my collection.
So, yes I hate DRM, but now I'm not worried about buying them because I believe that burning them to an audio CD and then re-importing them in the same format with the same bit rate will not result in any discernible quality loss. So, I may occasionally buy music from iTMS a bit more often, as long as Apple doesn't rain on my parade by removing this method of getting rid of the DRM.
Who knows? Maybe one day, like in the wet dreams of all those Windows fanboy idiots that think that Microsoft is actually innovative and don't realize just how much more badly their DOS 8.x PCs would suck if Microsoft hadn't had Apple to copy, Apple will go out of business. Or maybe for some unforseen legal reason due to legislation or licensing with the music business, Apple will stop making iTunes or they will release an update that doesn't support songs sold now under their current Fair Play technology (read the license agreement, I'm sure you've already agreed that they can basically do anything and that you have no guarantees whatsoever) and maybe then one day in the not too distant future all those billions of encrypted, copied protected songs that people have been buying from the iTunes Music Store will simply become unplayable? Or, mabye there will be some complicated, illegal or quasi-legal and messy process people have to go through to unencrypt their songs to be able to use them again. All the vinyl afficionados of the world will be laughing at the rest of us on that day.
That's why I still mostly buy CDs (and almost always used, can't stand the prices of new CDs) and then rip them to AAC files myself. However, I had this experience last Friday that changed my thinking on this a bit. For some weird reason, I really wanted to hear some early Japan. And, I mean early Japan- I wanted one of their butt shaking glam rock releases from 1978. It was a desire that verged on a need. It was the kind of hunger that if it was sexual could do damage to one's marital fidelity. I thought about driving over to a local CD shop to look for a used copy and realized that what I wanted was probably not going to be found used. I thought about looking for a new copy and again realized that I probably wouldn't find it and if I did, I did not want to pay $16.99 or $18.99 for a 30 year old recording that should by all rights cost $7.99 or less.
So, I checked on line. I checked with the Russians (www.allofmp3.com) and with the iTunes Music Store. Now, allofmp3.com has Japan's 1978 release "Adolescent Sex" and it would have only cost around $1.70 or so to buy from them as 192Kbs AAC files with no DRM. As far as I can tell, buying from these folks, while insanely cheap in dollars is a fair price in rubles and is also legal under international copyright law. However, I could not log in. And, as I've explained I REALLY wanted, no, NEEDED to hear this album. Well, the iTunes Music Store has it too. It's $9.90 for 128Kbps AAC files that have DRM.
So, reluctantly at first and then with gusto and about 3 clicks of the track pad on my iBook the files were happily depositing themselves into my iTunes music library and with much less effort than it takes to download from the russkies. Within minutes I was happily listening to David Sylvian's nasaly snarl on songs like "Wish You Were Black" and that killer riff with the siren noise that just amuses me so at the beginning of "Lovers On Main Street". But, then, no sooner than I had started enjoying my new purchase those thoughts about how I wanted the DRM off of these tracks started nagging at me. Just knowing that those restrictions were there was lessening my enjoyment of my newly purchased music.
So, I decided to download JHymn. JHymn is a piece of freeware that I'd read about a while ago that removes DRM from music purchased from iTMS (iTunes Music Store). I read the directions on the web page and then downloaded and attempted to run it. After a few clicks here and there and letting it connect to the iTMS to download my keys, I thought I was in business, but it could not convert my DRM'ed tracks to non-DRM'ed. I started to do some reading and discovered that with the release of iTunes 6, Apple had broken JHymn. I was about to give up and then it dawned on me- why not just do the easy thing, burn the tracks to an audio CD and then re-rip them? This has been the dirty little secret with the iTMS store since the beginning. I had even tried this a few years ago to see how an AAC file purchased from iTMS would sound when converted to an MP3 in this manner. I remember that the MP3 sounded fine, but maybe a little (what I would describe for lack of a better term) "flat". But, if you didn't have the original to compare it to, you would probably never notice.
So, I burned "Adolescent Sex" to an audio CD and then I ripped the audio CD to 192Kbps AAC files and started comparing. I put on my overpriced Philips headphones and turned the volume up and started listening as intently as I could to the originals and the new DRM-less files. I went back and forth between several tracks about a dozen times and I could not hear any difference. Then, I thought, what about 128Kbps AAC files? So, I re-imported one track from the audio CD as a 128Kbps AAC and compared it to the other two versions of the same track- again, I could not tell the difference. That settled it, I threw away the 192Kbps files and re-imported the entire CD at the same bitrate and format as the DRM'ed tracks.
So, I transferred the non-DRM'ed, re-imported tracks from my iBook to the eMac that is the central music repository in the household and imported them into the iTunes library on that machine and cranked up the glam rock through the house stereo. It sounded great. I made a decision right then and there to put any other files that I've purchased (there are very few) from iTMS through this same process and to never again have DRM'ed tracks in my collection.
So, yes I hate DRM, but now I'm not worried about buying them because I believe that burning them to an audio CD and then re-importing them in the same format with the same bit rate will not result in any discernible quality loss. So, I may occasionally buy music from iTMS a bit more often, as long as Apple doesn't rain on my parade by removing this method of getting rid of the DRM.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Allmusic.com Reviews: Two and a Half Stars
Allmusic.com is a great encyclopedia of music. As an information resource for looking up artist and band discographies and song writing credits, I would rate them 3.5 stars out of 4. They miss half a star for not doing a good job of keeping the discographies current.
However, their album review content is not so good. For that, I would only give them 2.5 stars out of 4.
Here's a case in point. On a review of Catherine Wheel's "Happy Days", the reviewer worries that fans of the bands first two releases would be confused by and unappreciative of the harder sound of this one and gives the ablum a 2.5 star rating. The first two albums are rated 3.5 stars.
This theme, of penalizing bands for daring to change their sound and explore new territory is consistent throughout the reviews on allmusic.com. However, it's a ridiculous and lazy tactic in a music reviewer. Fans often appreciate bold changes in direction in sound from artists. Critics often review things that they themselves have no interest in. Consistently assuming that a new sound from a band will just disappoint long time fans is a just a convenient way for the reviewer to not really listen to or think about the music they are reviewing.
Also, allmusic.com is not Rolling Stone circa 197x. They are not the single editorial voice of rock music with limited print resources, this is the day and age of the internet. They shouldn't hire one self important rock critic to write two paragraphs about an album.
No, what they should do instead (and no, I'm not gonna suggest a public free-for-all like amazon.com) is to run two reviews of each album. One critical (i.e. critical as in negative) and one gushing, but hopefully well written and insightful, fan review for each release.
They should also drop the star ratings. Star ratings are insanely meaningless. If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, as I believe Elvis Costello once said, then a star rating for an album is like the response you got from friends in grade school- "I like it because it's good."
By the way, "Happy Days" is a modern rock classic by a band that felt comfortable blending the textured atmospherics of their first release with the catchy rock of their 2nd release and threw in some thinking man's heavy metal for good measure. I've yet to meet a Catherine Wheel fan who didn't love it and find it liberating and refreshing. So, stick that you up your lazy college boy wannabe critic arse, Mr. Kellman.
However, their album review content is not so good. For that, I would only give them 2.5 stars out of 4.
Here's a case in point. On a review of Catherine Wheel's "Happy Days", the reviewer worries that fans of the bands first two releases would be confused by and unappreciative of the harder sound of this one and gives the ablum a 2.5 star rating. The first two albums are rated 3.5 stars.
This theme, of penalizing bands for daring to change their sound and explore new territory is consistent throughout the reviews on allmusic.com. However, it's a ridiculous and lazy tactic in a music reviewer. Fans often appreciate bold changes in direction in sound from artists. Critics often review things that they themselves have no interest in. Consistently assuming that a new sound from a band will just disappoint long time fans is a just a convenient way for the reviewer to not really listen to or think about the music they are reviewing.
Also, allmusic.com is not Rolling Stone circa 197x. They are not the single editorial voice of rock music with limited print resources, this is the day and age of the internet. They shouldn't hire one self important rock critic to write two paragraphs about an album.
No, what they should do instead (and no, I'm not gonna suggest a public free-for-all like amazon.com) is to run two reviews of each album. One critical (i.e. critical as in negative) and one gushing, but hopefully well written and insightful, fan review for each release.
They should also drop the star ratings. Star ratings are insanely meaningless. If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, as I believe Elvis Costello once said, then a star rating for an album is like the response you got from friends in grade school- "I like it because it's good."
By the way, "Happy Days" is a modern rock classic by a band that felt comfortable blending the textured atmospherics of their first release with the catchy rock of their 2nd release and threw in some thinking man's heavy metal for good measure. I've yet to meet a Catherine Wheel fan who didn't love it and find it liberating and refreshing. So, stick that you up your lazy college boy wannabe critic arse, Mr. Kellman.
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