From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V7 #27 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Thursday, February 7 2002 Volume 07 : Number 027 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: RE: alloy-digest V7 #26 [] Re: Alloy: RE: alloy-digest V7 #26 [Robin Thurlow ] Re: Alloy: Bunch of freaking Yahoos. ["Keith Stansell" ] Re: Alloy: Bunch of freaking Yahoos. [Slarvibarglhee Subject: Alloy: RE: alloy-digest V7 #26 Hi all, > I only got #158. I guess if I were more up on things I would > have gotten an > earlier release, but it's still cool and great! I end up > listening to it at > work a lot and find myself wishing I were there in that small intimate > audience. Don't feel too bad about it, it wasn't your fault at all. I ordered within seconds of the info coming our and got #212. I told a couple of people who subsequently ordered later and got numbers under 100!! When I wrote to CDBaby and complained I got the following response. >As for the lower ##'s: totally my fault. We were so glad when the CDs finally arrived, >that we just pulled them out of the box and mailed them, not paying attention to the order >of the numbers in the box. (He packed the higher numbers at the top of the box so those >went out first.) So it was a real screw up. Those who ordered first didn't get the lowest numbers... Great. Anyway, whatever. I ordered a number of CD's in that order and when they arrived the customs declaration was wrong. It was stated as being a much lower value than those CD's would normally cost so customs were suspicious and impounded the package. When I went to pick it up they made me open the package and then show them the invoice. The invoice was for about $120 so they not only charged me import duty but also fined me for being involved in a falsified customs declaration. I have had better days... So basically I was pleased to have received some great new music even after having to pay much more for it than I should have but the incompetence of CDBaby runined my day. Their mails are full of schmooze but when it comes down to it they were not really reliable. If you got a low number you were lucky. Those who ordered with lightning speed were penalised which is a bit rough. I guess that this isn't really what Thomas had in mind. Incidentally, I ordered Mike Kapitans album 500 Megs fine! in this order and it is very good. If you like drum and bass and ambient you might like to give it a try. Later. Jon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2002 09:27:39 -0500 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: RE: alloy-digest V7 #26 jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com wrote: > So basically I was pleased to have received some great new music even after having to pay much more for it than I should have but the incompetence of CDBaby runined my day. Their mails are full of schmooze but when it comes down to it they were not really reliable. If you got a low number you were lucky. Those who ordered with lightning speed were penalised which is a bit rough. I guess that this isn't really what Thomas had in mind. I don't know about CDs (in prints of a CD, because it's digital, I don't think there's any qualitative difference between numbers in a series, for instance # 1 should sound identical to # 1000 I imagine (??) ) but the thing with numbered prints - in printmaking anyway - is not necessarily to get a low number. It's actually ideal to get something that's somewhere in the middle of the print series. When a print is first made, it is clear, but lacks a certain amount of character which begins to emerge after the plate has been pulled through the press a number of times. In printmaking as an art form these effects are anticipated by the artist & are part of the work. Lines begin to take on a subtly softer quality, the plate takes the ink differently, it even begins to curve slightly from passing under the press roller which also creates a subtly different effect. Anyway, these are definitley variations on a theme of numbered prints. Are there different reasons why a low-number cd print would be more desirable? (is it because it's before Thomas' hand got tired) Maybe you can exchange your cd for a lower number since CDBaby had made a mistake? xxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 17:09:31 -0800 From: "Crackers" Subject: Alloy: Bunch of freaking Yahoos. It seems that Yahoo.com has become nothing but a source of spam. I'm receiving tonnes of e-mail from Yahoo.com all of it spam. I don't think I know a single person using a Yahoo account so I'n thinking of just blocking every piece of e-mail that comes to me form Yahoo. Anyone here done a similar thing? In other news, ny wife and I treated ourselves to a little luxury item last weekend. I guess it could be considered an early anniversary present (our 15th anniversary will be this February 14th). As I'm getting older I've found it just much more difficult than it used to be to watch TV on a 14 inch Commodore 64 monitor which we've been using as a TV for the past 17 years. So we went out and treated ourselves to a nice 27" TV. The sad part is, even with a 27" TV, I have trouble reading subtitles without my glasses on. *sigh* I'm getting old. Of course the plus side is if I keep it in perspective then I realize that no matter how old I am getting, Thomas is always older. That cheers me up. Besides given the alternative to getting older... well, things don't look so bad. We not only got ourselves a new TV but a DVD player as well. I made sure I got one that would play VCDs, CDRs and MP3s. I can't believe just how quickly the price of DVD players dropped. It took more than a decade for the prices of VCRs to make a comprable drop the way DVD players have. $140cdn for a DVD player that plays VCDs CDRs CDs, and MP3s. No bad at all. Oooh! I should try playing "Fourty" on the DVD player and see if it will play Hyperactive without problem (and am I the only one with a disk with a munged copy of Hyperactive on it?) I wanted to make sure that I got a DVD player that would play VCDs because, since you can't record to DVD, I wanted to make sure I could play some sort of recordable media in my machine so I could transfer all my old VHS tapes to it (my VCR is on it's last legs). I have a lot of old, weird videos, that will likely never see the light of day on DVD, and I want to make sure I can still watch them. VCD seems to be a good option. I think it was on this list before that someone here had mentioned transfering all their old VHS tapes to VCD when they got their DVD player. I was hoping you could offer some tips. I'll probably be going out to get myself a proper video capture card (the one I currently have only grabs stills, it won't capture motion video) next week and I want to make sure I grab one that will do the trick and not bust my wallet. Radioshack seems to sell something called "Win TV GO" or something like that which will do the trick. It only captures motion video at two resolutions, the highest of the resolutions is the same resolution as VCDs and the lower is half that. I don't suppose there's really much point getting something that captures at higher than VCD resolution when all I plan on using the video for is to make VCDs. Compression wise, the VCDs use MPEG-1 compression so I guess there's not much point in capturing using the higher quality DIVX compression when it's only going to have to be converted to the MPEG-1 compression anyways, eh? Anyways, any tips on making good quality VCDs to play on my DVD player would be greatly appreciated. The really nice thing is, my library of videotapes will take up a hell of a lot less space when converted to VCD which will really make my wife happy. Crackers (Burning videos... just like my religious fanatical parents from hell!!!) Ghastly's Ghastly Comic http://ghastly.keenspace.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 15:51:43 -0700 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Bunch of freaking Yahoos. Hey Crackers - and all. The number one spot I've found on how to make a VCD is http://www.vcdhelp.com They have a lot of how-to's and definitions. Before you go out and buy that video capture card, I'd look into something that could capture at higher resolutions and other formats. You never know, DVD writers may drop in price in the next year or so, and you might as well not have to buy another video capture card when they do. I have gone from making VCD's to SVCD's (Super VCD's) which have increased resolution and use MPEG2 (but less play time per CD). Luckily, there are a lot of high quality freeware programs out there to do such things. Write me off the list if you have any questions, I've gotten quite good at this. Still haven't put my Live Wireless and Golden Age Laserdiscs on SVCD, but I plan on it soon. I'm just finishing up recording every single episode of Red Dwarf on SVCD. Commodore monitor for a TV - you are a geek god! - -Keith Stansell Denver - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Crackers" To: Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 6:09 PM Subject: Alloy: Bunch of freaking Yahoos. > > It seems that Yahoo.com has become nothing but a source of spam. I'm receiving > tonnes of e-mail from Yahoo.com all of it spam. I don't think I know a single > person using a Yahoo account so I'n thinking of just blocking every piece of > e-mail that comes to me form Yahoo. Anyone here done a similar thing? > > In other news, ny wife and I treated ourselves to a little luxury item last > weekend. I guess it could be considered an early anniversary present (our 15th > anniversary will be this February 14th). > > As I'm getting older I've found it just much more difficult than it used to be > to watch TV on a 14 inch Commodore 64 monitor which we've been using as a TV > for the past 17 years. So we went out and treated ourselves to a nice 27" TV. > The sad part is, even with a 27" TV, I have trouble reading subtitles without > my glasses on. *sigh* I'm getting old. Of course the plus side is if I keep it > in perspective then I realize that no matter how old I am getting, Thomas is > always older. That cheers me up. Besides given the alternative to getting > older... well, things don't look so bad. > > We not only got ourselves a new TV but a DVD player as well. I made sure I got > one that would play VCDs, CDRs and MP3s. I can't believe just how quickly the > price of DVD players dropped. It took more than a decade for the prices of > VCRs to make a comprable drop the way DVD players have. $140cdn for a DVD > player that plays VCDs CDRs CDs, and MP3s. No bad at all. Oooh! I should try > playing "Fourty" on the DVD player and see if it will play Hyperactive without > problem (and am I the only one with a disk with a munged copy of Hyperactive > on it?) > > I wanted to make sure that I got a DVD player that would play VCDs because, > since you can't record to DVD, I wanted to make sure I could play some sort of > recordable media in my machine so I could transfer all my old VHS tapes to it > (my VCR is on it's last legs). I have a lot of old, weird videos, that will > likely never see the light of day on DVD, and I want to make sure I can still > watch them. VCD seems to be a good option. > > I think it was on this list before that someone here had mentioned transfering > all their old VHS tapes to VCD when they got their DVD player. I was hoping > you could offer some tips. I'll probably be going out to get myself a proper > video capture card (the one I currently have only grabs stills, it won't > capture motion video) next week and I want to make sure I grab one that will > do the trick and not bust my wallet. Radioshack seems to sell something called > "Win TV GO" or something like that which will do the trick. It only captures > motion video at two resolutions, the highest of the resolutions is the same > resolution as VCDs and the lower is half that. I don't suppose there's really > much point getting something that captures at higher than VCD resolution when > all I plan on using the video for is to make VCDs. > > Compression wise, the VCDs use MPEG-1 compression so I guess there's not much > point in capturing using the higher quality DIVX compression when it's only > going to have to be converted to the MPEG-1 compression anyways, eh? > > Anyways, any tips on making good quality VCDs to play on my DVD player would > be greatly appreciated. > > The really nice thing is, my library of videotapes will take up a hell of a > lot less space when converted to VCD which will really make my wife happy. > > Crackers > (Burning videos... just like my religious fanatical parents from hell!!!) > > Ghastly's Ghastly Comic > http://ghastly.keenspace.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2002 15:15:57 -0800 From: Jon Drukman Subject: Re: Alloy: Bunch of freaking Yahoos. At 05:09 PM 2/6/2002, Crackers wrote: >It seems that Yahoo.com has become nothing but a source of spam. I'm receiving >tonnes of e-mail from Yahoo.com all of it spam. I don't think I know a single >person using a Yahoo account so I'n thinking of just blocking every piece of >e-mail that comes to me form Yahoo. Anyone here done a similar thing? i have discovered an absolutely wonderful program called TMDA that prevents people from emailing you without your permission. combined with procmail, i have not received a single piece of spam in weeks. TMDA uses a "whitelist" (opposite of a blacklist). when someone not on the list emails you, it sends them a note saying, please confirm that you are who you say you are. once they reply, they're on the list and can mail you without impediment. try mailing me at jsd@cluttered.com to see it in action. - -jsd- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2002 23:40:01 +0000 From: Slarvibarglhee Subject: Re: Alloy: Bunch of freaking Yahoos. The only spam I seem to be getting on my Yahoo account are from addresses at paid4survey.com or net or something like that. Mostly advertising cheap glass ornaments or financial services. Slarv Crackers wrote: > It seems that Yahoo.com has become nothing but a source of spam. I'm receiving > tonnes of e-mail from Yahoo.com all of it spam. I don't think I know a single > person using a Yahoo account so I'n thinking of just blocking every piece of > e-mail that comes to me form Yahoo. Anyone here done a similar thing? > ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V7 #27 **************************