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Uncle Skid

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Everything posted by Uncle Skid

  1. Indeed. It also appears that they've drastically throttled back their downloading speeds today -- either in anticipation of massive downloading, or maybe because of it.
  2. Well, I guess it was just too good to last much longer... Or, I could choose the "EMusic Premium" service for $50 per month, with a limit of 300 downloads. I'm not sure what I'm going to do -- I'm leaning towards cancelling my month-old subscription. It was an easy decision before -- unlimited (well, actually up to 2000) dowloads per month for $10 or $15. I was no where near that last month, but I was well above 65. They also mention "significant new labels, artists and releases as well as enhanced features". I'd bet "enhanced features" could mean some sort of DRM copy-protected or copy limited MP3's. They really had a good thing going there -- it's too bad.
  3. Almost picked that one up the other day -- looks pretty good. With all the new and proposed casinos popping up everywhere, it seems to be appropriate (and necessary) reading. The description reminds me of a book I picked up in Reno years ago: Always Bet on the Butcher: Warren Nelson and Casino Gambling, 1930S-1980s by Warren Nelson. Interesting account of the Nevada gaming industry. Now reading.. A People's History of the United States : 1492-Present, by Howard Zinn. Fascinating, and sometimes disturbing, account of America history from a different perspective. Incidentally, this book is also available for download on emusic.com. Just finished Effortless Mastery - Liberating the Master Musician Within, by Kenny Werner. A bit "new-agey" at times, but overall a good read. It certainly has helped make my practice time more relaxed and focused. Re-reading random sections of The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan.
  4. Has anybody noticed any problems with incomplete, empty, and/or missing posts when viewing this site with Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird? I've seen this a few times now -- and thought it was just a "glitch" in the software behind the scenes. However, it looks like these problems go away when using Internet Explorer. For instance, when I'm viewing the 2nd page of the "Now Reading...." topic under Firebird, the 5th (J Larsen) posts says "edited by ghost of miles", and the 9th post down is completely blank. With IE, these look fine. I apologize if this has already been discussed somewhere, and it's certainly not a big deal -- just curious. Thanks!
  5. This software counts on the "autorun" feature of Windows -- which is easily turned off (permanently) if desired. Holding the "SHIFT" key when inserting a CD simply bypasses this "autorun" feature for that particular CD. Analysis of the MediaMax CD3 Copy-Prevention System: So, it actually *can* prevent ripping of other copy-protected CD's, but it wouldn't interfere with ripping normal, unprotected media. This just seems stupid to me. I'm sure a quick internet search on "MediaMax" or something would provide anyone that's interested the correct information to disable the protection. So, basically, this penalizes less computer-savvy people, but really wouldn't affect anyone that knew how to disable "autorun". Linux users are not affected by this at all. B)
  6. No, we probably don't. I guess it all comes down to personal likes and dislikes -- and for a variety of reasons, the Spencer stuff just didn't sit well with me. I understand the importance of reinventing and transforming tunes, but I don't believe that Spencer was doing anything new or significant. This sort of discussion seems to come up a lot around here, and I always learn something new from the exchange. I recall reading a similar discussion on the relative merits of Eric Alexander, and I'm amazed by both the depth of knowledge of the posters here, as well as the generally civil tone when disagreements come up. Thanks, guys. B)
  7. I agree with b3-er's assessment of Jon Spencer and Lucinda Williams. It's not really about whether or not they "have no business" performing songs -- it's about being faithful to the original composer's vision of the song. IMHO, what they were doing was so *far* removed from the original that it was pointless. In Spencer's case, I'd even call it "masturbatory" -- especially shown in glaring contrast to the original. I think it was Jerry Coker that said (or wrote) that musicians should approach each song with a certain reverence and understanding of the original composer's intentions. It's that reverence that seems to be missing in many of those artists -- with the very obvious exception of Bonnie Raitt.
  8. Well, Saskatoon may not qualify as the "midwest", but this seems appropriate:
  9. > after you d/l an album and burn it, what next? > do you delete the album or save it? I've been leaving all the album's on my hard drive, with the intention of eventually burning all of them to CD-R's or RW's as a backup. I haven't actually burned any of them yet, as I usually listen to them directly from the PC -- the sound card's line output is plugged into stereo system line in. Another *wonderful* way to listen to all the stuff I've downloaded is the Archos Jukebox Recorder. 20 GB Harddrive, and with USB 2.0 support, my Emusic files get moved from PC to mobile MP3 device in record time! The Archos is one of those things that definitely qualifies as "something I really didn't need", but now, especially after joining Emusic, has become indispensable. It is really nice to toss this little device in the car, knowing that most of my CD collection, and also my EMusic files are on there; plus I don't have to bring any CD's with me. > should i've done the year? I also signed up for the three month plan, with the intention of re-joining in a year or so, if they add any new, compelling titles. RDK is right -- I have a broadband connection, and so far I've downloaded around 300 songs -- I've listened to everything at least once, but it's going to take a considerable amount of time to absorb all of this. I look at it this way - $45 for three months is *way* less than I spend in CD's on any given month. It was really a no-brainer to join, and I just hope they don't get greedy and turn it into something like some of the other services -- $1 per song, or worse.
  10. I love good stories about kids and music. Thanks! My 10-year old daughter is becoming a big jazz fan, and this is somewhat surprising when considering what most 10-year olds girls consider good music these days. A few months ago, she couldn't sleep and came downstairs asking for some "quiet" music to listen to. Since then, Ron Carter/Jim Hall "Alone Together" has been on every night. She loves it, and it does help her get to sleep. I brought her along tonight to my weekly musical get together. I (try to) play guitar, and my good friend is a bassist. Tonight's session also included a vocalist. After completely butchering great standards like "The Girl from Ipanema", "Summertime", and "Autumn Leaves", I asked her if "that was the worst music you've ever heard"? She replied, "No, that would be Britney Spears and Jewel. You guys are *much* better than them". I guess I can take that as a compliment -- we aren't as bad as Britney!!
  11. Thanks for the responses, everyone. I had never heard of them before, and it's always nice to have some indication of what to expect before placing an order with an online merchant. I'm thinking about ordering the Stanley Turrentine and Freddie Hubbard CD's, and I'm *really* looking forward to Miles' take on "Don't Fear the Reaper"! Thanks again!
  12. Jazz Best Value CD's Anybody ever order anything from them? Although I really don't need to be spending any more money on CD's, $6.99 is a pretty good price!
  13. I wonder if Jazzbo is right -- the real question might be about fingerboards. I'm not sure about the difference between rosewood and walnut, but I've heard that maple fingerboards tend to make the guitar sound much "brighter" than those with darker wood. For instance, I have a strat with a maple fingerboard that definitely sounds brighter (or less "mellow") than my Heritage H-575 with rosewood. I think this has as much to do with pickups, design (solid vs. hollow-body), etc., as it does with fingerboards. However, the Strat definitely plays "faster" and "easier", at least to me. I'd bet if you played two identical guitars, with the only difference being maple vs. rosewood, the maple would be brighter. What kind of guitar are you buying?? B)
  14. ss1 - you should be able to leave any anti-virus and firewalling software running. I believe the MP3 files are transferred using the normal (but encrypted somehow) HTTP protocol -- the same way your browser transfers web pages. Neither one should get in the way of great music automagically being delivered to your hard drive. B)
  15. Maybe it's because I'm a child of the 70's, but I really think Mothership should look like this:
  16. Thanks! Those Mosiac pictures are great! ... and there really is something about that Grant Green/John Patton picture in particular -- I remember seeing it here on another thread, and I meant to bookmark it then. Turns out there's a "scaled" function under Linux/KDE that must be similar to the Windows "stretch". Looks good as long as the original picture isn't too small.
  17. Anybody know where to find good jazz photos/bitmaps/wallpapers, etc? I came across this one: Jazz Desktops. All of these are only in 1024x768 resolution, but the Sonny Rollins one really looks cool on a 1280x1024 desktop "tiled" -- the picture of him ends up on both the left and right sides of the screen.
  18. Check out The Music Resource. Prices look reasonable -- new Criss Cross releases at $14.95, new Connoisseurs at $13.95, and RVG's at $9.95. I believe they are in Indiana -- shipping via USPS should be quick to Michigan!
  19. All three of these are available on EMusic.com Thanks for the recommendations, Big Al and Soul Stream. Brotherly Love is excellent, and the other two are downloading now -- I've probably have to wipe down my cable modem when it's done!! EMusic is extremely cool - Instant Greeeeaze! b3-er: some of these songs remind me of Organissimo - do you guys do any covers of McDuff tunes?
  20. 24, including the six that arrived yesterday. "Our Man in Paris" in on now - fantastic!
  21. Great! I'm glad I could help. I think so -- I know that once I had my domain "officially" in my name, I could do whatever I wanted with it. Yes. In fact, this thread got me thinking about that again. Turns out that I can transfer the registration to ICDSoft (or Dotster, or wherever), effectively saving me $30 per year. At the time I moved to ICD (about 2 years ago), they weren't able to do this. So, I guess I'll have to spend that $30 I saved somewhere else.... new RVG's perhaps?? B)
  22. I moved my site from a different host (long story -- let's just say it's usually not a good idea to mix business affairs with in-laws!). Since my brother-in-law had already registered the domain with register.com, I couldn't have ICDsoft register it for me. I would have preferred to do the whole thing (register & hosting) with ICDSoft - the registering only costs an additional $5/year if it's all done with them. Register.com charges $35/year, for what appears to be the same thing! Plus, they charged an additional $35 to update the DNS entries when I moved it to ICD. So, FWIW, I'd recommend doing everything though ICD (or something equivalent) -- if you don't have the domain registered yet. Good Luck. -- Mark
  23. No - I've never done much with forums/boards. However, a friend of mine does websites/forums for some local bands, and he's using something called DiscusWare. It seems to be pretty good for a fairly small, basic discussion forum. Also, he's using ICDSoft to host most (if not all) of his band sites, and has been happy with them so far, after about a year. The only complaint I've heard about them (ICD) is that they don't have any telephone support. This hasn't been a problem for me, as any time that I've sent email to their tech support, it was answered within 5-10 minutes every time, even on the weekend. Hope this helps.
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