You know, it is posts like this one, that remind me that most people really know nothing about technology.
There are a couple of flaws in his argument. First, he says the crappy quality comes from "losing the punch." Well, the punch is still there. The problem is that all the flaws in the music are more evident from the increased volume. The other flaw is that that way he is performed his example is with digital sound, most likely off of a CD, a 16-bit sound source. Meaning he is introducing clipping really quickly. Professional studios use either analog or 96-bit or great digital: clipping is a long ways away!
First, Apple embedding your information into a song only you should possess is hardly spyware. In fact, it fails to meet the basic definition of spyware! The supposition that someone would randomly guess a song you own (iTunes records are easily accessible by you, yourself and Apple) and use your e-mail address is extremely low unless they hack Apple's servers. Yeah, good luck on that one. So unless you really are illegally sharing your files, there should be no issues.
As far as inability to tell the difference, I call bravo sierra. Just because some people at Gizmodo can't tell the difference doesn't mean "no one can...." The quality is likely to go un-noticed unless you burn it to CD or DVD and listen to it properly - not off of an ipod which DOES introduce artifacts, one way or another. They actually put that guy's blog on the front page of Yahoo!
The new submarine was photographed by the commercial Quickbird satellite in late 2006 and the image is freely available on the Google Earth web site
Can we stop with the nuclear build out already?
Need the CIA to arrange an accident aboard all of these in the middle of the ocean.
Oh, side note .. nice work Google ;)
For once I agree with Fidel Castro.
Food based biofuels may not be the answer, but another problem.
Take the declining number of farms in America and the explosion of people in third world countries and toss in the food based biofuel industry, now we have something to be concerned with.
I see food based biofuels as cheap bandage for the wound that is the worlds oil consumption.
The real alternative would be something like hydrogen or a water based design.
You can read more from the article below and the rest via the link at the bottom.
The head of the U.N. Environment Program said on Wednesday Cuban leader Fidel Castro and others are justified in raising concern about the potential for ethanol production to threaten food supplies for the poor.
But UNEP director Achim Steiner said the jury is still out on whether risks outweigh the benefits when using food crops to produce ethanol as an alternative fuel.
Castro, who has taken to writing articles since he was sidelined from power last year by intestinal surgery, has attacked U.S. plans to increase biofuels output using crops such as corn, saying this will increase food prices and global hunger.
"What President Castro points to is something the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has also raised recently: That there is significant potential and risk for competition between food production and production for a global biofuels market," Steiner told Reuters during a environmental meeting in Havana.