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Justin Frankel On AOL, Subverting The Status Quo 364

linuxbaby writes "Rolling Stone has an excellent feature on Justin Frankel, the creator of Winamp, Gnutella, Shoutcast, Waste, and other projects. The article calls him 'the world's most dangerous geek', and after years of being muzzled by AOL for igniting the pirate nation, Frankel is breaking his silence." The article ends by asking: "In many ways, Frankel's future encapsulates the debate over the future of the Internet itself. Does it become just a distribution system for corporate product or more of a way to subvert that corporate control?"
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Justin Frankel On AOL, Subverting The Status Quo

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  • by xao gypsie ( 641755 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:10PM (#8051135)
    my hat is off to this guy, especially for waste. that program rox..
  • It would be enough for me for the Internet to become a place where I can search and find any goddamn thing I'm looking for, whether it be the latest software update from Microsoft or an old album by Boy George or NAMBLA chatrooms.

    Perhaps I've said too much...
  • Typo? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Meneudo ( 661337 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:15PM (#8051189)
    "Eighty percent of the people at AOL are clueless," he says. Was this supposed to read: "Eighty percent of the people using AOL are clueless?"
    • Re:Typo? (Score:5, Funny)

      by bsharitt ( 580506 ) * <bridget@sharit[ ]om ['t.c' in gap]> on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:20PM (#8051237) Journal
      No I think he meant eighty percent who work at AOL. Eighty percent is way too low for amount of their customer base that is clueless.

      • There are some pretty angry ex-AOL subscribers [quickfire.org].

        This post was meant to be Informative, not Funny.
      • Re:Typo? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by eyegor ( 148503 ) * on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @11:07PM (#8051573)
        I gotta disagree with that idea. It's funny, but not especially accurate.

        Most of the people I knew at AOL were pretty smart. There are a lot of extremely cool technologies behind the scenes that make the system as a whole work very well.

        That being said, many of the upper level managers have risen from the ranks and "grew" into the position they occupy today. They're frequently much better at the technological end of things and not so good at people skills (e.g. feckless yuppie bastards who think that $$$ := intelligence).

        There is also quite a bit of trust that whatever is done, the end users will swallow gladly and keep paying WAY too much money for fluff and busy signals. They also pinned too many hopes on people sticking around once they got broadband.

        I used to think that most AOL users were idiots. When it comes to technology, many are. Most people are those who don't want to know about computers.
    • Re:Typo? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by metlin ( 258108 )
      From the article --

      When the company tried to insist that an AOL icon instantly appear on a user's desktop during a Winamp installation, Frankel hit the roof. "I'd be like, 'Look, our users don't want to use AOL!' " he says. " 'They think AOL sucks!'"

      But if you notice the Winamp 5 install [geocities.com], this option DOES exist.

      It does show an Add AOL icon to desktop, and what more, the option is checked by default too. Am not saying its right or wrong, Nullsoft can do jollywell what it pleases, but this is just an ob
      • Heck, at least you can turn the checkmark off!

        I don't think that was possible in the AOL branded version of Netscape (v6 IIRC?).

        So, while not perfect, at least it seems to be a trainable mutt.

        Of course, since WinAmp v5 still doesn't support multi-byte ID3 tags (e.g. non-western character sets), I dumped it again and switched to FooBar2000.
    • Re:Typo? (Score:3, Funny)

      Hi there.

      My name is Eric, and I use AOL.

      I also know what binary is, I used to program in C++ (not so much now since I had to move and don't have my good old linux box), and I'm going start at UF in the fall (hopefully) double majoring in Computer Science 'n' Engineering and Japanese.

      I speak enough latin to translate pretty much any text I want to read from the classical into Modern English, and while I may not know every little thing about what exact instructions my x86 machine uses (since there are seve

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:16PM (#8051200)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • He did, and got in a lot of trouble for it. He then quit/was fired/god knows what really happened from AOL. Then AOL said they owned the code and it wasn't REALLY GPL'd. There was a huge article on this "slashdot" site about it. Ringing any bells?
      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • by rendler ( 141135 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:37PM (#8051369)
          How about using the search function yourself? It's not too hard [slashdot.org].
        • Releasing under the GPL ensures you don't sell out, ever.

          Complete bull!

          If you wrote a program and released it under the GPL, at any time you can turn around and say that you are going to release it under a more restrictive license.

          The key here, is that the released version will still be available, and anybody can improve upon it. However, that is certainly NOT unique to the GPL... Release a program under the BSD license and you have the same effect, but even less chance that it can get shut-down (with

        • Releasing under the GPL ensures you don't sell out, ever.

          You're talking nonsense. At any moment, the copyright holder of a GPL licensed program can turn around and say "Okay, I'm closing the source, any further releases will now be under this new license." The authors can't prevent people from distirbuting/modifying the code that is already available, but they can continue their own closed source development and make releases under any terms they wish.

          If you hold copyright on a work, then you always ha

  • by Atario ( 673917 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:17PM (#8051208) Homepage
    From the article:
    Unchallenged by classes, Frankel took control of his own education, largely directing his own home schooling. Around then, he also started messing with his brother's Atari 8-bit computer. By the time he started high school, he was a self-taught whiz.
    It's because he cut his geek teeth on Atari 8-bits. I'm not just saying that because I used them too; see, the way the things worked were never officially documented. Everyone had to figure everything out for himself. This encourages tinkering, poking (and peeking), and prodding, and thus, technical ability. Either that or share info with others, which encourages geek socialization. Either way, you end up better (or at least with more geek-nature) for the the experience.

    Rock on, Atarians...
    • Didn't everyone have a copy of De Re Atari [atariarchives.org]?
    • by AtariEric ( 571910 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:51PM (#8051460)
      <blatant>Hear Hear!</blatant>

      As my moniker suggests, I was in the same boat that these two were in. Programming an Atari was different than programming today, in a sense: Atari's were quite limited; but since the were, expectations were not so high. It was quite easy to get near the "ceiling" of what one could do with the machine. The real geniuses, of course, pushed the envelope. What I'm concerned with nowadays is the lack of such machines; the closest we have are either complex machines with confising API's, or emulators of the previous machines which no one except retrogamers will even notice. How are we going to get our next generation of truly genius programmers without such platforms for them to "cut their geek teeth" on?
      • The problem is that everyone is using the SDK provided libraries, and few people program to the metal like they used to. The last generation of consoles really set the bar high for making a programmer's job easier.

        As far as pushing the envelope, the PS2 is a very interesting machine with a CPU, FPU, VPU1, VPU2, and a big bus. There is alot of potential there for creative programmers. The PS2 is technically inferior to its rivals, but I bet it will blossom over time as the original NES and Sega Saturn did.
        • by SurgeonGeneral ( 212572 ) on Thursday January 22, 2004 @12:21AM (#8052052) Journal
          Nobody tries to fix their radio anymore because it is too complicated with all of the integrated circuits and solid state, specialized, components. I don't think there is any place for cutting teeth on the latest technology in this age.

          That is so true. I was just daydreaming about the old days where you flicked on the computer and all you had was a flashing cursor. It really couldn't do much at first glance, but a little exploration could make it do some nifty things.

          I feel like computers are always trying to make me do stuff now. Download this, install that, configure this, register that. As a Windows user I am so far removed from the actual programming that the programmers and hardware manufacturers are completely out of touch with my needs. A perfect example is that Keyboard and Mouse article on CNet that was just posted. Read the forums and you'll see that only ONE keyboard manufacturer (Kinesis) actual lives up to even a few of the REAL needs people have.

          What I need is barely anything. I could use the internet with text-characters only for interface purposes. Hell, I could use my entire computer in text only, and I would if I wasnt so locked in to the decadent lifestyle that I live. I cant help but to depend on corporations for my computing needs, let alone my basic ones.

          Justin Frankel is dead on in his assessment. Every aspect of the internet is now controlled by corporations that are gobbling up more and more internet landscape. If you cant connect to the internet without a corporate mediator, that is a problem. On these forums I would give the great majority of the people the respect to assume that they are aware of the problem of freedom of information. You guys all have good brains: so use them for something more valuable than money. Programs like WASTE are revolutionary in their ability to connect people securely. There is currently an effort to port it to linux, and there are many more things like this that need smart people like you guys.

          You dont have to be a progammer either. I am finishing my degree this year and plan to go to Law School next year. I plan to dedicate my life to making information free and secure.
      • While we don't have a "killer" machine for learning programing, I've found my TI-86 to be a great starting point.

        I don't know any programing languages (yet) but through messing around with my calculator, I've learned some of the basics. I don't know if that fills the void left by the Atari, but it's a step in the right direction.

        On a side note, his "garage" sounds like the ultimate workshop. Add an arc welder, and it's heaven!

      • by kfg ( 145172 ) on Thursday January 22, 2004 @12:02AM (#8051927)
        Ya know, once upon a time that's what we said about you kids who could just go out and buy computers instead of having to hardwire bistable multivibrators from discrete componants scrounged from the town dump.

        Well, you take a geek genius, get him the hell out of the public school system as early as possible and let him do his own thing, he'll manage to "cut his geek teeth" somehow. His nature will see to it.

        Keep him in that school system, drug him and send him to counseling until he fits into all the neat little rows and columns of the standarized test, standardized people state of mind that is the highest the mediocre thought processes of those that dream such up can muster, well, it doesn't matter after that what you give him to cut his teeth on. His teeth have been filed down to dull little stumps.

        The equipment isn't the key, the enviroment is.

        If you wish to protect the next generation of geek geniuses ( and do please bear in mind that "geek" doesn't mean "computer nerd") then do what you can to get them out of school and into a library.

        Add a little peace and quiet and they'll manage the rest on their own just fine.

        KFG
    • by nvrrobx ( 71970 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:53PM (#8051473) Homepage
      Atari 8 bit computers and BASIC... Couldn't afford to buy the software so we wrote it ourselves.

      The only software that was ever purchased for my Atari 800XL was AtariWriter and Hardball. I wrote everything else myself and was never bored.

      I would not be where I am today if I had not gotten that Atari as a kid.
    • I dont think so ... This could be the bio of half the people I know, except he lucked out and made money.
    • Us real men used srv4 unix on our 32-bit Ataris. You 8-bit weenies make me sick....
    • Absolutely (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PotatoHead ( 12771 ) <doug@noSpaM.opengeek.org> on Thursday January 22, 2004 @12:03AM (#8051935) Homepage Journal
      I too had an Atari, actually a couple of them. Old tricked out 400, which I still have because of how it looks, and an 800XL which died :(

      Poking around that machine taught wonders. Display lists and their interrupts, graphics modes and memory mapping for scrolling and such, the sound chip. Lots of fun hardware ready to play with.

      The Atari did lots of interesting things, once you decided to hack around a bit. Joystick ports were bi-directional and latched if you wanted. Great for controlling things.

      Most hardware has the really good bits hidden from the programmer. Today this is really true, given the API we almost all work through. (Not that this is a bad thing, it just is.) Back in the day, the Atari was unique in its design. The smarter you were, the more you could make the machine do --true for the game machine as well.

      Many years later, people are still finding new ways to get those bits of hardware to do new and interesting things. No wonder people still hack the old machines. It is worth doing.

      To me, this is what really appeals about OSS. The hardware hacks are not as common or necessary --to me at least. Hacking your OS to work a specific way is as good as using display list interrupts, creative display memory mapping and complementary colors displayed on alternate scan lines to double your horizontal screen resolution. (Yes, you can get an Atari to display 640x192, though it is a slow beast while doing it. Heck, if you had a broken TV that could display the entire NTSC signal, the Atari was capable of using almost the entire overscan if you wanted.)

      Anyway, I only purchased a few pieces of software. MAC/65 -- Best damn assembler/editor/debugger ever for 8bit machines, Star Raiders, and Archon along with a few other disk games. Did the same thing others did. Wrote lots of interesting programs, learning at the same time.

      (One nostalgic Atarian thinking about seeing if the old beast still boots!)
  • by NedR ( 701006 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:17PM (#8051209) Journal
    That note the article ends on . . . what makes anybody think the internet is either of those extremes? The thing about the internet is it makes distribution of information and goods relatively easy for anybody with a computer. That includes pirates and corporations. The interesting thing about the internet is that it seems to level the playing field for both (although corporations still have one distinct advantage; advertising).
  • by BroncoInCalifornia ( 605476 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:18PM (#8051219)
    "In many ways, Frankel's future encapsulates the debate over the future of the Internet itself. Does it become just a distribution system for corporate product or more of a way to subvert that corporate control?"

    I am surprised Rolling Stone would cover this. Rolling Stone has evolved into a tool for corporate control.

  • many thanks (Score:4, Insightful)

    by miseryinmotion ( 615385 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:22PM (#8051254) Homepage
    Well, I must certainly say that Mr. Frankel has contributed a worthy amount of applications and ideas to the collective community.

    I guess I'm just finding it rather humorous, and maybe a sign of fads/things to come where a programmer is in rolling stone.
  • Nullsoft (Score:3, Interesting)

    by W32.Klez.A ( 656478 ) * on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:24PM (#8051264) Homepage
    Frankel just might be one of the more revolutionary people we have nowadays. He seems to give people not only the ability to be productive and listen to music with a decent player, but stick it to the various corporations that'd rather have us all doing the same things and eating the same food.

    Here's to Frankel!
  • by the_mad_poster ( 640772 ) <shattoc@adelphia.com> on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:29PM (#8051298) Homepage Journal

    The Internet subverts and/or disperses power. This frightens corporations, governments, and megamedia because it allows individual people to be who they want to be and it gives them a voice to express that. Worse, it lets them filter the corps and gubmit critters out. Radio and TV? Best you can do is flip the ads. I got almost all of 'em blocked on my browser no matter where I go.

    On the Internet, name brand means nothing. Anything you can think of to force your trashy product down my throat, I can think of a way to step around or destroy it. Any way you can think of to try and control my behavior, I can think of a way to step around or destroy it.

    Megamedia like CNN, MSNBC, etc. don't want you to get information from the Internet. On the Internet, information can be dissemented from trusted sources directly to the people who need or want to hear it. I remember talking to a guy in Kuwait during the war who was telling us about how things were. Media doesn't like that. They want to tell you how things are as they see it.

    Corporates are screwed on the Internet. They can exert some level of control over the Web with advertising and laws, but, frankly, when it comes right down to it, what fucks them most is that people are free to get the information they want and control its flow from start to finish. If I want to proxy out corporate garbage, so be it. If I want to disseminate something you don't want me to disseminate, too bad (Diebold, anyone).

    Subversion at its finest. I welcome it with open arms. It's about time people were given the opportunity to really think and act for themselves.

    • by laird ( 2705 ) <lairdp&gmail,com> on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:54PM (#8051483) Journal
      "On the Internet, name brand means nothing."

      In theory, this is true. In practice, most people trust the same name brands online that they do offline, and thus type the URL's that are the names of companies that they like and trust. So while there are certainly many new and cool "independent" web sites, etc., morepeople go to CNN.com for news, TVGuide.com for TV listings and reviews, and so on. There are of course some exceptions (Google, Amazon). So while there is an opportunity for people to explore outside of the established brands, the mainstream users stick to brands that they know.
      • True, brands do mean something (that's why we have ONLINE brands like Google and Amazon), but on the internet they don't HAVE to mean anything. We have options now that we don't get in the traditional "Brick and Mortar" world. Yes people will still believe the brand names they see like CNN, but people can easily find other views. They can find views of ordinary citizens, the government agency that CNN was reporting on, etc; things that are nearly impossible to get most of the time on many issues. Before the
      • Yes and no... it is still possible to have a voice on the internet, its sure not on Television or in print href="http://maddox.xmission.net/c.cgi?u=owned">po ssible
    • I do not disagree, but I believe you are overly harsh.

      Mega-Corps, yes they are such.

      The government, likewise.

      However, much of the media does genuinely try to give accurate reporting. Have you ever tried to give accurate reporting? It isn't easy.

      Also, reporters must be wary. If they step on the wrong toes, they'll be tossed. Then, they can't get out any information. Thus, they are cautious about when they cross the line. Yes, many of them are bad. However, many of them are not.

      The media is mostly contro
      • That's true. Like most things there are a few scumbags who make everything look bad. The problem is that often these aren't little people (like the newbie interns that they send out to report live in hurricanes), these are BIG people. These are Tom Brocaw, Howard Reigns (the head of the NYT), Connie Chung, etc. (examples, not neccisarily bad). And when it's these people, they can (and often do) use their power to controll those below them to report things "their way" too. I have no problem with reporters ed
    • Just how different is real life censorship from the internet. Sure, you have access to arbitrary garbage, most of the time. When was the last time you read slashdot at -1?

      We censor ourselves, generally to those publications that agree with our own views. When was the last time you read research pages at Micro$oft? In the end, the only difference between the internet and traditional media is that the brands online are not as firmly established as in the 'real world'. Given enough time, this space will
    • On the Internet, name brand means nothing

      This couldn't be more wrong. What ten (or twenty or whatever) websites get the most traffic today? How much different is this list from a year ago? Two years ago? Sure, there are definitely differences, but much is the same. Why do people go to the same website over and over again? Does said website offer a unique service? Hardly, name any website that offers a unique service. No, they go because of the brand, whether that brand is Wal-Mart, Amazon, CNN, Google, The

  • by bigberk ( 547360 ) <bigberk@users.pc9.org> on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:29PM (#8051299)
    What the hell is happening to Winamp? Used to be that you could get a version of their good old 2.x series from this site [winamp.com] (the latest 2.x were lean, but still do video!)

    The latest version I have is 2.91 with md5sum:
    68f0f87b12306939e7e3c7549db5df5f winamp291_full.exe

    Is there anything newer? Why can't I find these on their web site? There's version 5 now available. What is this... slackware [slackware.com]?! (version jump)
  • ahh memories... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jtilak ( 596402 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:40PM (#8051389) Journal
    I still remember my first MP3 and the first time I used winamp. My jaw dropped to the ground. THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE EVERYTHING!!! I thought. This was back before Napster. Back when we had to get mp3s from ftp sites and we had to scroll long ass lists of directories to find the song we wanted. There were no p2p applications with fancy search engines. Anyone here remember Blex's page of good mp3?

    When I heard aol bought nullsoft I was a little disappointed because I thought Frankel was a sellout and winamp would become bloated and lame. Frankel stayed cool as hell and winamp didn't become lame. Gnutella was the first decentralised file sharing/search network and it scared the shit out of corporations like aol. And he released it after he supposedly sold out. It was opensource. So Justin is still cool in my book. Who cares if he's rich? Shawn Fanning might be a moviestar now (Italian Job) but Frankel is the real revolutionary hacker.
    • Blex! I hadn't thought of that page for years. That was a great little website.
    • Re:ahh memories... (Score:3, Informative)

      by evilviper ( 135110 )
      It was opensource. So Justin is still cool in my book.

      Well, actually it wasn't open source...

      Although there were messages that the source would be released "soon", the project was shut-down before the source was going to be released. So, all the Gnutella clients were completely reverse-engineered from the original, closed-source version.

      So, Gnutella was technically not open-source.
    • Yes, Blex made quite a name for himself. His old URL turns up nothing these days (http://www.cybrzn.com/~blex/mp3/) and I don't find him in the waybackmachine either. Too bad. That site was legend.
    • Re:ahh memories... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by awfar ( 211405 )

      In a similar way think the cdparanoia author(s) is very deserving, all before winamp, before MP3...

      I remember when I downloaded and compiled cdparanoia on my Amiga; ripped the first tune from a Disney disc for my new daughter. 8 bit, stereo, CD drives were fairly new, didn't necessarily support CDDA, no CD-Rs, no MP3, files were huge to have only several songs, but I KNEW it was only a matter of time before it was practical; I remember thinking that is was a cool new thing to make my CD collection more use
  • My Hero (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jameth ( 664111 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:40PM (#8051394)
    I often got asked who my hero was, and I never had an answer.

    This man is one of my heroes.

    He is pushing what America once was about, shedding the bonds of control on people. The original constitution and Bill of Rights were about removing the bonds government put on people, giving people the freedoms they deserved.

    However, the government stopped being the threat: corporations took that over.

    Justin Frankel is a new patriot, fighting in the true spirit of America, and battling against the corporations who are trying to dominate humanity. It has happened in the past. Monarchies ruled men. They were broken. Corporations replaced them. Now, they need to be broken.

    We need more people fighting for human empowerment.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Rolling stone appears to be slashdotted, here's a mirror from the author's web site:

    The World's Most Dangerous Geek [davidkushner.com]
  • by cyberb0b ( 586966 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:51PM (#8051458) Journal
    You can download the recorded track from his website:

    http://www.blorp.com/music/Full%20Jams/031115-bren nankushner.mp3 [blorp.com]

  • by bn557 ( 183935 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @10:52PM (#8051466) Homepage Journal
    www.dhorrocks2003.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/waste 3 million plus (2.7million unique) downloads of waste from here so far, just goes to show how good justin is...

    P
  • by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @11:06PM (#8051566) Journal
    He ran the school's computer network and racked up a better than 4.0 GPA.

    Am I the only person that thinks these two items might be connected?

    Actually, it sounds like he is the sort of person who would not need to cheat.

  • by TJPile ( 220972 )
    Frankel was one of the first to create something real from his ideas (Gnutella, Waste, WinAmp), but these were Windows programs. We should also be thanking or acknowledging the people that added to/reverse engineered those programs so people on all platforms could use them (mldonkey, XMMS, and etc.)
  • Winamp's a good thing. Gnutella was even better. I think that was his best project yet. The part of this state of affairs that I believe makes the RIAA so upset is that they do not control the technology, and given recent [eff.org] rulings [slashdot.org], containing the technology will prove difficult as well.

    In fact, if anything, by decentralizing the technology, Frankel has helped the RIAA spend copious amounts of money on legal fees chasing individuals (I doubt the lawyers are working pro-bono. I also doubt that the entire

  • by DroopyStonx ( 683090 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @11:15PM (#8051620)
    You ever take a look at the NSIS installer by Nullsoft? Some of the example code has like "I'm a sheep fucker" in it and other miscellaneous naughty language.

    Not to mention his antics, like releasing WASTE and getting AOL's panties all twisted up (by the way.. what WAS the point of that tool?? ;) It's pretty funny considering that AOL is "family oriented" or whatever the hell they claim to be.

    Ah well... I hope he puts his mind to good use and develops a truly anonymous P2P protocol on AOL's dollar. That'd be a very nice thing...
  • David Kushner (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 404notfound ( 467950 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @11:17PM (#8051628)
    I usually skip the author of articles (the way I skip ad banners at the tops of sites), but after seeing how much he interacted with Frankel during the interview (even picking up an electric guitar and jamming with him a bit!), I went back to the top and was surprised to see it was written by David Kushner [davidkushner.com], the same man who wrote Masters of Doom [amazon.com].
  • where is he now? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by wo1verin3 ( 473094 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @11:17PM (#8051629) Homepage
    >>In the near future, he says, he's going to have
    >>a sit-down with his boss and enthusiastically
    >>return to a riskier way of life. This could

    Where is he working now, has he actually left AOL? I see a lot of comments that he is gone, but last I heard he was still there and his words were:

    I don't know when it will be, but I'm not going to last much longer.
  • Win-An Mp3 Player (Score:3, Informative)

    by Fryth ( 468689 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2004 @11:18PM (#8051637)
    he uploaded Winamp (the name is short for Windows Amplifier

    Actually, it's short for the Windows port of amp (An MP3 Player) for *nix.
  • This guy has been my hero since winamp 2. Of course, i lost faith after the winamp 3 debacle, but anyhow. I think that this guy could have slashdown groupies if he wanted ;)
  • by Anonymous Coward
    is here: http://pron.blorp.com/sym/
    (this is the same link in the paper version)

  • It's interesting to hear slashdot discuss these matters, but I'm a little taken aback by the choice of wording.

    Referring back to the text of the original post: "subvert corporate control." I'd like to point out that there's a difference between subverting and circumventing.

    First, "subvert" has a slightly ..uh.. subversive ring to it. Second, the word almost implies that the corporations HAVE control. The internet's still largely free territory. Belief to the contrary would be, i think, a mental handi
  • This Line (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Master of Transhuman ( 597628 ) on Thursday January 22, 2004 @12:03AM (#8051939) Homepage
    "Rob Lord, who had joined Nullsoft's team, even tipped off the RIAA to Napster."

    We have a word for that in the joint: rat-fink.

    Another word we use is "shanked".

    Justin himself seems a little schizo over the issue. On the one hand, Napster using their servers to promote file sharing is "wrong". On the other, Gnutella is "right". Make up your mind, Justin.

  • by t0qer ( 230538 ) on Thursday January 22, 2004 @03:22AM (#8052535) Homepage Journal
    Thanks to the efforts of Justin Frankel, [1014.org] and Yannick Heneault [infinit.net] the Karaoke bar [japantownsanjose.org] I work at on the weekends was able to convert it's aging karaoke CDG collection to MP3+G's.

    It's neat because we get to have AVS behind the lyrics. You used to have to buy an expensive JSUB unit if you wanted to "bluescreen" anything behind a CDG song.

    We've been using the system for the last year or so. Customer response has been excellent. No more skipping or garbled words. No more confusion looking for songs. It just all runs perfectly.

"You know, we've won awards for this crap." -- David Letterman

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