mgraham333

I stopped renting DVDs some time ago because of scratched discs. The policy at "MattBuster" would be - If you lay the disc on any surface other than the tray of your player or its case you buy the disc Some of the discs looked like the previous renter strapped them on to the bottom of their shoes and walked in the parking lot out to their car. I just don't get it. What the f@ck is so complicated about using discs? Take it out of its case Put it in the player Enjoy Take it out of the player Put it back in its case That said, I wouldn't mind the tougher polymer. I've had a disc or two get scratched from a slip and fall, or an aging slot loader. I read an article about this tougher polymer some time ago. I wonder if any of the manufacturers are using it yet in pre-recorded discs.

I received my order from Mr. Mingus in good condition and in a timely manner.

I can hardly wait for the made-for-TV-movie version of all this...staring Chris Sarandon

Hornblasters because they can......

25% off One item through 03/05/06

Thanks! Listened to the whole show at work today.

It looks like the street team is back.... under a different name. The Messengers

Dvorak: Will Apple Adopt Windows? Monday, February 20, 2006 By John C. Dvorak This would be the most phenomenal turnabout in the history of desktop computing. There's just one fly in the ointment. The idea that Apple would ditch its own OS for Microsoft Windows came to me from Yakov Epstein, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University, who wrote to me convinced that the process had already begun. I was amused, but after mulling over various coincidences, I'm convinced he may be right. This would be the most phenomenal turnabout in the history of desktop computing. Epstein made four observations. The first was that the Apple Switch ad campaign was over, and nobody switched. The second was that the iPod lost its FireWire connector because the PC world was the new target audience. Also, although the iPod was designed to get people to move to the Mac, this didn't happen. And, of course, that Apple had switched to the Intel microprocessor. Though these points aren't a slam-dunk for Epstein's thesis, other observations support it. The theory explains several odd occurrences, including Apple's freak-out and lawsuits over Macintosh gossip sites that ran stories about a musicians' breakout box that has yet to be shipped. Like, who cares? But if Apple's saber-rattling was done to scare the community into backing off so it wouldn't discover the Windows stratagem, then the incident makes more sense. As does Bill Gates's onscreen appearance during Apple's turnaround when Jobs was taking a pot of money from Microsoft. The Windows stratagem may have been a done deal by then. This may also explain the odd comment at the Macworld Expo by a Microsoft spokesperson that Microsoft Office will continue to be developed for the Mac for "five years." What happens after that? This switch to Windows may have originally been planned for this year and may partly explain why Adobe and other high-end apps were not ported to the Apple x86 platform when it was announced in January. At Macworld, most observers said that these new Macs could indeed run Windows now. Bigger companies than Apple have dropped their proprietary OSs in favor of Windows — think IBM and OS/2. IBM also jumped on the Linux bandwagon over its own AIX version of Unix. Business eventually trumps sentimentality in any large company. Another issue for Apple is that the Intel platform is wide open, unlike the closed proprietary system Apple once had full control over. With a proprietary architecture, Apple could tweak the OS for a controlled environment without worrying about the demands of a multitude of hardware add-ons and software subsystems. Windows, as crappy as many believe it to be, actually thrives in this mishmash architecture. Products, old and new, have drivers for Windows above all else. By maintaining its own OS, Apple would have to suffer endless complaints about peripherals that don't work. As someone who believed that the Apple OS x86 could gravitate toward the PC rather than Windows toward the Mac, I have to be realistic. It boils down to the add-ons. Linux on the desktop never caught on because too many devices don't run on that OS. It takes only one favorite gizmo or program to stop a user from changing. Chat rooms are filled with the likes of "How do I get my DVD burner to run on Linux?" This would get old fast at Apple. Apple has always said it was a hardware company, not a software company. Now with the cash cow iPod line, it can afford to drop expensive OS development and just make jazzy, high-margin Windows computers to finally get beyond that five-percent market share and compete directly with Dell, HP and the stodgy Chinese makers. To preserve the Mac's slick cachet, there is no reason an executive software layer couldn't be fitted onto Windows to keep the Mac look and feel. Various tweaks could even improve the OS itself. From the Mac to the iPod, it's the graphic user interface that makes Apple software distinctive. Apple popularized the modern GUI. Why not specialize in it and leave the grunt work to Microsoft? It would help the bottom line and put Apple on the fast track to real growth. The only fly in the ointment will be the strategic difficulty of breaking the news to the fanatical users. Most were not initially pleased by the switch to Intel's architecture, and this will make them crazy. Luckily, Apple has a master showman, Steve Jobs. He'll announce that now everything can run on a Mac. He'll say that the switch to Windows gives Apple the best of both worlds. He'll say this is not your daddy's Windows. He'll cajole and cajole, and still hear a few boos. But those will be the last boos he'll hear, for then the Mac will be mainstream. We will welcome the once-isolated Apple mavens, finally. Source

We're finally getting some snow. We've been without precipitation for some time. looking out the front window across the street standing on the back patio

Latin jazz figure Ray Barretto dies Grammy-winning percussionist had heart surgery earlier this month MSNBC Updated: 9:15 a.m. ET Feb. 17, 2006 Percussionist Ray Barretto, whose Latin-styled jazz rhythms were legendary among salsa fans, died early Friday morning, according to a New York-area radio station. Barretto, 76, passed away in the Hackensack University Medical Center just before 5 a.m. Friday, WBGO-FM said. He had been ill and underwent heart bypass surgery in January, a procedure that required follow-up surgery earlier this month after an artery burst. After the second surgery, he had been in recovery in an intensive care unit at a Ridgewood, N.J., hospital. Barretto won a 1989 Grammy for best Tropical Latin performance for his song "Ritmo en el Corazon," recorded with Celia Cruz. He recently was for another Grammy this year for his album “Time Was — Time Is” but lost out to his counterpart Eddie Palmieri. Barretto, whose 1979 album "Ricanstruction" is a classic in the salsa genre, gained fame in the jazz community for integrating the conga drum into jazz rhythms. Source

It would be a 2-disc set, but I would like to see: Stanley Turrentine's Up At Minton's And how about Kenny Dorham's Trompeta Toccata and some more from Duke Pearson, Kenny Burrell and Lou Donaldon! Does anyone have the scoop yet on the summer batches?

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use February 15, 2006 It is no secret that the entertainment oligopolists are not happy about space-shifting and format-shifting. But surely ripping your own CDs to your own iPod passes muster, right? In fact, didn't they admit as much in front of the Supreme Court during the MGM v. Grokster argument last year? Apparently not. As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing that included this gem as part of their argument that space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making copies of your own CDs: "Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization. In this regard, the statement attributed to counsel for copyright owners in the MGM v. Grokster case is simply a statement about authorization, not about fair use." For those who may not remember, here's what Don Verrilli said to the Supreme Court last year: "The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it's been on their website for some time now, that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod." If I understand what the RIAA is saying, "perfectly lawful" means "lawful until we change our mind." So your ability to continue to make copies of your own CDs on your own iPod is entirely a matter of their sufferance. What about all the indie label CDs? Do you have to ask each of them for permission before ripping your CDs? And what about all the major label artists who control their own copyrights? Do we all need to ask them, as well? P.S.: The same filing also had this to say: "Similarly, creating a back-up copy of a music CD is not a non-infringing use...." Source

Is it anything like: Turrentine's Joyride, Jimmy & Wes's Dynamic Duo, or Rollins' Alfie?

I'm looking forward to some soundclips!! I've been playing Stanley Turrentine's Joyride over and over. I'm hoping that the Nelson Mosaic will be something like that. Can anyone who knows the music comment? I had almost written this set off as just another big band blowout. But Joyride made me think. And I love Blues/More Blues and the Abstract Truth. Any similarities between those and the music in this set? I also pulled out the Gerald Wilson set and am listening to that at the office today. Is this the Wilson more/less like what is in the Nelson set? I need soundclips!!!!!

This post has an image of the cover.

check page 6 in this thread

I love Joyride! This is my first time to hear this album. I was familiar with River's Invitation from the Blue Note 60th Anniversary boxed set. The rest of the album, especially Mattie T. are fantastic. Oliver Nelson's influence is easily heard, but Turrentine's voice stands out. Another cool, car-themed cover too! Is there more of Stanley Turrentine in this format?

If anyone from BlueNote lurks here - I'd love to hear what our options for replacement CD books are....

What does this mean? Is there something actually printed on the cover that says that? Can you post an image? My CDUniverse package doesn't arrive until tomorrow....

Commentary by Leander Kahney | Also by this reporter 02:00 AM Feb, 08, 2006 Two week's ago I attacked Steve Jobs and made myself the most popular columnist in the Mac universe -- even my own wife called me "an idiot." So this week I figured I'd balance things out by talking about someone I admire greatly: Steve Wozniak. Most of the stuff written about Wozniak portrays him as an amiable buffoon. By most accounts, Woz is a talented engineer who got lucky in his early career and became fabulously wealthy. Then he dropped out to be an unsuccessful concert promoter, launch a couple of go-nowhere startups and teach school. It appears Woz has bounced from one thing to another without much commitment or direction. Along the way, he squandered much of his fortune and was a soft touch for every charity and cause under the sun. Biographers play up Woz's lighthearted character, his lifelong commitment to pranks and naiveté. Sharks like the concert promoter Bill Graham, Woz's partner in the financially unsuccessful Unuson concerts, famously called Woz a "simpleton." It is generally believed Woz was mercilessly ripped off turning his Los Gatos mansion into an elaborate funhouse for his kids. Woz's explanation: "I don't feel attached to my money in normal ways." Perhaps this portrait is true -- Woz suffered a plane crash that may have affected his memory and ability to work -- but an alternative reading of Woz's biography reveals a man who has lived his life according to deeply geeky and humanistic principles. There's a lot to admire about Woz, but let's start with four things: his dedication to kids; his support for his community and its public institutions, especially schools; his casual relationship to money; and his egoless appraisal of his own place in history -- a realization, absolutely true, that he was a good engineer but has been disproportionately rewarded for simply being in the right place at the right time. Consider: Asked who his heroes are, Woz cites his engineer father, the fictional engineer Tom Swift and a pair of childhood teachers. It seems Woz has devoted his life to emulating these heroes. After becoming one of the most celebrated engineers in the computer industry, he dropped out to teach school. Woz spent nearly a decade teaching computer science -- unpaid -- for the Los Gatos Unified School District, and he ran weekend and summer school classes in the garage of his hilltop mansion. Each student got a $5,000 PowerBook, and Woz has equipped dozens of school computer labs. "By all accounts, teaching children has given Woz as much joy and meaning in his life as creating the first personal computer," wrote Owen Linzmeyer in his excellent history of Apple, Apple Confidential. His commitment to public education is striking. Who in California cares about public education anymore? Most people who can afford it pull their kids out of public school and educate them privately. Not Woz. Woz has been generous with his fortune, financing scores of educational initiatives and sponsoring dozens of public institutions, including San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum, which sits on Woz Way. Before Apple went public in 1980, Woz gave away a lot of stock to friends and family, or sold shares at face value to fellow engineers whom he felt weren't fairly recognized in the stock allocation. In fact, Woz gave away so many shares, he forced the company into an early, possibly premature IPO. (The company had to go public or be in breach of SEC rules dictating private companies can have no more than 500 shareholders.) Woz wanted to give the first Apple 1 he and Jobs made to an itinerant computer teacher called Liza L00ps. But Jobs made Woz buy the computer from the fledgling company they had just incorporated together -- and then he gave it to her. Woz lost an estimated $20 million of his own money hosting a pair of giant Unuson ("unite us in song") rock concerts, but considered them a tremendous success because they were great fun and he got to hang out with "a few thousand of my closest friends.... I run into more people that thank me for those festivals than thank me for Apple," he said. In several interviews, Woz has downplayed his contribution to the development of the personal computer. Lauded as one of the founders of the industry, Woz says he's merely a good engineer who got lucky. In an interview with MacCare, he said: "I wonder why, when I just did kind of normal things -- some good engineering and just what I wanted to do in life -- why everywhere I go, some people think that I'm some kind of hero or a special person. "People want to say, it's one special person in the world that does the good thing. But it's really the body of people and their mass thinking that caused computers to happen. But you always want to pinpoint a few individuals and say this is why. That is dodging the fact that all people, really, were going that way. There was a long development of technology that was leading to what we have today." Woz recognizes that he stood on the shoulders of giants. He didn't invent the personal computer single-handed; it was group effort. Woz embodies the most admirable qualities of the hacker. He's a great engineer, who designed beautiful machines and made a fortune from them. Good for him. But he wasn't greedy, he didn't screw anyone over and he took care of his friends. He values education, and by his own count, his greatest achievement is being a good father to his kids. A few years ago I spent a magical afternoon at Bruce Damer's Digibarn, a private computer museum on a small farm outside Santa Cruz. When I visited Bruce, he was in the process of organizing his collection. On one dusty workbench sat several old Apple machines and a long cardboard contraption called the "Mac chimney." A tapered box open at both ends, the Mac chimney was an after-market add-on designed to stop the original Macintosh from overheating. Placed on top of the Mac, it drew heat upward by convection. Bruce thought it hilarious. It was big and preposterous and ruined the aesthetics of the neat, compact machine -- it looked like the Mac was wearing a dunce's cap. The chimney was necessary only because Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, the driving force behind the machine, couldn't stand the sound of a cooling fan. So the Mac shipped without one, even though it needed it, and a lot of users were forced to buy cardboard chimneys to stop their machines melting on their desks. Bruce thought the chimney was a charming example of Jobs' uncompromising genius. Jobs wasn't always right, but he always got what he wanted. Bruce noted that most people couldn't jury rig their own fan because the case was sealed shut, requiring an unusual screwdriver to crack it open. Next to the Mac sat an old Apple an Apple II GS Woz Edition -- a limited run of the last of the Apple IIs, named in honor of its chief designer. As I reported at the time: "Damer popped the lid to reveal the GS' motherboard. It's a classic Woz design,' Damer explained. 'Few chips. Lots of slots. Open.' "He gestured to the original Macintosh, the brainchild of Steve Jobs, sitting on a bench nearby. "'The Mac is from the same time but is the total opposite,' he said. 'Jobs closed it up. You need a special screwdriver to open the case. No slots. Closed and proprietary. There's the two cultures of Apple right there. One open, one closed.'" Source: Wired.com

also from the vault.....

I just got my Mulligan Select. Can't wait to hear it! FYI - The selects are no longer numbered at all - not pre-printed on the box nor hand-numbered. Okay, not a fatal flaw, but certainly a little disappointing. Oh, and the price increase for me was a little higher. My Mulligan select cost $88..... Only because I ordered the Mulligan and the Bechet and didn't receive the Bechet. I am sure Mosaic will take care of that in their usual expedient fashion.

All CDs: Buy 3 get the 4th free through Feb 28th

Yes, I am quoting myself.... Oddly enough when the book finally shipped from Amazon.com it originated in Tulsa, OK (my hometown). So they either have a distribution center here or they got it from a local retailer (in which case, why did it take a month!!??) This thing is enormous!! And well worth the wait. I took a couple of hours just to "flip" through it. I can't wait to have a chance to really sit down and take a good look.