I highly recommend listening to WFMT classical radio station (streaming, or in Chicago 98.7) while coding.

WFMT is the only station in the country that has announcer-read ads (i.e no jingles or pre-recorded commercials. Thus their commercials are non-intrusive.). Their announcers are excellent. The programming is accessible but a good mix. It's really great around Christmas.

Classical music for me helps me concentrate and, unlike my rock/rap doesn't distract me from intense concentration. (As a rule, I put on rock only when I'm doing work that doesn't require much concentration).

Don't like classical? It's actually good stuff if you develop a taste for it.

The poster seems hostile to everything the RIAA says. I too distrust them. That said, I think "teaching children to respect intellectual property" deserves some attention --more so now because the technology changes make copying easier than ever.

I personally think it's flat-out wrong to download/watch a pirated movie while it's still in the theaters. Is it as wrong to download an out-of-print video on Bit Torrent?

If it's wrong to copy music from a struggling artist, why is it less wrong to copy The Blueprint #3?

Fwiw, Johannes Brahms made his money by selling rights to music publishers : he would transcribe his string works (e.g. string quartets) for piano ..people bought the sheet music to play in their own home for their own entertainment. To clarify: most homes people had musical skill to read and play Brahms on the piano. And that's how Austrian folks entertained themselves.

Times have changed indeed.