AllofMP3 – did you know?

After watching Lewis Blacks’ “gay banditos” skit on YouTube, I decided to buy his albums. Hahaha, don’t you just hate it that I can now use the word buy without batting an eyelash? Anyways, the variable pricing scheme AllofMP3 has on its encodes made me realize something when I was comparing them with one another.

You see, when it comes to simple audio (as against music) I tend to pick the lower bit-rate to save on money. Because lets face it. A live performance by someone who simply talks doesn’t need much fidelity to be appreciated. Since I love comic acts so much, the process of analyzing a good price-quality ratio seemed very relevant to my predicament.

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Programming is like sex

… because:

  • One mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.
  • Once you get started, you’ll only stop because you’re exhausted.
  • It takes another experienced person to really appreciate what you’re doing.
  • Conversely, there’s some odd people who pride themselves on their lack of experience.
  • You can do it for money or for fun.
  • If you spend more time doing it than watching TV, people think you’re some kind of freak.
  • It’s not really an appropriate topic for dinner conversation.
  • There’s not enough taught about it in public school.
  • It doesn’t make any sense at all if you try to explain it in strictly clinical terms.
  • Some people are just naturally good.
  • But some people will never realize how bad they are, and you’re wasting your time trying to tell them.
  • There are a few weirdos with bizarre practices nobody really is comfortable with.
  • One little thing going wrong can ruin everything.
  • It’s a great way to spend a lunch break.
  • Everyone acts like they’re the first person to come up with a new technique.
  • Everyone who’s done it pokes fun at those who haven’t.
  • Beginners do a lot of clumsy fumbling about.
  • You’ll miss it if it’s been a while.
  • There’s always someone willing to write about the only right way to do things.
  • It doesn’t go so well when you’re drunk, but you’re more likely to do it.
  • Sometimes it’s fun to use expensive toys.
  • Other people just get in the way.

from Digg

AllofMP3.com

I just created an account on AllofMP3.com. I’m wondering why, after hearing about it ages ago, I only signed up now. Was it because of all the buzz surrounding it nowadays (it has been mentioned several times on the more popular tech podcasts out there)? It also seems strange that I should choose to “sign-up” just after the legality of the site has been put into question.

But after I heard that the hosts of Digg actually use the service… I thought “Hey, who cares if it’s legit or not!” Here are high(ish) profile American hosts who openly admit to using the service (among other things) and not getting arrested for it. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to partake of the benefits of using it as well. And to me, until it’s proven beyond any reasonable doubt that it is indeed an illegal operation (and promptly shut down); and as long as it’s not phishing my credit account info, I’m considering it legal no matter what other people say hahaha.

In all honesty, aside from the whole legality issue, I really believe that AllofMP3 has nailed music distribution for consumers perfectly. I’m definitely going to use it – and I’ll tell you why you should use it too.

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FJAX

I guess everyone has heard about AJAX. Well I read an article on Digg about FJAX, which basically is the same thing, but attempts to cut some corners on the code by using Flash’s proven XML handling.

The logic behind it was that AJAX code can easily get bulky if you want to make sure it runs smoothly across different browsers. FJAX “solves” that dilemma [in a sense] by using limiting the JS to only to call on a Flash object and write it’s output on the document (while AJAX relies heavily on the JavaScript to do everything. The whole middle process of pulling, parsing, etc. is done via Flash – with few lines of code that is native ActionScript.

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Bang for buck

Joel and I have been commenting back and forth in one of his posts, and I thought it would be better to just post a blog entry of my whole argument here in my site – instead of second guessing what “perspective” one has to take when stressing the point of the Apple-PC debate in terms of “value for money.”

In summary, the “debate” began from a linked article stating that the “myth” of Apple being more expensive than PCs is finally being debunked, now that the platforms are on a level x86 playing field. And just for the record, I agree that it is in fact a myth when it comes to a certain price-point with laptops.

What I just wanted to clarify however was at this point in time, when it comes to the desktop realm. This isn’t a myth at all. Apple products are indeed much more expensive than the PC counterparts beyond any doubt.

So I thought I would just post the following scenarios and points to clarify my stand.

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