Myrcom
Newsbits 2005 February
Hello Folks.!
Since quite a
lot has been going on here at the end of the month I've decided to send
you a little newsletter today "Myrcom Newsbits".
The main story
today is that McAfee
changes over today from having a weekly update on
wednesdays for virus recognition signatures to a daily release. I'm
actually very pleased that they have stepped up to daily updating. I
get updates from McAfee's Avert Labs regarding which viruses are
breaking out, being updated and the like. There is a virus forecast
page available to you on Myrcom.net any time you may want to see what
is happenning out there on the net. Here's the direct link to the virus
forecast page; http://myrcom.net/virustat/
In other news.
You may have been aware of the growth of music stores online where you
download the songs or CDs instead of having to go out to the store and
purchase them. This is only feasible for those folks who have made the
move to a Broadband connection
to the net such as DSL or Cable
internet. On dialup it would simply take too long to download.
In the past I
have been disappointed with the online music stores because the formats
of the music have been locked and not flexible enough to be used except
with a certain player program and particular media player devices. One
good example is Apple's music service iTunes. To test out the service I
purchased a single song instead of an entire CD or "album". I do not
have an iPod, Apple's portable music player, and found my only other
option with my purchased music was to play it in their iTunes program.
That would be
fine if their program was what I wanted to play my music in... and
never used another pc. The music has to basically be installed with a
use license into any computer you might want to play it on. So, I'd
have had to install the iTunes program on my laptop and then get an
additional license online and have Apple install my song onto the
laptop before I could play it on both PCs. This is nuts in my book. I
wanted an mp3 file that I could just copy to where I wanted it, play it
in my choice of programs and put on whatever mp3 portable device I
might want to buy. Not an option.
Well, if you're
like me, you are going to want Options.! Options you choose, not what
you're told you can choose. Finally there are options.! Two new music
services have appeared on the scene which allow you to buy music in the
universal mp3 format.!! The first one is called mp3Tunes.com and was
started by Michael Roberts who
came up with the original mp3.com site
that became extremely popular on the internet. Roberts then sold the
company & site mp3.com to Vivendi International Media who was
supposed to continue on the current path but, of course that did not
happen. In a short amount of time Vivendi sold the website mp3.com to
CNet.com who promptly disposed of the artists and the largest
collection of music files in the world.
While CNet.com
now has a semi-respectable music area on their main site and a very
poor excuse for a site on the mp3.com domain they purchased from
Vivendi, the music lovers of the world have been in Limbo. Until now.
As mentioned,
Michael Roberts is back in the music business again and in a Big way...
Mp3Tunes.com not only sells the
music in a format that will play
anywhere, copies easily and has no license installations at all... not
only that but, the prices are super competitive too. Only Wal-Mart has
had 88 cent songs until now. (in locked format) Mp3Tunes.com sells
songs for 88 cents each, Albums for $8.88 and they work ANYWHERE you
care to play 'em.!!
Yes, this time I
purchased an album, not just a song. *laughing* And, instead of the
128 bit sampling the other music stores online use, Mp3Tunes uses 192
bit sampling which brings the depth of sound back to the music it'd
lost at 128 bit encoding. Yes, the files are a bit larger but, if you
want to make an audio CD that's going to sound as good as what you
could buy in the store then 192 bit mp3 files will give you that
quality.!
In addition to
Robert's Mp3Tunes.com store I have just gotten word of another startup
venture who'll let you buy your music in mp3 format too, as well as any
of the most popular audio formats today. This store is called,
MagnaTune.com - Internet Music Without
the Guilt. At this site, not
only can you buy the music in just about any format you please, you can
also listen to entire albums online. Even the wonderful Mp3Tunes.com
only lets you sample 30 second clips of the songs in their store, which
is standard across the board. MagnaTune.com however breaks with this
not only by allowing you to stream entire albums as a preview but, you
can pay what you think a song or album is worth. How's that.?
MagnaTune.com
does have suggested prices for the songs and albums but, you can change
it. Right now both sites are drawing Artists in who have had it with
the Corporate Plan which the other music stores are following to a T.
I'd suggest that you get an account on both Mp3Tunes.com and
MagnaTune.com to show your support for the flexibility to buy music the
way you want to.
Feel the love.? *chuckling* Its nice to see
these changes happenning.! And, one last mention I must make is a new
licensing model that not only Musicians but Authors etc are finding
very much to their liking is called "Creative Commons" at
CreativeCommons.Org where the
artist, author etc decides what rights
they want and how they are to be applied to the public. Their
catchphrase is; Some Rights Reserved.
Check them out.
That is it for
February 2005. I've listed the sites below for easy access. Its looking
like 2005 will be a very good year.! God Bless.!
Sincerley,
Myrddin Emrys
S I T
E L I N K S
a) http://www.mp3tunes.com/
b) http://www.magnatune.com/
c) http://www.creativecommons.org/
ps soon to be
released: OpenOffice.org 2.0
