Music and Food

Someone wrote in response to the linked article:

Plenty of ink has been spilled in arguments over the proper business model for music in the P2P age. The publishers generally want to hold onto the current market-based system, but there are voices in the wilderness arguing that a compulsory license model actually makes the most sense for both artists and consumers. One of those voices is Steven Page, singer and guitarist for the Barenaked Ladies, who recently spoke to Ars about this issue and called for an ISP-based licensing model that would allow consumers access to all the music they want and would ensure that artists get paid. But the US Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters, calls this a bad idea.

To which someone else replied:


Ok so compulsory license artists get paid and you can download what you want when you want DRM free.
Explain to me why this should NOT apply to medicine, food and housing as well as public transportation?
What people never get is we are moving toward that type of society. People produce and share the product. It allows more freedom as well.
Got a band or movie, post it, no more big media calling the shots. Just smaller decentralized producers.
Corporations are caving in from their own weight and lack of innovation.
Now I'll sit back and wait for the Socialism/Communism comparisons and claims of evil.


To Which I Reply:

I do not need to mention Communism as you already did. So I will tackle the food issue.

There is a significant difference between food and music.

Let's look at the models: For Music, a group or person goes, one time, to a studio and cuts a track. This track is then made into a format for the masses (MP3), one time, and is distributed for free across the world.

Who does the work?
The record producer. (one time)
The sound person. (one time)
The studio. (one time)

All these people can be paid by the artist(s), one time, a negotiated cash amount for their labor.

The artist(s). How do they get paid? They go on concert and sell t-shirts and tickets and other junk. The artist no longer has to pay for distribution of the music. The music sells itself.

For Food: I live in a rural farming community (though I am not farmer).

Each year, not just one time, the farmer must go out and plow up the field.

Each year, not just one time, the farmer must go out and purchase seeds.

Each year, not just one time, the farmer must plant seeds.

Each year, not just one time, the farmer must care for the crops.

Each year, not just one time, the farmer must harvest crops.

Each year, not just one time, the farmer must transport the crops to a market area.

Each year, not just one time, the farmer must maintain equipment.

Each year, not just one time, the farmer must buy petrol for the equipment.

The musician spends $500 for a guitar, and about $5,000 in other equipment. Maybe some money for Studio RTA Furniture.

The smallest farm has over a $1,000,000 worth of equipment and stock and other issues. Most farms have several million worth of equipment.

The odds of a artist being killed or maimed by a guitar string breaking are small.

The odds of a farmer being killed or maimed on the farm is high. I have never seen so many people missing a finger or a limb as I have while living here.

The long term potential payoff for the artist is: fame and fortune.

The long term potential payoff for the farmer is: poverty and a missing limb.

And for the record: the farm payments that we always hear about have been gone since the 1980s. The only payments left are for those who set aside land to go back to nature. And that only pays for the taxes on the land.

This includes one small section of getting food to a person so they can eat.

I will not mention: the processing plants, the FDA regs, the distribution channels, the sales people, the retailers, and a host of other people involved.

This is why we cannot have such a simple and easy model for food as can exist for music.


And FWIW this does apply to public transportation through taxes.

RIAA and Evil Tactics.

I am wondering if the RIAA is getting the message. Paul McCartney just released another CD. How much do you want to bet it will go to the top quickly.

Bob Dylan was just touring again.

Then there are jimmy buffett tickets being sold like crazy.

Maybe the reason the RIAA music is not what people want with all the newer crummy groups. I have been listening to current music lately and most of it is garbage. There is some good stuff.

So with Mafia like tactics the RIAA will keep steamrolling people. However, it seems that whoever has stood up the RIAAMAFIA has won. Recently, the RIAA lost a judgment in legal costs. This is good.

If you want to support a musician. DO not buy the CD. Go to the concert

Trading Files Between Boot Camp and Macintosh

After saving a certain Tipper's computer hard drive from (scary music please) certain death. I came up with this great tip.

Do you need to move filed between the Boot Camp side of your computer and your Macintosh side? This tip is not for the faint of heart. Sick of using dumb things like thumb drives? Here is your tip of the month:

You need an Intel Macintosh, an external drive, Boot Camp (already installed), a windows formatting utility (came with the drive).

First, you need an external drive. I happen to have a 120 GB Western Digital sitting around. I also just so happen to have an extra external case sitting around.

Step Two:
After your external drive is hooked up make sure there is no data on there. I mean it . . . no data.

Step Three:
Restart and hold down the option key and go into Boot Camp (windows).

Step Four:
Plug your nose as you enter into Microsoft land.

Step Five:
Go though all the warnings and comments from Microsoft.

Step Six:
Insert your CD (or download using Firefox) your formatting software.

Step Seven:
You need to be able to do a custom partitioning of the hard drive.

Step Eight:
Make your windows partition as large as you want. I used 20 GB. Use FAT32 formatting for the drive. Do not use Fat 16 or your files will be huge. Do not use NTFS (you cannot write to that in Macintosh Land).

Step Nine:
Set the next partition to Free Space. If that is not possible use anything. It really does not matter.

Step Ten:
Restart and boot into happy Macintosh Land. You can breath now.

Step Eleven:
Go to your Utilities folder in your Applications folder. And double click (or launch) Disk Utility.



Step Twelve:
Go to the correct drive. Not the name of the partition but the drive. In my case it is called: 111.8 GB WDC WD12 00JB-OOEVA Media

Step Thirteen:
Click on the Partition tab. Change the Free Space to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) a Journaled drive is optional. You can use non-Jounraled.

Step Fourteen:
Click Partition and Wait.

Step Fifteen:
Quit Disk Utility and go and enjoy the drive. Only the FAT32 will be seen in Windows. However, both are seen in happy Macintosh Land.


Have a great day.

MacIke

VT and Coverage

After all that has gone on this week in the little area of the blue ridge mountains I am wondering if we need on a news Free Diet for a month or so. I watch CNN and pMSNBC today and every other story seemed related.

We were watching Battlestar Galactica last night and my wife made the comment that she cried for a character dying but not for the 33 who died. I was pretty torn up about Starbuck also. I am more in shock of the VT thing.

Still seeing the picture and listening to the rants of this messed up kid is still hard.

Law and Order for President.

I have wondered why Fred Thompson would run for president. The first that he will need is a Hair Transplant. When was the last time we had a president without a full head of hair.

Second, he will have to suck up to the far right conservatives. I think Thompson has what it would take to win the national vote. However, I am not to sure he can get the Republican nod. In just the opposite way Hillary could win the Dems nod but I am of the opinion that should could never win the general national election.

The real problem Thompson will have is after sucking up to the right he will not be able to run. Fred will be seen as pancake man, being run over

Al Gore and Lack of Logic

I have finally watched the Al Gore movie, renamed "The Convenient Moron." I am shocked someone so illogical could get elected to office. Wait, just thought about that one.

I had to put on motorcycle sunglasses just to avoid the blinding logical fallacies.
One of my favorites is:
In 928 peer reviewed journal articles not one person says global warming is not happening. Yet in half the newspaper articles there are questions.

Why would this be Al Gore. Maybe because the people who review the articles already have their mind made up? No that would never happen.

The best one is his praising of nature. Nature does this and that and is wonderful. However, GOD did Katrinia.

Did I miss something? Why does he want it both ways. Good things, nature. Bad things, GOD.

Please Al just stop your commenting. It gives me a headache.

Ticket For Cops

The next time you are sitting in your car with an cop walking up behind you pulling out a ticket booklet and a stash of ink pens, think of this:

In Dallas, TX an on duty police officer who is caught on video running a red light will have ot pay for the ticket. Now many officers are complaining that this cop has to pay a $75 fine for running the light. According to the Dallas Daily News: "Many police officers are angry about the proposed policy. The prevailing belief among officers has been that they can run red lights as they see fit."

Am I missing something. Is there not something about being fair. Should a police officer be allowed to run a light in the normal business. I understand that they can and should run through when there is an emergency.

I love this line: "He said many police officers view the new policy as yet another thing they have to worry about."

One more thing . . . like the rest of us? You mean like everyone has to worry about? Did I miss something about a government that is, "of the people, by the people, for the people."

Of the people. It is the people of the United States who form the government and the rules. There is no nobles or a king making rules.

By the people. The government is run by the people, again not a king.

For the people. The people are given protection by the consent of governed.

So should a police officer is just a person be allowed to violate the law because of who they are.

The answer is simple. no.

The police officer must be fined just as any other person.

Mom May Do Anything

Well some people really need to have some Best Diet Pills for their life and morals. A woman in Michigan was arrested for whoring out her kids. Ugly cases like this usually involve males selling kids. Not a mom. We often hold motherhood, not stay at home moms, in the highest ideals. Still even today in this cynical times in which we live. The vitreous idea is that mom will do anything to protect the her children. Even a streetwalker can be virtuous if she is doing it "for the children." Out society has hit a new low. At least we can say she did not down them in a lake.

Queen Pelosi

It looks like her highness Nancy Pelosi is again going to bypass the United States Constitution and try to act as head of state. She tosses the United States Budgeting software into the ringer and takes another expensive trip overseas trying to be president. The Constitution does not provide this authority. If she would like to act as head of state, all she has to do is run for president, and well win.

Please stop trying to be something you are not Nancy and just be the speaker and do something worthwhile that does not bring this country down.