Addicted to Digital Media - Forbes: Ditch the iPod for Sirius S50

The S50 looks like a pretty neat gizmo! Sirius recording, WMA support, ...

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PCWorld.com - The Playlist: Are CD Ripping Services a Rip-Off?

"...mail them [your CDs] to the ripping service. They [the ripping service]...send your CDs back to you along with compressed digital copies of your music. Since the service doesn't keep copies of the music, the entire transaction falls within your fair-use rights, which allow you to copy your CDs for personal use."

This sounds like an interesting service...I've probably got about 400 CDs, so it would cost be quite a bit to get them all ripped. So let's consider some ways that the cost could be theoretically lowered:

• The ripping service already has your CD ripped and saved away on disk.  You send them your CD just to verify that you indeed own it.  Would this be legal? How about if the ripping service actually had it's own copy of every CD that it ripped so that it always had a physical CD backing up the MP3s?
• Let's say it's OK for the ripping service to archive MP3s...it doesn't have to actually rip every CD that is sent to it.  Instead, it has an application that quickly recognizes each CD, so you can move through disks at say 3-4/minute. Once this application has recognized all the CDs, it does a "batch rip" by copying the archived MP3s. The dramatically reduces the "rip time" for each CD.
• Now, instead of mailing my CDs to the ripping sevice (time & expense, not to mention the possibility of them getting lost/damaged), I download this "CD recognizer" application.  In just a couple of hours, I can insert/remove each CD and have the application recognize (but not rip) each one.  After that, the software does a batch secure download of all the ripped tracks from the ripping service.  Would/should this be legal? (As seem to recall a streaming service a few years ago that required you to insert your CD to prove you had it, it was shut down as being illegal).
• Instead of a "ripping service", suppose there was a P2P application that did the same; again after proving you owned the CD.  The advantage is to save the time/hassle (and expense) of actually ripping a CD.

Here's another twist: I send off my collection of CDs to the ripping service. Once they've returned them, I loan them to a friend (after all, I've got my MP3...um WMA/lossless tracks now), and "unbeknownst" to me, send the off to the ripping service.  Once they've done that, they return my CDs. The only real difference between this and P2P file sharing is that I actually know my friend, as opposed to some anonymous "friend" half way around the world.

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BeigeJournal :: comments : Broadcast Radio vs. Internet
"The only radio show I listen to is Pipedreams, but not by radio. No one here plays it. I grab it with streamripper and cron from WDAV’s MP3 stream. It would be a lot easier if was just podcast instead of making us mess with streamripper, but the broadcast mentality lives on."

I wholeheartedly agree!  I'd love to listen to Pipedreams too (no one broadcasts it locally for me either), but ripping the RealAudio feed to MP3 (and then buring a CD-Audio from that for use in my car) is far too much of a hassle.  If I could download a MP3 directly, I'd happily send them a donation.

Fabulous Adventures In Coding : Desafinado, Part Three: Too Many Fifths

Or Math = Music.

And here is my "learn something new every day"

The process of getting the middle octave of the piano tuned is called "setting the temperament"...  This also explains why Bach's famous set of preludes and fugues, one in all twelve major and minor keys, is called "The Well-Tempered Clavier".

I just bought a new CD and DVD (yes, some people still buy CDs).  But the effort to open the CD is enough to want to make me sign up at iTunes!

The packaging for the CD (and DVD) was a tight plastic wrap around the jewel case, sealed at the top and bottom.  And once I finally managed to get the plastic off (by inserting a knife at the seal), there is the label at the top which as to be removed.  I don't think I've ever gotten one of those off without it tearing.

Of course, I can appreciate the "loss prevention" that I'm sure is behind some of the packaging...but there must be a better way.  Are there websites where I can order CDs (and DVDs) with minimal packaging?  Although that takes away from the immediate gratification of an in-store purchase.

But...some stores (I noticed Borders) have plastic cases which fit around the CD (or DVD) that are removed at the register with a speical tool.  These cases are made from a fairly heavy-duty plastic, so I don't think somebody would be able to easily remove one of them.  Now, I supose there could be a proliferation of illicit "keys" for these cases, but if that's the concern, why bother with the case at all?