We hear a lot about the rights and wrongs of downloading music over the internet, and you probably read about the protests last week against the proposed new copyright law in NZ to try and stamp out illegal downloading.
I suspect that any attempts are doomed to failure, because music is simply so ubiquitous on the internet, and there are least three easy ways to access as much as you want. And a high proportion of this is legally free.
The most popular (and also the most dubious legally), is using software such as BitTorrent. Trying to keep it simple, BitTorrent is a way that people around the world can transfer large files to each other. Some estimate it accounts for about 35% of all traffic on the entire Internet. How it works is that a user makes files on his computer available to others, who in turn pass it on to yet more people. The dubious legality comes because the software can't distinguish which music is covered by copyright laws and which is not.
The second most popular method to obtain music is by listening to an internet radio station. There are thousands of these, covering absolutely every genre of music you could possibly conjure up, and some you wouldn't want to. Many of them allow you to set your own programme, so if you want you can listen to nothing but Barry Manilow (hey, I like Barry Manilow!) or solely Iron Maiden. Listening is absolutely legal. What you can also do - and here I am not sure of the legal status - is use any recording software and record the songs as they pass through your computer's sound card. Audacity, which I have mentioned in previous posts, will do the job.
Thirdly, there are many web-based applications that will either help you hunt out the kind of music you like, or search for free mp3's. A good starting place is simplespark.com
There was once a wonderful mp3 search engine called Singingfish. Unfortunately, it was bought out by AOL and shut down. But a replacement seems to be mp3realm, which might turn you up some interesting results.
Showing posts with label Web-based applications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web-based applications. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Look ma, no software!
One of the inherent problems of the Windows operating systems (and here Mac users can justifiably feel smug) is what is called the Registry. All software installed on the computer is controlled through the Registry, which is rather flaky and subject to things going wrong. If you are having persistent software problems, there's a strong chance the Registry is involved. When you uninstall software, often artifacts are left behind in the Registry which can't easily be removed, etc, etc. It is a no-go area for anyone except experts, because if you make the wrong changes, your whole system can crash.
So here comes the revelation: it is possible to run your computer with NO SOFTWARE installed except the operating system and whatever else Microsoft has loaded on, and do everything you would normally use a computer for. There are at least three ways you can do this.
1) Many open-source projects have been developing what they call Portable Applications. You can load them onto a memory stick/flash drive, and they will work without being installed on the computer. There's quite a list available now - here's one sample which includes such functions as web browser, email program, word processor, media player, spreadsheets.
2) Use web-based applications. These provide all the functionality of installed software, but you load nothing onto your computer. Probably the best-known is Google Docs, a package including a word processor and spreadsheet. But there are thousands of others which can perform just about every function you could wish for. The website Simple Spark has a very comprehensive list, and there are others.
3) Use a Linux disk. Many computer magazines include a disk loaded with one of the many variants of the Linux operating system. You don't actually load Linux on to your computer - simply pop the disk in the DVD drive and away you go. At the end of the session, you eject the disk and nothing is left on the computer except any documents you have saved (and which you can access again the same way at any future time). Most Linux distributions contain a big number of applications, covering all the things you would probably want to do.
So here comes the revelation: it is possible to run your computer with NO SOFTWARE installed except the operating system and whatever else Microsoft has loaded on, and do everything you would normally use a computer for. There are at least three ways you can do this.
1) Many open-source projects have been developing what they call Portable Applications. You can load them onto a memory stick/flash drive, and they will work without being installed on the computer. There's quite a list available now - here's one sample which includes such functions as web browser, email program, word processor, media player, spreadsheets.
2) Use web-based applications. These provide all the functionality of installed software, but you load nothing onto your computer. Probably the best-known is Google Docs, a package including a word processor and spreadsheet. But there are thousands of others which can perform just about every function you could wish for. The website Simple Spark has a very comprehensive list, and there are others.
3) Use a Linux disk. Many computer magazines include a disk loaded with one of the many variants of the Linux operating system. You don't actually load Linux on to your computer - simply pop the disk in the DVD drive and away you go. At the end of the session, you eject the disk and nothing is left on the computer except any documents you have saved (and which you can access again the same way at any future time). Most Linux distributions contain a big number of applications, covering all the things you would probably want to do.
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