I still use winamp as my mp3 player, one of the first things I install when I reinstall my Windows. It's everything that I need without the BS.
I'm also a fan of Foobar2000: not as pretty, but surpremely small and functional :)
Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
31–40 of 172 posts
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
is the music player "Vox" still around? if so, try it out :)
Tried VOX, but it attempts to do way too much and kept crashing on my machine. The UI is nice enough, but all I want is a media player which lets me add a bunch of folders to watch, which monitors those folders for any files that are added to them and updates the global playlist, lets me queue tracks as easily as Winamp did (just hit 'j', it queues the file and shows the queue position next to the file name), and doe…
Sounds like we have similar requisites. I settled on XMPlay (with an AIMP-like skin, way easier on the eyes), maybe it'll do?
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a feeling it isn't. I used to have winamp on my android phone and when I got a new phone a few months ago I discovered that they had removed winamp from the store. Which is unfortunate because winamp was surprisingly great on android too.
Their site[0] says that they're revitalizing it, and the last dev tweet I could find was from October 2016 [1]. So I'd bet it's going along at a reasonable pace. [0] http://www.winamp.com/index.html [1] https://twitter.com/Ed_Rich/status/788650603383754752
It looks like he actually replied to somebody else very recently to say they're waiting on the legal department:
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tried VOX, but it attempts to do way too much and kept crashing on my machine. The UI is nice enough, but all I want is a media player which lets me add a bunch of folders to watch, which monitors those folders for any files that are added to them and updates the global playlist, lets me queue tracks as easily as Winamp did (just hit 'j', it queues the file and shows the queue position next to the file name), and doe…
Sounds like we have similar requisites. I settled on XMPlay (with an AIMP-like skin, way easier on the eyes), maybe it'll do? https://support.xmplay.com/ https://support.xmplay.com/files_view.php?file_id=589
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out!
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#35Despite the "change the world.. break the rules, etc." rhetoric, Silicon Valley couldn't be more different today.
I find it hard to imagine a Google employee releasing an ad blocker[0], or Popcorn Time raising a Series A round, or startups shipping crypto that breaks the law, or a startup selling offensive security software (there's a reason that business has been pushed overseas)
Today, startups that push the boundaries on bad laws and regulations are more likely to be roundly criticized than praised.
DMCA notices are automatically complied with without question via automated systems. The tech companies have become the media companies. Founders in file sharing or media make a point in investment pitches that they'll be conformist. YouTube's ContentID system means thousands of legal satire and parody videos are removed every day.
Not to mention whatever is/was happening between SV and the intelligence agencies.
It's pretty hard today to find projects or communities that have similar levels of energy and disregard for rules. When you do find them it's no coincidence that they're usually on the periphery of what SV touches.
[0] Brian Kennish quit Google and released Disconnect, a privacy plugin for browsers.
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#36For what it's worth, Justin Frankel continues to produce great software. He founded Cockos Incorporated, which produces REAPER; I think it's pretty widely accepted in the audio recording community that REAPER is the best value in the multitrack recording DAW market, and among the best overall tools for the purpose. He's obviously wealthy enough to never need to work again. It's clear Frankel just loves music, and wan…
I agree, REAPER is very highly regarded in music production circles.
Anecdotically, I have been producing electronic music as a hobby for many years now, and while I own much more expensive programs (e.g. Ableton Live Suite which cost a staggering AU $999) I find REAPER to be an extremely enjoyable piece of software and I have found myself using it often.
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#37For what it's worth, Justin Frankel continues to produce great software. He founded Cockos Incorporated, which produces REAPER; I think it's pretty widely accepted in the audio recording community that REAPER is the best value in the multitrack recording DAW market, and among the best overall tools for the purpose. He's obviously wealthy enough to never need to work again. It's clear Frankel just loves music, and wan…
He was a regular in #c on IRC back in the 90s. Pleasant, fun guy. I kind of miss those days.
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#38Man I would kill for an ultra-simple, ultra-lightweight, robust music player for macOS that was just like Winamp 2.81, the last good version. No, not foobar.
"Ultra-lightweight" can mean two very different (and nearly opposite) things: some people want a player that has no external dependencies (and thus must do everything itself, like VLC); while others want a player with minimal binary size (which thus will then rely on the OS's AV frameworks as much as possible for media support.) Personally, I prefer the second definition, but it's the harder of the two to satisfy. I…
Are there license fees or patents for some of the audio format decoding? Relying on the OS for decoding audio would be one way to get around that problem.
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#39Despite the "change the world.. break the rules, etc." rhetoric, Silicon Valley couldn't be more different today. I find it hard to imagine a Google employee releasing an ad blocker[0], or Popcorn Time raising a Series A round, or startups shipping crypto that breaks the law, or a startup selling offensive security software (there's a reason that business has been pushed overseas) Today, startups that push the bounda…
Well you might be forgetting about Uber and AirBnB disregarding laws in their operations.
Re: Nullsoft: The death of the last maverick tech company (2004)
#40Despite the "change the world.. break the rules, etc." rhetoric, Silicon Valley couldn't be more different today. I find it hard to imagine a Google employee releasing an ad blocker[0], or Popcorn Time raising a Series A round, or startups shipping crypto that breaks the law, or a startup selling offensive security software (there's a reason that business has been pushed overseas) Today, startups that push the bounda…
Well you might be forgetting about Uber and AirBnB disregarding laws in their operations.
that's who I was referring to - they get criticized
it's pretty hard to be innovative and not be illegal somewhere. Difference is many today see being illegal in China, Turkey, Iran, or wherever as a good thing while being illegal or borderline illegal in the USA is a bad thing
The USA has regulatory capture that is just as bad as ideological or dogmatic religious capture is in those other nations. It just happens that the largest markets with monopolies or cartels that are super profitable and ripe for tech disruption also usually/sometimes also markets that have built a moat via government regulation.