DudeAsInCool

Re: Jips Percentages - Agreed Re: LOTD's overview - Agreed Re: Shawn's post 1) Political Ideas - I like the String idea for particular topics - Agreed 2) P2Ps - Disagree There is a lot of focus here for the time being because Ken is taking the time to fill it up. I see no reason to curtail his efforts... Maybe we should figure out a way to put similar types of clients (gnutella,etc) and string them on the same thread. Ken is developing this forum, I say give him the lattitude, and whatever suggestions you have. Again, this section can be segmented off, and its currently not on the front page, so Im unclear about the criticism. I believe this should be part of a forum discusses using technology for the home, primarily for music, but it should touch on other forms of home ent that will be useful for the membership. 5 years from now we are all going to have home entertainment centers and we should be ahead of the curve. Digital News- Disagree; not sure what the criticism is - According to our boards, this is the third or 4th most popular item on the site. I try to find the best articles that are file sharing, music, computers and home entertainment. We have moved them off of the front page--what is it that people dont like about them? Entertainment News - Ok, we need clarity here. I think this section should be about breaking news about about movies, video games... events, and personalities that in the news. Its also the second or third most popular looked at thing on the site. Do we need a narrower focus? In the new page, these stores will be segmented off... What is it that people dont like?

on the last 10 percent, we want to supply music listeners with the tools to do it. ken and some others want to do this-- i think we should support their efforts we plan to add home ent gadgets and other useful stuff too sorry--off to a mtg--keep going, as good stuff will come out of it and mr jip, the percentages you suggest are right.. how manyarticles should be posted per day?

fyi, in the new layout, general fun news and politics will have its own section... the main problem is that it is all merged, so everyone sees everything, instead of the focus we all want to achieve and dont worry, kooper, no one was criticizing you... everythings cool

ok. and what should they be, mr. jip. again, criticism is good--speak up :) (ps i have a mtg soon. mr jip as the mod in the house, you can mod the discussion in the meantime)

are you saying thats the numbers we should shoot for, or that that is what it is now, mr jip by the way, input is good--we--THAT MEANS ALL OF US--want to get it right ps--i have the most posts, but i find the number embarrassing. alot of those posts are in the mods section about subjects like this, or im trying to fill up forums, or respond to threads people have started to keep their interest here. i have a career, i dont need posts :D

One of the issues is that the main board takes everything...rather than allowing us to post certain things directly in the forums In terms of percentages, Mr Jip, how would you prioritize the postings. Music News/Releases x Ent x Tech/Digital Support x Fun and Games x

Criticism is good Mr. Jip and Im glad youre speaking up (which you could have done in the mod forums :duck hunt: :duck hunt: just kidding. You're not the only one that feels like there is too much being posted... Im presssing on the site design, but that takes time. What do you like? What dont you like? How can we make the site better?

I think if you do a count, music and ent news are the most posts. We welcome people to write their own stuff, and we already have a place in mind for it on the front page. Another issue is this--we dont want to curtail people from posting articles--so while we agree there is too much, we dont want to be dictatorial about asking them to refrain. Any suggestions on how we handle it.. And of the articles that are being posted, what do you think is out of place, or filler?

Anyway, thats the direction... So, Umma, are you going to fill up the world and folk forums with tantalizing aritcles, mp3s and info :D PS--we are adding 40-60 articles a day about music and gen ent. Do you realize thats more than the NYTimes, Yahoo, Salon and ZP all put together?

The most popular articles are Music and Entertainment News, followed by Digital News and then the Kickin it section, which is devoted to fun and games. We are currently in the process of redesigning the front page, so that the articles will be prioritized towards music and entertainment. Notice all the front page articles are now about music. In the near future, there will be buttons at the top which emphasize the music forums. But until we do the front page makeover, all the articles seem to blend in a hodgepodge...and there is nothing we can do about that until we do the changes there. As you can see, Ken is busy filling up the filesharing forums, and we hope to devote more time to technical gadgetry, music resources, etc. BeatFactory and Yoda are starting to fill up the lyrics section... We are only a few months old--the electronic, 60s and 70s, world, metal and alternative are starting to fill up. We're dependent on the community to do this. It takes awhile. But with limited resources--and time--and we all have other jobs--what would you suggest?

Damn-that roomie must have riled Ken up and good--he usually only comes out to kill on Tuesday

We already have one hitman here--but he only comes out on Tuesday B)

I think its patriotic to question authority. :D

Welcome to Beatking, DT :strumma:

Welcome to Beatking. Enjoy your investigation of the site :D

Try this instead: http://www.angryalien.com/

LMFAO

I guess TV and the internet have exacerbated the problem--although with the internet, you can do more research...

How about asking BF--I know he has a vacation soon, too.. but i think he can do it. Does this mean, our site wont be blessed by your presence for a whole month!!! Have a great vaction, dude. Hopefuly, we will have the site design will be done by the time you return.

Well, I'd have to agree with him on the thesis. Seems that the national press is using American Media and sensationalism as the standard for news--not always, but thats the slant these days.

If thats an example, Im saving my 10 bucks :D

..which is because the local hot-to-trot sweet liza U, in a foiled attempt to take the satellite to her deserving home, had absconded with them just before...

EU, Microsoft fail to agree on deal Last modified: March 18, 2004, 8:11 AM PST By Michael Parsons and Andy McCue Special to CNET News.com Microsoft's last-ditch talks aimed at reaching a settlement with the European Union and avoiding antitrust action have failed, paving the way for a landmark legal ruling next week. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had flown in earlier this week for talks with EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti. But those talks collapsed Thursday, and Monti said in a statement that the two sides had failed to agree on commitments for Microsoft's future business practices. "A settlement to the Microsoft case has not been possible," Monti said. "In the end, I had to decide what was best for competition and consumers in Europe. I believe they will be better served with a decision that creates a strong precedent. It is essential to have a precedent which will establish clear principles for the future conduct of a company with such a strong dominant position in the market. " EU antitrust regulators have concluded that the software giant violated competition rules by "tying" its media player to Windows. Now they're weighing remedies that could go as far as forcing Microsoft to offer computer makers two different versions of its operating system, one with audio and video playback features and another without them. In a statement, Microsoft expressed its hope that it would be able to reach a settlement as the case enters its next phase. "I believe we reached agreement on the issues of the case," Ballmer said. "But we were unable to agree on principles for new issues that could arise in the future." "We worked very hard to try to resolve these issues without litigation," said Ballmer. "Because of the tremendous value we attach to our relations with governments all across Europe, we made every possible effort to settle the case, and I hope that perhaps we can still settle the case at a later stage." If the talks had been successful, it would have meant Microsoft agreeing to change the way it conducts its business in Europe. The settlement would have helped the company avoid a legal finding against it that could make any future antitrust lawsuits easier to pursue. Instead, the EU is now set to impose a massive fine with a formal legal ruling on March 24 that's expected to say Microsoft illegally abused its dominant market position in operating systems to give it an advantage over companies offering media player software. In essence, that means Microsoft could be forced to open up its proprietary, top-secret Windows source code to rivals as well as providing an alternative stripped-down version of the operating system that doesn't come with media software bundled in. "The key to the current decision is to establish principles and not simply solutions to individual issues," said David Wood, a competition lawyer for antitrust law firm Howrey Simon in Brussels. Details of the settlement Microsoft's settlement proposal focused on two areas: Media player software, and increasing the interoperability of Windows with competing software by making more technical information available to rivals, according to Jim Desler, a Microsoft spokesman. The software giant did not offer to sell two distinct versions of Windows--one with Media Player and one without--as the EU had reportedly suggested as a potential remedy. Instead, the software maker proposed that during the installation of Windows, competing media player software would be placed on PC hard drives. Those programs--presumably from Real Networks and other competitors--would not be integral to the operating system, as Media Player currently is. Also, Microsoft's settlement offer would have applied worldwide, Desler said. Any remedy handed down by the EU will only apply to the European economic area. "We were willing to go beyond what was required in order to achieve an amicable resolution of these matters. We made concessions that we hoped would achieve a settlement," said Desler. The settlement offer also included discussion of issues surrounding Windows Server, and how it interoperates with competing software. Desler would not comment on those discussions. What's unclear is how any potential remedy will affect future products and technologies, such as Microsoft's upcoming release of Windows, code named Longhorn, which is expected to include more advanced media handling technologies. "Both parties agree that further clarity by the court will be instructive here," said Desler. Microsoft plans to appeal what it expects to be a negative ruling by the court next Wednesday, said Desler. Antitrust lawyer Wood said he was not surprised by Monti's decision to announce that the negotiations had failed. "I suppose he felt there was no prospect of a rapid resolution of the case based on past interviews, and he didn't want to prolong anybody's agony. This hasn't just cropped up. Whatever proposal they could have made tomorrow, they could have made last year," said Wood. It's not unusual for corporations to try to get a last-minute settlement in competition cases, but treating a public policy wrangle like a business deal is rarely effective, said Wood. "One of the recurring themes of confrontation between the Competition Commission and business is that corporate leaders don't understand that the commission is a bit like an ocean liner--it takes time to turn around, and you can't blame an ocean liner for being slow," said Wood. Fines, features and the fast track Most observers agree that the court will likely find against Microsoft, and that big fines are now in the cards. "I don't think there is any doubt whatsoever that there is going to be a fine. It could be anything up to 10 percent of Microsoft's turnover, which is about 3 billion pounds," said James Governor, principal analyst at RedMonk. "It's unlikely to be anything like that, but I think it will be substantial." Microsoft's vast resources make the issue of fines secondary to the larger issue of the company's market power, Wood said. "The EU will impose fines, but who cares about that? The most important thing is what will it do to future issues? We do see a pattern of behavior by Microsoft, and the commission wants to break that. They want to deal with the combination of market power in the OS market and the exercise of that power in other markets," said Wood. Wood sees the present case dealing with the market for server software and media player as a test case for dealing with the broader issue of establishing how Microsoft behaves when it moves into other markets. "The area of consumer electronics is one that particularly concerns people. It's one thing to have monopolized the office market, it's another to monopolize the home. Anyone who likes audiovisual content using their computer must start to feel anxious that any content would only be accessible via Microsoft products," said Wood. European regulators argue that a 2001 ruling in the case brought by the U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general did not go far enough in restraining Microsoft's allegedly anticompetitive conduct. In that lawsuit, a federal appeals court overturned an earlier ruling from U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordering that Microsoft be carved into two different companies. Eventually a new judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, was appointed and levied less stringent remedies including publishing details of key software interfaces and restrictions on what kind of contracts Microsoft could enter into. Richard Donovan, a partner at Kelley Drye who chairs the firm's antitrust practice, said European regulators might welcome the chance to pick up where the U.S. Justice Department left off. "Unless Microsoft were to change its position at the last minute, it seems like they're ready to go forward," Donovan said. "It's possible that the EU would look here to be able to step out on the world stage and be the first ones to really hit Microsoft hard." Donovan warned, however, that such a decision would just be the beginning of a lengthy set of proceedings. "They're somewhat on new ground here," he said. "There hasn't been a proceeding analyzing conduct like this before. The commission has been reversed by the (court of first instance) several times over the last few years, primarily in merger cases. But still there is precedent for the court not being willing to follow the interpretation of the commission." Appeals from the Court of First Instance go to the European Court of Justice, which is the highest court in the European Union. Michael Parsons of ZDNet UK, and Andy McCue of Silicon.comreported from London. CNET News.com's Mike Ricciuti and Declan McCullagh contributed to this report. http://news.com.com/2100-7343-5175048.html?tag=nl

The sound of science Last modified: March 18, 2004, 12:00 PM PST By John Borland Staff Writer, CNET News.com Lars Liljeryd woke up one morning in 1996 with a hangover and an idea that would transform the science of digital audio. A Swedish inventor and erstwhile rock drummer, Liljeryd had toyed with ways of compressing and transforming audio for years. That morning, he came up with a way of radically shrinking the amount of information needed to store a song or speech in digital form. The idea led to a handful of patents and a new business, ultimately attracting the crack engineering team largely responsible for creating the popular MP3 and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) digital music formats. Liljeryd and his company Coding Technologies are still far from household names, but they've helped move the industry standard for digital audio technology beyond what many researchers had thought possible. "A lot of times you look at what you've achieved and say, 'That's the end of the road, you can't get any farther,'" the 53-year-old inventor said. "But then another guy comes along with another way of looking at things. We've sidestepped traditional thinking in many ways." Coding Technologies is one of the few small start-ups that have made a significant mark in a digital audio, a field that is increasingly dominated by giants such as Microsoft, Sony, and Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits. The company's growing success shows there remains ample room for unconventional thinkers and iconoclasts to shake up the industry in unexpected ways. Liljeryd's original idea, which was honed and extended by the team of audio researchers that joined him later, helps increase the compression offered by other audio compression techniques--even those that researchers had thought fully "squeezed"--by a third or even by a half. For online audio and, particularly, for mobile phone networking and satellite broadcasting, that can be a godsend. The technique is being adopted rapidly. The XM Satellite Radio service uses its format, as do cell phone operators in Korea and England. Coding Technologies is helping China develop a digital multimedia platformthat will become that country's version of the DVD. And a year ago, the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) officially adopted the company's work as an official industry standard , all but assuring its use in a wide variety of applications. "I believe that this is the most significant audio coding technology to come out of MPEG since Advanced Audio Coding (AAC)," wrote Schuyler Quackenbush, an audio technology consultant and chairman of the MPEG committee overseeing audio compression, in an e-mail interview. "It has set the pace for improvement over prior technology in MPEG audio coding." From deep sea diving to the Net Many audio pioneers get their start in a university or another research institution. Liljeryd, then a recording engineer and consultant with a few inventions already under his belt, got his big break when someone from the North Sea oil wells stopped by his offices in the mid-1980s. "You know anything about diving?" the man asked. Liljeryd said he didn't, or not much--but in reality the visitor was looking for someone who knew more about audio than about deep-sea diving. His project's divers were going deep enough to need large amounts of helium mixed in with their oxygen, turning their voices while diving into high-pitched squeaks. That made communicating with the surface difficult, the visitor said. Liljeryd created a digital pitch-shifter that would transform the divers' voices back to comprehensible levels. He worked on the project for the better part of a decade, while his outside interests in digital audio compression and transformation grew. He worked on a hearing-aid project until he ran out of money. And then in 1996, he woke up in the bunk of the boat he lives on with the headache and the new idea. Ever-smaller packages Most compressed digital audio formats, also known as "codecs," shrink the large digital files found on CDs using a technique known as "perceptual audio coding." Essentially, that means they throw out the parts of the original audio file that will be least missed by the human ear. That's a complicated and often extremely subjective task. But one rule of thumb is that to get small files, the very high and very low frequencies are shaved off or thrown out altogether. Typically, that retains all the notes in a song, but makes the audio sound much thinner than in the original. Liljeryd's idea was a twist on this. He reasoned that much of the information in the high frequencies of an audio file could actually be derived from the lower frequencies. So, abandoning the traditional approach, he came up with a method that shrank files by leaving out the high-pitched part and sending instructions about how to recreate the lost sound from information contained in the low frequencies. It's a little like sending a picture of half a person's face along with hints for reconstructing the other half: A full portrait can then be recreated from those instructions. Bringing on the MP3 team When he started filing for patents on his process, Liljeryd was already a member of the MPEG standards-setting group. He started attending meetings, looking for "hotshots" in the audio business, he said. There he met Martin Dietz, who led the team of researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute that had done most of the work to create the MP3 and AAC audio standards. The first time they met, Liljeryd was in a pickle, however. He hadn't finished the patent-filing process, and so he couldn't actually explain how his technique worked. He pulled Dietz aside and said he could improve on AAC (the technology that the Fraunhofer team had worked on for years). He just couldn't say exactly how yet. Dietz was skeptical, but the two were soon thrown together again. Liljeryd joined the Digital Radio Mondiale coalition, a group trying to rescue the AM radio spectrum from obsolescence with digital broadcasting techniques, in part using Fraunhofer's AAC technology. "I thought if I joined, it would force us to work together," Liljeryd said. "It was a simple little strategy, but it turned out very well." After a close look at Liljeryd's technology, Dietz and his team were convinced. With a little more exposure, they decided to join forces. The Fraunhofer engineers agreed to leave the prestigious research institute to merge their audio know-how with Liljeryd's ideas. "(Liljeryd) is the prototype of an entrepreneur," Dietz said. "He didn't study engineering; he is very much a self-made man. What is special about him is that he can get a lot of information from a lot of different fields. But he needs a big and skilled team to turn his ideas into reality." Dietz became chief executive of the new company, which took Liljeryd's company name of Coding Technologies and which was based in Germany with most of the Fraunhofer team. Liljeryd took the role of chief scientist, remaining in Sweden. Moving forward The ensuing years have been ones of steady progress. Dietz and his team applied Liljeryd's process to their MP3 codec and licensed it to Thomson as MP3Pro. With AAC, the company decided to keep the licensing and marketing in-house. It called its version AACPlus, and it has had considerable success licensing the technology to satellite broadcasting, mobile phone and Internet companies. AACPlus has even been added to the MPEG's standard set of audio tools. While Coding Technologies is still a small company competing against giants such as Microsoft, it does have a few advantages. One is the support of MPEG's standards group, which has led streaming media companies such as RealNetworks to support its version of the AAC codec. "We've been very happy with them," Sherman Griffin, RealNetworks' marketing director, said. "Their AAC implementation was the highest quality of the ones we tested." As well as marketing its own codecs, the company potentially has the power to apply Liljeryd's ideas to any other audio formats that exist, such as those from Microsoft and Sony. Those companies have shown little sign of moving in that direction today, but as competition grows tighter in the audio business, the option remains. Liljeryd himself just sailed back from Majorca, Spain, where he bought a new 90-foot yacht to live in. His old 58-foot boat was "drowning" in computers and audio cables, he said. He's got a few new ideas that he's not quite willing to discuss yet. They may or may not find their way to Coding Technologies. He gives most of the credit for turning the ideas into practical applications to Dietz and the other engineers, however. "I'm trying to be one that creates the basic ideas, then relying on the scientists to (develop them)," he said. "That's usually how it works. I don't want too much credit. But I did start off the little tricks." http://news.com.com/2100-1023_3-5174929.html?tag=nefd_lede