From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V3 #168 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Friday, June 13 2003 Volume 03 : Number 168 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [Roger Winston ] Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years [Dave Walker ] [loud-fans] This week's Ask Scott ["Tim Walters" ] Re: [loud-fans] re: 2003 albums [glenn mcdonald ] [loud-fans] iPod...therefore iAm [Gil Ray ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod Questions (ns) [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [steve ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [Roger Winston ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [glenn mcdonald ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [steve ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [Dave Walker ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 07:16:20 -0600 From: Roger Winston Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions Thanks all for the iPod answers/opinions - keep 'em coming. A couple of comments and additional questions: At Wednesday 6/11/2003 11:27 PM -0700, Joseph M. Mallon wrote: >As I wrote to someone earlier today, having an iPod changed the way I >listen to music, not always for the better. I listen much more frequently >when I'm at work, since I've got so much music at my disposal, but since >my attention is easily distracted by that work thing, I'm much more likely >to listen to shuffle play across all 5000 tracks, thus making it less >likely that I'll listen to a CD all the way through at any time. This is basically the same problem I have these days. I used to do most of my CD listening on headphones at work, but the project I've been on for the past year and a half or so (with at least another year to go) is one where I'm pretty much distracted by someone asking me a question or wanting something every 10 minutes or so. Makes it hard to listen to CDs (not to mention that it makes hard to get my *actual* work done). One thing I forgot to mention is that another reason I'm considering this new path is that I want to curtail my CD buying, since I've ended up with a lot of marginal stuff over the last several years, and my collection is too big. The "try before you buy" approach appeals to me, especially if the sampling is relatively cheap and easy. >You can get a FireWire card for under $35, and it fits right into your >PC. The iPod cable goes into a FireWire port and into the iPod. One problem there is that I'm out of empty slots in my PC. I'd have to swap something else out to install a Firewire card. How well does the USB to Firewire converter work with USB 1.2? Additional question: Where's the best place to buy an iPod? I would of course be looking at the maximum disk space one (30GB). Is it pretty much $499 everywhere? BTW, Bill Silvers pointed me to http://www.ipodlounge.com/, which I plan on perusing today and which may answer many of my questions. Latre. --Rog ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 09:57:59 -0400 From: Dave Walker Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years Begin forwarded message: > From: "Aaron Milenski" > Date: Thu Jun 12, 2003 8:50:21 AM America/Detroit > To: dwalker@freeke.org > Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years > >> I always thought "here we are now, entertain us" was a pretty dead-on >> summation of teen, myself, > > Oh, I do too...but to me the problem with Cobain as a lyricist > is that he has sporadic moments that are very sharp but not > only wasn't able to sustain them over his whole oevre, but > couldn't even sustain them over a song. Even in his most > controversial song, "Rape Me," (and I could bore you all > about how offesnive and self-absorbed that song is) he > marred the inmpact of the straightforward lyric with the > bit about "Stink and burn." Huh??? I agree that Cobain's best lyrical moments were isolated fragments: "He's the one who likes all our pretty songs", "love myself / better than you", etc., though I was under the impression that he came about his lyrics impressionistically, rather than sweating them out. (e.g. much like Barney Sumner or Robert Smith.) The side affect of this is that for every brilliant "so you've got green eyes / so you've got blue eyes / so you've got grey eyes" or "Alone above a raging sea / That stole the only girl I loved / And drowned her deep inside of me" (which are lousy poetry but great pop song lyrics, particularly as executed in the respective recordings) you get a "I know you and you know me and we're as happy as we can be." Like Jeffrey, though, I'm not terribly lyric focused (indeed, a comparatively large proportion of my listening material is instrumental. If I'm not actively concentrating on a given song, the lyrics are likely as not to completely fail to register, at least on a conscious level. -d.w. np: Polar, _37 Degrees C and Falling_ (speaking of instrumentals...) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 10:01:10 -0400 From: "Larry Tucker" Subject: RE: [loud-fans] iPod questions |-----Original Message----- |From: Roger Winston [mailto:rwinston@tde.com] |Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 12:48 AM |To: phagomania support group |Subject: [loud-fans] iPod questions | | |I've been giving a lot of thought to my CD collection lately, |and wondering |if I need to change my lifestyle in regards to such. I've always been |against MP3s - partly because of the sound quality, partly |because of the |downloading and/or ripping inconvenience. However, comments made here |recently have made me feel better about the sound quality, |especially since |most of my listening these days is done with headphones or in |the car. I'm |an album-listener kind of guy - I like hearing individual songs in the |context of an album, and I feel the whole digital music scene |gets away |from that. But I may be willing to adapt or change. I also like the |physical-ness of a CD and the cover/art/packaging, although since I |replaced all my jewel boxes with plastic sleeves, obviously |I'm willing to |bend on that one. Roger, you've hit on so many issues with have kept me from iPodding. I'd really miss the cover art and the information that's there. I wish they'd make the cover art available from places like iTunes and eMusic. The space problem is a issue with me as well. I haven't gone the sleeve route yet, but I'm almost there. 2800+ CDs take up too much room and I'd hate to think I'll have to have a separate room just to store them 10 years from now. |4) I do a lot of my music listening on the car stereo. Has |anyone tried |the FM transmitter dealie that you can get for the iPod? If |so, how well |does it work and what is the sound quality like? I'm betting |it's not very |good. This is critical for me too. I do a LOT of my listening in the car. Can't do very much at work. |5) Are there any other options for listening through a car stereo? My |current system is a factory-installed radio/CD player (single |slot), and it |doesn't have any auxiliary external connections that I can |find. If I were |to get this stereo replaced with an after-market one, what |would go good |with the iPod? I'd still want to be able to listen to the |radio and to |CDs. And that XM satellite radio stuff holds some appeal also. Aiwa I believe makes units that have a 1/8" aux plug on the from for MP3, MDs and the like, so I suppose the iPod would work here. |7) Earbud-type headphones just do not stay in my ears for more than 10 |seconds. Yet I can't wear regular headphones (even really lightweight |ones) for too long at a time (one or two albums max) because they get |uncomfortable and fatiguing. I vaguely remember someone mentioning a |solution when I brought this up before - earbud headphones |that fit anyone? Has anyone tried the Etymotic earphones? http://www.etymotic.com/ I love their earplugs. Thanks for posing many of the same questions I've had Roger. Hey!, hope to see you in July. Larry ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 10:04:29 -0400 From: "Aaron Milenski" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years >Like Jeffrey, though, I'm not terribly lyric focused (indeed, >a comparatively large proportion of my listening material >is instrumental. If I'm not actively concentrating >on a given song, the lyrics are likely as not to completely >fail to register, at least on a conscious level. I don't mean to get too critical here...I can't exactly argue with the person who said that "a wop lop a boo bop, a wop bam boom" was the greatest rock and roll lyric ever. I think "Smells Like Teen Spirit" probably is the most important song since the punk revolution. But this list is the "best," not the most important, right? Actually, if lyrics don't consciously register, they may have done their job. With this song, though, I had the same experience as many, which is first to wonder what in the world he's saying in the "mosquito, libido" part, and then to be severely disappointed when I found out what it was. But I do agree that Cobain was a master of the turn of the phrase...lots of great individual moments, even if the overall body of lyrics is full of unfocused and confusing bits of nothing. _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:03:08 EDT From: JRT456@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years In a message dated 6/12/03 6:06:06 AM, amilenski@hotmail.com writes: << I don't mean to get too critical here...I can't exactly argue with the person who said that "a wop lop a boo bop, a wop bam boom" was the greatest rock and roll lyric ever. >> Little Richard gets inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame tonight...along with Queen. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 08:32:31 -0700 (PDT) From: "Pete O." Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years - --- JRT456@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 6/12/03 6:06:06 AM, amilenski@hotmail.com writes: > > Little Richard gets inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame > tonight...along with Queen. "Fat bottomed girls You make the rockin' world go round" Brings a tear to your eye (when taken in context), doesn't it? ===== ====== This space intentionally non-blank. ====== ===== __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:29:36 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions Quoting Roger Winston : > At Wednesday 6/11/2003 11:27 PM -0700, Joseph M. Mallon wrote: > >You can get a FireWire card for under $35, and it fits right into your > >PC. The iPod cable goes into a FireWire port and into the iPod. > > One problem there is that I'm out of empty slots in my PC. I'd have to > swap something else out to install a Firewire card. How well does the > USB > to Firewire converter work with USB 1.2? This would be a concern for me as well: not only because my ancient (in computer terms) PC is full, but because I really hate mucking around in its works. Primarily, this is because (little known fact) computers are physically manufactured by aliens from another planet who are only ten inches tall and whose fingers are scaled proportionately. I just can't fit my enormous human fingers into the spaces to tighten screws, reach around cabling, etc. But hey, if there's a USB hack, excellent! ..Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: As long as I don't sleep, he decided, I won't shave. :: That must mean...as soon as I fall asleep, I'll start shaving! :: --Thomas Pynchon, _Vineland_ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 09:35:53 -0700 (PDT) From: "Tim Walters" Subject: [loud-fans] This week's Ask Scott Then Koshchei [who made things as they are] reflected. "It is certainly strange that a place which does not exist should be a matter of public knowledge in another place. Where does this woman come from?" "From Earth," they told him. "Where is that?" he asked: and they explained to him as well as they could. "Oh, yes, over that way," Koshchei interrupted. "I remember." .... "Bring Earth to me," says Koshchei. This was done, and Koshchei looked over the planet, and found a Bible. Koshchei opened the Bible, and read the Revelation of St. John the Divine.... "I see," said Koshchei. "The idea is a little garish. Still-!" So he replaced the Bible, and bade them put Earth, too, in its proper place, for Koshchei dislikes wasting anything. - --James Branch Cabell, JURGEN, 1919 Also see Olaf Stapledon's STAR MAKER, in which a detailed future history of the cosmos ends with the revelation that our universe is but one of many created and discarded, and prentice work at that. - -- SLAW * SNAKES & LADDERS Experimental popular children's music for adults http://www.doubtfulpalace.com/artists/Slaw ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 01:57:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Michael Mitton Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions > 1) Has anyone else gone through a similar soul-searching process like the > one I outlined above and decided to go ahead and join the iPod world? If I've gone through a similar process, and though I haven't bought an iPod, I did buy a portable MP3/CD player. What I decided was that the vast majority of my music listening is done either at my computer or in the car, both situations where the lower sound quality just doesn't matter to these ears. I've put my collection into digital format (Ogg q4) and I love the ease of it so much that it makes up for missing the pride of holding the actual CD. Plus, I can still download coverart. > 2) I've got a 2-year old PC (Windows XP Pro) with a 40GB drive (23GB of > which is currently free). It has no firewire ports, but does have 2 USB > connections (version 1.2). Would this be a big hindrance to using an > iPod? How easy/fast would be it transfer songs from my PC to the > iPod? I'm not going to join the Mac world, as I need to be on the same > platform for my home PC as I am for my work PC. And I just don't like Macs. Well, why not put in a Firewire/USB 2 card? I think I paid about $25 for mine. If you don't have a free slot, can you take out your current USB card? > 4) I do a lot of my music listening on the car stereo. Has anyone tried > the FM transmitter dealie that you can get for the iPod? If so, how well > does it work and what is the sound quality like? I'm betting it's not very > good. I haven't used the iPod version, but I've used a version with Sony portable CD players, and it was a pain in the ass. I was usually getting static whereever I put it; I had to keep changing the station (so to speak) because working channels would change as I drove around; and sometimes I couldn't get it to work at all. The sound quality was definitely degraded, even to my simple ears. It sounded like, well, the radio. > 5) Are there any other options for listening through a car stereo? My My boss went to a car stereo place to ask about this. There wasn't an auxillary input visibile on the front, but there was one on the back (apparently there if you had a remote hookup for a CD changer in the trunk or whatever). He connected an input cable that now just hangs at his feet. - --Michael ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 13:18:41 EDT From: LeftyZ@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions In a message dated 6/12/03 9:50:04 AM, mlmitton@phoenix.Princeton.EDU writes: << > 4) I do a lot of my music listening on the car stereo. Has anyone tried > the FM transmitter dealie that you can get for the iPod? If so, how well > does it work and what is the sound quality like? I'm betting it's not very > good. mlmitton: I haven't used the iPod version, but I've used a version with Sony portable CD players, and it was a pain in the ass. I was usually getting static whereever I put it; I had to keep changing the station (so to speak) because working channels would change as I drove around; and sometimes I couldn't get it to work at all. The sound quality was definitely degraded, even to my simple ears. It sounded like, well, the radio. I agree. That transmitter thing didn't work very well. Don't rely on it. > 5) Are there any other options for listening through a car stereo? My mlmitton: My boss went to a car stereo place to ask about this. There wasn't an auxillary input visibile on the front, but there was one on the back (apparently there if you had a remote hookup for a CD changer in the trunk or whatever). He connected an input cable that now just hangs at his feet. >> Also, some of the new car stereos have an input for mp3 players right on the front of the player. This is obviously the perfect option for the iPod. My doesn't have one, though some day I will buy a new car stereo that will. Until then, I'm using a cassette adaptor to listen to my iPod in the car. I was skeptical when I bought it, but it has worked perfectly....and..it's cheap. Also, I have the 10gig iPod.....it holds easily 170 CDs. Ergo, the 30gig should hold 500. I give the iPod my unqualified recommendation. It has changed my CD in the car listening experience so much for the better that it is almost hard to describe.....(also, it is great for listening at the beach) get one. ( : Left ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 10:33:27 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: [loud-fans] News of Mauritania Another reason... http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/06/08/mauritania/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 10:40:42 -0700 (PDT) From: "G. Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years > you gotta give Tyler some credit there, for nearly > inventing rap, and for a few clever turns of phrase, but of course the > "I'm a rock star so I can behave in ways that, if I were an accountant, > would get me locked up" lyric is another perennial. Tyler pulled one other classic rock star behavior regarding "Walk This Way." He left his original handwritten lyrics in the taxi he took to the studio, and had to rework them from scratch. Rapping, as I just recently learned from Cecil Brown's fine book STAGOLEE SHOT BILLY, descends, at least in part from the black American tradition of the "toast." I don't understand the toast; maybe you have to experience one to get it. It's gotta be related to what Jamacian rappers do, somehow... On the white side, though, you'd have to take it at least as far back as Johnny Bond's original version of "Hot Rod Lincoln," Andy We're sitting in my back garden on a hot summer night, eating barbecued chicken and listening to Todd Rundgren, when a friend suddenly explodes into a rant about pop music. His argument, as far as I could follow it, went as follows: it's crap because the words are crap, pathetic adolescent poetry rather than lyrics, and so if it's all crap then you might as well listen to music that performs a function and has no pretensions whatsoever, which is why he only bothers with house music. House music doesn't bother with words very much, and has an express goal: namely, making you dance when you're off your face. This, it seems to me, is like saying that because most restaurants are very bad, one should play the percentage game, forget about trying to find the good ones, and eat at McDonald's every meal. There is no doubt, though, that lyrics are the literate pop fan's Achilles heel. We have all lived through the shrivelling moment when a parent walks into a room and repeats, with sardonic disbelief, a couplet picked up from the stereo or the TV. "What does that mean, then," my mother asked me during "Top Of The Pops." "'Get it on/Bang a gong?' How long did it take him to think of that, do you reckon?" And the correct answer--"Two seconds, and it doesn't matter"--is always beyond you, so you just tell her to shut up, while inside you're hating Marc Bolan for making you like him even though he sings about getting it on and banging gongs. - --Nick Hornby, from his entry on Ben Folds Five's "Smoke," in SONGBOOK ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 13:48:32 -0400 From: dana-boy@juno.com Subject: [loud-fans] iPod Questions (ns) Re: eMusic Since I'm one of their biggest cheerleaders, I thought I'd mention some of the drawbacks: 1. The search engine *really* stinks. Misspell the name of the band and you're out of luck. Sometimes new albums/artists can't be found via the search engine for several weeks (the only way to find them is by monitoring the new additions section). Sometimes artists show up twice for no particular reason. They really need to fix this if they're going to go for the big time. 2. I've encountered 4-5 mp3's that had dropouts or other obvious flaws. Not sure how bad this is in the grand scheme of things, but it can be irritating if you're using a dial up modem and the track in question was 20 minutes long. 3. They're still missing some pretty major "minor" labels. They need to sign up Drag City in a big way, and kill rock stars would be nice. Also, Sonic Youth seem to be pulling back some of their support (the SY section has shrunk of late. Also, I may be wrong, but I don't think that they're adding a new live SY album every month anymore). 4. As mentioned by someone else, their download manager (which you have to use) craps out from time to time. Also, it limits you to cuing up 45 tracks at a time for download. Also, I don't like having to sign in, then activate the download manager. It's an annoying extra step. Sounds petty, but it's one of those little things that bug me *every* time I use the program. 5. Recently the network crashed and we all lost the bulk of our "Our Stash" which is a spot where you can file albums that you want to download eventually. Makes me hesitant to use that feature again, since I lost 30 or 40 selections. 6. I really think that it's best for people who want to check out unfamiliar artists or genres at a low cost. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who wants to keep up with new releases. They do have a lot of new stuff, but that's not really their strength. Yikes, long list. Re: earphones (Roger). You might want to try out the etymotics earphones. I'm pretty sure that they have a trial period where you can return them if you don't like them. In the beginning I found them pretty uncomfortable, but I adjusted in about 2-3 weeks and now I don't notice them. They go inside your ears, and I've never had them fall out -- doesn't really seem possible unless you accidentally pull them out. They're very expensive (the cheap model is $150, and mine were around $300 I think) but they also sound *much* better than anything else you're likely to buy. Also, they block out almost all external noise (on the subway I can hear low frequency rumbles, but that's about it). This could actually be a problem if you wear them at work, since people will have to hit you to get your attention. - --dana ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 17:03:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod Questions (ns) On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 dana-boy@juno.com wrote: > 1. The search engine *really* stinks. Misspell the name of the band > and you're out of luck. Sometimes new albums/artists can't be found via > the search engine for several weeks (the only way to find them is by > monitoring the new additions section). And vice versa -- there are things you can download that have not yet appeared in the New Releases list. Which really makes me wonder how all this data is stored. > Sometimes artists show up twice for no particular reason. And sometimes an artist only shows up once, but if you search for them and click on their name, you get like one album, while if you click on their name again from THAT screen, you get three albums. > 2. I've encountered 4-5 mp3's that had dropouts or other obvious flaws. > Not sure how bad this is in the grand scheme of things, but it can be > irritating if you're using a dial up modem and the track in question was > 20 minutes long. I don't believe this has ever happened to me in an otherwise-okay album. In years past, occasionally they would add something that was totally defective -- half the songs missing, and the other half split into pieces at random so the number of tracks available for download was correct. The lack of those incidents recently is one of the few unambiguous improvements in eMusic (the others: more labels, and VBR mp3s). a ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 19:12:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] T&S (ns, but some New Pornographers content) On Mon, 9 Jun 2003, G. Andrew Hamlin wrote: > I have high hopes for Erasure's OTHER PEOPLE'S SONGS I'd let those hopes wane a bit before listening to it, lest you be too badly disappointed. The more I think about covers albums, though, the more I think they might be crucial in undermining the myth of originality enough that the two halves of the indie-rock personality (record-geek/referential in-crowd-ism and innovation-above-all undergroundism) may finally be united. Like the new Silkworm EP which sounds much like former band-member Joel Phelps' last EP but covers a totally different sort of song. a ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 19:32:31 -0400 From: glenn mcdonald Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions I didn't do a lot of soul-searching before buying an iPod (my company got acquired, I bought some toys), but it's definitely leading me to think differently about my music collection. Or at least it and other events in my life are combining to have that effect. I actually have yet to buy any online music (although I'm sure Apple will eventually get some stuff I want), but having a few hundred albums at my instant disposal, wherever I am, is really incredible. The quality is as fine as you want to make it. I have about twenty times as many albums as my 20GB iPod can hold at once, so it'll be a while before I go entirely virtual for listening purposes, but after that it's a small additional step to skip the physical purchase and loading process. In theory. Not liking Macs is silly, though. Macs are better than PCs. And rumors are that the new 970-based models may be on the way as soon as later this month. My Mac is a much bigger improvement in my life than the iPod I bought at the same time. And iTunes kicks Music Match's ass, and I'll believe iTunes for Windows when I see it. The earbuds I like are cheap Sony ones with "bass cones", which means they look like a cross between buds and plugs. Obviously this has nothing to do with the iPod per se. glenn ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 19:37:24 -0400 From: glenn mcdonald Subject: Re: [loud-fans] re: 2003 albums Brian said: > I just got my copies of the new Do As Infinity and Every Little Thing > albums > in the mail from Japan today, for those of you following glenn's > expanded tastes. I heartily re-recommend both of those fine, happy albums. If you find that they're still not quite sugary enough for you, you could also try _elements_, by day after tomorrow. In a very different style, if you find yourself confused and frowning at Pixies comparisons as often as I do, I highly recommend the Japanese band Number Girl, who I wrote about this week. glenn ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 16:59:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Gil Ray Subject: [loud-fans] iPod...therefore iAm god this is depressing..... Gil __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 20:55:09 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod Questions (ns) Quoting dana-boy@juno.com: > Re: eMusic > 1. The search engine *really* stinks. Think of it as a poorly organized record store - you know, the kind that files Don Caballero under C (or, for the old folks, Jethro Tull under T)... > 4. As mentioned by someone else, their download manager (which you have > to use) craps out from time to time. Also, it limits you to cuing up 45 > tracks at a time for download. Also, I don't like having to sign in, > then activate the download manager. It's an annoying extra step. > Sounds > petty, but it's one of those little things that bug me *every* time I > use > the program. I've never had to re-turn on the DM - might be a cookie-related thing. I don't necessarily like the 45-track limit...but I do understand it, since otherwise, some clown somewhere could try to download - and post - the entire catalog. > 5. Recently the network crashed and we all lost the bulk of our "Our > Stash" which is a spot where you can file albums that you want to > download eventually. Makes me hesitant to use that feature again, since > I lost 30 or 40 selections. So store a copy of the page locally! ..Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: "In two thousand years, they'll still be looking for Elvis - :: this is nothing new," said the priest. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 23:43:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod Questions (ns) On Thu, 12 Jun 2003, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: > I've never had to re-turn on the DM - might be a cookie-related thing. I > don't necessarily like the 45-track limit...but I do understand it, > since otherwise, some clown somewhere could try to download - and post - > the entire catalog. I don't see what's keeping said clown from doing that even now. A program that automates downloads can easily be modified to keep trying until it succeeds. Right? I mean, normally I might give a company the benefit of the doubt in this situation (i.e. assume that the measure they claim will solve problem X is actually capable of affecting problem X, whether or not it turns out to be a good solution) but eMusic screwed up the rollout of this new download manager so badly that I don't assume they know what they're doing. a ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 22:49:15 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions On Thursday, June 12, 2003, at 06:32 PM, glenn mcdonald wrote: > Not liking Macs is silly, though. Macs are better than PCs. And rumors > are that the new 970-based models may be on the way as soon as later > this month. My Mac is a much bigger improvement in my life than the > iPod I bought at the same time. And iTunes kicks Music Match's ass, > and I'll believe iTunes for Windows when I see it. The Steve said there would be iTunes for Windows by the end of the year, and Apple posted the job openings for the port not long after. Obviously, Apple needs it to have a chance of making the iTunes Store a real success. And the Mac rumor sites are hinting that it's coming along pretty well (when they're not getting nasty-grams from Apple Legal about the 970 "info"). - - Steve __________ To be sure, the fatuous hypocrisy of the Bush case for war is no reason to let Saddam Hussein drop a nuclear bomb on your head. Iraq may be an imminent menace to the United States even though George W. Bush says it is. You would think that if honest and persuasive arguments were available, the administration would offer them. But maybe not. - Michael Kinsley ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 22:53:53 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions On Thursday, June 12, 2003, at 12:21 AM, Stewart Mason wrote: > he actually prefers eMusic himself because of its depth in jazz and > other > non-rock music and because they don't use a dumb proprietary format Dumb maybe, but I don't think it's proprietary. - - Steve __________ When I watch the Fox News channel, I can't believe how much nerve those people have and how they assume that people are just going to swallow that shit. - Thom Yorke ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 21:53:45 -0600 From: Roger Winston Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions All the stores seem to be out of the 30GB iPod... At Thursday 6/12/2003 01:19 AM -0400, AWeiss4338@aol.com wrote: >There are clip on earbuds you can buy too, for a resonable price. The clip >fits over the back of your ear. You could probably pad them if it >irritates your >skin. I bought a cheapo $10 pair of Sony clip-on earbud "sport" headphones today. They didn't work at all. The speakers weren't even pointed inward toward the ear, which I found really strange. I had to press them close to my ear canal by hand in order to get the full dynamic range (and to prevent everyone else in the room from hearing what I was listening to). I'm hoping ones from other manufacturers are designed better... Of course, maybe this is just another manifestation of my weird ear shape. At Thursday 6/12/2003 01:57 AM -0400, Michael Mitton wrote: >Well, why not put in a Firewire/USB 2 card? I think I paid about $25 for >mine. If you don't have a free slot, can you take out your current USB >card? My USB ports are part of the motherboard, not their own card. However, I can probably ditch the dialup modem card, since I don't really have any use for it in these DSL days. >My boss went to a car stereo place to ask about this. There wasn't an >auxillary input visibile on the front, but there was one on the back >(apparently there if you had a remote hookup for a CD changer in the trunk >or whatever). He connected an input cable that now just hangs at his >feet. My factory-installed CD receiver has an optional CD changer, which I didn't opt to have. So assumedly there's some connection in the back somewhere. But damn, if it's there, it's hard to get to. (I've got a 2002 Acura RSX.) At Thursday 6/12/2003 10:01 AM -0400, Larry Tucker wrote: >Aiwa I believe makes units that have a 1/8" aux plug on the from for >MP3, MDs and the like, so I suppose the iPod would work here. I did some research on this today, and it appears that pretty much only Aiwa and JVC car stereo head units have the auxiliary input on the front. None of them is really XM satellite enabled, though I'm sure something can be worked out in that regard. Best Buy had not a single unit with a front panel input - the salesguy told me that they don't carry them anymore. He said if I wanted to play MP3s, I could just burn them to CD-Rs, and that some of the players would play them. Sorry SalesDude, but that's not what I had in mind... >Hey!, hope to see you in July. Indeed. I made my reservations and I'll be in my namesake town of Winston-Salem on July 19th for the big Every Word tribute concert. Looks like you and me won't be the only LoudFans there either. Heck, looks like there may be enough to declare it a LoudGathering. At Thursday 6/12/2003 07:32 PM -0400, glenn mcdonald wrote: >Not liking Macs is silly, though. Macs are better than PCs. And rumors are >that the new 970-based models may be on the way as soon as later this >month. My Mac is a much bigger improvement in my life than the iPod I >bought at the same time. I'm willing to believe that Macs are a lot better than they used to be, but I had years of painful experiences with the one we used as a band computer. Definitely did not make me want to switch from PCs. Besides, PCs are what I know, and like I said earlier, I need to be compatible with my work computer. At Thursday 6/12/2003 04:59 PM -0700, you wrote: >god this is depressing..... Sorry Gil, didn't mean to bum you out. I hope City Hall Records can weather the storm, but the industry sure is changing at a fast clip. Someone left the big brick of tiramisu out in the rain. I'm just resigning myself to the inevitable. Latre. --Rog ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 00:07:57 -0400 From: glenn mcdonald Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions I've got PCs at work, too. My desk here at home has a PC and a Mac. I used the PC for something just last week. OK, I'll stop that now. Five more cool things about iPods and the associated systems that I didn't necessarily think about before getting one: - - now I actually listen to CD singles, which was so inconvenient before that I rarely did it - - iTunes lets you clip the beginnings or ends of songs, so you can eliminate many long silent gaps "hiding" bonus tracks - - double albums can be combined into one long sequence - - making mix CDs out of iTunes is absurdly easy - - no more awkwardly changing CDs in the middle of long winter walks ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 23:27:07 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions On Wednesday, June 11, 2003, at 11:47 PM, Roger Winston wrote: > 2) I've got a 2-year old PC (Windows XP Pro) with a 40GB drive (23GB > of which is currently free). It has no firewire ports, but does have > 2 USB connections (version 1.2). Would this be a big hindrance to > using an iPod? How easy/fast would be it transfer songs from my PC to > the iPod? USB1 would be dog slow, if it worked. But the current iPod dock works with USB2. >> The 15GB and 30GB iPod models come with a dock that syncs via >> FireWire or USB 2.0 and charges via FireWire. There is even an audio >> line out for connecting to powered speakers or a stereo system. > I'm not going to join the Mac world, as I need to be on the same > platform for my home PC as I am for my work PC. And I just don't like > Macs. I won't advocate coming over, but have you looked at a Mac running OS X? It might change your outlook from just don't like to just don't care. > 3) What's the deal with iTunes not working in Windows yet? iTunes is based on the same code as the Mac only SoundJam MP, published by Casady & Greene. Apple obtained the rights from the original developer, and his services. (And probably paid C&G a nice sum, as there seemed to be no hard feelings). It's now part of the free iLife suite, and a Windows version wasn't necessary to sell iPods. The iTunes Store does need a Windows version. - - Steve __________ Ultimately, the path Bush has led the United States down is not about weapons of mass destruction, Security Council Resolution 1441, weapons inspections, or disarmament. It has always been about regime change and using America's military power to enforce a world order deemed favorable to U.S. interests. - Charles V. Pena, Cato Institute ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 00:29:43 -0400 From: Dave Walker Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions On Friday, June 13, 2003, at 12:07 AM, glenn mcdonald wrote: > - making mix CDs out of iTunes is absurdly easy I was never big on playlists until I started to realize the fun, goofy things you can do with them. For example, one of my favorites last summer for walking / cycling was my "To Everything There Is A Season" playlist, which was made up of Vivaldi's _Four Seasons_, Pete Namlook's 4 _Season's Greetings_ discs, and Wendy Carlos' _Sonic Seasonings_. The smart playlists are brilliant, too. I made one specifically with Emusic in mind -- it contains all the songs I've downloaded within the last 3 weeks but haven't listened to yet. It's a good way to make sure I'm not just stockpiling stuff and never listening to it. -d.w. ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V3 #168 *******************************