| Author | Message | ||
     Torquehd |
Whatever happened to Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa, et al (which I guess is French for etc)? Are there still programs like these around? | ||
| Froggy |
They got shut down, and for some like Napster, the remains got bought out and they became legitimate paid for services that nobody uses. Torrents ended up taking over around 15 years ago. Torrents are de-centralized, there are no servers to phone home to, so it is much harder to stop piracy. Sites like the Pirate Bay don't even host the torrent files anymore, you get a special magnet link you put into the download program of your choice to download the file once it connects to a peer. | ||
| Tootal |
What the HELL are you talking about?!  Holy Crap I'm getting old! Look up Luddite in the dictionary and there's my ugly mug! | ||
| Crusty |
Look up Luddite in the dictionary and there's my ugly mug! Right after mine. (And I bet Froggy will agree with me) | ||
| Court |
The new systems have become quite amazing . . . . We have a system in the houses in NYC, NJ, NY and FL that are all connected . . . 188 sets of speakers and you can send any music to any set, or sets, or speakers. It's insanely easy.  But . . . it is not without it problems. We had the entire system installed at the undisclosed location . . . and I have it set to wake me up every morning at 0430. I'd forgotten . . . that when they installed it . . . they included the barn with has a full complement of Mackie powered monitors and a Mackie mixer board. Had it NOT been for all the speakers all over the house . . . I would probably had heard it. But . . . one day a neighbor arrives at the door to let me know they are getting and attorney and going to the City Council. I asked about what . . . and she said "that music every morning". Oooooops . . . lesson learned. The barn . . . effectively a huge passive acoustic radiator . . . was coming alive with Led Zeppelins' Heartbreaker at 0430 daily . . . and the fact that it was playing in every room of the house insured I never heard it. The nice neighbor lady and I walked to the barn and I turned the volume on that channel to ZERO . . where it now lives. Oppps. My next door neighbor is a veteran of Woodstock and his son, a drummer, is in the studio nightly practicing. Bottom line . . if you don't like music . . . this is a bad place to be. :-) I do miss my LP's and still enjoy doing some vinyl from time to time . . . it still sounds REAL . . like nothing else in the world. | ||
| Froggy |
Piracy. Back in the late 90s and early 00s, new software allowed people to have easy access to music, movies, games, and so on all without paying for them. Piracy was not something new, it was already common for people to make copies of floppy disks, but thanks to the newfound popularity of the internet and easy to download software, piracy rapidly increased. Napster was arguably the first mainstream method of piracy. It was a program that would let you search for music mp3 files and you can download them from other users. If your computer was equipped with a CD burner, you could inexpensively make a copy of CDs, or just download the songs off Napster, put them on a new CD and enjoy the music without paying for it. There was a long legal campaign from the music industry against Napster, eventually it was shut down, then came back online with all pirated music removed (so it was pretty much just indie bands remaining). Not long after that it shut down for good. The name/rights would eventually get sold and it would restart as a legitimate music service years later. After Napster fell, others rose in its ashes. It was the wild west, and broadband internet was starting to become common. New programs like Kazaa, LimeWire, Morpheus, and Bear Share, and WinMX all allowed you to get not just music, but also videos, pictures, and files. You could share whatever you wanted. Porn, movies, software, video games, and so on. Like Napster, they all faced legal opposition, and eventually all of them were shut down. Earlier programs all had a weakness where they all connected to a main server, so if you took out the servers, nobody can connect with another user to share content. In the early 2000s, a new protocol called BitTorrent was invented. BitTorrent had a new approach to sharing files, where instead of connecting to a server, you connected directly to another user. You would download a tiny “.torrent” file, which contacted basic info about the download (something like a blueprint), and from there your torrent program could use that to directly connect to other users with he same file, allowing you to quickly and reliably get your files. BitTorrent was not invented with piracy in mind, and many legitimate companies including Microsoft and Blizzard use variants of the protocol to distribute updates, but with how well it works it wasn’t long before pirates took advantage. Torrents do not require a main server like Napster did, all you needed was a Torrent file, and a program to handle the download. As such, without a central server, there is no “head” you can cut off. You can even run torrents on your home network to share files from one PC to another without touching the internet. The various industries tried to combat torrents, the only semi effective way was to fight websites that hosted the torrent (blueprint) files. There were many torrent sites like MiniNova where you could quickly search for whatever you wanted, then obtain the torrent for your download client. The sites argued that they did not host any illegal content, which is true, as the torrent files were just instructions, but eventually they would fall. Many could not support the costs of legal fees, some others were shut down via various government raids. There still are sites out there, the main one being The Pirate Bay. They have been remarkably resilient, surviving over a decade of various raids, founders being imprisoned, domains being seized, and so on. Some countries even try to block access to the site. These days piracy is not as common place thanks to improvements in legitimate services. Piracy is often cited as being a convenience problem rather than a pricing problem, where people pirate as it is the most convenient option, not just because it is free. The rise of legitimate online distribution services has significantly cut down on piracy. Netflix, iTunes, Steam and so on all provide content people want in an easy to obtain format at reasonable prices. Piracy still exists, and likely always will (especially in underserved 3rd world countries), but these days you don’t hear about it as much is because people aren’t really doing it. It isn’t worth the hassle, fake files, viruses, and other headaches anymore. | ||
| Aesquire |
BitTorrent works great. I've used it to transfer files from one end of the country, or a county, to another. You can put up a file and require a password. So cousin It in Fresno can get, say, high res pics of the relative's kids. I wouldn't use it for secret stuff or financial information, but it works fine. There is legit stuff out there. Patches for games no longer supported, Linux builds, etc. But grabbing a bootleg copy of software, a game, or movie, is VERY hazardous. Quite likely to have malicious code and viruses. After all, the guy in the other end is breaking the rules, why would you think he cares about you? And if you're trying to get free stuff, you qualify as a Mark in any Con Game. It's classic psychology. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_confidence _tricks Offering you cheap, or free, stolen goods gets you thinking you can profit criminally and in the proper mind set to not go to the police, since you're being criminal too. Your greed opens you up to manipulation. The mirror image of that is Often comedy gold. Often seen as "Florida Man goes to police to complain he was cheated in drug deal" like the cretin that took his meth to be tested by the cops. Yep, it was meth. Yep, he was arrested for possession.  | ||
| Aesquire |
My buddy uses Pandora all the time. He even leaves a Bluetooth speaker in my man cave so he can play his tunes. I generally like his taste, but not vice versa. He hates metal, goth, and the orchestral progressive rock I love. He also used it in the car. Many Uber drivers have Pandora "channels" to suit their customers. Chosen by asking, or simply by snap judgement. "Looks like 20 something hipster". | ||
| Tootal |
Oooooo, Pandora. I understand that. Use it when traveling and there's no radio signal. Thanks Froggy for the tutorial. Time is money and it had to take a while to type all that so what do I owe you? As far as pirating MP3 files goes, folks who listen to that type of music freak out when they listen to the same song on a real "paid for" CD or album on a good system! Yes, I'm an audiophile snob! Is my nose out of joint? Should I raise my pinky?  (Message edited by tootal on June 16, 2018) | ||
| Torquehd |
I'm somewhat of an audiophile as well. About a year ago I bought a pair of Audio Technica studio headphones from Sweetwater. It revolutionized my appreciation for some of my favorite songs. I had no idea what I was missing. | ||
| Court |
I thought I was an audiophile too . . .until I went over to my Badweb buddy's place in NYC . . . and saw what I would describe as a "wall of McIntosh" amps, pre-amps and what have ya. . . . Better half spent her entire career in the music industry . . . . and still does 5 or 6 concerts a month . . . . John Lennon pretty much decorated her music room for her . . . . so music plays a huge role in our lives. I am . . . and it probably goes back to seeing Buell folks in Technical Publications work so hard on manuals only to see cheap bastards making and using .pdf copies . . . Buddy of mine made lots and lots of records . . . . .and has just, within the last 2 months, started getting some of his royalties for things like American Pie and from the 15 years he spent as Bob Dylan's band leader.   (Message edited by court on June 16, 2018) | ||
| Tootal |
Very Cool Court! It seems you don't like throwing anything away! Is that why you have a barn at the undisclosed location? Yes back in the 90's I built my system using all Yamaha equipment except for the Peavey CS1000 for just the subwoofers. I built my own speakers using four boxes, two being the subs and two housing a 10" base, 8" mid base, two 5" mid range and two 1" tweeters. Designed my cross-over to use the middle of each speakers range to cut down on distortion. Then I dialed them in with an equalizer using pink noise to flatten the room. The listening chair was right in the middle and the speakers were 30 feet apart. It was like wearing headphones! Very clean. When I had to tear out my basement for raising the house I put it all in a spare bedroom and it sits awaiting the rebuilding of the bar. I didn't know you could have withdrawal symptoms for such a thing!  | ||
| Froggy |
Well it didn't take as long as rebuilding a starter, so don't worry about it! | ||
| Crusty |
I bet you didn't need any Superglue to do it, either! | ||
| Greg_e |
P2P was long after people were sharing files, look up Usenet and how someone designed a way to share files over what is essentially a text based service. There was of course FTP sites before, during, and currently. People "find" high speed connections and servers they can hijack, create an ftp, then share that with select people from their group. The ftp can last for hours or days. | ||
| Aesquire |
I had a set of decent,but not spectacular, Panasonic 12" + 4" mid + tweeter, home speakers in my '77 Dodge van. Fit perfectly between the walls in front of the rear wheel well, ahead of a simple wood platform. ( my normal set up was wood wheel framing, & a two pt. Plywood carpeted removable "bed". Spare underneath, a flexible haul anything arrangement. ) Sound was awesome in a van. I've heard better since, but for 70's-80's van sound? Perfect for tossing outside and serenading a mountain top while waiting for perfect conditions to fly. Stolen along with a prime tool box... Craftsman, not Snap on, but an entire Seats mechanics combo set ( w/crow's foot & ignition wrenches ) crammed into a portable box..... Plus some specialty tools and a 2" dia. 7" long chunk of Ti I was planning to make stuff from. I was furious. Broken glass everywhere. Most unkind thoughts! But still, I wished I could have seen the faces when they pulled out this weightless bar of Ti. I wonder what they thought it was? Where it was carelessly tossed? It's not going to rust away! It's still there. | ||
| Zac4mac |
Got a couple dozen 3/8" Ti rod stock, 48" out of the dumpster at work. Still have a dozen or so, fun stuff. nothing useful but it makes the prettiest blue sparks on the grinder... <edit> I did make some seat pins for my 1125R with it... (Message edited by zac4mac on June 17, 2018) | ||
| Tootal |
Back in trade school they wanted me to make a Ti plow! Yes, for a tree planter! What a pain to machine! It was a two piece affair as per the chicken scratch on a torn off piece of cardboard. I finally got it finished and they found out that the welding dept. couldn't weld it!! Years later I was asked to make a Ti axle for a Harley drag bike. The stuff was so tough that I couldn't maintain the same diameter over the 9" or so. I ended up having to turn it 1" at a time which meant cutting up to the chuck and then feeding it out another inch and feeding to the chuck again. I left roughly .001" on the diameter to emory cloth it in since it left minute steps in it. Then I got to thread the one end! What a pain to work with but it worked! I guess that's one way to lose weight! | ||
| Zac4mac |
Hey Greg - Next time you're out here, please spend some time showing me some tricks and basics. I really would like to be a proper machinist some day. At least, what I do, I do well. Z | ||
| Tootal |
Well then we'll have to trade secrets! I can't do what you do either! My friend in Jersey is getting close to retiring, maybe this Fall. I already have a key to his retirement home in Loveland. Since he used to be a room mate many years ago and still has a key to my house he thought I should have one for his. I need to fly out to Jersey and ride his Suzuki Wee Strom back here. I'll then trailer both it and the Uly out there to deliver it. I will definitely look you up when I do. This time I buy the burgers! |
