Riot
04-01-2004, 03:05 AM
A question (or two) about Doug's helmet:
First, mp4:
Why does he use mp4 as his default compression format instead of Ogg Vorbis? Does Warrior's World mp3 and mp4 closely resemble our real world versions of those formats, including the licensing baggage?
Several times Doug's helmet has been described as having an enormous storage capacity. Why not store audio in a lossless format such as FLAC or Ogg FLAC? Does Doug have a good enough 'ear' to be distracted by compression artifacts in formats such as mp3?
BTW, double-blind hearing tests (google on "ABX ogg vorbis") seem to support Ogg Vorbis as THE superior lossy audio compression format.
Regarding Doug's 'ear' for flaws in music... After spending a lot of time with various CD-ripping programs before switching to CDparanoia, I can NOT ignore the tiny pops and clicks that crappy CD ripping software hardware introduces. Also, after doing many ABX tests of original music versus various compressed versions, I have a difficult time ignoring compression artifacts.
If you spend enough time listening for flaws in music, it becomes difficult to ignore those flaws in the future.
Loonix:
Is this derived from Linux, by any chance?
To grossly simplify: In the real world, early Linux development depended on three people. Linus Torvalds, of course. Richard Stallman, because he had already written many open source software tools -- including a compiler -- required to have an operating system rather than merely an operating system kernel. And Bill Gates, for making sure that MS Windows would work on cheap clone hardware, thereby encouraging vicious competition in PC hardware that resulted in low prices.
Linux probably would not have achieved critical popularity over the various BSD operating systems if the reputation of BSD had not been temporarily crippled by a frivolous lawsuit. (see www.freebsddiary.org/linux.php , search for "USL" on this page.)
wwEarth (Warrior's World Earth) has to deal with extraterrestrials on a regular basis, correct? Among ETs, is there any intellectual property law? For practical reasons, I assume not, that whenever some ET wants to restrict information, they simply keep that information secret.
How has dealing with such attitudes shaped intellectual property law on wwEarth, and how has it shaped Doug's attitudes?
Okay, so Doug is the Warrior's Chief of Security, but he seems to have a rather casual attitude toward intellectual property.
Perhaps on wwEarth, whenever groups try to restrict intellectual property, some alien or gadgeteer sells something slightly better, no strings attached beyond the purchase price?
Doug seems to understand what Priss means by bootlegging music, but seems not to care. Does this mean that wwEarth has groups like the RIAA and MPAA that try to restrict copying, but that they are less powerful than on our Earth?
Thinking about the information...
--Indexfiles aka Index aka J.W. Harris
First, mp4:
Why does he use mp4 as his default compression format instead of Ogg Vorbis? Does Warrior's World mp3 and mp4 closely resemble our real world versions of those formats, including the licensing baggage?
Several times Doug's helmet has been described as having an enormous storage capacity. Why not store audio in a lossless format such as FLAC or Ogg FLAC? Does Doug have a good enough 'ear' to be distracted by compression artifacts in formats such as mp3?
BTW, double-blind hearing tests (google on "ABX ogg vorbis") seem to support Ogg Vorbis as THE superior lossy audio compression format.
Regarding Doug's 'ear' for flaws in music... After spending a lot of time with various CD-ripping programs before switching to CDparanoia, I can NOT ignore the tiny pops and clicks that crappy CD ripping software hardware introduces. Also, after doing many ABX tests of original music versus various compressed versions, I have a difficult time ignoring compression artifacts.
If you spend enough time listening for flaws in music, it becomes difficult to ignore those flaws in the future.
Loonix:
Is this derived from Linux, by any chance?
To grossly simplify: In the real world, early Linux development depended on three people. Linus Torvalds, of course. Richard Stallman, because he had already written many open source software tools -- including a compiler -- required to have an operating system rather than merely an operating system kernel. And Bill Gates, for making sure that MS Windows would work on cheap clone hardware, thereby encouraging vicious competition in PC hardware that resulted in low prices.
Linux probably would not have achieved critical popularity over the various BSD operating systems if the reputation of BSD had not been temporarily crippled by a frivolous lawsuit. (see www.freebsddiary.org/linux.php , search for "USL" on this page.)
wwEarth (Warrior's World Earth) has to deal with extraterrestrials on a regular basis, correct? Among ETs, is there any intellectual property law? For practical reasons, I assume not, that whenever some ET wants to restrict information, they simply keep that information secret.
How has dealing with such attitudes shaped intellectual property law on wwEarth, and how has it shaped Doug's attitudes?
Okay, so Doug is the Warrior's Chief of Security, but he seems to have a rather casual attitude toward intellectual property.
Perhaps on wwEarth, whenever groups try to restrict intellectual property, some alien or gadgeteer sells something slightly better, no strings attached beyond the purchase price?
Doug seems to understand what Priss means by bootlegging music, but seems not to care. Does this mean that wwEarth has groups like the RIAA and MPAA that try to restrict copying, but that they are less powerful than on our Earth?
Thinking about the information...
--Indexfiles aka Index aka J.W. Harris