response 156 of 163:

Mar 16 11:11 UTC 2003

I have a little interest in home audio equipment, and I was friends 
with someone who was really into car audio and competed with his 
system.  I guess when you get involved with that stuff, you start to 
hear the differences.. you just have to be exposed to a lot of it.

I used to subscribe to Sound & Vision (which used to be Stereo 
Review).  It just blew my mind how these people could dissect the 
sound, but then, they do it for a living.

response 158 of 163:

Mar 17 12:58 UTC 2003

I suspect that that may be where I don't have the ear training to hear what
you hear. I have never been able to get into classical music. (Much as I
haven't been able to "get" jazz or any other type of music which is mostly
instrumental. I have a major voice bias in my musical tastes, and I tend to
listen to the words and get very impatient with long instrumental hiatuses.)
I also don't play any instrument, so I don't have that kind of training to
fall back on either.

response 160 of 163:

Mar 18 14:19 UTC 2003

An article about a recent speech by departing RIAA chief Hilary Rosen:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29797.html

It includes this bit of revisionist history by Rosen:
"The argument is that somehow the record companies seek to encroach upon
a consumer's ability to make a personal copy of music. Nonsense. We have
always been supportive of the ability of consumers to copy a CD for the
gym or for their car. More power to the music fan."

And a comment on the Verizon case, in which the RIAA tried to get the
names and addresses of peer-to-peer network users released without a
court order:
"Verizon has unfortunately turned this case into a bogus claim to
protect their members' privacy rights. Well first of all, there is no
right to commit a crime in private. And second and more importantly,
when you are on one of these p2p systems and have opened your hard drive
and its contents to the network, you have given away your own privacy."

She admitted publicly for the first time that the RIAA has been
inserting bogus files into peer-to-peer networks in an attempt to
frustrate users.  She also all but admitted that the unlabelled
copy-protected CDs they tried to foist on us weren't the best idea:

"While the technology is apparently not quite ready, there is promise
for some protective technologies, which would offer consumers use of
their music on the computer and still prevent uploading onto the
Internet. While there are no specific plans to release such products
into the marketplace at this time, if they are produced, record
companies will need to work closely with retailers to assure that the
proper consumer education and labeling takes place."

response 162 of 163:

Mar 19 13:01 UTC 2003

Um. Only a very little.