2786 Objects May Appear Closer.

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I bought an actual CD a couple weeks ago. I might have mentioned it. The other day I decided I was going to rip it to my surface. It’s pretty rare that I listen to music via itunes but I wanted to have it as an option. I haven’t used itunes much over the last 5 years or so and was surprised that a lot of the CD ripping options just don’t exist anymore. If you can rip a single song I couldn’t find the way to make it work. The program insisted on ripping the entire CD and fucked up several files. Those files then couldn’t be replaced. It was a ridiculous mess. The fact that I have to use an external drive to use CDs at all is already adding steps to the process I could do without. In the end I have 75% of a CD ripped to a program I already didn’t like very much with no way to fix it via the means available already in my Surface.
None of the programs that came with this thing know how to rip CDs. It’s just not an option anymore. Since I’m not very much of a music person I never noticed all these options being slowly removed over time. I find it vexing. At some point I’ll fire up my old tower computer and rip the CD with it, then transfer the files to my surface. The old computer has been maintained, but disconnected from the internet for a very long time, so it should still remember how to do basic CD related things.
I know that the world is trying to escape physical media, but it really seems like a bad deal long term… You can’t get a lot of new shows without paying for a live service now and that’s really uncool. It’s like the world is slowly working backwards into the 70s when it comes to content ownership. I’m not a fan.
Ages ago I intended to rip all my media into files I could transport via whatever method I chose, but never got around to it because it was such a hassle. The reads would fail, and it already took a long time, plus the software didn’t give you many options. It wasn’t ideal, but I figured a day would come when all that would be fixed by nerds. Except that day never came. All the nerds seem to have moved on to other things. The golden age of digital rights management never happened. What a pity.

Back when the PSP was new I was absolutely enthralled with being able to take entire DVD sets of stuff along with me, in my pocket. No internet required. I used to watch episodes of DR Katz over and over on it. I don’t even know where the fucking thing is right now. The best version of Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night is on it. That I own anyway. As far as I know you can’t download it to your Switch yet. I absolutely would buy it a third time if I could and play it for I don’t even know what time.
Sidebar: I have the recent sets of GBA and maybe DS games on the switch. I bought one physically even. I didn’t play them because I was afraid I wouldn’t stop playing them and wouldn’t get my work done.
The battery for the PSP is bad and they don’t make them anymore. if you buy a “new” one it will be old stock, which is probably also bad, or a knockoff of such poor quality that it won’t last for even a year. Luckily it wasn’t designed in such a way that it won’t work without a battery even if it’s plugged in. That’s a horrible design flaw. If I knew where it was I could plug it in and play it. I used to keep it with my gameboy stuff but it’s not there now, nor are the games for it. At some point I must’ve moved it and have since forgotten the reason and the location.
I got a blueray player a while back so that my xbox… One? Wouldn’t be my primary media player anymore. The Blueray player has a USB port so you can play stuff from a thumb drive, or whatever. That seemed like where things were going to go at one point but never quite got there. It’s not very good at seeking points in a file, but it’s better than the xbox anyway. Ideally I would have a media drive with all my discs in it so I could just pick whatever without having to find the actual disc. It wasn’t really that big a deal when I had all my discs alphabetized and my life wasn’t some ridiculous disaster movie unfolding in slow motion all the time.
I dunno. Whatever. I’m tired and want to rest for a minute before going back to sorting things.
I hope you have a nice Monday.

18 Comments

The open-source program fre:ac audio converter is one I still use, and is at least 80% reliable (it does seem to have trouble with compilation CDs, specifically with metadata (artist, title etc.)), but so long as the disc itself is in good condition, it should copy okay.

I have no idea if the software will work on the Surface though, but I don’t see why not, to be honest.

The loss of physical media is going to make piracy EXPLODE. It was one thing to just be able to trot down to a corner store and pay a few bucks to watch a movie for a couple days–okay, maybe you figured out how to make a copy at home–and take it back. But when that stopped being an option, a lot of people spat on their hands, ran up the skull and crossbones, and went a-reavin.

I half-agree. I don’t think it’s the loss of phsyical media itself that’s the problem, it’s the fact that your digital “ownership” is a lie. Oh, you spent $500 to buy the entire run of a show on some service? Well, the original IP owners ended the deal, or there was a buyout, and it’s gone now, thanks for your money! And now you can’t even buy most stuff–you can just buy ACCESS to stuff, and it goes away with your account (or again, if MGM switches from HBO Max to Netflix or whatever, there goes a whole bunch of stuff).

Point is, I think that we could move away from physical media without a massive piracy problem if buying things meant BUYING them, forever–you now have a license to watch it from now until the end of time. But if buying isn’t ownership, then piracy isn’t theft.

Many people scoff when I say that Microsoft hasn’t sold software for many years. Ever since the .NET protocol was established, all they’ve done is sold licenses. They still own the software (and if you read the EULA, all the hardware that uses it), and if they catch you doing something they don’t like will take it back. It was such a profitable business model that everyone followed suit.

I see it as all part of the “you’ll own nothing and be happy” campaign. Among other things, it means I won’t play games that are only available online or as DLC, so I’m kinda stuck with older content (I think my newest game is MOO4); and I’ve still got dozens of DOS games I haven’t played.

Pretty pictures don’t make a bad game good, and blocky pictures don’t make a good game bad.

I’d say you very much hit the nsil on the head.

I remember the vlass action suit against John Deer in regards to farmers doing their own repsirs a while back.

It’s bad enough when content is suddenly only available on a completely different streaming service than the one you signed up for to watch it in the first place, but it’s even worse when a service pulls some content and basically just tosses it into limbo. Tough to feel too bad about using sketchy pirate sites when it’s difficult or impossible to get access legally.

Which is why I have a DVD collection. I knew digital was bad when it started and before anyone said anything. My first thought with it was “What if they stop storing the movie”

Last year we had a week where our internet and cable TV went out. That’s no problem for me because I have offline video games, books, models to paint, whatever. But my Mother, her hobby is mostly watching TV, that’s about it.

After that week I have since started dedicating myself to building my library of physical media. I already refused to buy digital games for stuff like my Switch and PS4 so that’s not a problem. Instead of buying ebooks I now buy the physical prints and I have started buying DVDs and blu-rays again. I also have a very large collection of board games, some of them I haven’t even opened due to lack of players.

I built my own in-home theater and have a projector and surround sound. I still need to decide if I want to focus on CDs or records. I’m not going to split my library between the two, so I need to decide on one. I’m also taking the time to rip my DVDs so that eventually I can set up a Plex server for the house.

I also personally think that at some point “dumb” devices are going to become a luxury. I use a 62″ TV for my computer monitor and even though I never connected it to the internet it still managed to update it’s firmware, restart and then demand I accept it’s TOS before allowing me to use it again.

I honestly can’t believe some of the stuff that is still legal, like that. I’m fairly libertarian, but even by that standard, this is messed up–how can a contract include in it a clause that one party can change anything in the contract on a whim and the other party has to either accept it or throw away the thing they paid for? The whole point of any contract is to lay out all the term in advance (barring only extreme circumstances like acts of God or changes in the law), so one of those terms being “All terms are meaningless and could change tomorrow” literally makes the whole thing irrelevant. This is something I really hope the courts end up addressing soon.

I use a programe called cdEX and have forever for simple mp3 ripping, lightweight and lots of options for auto filename and such, can also cherry pick tracks if you don’t want a whole cd.
I converted all my music and movies a few years back and run Plex on my PC sharing those folders and can access them anywhere I go. My own personal streaming service. I started taking a firestick with me when I travele for work now because it works with plex app and easy to connect to any hotel tvs.

> I know that the world is trying to escape physical media, but it really seems like a bad deal long term…

Because it absolutely is. With the advent of the information age, the masses have consistently signed away long term autonomy for short term convenience.

And the only way it seems most will be able to even partially escape that is by becoming a form of Luddite that refuses the gilded cages.

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