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Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

naughtycomputer.uk

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Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#361

Post by 013a »

dcbadacd wrote: post #350
Scramblejams wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What audio could you get lossless before that you now can't that you're claiming there has been a regression? Compact discs. You should look them up. :-) Lots of music out these days that you can't find on a CD.

I know well enough what CDs are :) could you please give a few examples of songs you can't get?

I'll literally click on the playlist I'm listening to right now and start listing albums that don't appear available physically on Amazon.

(1) Til The End - MitiS (2) Dear Me, - Borgeous (3) Ultraviolet - 3LAU (4) Mau5ville Level 1 - Deadmau5 (5) Sleeping With Roses - Chelsea Cutler

I could go on, because I literally didn't skip a single song. I started at the top and went down. On this playlist of 300 songs, I would guess that fewer than 20 have physical albums widely available. In some cases, the artist will sell one on their website (ironically LPs are even more popular nowadays).

And why should they? CDs suck. But they do two things really well: they have clear ownership, and they're pretty close to a master recording. Digital does not have to remove these advantages; we can improve instead of regress. Products like Bandcamp do an excellent job of replicating this experience digitally, but few artists distribute on there, because consumers-at-large demand music on Spotify/iTunes/GPM/etc. Tidal also does a really good job of getting masters, but doesn't have the "you own it" advantage.

In other words, consumers have ruined music for both the artists and audiophiles by changing the rules of the game and forcing the markets to adapt in a way that isn't backward compatible with how things have worked. Artists make shit money on most streaming services, and people who actually care about the audio quality also get shafted.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#362

Post by bnchrch »

Declanomous wrote: post #358
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does nobody any good to have 1000 books on a single device if the whole thing is subject to revocation, especially when you paid full retail price for the privilege of being allowed to read it. This is regression. What? You can still buy the paperback book, tons of my kindle books are $10 or less, and it very clearly benefits me , which is why I buy tons of Kindle books.

You don't own the book itself though, you own a license to the book. The doctrine of first sale does not apply, and they can revoke your license at any time. They have revoked licenses in the past and deleted books from people's devices. I know you have a physical file that contains the book, but that file is secured with DRM.

> You don't own the book itself though,

To be blunt: Who really cares?

I care that I can read it. After I have I don't see further use for the ownership.

Others can claim they can revoke my access before the read event occurs but the chance of that is so low that I imagine it rounds to 0%.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#363

Post by Declanomous »

bnchrch wrote: post #362
Declanomous wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't own the book itself though, you own a license to the book. The doctrine of first sale does not apply, and they can revoke your license at any time. They have revoked licenses in the past and deleted books from people's devices. I know you have a physical file that contains the book, but that file is secured with DRM.

> You don't own the book itself though, To be blunt: Who really cares? I care that I can read it. After I have I don't see further use for the ownership. Others can claim they can revoke my access before the read event occurs but the chance of that is so low that I imagine it rounds to 0%.

I mean if I'm only going to read a book once I'm not going to spend $10 on it. The only books I buy are books I'd like to own so I can read them again in the future. If I'm paying $10 to read a book once that basically makes Amazon into a really shitty library that also sells knockoff goods and forces their employees to work in sweatshop like conditions.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#364

Post by JKCalhoun »

jstarfish wrote: post #329
wilsonnb3 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you’re leaving out all the positives and only focusing on the negatives. Sure, Google can revoke my access to a movie at any time but I can watch on any of my devices and I dont have to worry about finding it in stock at the local store. I can carry literally thousands of books with me in a device smaller than a paperback. I can’t stream lossless music from Spotify but I can stream high enough quality that mos…

Those aren't positives. It does nobody any good to have 1000 books on a single device if the whole thing is subject to revocation, especially when you paid full retail price for the privilege of being allowed to read it. This is regression. Previously you paid your $10 and received a paper book. You could read it, re-read it, lend it, sell it, or burn it for warmth. You owned it for as long as you kept it dehydrated.…

Ha ha, those who would sacrifice ownership for convenience deserve neither.

That about sum it up?

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#365

Post by savanaly »

jstarfish wrote: post #329
wilsonnb3 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you’re leaving out all the positives and only focusing on the negatives. Sure, Google can revoke my access to a movie at any time but I can watch on any of my devices and I dont have to worry about finding it in stock at the local store. I can carry literally thousands of books with me in a device smaller than a paperback. I can’t stream lossless music from Spotify but I can stream high enough quality that mos…

Those aren't positives. It does nobody any good to have 1000 books on a single device if the whole thing is subject to revocation, especially when you paid full retail price for the privilege of being allowed to read it. This is regression. Previously you paid your $10 and received a paper book. You could read it, re-read it, lend it, sell it, or burn it for warmth. You owned it for as long as you kept it dehydrated.…

>It does nobody any good to have 1000 books on a single device if the whole thing is subject to revocation

If what you really care about is reading and the knowledge you get from it, as opposed to the opportunity to take some totally unrelated stand, then yes, it really does do you some serious good to have thousands of books in your pocket!

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#366

Post by IggleSniggle »

Declanomous wrote: post #360
ohithereyou wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Not to mention you get access to pretty much every song you want for 10$ a month. If you listen to mainstream shit where the artist does not have enough control of their work to opt out of the scam that is the pay scale for streaming music. I have had to resort to ripping vinyl and CDs from my collection to get digital versions of tracks that Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Music do not have. If I had to do it all…

I ripped all my CDs at one point, realized it was a pain in the ass, deleted all of them, and then redownloaded them from Oink.cd/What.cd. I stopped buying albums for a while, because I have a Google play music subscription, but a couple albums I really liked were deleted from the service recently. I had "added them to my library", understanding that I didn't own them, but I never expected them to get pulled from the…

Not sure if it will last, but Google Play Music does allow you to upload your music to the service. It does not matter if those songs get removed from Google’s licensing or if they never existed on Google in the first place: they are streamed independently.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#368

Post by fipple »

jstarfish wrote: post #329
wilsonnb3 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you’re leaving out all the positives and only focusing on the negatives. Sure, Google can revoke my access to a movie at any time but I can watch on any of my devices and I dont have to worry about finding it in stock at the local store. I can carry literally thousands of books with me in a device smaller than a paperback. I can’t stream lossless music from Spotify but I can stream high enough quality that mos…

Those aren't positives. It does nobody any good to have 1000 books on a single device if the whole thing is subject to revocation, especially when you paid full retail price for the privilege of being allowed to read it. This is regression. Previously you paid your $10 and received a paper book. You could read it, re-read it, lend it, sell it, or burn it for warmth. You owned it for as long as you kept it dehydrated.…

It does me good to have those 1000 books. When I finish one on the train I get to pick a new one from the device when I don’t have network.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#369

Post by cerberusss »

thanatropism wrote: post #51
kgwxd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people perfer to own instead of lease, even in 2018.

This is fine if you're "stuck in your ways" (I want to use a less loaded term but can't come up with one) and have a collection of music you enjoy and have stopped keeping up. It's not even keeping up with current music; as I go from my early to my late 30s, the pop landscape has gone from parseable to alien. But there's still good music coming out and older good music you didn't know about. Hell, I only discovered t…

Either stuck in your ways, or want to save money. Streaming services are not free. Sure, it's a small amount but I simply don't want to add to my monthly costs. Still, streaming is much more convenient and in the short term, saves on disk space.

Re: Do I really need to get out the soldering-iron again?

#370

Post by tushartyagi »

oDot wrote: post #56
notacoward wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently Play Store is unaffected, but some other apps - banking, streaming, even Pokemon Go - will break. And your warranty (including hardware) is voided. So I stand corrected, and thank you, but I don't think the correction affects the main point.

Some Android OEMs will allow you to unlock the bootloader and makes changes to the OS without any warranty problems.

The problem with this is that the bootloader is now becoming more and more locked down and the consumers have to jump ever more hoops to unlock it.

Some years ago I had Samsung S2 where unlocking the bootloader was an offline activity. I don't remember how but doing that was quick and easy. Now I own a MotoG4 where unlocking means going to some website, entering my email address and then receiving unlock code in my email. If Motorola knows my email address, or can link the (supposedly unique) unlock code to my phone, what's stopping them from voiding my warranty?

I have a hunch that newer versions of some mainstream phones do not allow unlocking the bootloader, and this is going to become more and more common.

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