random($foo)

CD Baby is a great online record store which sell’s only indie CD’s (indie as in directly from musicians w/ no distributors). They also run a slash-based community site and are doing business like gangbusters, recently breaking $3 million in musician payouts (musicians get $6-12 per CD). Oh, and they answer their email super fast – 2 minutes at 11:30PM. 🙂

Minor quibbles: they have a ‘wishlist’ feature, but it’s only enabled if you have an account, which can only be made if you start an order (it in fact doesn’t appear at all unless you’re logged in). The wishlist is really important because it’s the most convenient way to store out of stock items. Another quibble with the wishlist,: it’d be nice to move (instead of copy) from your cart to wishlist.

I’ve been playing around w/ Dia (dia Win32 Installer) again recently, so in keeping with the recent flow craziness, here’s how I think it should work:

My old NEX II MP3 player just recently died on me. I started taking it apart, and it looks like I might be able to do some soldering to possibly get it working, but chances are slim (approximately corresponding to my soldering skills). It looks like the new NEX ia is coming out though, with voice/FM recording, better firmware, and possible Ogg Vorbis support, among other things. I sent an email to see what the recording quality is (hopefully with line-in capabilities), and to see if some slightly annoying NEX II bugs have been fixed.

From correspondence w/ Frontier Labs:

• improvements: multiple folder support, alphabetical song listing, more buffering, improved shuffle (but no m3u support, so you’ll want to keep your CopyNex handy – see also: FATSort, PlaylistExpander)
• Ogg Vorbis is actually being worked on, for the NEX II’s as well as the NEX ia and will be released as a firmware upgrade
• 64Kbps recording (can record at higher bitrates, but no selection mechanism in the firmware right now)
• No (recording) level-meter
• No line-in, the only external input is the built-in voice recording microphone
• Can play back MP3 files at the same time as recording

Perception Digital has a PD-095-01 Portable MP3 player which has a can record from an internal mic, FM, or a line-in at 13Kbps voice or 48-320kbps MP3 (!). That’s pretty frickin’ awesome. It’s a little bit on the chunkier side, and only accepts SmartMedia, no Compact Flash though. Still, tempting, if I could find some uesr reviews…

The e.Digital Odyssey 300 (SmartMedia) looks interesting, although it also looks like it’s no longer available. [the Mpio DMB+ looks like the same thing]

Also, PoGo! Products has their RipFlash line of Recordable Digital Audio Players (the TRIO is one w/ mic and line in, but is not memory expandable). Uses SD/MMC… (CNet RipFlash DX review)

See Also: minidisc.org’s Portable Recorders with Uploading Facilities list.

Places to buy: e.Digital Odyseey 300, PoGo! RipFlash Trio, Perception Digital Hercules (PD-095-01), NEX + accessories

Independents’ day – What record industry slump? Independent labels say business has never been better. Some good /. postings:

For the record, I’m an artist. That’s what I do for a living. Copyright’s very important to me, but jail time for somebody downloading or distributing a copy of my work is ridiculous. I’d rather just figure out a way to work with them on it. If they’re willing to redistribute my work, then maybe there’s a deal that can be made there. “At least advertise my deal for purchasing stuff.”

The only time I’d be really worried about somebody redistributing my stuff is if they’re making money off it illegally. That’s really what copyright law is for. It’s not about suing America’s future.

Chag on The Hundred-Year Language (from /. thread)

If the children are our future, then they will be designing the future languages. This is horrible. Can you imagine the future code?

VIOD THING (OMFG!!!1 LOLOLOLOOL!!!)

INIT HAX0R N00B!!!

WHIEL STFU DO

GOTO 10

DOEN

The big news this morning? Apple Plans to Purchase Universal Music

If it’s for real, Apple could single-handedly drag the music industry into the digital age. This could be very, very good.

BEAM.TV, The Mill: “Honda Cog”, an interesting 120s commercial. Is it all CGI? [according to this /. article, nope, just 606 takes and one ‘cheat’

Related: Robodex 2003 videos at TokyoDV

Here’s a site with details about the $97.8 Billion dollar RIAA lawsuit. The President of Michigan Tech wrote a response to the RIAA suit last week.

Went to the Bright Eyes show last night. Really enjoyed the set, a lot of new songs (including the ones he sang last time, and a song from the Post Parlo split as well as some really old ones). Here’s a link to a 60s [9MB AVI] clip of a song I hadn’t heard before:

While the camera microphone doesn’t really get it cross, the sound was great. A night and day difference being up in the balcony vs down in the floor.

Cultural Gulf Separates Forces, Iraqis

“I say we just — nuke this place and make it into a parking lot,” seethed Lance Cpl. Ryan Eman, 22, of Michigan.

U.S. forces invading this country make frequent reference to “nuking” Iraqis, whom they call “ragheads” and “camel jockeys,” often without appearing to distinguish between civilians and enemy forces. The extent to which such remarks are part of the daily vernacular underscores the cultural and political challenges the United States faces as it becomes a major military presence in a post-Saddam Iraq.

Asked later about his remark, Eman said he hadn’t sincerely wished to drop a nuclear bomb on the people he was sent to liberate from Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. “I was frustrated and tired,” he said. “I don’t wish nukes on anybody, because anything we throw like that at somebody could come back at us.”

See kids? That’s why you don’t want to nuke other people. They might fight back. Speaking of kids:

“Raghead, raghead, can’t you see? This old war ain’t — to me,” sang Lance Cpl. Christopher Akins, 21, of Louisville, Ky., sweat running down his face in rivulets as he dug a fighting trench one recent afternoon under a blazing sun.

Asked whom he considered a raghead, Akins said: “Anybody who actively opposes the United States of America’s way … If a little kid actively opposes my way of life, I’d call him a raghead, too.”

As for non-hostile Iraqis, “I think they can be brought up intellectually, but it’ll take some work because they’re still in the Stone Age,” Akins said. He appeared startled to hear that Iraqis are descendants of ancient Mesopotamia, a thriving civilization that created the world’s first known system of writing and body of law, and that until the havoc of Hussein’s regime, Iraq also enjoyed a substantial and highly educated middle class.

A long writeup on some of the recent events in Warblogging.com, including a questioning of how US forces have been conducting themselves, not just with regards to journalists, but with civilians and allies (err, ally.. the British).

US Army Colonel David Perkins of the 3^rd Infantry Division said that Iraqis in front of

the hotel fired rocket propelled grenades across the Tigris River at

main battle tanks quite a way away (reporters say that the tanks were

“more than a half-mile away”). Colonel Perkins said that soldiers

fired a 120mm ruond at the hotel after seeing enemy “binoculars” in the

hotel. The shell hit the 15^th floor of the building, killing two journalists and injuring five.

According to reporters there were dozens upon dozens of cameras

arrayed on the balconies of the hotel. “How can they spot someone with

binoculars and not [see] cameras?” asked AP photographer Jerome Delay

who was in the hotel.

Journalists, according to the AP insist that they “heard no

gunfire coming from the hotel or its immediate environs.” They say

that they were watching two US tanks operating across the al-Jumhuriya

bridge — more than a half-mile away — and that at some point one of the

tanks simply rotated its turret towards the hotel and fired.

One of the journalists killed was a Reuters camerman. Reuters responded:

“Clearly the war, and all its confusion, has

come to the heart of Baghdad,” said Reuters Editor in Chief Geert

Linnebank. “But the incident nonetheless raises questions about the

judgment of the advancing U.S. troops who have known all along that

this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists in

Baghdad.”

In Belgium, the International Federation of Journalists said it

appeared noted that on the same day US bombs hit al-Jazeera offices,

Abu Dhabi TV offices and the Palestine Hotel. They said it “appeared

Tuesday’s attacks may have deliberately targeted journalists,” says the AP. Secretary-General Aidan White of the IFJ said “If so, they are grave and serious violations of international law.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists went even further than the IFJ,

saying “We believe these attacks violate the Geenva Conventions. The

evidence suggests that the response of US forces was disproportionate

and therefore violated international humanitarian law,” Reuters reports.

​​​​​

The Arab Journalists Union also “condemned the Anglo-American attack on journalists while in Baghdad to cover the aggression.”

The Pentagon has responded simply by saying that Baghdad is “not a safe place” and that journalists “should not be there.”