Musical Archaeology - Rhapsody Playlists ('n' More)

This site is managed with GVIM, Filezilla and PHP, yeah I code my own stuff..

Due to the nature of this blog, archives have to be provided in seperate locations, to get back to the most recent blog, simply click on the default link. The site will always link to the most recent one.

Blog Archives: [Current, 2007], [2006], [2005].

For You Lazy YouTubers: YouTubeify It Bookmarklet + FREEDB = Easy YouTube music searches.
For Those Who Haven't Patience To Use YouTube: CHANN3L Z - What If YouTube was TV. (NEW!!!, 2/07) Quicktime (30MB), YouTube One and Two, Tutes.
Cheapest way to podify yourself: Buy this mp3 player (I own two of these with 1 gig SD cards ) (--> DEMOSTRATION VIDEO)
Cheapest way to listen to audio:Dell A215, Get Some Clip On Headphones, Sound Blaster Live!
Best way to veggitate:

www.chann3lz.com Youtube + Me = Chann3lz, a completely random music video playing jukebox of content, managed by the audience, no registration necessary, all mechanism, no policy.. www.youtube.com Videos, Videos, Videos and more Videos, and you don't have to download anything, you don't even really need a Video Codec. It's all FLASH!! Tubeify Everyhit Take YouTube, Combine with Everyhit.com, What Do you get? iTunes How-to-install iTunes (v) here is a downloadable tutorial (v) if you have a slow line. RSS NETCASTS (Hint: Drag&Drop These Links onto iTunes "Podcasts"): Wikipedia Synthesized Mind "Fart" Synthesized (Monthly) Musical Archeology Synthesized Wikipedia Turkeys Synthesized If you want your own netcast (netcast = podcast, Apple is trademarking podcast), but are not sure how to set one up, get my drop-it-in netcast generator script. Script is provided as-is, use at your own risk, thus I'm not liable if somehow you don't get it to work or it eats your cattle and causes you to lose a bunch of money. My tutorials require Real Video not because I'm a Real-Rhapsody fan, but because RealVideo happens to be the best format for low-bandwidth tutorials

Rhapsify Everyhit.com looks for albums of a date range precise to a month, providing links to rhapsody-online (and YouTube).
YouTubeify Everyhit.com is much better for tracking down music videos to precise songs on "YouTube.com".

BEST WAY TO PERUSE YOUTUBIFIED LINKS
1. go to url "about:config" in address bar of firefox browser.
2. toggle 'browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs' to true (pre 1.5; post v1.5, search Advanced Options )
3. then middle mouse click on each youtubified search link
4. click on the videos, bookmark, make into playlists, enjoy..

How Fast Is Your, Connection, Really!! a script I wrote that computes data connection uproute/downroute rates (here is mine, Comcast).

Where to Find Quicktime Pro Forums (and many disgruntled owners): Quicktime for Windows Forum.

Best way to secure your computer: Grisoft AVG (free), ZoneAlarm (free*!) {flash demo}, TCPView (free) {for semi-advanced users}.
Best way to discover music besides this one: Coverville.com
Best way to access your computer remotely: VNC, in particular TightVNC (stay away from www.gotomypc.com)
Best way to obtain/distribute huge files (bit-torrent clients): Azureus
Best way to make backups: Knoppix (Linux/DVD*R), Audiograbber (CD2mp3), DVD Shrink (FreeDVDBackup)
Free Knowledge: UC Berkeley Courses (no credit)

Interesting netcasts for programmers: Software Engineering Radio
How to painlessly publish/purchase a book: LULU.COM
Best of the Best (non-obnoxious): 46 freeware utils
Best webhosting: Geocities (free, commercially scaleable), phpwebhosting (commercial with ssh/sftp-access), Find Hosting.
Best information resources: Google (no brainer), Wikipedia (def)
Best place to lust for synthesizers: Vintage Synth Explorer
Best way to convert wikipedia articles to sound TextAloud, the Eddie voice, and my custom UserTranslations.chl file (put in install directory). TA also comes with a firefox/IE plugin that will read web pages for you, making it easier.. I use it when I hate reading web pages..

Alternative Content Discovery: Blogdigger, WebJay
Trouble Viewing Videos? You need some Codecs: Matroska Pack (good), free-codecs (works, but it may have a Trojan)
Need to convert Media format X to media format Y? Use Mediacoder its a freeware media swiss army knife, that is supposedly open source (its on sourceforge, huh?).
Need to convert video formats that Mediacoder doesn't? Use AVS Convert , I own a copy myself, and it lets me do stuff with Quicktimes and WMV's that neither Microsoft nor Apple will permit me (note the site looks kinda cheap, but the program isn't.
My most favorite rhapsody playlist: Smooth And Punchy Playlist
My most favorite bands (and most played): Level 42 (r), Nik Kershaw, Cock Robin, Double (not played, on my wishlist), etc.
My most favorite years (musically):1978 (r), pretty much any year from 1976 to 1989
My most favorite movie (note: works, and could be made on a low budget):Brainstorm
Most Favorite Music Video (5/12/07):Brinsley Schwarz - Surrender to The Rhythm..

Why is this page so huge: Google can cache it all, audience is broadband users, I use less than 50% of my quota per month.
Your most favorite rhapsody playlist: The Brian Eno Playlist
Big application wish: SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! PRESET EXPORT, so I can share with you some of my killer rooms.

Cool way other than Chann3lz for listening to audio.

Say No To Software Patents
Thanks to: JESUS (CHRIST) *, Richard Stallman (AVI, RM, RM2-SP), and the respective creators of these packages and places.

Bag 'O' Tricks Directory lists tips/tricks and reminders and other stuff I would love to clog my header with.

* - Wikipedia is edited by anarchy, don't use for christian inspiration. Christian Bahai is a oxymoron BTW.
*! - I use Zonealarm Pro, which is what that flash demo is demonstrating, ZoneAlarm costs about fifty dollars a
year with updates, but is well worth it, it also comes with spyware weeding software, so there is no need for an application like "Ad-Aware",
"Spybot Search & Destroy" or "Spyware Doctor".

Companies/Organizations I Currently Consider Evil or Stupid:
Why?: Claims to save time and accelerate processing but Wastes Hours of Time Submitting Rebate Offers no Recourse if Rebate Fails!! DELIBERATE THIEVES

All Rhapsody Playlists found in this page (and some not).. All Rhapsody Playlists YouTubeified

Tip Jar ->

or my Amazon Wish List

-[  Mind 'Burp' Blog (November 2006) ]

Web www.bl3nder.com

[ Index ][Top] blog:[Current,07][2006][2005] [YouTube-ified Playlists]

The only complaint I have with the Samsung YP-T9, is that the DRM protected audio books I got from NetLibrary, skip 5 seconds every minute or so of play, I can't figure out why it does this, it just periodically skips time, making it useless for audio books.

The problems I have with MicroShaft of recent is that I've been unable to reinstall XP or XP PRo on my Dell Dimension 9150, I get a blue screen of death, and I corrupted the InstallShield on XP such that I can't install anything on it new. I hope I don't have to send this to Dell for repairs or get a Dell-Exclusive version of XP to reinstall XP.. This totally sucks.. I tseems like the Sh*t has really hit the fan today.. I'm also dealing with a MicroShaft web-centric hosting, forced on me (can I scream rape now?) by my client who wants to go to, let me say their name Alentus, because they have better hand holding, web analysis software, and all the things managers tend to love and developers tend to hate like the plague.. Like PHP 5, need I say more? My source code is vomiting pea soup.. I think that some web hosts like Alentus exist to take advantage of ignorant managers.. When you go up in version numbers on applications, that doesn't mean things are going to work better.. This is what Alentus is using: Windows XP, IIS 6, PHP 5 ... Ack!! The preferred web development environment (if you want to be safe): Linux (Linux is the %@#!, Pansies don't run linux, vomit if you see anything non-linux, like Novel/Microshaft or MicroShaft XP alone), Apache 1.3 (vomit if you see 2.0, nobody uses Apache 2.0!!), PHP 4.3 or 4.4 (vomit if you see words "Zend" in reference, Zend does not mean better, it means whoever setup the web server are a bunch of commercial loving software pansies, plug&pay prostitutes), MySQL 4 (vomit if see MySQL 5, MySQL is trying to become a more commercial entity, aka Oracle envy).

The people that are forced to work in web developement environments that are abnormal are victims of managers who think they know better how to run things. This is like the time I tried for a position working for the web development team at Martha Stewart.. She hired a marvelous italian guy who looked like some model, with enough experience to manage a linux server, to run a Windows based server system. He said he'd loved to use Linux, but Martha would not allow this.. You can see why Martha was nailed for inside stock trading, people hate her.. She doesn't consult with anyone before she makes decisions.. Makes me wonder what managers like this were as kids.. "Mu mah, I want the violet doll house, not the purple doll house".

You can't always get what you want..

(11/21/06 6:40 PM): I found out my girlfriend used Semolina Flour in the Gingerbread Cookies instead of regular flour.. Semolina is what you use to make pasta with.. She said "But it said you could make bread with it." This remind me of that Bill Cosby skit where he feeds his children Chocolate Cake because it has eggs and milk in it. But in a twisted sort of Adams Family sort of way.. Semolina? Semolina?!!! She said, Sorry, I think I even got some constipation from it.. I said, Yesterday I thought I was going to die! Semolina??!!!

(11/21/06 5:27 PM): Why does my 2GB Samunsung player store 1.81 GB total? Because the marketing term for Gigabyet is 1 billion bytes, not a Gigabyte in computerese, which 1024 * 1024 * 1024 or actually 1073741824 bytes. So my 2 GB Samsung player is actually 1.86 GB, and not 2 GB.. It's 2 Billion bytes but in actuality it is 1.86 GB. Frankly, if it is not that, I don't know what the heck they could be doing with the other 200 megs that is missing.. The reason that GB = 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes, is memory is typically addressed in powers of two, so to address 1000 requires 10 bits, just the same as addressing 1024, in fact memory tends to be imaged onto the chip in powers of two.. So why a power of ten instead of 2? I don't know, maybe they think this way they are saving money.. But they are cheating the consumers..

(11/21/06 1:37 PM): I'm getting better.. I puked four times while using that NuLytly crap, I think I was ingesting it too quickly, they say drink 8 oz. every ten minutes but does anyone ever really have a 8 oz. glass to measure with? Mine are more like 12 oz. ones.. Anyhow, when I was making the Devo links, I was really uneasy and qweezy. I got some sleep and got some more solid food in me, the only problem I have now is my inards are all irritated, I guess from taking that stuff.. Sorry to have to tell you about this, but I consider this blog like a diary sometimes. And everyone goes through this crap every now and then. Just not with this much detail do they describe it to anyone else. I'm debating whether to go back to the E.R., I really want to go to TExas for Thanksgiving.. It will be a 14-16 hour drive, because I'm going to San Antonio.. I hope I don't have any problems medical or otherwise, on the way there.. I think the source of my presumed blockage was some ginger cookies my girlfriend made, they were as tough as small bricks, and I have no idea why they got this way, and she won't tell me. But I can just imagine them getting caught up somewhere in the digestive trac. She cookes stuff sometimes not really paying attention to what the ingredients are, for instance she once made a dish from some wheat that had been sitting in around for several decades, mistaking it for long-grain rice. We've got some semolina flour, I bet she used that thinking it would work as well as regular.. Semolina is what you make pasta from..

Anyhow, I hope whatever was causing the problem has been turned to mush and expelled with previous stools.

I was looking for eAudio books to take on the trip (oh I feel a bowel movement coming on, a sign of life), anyhow, I was looking for eAudio books on NetLibrary _ _, and and downloaded something like 6 eAudio Books, I think the limit is 8, but I accidently downloaded some twice, it accounted for the mistaken downloads as downloads and would not let me down anymore.. This is utterly stupid because they can account for this when you go to obtain WMA/DRM licenses for the audio books, which is a more accurate way of determining the number checked out.. Also since nobody can really listen to the audio books without the DRM, having it count for downloads and issue licenses is redundant and inconsistent with the limits of how a library works.. I can get a maximum of 4 audio books from the library, but they know for a fact that I've checked the books out because they ran my ID through and wanded the books.. Now why can't NetLibrary's system be smart enough to count a request for a DRM license the same as a book checked out. For instance, you could download 20 or 200 books, but the ones you claim drm for, those are the ones you checked out.. It makes perfect sense.. And they should have on record in the database that you have requested licenses for them, and re-send your licenses if you have lost them.. I mean, they have your login and password..

When I see Web Software as poorly written as this it makes me wonder how much they paid the guy or company to implement this.. I get paid nothing to develop web software far more complex and capable than this shit!

For instance last month I wrote a system that populated a graphical map by state and county with the number of hepatitis B sites of care, coloring states and counties according to their purportion of sites to the number sites total for the country and state. People click on a state or county, they get a page (which in actuality is a template populated with data from a database, the templating system I wrote too (smarty eat your heart out). Along with that I wrote a database management system that allows one to dump and retrieve data from basic excel CSV files, such that a complete idiot can manage a database with a administrators help. It makes column-type assessments (at point of creation) based on the format of the data in the columns (like if one column only contains floating point numbers, it will assume the column type is a "float").. And all my programs are based on a database object I wrote atop AdoDB that reduces database update, inserts, selects, to function calls with associative arrays. I guess I'm dumbing down programming.. Why I like PHP is matters of complexity that should have been fixed long ago are reduced for the future by keeping the language constant. See, for years, companies like Microsoft have changed languages, changed operating system platforms, to make money, driving developers to re-invent wheels over and over again.. IF people use languages like PHP, the software can be developed and augmented without the loss of functionality due to the needs of the platform's designer (revenue). This is why I hate and forever will hate Microsoft.. Even if they have changed their tune, I guess I can't really forgive the entity for this, I hate Microsoft indefinately.. They need to find another name because that one has too much frustration and hatred associated with it..

(11/20/06 10:15 PM): Boy my life has sucked for the past day, I had a severe intestinal problems, something beyond basic constipation.. Now I have to drink this stuff called "NuLytly" for like 12 times every ten minutes, once every ten minutes, for however long, until "stool is clear".. It's like drinking Baking Soda in water.. And I can't eat anything for 3 hours prior to taking it or 2 hours after.. That really sucks.. I'm fixing to drive 14 miles, I have to be up tommorow to get a rental car, and it's near thankgiving, and I'm worrying about bowel blockages.. I sure hope tommorow is better.. About 2:00 PM today I thought I was going to die, but it took a ride to the E.R. to keep me from feeling anymore terrified.. I will probably be eating Jello and Chicken Soup every day this week.. No turkey.. No Turkey!! NO TURKEY!!! This sucks..

I'm going to try that aptiva crap and see if I can get any satisfaction (yt)..

This is what it said on the fleets enemas I took, wait 2 to 5 minutes until an uncontrollable urge..

(11/20/06 12:28 AM): After composing a letter to my friend about whether it would have been more cost effective for me to just bit the bullet and bought a Hard Drive based mp3 player.. I determined another class of mp3 player that doesn't seem to be popular.. Maybe it is.. That is the Hard Drive based mp3 player with the wireless hub.. No, getting a FM transmitter for an iPod, and mp3 players or fm radios for my friends, is not the same thing.. There, they all have to listen to whatever I'm playing.. But with a wireless music hub, each listener gets to play what he wants to listen to.. Why haven't we seen such solutions? Because this is not fair, particularly for WMA DRM capable services, as it gives a cluster of people pleasure for the logarithm of cost. See, as you increase the number of people listening, you save more money, the hub needs to get bigger, but to increase throughput of a hard drive, all you need to do is add more platters.. And since mp3 files are so small and require time to listen to, there is no reason to have each person using a hard drive based player.. Why? Unless their music preferences are so different you can't store them on one drive. So why do we purchase flash based mp3 players, or HD based mp3 players.. Why don't we purchase mp3 players with a small amount of cache, say 512 megs of ram, and have a central hub with a standard hard drive connection and capacities of one terrabytes.. Because, it's not fair to the RIAA.. Because it would not maximize profits.. See these companies have already thought of such things, and ruled them out, because they don't realize as much profit.. The solutions we have now are fantastic, but are they efficient with the resources?

There is one trouble with having a central hub of music distribution, mobility.. IF you lose connection with the hub, you are limited to the 100 or so songs you pre-downloaded to the player.. But that is 10 hours of satisfaction, out of range, offline.. Now, I guess it's the same difference as getting a mp3 service with a cellphone company, but allowing one to remain mobile.. The difference there is that you are at the mercy of the cellphone company to keep their rates fair.. But still, why am I not seeing more people with wireless mp3/wma-drm players, sharing songs from a single drive?? That's effectively what I'm doing with my girlfriend's DRM capable player and mine, she can benefit from the same music service.. But the service can't lock me in to having my subscriptions downloaded to one player, as if that player fails, I will have to re-establish the new relationship.. However if the mp3 players were wireless, then they could notify each other of parallel use, and determine one or the other to fail.. ANyhow..

BTW, I made an observation the other day, on a different topic, you know how bad the regulations on Airplane flight for passengers is.. They won't let people carry shampoo on now.. I'm wondering when it will be more cost effective for airlines to just lower fairs and put people in straight-jackets onto padded planes with no seats or sharp edges.. You could chain people to a place, and hav a nice nurse come and spoon feed everyone.. Maybe even put a few Subway sandwiches in there, you' be amazed what people can eat without their hands.. Of course, it would look like some kind of bondage video. It would be more cost effective and less suprising than the current security measures.. I recall a friend of mine showing me a contraption that allows policemen to carry criminals like a suitcase, I wonder if that's how those flying coach would come.. Of course you would need a couple of big strong guys to manage all the people units, but again it would be less suprising than the measures they are taking in airport security.. I can't wait until someone comes up with the statistics that show airliners to be safer than cars, even with terrorists.. But I guess the real concern here is the use of a plane as a weapon, not soo much the quality of the consumers experience.. Anyhow, it was just a thought I had the other day while at the Albuquerque airport..

(11/19/06 5:11 PM): Look at This and This, Draw your own conclusion..

BTW, I was wrong about the YP-T9, you can stick probably about 600 minutes of video.. Let me see, 3 minutes is about 10 megs, so 100 is 30, 1000 is 300, and 2000 is 600.. 10 hours of video!! Makes sense.. Looks great!!

Also, the audio recording will record FM radio and voice, it can be configured in "Settings" to use 32,64, 96, and 128 Kbps mp3.. So you can increase the quality of the voice recording.. What is cool is it records to mp3, what is cooler is it records at higher quality settings than 4-bit or 8-bit audio on some mp3 players.. This should really set the industry on it's ear.. I don't know if these are new to the market, but it's news to me, and everyone I've shown it to are completely amazed at how much it can do..

(11/19/06 3:55 PM): I think what ELO really lacked was better marketing/advertising, more touring.. I was really desperate as a kid to see them in concert, but I suppose that since most of their magic was studio magic, it wouldn't be possible fro them to play on stage much.. But really, I wouldn't have cared.. I don't really care how they look either.. I think I spent more time looking at the photo on the New World Record LP Sleeve than any of their albums, except maybe Out Of The Blue. I may have a strong favorable bias towards ELO since I inheritted my eldest brother's ELO albums, in sucession from the age of 6. But at 10, I really only saw the video "Turn To Stone" in Re-Runs on what would become the Nicklodeon Channel. I think they showed it because ELO's lyrics are non confrontational and fairly "happy/lovely" music. Anyhow, I can't recall seeing much of them on ELO.. So consider finding ELO videos on YouTube a treat.. Some only ever got to buy the Albums (for me, I either saved allowance or got them on Birthdays).. The last LP collection I got was the box set with "Doing That Crazy Thing" (Jeff's attempt at Disco), of course "Discovery" was ELO eventual answer.. Probably the reason the group was looking kind of drab in "Last Train To London" is Jeff eventually let go of most of the band as he put his faith in the synthesizers.. I think that was the beginning of the mistake.. Maybe it was the record producers.. But Richard Tandy, it seems, is the only link between Jeff and the rest of the group.. Maybe they are on good terms, but there hasn't been much evidence pointing to their acceptance of him.. I don't know if Richard Tandy helped or hurt the band, but he doesn't look like the sort of fellow that would frustrate or inbitter anyone.. But given he played the synths, he was the last to go.. It isn't a suprise to not see Bev Bevan playing in the most recent release by Richard and Jeff.. Anyhow, it seems the only thing the record company can release now, with Jeff's assistance or not, is rare clips of instrumental pre-production audio as extra tracks to the CD's.. If I was Jeff, I would beg forgiveness from the Band, and see about going out on a world tour, like the "Rolling Stones" or "The Who".

Anyway, here is the video for Confusion, from YouTube (is that Bruce Boxleitner??, aka Tron)..

I had always wondered about this song, but I'm not sure that it's about John Lennon.. It may have been about someone else.. I mean it doesn't sound particularly complementary.. It sounds like a song transitioning those of one way to another, and having to give up trying to fit in with what is going to change. But the style is somewhat like Lennons. I mean if you listen to Lennon's music before his death, it resembles this song somewhat.. I don't think Jeff was friends with George until the formation of the Travelling Willburys. But I could be wrong. I think Jeff produced Roy Orbison's album, and that's how he came in contact with the others.. Again I could be wrong, I need to research this, I guess..

I haven't done a ELO Wikipedia Synthesized (??).. If not, I can do one, maybe tonight..

(11/19/06 3:20 PM): I think the people who purchased Quicktime 7 Pro _ _, so they could encode podcasts (or for whatever reason), should get together with me, and we can probably file a class action lawsuit against apple for having deliberately sabotaged the product to make Quicktime creation on Windows harder in interest of encouraging platform migration.. Take a look at the comments given on this site (forum).. I myself never was able to convert any video to Quicktime with 7 Pro.. I was thinking about repurchasing, but this smacks of the same sort of problems I had yesterday with the Sansa MP3 player.. If I pay them again, it will only encourage them to take advantage of my forgiveness.. So who wants to get together and nail them to the wall with this one?

I'm also planning to make a iTunes killer website that is platform inspecific.. I figure all I need is to decode the ID3 tags (or similar) of the files and determine platform compatibility given media transfer incompatibilities.. However Quicktime Pro 7, has no excuse, given the wealth of Windows codecs for video formats in AVI, to excuse themselves from allowing people to create Quicktime content.. I mean, if Quicktime is this bad all around, Apple should throw in the towel and claim incompetence.

The deal with Apple is that they are really good at making software for their platform, but they suck at anything else.. If this is the case, why not open source the part they are having trouble with and sell a Quicktime conversion library.. That would be better..

(11/19/06 2:49 AM): Just getting to sleep, Argh.. Well, the Sansa M230 is still a pretty good player, but don't go for any of the other players, I think they get crappy outside of the models resembling the M230.. The E250 was a piece of crap, even if it had worked, the thumb wheel is stupid and feels cheap.. I guess you can use your best judgement, if something doesn't do what it's supposed to, don't get another, try something else, chances are it sucks anyhow..

(11/18/06 10:52 PM): The Perfect Playlist (Almost), I will publish is on Rhapsody Online.. Maybe I can construct a rpl since I am still a pre-3.0 Rhapsody subscriber.. I'm not sure if I'm going to cancel my Earthlink account or that.. I think the Earthlink is going to go soon.. Because the Porn sites have crept into my junk mail.. Maybe I will do Google Email.. Then I can justify my pre-3.0 Rhapsody account.. The only reason I'm keeping it on is I can create RPL files through it, something I can't do with the new Rhapsody.. I hate having my playlists locked up in Rhapsody Online.. That's so stupid.. But then again, all the playlists I guess I'm ever going to create are already in rpl format..

Anyhow, the perfect combination I've found is this: Smash Mouth's (M) _ newest, The Style Council (M) _ (the non-greatest hits album), ELO (M) _ "New World Record" and "Out of the Blue", Madness (M) _ (their newest, Danger something), and Jamiroquai's (M) _ one (with the moon crater backdrop), and Foxy's (M) _ album "Get Off" (it's a nice disco funk album if you can excuse the sexual overtones) .. Sorry for not looking this up, I'm lazily listening to music now.. But... This is such a good combination!!

Oh yeah, Taco (M) _ (Taco Ockerse (M) _) has finally put up his first album, After Eight, on Rhapsody, this is such a cool album.. I'd love to know how they orchestrated all the synthesis, there is few albums that have this much intricate synthesis in them.. I can maybe name a few, like Tomita's (M) _ Pictures at an Exhibition, or well really nothing is comparable.. Maybe I'm bias'd just a bit.. But it does sound like a intergalactic Wurlitzer Organ Shop, I mean Taco's.

(11/18/06 8:08 PM): Ahhhhhhhh..... I'm so elated, or High or something.. It's this Samsung T9, it's a breath of fresh air after the deep oppression of the Sansa E250R.. Sansa shall wallow in hell forever, well until they wise up. This Samsun T9, is totally hot!!! I converted a 12 minute WMV file I created, to Samsung's proprietary SVI format in about a third or a quarter the time the file runs, about 3 minutes.. But it doesn't seem to use my dual core processors at all.. I'm wondering if it does the compression upon transfer, or if it doesn't actually perform a conversion.. In any case the 12 minute file ended up in a 35 MB file on the player.. It played Flawlessly.. It is choppy, because the playback is 15fps, but the color is rich.. The backlight is very bright, so it looks like a fairly hi-def little TV.. The audio was stereo, and sounded fairly good.. The video file I tried was made of movies I took at Tent Rock near Cochiti Pueblo (I think Ansel Adams or Georgia O'Keefe took/painted pictures of this).. Anyhow, I had 6 minutes of video with a 6 minute slide show with 2 songs (Three Dog Night's "Something Worth Remembering" {??} and Cliff Richard's "Dreaming" which is one of my favorites).. Anyhow, the video & slideshow presentation came out really well on the device, with gradual artifacting, but nothing a normal person would recognize, I actually think the artifacting was from the WMV compression..

What is really cool about Samsung's Media Studio, the program used to transfer the files, is that it will let you (supposedly, I haven't tried it) transfer videos in sucession to the device.. I'm next going to try to convert some Videocasts to the player, to see how well it does with that.. This could be my first Videocast player.. The review sites say that it can play 7 hours of video on a fresh charge..

Oh and it lets you view photos and text (features I haven't tested yet)..

Oh it charges with USB, some see this as a problem, but you could connect it to anything with a USB port, I think there are chargers you can get that will connect to usb devices, because USB is both a power plug scheme with data, so if the device is small (like this) it's sufficient to use the USB port to charge the device.. Though I haven't used a non-computer USB power source with it (I'd assume it wouldn't care one way or another)..

It also supposedly has Bluetooth capability, but I found this reference on another site (I guess I should check the manual to make sure).. I just wanted to say, if you are looking for an MP3 Player to get your Lvoed Ones this X-mas, this thing is really really really cool!!

I bought Mine at Best Buy, a 2 GB player, for 139 dollars. It's a bit of money to pay, but half the price of an iPod, and considering that hard drives crash, and this has no moving parts like the iPod's, for durability (this is metal too, and L-ion battery), it's practically a better deal than the iPod. Note, if your iPod is loading a song (though it may be a short interval), if you should drop the player, it will crash the drive and render the player useless.. This T9, doesn't have that problem.. Also, it has something the iPod doesn't: WMA DRM support..

It didn't have Bookmarking capability, but the fast-forward capability is exponential (the longer you hold it the faster it goes).. So skipping to a place in an audio book is fairly easy..

There is also another feature, and ability to speed up the sound, so you can probably listen to an audio book faster.. But it doesn't actually skip MP3 frames, which would have been nice, it's the old-fashioned audio speed-up (everyone sounds like chipmunks), it would be nice to have a speed up feature with a transpose feature, having each independent of the other, so you could transpose up the audio and slow it down, or speed it up and transpose it down, say for learning sheet music, you could slow it down without the pitch lowering. But the SAMSUNG T9 DOESN'T SUPPORT THIS. No biggy.. I'm happy!!

I really can't imagine how Apple will be able to compete with technologies like this, as the 139 dollar price point. I guess I should look at the NANO's.. But I've heard they don't support Windows formats.. That's okay I guess.. But I can't stand iTunes either, I don't like their music purchase model, it's on the side of the music industry too much.. While Rhapsody is more of a good thing for consumers..

Crap, I can't convert "Ask Ninja", it uses AAC, while the T9 uses MP4 audio, I guess that is just MP3 format.. Those sucky Vloggers that sell to people who can afford to drop 250 dollars on a player.. Sheeshh!!.. Well I can convert WMV files, I think AVI's, and probably normal MOV files.. This sucks.. But it's not Samsung's fault.. Death to APPLE!! I really can't figure out what their winning business model is, it's not very competition friendly, nor really very consumer friendly..

I'm going to see if I can get a AAC codec that Samsung's Media Studio can handle.. I'm looking for support on Samsung's website..

Oh, here is the Manual for this player, so you can have a look at the features..

ANother cool feature of this player, you can play your mp3 or wma/drm files while you are navigating the interface.. That's totally cool.. It also has some DSP style 3D effects for making the sound not vibrant, as well as the usual custom EQ feature.. Note that when I was at Best Buy, the first time, I was going to buy the T9, and I think one of the service people discouraged me and pointed me to the Sansa player.. I think they are trying to get rid of the Sansa and Insignia players.. Best Buy also doesn't demonstrate any of the Insignia nor Sansa players, at least they didn't in Santa Fe.. They put the Samsung T9 out where you could grab them, so it's not so costly that they lock it up.. That's good just for the tactile access to the goods.. I guess someone could steal this, but they have the door well guarded..

I have a confession, I couldn't control myself, I had to purchase a DVD-/+R 18X Lightscribe drive, for 50 bucks. They are on sale.. I need one because my DVD drive won't read CD's on my computer.. This drive also supposedly uses that lightscribe label printing technology, that draws on the flip side of the disc. I guess the CD+R/DVD+R's for that cost a lot.. But it would be cool to print and burn a CD/DVD all in one go.. Oh, and it's dual layer!! 8.5 GB.. There is a 80 dollar Seagate 160GB USB 2.0 external drive.. I guess I'm spending into gifts for myself.. Maybe I'm looking at what I will get my family!! I think my lawyer brother would love this Samsung T9..

More cool things about the T9: Volume Control goes from one to 40, it starts out at 20.. It is by no means crappy sound, it sounds liek a stereo setup.. And it seems you can toggle between surround sound modes and regular modes.. Maybe that is a Mono/Stereo toggle.. Anyhow.. The feature set is limited, but it's an engenious design, not too many features, not too little, just the right amount to be dangerous, but very easy to navigate.. It's very well thought out.. The box that it came in was pretty cool too, it opens up like DVD/Jewlery Box, and says in glossy black letters high-class "For You", I mean high-specular glossy against matte.. The player comes out of one slot in the box, with cables, and the CD and manual come out of a different part.. It folds up nicely, very clean.. I wonder if Apple is this cool with their packaging materials. However the cardboard quality felt slightly cheap, opening it up you could almost mistake it for something packaged in artist-quality foam-core (like what photographers used to mount their photos on)..

Geek Entertainment TV Videocast, converted well.. Of the 3 I tried.. So there is hope!!

The Fast Forward on the video doesn't seem to be exponential, but it is fast, you can skip through a video fairly easily.. Best of all, it's automatically set up in continuous play mode, so that you can watch one video after another.. I can see myself stuffing Music Videos on this.. Illegally.. But Music Videos!!! YEah!! And Video Podcasts, whatever they be, that Samsung's video codec.. At the very least it supports WMV, so I can dump my Movie Maker creations to it, for display to others.. The Gaming Network Video, different from my first video encoding test, was 5 minutes long and stored in 20 megs.. It probably has something to do with the video quality.. Oh and the Video Converter does use the Dual Cores to encode.. A cool thing is the Samsung Media Studio will encode to a number of Samsung Players, without the players having to be connected..

Yet Another Cool thing, is that it will let you disconnect the player without Ejecting the player from Windows, and you don't get that nasty "USB Device was Improperly Disconnected" Message.

The firmware was 1.24 released just last week (10-13-06 !!!!!!).

So it's still fresh on their product line, and the Media Studio program as well as the firmware and manual are downloadable.

I have no problems with the audio player, aside from having a bookmarking capability (That the Video Player Feature does have!!!, so there is hope.. Okay, The major problem, is with video, the screen is 1.8 inches by something like 1.2 inches, and the resolution is 208x176 . The pixels are square, that's fine.. Just that the video converter doesn't compensate for Aspect differences, so a 2.33 letterbox doesn't translate well to a 1.8/1.2 screen.. All they need to do is resample/resize the video to a smaller different aspect ratio, but really this is not rocket science guys. It should be possible for Samsung to determine proper aspect ratio based on either the computer's pixel dimensions or information provided by the video file.. I mean, there is no reason the videos need to appear like Spaghetti Western Credits on a Television (long and thin).. Even Samsung's Slide-Out Player Commercial, provided as a video demo, shows up stretched, you'd think they would be concerned about the look of the video on the player.. But my own videos turned out fine.. Just go from the iPod standard resolution of 480x270 to 208x176 of the Samsung T9, makes the video look stretched.. This should be a easy fix Samsung!!

Album Art from Rhapsody is transferred to the player too, so there is that too.. From when I was investigating the ID3 V2 format of MP3, it should be the case that the player would supports JPEG files stored in MP3's, but I suppose this is how the album art got put into the WMA DRM files too.. Anyhow, that's another cool feature..

(11/18/06 6:41 PM): Drove all the way back to Santa Fe's Bes Buy, went to "Return & Exchange", and was there with someone else who had purcahsed into the "Insignia" Amiga line of mp3 players, and both of us were returning our players.. The others were suprised to find someone turning in their Sansa E250, because it looked like that would be their next try.. We Benefitted from each others misfortune, and They picked a iPod Nano, and I went with a Samsung T9 Mp3 Player.. I didn't get an iPod because I wasn't sure I would be able to play videos (which you can't for that price) and I knew about Apple Lock-In activity. I think she picked it because she didn't know any better.. I didn't either, until now.. This MP3 Player is hot.. I haven't checked to see if it will play my Audio Books, but the video capability looks awesome, its higher resolution than the Sansa E250 was, and it's got a lot of style.. All the interface is Flash Driven, it seems.. There is everything you have with the other cheaper players, but you get some games too.. There doesn't seem to be a Mini-SD card expansion, but its a smaller device and it seems to use its features better.. What really impressed me is it uses Freeware encoders (XVID and LAME).. It also couples the Best Buy Rhapsody Service with a Month free service).. Not 2 months like the other, but what the hey, the sansa didn't work.. Their Tech Support told me, "You got a bad player, return it".. Well the fact is the software sucked, and the player uses a 160x120 MJPEG format, which is horrible.. This one seems to use MPEG 4. So I'll see if I can _____enter cliche here________..

(11/18/06 11:04 AM): Purchased a Sansa 250R _ _, 2 gig mp3/wma-drm player (with bookmarking features, supposedly), it comes with 2 months of Rhapsody Online, but too bad I can't apply that to my current subscription.. I guess I could deinstall Rhapsody, cancel my service, take the two months of free service.. Save 30 dollars.. I don't know if they would let me do that..

I'll let you know how well it works.. I thought it would be good to get this for the turkeyday trip, so we, my girlfriend and I, can listen to say 6 audio books (~ 300Megs apiece) or Some audio books and music.. (Okay it was compulsive shopping, I was in a "Best Buy" and I wanted to spend money ona new toy). BUT IT PLAYS VIDEOS! It has a builtin FM tuner, recorder, it can record from the radio, view photos.. So I thought, hey it's useful and its half or a third the price of a iPod.. I guess I could get an iPod, but I wanted Rhapsody compatible DRM, I have no interest in buying into Microsoft or Apple's services, since they are disadvantaged compared to Rhapsody and NetLibrary (Audio Books, which I get through my local public library).

My Conclusion: This Player is a Piece of Crap!! Well it plays, the dial feature is underused (for instance when you want to tune the radio you can't use the dial!!). The software that came with the player doesn't allow you to easily connect with the player.. It could be a conflict with my other Sansa mp3/wma-drm players. It's coupled with Best Buy's Rhapsody, though I could probably use my current Rhapdsody Online to update the player.. The buttons are hard to press, and too small.. There is one button in the center that looks like it would be used as a navigation disk, but I think the whole idea was to look like an iPod. If the iPod's work this way, I've never used an iPod, I really feell sorry for those who think this is good design.. This players design in particular is much worse than the 40 dollar "Sansa M230" I have.. It did do a firmware update after I had worked with the interface, so maybe some stuff got fixed.. Anyhow, the major problem I have with it, is it's media converter service is tightly coupled (translation: it requires, it depends, it expects) with the player, and right now it doesn't even see the player.. In "My Computer" (resource listing in windows) I see two Sansa players, not one, and the other isn't the M230.. It installs two devices: "Sansa E250R" and "Sansa E200R Rhapsody" . Maybe both resources are on the player.. But I have not had anything resembling a flawless user experience with this player. It totally SUCKS!! Avoid this player like the plague!!

SANSA IS A BUNCH OF RETARDS!!! They have no place for me to download Media Converter on their site. And When I install the media converter, if I want to update, it finds all the other Installshield programs I have on my machine.. Like it tried to install Word Perfect 11, instead of Media Converter.. When I got rid of Word Perfect 11 installer, it tries to install Sonic (my DVD writer).. Don't these fools know how to write a decent installer, or even how to make a simple program that works without an install? Sansa SUCKS! I have;t eaten lunch, I have stuff scheduled today, I have to be somewhere at 1:00.. I wasted 3 hours on this SHIT.. If Sansa is going to continue making players, they need to stop trying to get crap out before Xmas that is the quality of crap.

(11/16/06 11:36 AM): My friend Nathan Located the "Flying Lizards" version of The Beatles(w) _ _ song "Money (That's What I Want)"(w) _ _ (use the first list to get the parody) .

(11/15/06 11:59 PM): Can you believe this was number 1 in November 1983 in the UK? I wonder what Yaz(w) _ _ thought of this..

This guy is pretty Gnarly looking, and sounding (isn't he like the lead singer of television or something, his voice reminds me of someone)...

Oh yeah, I forgot about this video.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I did a search on 1983/November, to see what Music Videos were popular at that time.. Like this Eurhthmics one. I used that "You Tubify Everyhit" search engine to get these..

Why does this music video remind me of "To Sir With Love (yt)", I've reviewed it before, but it kind of just adds to concept of the 80s..

(11/13/06 12:25 AM): Determining podcasts to put into my players (1 GB), and I found this site that has a lot of music shows on it, called www.underheard.org, Terrasonic in particular (netcast).

(11/12/06 11:57 AM): I purchased Tears For Fears "Everyone Loves A Happy Ending", which I hope will not be their last album, in particular I hope they do more like Track 12.. I've determined that Curt Smith is particularly good at melodies (I don't know if he writes the melodies, but it seems to be something Roland is not particularly good at), and Curt seems to do better on the tenor parts.. Whole Roland is really good at sound like other singers, he can even emulate Curt's style of singing, and is good at creating "walls of sound" and orchestration (playing around with samples) and such, I think they make better music together. However, in the album, the music is very Beatlesque for the first part of the album. Track 12 sounds like something Barry White, or some soulful pre-funk early 70s or late 60s singer might do, might do, I really liked how Roland was trying to disguise himself in that genre.. Some of the other songs sounded like something Squeeze or XTC would do. I have a feeling they either had help or they had inspiration from other musicians while doing the album because it doesn't sound like Tears for Fears.

On a side note, this is the first time I've purcahsed songs from Rhapsody Online.. The major diference between this and purchasing them on the older Rhapsody, is you get to download the songs as permanent DRM enabled WMA files, and then you can burn that to CD. I guess this is like buying from iTunes, but I personally will never buy from iTunes, because at least WMA DRM will play on any WMA enabled player, which gives me more choices than Apple will lock me into.. So if I had an iPod, maybe, but Rhapsody is better than iTunes, because at least I can listen to stuff all the way through without having to purchase it.. It's when I want to play CD's in my car, that's when I want to purchase and burn.. I burned ABBA's last album to CD, and played it for months.. I guess in general I purchase and burn new stuff that I haven't heard billions of times, that I like.

(11/11/06 10:10 AM): Just wait, watch FOX slowly shift to being a democrat station.. If it happens you will know why, Market Analysis..

I think the reason why the media tends to have a strong liberal slant, and I don't think it has anything to do with most news organizations being in New York, it's that there really isn't a whole lot to talk about that is conservatively slanted, I mean, what do you talk about?

(11/08/06 11:09 PM): Without looking this song up, try to guess when it was filmed. I will give you a hint, the Juggler is the raytraced animation that sold the first Amiga Computers. I had mentioned that this should be the YouTube National Anthem, and someone agreed.. Your Jammin' Me.

(11/08/06 9:28 AM): Sorry guys, I had noticed that the CASHBOX Bookmarklet from last month wasn't working, so I instead put the bookmarklet into a text file, and uploaded instructions on how to install and use it, in the text file.. You can get that text file here.

(11/07/06 4:57 PM): I went all Republican, because I can't stand Bill Richardson, and because this state has too many dang democrats.. But I was half thinking about going republican, democrat, republican, democrat.. I mean, it would make sense, as it would keep them involved, unsure, uncomfortable.. A comfortable politician is a bad thing. Anyhow..

Aside from that, I'm going to try not to download the next revision of iTunes, it seems like Steve keeps screwing it up.. I know they want to leverage the popularity of netcasts in favor of their music sales and ipod sales, but they are just becoming a bit of a pest.. I may just have to write my own solution to the problem: a website that keeps all the OPML for all your various netcast combinations, like netcasts under 512 megs of the best stuff, netcasts under 2 gig of the best stuff, 1 gig of long netcasts, etc.. Apple is doomed!! Well I better implement this first.. But I know precisely how to do it, and it will be an apple killer..

(11/01/06 10:06 PM): Diggnation(w) _ _ is a netcast where two journalists discussing nerdy topics get gradually more and more drunk as time goes by, giving them the freedom to talk candidly about anything without having to have a lawyer present. This is just one of the new media that Netcasts can bring you that traditional mainstream media can't. It's quite interesting, and funny, but funnier than comedy netcasts that rely on embarassing vulgar language to get people to laugh.. These guys are actually funny..

Um I talked too soon.. I guess they've gotten more vulgar..

(11/01/06 9:34 AM):

I keep wondering why, to myself, why I don't do 3D Graphics stuff much anymore..
1. No real money in it.
2. Too hard, takes too much time.
3. Packages are always changing, never hardly stabilize, you can never really keep the tools you want to use.
4. The tools usually suck for making animations, requiring lots of memory on the part of the user to discern features of the modeller from the animation package, and such.
5. the big one for me is: Not much innovation in the technology, we still have NURBS, Subdivision surfaces, etc.

Not much need for it in everyday life.. Sometimes I ask myself, when contemplating whether something is useful or not, in everyday life how much of the time do I come in contact with this, and is it something I depend upon.. This is why some people choose professions like Doctor, Lawyer, Accountant, etc. They are professions people depend a lot on.. You could probably plot all professions on a chart of "dependence" and "contact" (how often one one is experienced). Sales Clerks, Telemarketers, Waiters, and such would be low on dependence, but high on contact, for instance.. You don't necessarily depend on them, but you might come in contact with them a lot. Anyhow, there really is not much "contact" with 3D graphics technology or 3D art, the only industries this occur are in video games and advertising and movies.. You don't really come into contact with it anywhere else.. And how often do you come in contact with it? But there is probably a high dependence on the people who can use the technology..

But I do come in contact with CG it in the videos games I play..

But where is the high contact and dependence (thinking off the top of my head)?
• Hardware Designers, people that make the game hardware work.. We can wait a long time for a game console to be released. But it isn't everyday that you find people releasing game consoles.. There is not much competition in that area.. So hardware designers must make a lot of money, especially if they are doing something that no other designer can reproduce.
• Game designers.. We wait a year for a game like 2142 to be released.
• CG algorithm designers: new surface types, new image effects, etc.
• New Sound and Hapic Feedback designers: Basically anyone who creates extra feeling to the environment of the game.

BUT, the graphics artist, if not special in skills, is not important to the process.. I mean we don't wait for a game to be developed with a particular artist involved. And a particular artist may have at most 10% visual "contact" with the consumer. So they get paid purportionally to how much they are relied upon.

But the creators of the games rely on the artists to fill out the details of the game.. The hardware and game designers rely on the algorithm designers to create new methods of creating game play and visual technology. And the gamers rely on the hardware and software to be of top quality. But still you could probably replace one graphics artist with another, and still get the game made in time. That's probably why business people try to make people into "units", so that they can be interchangeable and be paid less for their services.. This is the downside to standardization of practice.. But the up side is there is more jobs for those who employ standards of practice.

Graphics technology was more interesting to me, and I wielded more political power, when less was known, when there was no common practice.. True.. I was made more popular by what I could do.. But as the field blew out and the CG fanatics outgrew the fanbase, the tools began to look the same, the tools you would expect would make the process easier, but haven't (that could be a good thing, probably for graphic technology engineers, people who make 3D applications). Blender is the only ray of hope I have.. But Engineers being wise about the technology they create, are not likely to contribute to blender as it would devalue them and the field they want to be a part of.. Open Source tends to get developed by those people that need solutions, but are not usually professionals unless the professional is trying to get a technology into standard practice that is not being used for some political reason. I tend to say Open Source realizes technologies that would not otherwise get developed commercially. The ones who generally make Open Source technologies, either are trying to push technology, or are trying to have their own needs met. They don't usually open source something they think they could sell, unless they are reasonably sure that the technology they create is non-intuitive to engineer. I mean, stuff that ends up in open source is stuff that can be easily hacked without much knowledge. Stuff that doesn't tend to end up in Open Source is technology that isn't easy to understand or hack without much knowledge..

When investors look for stuff to invest in, the y invest in hard technologies (chemicals, chips, things that no normal person can produce, but things people come in contact with every day, and things people depend on). Investors don't invest in Open Source technology, unless it somehow augments markets for technologies that they are also investing in. Like it makes a lot of sense for Sun to invest in Java, because it encourages people to buy Sun technologies like their Java processors for cellphones. But Java isn't open sourced. Open Office, though, is. People invest in google, because it increases the utilization of the net.. You might find people who invest in Cisco, invest in google too.

Anyhow, back to the CG stuff.. The reason I really don't do it much anymore, it takes time to do computer graphics.. So much time.. And for what? What is it that "wows" me.. What am I doing that someone else can't do?

Not much has changed in the last ten years in the hard technology of Computer Graphics.. The only thing that has really changed is in the use of the technology, the manipulation of it, the organization of it.. The Look of CG has not really changed.. I guess I'm the only guy who probably has become tired of it.. I mean I can spot CG a mile a way when seeing it in movies.. Like in Spider-Man, I can probably tell you where CG was used in the movie. Either the motion is a giveaway, the constraints of feasibility (it's easier to animate a character totally covered with spandex than to animate a character with skin and facial features..

I guess it comes down to how much can be produced, that the consumer comes in contact with most of the time, that the consumer is the most reliant on.. If you are concerned about increasing your income as an artist.. So the more you are involved in the process, the more people see of your artwork, the more "wow" you add to the deliverables, that will determine your value..

But for me, it's, use.. It's to me, how much use Computer Graphics is to me.. I have to ask that question, because it determines how I value it.. How others might value it.. Also I wonder, how much would someone pay for this.. How easy would it be to make something that looks convincing.. Something that doesn't look Cliche (something everyone has seen before).. How can I make CG not look like something that is CG, and how easy is it do that?

The problem with the CG industry, is the tool creators make their money off the artists, and when every artist has the tool, the effect of the tool becomes cliche, and then you have to buy the next tool that will differentiate yourself from all the other artists, which later becomes cliche.. It never ends, and the tool designers are dependent on the algorithm designers to make new technology that the artists will purchase.. But which is greater the fanaticism about 3D graphics or the reliance that people have on 3D graphics.. You have to ask that question, because it determines where the money is being made.. 3D CG is a niche field.. Not too many people can do it successfully and be paid well at the same time. There are a lot of people taht want to get into the field, but there is little need for this stuff.. So the market for the field is in the fanaticism for the art and the fantasy of being a 3D artist by profession..

It's a Wannabee Field..

Unless... people find real everyday uses for CG, that others are reliant on.. Otherwise the field will never really grow to offer much employment. Part of the hope I have in blender being used more, is that it might help realize new markets for artists and engineers that want to do 3D graphics work.. The downside to blender, is it opens up the market to outsourcers.. Like artist farms in Russia and India.. Being American, I'm not much interested in this, it seems like the money is going overseas, but I don't know if it's coming back..

But maybe the outsourcing of art will make for more interesting movies and video games..

You can follow your own nose..

Business people tend to look at markets, like with market research, and data mining, to determine where the money is at.. But new markets are a double edged sword.. They have to wonder, what is this new market going to realize, is it going to find new money, or is it going to steal from an existing market.. They try to maximize profit without devalueing their other investments. So they would not invest in Open Source technologies that compete with other technologies they invest in.. They would probably not invest in technologies at all, as technologies are only good i they bring something new to the table or provide a service that is unique.

Same goes for artists.. You are probably better off going for positions that involve the creation of new and inspiring genres of content, like "Harry Potter".. People who create new and unique content are more valuable to businesses than people who facilitate the process of creating content, which can be outsourced to (work can be sent to India, or Russia)..

It's not likely that the content creators will be in any other nation than India, at least not for the American market, because they have to be squarely familiar with the American market and what it wants, to make money off of it..

Again Business people look at markets, market analysis, to determine what people want.. Then they try to give it to them.. But the problem with creating new genres, like with "Harry Potter", is it involves thinking about things outside of the realm of comfort.. What is Cliche.. Why "Harry Potter" successful is it is a genre of art an story that is full of ideas and ideas that are not cliche.. It forces the artists in the "Harry Potter" movies to imagine things that are not often called for in movies.. Therefore, it requires artists to do something that is not common practice.. It pushes the field of software technology, probably.. It pushes the hardware.. It in effect drives the industry, raises stock value, etc..

I think, the key is to have people who create unique content, come in contact with rich people, that would drive new industries.. You are not likely to find outsourcers creating unique content as they are not familiar with the American market.. You at best may find areas of the world that have been affected by American culture, to create content that interests them, and thus everyone else.. Like "Shaolin Soccer".

I guess any time you create a new genre of products that devalue products, that's where the competition can be found, the strive to make better products.. And if there is a sport for it, there is where some money can be found.. But as an American investor, I think you should ask the question, how much is Americans involved in this sport of competition.. What can the American bring to the table that the outsourcers aren't already.. What can outsourcers feasibly bring to the table that exceeds the Americans.. This is where you might find out what the Americans can bring that the world can't.

So in order to survive we must be allowed to compete.. In effect, all this outsourcing does, I think, to America, is it contrasts the values of the American professions that can't be outsourced with the ones that can.. The ones that can't be outsourced, are the ones that do something personal, like legal counseling, medical help, things that are close to home, like being a plumber.. Or even being a unique and inspiring artist, which is not easy, unless you are unique and inspiring individual.

Another idea I had, just now, is, if we know the market in other countires for content, we can probably determine new genres of content for those countries, content that would sell there.. This is the line of thought that makes movies we find in theatres, homogenous.. Movies are being created to appeal to world markets than to American markets.. In the 70s, the focus was on American markets.. But in the 80s and 90s, it was being made more and more for World Markets.. That's why the movies now, completely suck.. Unless its a new and unique, inspiring genre of content.. Like "Harry Potter"..

This is why any animator will tell you it's important that you "be good at storytelling". If you have a unique idea for some new kind of content, and you can tell a story, you can imagine the genre of content, write about it, protect it, publish it, sell it.. The rest can be outsourced.. The American movies have done well to convert other cultures, into something american-like.. It's just important that the content not be too american-centric, unless it inspires a fantasy about being American, or being on the other side of the fence, if that is desired.. You will notice that in "Harry Potter" what are the nationalities of these witches? Mostly Australian, English and American.. But you don't usually find a Chinese, Japanese, East Indian, African or other such main character in these films..

Anyhow, this started out a Rant on why I don't do CG much anymore.. I think what I'm trying to say here, is I'm more interested in what CG can do, it's application, than I am in mastering CG and doing it.. I find web development more interesting because there is a lot left to do there.. And it doesn't have to be open sourced.. You can create webhost centric services, like Youtube, with relatively little technology, and have a profound effect on the world and the world markets.. Just that web development doesn't have a good commercial effect on the world.. Youtube probably helps to Americanize, Democratize, more of the world, by sharing ideas.. That is important.. It will devalue market analysis, though, as there will be less niche markets to exploit, assuming the people in these other markets like in India, can't hold on to the culture very well. Their culture has to be of value to everyone, and somethign that can be shared and inspiring. The only cultures inspiring Americans, I would say, Are those like Spain, France, English, India, Australia.. At the very least is it China, though we like Chinese Food, you can get that anywhere..

So maybe what would inspire people to invest in Youtube, if it was on the stock exchange, I'm not sure it is.. Is to what degree Youtube Americanizes, or best yet, Homgenizes the cultures of the world into something that can be more easily exploited without much market analysis and advertising.

Business people should want to kill off advertising and market analysis.. It's where they put so much money, to try to win more people over.. What they should want more, is people who can realize new markets by creating more unique content..

This could come out of the blogging culture, as the more and more people blog, the more people attach to blogs that interest them. Your market is the number of unique hits you get a day.. The more people you bring to your site.. The more interesting your site is.. This reveals more and more, who the unique content creators are.. And how well they can hold this market, how well they can continue to interest people.. Boy, this is getting Metaphysical.. Or Meta something or other..

Well thanks for reading..

Oh ya, it's not the case that Americanizing other cultures will cause content to come from a non-American source. So I don't imagine content creators to come from other countries.. Unless the other countries can appeal to Americans and bring something new to the table.. This encourages alliance between content creators in other countries and Americans, in appealing to the American market.. But there is no way to really measure the value of content before it's sold.. This is something business analysis is challenged to box, but only maintains to copy-cat.. I mean how many business people are so unique as to be entertaining? They strive for money to the point of becoming cliche, to looking like the next.. It's survival.. Yes, but where is the passion.. The Love for the art of being a business person.. Where is the love for the product.. Etc.. The is another reason the love of money can be particularly toxic..

What really keeps me from creating art, I guess, is the financial inspiration to make art.. The love of money, makes the world devoid of artistic inspiration.. People don't spend money on art, therefore life is not as interesting as it could be. Content creators are treated like units of creation.. You can say this about all professions in general.. If you are not being paid to create unique stuff, you tend to adhere to the standards of practice, to make processes efficient.. But these processes are not very inspiring, if an art.. However to the utilization of stuff, which is non-art, standards of process are important as it makes things more useful.. So I guess what I'm saying is we should strive to standardize some things and not others.. Design is standardized art.. Art inspires and industry of design.. Business drives design.. But what drives Art? YOU!! That comes from within ones personality. It's inspired by other artists, and by culture, the world, whatever.. But it can't be standardized, otherwise we would call it design.. So I guess when the CG world got taken over more by designers, I lost interest in the art of CG-ing stuff.. Because there was nothing new to exploit.. I guess what would be important is to strive for better storytelling skills, if I am to make movies.. Or game making skills if I want to make games, and so forth..

But it's important to have web skills and programming skill snow, I think, or to specialize in an art that can't be easil reproduced.. Digital Photography, Music, anything that can be easily traceived by technology, like music, images, text, can be easily copied, reproduced.. Sculptures can't very easily be copied, for instance.. Or someone who Oil Paints might become of greater value than someone who only paint digitally, as Oil Paintings can't be easily copied.. But the areas where digital artists are of more value is in the are where art is not being sold, but being used to influence, like advertising, to color products, to design cars.. But then we are back into design.. Art is about pushing the limits of design, to do something unique that is not yet another design we've seen before.. Art may be inspired by design.. Artists are like Scientists, Designers are like Engineers. Artists make new stuff and push the limits of perception, Designers turn these ideas into technology, into things that can be reused. As a programmer and artist, I try to fill that niche in between the two.. But there is not much money, I've found, to be realized in web development, as people tend to value web technologies like they value MSWord, they clump computer technology together, and have a certain expectation of the technology.. This makes the art of programming much harder, because it's expected for web software to be feature rich and not too creative.. I mean, what would you do for 4000 dollars per project.. I know a lot of East Indian's would make a lot of stuff with that much money.. But for a profession in America, that's actually quite little if you do this twice a year.. Which I do.. Why I do it, is because I can, and I have faith that people will tumble to the fact that this stuff is hard, and that it's needed.. But still the business clients my manager comes in contact with, they are complete idiots.. They have unreasonable expectations.. They want stuff that is streamlined and feature-rich, they haven't a complete understanding of the limitations of the technology.. And they use perception as their governing factor for interpreting value. It's not in the use of the technology as it is in the professional look of the technology. I think for me, what I should be doing, and have been driven to do, is make technologies that I want, that I can reuse, that will give be shorter turnaround times.. But trying to satisfy the customer is not easy.. I really am thinking I shouldn't be doing projects on a per project basis but should be selling products as services online.. Like instead of selling source code, I could be selling sites, or even the services of sites. Like web software that creates websites..

I use my web development expertise to further my art of making web applications, to learn better techniques.. It's a lot of time put in to realize a lot out.. But given that the web hasn't gone anywhere.. And it really doesn't seem like people are doing much with it.. And given my creativity and background in programming and art, I think eventually, somewhere here, I will be able to exploit my experience in a way that is profittable.. I guess the problem is getting the idiot investors of the world to realize that you can create value and profit where there is none currently. I'm a frugal investor myself, I really don't buy something unless it is the cheapest thing I can get, and it works.. It's nice when it works well and does something special.. I also shoot for technologies that are simple, do what they need to do, are not complex to use, and such.. What gets me, is these idiot clients I get, they want me to put in features all over the place that don't make sense, that make the technology unecessarily complex.. It seems to be a common thing among blogs.. Make blogs so complex to look at that you can't navigate them.. It used to be a discerning factor for me, to limit the number of links that go out of my site, to create more content in my site that draws people to stay on my site.. It still is to some degree, but I have links that go to specific sites, out of my site, to facilitate the use of those sites in augmenting my content. That's valuable.. What is not valuable to me as a consumer is these sites like on "Blogger" that have all these RSS feeds, and no standardization.. They search for internationalization, but they don't strive for simplification.. That's why google is so nice, it doesn't have N-ary features, it doesn't keep adding crap like Yahoo, who will never have a clue. Yahoo's value I guess is in the details of what they make, but everytime I go to Yahoo, it's like going to Godaddy.. Crap, Crap and more crap, I don't need.. That's why on my blog, I put the stuff I think is important at the top, and I bury my blog. I also don't like a paged blog, because you can search across it very easily.. I don't like comment areas,because it allows people to argue with me on topics I don't necessarily want to argue..

Anyhow, when I blog, when I create, or whatever I do, I make it for me.. I don't make it for someone else.. I revisit my site, I read my site, it's like a diary to me.. I visit links I find interesting.. I post here stuff for myself.. I keep my favorite technology links here.. I put links here that I feel would be useful to other people.. Sometimes I annotate my text with links(w) _ _ or other link types _ _.. I wrote into my blogging software, technology that augments my words.. It would be nicer if my links didn't have all the added underscores.. This will come to me as I learn more and more javascript, and client-side scripting..

What bugs me though, is the valuable professions in web development are not in the server-side scripters so much as the client-side creators.. Client-side content creation is more streamlined, more designer oriented.. Server-side scripting can't easily and affordably be done by client-side designers, it takes a lot of experience.. Maybe I should be selling products and not selling services to individual clients.. Because all a client-side designer, in general, can do, is create new kinds of perceptions.. Their content can't be stored in a database, it can't easily be made to interact between users.. What sever-side scripters bring to the table is inetractive web technologies, like YouTube.. Though it is enabled by flash.. It is nothing without the server-side scripting that allows the content to be stored, what really facilitates YouTube is the networking and systems administration.. YouTube really is not a very creative web application, it's not doing something I couldn't conceive of. It's just very successful at making a model of content distribution, that hasn't worked well in the past, work well..

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