The Null Device
2000/9/14
Now that they have been spanked seriously in court, MP3.com are going to be sucking up to the content-industry a lot, in the hope that they be allowed to stay in business. Case in point: they censored the "Descramble" song because of "inappropriate content". Look for them to become some of the RIAA's most zealous attack-dogs, at least in words.
The Register on the Smashing Pumpkins MP3-only album. I'm no fan of the Pumpkins (no more than of, say, Nirvana or Marilyn Manson), but anyone who sticks it to The Man like that gets some respect. I wonder what legal recourse EMI have (with the non-compete clause in the band's contract), and whether they'd be bastards enough to pursue it.
Cubase geek stuff: There is now a Mellotron plug-in for VST. The demo sounds pretty doovy, though the fact that it takes up "hundreds of megabytes" is a bit daunting. Time to get a new disk for my Mac, I think...
New Scientist has a piece on the therapeutic value of trepanation, as practiced in ancient Peru.
Those wacky New Zealanders: A kindergarten in New Zealand requires children to get "licenses" to play with toy guns. Children must specify what they need the guns for; putting down injured animals is a legitimate form of play, whereas cops and robbers is not (as the NZ police are unarmed).