So far in the commenting, I've seen all kinds of contradicting opinions.

1. OGG sounds better than MP3 or it does not.
2. OGG uses more processor cycle and kills battery life, OGG makes no difference in comparison to MP3
3. OGG sounds better, MP3 sounds better in most listening tests, MP2 is even better, MP4 is equal to OGG and better than MP3
4. OGG needs to be as succesful as PNG and PNG is just one in a crowd.

Gosh...there is a lot of FUD going around here about something. Could someone in the know please set the record straight ?

Proocessor->silicon->sand->minerals->rock-> Geode...get it ?

Most English speakers in the US , perhaps. In other parts of the world that are English speaking such as UK and India "Goodness" is a common word. Phrases such as "A jam filled with divine goodness" or "Goodness Gracious me" are common utterances.

And at some point, most people on /. must have tested the "Goodness of Fit" using a Chi-square test.

Interestingly, the screencast seems to be made on Windows , with Camtasia as the capture software and Linux running under a VMWare virtual machine.

I see your point. Though, finally one might say if one blurts out a tune and there are people who like it, they wouldn't care if it came out of a composer, symphony and band or a tiny program on the creator's laptop.

The right result in this case presumably being "music that sells".

As a far as cops go, that wasn't good policing.

The Internet , or more precisely , bandwidth is a consumable product. As much as music is : the difference is that one is consumed because it is a tool (although in many ways it could be argued that it is also entertainment), and the other is consumed for pleasure (although it can be argued it is also a tool ref. Guantanamo Bay Music torture).

You are mixing up the economic category of something with its intended use. These days iPods and Coca-cola are both classified as FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) ...I am sure you'll agree their intended use is very different.

The relationship of a "tool", goods and services depends strongly on perspective because a "tool" is not an economic category. I will exemplify with an extension of my analogy with your logic. If you are an ISP, the Internet is the consumable, while the cables and servers that host it are the "tools". If you are a server manufacturer, the servers are the consumable, while the things that let you make a server such as air-conditioning for your design plant, the electricity that runs through is the "tool". If you are the power company,....well you get the picture.

In the same way that DHCP/Plug-n-Play/etc. lets people with no technical acumen get onto the Internet? Its basically "You plug the wires/flip the switch we'll do EVERYTHING ELSE FOR YOU!"

Its running Vista under Bootcamp.

Just saying...

Techncially, Microsoft is not in the hardware business for laptops so its not such a big faux pas and might even be their silly attempt to play nice with Apple, or to show that they aren't threatened by it.

There seems to be a lot of flaming here for how the songs sucked etc. , but...

1. Goodness of music is a subjective issue. There may be people who actually like the sound, or the ease of karaoke-ing through it. Kids, perhaps who can be thrilled at the substantial quality of their renditions.

2. I suspect a lot of people are complaining about the examples there because they are comparing it to the originals. Think about how new songs or tunes can be arranged by budding composers using this. Songsmith might offer a lot more customisability making it an important tool.

We should try to look at the bright side once in a while.

Not really the Developer's fault for providing the option. Very often, features are there because some percentage of the userbase is using them. Better that it is there, and used wisely, then it not being there are all.

Actually, at the publicly funded scientific research institute I work in, in Dortmund, my entire department has iMacs and Macbook Pros - totally about 50 in all.

I of course prefer Bootcamp-XP , but that is not to say there aren't any Macs in thse places. Most times it just happens, that Macs are not enough value for money in an environment where people either prefer Windows for compatibility reasons and can run Linux for everything else anyway. Silver shiny jewels of a thing are not exactly a priority for a publicly funded institution, nor should they be.

Hey, they're Mac users, and they don't need to know about this computery stuff.

The update didn't come in brushed-sliver aluminium, so why would they bother about it at all.