ASCII | Ian Andrew Bell https://ianbell.com Ian Bell's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Ian Bell Fri, 11 Apr 2003 19:27:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://i0.wp.com/ianbell.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cropped-electron-man.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 ASCII | Ian Andrew Bell https://ianbell.com 32 32 28174588 Apple Wants to Buy Universal Music? https://ianbell.com/2003/04/11/apple-wants-to-buy-universal-music/ Fri, 11 Apr 2003 19:27:32 +0000 https://ianbell.com/2003/04/11/apple-wants-to-buy-universal-music/ Sorry about the nasty translation from German to English… an interesting theory.

——— http://216.239.35.120/ translate_c?hl=en&ie=ASCII&oe=ASCII&langpairÞ%7Cen&u=http:// www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,244270,00.html

Apple obviously offers for universal Music

For universal Music, the largest disk company of the world, obviously was an unexpected prospective customer. Apple boss Steve job is to have called a purchase price for the music section of the maroden medium conglomerate Vivendi.

Los Angeles – round six billion dollar wants to pay jobs for universal, reports the “Los Angeles Times” with reference to anonymous sources. It already gave secret discussions with the computer manufacturer for months. It nevertheless is still possible that it does not come at all to a formal requirement, is called it in the report. There is to be several unresolved questions in the executive committee of Apple still. Neither jobs nor representatives of Apple, universal or Vivendi wanted to commentate the report.

With such Deal jobs would be at one blow the most powerful figure in the international music business. The disk company comes with musicians such as U2 or Luciano Pavarotti in the year on a world-wide conversion of approximately six billion dollar.

An entrance into the music business would fit the strategy of the Computerbauers. Apple brought lately ever more hard and software on the market, with which downloading, working on and playing digitized music pieces were highly simplified. The commitment and above all the pertinent werbekampagne was however rather a challenge to the music companies. With the slogan “rip, mix, burn” (ribs, mix, burn) encouraged jobs according to opinion of the industry almost to procure itself music pieces free of charge and illegaly over the InterNet.

Unclear is however, as wants to apply jobs the purchase price for the music giant. In the last quarter Apple made a loss of approximately eight million dollar, the conversion of the last yearly reached straight once 5.74 billion dollar. According to own data the enterprise has however cash reserves at a value of 4.4 billion dollar.

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Napster Goes Unmourned to the Grave https://ianbell.com/2002/09/06/napster-goes-unmourned-to-the-grave-2/ Fri, 06 Sep 2002 20:24:23 +0000 https://ianbell.com/2002/09/06/napster-goes-unmourned-to-the-grave-2/ Morpheus got slammed because it installed “GATOR”. Gator is evil. It tracks your web surfing, “sells” unused cycles on your computer, and targets banner advertising. As an added bonus, it’s buggy, is a memory pig, and the company is run by a bunch of crooks.

I use LimeWire.

For the uninitiated, all of the clients we’re discussing use the same GNUtella code base which was developed by the the WinAmp guys, NullSoft. Ironically, they released GNUtella six months after they were bought by AOL, which became AOL Time-Warner.

Here’s a quick Ascii Diagram to help you out:

[LimeWire] [BearShare] [Morpheus] [XoloX] [Shareaza] \ [Swapper] | [Gnucleus] | [Phex] | [Qtella] / \ \ \ | | | / / / \ \ \ \ | / / / / \ \ \ \ / / / / / \ \ \ \ / / / / / \ \ \ \ / / / / / \_____\______[GNUtella]__/____/____/

🙂

It’s all the same thing…

-Ian.

On Thursday, September 5, 2002, at 11:49 AM, Adam Wood-Gaines wrote:

> Curiously, I decided to check out Morpheus.
> But it doesn’t look like it’s getting good reviews.
>
> http://download.com.com/3302-2166-10141574.html
>
> And what’s the deal with it being flamed “spyware”?
> That’s seems tres uncool. Are these accusations founded?
>
> I have little experience with file sharing networks, but
> I’m curious to check ’em out on my OSX box.
>
> –Adam
>
>
> — Mark Bussanich wrote:
>> Of course, I would never do anything illegal like download copywritten
>> materials but, in response to Mark’s question regarding alternatives,
>> I am
>> told that Morpheus is a pretty good service. http://www.morpheus.com
>>
>> After all, it’s good to share.
>>
>> Mark (the other)
>>
>> —– Original Message —–
>> From: “mark winder”
>> To: ;
>> Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 10:46 AM
>> Subject: Re: @F: [GEEKS] Napster Goes Unmourned to the Grave
>>
>>
>>> I hvae to disagree somewhat – companies dying that had no business
>>> plan is
>>> old news – SO 2000 ;o)
>>>
>>> Personally, I think that what’s really noteworthy is that by going
>>> to the
>>> Napster website (http://www.napster.com – for those of you who need
>>> the
>>> reminder…) one can still find utility in the site. For instance,
>>> the
>>> “Napster was here” image can really spruce up an otherwise drab
>>> desktop
>>> pattern on you PC. You can also… well… actually, I guess that’s
>>> about
>>> it, really…
>>>
>>> …so Napster was fun – what are people now using to get tunes and
>>> videos
>>> off the net?? Any front runners??
>>>
>>> okbye,
>>>
>>> – Mark.
>>>
>>>
>>>> From: Ian Andrew Bell
>>>> To: foib [at] ianbell [dot] com
>>>> Subject: @F: [GEEKS] Napster Goes Unmourned to the Grave
>>>> Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 10:40:34 -0700
>>>>
>>>> The death of Napster is not so much a signifier of the victory of
>>>> the
>> RIAA
>>>> over the infidels as it is of the defeat of companies which had no
>>>> identifiable business plan..
>>>>
>>>> -Ian.
>>>>
>>>> ———–
>>>> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020904/wr_nm/
>>>> media_napster_reaction_dc
>>>>
>>>> Napster Goes Unmourned to the Grave
>>>> Wed Sep 4, 1:38 PM ET
>>>>
>>>> By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
>>>>
>>>> LONDON (Reuters) – Like so many one-hit wonders before it, the
>>>> demise of
>>>> the once iconic online song-swapping service Napster ( news – web
>>>> sites)
>>>> has failed to stir much sympathy.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> “Really, who cares?” Sebastian, a student at the Technical
>>>> University of
>>>> Darmstadt, Germany, told Reuters as he heard that Napster would
>>>> likely
>> be
>>>> forced into Chapter 7 liquidation as early as Thursday.
>>>>
>>>> “Everybody’s moved on to other file-sharing (services). The
>>>> interest for
>>>> Napster in the Internet community just wasn’t as high as everybody
>>>> originally thought,” said the 28-year old student of IT engineering.
>>>>
>>>> During its heyday in 2000, Napster attracted tens of millions of
>>>> music
>>>> fans who traded all manners of recorded music from Eminem ( news –
>>>> web
>>>> sites) singles to rare concert recordings of the Dave Matthews Band.
>>>>
>>>> To the chagrin of the media establishment, Napster introduced the
>> concept
>>>> of file-trading to a generation of youths who now exchange a wide
>>>> range
>>>> copyright-protected materials from feature-length movies to video
>>>> games,
>>>> drawing Hollywood and lawmakers into the fray to corral the
>>>> activity.
>>>>
>>>> NO CHANCE
>>>>
>>>> While the legacy of Napster thrives, the service itself became a
>>>> non-entity as it shut down a year ago amid mounting legal troubles.
>>>> Thursday, Net discussion groups were largely devoid of commentary
>>>> on the
>>>> online service that major music labels once considered to be public
>> enemy
>>>> number one.
>>>>
>>>> “Well, it’s official,” read one discussion group posting, summing
>>>> up a
>>>> demise that has long had an air of inevitability — as an
>>>> underground
>>>> service it was a hit, but as a business it had no chance.
>>>>
>>>> The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, one of
>>>> Napster’s chief nemeses, gave a bitter-sweet obituary to the defunct
>>>> service.
>>>>
>>>> “Napster had a great technology but it was never going to be
>>>> successful
>>>> until it managed to turn that technology into a legitimate business
>> model
>>>> that respected the copyright of artists and record companies,” the
>>>> IFPI
>>>> said in a statement.
>>>>
>>>> Napster’s fate was sealed Wednesday when a U.S. bankruptcy court
>> rejected
>>>> German media group Bertelsmann’s bid to buy Napster. Record labels
>>>> and
>>>> songwriters had opposed the deal, saying the price was unfair.
>>>>
>>>> IMMINENT LIQUIDATION
>>>>
>>>> The decision leaves Napster, which had been grounded since July,
>>>> 2001,
>>>> with no choice but to pull the plug on the operation.
>>>>
>>>> Napster, which still has a large copyright-infringement suit hanging
>> over
>>>> its head from the labels, is expected to file for Chapter 7
>>>> liquidation
>>>> Thursday, sources said.
>>>>
>>>> A statement from Napster Wednesday said the company had fired staff
>>>> and
>>>> shut down the operation. A trustee will auction off Napster’s assets
>> that
>>>> include its globally recognized brand name, Web addresses and
>> proprietary
>>>> technologies.
>>>>
>>>> The Napster Web Site now consists of two pages — “Napster was
>>>> here” on
>>>> the home page, linking only to a crude tombstone bearing the
>>>> trademark
>>>> headphone-wearing cat and the legend “Ded kitty.”
>>>>
>>>> Wednesday, officials at some of the music labels told Reuters they
>>>> did
>> not
>>>> think the fall of Napster would have any meaningful impact on the
>>>> file-sharing and music piracy craze.
>>>>
>>>> The labels may have triggered Napster’s demise, but it leaves
>>>> behind a
>>>> more powerful crop of imitators including Morpheus MusicCity,
>>>> Grokster
>> and
>>>> Kazaa, sites which have succeeded in driving the activity further
>>>> underground.
>>>>
>>>> As a posting by a person nicknamed “PianoMan” said: “They will never
>> stop
>>>> it. Or even slow it down. And as you may have guessed, I’m not
>>>> sympathetic.”
>>>>
>>>> Henry Wilson, founder of Grokster, a peer-to-peer network named in a
>>>> lawsuit by Hollywood and the labels for copyright abuse, pointed out
>> that
>>>> Napster went out of business before the courts could make a final
>>>> ruling
>>>> on the legitimacy of file-sharing networks.
>>>>
>>>> “I don’t think you can say this is a win for (the labels) on the
>>>> legal
>>>> front,” Wilson told Reuters.
>>>>
>>>> ———–
>>>> FoIB mailing list — Bits, Analysis, Digital Group Therapy
>>>> https://ianbell.com:8888/foib.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> – Mark
>>>
>>> —
>>> Mark Winder
>>> me [at] markwinder [dot] net
>>>
>>>

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FW: iPod? They plod. https://ianbell.com/2001/10/26/fw-ipod-they-plod/ Sat, 27 Oct 2001 01:57:39 +0000 https://ianbell.com/2001/10/26/fw-ipod-they-plod/ —— Forwarded Message From: Tom Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:12:55 -0700 (PDT) To: fork [at] xent [dot] com Subject: iPod? They plod.

With a 400$ price tag Apples entry into the portable MP3 player market begs the question…why?

The Rio Volt, a unit that can now be had for as little as 90$, is a CD based unit which shows the reasons why the Ipod is probably going to be the Newton of MP3 Players. iPod is more like iPlod, as Apple plods along behind the curve.

First off its HD based, a 5g HD. This is nice but draws back the user to the age old delemia of being tied to the computer for new music choices.

The Rio volt reads CDs, CDRs and CD RWs. It can decode MP3 and WMA file formats as well as Audio cds. Each cd hold about 700 mb of data. To get new data in you simply put in another cd. To get new data onto a CD you use your burner, any bunrer on any platfrom. This opens Rio Volt to Macs, PCS, Linux and assorted other users as well as people without computers who get these CDs from thier friends.

The ipod requires Firewire. Well this leaves out a great big sector of the market, so right from the get go, right fromthe point of getting music into the unit, its locked out of a goodly share of the market.

Its got good Skip Protection, 20 mins. The Rio Volt when its playing at about 128kbs encoded mp3s has about a 2 min slip protection buffer, when Im listening to Old Time radio and speken word down at 46 or 32 kbs its more like 10 mins. In all my usage of the Volt I have never made the damn thing skip even at 196kbs. 1 min is a lot of gap time to rebuffer a flubbed read. The newer models of the Volt now have 8 min shock protection at 128kbs

The ipod is smaller that the RioVolt. This is the same trade off as the Rio SolidState players versus the Rio CDBasedPlayers. I dont jog, whichi seems to be the main argument for the SolidState side, and I have been able to listen to my Cd Volt while gardening, walking, driving and in bed to name but a few places. It doesnt fit in my shirt pocket but it does fit on my belt loop and in my coat pocket.

Heres some other features and how each unit stacks up.

Firmware, they both have it. Im not sure about Apples upgrade policy but the Riovolt has been upgraded almost monthly with tons more features being added all the time. Rio added

BatteryLife. iPod claims 10 hrs the Volt claims 15. I can say for sure that at lower bit rate encode, around 56k and below, the unit is only spinning the CD once every 7 mins or so and the battery life goes up to 20 hours or so.

Inluded software. iPod-iTunes (mac only). RioVolt-iTunes(mac) and Real Jukebox(pc). Once again Apple locking itself out of the non Mac market.

OnWire Controler. iPod-None. Riovolt-full control of the unti from an onwire controler. This is something that seems minor until you use it a few times. For Volt users the idea of an onwire controler is a most now on most portable devices. It lets you tuck the device away and still have total control of it . There has been demand for this on the Rio Solid states as well.

Output. iPod-Headphone Out RioVolt-Headphone Out and Line Out

Height Width Depth Weight Price (msrp) iPod 4.02 2.43 0.78 6.5 399 Volt 5.50 5.20 1.1 8.05 179 (sp 250) fm tuner 149 (sp 100) 99 (sp 90) no onwire remote (can buy seperate)

(I have seen the SP100’s for as little as 110 bucks. The sp250 has a nicer remote and the fm tuner.)

Bottom line here is the 400 price tag is way above the real and tangliable mass market comfort level. Then again with the iPod locked out of most of the mass market arena this may not be a probelm for it. It looks as if Apple has niched themsleves out of being a contender once again as they iPlod along on its march thru the land of the HasBeens.

/”\ [—=== WSMF —-http://wsmf.org—===—] \ / X ASCII Ribbon Campaign / \ Against HTML Mail

http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork

—— End of Forwarded Message

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Star Wars in ASCII https://ianbell.com/1999/09/02/star-wars-in-ascii/ Thu, 02 Sep 1999 19:05:37 +0000 https://ianbell.com/1999/09/02/star-wars-in-ascii/ And, by the way, in case you haven’t seen it, you can now watch a REAL internet movie — Star Wars in Ascii text. 🙂

http://www.asciimation.co.nz/

-Ian.

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