OT: Dr. Who

[John Esak]

Hi Mark,
Thought I'd just clear up one point. I buy lots of stuff from iTunes, but I
don't use an iPod. Remember, I have my little Linux PDA. I get the songs as
a .m4a or a .m4u or whatever. If you read in a CD, they are changed to .m4a,
if you buy from iTunes (the store) it has another encoding that makes it
very hard to translate. However, since I started using Switch File Transfer,
probably 5 years ago, I have zero trouble converting anything that iTunes
uses to an .mp3 or .wav or anything I like. It is just a great product,
period.

Of course, you are going to *gain* bytes when going from a lossy format to a
lossless one, but at least the format is there if you have a 
Device that can only play a particular format, Switch can make it for you.
I use .mp3, of course.  So iTunes does not have the limitation I think it
once did have.

Until I started using Switch, I could not play the tunes I bought from the
iTunes store, they just would not convert with anything. I could always
convert .m4a's, but not the purchased-direct stuff.  Happily, now I can, or
I would have stopped buying through iTunes.

Whether iTunes will work directly with a non iPod unit, I don't know. Also,
don't care, since I only use my device. Or play off the computer.  However,
though it is a tiny bit better, iTunes is still "accessible*.  I guess Mr.
Jobs hasn't made enough money yet to have his programmers start writing good
code. It has always been true that Apple makes beautiful gear, but sucky
software. Locking out 13 million blind people from your software ... Well,
sorry, this constitutes "sucky" software, and I think this makes Jobs a real
jerk, too.

Everyone can say what they want about Bill... Anted half the time I agree
these days... But at least he forced accessibility on the main stream, and
he does give away one hell of a lot of money.  Haven't seen old Stephen get
this wild hair yet.  Maybe when he's worth a trillion, he'll have enough to
be a little more generous. 

Doesn't yet put him in the category of Ms. Ebay, who now may be elected
Senator.... As greedy, asses go, she wins the all time honor. To put
together something like eBay, making the hundreds of millions a year in
profit that it does... (or is it billions now?) and not feel the ethical
need to provide actual "human" customer service.  Good God, you think the
government is awful now... Wait until she starts running her little part of
the bureaucracy .  We might as well just stamp bar codes on our foreheads
from now and never ever expect anything good from America again.  If
anything could ever knock me off of my solid, conservative, capitalistic
foundation, she could.

If someone doesn't know what I'm talking about. Try and call eBay sometime
and talk to a person.... I don't mean fill out a form, or write emails, I
mean physically *talk* to a person. No, not at PayPal... At eBay. It simply
will never happen, and if that isn't as bad and as greedy as it gets,
nothing ever will tip you over the line.

John Esak



> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-
=valar.com at lists.celestial.com 
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+john=valar.com at lists.celestial.co
> m] On Behalf Of Fairlight
> Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 9:45 AM
> To: filePro
> Subject: Re: OT: Dr. Who
> 
> On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 07:29:05AM -0400, Walter Vaughan may 
> or may not
> have proven themselves an utter git by pronouncing:
> > Brian K. White wrote:
> >
> > >(top post for john since I have a one line reply yet want 
> to quote the
> > >entire message deliberately)
> > >
> > >Oh man I so agree on all points....
> > >
> >
> > A whole new generation however would never purchase physical medium
> > like a DVD That's what keeps going though my mind. The 
> rules they are a
> > changing...
> 
> I don't want to say never, but as long as iTunes clings to 
> their DRM, I'm
> far, far (99.999%) less likely to even attempt to use iTunes 
> as opposed to
> buying CDs or DVDs, even if it's only a matter of principle.
> 
> Not that DVDs have no DRM.  Of course, every scheme is broken 
> in a matter
> of days.  But you can use your disc at 20 different players 
> if you want, as
> long as you have your disc, without checking with Sony, MGM, 
> etc., before
> you try to play it at a new location. iTunes, no so much--you get 'n'
> computers, and after that you have to start deauthorising and 
> authorising.
> 
> There are some things people will (grudgingly) accept in 
> their software
> that they will not accept in their A/V media.
> 
> To my knowledge, you can't export iTunes music to anything 
> other than an
> iPod/Touch/Pad, so that's a non-starter if you have a device 
> that doesn't
> speak their proprietary DRM scheme.  At least DVDs use 
> industry standards,
> even if individual vendors use proprietary structural 
> protection (i.e.,
> ArCCoS) as well as CSS.
> 
> Then there's video, specifically.  Namely, the size of the files.
> Broadband penetration continues to suck massively in this 
> country.  Our
> speeds are, by and large, flagging compared to many other 
> countries.  Even
> the UK has a more progressive broadband infrastructure build-out plan,
> including to rural areas.  Don't even try to compare us with 
> South Korea.
> The fact is, video file downloading is a bit painful on a 
> standard 1.5/256
> DSL line.  If the line is in an area with crappy 
> infrastructure and doesn't
> perform at full capacity, it's that much worse.  Cable and DSL aren't
> always options.  Satellite has its own inherent problems.  (Satellite
> would be the -last- thing I'd try, as the inherent latency 
> due to bouncing
> signals to/from LEO would make gaming virtually impossible.)
> 
> Sure, the market is shifting.  My DSL has been performing at 
> about 60% of
> its 1.5mbit rating for a couple years due to crappy 
> infrastructure, and I
> -still- get all my games and software via digital download.  
> It just takes
> longer.  But downloading even a 17GB game -once- is a lot 
> different than
> trying to download five to ten seasons of a television show 
> for marathon
> watching.  Even on some cable plans, that's stretching 
> it--and many have
> bandwidth caps, especially non-domestically.  In fact, the US 
> is one of the
> few countries with a tendency to not be capped/metered, and 
> we still have
> companies that do so.
> 
> That, and if -all- video started being streamed, chances are the major
> backbones in place right now would melt under the load.  
> They've been built
> out, but they're still not equipped to deal with more than 
> 'x' amount of
> traffic before exhibiting problems.
> 
> It's going to be a while before everything goes digital 
> distribution in
> this country--or any other, for that matter.
> 
> And frankly, I know -many- people to whom I've recommended digital
> distribution (Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse, et al) for 
> software, and they
> refuse to adopt it, saying they want physical copies, period, 
> the end.  Not
> all of them are older folks, either.
> 
> Physical media distribution is far from dead.
> 
> mark->
> -- 
> Audio panton, cogito singularis,
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