August 29, 2004
The RIAA Mulls Their Own Demise.
;)
Their official statement of concern is "We remain concerned about any devices or software that permit listeners to transform a broadcast into a music library." Now, I don't know about everybody else, but when I was about ten years old I didn't exactly have an allowance that would permit me to buy every band's album that I was into, so I would rely on the radio for most of my music, when there was a song I might want to listen to more often than the radio DJ's were willing to play it, I would pop in a blank cassette and record it off the radio...Apparently, "It's very hard for policy and copyright law to keep up with the pace of technological change."
The RIAA is looking for a way to dig their teeth into a software developer that wrote some software that pretty much does the same thing as hitting the 'Record' button while listening to the radio, on that Cassette Boombox you see in the picture.
Posted by tbartels at 05:10 PM | Comments (3)
August 23, 2004
Never hear the same song twice
From the "Let your music player make music" department Compact Impact is selling a CD of 99 tracks with 99 scales that is meant to be played using the Random function of your CD player to create new melodies every time you listen...
Posted by tbartels at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2004
The Water in L.A., it's A Love-Hate Relationship.
You bet, everybody I know loves to hate the water in L.A. I don't know of many people that are even willing to cook with L.A. water anymore, much less drink it. Yes, it is drinkable, it won't kill you or make you lose an organ, but when a cola sounds more refreshing than tap water after a long run, something is wrong. I think most of us pass it off as part of urban living. This is not to say that L.A. County isn't trying it's hardest to keep up with the needs of it's citizens and supply fresh, clean water throuhgout the city, but there are plenty of problems involved in getting enough water to support an area as large as L.A. One of the first things most people seem to notice about L.A. water is not actually the taste, but the smell when you take a shower or bath, most describe it as the same smell as the community pool, an abundance of chlorine. The high chlorine content of the water is severely damaging to your skin and hair, but what can you do? Well, for about $30-$50 you can get a nifty shower filter that just attaches between the shower head and the water supply. It claims to neutralize the chlorine and make your soap more effective by making it lather better. The only drawback is replacing the filter every 4 months, but the savings in lotions and conditioners might make it worth it.
Posted by tbartels at 12:54 AM | Comments (1)
August 10, 2004
Guthrie Doesn't Even Get A Say.
About a week ago I got an email expressing a comedic appreciation for the new Jib-Jab short "This Land" that is, in brief, a comedic expression of the more personal views one might expect from Kerry and Bush. Well, the people that "own" the rights to the Guthrie song are threatening to sue. I was listening to NPR earlier tonight and learned something new about the song...
Apparently Woodie Guthrie was not the original author of the melody behind "This Land is Your Land", he borrowed it from the Country/Bluegrass band The Carter Family of the time who were the first to record it but had borrowed it from an old gospel song that goes by the name of "When the World's on Fire". Jib-jab is by no means backing down to the threats and claims "We consider it a case of political satire and parody and therefore entitled to the fair use exemption of the copyright act." Now this is all well and good, but even without all of that leagal speak there is an "official" copyright on the music, written by Guthrie himself(a MUST read!): Seal of Copyright # 154085. How far can it go?
Posted by tbartels at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2004
Get Off Your Kiester.
World Carfree Day(probably should be hyphenated "Car-Free") is making it's international debut this year on Sept. 22. I used to spend most of my days car-free, but now that I work 24 miles from my home it's not quite as simple as it used to be, but perhaps for one day of the year I could actually make the effor to bike it to work, and see how long it actually takes.
I have heard rumors that Los Angeles used to have a pretty good public transportation system in place, Going everywhere from Downtown L.A. to Orange County and into the valley, but it is rumored to have been ripped out to make way for the highways and wide streets we are so accustomed to now. There is a World carfree Network website that explains even more and offers other good resources for ideas on how to be more car-free.
Posted by tbartels at 09:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack