Freedom of expression through Music and Technology

DVD’s internet and bebo?

dan660 — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:14:11 +0000

sorry for the few days without a post but my internet has been on and off all weekend and i took the small chances i had to do vitals like email and such so my apology’s.

So i would just like to talk about the new laws in the US for dvd pirating and the punishments now in place.
Up to 3 years in jail? and a hefty fine? Anyone else think this is a bit much? maybe for repeat offenders and big halls but for copying a movie or two? I’m not sure how far you have to go before you get jail time so any comments from US citizens would be good. But I do think that this will really put a dent in the use off mass dvd pirating being used for drug or terrorism funding which is definitely a good thing.

A recent conversation has led me to give a bit more thought to social networking sites, you know the ones… bebo, facebook, myspace and the like. So what makes a good one… the total versibilty of myspaces HTML profiles? Bebo’s ease of acess? facebook’s widgets? i know a few people who refuse to bebo as it seems dumbed down and doesn’t do enough but also people who cann’t write HTML and dislike the complexitly of myspace. Facebook seems to be a middle of the road with not much in the way of colour but all the widgets you could never need! This does however make it all a bit grown up without all the pretty pictures and such. Many th eolder user i have spoken to don’t see how Bebo has not been just a flash in the pan but then again as you get older i suppose the more complex myspace and facebook are slightly easier to grasp.

So which if any do you use? and why? please comment!

The Slip

dan660 — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:29:22 +0000

Well to start things off i would like to talk about the new release from Nine Inch Nails, one of my favourite bands as their new album has in part inspired this blog.

Well “as a thank you to fans” Trent Reznor the genius behind the industrial outfit that is NIN decided to release his newest offering ‘The Slip‘ as a one hundred percent free download in a variety of formats from MP3 to the FLACK lossless format. This comes mere months after the first volume of ‘Ghosts‘ an instrumental collection was also released as a free download although vol. 2-4 did cost $5 for the download and $10 for a double CD set. ‘The Slip’ is due to be released in stored as a physical CD or vinyl in July. You can find the downloads at the above links or at nin.com in the links section.

Trent Reznor has spoken out multiple times against record labels and the price of CDs. Once famously at a concert is Australia where he told fans to illegally download his albums if they weren’t happy with the cost in stores. He has since left all record labels and now self releases everything through his own label “Nothing Records”. He believes that artists can make their living off touring and merch and do not need to charge large prices if any for records as most of this money goes to already wealthy record labels anyway.

Musically speaking this album is nothing short of what is expected from the now world renown band with slow ballads and stomping nose filled tracks. the track list is:

999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
Echoplex
Head Down
Lights in the Sky
Corona Radiata
The Four of Us Are Dying
Demon Seed

This album is well worth the listen and at an amazing €0.00 what have you got to loose. Also a must for any Nails fan casual or hardcore and defiantly the way i would like to see albums released in future as i do find non-mainstream bands over priced in many stores.

Hello world!

dan660 — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:55:27 +0000

Hi I’m Dan and this is my first venture into the world of blogging so bear with me.

there are a few reason i decided to start blogging, I’ve always thought it a fun and interesting thing to try and a few recent events have given me a specific idea now rather than just a random collection of my thoughts.

One of these is my current educational status which is that of a 4th year secondary school student meaning i have been doing my ECDL exam over recent weeks and are teacher has been good enough to expose us to some interesting IT topics during the course. you can find his blog here. Another is the current wave of artists using the internet as a means of distributing their music free or otherwise. I think this is great and will never destroy the music industry as some state but i will get to my views in a later post.

I hope to use this blog to voice my opinions on all matters of music and IT(mostly software and the web) any anything that traverses the gap between those two.

Well thanks for looking I’ll try and get some more posts up soon and do all the other things that need doing to make this page my own.