July 18, 2007
sed AppleScript For iTunes
As I was searching for some AppleScript help today, I noticed
iTunes SED - Smart batch changes on ID3 info using Unix SED and Regex. I haven't tried it yet, but this looks awesome. I have wondered for a while why nobody had added sed capabilities to editing various things in Mac OS X.
I might be able to follow this fellow's example and make AppleScripts to reformat text with the UNIX "fmt" command or even unquote/requote email messages.
Posted by lsloan at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2007
Downloading or Uploading: Which Is Illegal?
Steve Jobs wrote this nice article about DRM (digital rights management), "Apple - Thoughts on Music". It's an informative read and easy to understand. The usual Steve Jobs quality.
However, near the end of the article, I read this:
"No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player."
That makes me pause to think. Why is the downloading of music that one didn't pay for illegal? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say that the uploading of the music in the first place is the illegal act?
If music weren't (illegally) uploaded, nobody would be able to download it, correct? Many people, perhaps naïvely, believe that anything on the Internet must be legal. If it weren't legal it wouldn't be available.
So, let's say somebody made several copies of some music CDs onto other CDs. Maybe they made straight copies or maybe the copies are encoded in a popular digital format usable on computers and portable players. The copy CDs are well-labelled with what they contain. These CDs are left lying around on tables in a popular coffee shop, on a bench in a bus stop, taped up to a lamppost, or whereever for anybody to take if they want.
Who has done something illegal in this case? The people that take the copied CDs or the one that made them available in the first place? How is this different than the Internet upload and download scenario?
Posted by lsloan at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2006
Chinese Musical Instruments
I really enjoy traditional Chinese music. I was surfing the web this evening and one thing led to another (as the web is often wont to do). I found this page for Music Office, apparently run by the Hong Kong government. It describes various Chinese instruments and has some nice, full-length songs with which they are demonstrated.
I like the erhu and the yangqin best.
Posted by lsloan at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2006
Space Opera 2000
I was searching for some Star Wars soundbites to include in my iTunes today (I like to hear a bit of dialog from my favorite movies thrown in my music mix at random) when I ran across something funny, odd, and creative. And since it involves music, I has spurred me on to finally creating a "music" category for my blog just to file it in. Although, this is so funny I still had to pick "funny" as tne primary category.
What I ran across as a result of an altavista.com audio search is the
Space Opera 2000 CD Preview. The North Cambridge Family Opera Company put on a production of the opera version of Star Wars: A New Hope and captured the audio. You should really take a listen to these preview MP3s. The most humorous parts are those of R2-D2.
I can't say it's good, but it is very creative.
Posted by lsloan at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)