“What happened to dynamic range? That’s a question that should be asked of record labels, producers, artists, and last but not least, recording and mastering engineers. The question needs to be asked because we’re the ones responsible for what’s happened to our music. The music we listen to today is nothing more than noise with a beat. It’s not because it isn’t good music. It’s because it lacks dynamic range. When music lacks dynamic range, it lacks punch, emotion, and clarity.”
cdmasteringservices.com via Juha
DRM drains the batteries of portable players
“Heavy DRM [sucks the very life out of an MP3 player]. Take, for instance, the critically acclaimed Creative Zen Vision:M, with a rated battery life of up to 14 hours for audio and 4 hours for video. CNET tested it at nearly 16 hours, with MP3s–impressive indeed. Upon playing back only WMA subscription tracks, the Vision:M scored at just more than 12 hours. That’s a loss of almost 4 hours, and you haven’t even turned the backlight on yet.
We found similar discrepancies with other PlaysForSure players. The Archos Gmini 402 Camcorder maxed out at 11 hours, but with DRM tracks, it played for less than 9 hours. The iRiver U10, with an astounding life of about 32 hours, came in at about 27 hours playing subscription tracks. Even the iPod, playing back only FairPlay AAC tracks, underperformed MP3s by about 8 percent.”
Musiikin verkkokauppaohjelman tekijät epäiltyinä tekijänoikeusrikoksesta
“Useilla musiikkia ja elokuvia internetissä kauppaavilla yrityksillä on käytössään ohjelma, [jonka poliisi epäilee rikkovan tekijänoikeuksia]. Espoon poliisi epäilee, että ohjelman firmoille myynyt espoolaisyritys on kopioinut tuotteen sen varsinaiselta kehittäjältä.”
HS.fi via Juha
“Tekijänoikeusrikos on varastamista” -mantra on näköjään uponnut ainakin tämän jutun kirjoittaneeseen STT:n toimittajaan ihan täysin.
A Cool Lamp Made Out of CDs
“If you’ve got hundreds of old AOL discs laying around, why not put them to good use? This creation was made from a pile of old CDs, an ATX power supply, and a custom circular base.”
Immense Solar Storm Coming
“It’s official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.
Like the quiet before a storm.
This week researchers announced that a storm is coming–the most intense solar maximum in fifty years.”
NASA via Juha
Lentokoneisiin nettiyhteydet lähivuosina
“Kaukoreittien lentokoneissa voi jo lähivuosina käyttää internetiä ja sähköpostia omalla tietokoneella lennon aikana […].”
Darik's Boot and Nuke: Safe Erase a Hard Disk
“Darik’s Boot and Nuke (“DBAN”) is a self-contained boot floppy [or, optionally, a CD-ROM] that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.”
The Worst Web Design Techniques Featured on Web Pages That Suck in 2005
G2P Beta: Using Google to locate MP3s
“Why would we want to use Google to find MP3s instead of using P2P apps? -P2P/BT is being monitored — Using Google we can download a lot more safely[.]”