Blog Cabin

Have you ever taped music from your favorite radio station? That’s the old way. . Today it’s not much different, just a little more technical. Downloading music from the Internet is a convenient way to get your music. there are plenty of people willing to take the chance of getting sued by by groups such as the RIAA standing for (Record Indusry Association of America). Lets name them Bill….. File-sharing is technology that has grown in numbers beyond resonable control of the bill….In my personal opinion as a dowwnloader of music The Bill should take the approach of toleration rather than prevention. Music was meant to be shared otherwise what is the point of music?

“Music Industry Officials estimate that they have lost more than $300 million worth of CD sales due to free Internet trading” For this, they say trading MP3′s (music files) is stealing. If you had remembered the notorious Napster in the year 2000, it was the one P2P network that got other P2P networks started. The RIAA had sued the Napster Network, won, and shut it down. Napster was only one of a kind before, now there are more P2P networks than there are music industries. “The RIAA earlier this year tried to get the networks shut down in court, but a federal judge in April ruled that the services are legal. It plans instead to sue hundreds of individual file sharers.”

Before Napster was shut down, people were enjoying the fact that they are exposed to music that was new to them. Artist like Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit who supports file-sharing networks says, “We happen to be of the school of thoughts that it is nice to have more fans, not less.” Hank Barry who used to own Napster said, “Napster is helping and not hurting the record industries and artists. More access to music leads to more interest in music and more music sales.” The RIAA, who doesn’t seem to believe in that, sued 261 file sharers recently. They are targeting those who share substantial amount of MP3′s. The rate of people downloading had dropped a little since the RIAA had sued those 261 peers, but then, not even good enough to begin ending it. The RIAA is scared, they can’t handle it yet, having copyrights don’t even scare all of the file-sharers.

If you heard of I-Tunes, it is a network that sells music to people and which is convenient as downloading. Mostly each song would cost 99 cents to download. Napster, which reopened in October 29, is doing what I-Tunes is doing. But who would download from them if downloading free from P2P networks is still around? Not many, because you can only download music using I-Tunes or Napster. Files called piracy such as movies, softwares and other computer files can’t be downloaded. Plus, if you were to use the legitimate I-tunes or Napster today, you won’t be able to find the rare music. Hopefully they should advance sooner or later. But should the money that I-tunes or Napster make be shared to the RIAA or straight to the music artists? The RIAA shouldn’t even be the main enemy to P2P networks. It’s the music artists’ choices to share their music anyway they want to the world. The RIAA is making their profit with the money that people spend on music albums. They get more than the artists themselves. Therefore the RIAA should find another way of making their profit instead of wasting their time suing peers who share music.

To this day, the RIAA and some P2P networks are trying to negotiate with what music technology is going to be like in the future. File sharing was yet a step ahead in technology. No peers had been sued for sharing piracy (movies, softwares, etc.) yet. P2P networks do expose us to music we had not heard. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to thrive in the new free-copy environment. The two main ones are focusing on those things that are not easily copy able like live concerts, big-screen experiences, deluxe album packaging or secondly reducing prices so that it makes more sense to pay than to pirate and download. You should remember what Spiderman’s Uncle Ben told him, “With great strengths, comes great responsibility.” To me, file-sharing is a good technological tool but should be used responsibly. It’s more likely to be used in the future, that’s why I’m with it.

Move over Jackie Chan. Step aside Batman and Robin. Shift gears, Superman. Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” splashed across the big screen in 2000 like no other martial arts movie you’ve ever seen, utilizing that filmmaker’s feminist vision to portray three women as fighters so formidable that Rambo would have considerable difficulty indeed should he ever incur their enmity. “Crouching Tiger,” selected as the closing pic by the New York Film Festival, has the kind of comic-book melodramatic action that could draw the youngsters into its PG-13 life if only they could overcome their suspicion of foreign-language fare. The subtitles are clear, however, and the story serves as a pretext for the most dramatic action sequences filmed.

The story, which is adapted from Wang Du Lu’s novel by James Schamus, Wang Hui Ling and Tsai Kuo Jung, takes us not so far back (the early 1800′s) but we might be looking at the world of the medieval Chinese dynasties where warlords ruled over their fiefs and skirmishes were so common that if you said “nee how ma” the wrong way you were likely to lose your head. Two couples are in love. Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat) and Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) have powerful feelings for each other (why not? They’re both masters of the martial arts who could give the neighbors something to talk about if they ever got into a heated argument. Li is retiring to devote his life to contemplation. (Don’t worry: he comes out of withdrawal soon enough.) To signify his sincerity he hands over his sword, Green Destiny, to the physically adept, acrobatic Yu, willing to stop seeking vengeance against Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-pei) who had killed his master. In Peking, Yu runs into the youthful Jen (Zhang Ziyi), about to suffer a forced marriage while envying the freedom enjoyed Yu. When the priceless sword is stolen, the acrobatics commence.

Tarzan has nothing on the martial artists in Ang Lee’s picture, and what’s more the most daring and successful fighters are of the so-called weaker sex, their prowess even more remarkable when you consider that Yu and Jade Fox are meant to be well over the age of 35. In the most elaborate and even hilarious aerial ballet, young Jen takes on a band of uncouth men who might have come out of the Teutonic beasts who fought the Romans in “The Gladiator.” She calmly drinks tea on the upper level of a ramshackle restaurant and, when approached by one “Iron Hand,” she tosses him over the rail with one arm while still concentrating on her cup. In short order the entire establishment is gutted. Kick, pow, sock, bam.

Ang Lee takes us out of the big city of Peking for long stretches of Chinese desert in which (as Jen’s flashback reveals) a 19th century Lawrence of Arabia, the bold equestrian bandit Lo (Chang Chen), alternately fights with Jen and makes love to her. A chase on horseback across the sands of Western China easily put the old American cowboy sequences into the dust.

The flights through the air are nothing short of spectacular, making us wonder whether the characters in this tale are more the stuff of legend than breathing, fighting and loving human beings. While Chow Yun-fat allows himself a relatively small role in the movie that features his name in the star’s box, Zhang Ziyi’s portrayal of the petite but superhuman fierce Jen is the show-stealer. Yo Yo Ma’s cello punctuates the action along with a steady percussion in a movie which ups the ante and might just Jackie Chan green with envy.

*pics not included due to porblems with uploading through edublog.. here are the links:

Bibliography:

wizbangpop.com
authorronknight.com

http://www.all-reviews.com/videos-2/crouching-tiger.htm

homebrewtalk.com
flu-vaccine.org
flickr.com
findmysoft.com
inlandpolitics.com

this is a test…

Haunted Knox Promo_0001

For my final project for MDT 1000, i will dicuss online file sharing. I plan to examine both sides of the argument of those in favor and those against. The entry will show the types of files shared from common to rare. I will explore who shares files, why files are shared and what web sites contain files available for upload. I will look into the legal aspect as well.  I hope to cover every angle of this issue with an objective outlook on the advantage and disadvantages as well as solutions to online file sharing.

The goal of this report is to present ideas of the risks as well as the rewards. I will use illustrations to convey the examples given. I will then present an analysis of the extesive research I’ve completed by way of a short video containing all the elements of my final conclusions. This report is completely not intended to entertain, educate, make aware, or cure anyone who reads it.  It is a mear look into a counter culture that, we as a society,  tollerates even though we know it is illegal in this country.

The first machine patented in the United States that showed animated pictures or movies was a device called the “wheel of life” or “zoopraxiscope”. Patented in 1867 by William Lincoln, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit in the zoopraxiscope. However, this was a far cry from motion pictures as we know them today. Modern motion picture making began with the invention of the motion picture camera.

The Frenchman Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the first motion picture camera in 1895. But in truth, several others had made similar inventions around the same time as Lumiere. What Lumiere invented was a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe, three functions covered in one invention.

The Cinematographe made motion pictures very popular, and it could be better be said that Lumiere’s invention began the motion picture era. In 1895, Lumiere and his brother were the first to present projected, moving, photographic, pictures to a paying audience. 

The Lumiere brothers were not the first to project film. In 1891, the Edison company successfully demonstrated the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. Later in 1896, Edison showed his improved Vitascope projector and it was the first commercially, successful, projector in the U.S.

The world’s first film production studio – or “America’s first movie studio,” the Black Maria, or the Kinetographic Theater (and dubbed “The Doghouse” by Edison himself), was built on the grounds of Edison’s laboratories at West Orange, New Jersey, on February 1, 1893, at a cost of $637.67. It was constructed for the purpose of making film strips for the Kinetoscope. It was a black, tar-paper covered building/studio (with a retractable or hinged, flip-up roof to allow sunlight in), and built with a turntable to orient itself throughout the day to follow the natural sunlight.

Most of the first films shot at the Black Maria included segments of magic shows, plays, vaudeville performances (with dancers and strongmen), acts from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, various boxing matches and cockfights, and scantily-clad women. Most of the earliest moving images, however, were non-fictional, unedited, crude documentary, “home movie” views of ordinary slices of life – street scenes, the activities of police or firemen, or shots of a passing train.

In the early 1900s, motion pictures (“flickers”) were no longer innovative experiments. They soon became an escapist entertainment medium for the working-class masses, and one could spend an evening at the cinema for a cheap entry fee. Kinetoscope parlors, lecture halls, and storefronts were often converted into nickelodeons, the first real movie theatres. The normal admission charge was a nickel (sometimes a dime) – hence the name nickelodeon. They usually remained open from early morning to midnight.

The first nickelodeon, a small storefront theater or dance hall converted to view films, was opened in Pittsburgh by Harry Davis in June of 1905, showing The Great Train Robbery. Urban, foreign-born, working-class, immigrant audiences loved the cheap form of entertainment and were the predominent cinema-goers. One-reel shorts, silent films, melodramas, comedies, or novelty pieces were usually accompanied with piano playing, sing-along songs, illustrated lectures, other kinds of ‘magic lantern’ slide shows, skits, penny arcades, or vaudeville-type acts. Standing-room only shows lasted between ten minutes and an hour. The demand for more and more films increased the volume of films being produced and raised profits for their producers.

The early years of the 40s decade were not promising for the American film industry, especially following the late 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, and the resultant loss of foreign markets. However, Hollywood film production rebounded and reached its profitable peak of efficiency during the years 1943 to 1946 – a full decade and more after the rise of sound film production, now that the technical challenges of the early 30s sound era were far behind. Advances in film technology (sound recording, lighting, special effects, cinematography and use of color) meant that films were more watchable and ‘modern’. Following the end of the war, Hollywood’s most profitable year in the decade was 1946, with all-time highs recorded for theatre attendance.

Although the 1970s opened with Hollywood experiencing a financial and artistic depression, the decade became a creative high point in the US film industry. Restrictions on language, adult content and sexuality, and violence had loosened up, and these elements became more widespread. The hippie movement, the civil rights movement, free love, the growth of rock and roll, changing gender roles and drug use certainly had an impact. And Hollywood was renewed and reborn with the earlier collapse of the studio system, and the works of many new and experimental film-makers  during a Hollywood New Wave.  We can thank the 1970s for legendary  films as Jaws (1975)  and Star Wars(1977)

The VCR came from the 1970s as well.  It had to battle for supremecy from the likes of betamax and others.  In 1977, RCA introduced the first VCRs in the United States based on JVC’s system, capable of recording up to four hours on 1/2″ videotape.  By the late 70s, Sony’s market share in sales of Betamax VCRs was below that of sales of VHS machines; consumers chose the VHS’ longer tape time and larger tape size, over Sony’s smaller and shorter tape time (of 1 hour).

The VHS format was widely from the late 70s to the late 90s, but a new technology was quickly catching popularity.   By 1997, the first DVDs (digital video discs) had emerged in stores, featuring sharper resolution pictures, better quality and durability than videotape, interactive extras, and more secure copy-protection. In just a few years, sales of DVD players and the shiny discs proliferated and would surpass the sale of VCRs and videotapes.

And with the digital revolution, some pioneering film-makers were experimenting with making digital-video (DV) films, pushing digital imagery and special effects, or projecting films digitally. A number of films also used special-effects CGI in more subtle, innovative ways.

The next stages of progression in motion pictures would be totally digital and 3D.  The phenomenon of 3-D didn’t entirely live up to its promise, repeating its 1950s status as a short-lived fad. The prediction that 3-D films following the record-breaking Avatar 3-D (2009) would be the wave of the future fizzled in early 2010. It proved to be an unnecessary, gimmicky enhancement of the special effects, in most cases, and had nothing to do with the plot, character development, or acting quality. Backlash came from users who complained about eye strain, the silly glasses, dark images, shoddy transfers, etc.

no matter what your preferences may be, you can say that film’s short existance has had major impacts on everyone it reaches.  From your favorite comedy, documentary, or action packed blockbuster, the entertainment factor has exploded in our faces over the last 35-40 years and will continue to do so way after our reel of life is over.

The first recording devices were scientific instruments used to capture and study sound waves. These devices were capable of recording voices and other sounds long before the phonograph.The most famous of these was Leon Scott’s 1857 Phonoautograph. This device used a horn to direct sound toward a flexible diaphragm placed at the small end. Attached to the diaphragm was a stylus and lever assembly that allowed the point to scratch out a line on a rotating cylinder beneath it. The cylinder (glass strips were later used) was coated with “lampblack,” probably applied by holding it over a flame and allowing carbon to accumulate.

The story of the sound recording industry is mostly a story of musical entertainment on phonograph discs for the whole period from the invention of the phonograph in 1877 to about the 1950s, when new technologies emerged. The major players in the industry were Victor, Columbia and HMV (which originally stood for His Master’s Voice) until the end of World War II, and are still important today. These three companies all got their start in the 1890s, when the phonograph was still young.

Thomas Edison’s 1877 invention of the phonograph was followed by many imitators, most notably the “graphophone,” which became the basis of the Columbia company. Both inventions used a cylinder record which captured sound in a groove. Just as the graphophone of 1887 borrowed many ideas from Edison, so too did Edison’s “improved phonograph” of 1888 borrow back from the graphophone. Soon both machines were for sale or lease to the public. The primary market was intended to be businessman, lawyers, court reporters, and others who currently used stenography to capture important thoughts or compose letters. Although the sound recorder as a business machine has its own history, it is the entertainment uses of sound recording that made the biggest impact.

The word “culture” refers not only to high culture, such as art, music, and literature, but also to the practices of daily life. Therefore the history of sound recording culture includes not only the history of recorded music, but also the ways recordings were made, and the ways recordings influenced other aspects of society. In the case of music-especially popular music-the interactions between music-making and recording technology are so well-studied. 

Methods and media for sound recording are varied and have undergone significant changes between the first time sound was actually recorded for later playback until now. The ability to store massive amounts of music in the palm of you hand is incredible! The MP3 format has changed storage options light years past cassette tapes.