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And here is another audio clip, this time in MP3 format. Back in January the Cybersquad talked about Apple's new MacBook Air. It's a cool product, I guess, but I was underwhelmed by what you got for the money. For a couple hundred dollars less, you can get a much better laptop computer ... FROM APPLE!
Here is another audio clip from Website Wednesday Night, this time talking about what antivirus and antispyware programs are and why they are essential to protecting your computer. If you have Real Player [or an alternative audio player like Jet Audio or Real Alternative that can handle .rm files], you can listen to our recommendations online.
Fast on the heels of the online release of Nine Inch Nails' totally amazing digital album "Ghosts I-IV," NBC Universal and Fox today announced the public release of their hulu.com television- and movie-streaming website. The site lets you watch complete episodes of televison shows, both current [e.g., 30 Rock, Family Guy, House] and classic [e.g., Adam-12, The Bob Newhart Show, Welcome Back Kotter], and full-length Universal and Fox movies [e.g., The Big Lebowski, The Jerk, The Usual Suspects]. Short clips are also available for many popular television shows and movies.
While hulu.com offers full seasons of many classic television shows [e.g., Firefly, Ironside], it only has the newest episodes for current shows [e.g., the first eight episodes from The Office season four.]
For those who are afraid that the goons from the RIAA or MPAA will kick down your door and cart you away for watching hulu.com's bootleg television shows or movies, rest easy. The television shows and movies are not bootlegged. Hulu.com is owned by NBC Universal and Fox, and those companies placed their copyright-protected content on hulu.com in the hopes that you actually WOULD watch it.
Now for the really amazing part. Hulu.com is completely free. There is no charge to watch any of the site's streaming television shows and movies. How is this possible? Simple: advertisements. According to Advertising Age
Hulu is running traditional 30-second ads in long-form video -- albeit with only 25% of the ads one might have to sit through while watching TV. When it comes to short-form video, Hulu allows a 10- to 15-second video overlay, which viewers could click if they want to interact further with the advertiser. [Source: http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=125646]
In other words, if you watch a television show at hulu.com, expect to see a 30 second commercial before the show starts and then another 30 second commercial at each regularly-scheduled commercial break. Think TV, complete with ads, but on your computer screen. If you ask me, that's a small price to pay for free content.
March is turning out to be a really cool month.
It should come as no shock that experts have predicted that the music industry as we know it is doomed. But what will take its place? One possible replacement is music that you purchase and download directly from the artist. For example, multi-platinum English alternative rock band Radiohead recently released their seventh album, "In Rainbows," not on compact disc but rather as a DRM-free digital download. Two things made "In Rainbows" unique. First, the album was released without a record contract. [Radiohead left record label EMI in the early 2000s.] Second, Radiohead employed a "pay what you want" system. If you didn't feel like paying anything for the album, all you had to do was pay a 45 pence [approximately 90 cents] credit card transaction fee.
American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails is following Radiohead's lead. The band's latest album, a 36 track instrumental collection titled "Ghosts I-IV," was released online last Tuesday. The first nine tracks are available for download as free, as high-quality, DRM-free MP3's at http://ghosts.nin.com/. You can purchase and download all 36 tracks for five dollars, and for $10 you can get Ghosts I-IV shipped to you on a two CD set. The CD is not yet available in stores.
Even if you are not a fan of Nine Inch Nails, take a moment to review the Ghosts I-IV website or the media player below. I think that what we're looking at here is nothing short of the future of music distribution. In the not too distant future, you will purchase your "corporate" music--e.g., Metallica, Usher, anyone from American Idol--from an iTunes-like online store and your "independent" music--e.g., Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails--directly from the artists.
One of my favorite things about the Grand Theft Auto games was the in-game radio stations. I have fond memories of driving around Staunton Island listening to "Non piu andrai farfallone amoroso" from Le Nozze di Figaro on Double Clef FM, driving around Little Haiti listening to Talk Talk's "Life's What You Make It" on Flash FM, or driving along the railroad tracks in Flint County jamming to the southern national anthem--Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird"--on K-DST.
Over the next month and half, the folks at Rockstar Games will be unveiling the 16 radio stations that will be built into Grand Theft Auto IV. Snippets from two in-game radio stations are available today. The first is IF99, an international funk station that plays classic funk songs from West Africa, the U.S., and elsewhere. The second is Vladivostok FM, a Eastern European community radio station that plays popular music from Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine, and beyond.
Yeah, this game is going to rock.
