RTP-area local music and culture

[Joel Peck <joelpeck88 AT hotmail.com>]

Oh James, when will you finally accept the fact that you're unflappably 
brilliant and deserving of all the success you've had? 86 the cyber-bully 
role. In person, you're so affable it's ridonkulous. > To: 
ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org> Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 15:50:54 -0800> From: 
djstevo AT wknc.org> Subject: Re: Did Ruckus Kill Schoolkids?> > On Mar 5, 11:59 
am, chapelhillguitar... AT hotmail.com wrote:> > True consumer. Makes me sick.> 
>> > Newsflash! Open source is already here for those of us who can follow> > 
instructions in a readme file.> > By Stallman's beard, you have no idea who 
you're talking to when you> say that. Having a slight bit of experience with 
FOSS myself, I can> say with definite surety that Jim is extremely familiar 
with open> source software and the free software movement. He's managed to 
use> Ardour, and even I've had trouble grokking that tool.> > On Feb 29, 
12:54 pm, jim.brantley AT gmail.com wrote:> > > What I really want is a way to 
remotely access (and download, if not> > > stream) my entire music collection 
from my phone. I know eMusic and> > > others tried out this "digital locker" 
concept a few years back, but> > > why has no one picked this back up? I 
guess it's more likely that some> > > kind of 
all-music-ever-recorded-is-freely-available-on-the-internets> > > solution 
will show up first. I guess we're already there is some ways.> > My best 
suggestion here would be a tool called Ampache, which runs on> top of an 
Apache/MySQL/PHP stack, installs in about 20 minutes, and> provides a 
pseudo-WinAmp-like web interface for both audio and Flash> streaming and 
downloading your music. It can transcode to MP3, OGG,> FLAG, and AAC on the 
fly if you've got the codecs installed, it can> control numerous 'remote 
stereo' devices, and we've found it to be> really useful for both sharing and 
enjoying music here at the> StevoPad. Believe me, there's nothing like cueing 
the dulcet tones of> Rick Astley to play over the stereo via the Internet, 
giving you the> power to annoy your roommates from anywhere on the planet.> > 
Regarding playing them over the phone, it sounds like you've an> iPhone, 
which should make grabbing the streams and/or audio from the> interface a 
simple procedure.> > > Why? How could you possibly listen to your entire 
music collection at> > one time unless you have less than a few hours of 
music? I don't> > understand the reasons that compel people to want things 
that have> > such overblown features which a person could not possibly use 
without> > constantly wearing such a device. This is similar to the hundreds 
of> > channels of programming now available on subscription based TV. Why> > 
would anyone pay for all of those channels if they can never watch all> > of 
the channels at once? It is wasteful and indicative of a society> > out of 
touch with a sustainable future.> > Dude, are you a troll in real life, or do 
you just play one on the> Internet?> > > Now I am not saying that every 
person who fits the description above> > is an idiot but it is fairly clear 
that this is the method of> > operation for a lot of people in this country. 
We seem to be lazy> > (well some of us), so we must be spoon-fed new ideas 
and new> > technologies through some mechanism other than our own thoughts 
and> > curiosities. I think that paradigm should be changed to benefit the> > 
thinkers as opposed to the non-thinking hoards. Technology used to be> > a 
domain restricted to those who took the time to learn about the> > 
technology. Then along came MicroCrap and their ilk and decided to> > make 
the PC an appliance that even an untrained human could operate> > (well most 
of them anyway). This lowest common denominator approach> > has created a 
population of non-technical people using highly> > technical machines... a 
formula destined to be remembered as> > Machavellian genius. As the average 
non-technical person becomes more> > and more the description of people who 
use PCs and other computing> > devices, the number of true techies who become 
millionaires increases.> > I apologize for the thread derail, but there's a 
really interesting> essay that you might read on this topic written by sci-fi 
author Bruce> Sterling. It's called 'In the Beginning There Was The Command> 
Line...', and you can check it out at:> > 
http://mwkworks.com/nealstephensonOS.html> > Sterling's point is that 
computer users had to learn how to use> Microsoft Windows and the Mac OS at 
one time in their lives;> psychological and work studies have shown that 
computer usage skills> must be learned regardless of whether you're using 
Windows, OS X,> Linux, GEOS, BeOS, A/UX, Contiki, or whatever floats your 
boat. As a> result, many users are reluctant to switch from Windows or OS X 
to> Linux, as switching requires a significant time investment while you> 
re-learn those vital usage skills.> > Now, to address your point, open source 
tools offer many incentives> over their closed source counterparts: they're 
free, they're usually> backed by a large community of talented coders, and 
they encourage you> to learn more about them so that they can be used to the 
greatest> effect. Unfortunately, there's a lot of FUD out there, propagated 
by> some major proponents of closed-source software, that claims that open> 
source software is expensive to support, buggy, and hard to use, and a> lot 
of the arguments spawned by it have risen to levels of epic drama> over the 
Internets. Your postings, however well-intentioned, help to> propagate that 
negative image.> > Think about how Microsoft and Apple convince people to buy 
their> software and hardware; do Steve Jobs or Bill Gates get on stage and> 
say, "Hey morons, buy our motherfucking operating system because> you're all 
non-technical, lazy louts who can't be arsed to learn about> fundamental 
computing paradigms and the core tenets of Computer> Science. YOU... ARE... 
LOSERS!" Of course they don't; they entice> you instead by explaining the 
positive aspects of their products and> by explaining how, with just a bit of 
time and money, you can improve> your computing experience, and, by proxy, 
your life, with them. The> same thing goes for open source, as you can't 
convince people to try> tools like Linux or Firefox by haranguing users like 
that, and,> sometimes, people will find non-open tools to be more useful to 
them> in their situation. In the end, you choose the software that works> 
best for you, and the action of using open source software does not> make you 
a superior human being to those who do not.> > So to sum up, I'd like to once 
again shamelessly pimp my own Internet-> powered open source music project, 
Sessions@KNC, and encourage you to> check out a site called Jamendo, which is 
a repository of free, high-> quality independent music, all licensed under 
Creative Commons, and> which is soon to be ablaze with the amazing live music 
of the> Triangle. It's the perfect remedy for Ruckus/RIAA/Schoolkids-induced> 
musical depression, believe me.> -Stevo> djstevo AT wknc.org> -- ch-scene: the 
list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --> 
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