Claude

Depends on the copy protection scheme. There are big differences. I was able to copy the "Cactus Datashield 200"-protected disc Norah Jones "Feels like home" on my CD burner but not on my DVD drive. The original CD played fine in my CD player but produced clicking noise in my DVD player. More details in this thread: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...533;entry138826

This free listening service was a bit too attractive

Yes. It's astonishing that BMG would pay for this almost non-functional copy protection, that only works with completely uninformed users

Microsoft does not own XRCD but HDCD (high definition compact disc). XRCD belongs to JVC. HDCD, which requires a CD player with a special HDCD decoder chip to benefit from the improvement, is dead now, because of SACD and DVD-A. http://www.hdcd.com (latest news release is from February 2001 !)

XRCDs are well-remastered CDs. To call them "extended resolution CDs" and suggest they are an advanced CD format is a rather ingenious marketing trick. I don't think XRCDs are still that interesting today, as many audiophiles who are willing to pay more than $25 for a disc will prefer SACDs, which really offer a higher resolution than CDs (but require a SACD player). However, many XRCDs of Fantasy material are currently the best digital version available, as the corresponding DCC gold CDs (which I generally prefer because of a warmer sound) are OOP and no SACD version in sight. Many of the Fantasy XRCD reissue titles are also available as OJC K2 reissues, which have been remastered at the JVC studios too and sound very good, at only half the price.

In the 80's direct drive turntables were considered "high tech", that's why many makers switched to this technology, including traditional companies like Dual or Thorens which exclusively used belt drive before. The current entry level turntables (Rega, Pro-Ject) as well as most high end models use belt drive again. Direct drive is indispensable for DJs, because the motor can accelerate the platter to the right speed a lot quicker than with belt drive. "Scratching" is only possible with direct-driven turntables. This is of course irrelevant for the normal home listener.

Paypal is the only payment method that allows me to auction individual CDs in the US. A money order would cost $10 and takes two weeks to arrive. For transactions within the EU (euro zone), I prefer bank transfers which cost $0.2 to the payer and nothing to the person that receives the money.

Sorry for nitpicking, but there is a strange choice of words in this news report. The EU commission doesn't "recommend" or "back" mergers, it just can oppose it or not. Like the competition authority in every country, the Commission checks if the merger threatens competition on the EU market. If the examination of the case reveals no sufficient arguments to oppose the merger, the EU must approve it. Personally I think this growing concentration in the music industry (omly four big record companies remain) is bad for the diversity in the sector.

Uncheck the "Enable emoticons" box when posting to prevent "b)" being converted to

I think this would rather show that they have no arrangement with EMI. The "spanish Blue Note" CDs had initially been released only as a 50CD-Box sold by Time Life Spain in the late 90's, and they were not meant to be sold as single discs, some of which compete with the official Blue Note reissues.

Are you broke?

No, the data are on the hard drive, which keeps data without power. If the battery fails, the data can still be accessed by connecting the player to the power supply But you loose your data when the Ipod gets lost or stolen, which happens much more often than battery failure. So always keep your files on backup CD-Rs, if they are not sourced from your audio CDs. The hard drive of your PC can fail too, so that's not a reliable backup either.

Could there be unreleased stuff from the 80's?

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=34827

Two tracks from the "Someday my prince will come" album feature Trane and are in the Miles & Trane box: 1. Someday My Prince Will Come 5. Teo That's almost half of the album (18:30)

As this link is changing every day, here is the Kenny G. cartoon:

This was reported in italian and spanish news in April: Francia, polizia apre indagine su sospetti militanti dell'Eta El máximo jefe de ETA pudo haber escapado del cerco de la Policía gala Apart from this, the capture of the two ETA terrorists doesn't seem to have made big news.

We urgently need a Ronald Reagan subforum in Politics

Five discs later it looked like this

I guess that this concert was taped for TV broadcast, and that the DVD producers for both releases simply put that TV programme on the discs.

You say potato and he say kerfuffle Let's call the whole thing off

Here are links to both DVDs: Immortal: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6716460 ($20, only 2 available) http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?PID=6654762 (the same disc, Holland import, $28, backordered) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001Y4MPO/ ($23, only 1 in stock) Unicorn Video: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?PID=6661495 ($10.6, backordered) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00019GHJS/ ($13.5, only one in stock) The first one is region-free, the second one Region 1 (US). Both are in the NTSC picture format. The first version is also available here: Qualiton Imports Ltd

I would avoid getting the CDs into slimmer cases, because one will have to store the empty jewel cases somewhere anyhow (don't forget that many CDs are now in digipacs). Try to find or make shelves that are higher, and that can be placed in two rows (a smaller one that slides sideways in front of the large one). CDs are only 13cm deep, so it should be possible to store them in two rows.