Claude

Their entire website seems to be in trouble. I'm getting "Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error" everywhere.

He has now been convicted of murder: 'Perverse' cannibal killer gets life FRANKFURT, Germany -- A cannibal whose killing and eating of a willing victim shocked Germany has been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison after a court overturned a previous manslaughter conviction. http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/0...cannibal.trial/

I have frequent problems with the search funtion. Many times the search ends with a server error. The "New posts" search works ok. Could there be a problem with the database?

Thanks Weizen for posting the list. What happened? I thought Hans had to take some holidays after his exhausting long listening sessions in April

I also bought about 50 OJCs for 3€ each. Many of them are not in the Merkheft but can be found on the website (search for the sublabels Riverside, Prestige, Contemporary, Pablo, Fantasy, Milestone).

Well, reading the topic I was just about to add a recommendation for Hank Roberts too. I especially like his contributions to some Tim Berne albums, like "Fulton Street Maul", "Fractured Fairy Tales" or the duo "Cause & Reflect".

The Hallé in 2006: http://www.halle.co.uk

The problem is to find "decent" CD-Rs. I have had problems with dozens of Fuji CD-Rs burned in 2002-2003 that have become partly unreadable by now. At the time, I thought Fuji was a renowned brand that offered decent CD-Rs

What the article says is that CD-R was claimed to have a life expectancy of 25-75 years. That obviously concerns only the best CD-Rs, not the cheap ones that dominate the market. The life expactancy of CDs is certainly higher than 25 years, since there is currently no information on widespread degradation problems with CDs that were sold more than 20 years ago. BTW, we also don't know if vinyl lasts longer than 75 years

I don't think it's a big problem, if you take a minimum of precautions. Burn two CD-R or DVD-R copies of your personal files (instead of just one) and verify them every two years (copy the files from the CD-R or DVD-R to the hard disc to check if they can be read). If all the files can be copied, it should be ok until the next check. If some files cannot be read, there's a problem with the disc, but you still have the other copy to use. Discs degrade progressively, so the chances that the same files are unreadable on both discs are small, especially with picture files that are generally only 1-2MB. Don't buy the cheapest discs but good brands.

Hi, Thanks for the tip. When I read the thread title, I thought it was about Google Earth (the satellite maps) and opened the Google Earth browser, but noticed no change for Europe. Many areas are still missing the high resolution photos. The Google Maps are very useful, though I haven't figured out how to search for streets and locations. My street in the eastern part of Luxembourg-City is on the map, but I noticed that some important locations in my surroundings, like the biggest stadium in Luxembourg where all international football matches are being played, are missing.

As I wrote above, any old turntable can be connected to a PC (through an amplifier) and be used to convert LPs to CD-R or MP3. If you buy a regular non-USB turntable and a cheap phono amp, you will get the same or better sound quality for a lower cost. This product offers no new functionalities. People have been recording LPs to CD-R for as long as CD-R burner exist (10 years).

I don't have any recommendation because I don't have the work myself, but if you search for "Finlandia" on this classical review site you can find a number of good discs, some in budget series: http://www.classicstoday.com/search.asp I would recommend getting a disc with some more tone poems by Sibelius, which are more easy listening than his symphonies.

That's just the icon, click on it to see the full-size picture. Great find

The output for the power amp should be avoided, since it is affected by the volume, balance and tone controls. The Tape Out is the best choice

Your soundcard only accepts line level (CD player etc) and microphone inputs, and the sound of a turntable need to be preamplified and equalized (hence the dedicated phono input on older amplifiers). So you need a seperated phono amplifier, which can be found in the price range of $20 to $20000 The turntable will be connected to the phono amp inputs (RCA plugs), and the RCA plugs of the phono amp outputs will be connected to the soundcard using a RCA to mini-headphone adapter cable. Here's some info on budget phono amps: http://www.delback.co.uk/lp-cdr.htm#record_preamp If you only need one temporarily (to make a few CD-Rs from LPs), you can also find an amplifier or receiver with a phono input and connect the soundcard to the Tape Record or Tape Out connections of the amplifier.

The turntable was discussed some time ago on the Steve Hoffman forum: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=71554

It's the first time I see such a thing, but in my view that's not really innovative, since it consists in integrating a phono amplifier and a USB soundcard into a turntable. Most users already have a soundcard, and a phono amp can be found for $20 and a decent used turntable for less than $100. The parts in that USB turntable are probably low end quality.

For those interested in classical, Amazon.co.uk also currently has great deals (50% off) on full price box sets from Universal Classics: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/bro...5177520-7024644

How is the track hidden? On the CDs with a so-called "hidden track" I've seen, the hidden song was part of the last track of the CD, and started after a silence break of several minutes. If you rip the CD, it will be part of the track, but you will also have the silence between the last official track and the hidden one.

That track is also in the Joe Henderson "Blue Note Years" 4CD box, where the liner notes omit the "Vol.1" in the album name. That could be another indication that there has been no other volume.

I understand your anger at Vonage, because they should have informed you about the incompatibility, but wouldn't it be easier now to switch to another ISP? What does AOL have what others cannot offer?

Thanks Jim and Chuck. So the info on CD Universe is correct, except for the "On a misty night" CD. Tracks 5-10 on that CD are the "Boppin'" album.

As the german ZYX CD versions of the 1965 Chet Baker albums on Prestige (Cool brunin', Boppin, etc) sound very poor, I bought one of the three US CDs which compile 70 minutes each. On the "On a misty night" CD, I was surprised that tracks 5-10 are mono, which is unusual for a 1965 recordings and given that the other tracks from the same session are stereo. Can someone tell me which tracks on the two other CDs ("Stairway to the stars", "Lonely star") are mono? CD Universe indicates mono for a few tracks, but for the CD I bought nothing was indicated, so this doesn't seem to be reliable. http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1037127 http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1037128 http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1037129 This should be indicated on the back cover under the Prestige logo (e.g. "Stereo AAD #5-10 Mono"). Thanks

What can happen with Windows 2000 or XP, is that the user profile configuration data are damaged, and Windows automatically creates a new profile for the same user, but with some unrecoverable settings being reset to default. That can be the reason why there is no Outlook configuration (the server settings etc) and some programs that should start automatically stop doing it, or they have disappeared from the Program menu. System restore should be able to fix that. But I don't have experience with it, as I use Windows 2000.