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Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

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Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#81

Post by alias_neo »

geggam wrote: post #49
rusk wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wasn't it a thing, that you could bypass this by holding shift (to disable autoplay) when inserting the disc?

or use linux :)

I know this statement of yours is somewhat of a meme, and you may even be saying it tongue-in-cheek, but, this is one of many tiny cuts over the years that caused me to switch entirely to Linux. I don't run Windows at home or at work for the best part of a decade now. I run bleeding edge hardware, I have a high-end gaming PC, my laptop is a 2019 model that only works if I use Linux 5.0 and my wife complains that Open/Libre Office sucks on her laptop.

Don't get me wrong, I have my issues, sometimes I have to fix things, but I would rather this any day than having to go back to using Windows.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#82

Post by Freak_NL »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #64

Worth noting here that ripping a CD is a copyright infringement, yes even for individuals, here in UK. We had about 2 years when it wasn't. Yes, that means Apple iTunes and the like provide tools for copyright infringement -- far worse than the young adult that got extradited to USA for providing links on a website (which is allowed in UK law) -- and in theory could be sued for contributory infringement.

Worth noting that the UK (along with Malta) is an exception in Europe. In the other European countries ripping a CD you own for personal use is completely legal.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#83

Post by dijit »

delinka wrote: post #74
Moru wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or a properly configured windows. Not even windows 95 would autorun a CD if you didn't tell it to.

> ... if you told it not to. FTFY By default, Win96 would run that CD. You didn't tell it to. You had to go change the setting from the default. You had to tell Win95 to not autorun a CD.

Autorunning CDs was the default until windows vista, which is how the u3 usb devices were used for “hacksaw”[0] and “switchblade”[1] attacks.

More on u3: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3_(software)?wprov=sfti1

0: https://forums.hak5.org/topic/2843-usb-hacksaw-development/

1: https://forums.hak5.org/topic/2361-usb-switchblade-developme...

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#85

Post by serf »

coldtea wrote: post #50
epanchin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good lesson for anyone considering user unfriendly features.

Nobody "considered" them, it was what the music industry demanded at the time. In fact, as far as major services (e.g. major distributor and not some niche music market with "indie" artists only) iTunes was the one that spearheaded the un-DRM of music (with Steve Jobs' call to end music DRM: https://betanews.com/2007/02/06/apple-s-steve-jobs-calls-for... ).

>In fact, as far as major services...

of which at that time there were only 2 or 3.

Why did Jobs do this?

Countries in the EU were demanding that he do so if he wanted to sell product there. Jobs was not interested in dropping DRM until the countries started bitching. Norway banned the iPod due to the iTunes walled garden creating captive audiences without opportunity for choice in media vendor (due to incompatibilities with competition services) and France started slinging similar threats.

It all seems so altruistic in hind-sight, but really he (Jobs) was being pressured by the nation-states, and he had the opportunity to look like a pioneer by dropping DRM (an endeavor that Apple felt pretty keen about with FairPlay) -- making the competition look petty and selfish for having DRM, while simultaneously satisfying the desires of the nations with markets that he wanted to compete within.

The whole story is in that link you included. I got a different vibe from the article than you did, I think.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#86

Post by satokema »

asmendes wrote: post #40

How does the algorithm actually negatively affect your experience? I use mostly Spotify, and in their case, their suggested playlists and discover weekly actually put me on to a lot of great musicians I wouldn't have known otherwise.

But who picks the pickers? The suits plan ahead and begin with the algorithm.

Part of the solo hobby of listening for me is discovering stuff and getting into a favorite artist's discog in depth. Having an algorithm just recommend stuff to you ruins the fun.

Plus, my taste is weird enough that my experience with streaming services is they either slowly nudge me towards either the mainstream where the algorithm can actually recommend stuff, or a weird overfitting where they end up playing the same stuff over and over because it can't grok the true form of my preferences. (To be fair, neither can I.)

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#87

Post by cnasc »

cageface wrote: post #35
jim-jim-jim wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we're on the topic of prog, Spotify also has nothing by Henry Cow or Fred Frith in general, which combined with the lack of King Crimson is a dealbreaker for me.

Apple Music has a whole bunch of Henry Cow. No King Crimson though.

I just looked and there are 13 King Crimson albums on Apple Music

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#88

Post by tty2300 »

dijit wrote: post #83
delinka wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... if you told it not to. FTFY By default, Win96 would run that CD. You didn't tell it to. You had to go change the setting from the default. You had to tell Win95 to not autorun a CD.

Autorunning CDs was the default until windows vista, which is how the u3 usb devices were used for “hacksaw”[0] and “switchblade”[1] attacks. More on u3: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3_(software)?wprov=sfti1 0: https://forums.hak5.org/topic/2843-usb-hacksaw-development/ 1: https://forums.hak5.org/topic/2361-usb-switchblade-developme...

Its quite incredible how long this was working for. Autorun was a dream for malware.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#89

Post by rusk »

alias_neo wrote: post #81
geggam wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or use linux :)

I know this statement of yours is somewhat of a meme, and you may even be saying it tongue-in-cheek, but, this is one of many tiny cuts over the years that caused me to switch entirely to Linux. I don't run Windows at home or at work for the best part of a decade now. I run bleeding edge hardware, I have a high-end gaming PC, my laptop is a 2019 model that only works if I use Linux 5.0 and my wife complains that Open…

> I have a high-end gaming PC

Is gaming a thing on Linux now? I was given to thinking that if you're into PC gaming you're really stuck with Windows ...

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#90

Post by apt-get »

I listen to a lot of japanese doujin music (self-released albums produced by amateur circles at conventions). This is often a couple hundred albums every year, between Comiket, M3, and other smaller conventions. The overwhelming majority of it simply isn't available as a physical release on typical online marketplaces, much less on streaming services. Importing the physical release + ripping or relying on community downloads is often the only way to listen to these.

These are arranges or sometimes heavily sampled albums that simply wouldn't pass on typical streaming platforms. Just something like Death Grips' cult Exmilitary album got removed from Spotify because it used a tad too many samples to their taste (although luckily it's available for free on their website).

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