this is probably the most entertaining stuff that i ever seen.....
that is.....none other....the one and only.....the ADMINISTRATION PAGE of communications and information department web site....
LMFAO.....
Monday, March 31, 2008
LMFAO
this is probably the most entertaining stuff that i ever seen.....
that is.....none other....the one and only.....the ADMINISTRATION PAGE of communications and information department web site....
LMFAO.....
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Reality Show....or is there something behind it???
nowadays Indonesian national TV each have their own reality contest....like Indonesian Idol, KDI, AFI ect. truly this was not a singing or talent contest...it was just a cover up to a bigger bussiness....premium SMS
Its a promising business and its law proof...at least for nwo. details read below.....
lets count it...lets say for each premium SMS you've sent worth Rp 2000. from that amount of money 60% is for the SMS Center (Indosat, telkomsel, Excelcom ect.) and the rest of it 40% goes to........yes the organizer!!!
well anyone can be the organizer...with proper funding to rent an online server and the ability to develop the software.
in this case if the organizer get 40% share on each SMS (around Rp 800), then IF 5% of all the Indonesian or lets say a 100 of your friends, who has a cellphone and watch reality TV i'm sure around 40% of them did watch reality TV and sending SMS'....then the organizer will have around Rp 80 billion...and another thing if the grand price was a 1 billion luxurious house on any location you want...
1:80 you count the profit..
plus the event supporting statement to send as many SMS to keep you favourites safe....wtf!!??
Its a promising business and its law proof...at least for nwo. details read below.....
lets count it...lets say for each premium SMS you've sent worth Rp 2000. from that amount of money 60% is for the SMS Center (Indosat, telkomsel, Excelcom ect.) and the rest of it 40% goes to........yes the organizer!!!
well anyone can be the organizer...with proper funding to rent an online server and the ability to develop the software.
in this case if the organizer get 40% share on each SMS (around Rp 800), then IF 5% of all the Indonesian or lets say a 100 of your friends, who has a cellphone and watch reality TV i'm sure around 40% of them did watch reality TV and sending SMS'....then the organizer will have around Rp 80 billion...and another thing if the grand price was a 1 billion luxurious house on any location you want...
1:80 you count the profit..
plus the event supporting statement to send as many SMS to keep you favourites safe....wtf!!??
Indy....
Something strange with the Indonesian government these days....
about the ordinance on information, electronic transaction which include internet pornography...and the Indonesian government effort to blocks all i mean ALL access to any listed porn site on the internet.
and not to forget over a billion fine if you're captured distributing, publishing and performing (LOL) pornographic activities....
i'm thinking....THIS IS STUPID!!!!
and after awhile researching about this ordinance....i found something interesting...
1. with the blockage on any listed porn site the government believe that all people will BUY from the streets (in this case: Glodok and Mangga Dua) and since the street vendors pay high "tax" to the government....you figure yourself out on what happens next... :P
2. the 3 layer blockage ISP, admin, and user was a conspiracy between the software vendor and the government officials....why?? read below...
Users Software:
1. the software distributed for users were not fully free but fully ADWARE. in each 10 minutes of usage there will be a pop up from other sites (advertising stuff)
2. the software can be registered by PAYING Rp 100000/month to eliminate SOME of the banners
3. you can bypass ALL the layers by PAYING Rp 300000/month ILLEGALLY offcourse
4. this software records ALL of the PC's activities including usernames and PASSWORDS and to make things worse those data were SENT to the software vendor for further a due....
Admin Software:
1. mostly the same as Users Software but with a network control over traffics
2. This software WILL records ALL the windows registration keys...you all know what the usage of this registration keys right???
ISP Software:
1. they have to pay Rp 10 million/month to use this software....and its a MUST says the government.....ouch!!
2. this software contains data filter...means all the words starts with "id" will be logged and SENT to the software vendor..
3. and with data Insert as well...for this each time we open a website there will be an ADVERTISING WINDOW on each top left and right....
this is SICK.....all those people were SICK...and STUPID also....
Parents should pay more time to their kids....not the nanny
about the ordinance on information, electronic transaction which include internet pornography...and the Indonesian government effort to blocks all i mean ALL access to any listed porn site on the internet.
and not to forget over a billion fine if you're captured distributing, publishing and performing (LOL) pornographic activities....
i'm thinking....THIS IS STUPID!!!!
and after awhile researching about this ordinance....i found something interesting...
1. with the blockage on any listed porn site the government believe that all people will BUY from the streets (in this case: Glodok and Mangga Dua) and since the street vendors pay high "tax" to the government....you figure yourself out on what happens next... :P
2. the 3 layer blockage ISP, admin, and user was a conspiracy between the software vendor and the government officials....why?? read below...
Users Software:
1. the software distributed for users were not fully free but fully ADWARE. in each 10 minutes of usage there will be a pop up from other sites (advertising stuff)
2. the software can be registered by PAYING Rp 100000/month to eliminate SOME of the banners
3. you can bypass ALL the layers by PAYING Rp 300000/month ILLEGALLY offcourse
4. this software records ALL of the PC's activities including usernames and PASSWORDS and to make things worse those data were SENT to the software vendor for further a due....
Admin Software:
1. mostly the same as Users Software but with a network control over traffics
2. This software WILL records ALL the windows registration keys...you all know what the usage of this registration keys right???
ISP Software:
1. they have to pay Rp 10 million/month to use this software....and its a MUST says the government.....ouch!!
2. this software contains data filter...means all the words starts with "id" will be logged and SENT to the software vendor..
3. and with data Insert as well...for this each time we open a website there will be an ADVERTISING WINDOW on each top left and right....
this is SICK.....all those people were SICK...and STUPID also....
Parents should pay more time to their kids....not the nanny
Friday, March 28, 2008
Reznor vs. Radiohead: Innovation Smackdown
Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have been taking turns giving the music industry the finger. The British band made headlines last October for releasing In Rainbows without the support (read: control) of a record label, and Trent Reznor's group followed suit with last month's Ghosts I-IV.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, March 24, 2008
10 Important Differences Between Brains and Computers
Difference # 1: Brains are analogue; computers are digitalIt's easy to think that neurons are essentially binary, given that they fire an action potential if they reach a certain threshold, and otherwise do not fire. This superficial similarity to digital "1's and 0's" belies a wide variety of continuous and non-linear processes that directly influence neuronal processing.For example, one of the primary mechanisms of information transmission appears to be the rate at which neurons fire - an essentially continuous variable. Similarly, networks of neurons can fire in relative synchrony or in relative disarray; this coherence affects the strength of the signals received by downstream neurons. Finally, inside each and every neuron is a leaky integrator circuit, composed of a variety of ion channels and continuously fluctuating membrane potentials.Failure to recognize these important subtleties may have contributed to Minksy & Papert's infamous mischaracterization of perceptrons, a neural network without an intermediate layer between input and output. In linear networks, any function computed by a 3-layer network can also be computed by a suitably rearranged 2-layer network. In other words, combinations of multiple linear functions can be modeled precisely by just a single linear function. Since their simple 2-layer networks could not solve many important problems, Minksy & Papert reasoned that that larger networks also could not. In contrast, the computations performed by more realistic (i.e., nonlinear) networks are highly dependent on the number of layers - thus, "perceptrons" grossly underestimate the computational power of neural networks.
Difference # 2: The brain uses content-addressable memoryIn computers, information in memory is accessed by polling its precise memory address. This is known as byte-addressable memory. In contrast, the brain uses content-addressable memory, such that information can be accessed in memory through "spreading activation" from closely related concepts. For example, thinking of the word "fox" may automatically spread activation to memories related to other clever animals, fox-hunting horseback riders, or attractive members of the opposite sex.The end result is that your brain has a kind of "built-in Google," in which just a few cues (key words) are enough to cause a full memory to be retrieved. Of course, similar things can be done in computers, mostly by building massive indices of stored data, which then also need to be stored and searched through for the relevant information (incidentally, this is pretty much what Google does, with a few twists).Although this may seem like a rather minor difference between computers and brains, it has profound effects on neural computation. For example, a lasting debate in cognitive psychology concerned whether information is lost from memory because of simply decay or because of interference from other information. In retrospect, this debate is partially based on the false asssumption that these two possibilities are dissociable, as they can be in computers. Many are now realizing that this debate represents a false dichotomy.
Difference # 3: The brain is a massively parallel machine; computers are modular and serialAn unfortunate legacy of the brain-computer metaphor is the tendency for cognitive psychologists to seek out modularity in the brain. For example, the idea that computers require memory has lead some to seek for the "memory area," when in fact these distinctions are far more messy. One consequence of this over-simplification is that we are only now learning that "memory" regions (such as the hippocampus) are also important for imagination, the representation of novel goals, spatial navigation, and other diverse functions.Similarly, one could imagine there being a "language module" in the brain, as there might be in computers with natural language processing programs. Cognitive psychologists even claimed to have found this module, based on patients with damage to a region of the brain known as Broca's area. More recent evidence has shown that language too is computed by widely distributed and domain-general neural circuits, and Broca's area may also be involved in other computations (see here for more on this).
Difference # 4: Processing speed is not fixed in the brain; there is no system clockThe speed of neural information processing is subject to a variety of constraints, including the time for electrochemical signals to traverse axons and dendrites, axonal myelination, the diffusion time of neurotransmitters across the synaptic cleft, differences in synaptic efficacy, the coherence of neural firing, the current availability of neurotransmitters, and the prior history of neuronal firing. Although there are individual differences in something psychometricians call "processing speed," this does not reflect a monolithic or unitary construct, and certainly nothing as concrete as the speed of a microprocessor. Instead, psychometric "processing speed" probably indexes a heterogenous combination of all the speed constraints mentioned above.Similarly, there does not appear to be any central clock in the brain, and there is debate as to how clock-like the brain's time-keeping devices actually are. To use just one example, the cerebellum is often thought to calculate information involving precise timing, as required for delicate motor movements; however, recent evidence suggests that time-keeping in the brain bears more similarity to ripples on a pond than to a standard digital clock.
Difference # 5 - Short-term memory is not like RAMAlthough the apparent similarities between RAM and short-term or "working" memory emboldened many early cognitive psychologists, a closer examination reveals strikingly important differences. Although RAM and short-term memory both seem to require power (sustained neuronal firing in the case of short-term memory, and electricity in the case of RAM), short-term memory seems to hold only "pointers" to long term memory whereas RAM holds data that is isomorphic to that being held on the hard disk. (See here for more about "attentional pointers" in short term memory).Unlike RAM, the capacity limit of short-term memory is not fixed; the capacity of short-term memory seems to fluctuate with differences in "processing speed" (see Difference #4) as well as with expertise and familiarity.
Difference # 6: No hardware/software distinction can be made with respect to the brain or mindFor years it was tempting to imagine that the brain was the hardware on which a "mind program" or "mind software" is executing. This gave rise to a variety of abstract program-like models of cognition, in which the details of how the brain actually executed those programs was considered irrelevant, in the same way that a Java program can accomplish the same function as a C++ program.Unfortunately, this appealing hardware/software distinction obscures an important fact: the mind emerges directly from the brain, and changes in the mind are always accompanied by changes in the brain. Any abstract information processing account of cognition will always need to specify how neuronal architecture can implement those processes - otherwise, cognitive modeling is grossly underconstrained. Some blame this misunderstanding for the infamous failure of "symbolic AI."
Difference # 7: Synapses are far more complex than electrical logic gatesAnother pernicious feature of the brain-computer metaphor is that it seems to suggest that brains might also operate on the basis of electrical signals (action potentials) traveling along individual logical gates. Unfortunately, this is only half true. The signals which are propagated along axons are actually electrochemical in nature, meaning that they travel much more slowly than electrical signals in a computer, and that they can be modulated in myriad ways. For example, signal transmission is dependent not only on the putative "logical gates" of synaptic architecture but also by the presence of a variety of chemicals in the synaptic cleft, the relative distance between synapse and dendrites, and many other factors. This adds to the complexity of the processing taking place at each synapse - and it is therefore profoundly wrong to think that neurons function merely as transistors.
Difference #8: Unlike computers, processing and memory are performed by the same components in the brainComputers process information from memory using CPUs, and then write the results of that processing back to memory. No such distinction exists in the brain. As neurons process information they are also modifying their synapses - which are themselves the substrate of memory. As a result, retrieval from memory always slightly alters those memories (usually making them stronger, but sometimes making them less accurate - see here for more on this).
Difference # 9: The brain is a self-organizing systemThis point follows naturally from the previous point - experience profoundly and directly shapes the nature of neural information processing in a way that simply does not happen in traditional microprocessors. For example, the brain is a self-repairing circuit - something known as "trauma-induced plasticity" kicks in after injury. This can lead to a variety of interesting changes, including some that seem to unlock unused potential in the brain (known as acquired savantism), and others that can result in profound cognitive dysfunction (as is unfortunately far more typical in traumatic brain injury and developmental disorders).One consequence of failing to recognize this difference has been in the field of neuropsychology, where the cognitive performance of brain-damaged patients is examined to determine the computational function of the damaged region. Unfortunately, because of the poorly-understood nature of trauma-induced plasticity, the logic cannot be so straightforward. Similar problems underlie work on developmental disorders and the emerging field of "cognitive genetics", in which the consequences of neural self-organization are frequently neglected .Difference # 10: Brains have bodiesThis is not as trivial as it might seem: it turns out that the brain takes surprising advantage of the fact that it has a body at its disposal. For example, despite your intuitive feeling that you could close your eyes and know the locations of objects around you, a series of experiments in the field of change blindness has shown that our visual memories are actually quite sparse. In this case, the brain is "offloading" its memory requirements to the environment in which it exists: why bother remembering the location of objects when a quick glance will suffice? A surprising set of experiments by Jeremy Wolfe has shown that even after being asked hundreds of times which simple geometrical shapes are displayed on a computer screen, human subjects continue to answer those questions by gaze rather than rote memory. A wide variety of evidence from other domains suggests that we are only beginning to understand the importance of embodiment in information processing.Bonus Difference: The brain is much, much bigger than any [current] computerAccurate biological models of the brain would have to include some 225,000,000,000,000,000 (225 million billion) interactions between cell types, neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, axonal branches and dendritic spines, and that doesn't include the influences of dendritic geometry, or the approximately 1 trillion glial cells which may or may not be important for neural information processing. Because the brain is nonlinear, and because it is so much larger than all current computers, it seems likely that it functions in a completely different fashion.
digg story
Difference # 2: The brain uses content-addressable memoryIn computers, information in memory is accessed by polling its precise memory address. This is known as byte-addressable memory. In contrast, the brain uses content-addressable memory, such that information can be accessed in memory through "spreading activation" from closely related concepts. For example, thinking of the word "fox" may automatically spread activation to memories related to other clever animals, fox-hunting horseback riders, or attractive members of the opposite sex.The end result is that your brain has a kind of "built-in Google," in which just a few cues (key words) are enough to cause a full memory to be retrieved. Of course, similar things can be done in computers, mostly by building massive indices of stored data, which then also need to be stored and searched through for the relevant information (incidentally, this is pretty much what Google does, with a few twists).Although this may seem like a rather minor difference between computers and brains, it has profound effects on neural computation. For example, a lasting debate in cognitive psychology concerned whether information is lost from memory because of simply decay or because of interference from other information. In retrospect, this debate is partially based on the false asssumption that these two possibilities are dissociable, as they can be in computers. Many are now realizing that this debate represents a false dichotomy.
Difference # 3: The brain is a massively parallel machine; computers are modular and serialAn unfortunate legacy of the brain-computer metaphor is the tendency for cognitive psychologists to seek out modularity in the brain. For example, the idea that computers require memory has lead some to seek for the "memory area," when in fact these distinctions are far more messy. One consequence of this over-simplification is that we are only now learning that "memory" regions (such as the hippocampus) are also important for imagination, the representation of novel goals, spatial navigation, and other diverse functions.Similarly, one could imagine there being a "language module" in the brain, as there might be in computers with natural language processing programs. Cognitive psychologists even claimed to have found this module, based on patients with damage to a region of the brain known as Broca's area. More recent evidence has shown that language too is computed by widely distributed and domain-general neural circuits, and Broca's area may also be involved in other computations (see here for more on this).
Difference # 4: Processing speed is not fixed in the brain; there is no system clockThe speed of neural information processing is subject to a variety of constraints, including the time for electrochemical signals to traverse axons and dendrites, axonal myelination, the diffusion time of neurotransmitters across the synaptic cleft, differences in synaptic efficacy, the coherence of neural firing, the current availability of neurotransmitters, and the prior history of neuronal firing. Although there are individual differences in something psychometricians call "processing speed," this does not reflect a monolithic or unitary construct, and certainly nothing as concrete as the speed of a microprocessor. Instead, psychometric "processing speed" probably indexes a heterogenous combination of all the speed constraints mentioned above.Similarly, there does not appear to be any central clock in the brain, and there is debate as to how clock-like the brain's time-keeping devices actually are. To use just one example, the cerebellum is often thought to calculate information involving precise timing, as required for delicate motor movements; however, recent evidence suggests that time-keeping in the brain bears more similarity to ripples on a pond than to a standard digital clock.
Difference # 5 - Short-term memory is not like RAMAlthough the apparent similarities between RAM and short-term or "working" memory emboldened many early cognitive psychologists, a closer examination reveals strikingly important differences. Although RAM and short-term memory both seem to require power (sustained neuronal firing in the case of short-term memory, and electricity in the case of RAM), short-term memory seems to hold only "pointers" to long term memory whereas RAM holds data that is isomorphic to that being held on the hard disk. (See here for more about "attentional pointers" in short term memory).Unlike RAM, the capacity limit of short-term memory is not fixed; the capacity of short-term memory seems to fluctuate with differences in "processing speed" (see Difference #4) as well as with expertise and familiarity.
Difference # 6: No hardware/software distinction can be made with respect to the brain or mindFor years it was tempting to imagine that the brain was the hardware on which a "mind program" or "mind software" is executing. This gave rise to a variety of abstract program-like models of cognition, in which the details of how the brain actually executed those programs was considered irrelevant, in the same way that a Java program can accomplish the same function as a C++ program.Unfortunately, this appealing hardware/software distinction obscures an important fact: the mind emerges directly from the brain, and changes in the mind are always accompanied by changes in the brain. Any abstract information processing account of cognition will always need to specify how neuronal architecture can implement those processes - otherwise, cognitive modeling is grossly underconstrained. Some blame this misunderstanding for the infamous failure of "symbolic AI."
Difference # 7: Synapses are far more complex than electrical logic gatesAnother pernicious feature of the brain-computer metaphor is that it seems to suggest that brains might also operate on the basis of electrical signals (action potentials) traveling along individual logical gates. Unfortunately, this is only half true. The signals which are propagated along axons are actually electrochemical in nature, meaning that they travel much more slowly than electrical signals in a computer, and that they can be modulated in myriad ways. For example, signal transmission is dependent not only on the putative "logical gates" of synaptic architecture but also by the presence of a variety of chemicals in the synaptic cleft, the relative distance between synapse and dendrites, and many other factors. This adds to the complexity of the processing taking place at each synapse - and it is therefore profoundly wrong to think that neurons function merely as transistors.
Difference #8: Unlike computers, processing and memory are performed by the same components in the brainComputers process information from memory using CPUs, and then write the results of that processing back to memory. No such distinction exists in the brain. As neurons process information they are also modifying their synapses - which are themselves the substrate of memory. As a result, retrieval from memory always slightly alters those memories (usually making them stronger, but sometimes making them less accurate - see here for more on this).
Difference # 9: The brain is a self-organizing systemThis point follows naturally from the previous point - experience profoundly and directly shapes the nature of neural information processing in a way that simply does not happen in traditional microprocessors. For example, the brain is a self-repairing circuit - something known as "trauma-induced plasticity" kicks in after injury. This can lead to a variety of interesting changes, including some that seem to unlock unused potential in the brain (known as acquired savantism), and others that can result in profound cognitive dysfunction (as is unfortunately far more typical in traumatic brain injury and developmental disorders).One consequence of failing to recognize this difference has been in the field of neuropsychology, where the cognitive performance of brain-damaged patients is examined to determine the computational function of the damaged region. Unfortunately, because of the poorly-understood nature of trauma-induced plasticity, the logic cannot be so straightforward. Similar problems underlie work on developmental disorders and the emerging field of "cognitive genetics", in which the consequences of neural self-organization are frequently neglected .Difference # 10: Brains have bodiesThis is not as trivial as it might seem: it turns out that the brain takes surprising advantage of the fact that it has a body at its disposal. For example, despite your intuitive feeling that you could close your eyes and know the locations of objects around you, a series of experiments in the field of change blindness has shown that our visual memories are actually quite sparse. In this case, the brain is "offloading" its memory requirements to the environment in which it exists: why bother remembering the location of objects when a quick glance will suffice? A surprising set of experiments by Jeremy Wolfe has shown that even after being asked hundreds of times which simple geometrical shapes are displayed on a computer screen, human subjects continue to answer those questions by gaze rather than rote memory. A wide variety of evidence from other domains suggests that we are only beginning to understand the importance of embodiment in information processing.Bonus Difference: The brain is much, much bigger than any [current] computerAccurate biological models of the brain would have to include some 225,000,000,000,000,000 (225 million billion) interactions between cell types, neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, axonal branches and dendritic spines, and that doesn't include the influences of dendritic geometry, or the approximately 1 trillion glial cells which may or may not be important for neural information processing. Because the brain is nonlinear, and because it is so much larger than all current computers, it seems likely that it functions in a completely different fashion.
digg story
Top 10 Barely-Legal Gadgets for the Modern Spy (W/Cool Pics)
Here are listed 10 categories of devices you can buy to make you feel like a James Bond, from laser beams that cut things to x-ray goggles that see through clothes to CSI grade forensic lab hardware.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
The 50 Most Controversial Album Covers of All Time
Nudity, violence, macabre gore and other such things - here is our 50 most controversial and shocking covers of all time! Be warned, further into the gallery (from about 20 downwards) some of the images are not for the feint hearted! We did warn you.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time
They Never Even Recouped Their Aqua Net Expenses
#20 As grunge dawns, one label bets on hair metalIn 1989, with hair metal reaching its zenith, the A&R department at MCA Records finally decided to get in on the act—by tossing a rumored $1 million at L.A. band Pretty Boy Floyd, who at the time had played only eight shows. The band’s debut, Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz, peaked at No. 130 on the Billboard charts, and the Floyd blew another mil or so of MCA’s money before the label finally dropped them in 1991 … right around the time the suits blew a chance to sign a fledgling Seattle outfit called Nirvana.Unintended consequence Around 1992, the Sunset Strip pizza-delivery scene gets a fresh infusion of talent.
The Vinyl Solution
#19 The industry kills the single—and begins its own slow demiseIn the early ’80s, the music industry began to phase out vinyl singles in favor of cassettes and later, CDs. Then, since it costs the same to manufacture a CD single as a full album, they ditched the format almost altogether. But they forgot that singles were how fans got into the music-buying habit before they had enough money to spend on albums. The end result? Kids who expect music for free. “Greed to force consumers to buy an album [resulted] in the loss of an entire generation of record consumers,” says Billboard charts expert Joel Whitburn. “People who could only afford to buy their favorite hit of the week were told it wasn’t available as a single. Instead, they stopped going to record shops and turned their attention to illegally downloading songs.”Unintended consequence The Eagles still top the album charts.
Come Back, Kid
#18 BMG dumps Clive Davis, begs him to returnIn 2000, when company retirement policy deemed Clive Davis too old to run Arista, the label he’d founded 25 years earlier, he was pushed out the door in favor of Antonio “L.A.” Reid. After loud public complaints from artists including Whitney Houston and Carlos Santana, parent company BMG was shamed into giving Davis a nice going-away present—his own label, J Records, along with a $150 million bankroll. Ironically, while J spawned hits from Alicia Keys, Luther Vandross and Rod Stewart, Arista reportedly chalked up hundreds of millions in losses. In 2002, BMG forked over another $50 million to buy J, then two years later ousted Reid and hired a new CEO of BMG North America: an ambitious young turk named Clive Davis Unintended consequence Rod Stewart’s The Great American Songbook, Volumes I-IV
Dim Bulb
#17 Thomas Edison disses jazz, industry standardsAmerica’s most famous inventor, and the creator of the phonograph, also had his own record label: National Phonograph Company, later Edison Records. Naturally, it was the biggest one around at first but made two fatal errors. One was that Edison Records worked only on Edison’s players, while other manufacturers’ conformed to the industry standard and worked interchangeably. The other was that Edison let his personal taste govern Edison releases—and he hated jazz: “I always play jazz records backwards,” he sniffed. “They sound better that way.” So after releasing the world’s first jazz recording—Collins and Harlan’s “That Funny Jas Band From Dixieland”—the company spurned the craze in favor of waltzes and foxtrots. Edison Records folded in October 1929.Unintended consequence Edison adds “tin-eared A&R” to his list of inventions.
Double Jeopardy
#16 Warner pays for Wilco record twiceWhen Wilco handed over their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to Reprise in June 2001, acting label boss David Kahne—best known for producing Sugar Ray albums—reportedly thought it was “so bad it would kill Wilco’s career.” The band refused to make changes, so Reprise handed them their walking papers—and the masters to the album. A few months later, Wilco signed with Nonesuch, which, like Reprise, was a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, meaning that after shelling out roughly $300,000 to make YHF in the first place, the corporation was now paying for it again. The record remains Wilco’s best seller to date.Unintended consequence Jeff Tweedy’s poetry collection is published in 2004.
Money For Nothing
#15 MCA’s teen-pop calamityHow sure was MCA that slinky Irish teen Carly Hennessy was going to be a gargantuan pop star? So sure that in 1999 they staked the former Denny’s sausage spokesmodel with a $100,000 advance, $5,000 a month in living expenses and an apartment in Marina Del Rey, California, spending roughly $2.2 million in all on her 2001 debut, Ultimate High. How wrong were they? In its first three months in stores, Ultimate High sold a whopping 378 copies, putting the label’s investment somewhere in the order of $5,820 per copy sold. Last seen, Hennessy had resurfaced—still looking for her big break—on season seven of American Idol. Unintended consequence “Sausage spokesmodel” proves a less embarrassing resumé entry than expected.
Always Read The Fine … Oh, Never Mind
#14 Stax Records unintentionally gives away the storeSoul fans can credit Memphis’s Stax Records for classic hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and Booker T & the M.G.’s—but the real winner was Atlantic. In 1960, Atlantic partner Jerry Wexler liked one of Stax’s first releases enough to pay label president Jim Stewart $1,000 to lease it, and Atlantic soon contracted to market and distribute all Stax releases. Seven years later, with Stax reeling from Redding’s death, Stewart finally took a close look at the Atlantic contract and discovered he’d been bamboozled: Contrary to industry practice, Atlantic became the owner of any Stax release it handled. Stax had signed away its catalogue and future.Unintended consequence Bob Dole flips “Soul Man” into “Dole Man” during his ’96 presidential campaign.
The Last Of The Mega-Deals
#13 One label’s big spending single-handedly ends “alt-rock” boomIn 1996, Warner Bros. signed R.E.M. to a five-album contract for a reported $80 million. It was the most costly record deal in history and elicited one of the lowest returns. Warner needed R.E.M. to sell at least 3 million copies of all five records to come out in the black, but sleepy folk-rock albums like 1998’s Up moved a fifth of that. The execs went further into the hole by allowing R.E.M. to keep the masters of all their Warner releases, forfeiting future revenues generated by the band’s popular ’80s and early-’90s discs. No one knows how much the label lost—but the debacle brought to a close an era in which acts known for their “integrity” could score huge paydays.Unintended consequence Warner executives still hoping “Daysleeper” makes it on to The Hills soundtrack.
Axl Grease
#12 Geffen pumps millions into (the nonexistent) Chinese DemocracyTen years ago, Guns N’ Roses still looked like a good investment—they’d gone platinum 32 times. So in 1998, Geffen Records could be forgiven for paying Axl Rose a million bucks to complete GNR’s fifth album, promising a million more if he delivered it soon. (Rose had already spent four years working on the LP, losing every original bandmate in the process.) Beset by perfectionism, lack of focus and plain-old nuttiness, Rose never got that bonus million. But his label kept spending: In 2001, monthly expenses totaled $244,000. Four producers and a gazillion guitar overdubs later, the album is no closer to release. And Geffen’s in the red for $13 million. Unintended consequence A frustrated Rose gets into a well-publicized fistfightwith …
Tommy Hilfiger!Just Be Yourself—Or Else
#11 Geffen sues Neil Young for making “unrepresentative” musicAt the dawn of the ’80s, David Geffen signed Neil Young to his new record label, promising that “commercial” considerations would never get in the way of art. Young took this to heart, wandering so far off the reservation with albums like 1983’s synth-driven Trans that Geffen filed a $3 million breach-of-contract suit: effectively charging the folk-rock icon with not making “Neil Young” records. Young filed a $21 million countersuit before settling out of court, but remained somewhat bemused by Geffen’s judgment: “He didn’t seem to comprehend how … uh, diverse my musical career had become,” Young said.Unintended consequence Young’s Happy House and Tejano albums remain on the shelf.
Youth Movement
#10 Columbia Records loses Alicia Keys, drops 50 CentColumbia had a way with young talent in the late ’90s and early ’00s. First, after plunking down a reported $400,000 to sign Alicia Keys, they turned her over to high-priced producers who tried to transform her into Whitney Houston. Frustrated, she bolted—and signed with J Records, where she has sold more than 20 million albums to date. Around the same time, another languishing Columbia prospect, 50 Cent, recorded “How to Rob” in a desperate attempt to get his label to notice him. But when he was shot nine times in 2000, skittish execs dumped him—and then watched as he became an unstoppable one-man money factory at Interscope.Unintended consequence Fedoras and bulletproof vests become essential urban-fashion accessories.
Spy Game
#9 “Digital-rights management” backfires even more badly than usualIn a 2005 effort to combat digital piracy, Sony BMG packaged millions of CDs with copy-protection software that automatically installed a “rootkit” on users’ PCs, which, in addition to preventing consumers from making more than three copies of their legally purchased CD, also made them vulnerable to viruses and hackers. Sony BMG initially downplayed the problem, but after the Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory, the label recalled more than 4 million CDs. Sony was accused of spying on its customers’ listening habits and was forced to pay several million dollars to settle class-action lawsuits that alleged violations of spyware laws and deceptive trade practices.Unintended consequence Radiohead offer up In Rainbows for a bargain pay-what-you-like price.
Rap Attack
#8 Warner junks InterscopeWhen anti-rap crusaders wanted to deliver a body blow to hip-hop, they took aim at the Warner Music Group, because its corporate parent, Time Warner, was American-owned and publicly traded. When Ice-T’s “Cop Killer” became too hot to handle, Warner Music dropped him, but the label still enjoyed huge rap hits—particularly through Death Row Records, partially owned by their Interscope label. But when Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole attacked Warner Music in his stump speech, Time Warner panicked, ordering the sale of Interscope to rival Universal. Universal soon became the biggest record company in the world—in large measure due to Interscope hits by Tupac, Dr. Dre and Eminem. Warner Music went on a long slide and was finally sold in 2004.Unintended consequence Time Warner shareholders never have to worry about who killed Tupac.
Something’s Happening, But You Don’t Know What It Is
#7 Music publisher gives away Bob DylanIn the early 1960s Leeds/Duchess was a legendary music-publishing company but far from the hippest: It knew Tin Pan Alley but couldn’t find a Greenwich Village coffeehouse with a compass. Yet when Columbia signed Bob Dylan in 1961, they steered him to Leeds, where he happily signed a publishing deal with a $1,000 advance. The following year, Dylan’s new manager, Albert Grossman, got out of the deal with the disinterested publisher simply by repaying the $1,000. Dylan’s new publisher, the savvier M. Witmark & Sons, received 237 songs—many of them future standards worth tens of millions of dollars—in just the first three years.Unintended consequence The receptionists at Leeds/Duchess never have to field calls asking what “All Along the Watchtower” is really about.
Nothing Exceeds Like Excess
#6 Casablanca rides strong sales straight to the poorhouseNo record label represents the coked-up inanity of the late ’70s like disco-driven behemoth Casablanca. In 1978, the label simultaneously shipped a million copies of four solo albums by each member of their biggest rock act, Kiss, so they could justifiably claim the records “shipped platinum.” The albums sold well—but not that well. Record stores returned hundreds of thousandsof unsold copies, inspiring comedian Robert Klein to joke that Casablanca’s releases “shipped gold and returned platinum.” The label continued to lose millions a year throughout the late ’70s, until part-owner PolyGram Records bought out founder Neil Bogart for $15 million in 1980. Unintended consequence Hey, man—400,000 extra surfaces to snort drugs from!
Whoa, Mama
#5 The RIAA sues a struggling single mom for digital piracyn In the court of public opinion, it’s hard to find a more sympathetic defendant than a single mother of two, earning $36,000 a year. So what in the name of common decency was the Recording Industry Association of America thinking when it went after 30-year-old Jammie Thomas from Brainerd, Minnesota? The RIAA accused Thomas of using the P2P service Kazaa to illegally share mp3 files of 24 songs, including Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” and Destiny’s Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills.” Thomas pleaded not guilty, blaming the shared files on mistaken identity, but last October a jury disagreed and fined her $222,000. That breaks down to a whopping $9,250 per song—more than six times her annual salary. At press time, Thomas was planning an appeal.Unintended consequence The nation’s toddlers and fluffy kittens rush to erase their hard drives.
Pay (Somebody Else) To Play
#4 Indie promoters take the major labels to the cleanersAfter the payola scandals of the ’50s, the government barred record labels from paying radio stations to play records. The solution: set up middlemen to do the dirty work! “Independent promoters” represented the labels’ interests to radio programmers, creating a massive cash flow of corruption. Even a mid-size hit could cost $700,000 in promo expenses—cash, vacations, drugs and other illicit rewards for mustachioed DJs—and labels ended up paying to get airplay for huge artists the stations would have spun anyway. A lot of coked-up DJs got nice tans, while the labels spent unnecessary millions and covered their balance sheets in bloody red.Unintended consequence Colombian GDP spikes each time Mariah Carey releases a single.
Detroit At a Discount
#3 Motown sells for a pittanceIn 1988 Berry Gordy Jr., reportedly losing millions of dollars on the label he had founded decades earlier, sold Motown and its incomparable back catalogue to MCA and investment company Boston Ventures for $60 million. How bad was that price? The next year, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss sold their A&M Records to PolyGram for roughly $500 million. In 1990, David Geffen got about $700 million for Geffen Records and in ’92, Richard Branson unloaded Virgin Records to EMI for $960 million. And five years after buying Motown, Boston Ventures cashed out, selling the label to PolyGram for $325 million—a return of more than 500 percent.Unintended consequence The Motown Atlantic airline, and Berry’s career as a trans-global balloonist, have yet to materialize.
Tomorrow Never Knows
#2 Decca Records A&R exec tells Fab Four, “No, thanks”Dick Rowe was not the only record-label executive who passed on the Beatles in the early ’60s, but he was the only one who brushed off their manager, Brian Epstein, with the astute prediction that: “Groups with guitars are on their way out.” Epstein begged Rowe to reconsider, so Rowe hopped a train to Liverpool to check out the band live. When he arrived at the Cavern, he found a mob of kids trying to force their way into the club in the pouring rain. Annoyed, he smoked a cigarette, went home and signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead. Unintended consequence The Monkees
THE BIGGEST RECORD-COMPANY SCREWUP OF ALL TIME
#1 Major labels squash NapsterShawn Fanning’s file-sharing service attracted tens of millions of users, but instead of trying to find a way to capitalize on it, the Recording Industry Association of America rejected Napster’s billion-dollar settlement offer and sued it out of existence in 2001. Napster’s users didn’t just disappear. They scattered to hundreds of alternative systems—and new technology has stayed three steps ahead of the music business ever since. The labels’ campaign to stop their music from being acquired for free across the Internet has been like trying to cork a hurricane—upward of a billion files are swapped every month on peer-to-peer networks. Since Napster closed, “there’s been no decline in the rate of online piracy,” says Eric Garland of media analysts BigChampagne, who logged users of son-of-Napster peer-to-peer networks more than doubling between 2002 and 2007. And that figure doubles again if you count BitTorrent.Unintended consequence Your grandmother deciding to trade up from that dial-up connection
#20 As grunge dawns, one label bets on hair metalIn 1989, with hair metal reaching its zenith, the A&R department at MCA Records finally decided to get in on the act—by tossing a rumored $1 million at L.A. band Pretty Boy Floyd, who at the time had played only eight shows. The band’s debut, Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz, peaked at No. 130 on the Billboard charts, and the Floyd blew another mil or so of MCA’s money before the label finally dropped them in 1991 … right around the time the suits blew a chance to sign a fledgling Seattle outfit called Nirvana.Unintended consequence Around 1992, the Sunset Strip pizza-delivery scene gets a fresh infusion of talent.
The Vinyl Solution
#19 The industry kills the single—and begins its own slow demiseIn the early ’80s, the music industry began to phase out vinyl singles in favor of cassettes and later, CDs. Then, since it costs the same to manufacture a CD single as a full album, they ditched the format almost altogether. But they forgot that singles were how fans got into the music-buying habit before they had enough money to spend on albums. The end result? Kids who expect music for free. “Greed to force consumers to buy an album [resulted] in the loss of an entire generation of record consumers,” says Billboard charts expert Joel Whitburn. “People who could only afford to buy their favorite hit of the week were told it wasn’t available as a single. Instead, they stopped going to record shops and turned their attention to illegally downloading songs.”Unintended consequence The Eagles still top the album charts.
Come Back, Kid
#18 BMG dumps Clive Davis, begs him to returnIn 2000, when company retirement policy deemed Clive Davis too old to run Arista, the label he’d founded 25 years earlier, he was pushed out the door in favor of Antonio “L.A.” Reid. After loud public complaints from artists including Whitney Houston and Carlos Santana, parent company BMG was shamed into giving Davis a nice going-away present—his own label, J Records, along with a $150 million bankroll. Ironically, while J spawned hits from Alicia Keys, Luther Vandross and Rod Stewart, Arista reportedly chalked up hundreds of millions in losses. In 2002, BMG forked over another $50 million to buy J, then two years later ousted Reid and hired a new CEO of BMG North America: an ambitious young turk named Clive Davis Unintended consequence Rod Stewart’s The Great American Songbook, Volumes I-IV
Dim Bulb
#17 Thomas Edison disses jazz, industry standardsAmerica’s most famous inventor, and the creator of the phonograph, also had his own record label: National Phonograph Company, later Edison Records. Naturally, it was the biggest one around at first but made two fatal errors. One was that Edison Records worked only on Edison’s players, while other manufacturers’ conformed to the industry standard and worked interchangeably. The other was that Edison let his personal taste govern Edison releases—and he hated jazz: “I always play jazz records backwards,” he sniffed. “They sound better that way.” So after releasing the world’s first jazz recording—Collins and Harlan’s “That Funny Jas Band From Dixieland”—the company spurned the craze in favor of waltzes and foxtrots. Edison Records folded in October 1929.Unintended consequence Edison adds “tin-eared A&R” to his list of inventions.
Double Jeopardy
#16 Warner pays for Wilco record twiceWhen Wilco handed over their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to Reprise in June 2001, acting label boss David Kahne—best known for producing Sugar Ray albums—reportedly thought it was “so bad it would kill Wilco’s career.” The band refused to make changes, so Reprise handed them their walking papers—and the masters to the album. A few months later, Wilco signed with Nonesuch, which, like Reprise, was a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, meaning that after shelling out roughly $300,000 to make YHF in the first place, the corporation was now paying for it again. The record remains Wilco’s best seller to date.Unintended consequence Jeff Tweedy’s poetry collection is published in 2004.
Money For Nothing
#15 MCA’s teen-pop calamityHow sure was MCA that slinky Irish teen Carly Hennessy was going to be a gargantuan pop star? So sure that in 1999 they staked the former Denny’s sausage spokesmodel with a $100,000 advance, $5,000 a month in living expenses and an apartment in Marina Del Rey, California, spending roughly $2.2 million in all on her 2001 debut, Ultimate High. How wrong were they? In its first three months in stores, Ultimate High sold a whopping 378 copies, putting the label’s investment somewhere in the order of $5,820 per copy sold. Last seen, Hennessy had resurfaced—still looking for her big break—on season seven of American Idol. Unintended consequence “Sausage spokesmodel” proves a less embarrassing resumé entry than expected.
Always Read The Fine … Oh, Never Mind
#14 Stax Records unintentionally gives away the storeSoul fans can credit Memphis’s Stax Records for classic hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and Booker T & the M.G.’s—but the real winner was Atlantic. In 1960, Atlantic partner Jerry Wexler liked one of Stax’s first releases enough to pay label president Jim Stewart $1,000 to lease it, and Atlantic soon contracted to market and distribute all Stax releases. Seven years later, with Stax reeling from Redding’s death, Stewart finally took a close look at the Atlantic contract and discovered he’d been bamboozled: Contrary to industry practice, Atlantic became the owner of any Stax release it handled. Stax had signed away its catalogue and future.Unintended consequence Bob Dole flips “Soul Man” into “Dole Man” during his ’96 presidential campaign.
The Last Of The Mega-Deals
#13 One label’s big spending single-handedly ends “alt-rock” boomIn 1996, Warner Bros. signed R.E.M. to a five-album contract for a reported $80 million. It was the most costly record deal in history and elicited one of the lowest returns. Warner needed R.E.M. to sell at least 3 million copies of all five records to come out in the black, but sleepy folk-rock albums like 1998’s Up moved a fifth of that. The execs went further into the hole by allowing R.E.M. to keep the masters of all their Warner releases, forfeiting future revenues generated by the band’s popular ’80s and early-’90s discs. No one knows how much the label lost—but the debacle brought to a close an era in which acts known for their “integrity” could score huge paydays.Unintended consequence Warner executives still hoping “Daysleeper” makes it on to The Hills soundtrack.
Axl Grease
#12 Geffen pumps millions into (the nonexistent) Chinese DemocracyTen years ago, Guns N’ Roses still looked like a good investment—they’d gone platinum 32 times. So in 1998, Geffen Records could be forgiven for paying Axl Rose a million bucks to complete GNR’s fifth album, promising a million more if he delivered it soon. (Rose had already spent four years working on the LP, losing every original bandmate in the process.) Beset by perfectionism, lack of focus and plain-old nuttiness, Rose never got that bonus million. But his label kept spending: In 2001, monthly expenses totaled $244,000. Four producers and a gazillion guitar overdubs later, the album is no closer to release. And Geffen’s in the red for $13 million. Unintended consequence A frustrated Rose gets into a well-publicized fistfightwith …
Tommy Hilfiger!Just Be Yourself—Or Else
#11 Geffen sues Neil Young for making “unrepresentative” musicAt the dawn of the ’80s, David Geffen signed Neil Young to his new record label, promising that “commercial” considerations would never get in the way of art. Young took this to heart, wandering so far off the reservation with albums like 1983’s synth-driven Trans that Geffen filed a $3 million breach-of-contract suit: effectively charging the folk-rock icon with not making “Neil Young” records. Young filed a $21 million countersuit before settling out of court, but remained somewhat bemused by Geffen’s judgment: “He didn’t seem to comprehend how … uh, diverse my musical career had become,” Young said.Unintended consequence Young’s Happy House and Tejano albums remain on the shelf.
Youth Movement
#10 Columbia Records loses Alicia Keys, drops 50 CentColumbia had a way with young talent in the late ’90s and early ’00s. First, after plunking down a reported $400,000 to sign Alicia Keys, they turned her over to high-priced producers who tried to transform her into Whitney Houston. Frustrated, she bolted—and signed with J Records, where she has sold more than 20 million albums to date. Around the same time, another languishing Columbia prospect, 50 Cent, recorded “How to Rob” in a desperate attempt to get his label to notice him. But when he was shot nine times in 2000, skittish execs dumped him—and then watched as he became an unstoppable one-man money factory at Interscope.Unintended consequence Fedoras and bulletproof vests become essential urban-fashion accessories.
Spy Game
#9 “Digital-rights management” backfires even more badly than usualIn a 2005 effort to combat digital piracy, Sony BMG packaged millions of CDs with copy-protection software that automatically installed a “rootkit” on users’ PCs, which, in addition to preventing consumers from making more than three copies of their legally purchased CD, also made them vulnerable to viruses and hackers. Sony BMG initially downplayed the problem, but after the Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory, the label recalled more than 4 million CDs. Sony was accused of spying on its customers’ listening habits and was forced to pay several million dollars to settle class-action lawsuits that alleged violations of spyware laws and deceptive trade practices.Unintended consequence Radiohead offer up In Rainbows for a bargain pay-what-you-like price.
Rap Attack
#8 Warner junks InterscopeWhen anti-rap crusaders wanted to deliver a body blow to hip-hop, they took aim at the Warner Music Group, because its corporate parent, Time Warner, was American-owned and publicly traded. When Ice-T’s “Cop Killer” became too hot to handle, Warner Music dropped him, but the label still enjoyed huge rap hits—particularly through Death Row Records, partially owned by their Interscope label. But when Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole attacked Warner Music in his stump speech, Time Warner panicked, ordering the sale of Interscope to rival Universal. Universal soon became the biggest record company in the world—in large measure due to Interscope hits by Tupac, Dr. Dre and Eminem. Warner Music went on a long slide and was finally sold in 2004.Unintended consequence Time Warner shareholders never have to worry about who killed Tupac.
Something’s Happening, But You Don’t Know What It Is
#7 Music publisher gives away Bob DylanIn the early 1960s Leeds/Duchess was a legendary music-publishing company but far from the hippest: It knew Tin Pan Alley but couldn’t find a Greenwich Village coffeehouse with a compass. Yet when Columbia signed Bob Dylan in 1961, they steered him to Leeds, where he happily signed a publishing deal with a $1,000 advance. The following year, Dylan’s new manager, Albert Grossman, got out of the deal with the disinterested publisher simply by repaying the $1,000. Dylan’s new publisher, the savvier M. Witmark & Sons, received 237 songs—many of them future standards worth tens of millions of dollars—in just the first three years.Unintended consequence The receptionists at Leeds/Duchess never have to field calls asking what “All Along the Watchtower” is really about.
Nothing Exceeds Like Excess
#6 Casablanca rides strong sales straight to the poorhouseNo record label represents the coked-up inanity of the late ’70s like disco-driven behemoth Casablanca. In 1978, the label simultaneously shipped a million copies of four solo albums by each member of their biggest rock act, Kiss, so they could justifiably claim the records “shipped platinum.” The albums sold well—but not that well. Record stores returned hundreds of thousandsof unsold copies, inspiring comedian Robert Klein to joke that Casablanca’s releases “shipped gold and returned platinum.” The label continued to lose millions a year throughout the late ’70s, until part-owner PolyGram Records bought out founder Neil Bogart for $15 million in 1980. Unintended consequence Hey, man—400,000 extra surfaces to snort drugs from!
Whoa, Mama
#5 The RIAA sues a struggling single mom for digital piracyn In the court of public opinion, it’s hard to find a more sympathetic defendant than a single mother of two, earning $36,000 a year. So what in the name of common decency was the Recording Industry Association of America thinking when it went after 30-year-old Jammie Thomas from Brainerd, Minnesota? The RIAA accused Thomas of using the P2P service Kazaa to illegally share mp3 files of 24 songs, including Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” and Destiny’s Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills.” Thomas pleaded not guilty, blaming the shared files on mistaken identity, but last October a jury disagreed and fined her $222,000. That breaks down to a whopping $9,250 per song—more than six times her annual salary. At press time, Thomas was planning an appeal.Unintended consequence The nation’s toddlers and fluffy kittens rush to erase their hard drives.
Pay (Somebody Else) To Play
#4 Indie promoters take the major labels to the cleanersAfter the payola scandals of the ’50s, the government barred record labels from paying radio stations to play records. The solution: set up middlemen to do the dirty work! “Independent promoters” represented the labels’ interests to radio programmers, creating a massive cash flow of corruption. Even a mid-size hit could cost $700,000 in promo expenses—cash, vacations, drugs and other illicit rewards for mustachioed DJs—and labels ended up paying to get airplay for huge artists the stations would have spun anyway. A lot of coked-up DJs got nice tans, while the labels spent unnecessary millions and covered their balance sheets in bloody red.Unintended consequence Colombian GDP spikes each time Mariah Carey releases a single.
Detroit At a Discount
#3 Motown sells for a pittanceIn 1988 Berry Gordy Jr., reportedly losing millions of dollars on the label he had founded decades earlier, sold Motown and its incomparable back catalogue to MCA and investment company Boston Ventures for $60 million. How bad was that price? The next year, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss sold their A&M Records to PolyGram for roughly $500 million. In 1990, David Geffen got about $700 million for Geffen Records and in ’92, Richard Branson unloaded Virgin Records to EMI for $960 million. And five years after buying Motown, Boston Ventures cashed out, selling the label to PolyGram for $325 million—a return of more than 500 percent.Unintended consequence The Motown Atlantic airline, and Berry’s career as a trans-global balloonist, have yet to materialize.
Tomorrow Never Knows
#2 Decca Records A&R exec tells Fab Four, “No, thanks”Dick Rowe was not the only record-label executive who passed on the Beatles in the early ’60s, but he was the only one who brushed off their manager, Brian Epstein, with the astute prediction that: “Groups with guitars are on their way out.” Epstein begged Rowe to reconsider, so Rowe hopped a train to Liverpool to check out the band live. When he arrived at the Cavern, he found a mob of kids trying to force their way into the club in the pouring rain. Annoyed, he smoked a cigarette, went home and signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead. Unintended consequence The Monkees
THE BIGGEST RECORD-COMPANY SCREWUP OF ALL TIME
#1 Major labels squash NapsterShawn Fanning’s file-sharing service attracted tens of millions of users, but instead of trying to find a way to capitalize on it, the Recording Industry Association of America rejected Napster’s billion-dollar settlement offer and sued it out of existence in 2001. Napster’s users didn’t just disappear. They scattered to hundreds of alternative systems—and new technology has stayed three steps ahead of the music business ever since. The labels’ campaign to stop their music from being acquired for free across the Internet has been like trying to cork a hurricane—upward of a billion files are swapped every month on peer-to-peer networks. Since Napster closed, “there’s been no decline in the rate of online piracy,” says Eric Garland of media analysts BigChampagne, who logged users of son-of-Napster peer-to-peer networks more than doubling between 2002 and 2007. And that figure doubles again if you count BitTorrent.Unintended consequence Your grandmother deciding to trade up from that dial-up connection
How To Build a Digital Music Server
CDs are fine things for listening to and archiving, but they're bulky. Think of all the shelf space you could free up if that digital music resided on one little hard drive rather than hundreds of boxed-up plastic discs. It's a commitment, but putting all your music on a computer has advantages besides space savings.
First and foremost, building a media server gives you access to all of your tunes from anywhere in your house. You'll be able to search for songs and play them back whether you're in your kitchen, living room or your home office, regardless of where in your home your media server sits. If you're extra savvy, you can also set up your server to be accessible over the internet.Wherever you access your music, it can all be indexed and sorted, shuffled and mixed, shared, streamed, and more.
1. Allocate spaceThe first step is to set aside a big chunk of storage space for your music files. You may want to dedicate an entire hard drive to this purpose. If it's an external hard drive, it can travel with you; but with the right server software, that's unnecessary. Because the file formats we'll be using are standard, you can make decisions about the software later.Tip: Go big. Set up a system you can keep filling for years to come. Dedicate 500GB or more. Or, if you want to spend a little more, get a storage system that's easy to use and to upgrade like a Drobo.
2. Choose an encoding formatMP3 is the most famous format for encoding music, and as such its advantage is that it can be played on pretty much every player in the universe. But it's neither the best-sounding nor the most compact. FLAC files are losslessly compressed, meaning they sound exactly as good as the CDs they come from (and indeed CDs can be reconstructed exactly from FLAC files), but they take up much more storage space than MP3s do.Which you choose depends on your needs. If you choose MP3 (or Ogg, or another lossy encoding format) you also need to decide on a bitrate. The bitrate determines the amount of music information that gets captured when you rip your music to a digital file (in the next step). The higher the bitrate, the better the sound, but the bigger the file. Make these important decisions before you commit your entire music library to a format you don't like.Tip: Again, think as big as possible. Better to rip at a higher bitrate now while sacrificing some hard drive space than be stuck with lower-quality music files down the road.
3. Rip the musicExact Audio Copy on WindowsExact Audio Copy on WindowsThis is the time-consuming part. The most convenient tools are the hands-off ones that allow you to just put in a CD, wait for it to be ripped, encoded, and tagged, then just take it out and put in another.On Linux, abcde is very good. On Windows, Exact Audio Copy is highly recommended. On Macs, you can use iTunes if you fine-tune its encoding preferences, but xACT is much better.Each CD takes several minutes to rip. Afterward, you may need to correct the tags with a tool like Picard. The easiest approach may be to pay a neighborhood teenager to feed the discs into your computer one by one.
4. Serve itArmed with a ton of digital music on your hard drive, serve that music on up.Install the free SqueezeCenter software on your music server and stream away. You can stream to any computer on your network either through the browser or using software like iTunes or Winamp.For serving music elsewhere in your home, a Squeezebox is a great tool -- it hooks up to any stereo, where it's controllable by a computer or by a remote. It's a financial investment, but the sound is great, and it can do lots of very cool things, from smart analysis and mixing, to on-the-fly correction for the acoustic quirks of your listening room.You can also serve your music around your network using iTunes. The application, a free download from Apple, has local library sharing built in. Just set up iTunes on your server and enable sharing in the application's Preferences. Your library will show up wherever else iTunes is running on your LAN -- look under the "Shared" menu in your sources list.One of Jinzora's many available skinsOne of Jinzora's many available skinsServing your music over the internet is a bit more complicated, since it will require you to tweak your broadband router a little bit. There are many ways to do it, none of them too difficult. You can serve music over the web if your computer is set up to run as a web server. If it's not, install Apache and PHP (all-in-one installers exist for Windows and Mac OS X) then download and install Jinzora, a free application that indexes all your music and makes it available through a web browser.
First and foremost, building a media server gives you access to all of your tunes from anywhere in your house. You'll be able to search for songs and play them back whether you're in your kitchen, living room or your home office, regardless of where in your home your media server sits. If you're extra savvy, you can also set up your server to be accessible over the internet.Wherever you access your music, it can all be indexed and sorted, shuffled and mixed, shared, streamed, and more.
1. Allocate spaceThe first step is to set aside a big chunk of storage space for your music files. You may want to dedicate an entire hard drive to this purpose. If it's an external hard drive, it can travel with you; but with the right server software, that's unnecessary. Because the file formats we'll be using are standard, you can make decisions about the software later.Tip: Go big. Set up a system you can keep filling for years to come. Dedicate 500GB or more. Or, if you want to spend a little more, get a storage system that's easy to use and to upgrade like a Drobo.
2. Choose an encoding formatMP3 is the most famous format for encoding music, and as such its advantage is that it can be played on pretty much every player in the universe. But it's neither the best-sounding nor the most compact. FLAC files are losslessly compressed, meaning they sound exactly as good as the CDs they come from (and indeed CDs can be reconstructed exactly from FLAC files), but they take up much more storage space than MP3s do.Which you choose depends on your needs. If you choose MP3 (or Ogg, or another lossy encoding format) you also need to decide on a bitrate. The bitrate determines the amount of music information that gets captured when you rip your music to a digital file (in the next step). The higher the bitrate, the better the sound, but the bigger the file. Make these important decisions before you commit your entire music library to a format you don't like.Tip: Again, think as big as possible. Better to rip at a higher bitrate now while sacrificing some hard drive space than be stuck with lower-quality music files down the road.
3. Rip the musicExact Audio Copy on WindowsExact Audio Copy on WindowsThis is the time-consuming part. The most convenient tools are the hands-off ones that allow you to just put in a CD, wait for it to be ripped, encoded, and tagged, then just take it out and put in another.On Linux, abcde is very good. On Windows, Exact Audio Copy is highly recommended. On Macs, you can use iTunes if you fine-tune its encoding preferences, but xACT is much better.Each CD takes several minutes to rip. Afterward, you may need to correct the tags with a tool like Picard. The easiest approach may be to pay a neighborhood teenager to feed the discs into your computer one by one.
4. Serve itArmed with a ton of digital music on your hard drive, serve that music on up.Install the free SqueezeCenter software on your music server and stream away. You can stream to any computer on your network either through the browser or using software like iTunes or Winamp.For serving music elsewhere in your home, a Squeezebox is a great tool -- it hooks up to any stereo, where it's controllable by a computer or by a remote. It's a financial investment, but the sound is great, and it can do lots of very cool things, from smart analysis and mixing, to on-the-fly correction for the acoustic quirks of your listening room.You can also serve your music around your network using iTunes. The application, a free download from Apple, has local library sharing built in. Just set up iTunes on your server and enable sharing in the application's Preferences. Your library will show up wherever else iTunes is running on your LAN -- look under the "Shared" menu in your sources list.One of Jinzora's many available skinsOne of Jinzora's many available skinsServing your music over the internet is a bit more complicated, since it will require you to tweak your broadband router a little bit. There are many ways to do it, none of them too difficult. You can serve music over the web if your computer is set up to run as a web server. If it's not, install Apache and PHP (all-in-one installers exist for Windows and Mac OS X) then download and install Jinzora, a free application that indexes all your music and makes it available through a web browser.
Kazaa downloads cost one man $750 per song in RIAA suit
The RIAA won a pair of victories last week as a judge finally awarded the labels a default judgment in a case where the defendant never showed up in court. In another case, the RIAA convinced a judge to award $23,250 in damages after the defendant admitted to downloading and sharing music over KaZaA.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Apple patent would allow iPhone clamshell
Apple has developed a technique that could allow for a smaller iPhone with all the controls but half the size, according to a recent but not yet fully public US Patent Office filing. Described as a "dual sided trackpad," it would allow multi-touch on the inside and out: in other words, it would allow an iPhone flip.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Top 10 Hubble Images of All Time
As the title says, this article lists the top ten Hubble space satellite images ever taken. Hubble has been in operation since 1990, and now after serving almost for 20 years it is time to list the very best images taken by Hubble.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Friday, March 7, 2008
5 Incredible Works of Insane Architectural Genius [+PICS]
These five amazing buildings were each primarily the work of a singleeccentric individual with a bizarre vision, loads of ambition and waytoo much time on their hands. In many cases the structures tookdecades (or even lifetimes) to complete. Pictures and videos included!
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Reznor makes $750,000 even when the music is free
Trent Reznor released a new Nine Inch Nails record over the weekend and has already sold out his 2,500 deluxe editions at $300 a pop. This is what "competing with free" looks like.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
10 Things Your Dad Never Told You About Sex
Talking about sex can be uncomfortable, particularly for a dad with his teenage son. Our fathers have failed us in our pursuit for sexual enlightenment. With this in mind, I present to you The 10 Things Your Dad Never Told You About Sex (But Really Should Have) (Some pics may be slightly NSFW)
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Star Trek Quadrant Map
Map of the milky way galaxy showing all 4 quadrants as seen in Star Trek. Includes the path of USS Voyager, the Bajoran Wormhole, the Borg Transwarp network, and more!
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Microsoft Demos "ADD TO DIGG" Feature in IE8
Using the new "Activities" XML feature in IE8, users can right-click on any page and "ADD TO DIGG". Check out the screenshot on Microsoft's site! Other new IE8 features: Atom feeds in normal web pages using Microformats, Data URI support (fast page renders), CSS2.1 fully supports, and of course, tons of bug fixes...
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
10 reasons PlayStation 3 is still relevant
Blu-ray wins, Metal Gear Solid 4 gets dated, and 8 other reasons the PS3 is relevant again.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Kojima: MGS4 too big for 50 GB Blu-ray disc
t's not much of a shocker to learn the latest (and final) installment in the Metal Gear Solid series is a sizable one -- MGS games have a history of being big (and beautiful). However, a recent interview with series creator Hideo Kojima revealed a startling fact about MGS4
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Shadow of the Colossus' controls are an exercise in art
While most game developers and fans don't give a second thought to control schemes, Fumito Ueda does. Shadow of the Colossus' controls actually contribute, in significant ways, to the artistry of the game.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Nine Inch Nails New Album Ghosts I-IV Official Torrent
"Hello from Nine Inch Nails.We're very proud to present a new collection of instrumental music, Ghosts I-IV. Almost two hours of music recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I-IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain."
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, March 3, 2008
48% of teenagers bought zero (0) CDs in 2007
Nearly half of all teenagers bought no compact discs in 2007, accelerating the music industry's painful transition from CDs to digital downloads, according to a report released today.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Robotic Guitar tunes itself to save musicians time and money
Cool video showing the use of the Gibson Guitar, which tunes itself. This type of guitar is useful for the real musician who would normally need to switch guitars during a show. Instead, this guitar simply re tunes itself, allowing a performer to ideally only need to own one guitar.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
A harp made from frickin' laser beams
Stephen Hobley just perfected his laser harp. The audio is adjusted by breaking the beam between the source and mirror array above. No, you can't buy it, but we expect it to appear with a Ukranian dressed in animal skins at Eurovision 2008.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
30 Fonts That ALL Designers Must Own
Here are 30 of the Best Fonts / Type Faces that every designer must own sorted by alphabetical order. There are 15 serif fonts and 15 sans-serif fonts. These fonts will last you your whole career!
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
New Nine Inch Nails record available for download RIGHT NOW!
NIN surprises us with an unexpected self-released album: almost 2 hours / 36 instrumental tracks described as "music for daydreams." Available as a $5 download, or a FREE album-length download, as well as a variety of physical configurations. The new business model done right?
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Privacy Policy
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If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at ptemondous@gmail.com.
At ptemondous.blogspot.com, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by ptemondous.blogspot.com and how it is used.
Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers, ptemondous.blogspot.com use log files. This includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, browser type, internet service provider ( ISP ), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Cookies and Web Beacons
ptemondous.blogspot.com
Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include Google Adsense, .
These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to send, directly to your browser, the advertisements and links that appear on ptemondous.blogspot.com. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. They may also use other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalize the advertising content you see.
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Sunday, March 2, 2008
dreams....
couple of days ago i had a dream.....having a hard drive with an infinite capacity...inspired by that i edited a picture to revise it...
PUNK goes CRUNK
Fearless Records' Punk Goes Crunk will hit stores on April 8th. Check out myspace to hear four clips from songs off the album.
Track Listing
01) Set Your Goals - Put Yo Hood Up (Lil John)
02) Say Anything - Got Your Money (Ol' Dirty Bastard)
03) The Secret Handshake - I Wish (Skee - Lo)
04) Forever The Sickest Kids - Men In Black (Will Smith)
05) My American Heart - California Love (2Pac)
06) The Maine - I Wana Love You (Akon)
07) Emanuel - Kryptonite (Purple Ribbon All-Stars)
08) Person L - The Seed (The Roots)
09) The Devil Wears Prada - Still Fly (Big Tymers)
10) All Time Low - Umbrella (Rihanna)
11) Scary Kids Scaring Kids - Notorious Thugs (Notorious BIG)
12) The Escape Frame - Nothin' But A "G" Thang (Dr.Dre)
13) Hot Rod Circuit - Gin And Juice (Snoop Dogg)
14) Lorene Drive - Hey Ya! (OutKast)
15) New Found Glory - Tennessee (Arrested Development)
ada the devil wears prada (TDWP).....gak sabar mo denger track itu....
btw sebelumnya TDWP juga sudah meng-cover theme song dari SpongeBob Square Pants. lagu yang harusnya bertema anak anak jadi lagu yang 100% bukan untuk anak anak....mungkin kalo ada anak kecil yang denger bisa nangis...
Track Listing
01) Set Your Goals - Put Yo Hood Up (Lil John)
02) Say Anything - Got Your Money (Ol' Dirty Bastard)
03) The Secret Handshake - I Wish (Skee - Lo)
04) Forever The Sickest Kids - Men In Black (Will Smith)
05) My American Heart - California Love (2Pac)
06) The Maine - I Wana Love You (Akon)
07) Emanuel - Kryptonite (Purple Ribbon All-Stars)
08) Person L - The Seed (The Roots)
09) The Devil Wears Prada - Still Fly (Big Tymers)
10) All Time Low - Umbrella (Rihanna)
11) Scary Kids Scaring Kids - Notorious Thugs (Notorious BIG)
12) The Escape Frame - Nothin' But A "G" Thang (Dr.Dre)
13) Hot Rod Circuit - Gin And Juice (Snoop Dogg)
14) Lorene Drive - Hey Ya! (OutKast)
15) New Found Glory - Tennessee (Arrested Development)
ada the devil wears prada (TDWP).....gak sabar mo denger track itu....
btw sebelumnya TDWP juga sudah meng-cover theme song dari SpongeBob Square Pants. lagu yang harusnya bertema anak anak jadi lagu yang 100% bukan untuk anak anak....mungkin kalo ada anak kecil yang denger bisa nangis...
XHTML DTD
The XHTML standard defines three Document Type Definitions.
The most common is the XHTML Transitional.
XHTML 1.0 specifies three XML document types that correspond to three DTDs: Strict, Transitional, and Frameset.
Use this when you want really clean markup, free of presentational clutter. Use this together with Cascading Style Sheets.
Use this when you need to take advantage of HTML's presentational features and when you want to support browsers that don't understand Cascading Style Sheets.
Use this when you want to use HTML Frames to partition the browser window into two or more frames.
The most common is the XHTML Transitional.
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
XHTML 1.0 specifies three XML document types that correspond to three DTDs: Strict, Transitional, and Frameset.
XHTML 1.0 Strict
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
Use this when you want really clean markup, free of presentational clutter. Use this together with Cascading Style Sheets.
XHTML 1.0 Transitional
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
Use this when you need to take advantage of HTML's presentational features and when you want to support browsers that don't understand Cascading Style Sheets.
XHTML 1.0 Frameset
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd">
Use this when you want to use HTML Frames to partition the browser window into two or more frames.
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