Caltrops - Tansin A. Darcos's Alter Ego - Response regarding music players and old music

Forum Overview :: Tansin A. Darcos's Alter Ego

by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 01/06/2016, 7:15am PST

This is a response to posting 9811 which is found here on Jolt Country that I have placed the response here as it's too long to leave there and a summary is in its place,

AArdvark wrote:

I like the hardware but the Zune software is bloatware.

Three words: DRM. Anything that supposedly has to protect the media creator from the customer using the media has to be big and fat to support the protection methods lest someone use it in a way they don't like.

AArdvark wrote:

They could have used MediaPlayer to interface with them but no, they had to make a whole 'nother program to do the same thing.

My guess is Media Player's interface does not scale down effectively, so that something designed for a 640c480 minimum screen fails miserably on a 2" screen at probably 200x200 if that.

Actually, they could have gone even simpler, as I'll note below.

AArdvark wrote:

And there's no way to sync it without the zune software. Well there is, but you have to jump thru hoops to get it to work. I still use mine every day when I don't want to beat up my phone battery.

This is the problem you have when you have priprietary hardware, you have to have proprietary software in order to protect the DRM. If anyone can learn how to get around the DRM it stops being DRM, as the incidents with DECSS showed.

But a simpler way would simply have been to take VLC and compile it for the new hardware, maybe skinning it to look a little nicer.

Now, go down to any near-dollar store (dollar stores that sell things exceeding $1) like Deals or Fanily Dollar (both owned by Dollar Tree) and pick up a music player. Has USB connector to hook to your computer. Plays MP3s, and how do you load it? When you plug the USB connector it looks like an external hard drive, and you just copy the files over. In fact, you can use it just like a jump drive, if you copy non-music files it ignores them. You can copy the files back off of it. And they cost around $20, uses one AAA battery and comes with headphones.

This isn't rocket science, complex or expensive. It's DRM and all the stupid schemes that don't work along with excessive features that require excessive complexity that make things hard and cost more.

As for your choice of music, there is lots of stuff from the 40s, 50s and earlier that still hold up. Back in the '80s Tacio did a remake of Puttin' on the Ritz, a song by Irving Berlin to celebrate the 1920s, which he wrote in 1927.

Response regarding music players and old music by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 01/06/2016, 7:15am PST NEW

In 1984 Alvin & the Chipmunks covered Taco's version for their animated TV show. by Episode 15A "Don't Be a Vidiot" 01/06/2016, 9:44am PST NEW

Back off, man NT by Bagdasarian Productions 01/07/2016, 6:47pm PST NEW