Month: July 2007

via AKMA, I learned about this:

Friends, fans and supporters of Stars… – July 10th, 2007

On September 25th, We will release Stars’ fourth studio album, In Our Bedroom After War.

We love it and are excited and proud to be bringing it to the world.

We enlisted Joe Chiccarelli to mix the album. He finished in early June, passing the tapes along to Emily Lazar at the Lodge for mastering. Last Friday, July 6th, a final master was delivered to us.

Traditional music business practice says we are to begin sending out copies of this album now. We give advance copies to print publications in hopes of securing features that coincide with our September date. We meet with radio stations in hopes of securing airplay. etc, etc.

Inevitably someone will leak the album.

Throughout this process, the most important people in this value chain, the fans, are given only two options – wait until September 25th to legally purchase the new album or choose from a variety of sources and download the album for free, at any time.

We hope you’ll choose to support the band, and choose to pay for their album. However we don’t think it’s fair you should have to wait until September 25th to do so.

We believe that the line between the media and the public is now completely grey.
What is the difference between a writer for a big glossy music magazine and a student writing about their favourite bands on their blog? What differentiates a commercial radio station from someone adding a song to their lastfm channel? or their myspace page?

As such, we are making the new Stars album available for legal download today, four days after it’s completion. The CD and double vinyl versions of the album will still be released on our official release date, September 25th. We hope you will continue to support music retailers should a physical album in all it’s packaged glory be your choice of format.

It’s our hope that given a clear, legal alternative to downloading music for free, you will choose to support the creators.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Sincerely,
Stars and Arts & Crafts

AKMA’s analysis:

If only they realized that it’s not the dollars-from-bits that they’re selling; it’s the packaging (for the physical artifact) and the performances (at live venues). But Rangaswami’s, and Prince’s, understanding of how this digital economy works will prevail in the long run. And if you want to buy the Stars album now, you can go here now; me, I’ll wait to hear how it sounds before I rush to buy. At least Arts & Crafts doesn’t DRM-cripple their digital versions.

I’m inclined to give a listen just to reward them for doing this.

Contrast this to the hoop and holler about the appearance of HP the VIIth on various unauthorized distribution channels.
Continue reading “bits, atoms, and events”

American Science & Surplus: Optics – Lenses and Lens Cleaners:

The Mother Of All Fresnel Lenses
It came from either outer space, or a projection TV. Our largest Fresnel lens measures 49-1/8″ x 37-1/8″ x 1/16″ thick, with a 42″ focal length. Build your own lighthouse or projection TV, teach optical properties to students, or just turn your 21-inch model into one with a tavern-size picture. Held in the sun, the lens will concentrate rays enough to cook eggs or torch lumber. And, under adult supervision in the parking lot, employees of a certain un-named scientific and surplus purveyor actually melted pennies in seconds. Extremely cool and done strictly, we assure you, to determine the lens’s focal length. Do not, we shouldn’t have to remind you, store this puppy in direct sunlight. Or let the underage or under-mature sneak it into the sunlight.

Couple this with a solar heating system or a Stirling engine (who knows how little sunlight it could make use of?). Melting pennies in seconds? Yikes! Even an old-fashioned steam engine could be run off something like this: the inefficiency of it isn’t such a big deal when the cost of your main input is zero.

A somewhat popular blogger holds no brief for Pottermania, but his commenters are more diverse:

Curmudgeon! If I had young kids, I’d rather they were reading Harry Potter than wasting away in World of Warcraft, collecting enchanted unicorn testicles for Kaaleth the Bold of Shrivenshire. J.K. Rowling may have singlehandedly forestalled the end of literacy by a generation – and the books aren’t half bad to boot.

I’m just glad they’re reading something, though I did find a Left Behind paperback in my kids’ pile at the library and deftly flung it aside. Not all series books are good.

Yesterday’s links:

I’m also interested in GNU Screen. I haven’t really started using it, but I am collecting information about it. Yesterday I saw a blog post about how to set up the status line in Screen and found a Screen tutorial. Two different people have told me how useful they find Screen lately, so I feel like I’m missing out.

yeah, me too. I have seen people use it with flair and inventiveness, but I have never gotten my mind around it somehow. Maybe one more try will do it . . .

Not reading for comprehension: Glenn Reynolds, National Geographic and DDT « Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:

Soon after the program collapsed, mosquito control lost access to its crucial tool, DDT. The problem was overuse—not by malaria fighters but by farmers, especially cotton growers, trying to protect their crops. The spray was so cheap that many times the necessary doses were sometimes applied. The insecticide accumulated in the soil and tainted watercourses. Though nontoxic to humans, DDT harmed peregrine falcons, sea lions, and salmon, [especially predators of mosquitoes]. In 1962 Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, documenting this abuse and painting so damning a picture that the chemical was eventually outlawed by most of the world for agricultural use [years later]. Exceptions were made for malaria control, but DDT became nearly impossible to procure. “The ban on DDT,” says Gwadz of the National Institutes of Health, “may have killed 20 million children.”
[emphasis in original]

If I were at the National Geographic I would be embarrassed to have let that last sentence go to press, without making clear the chain of consequences that led to DDt being unavailable for malaria control. The deaths of 20 million children cannot be laid at the feet of environmentalists or Rachel Carson, but instead at the agriculture of the time and it’s love for chemical remediation of natural factors. If DDT had been used responsibly, it would not have been removed from the market. But it’s too easy to blame the messenger, especially if they are a. dead and b. part of a movement your fans despise.

Continue reading “Beating up Rachel Carson: the sport of tough guys”

American Science & Surplus: Communications and Electronics – A/V Devices and Accessories:

TV/VCR…with a Cup Holder! tell a friend about this item so they can check it out
You won’t find this at your neighborhood BestBargain. It’s a ready-to-bolt-down center console for van conversions with a 5″ color TV and separate play-only VCR that run on 12VDC, and, as a bonus, a big-slurp-sized cup holder. The unit draws 4.5A and comes with a fused 6-foot cigarette lighter plug with a 5mm feminine plug and a remote (you add 3 “AAA” batteries). Has a built-in 2″ x 3″ speaker, (2) head-phone jacks, backlit controls, and external A/V RCA imputs for a video game or DVD player. The console measures 20-1/2″ high x 8-1/4″ wide x 20″ deep and has (4) mounting brackets with 5/8″ holes and hardware. The TV is Audiovox® model #AVT-507; VCR is model #AVP-7000VF, and yes, Homer, it’d be right easy to strip for parts.

Tempting. And while you’re in there, Jeeves, put an mp3 jack in there.