May 05, 2003

AAC Is Capable of Sounding Better than CD.

An interesting comment was posted here yesterday by Perry The Cynic:

“Every song is pristinely encoded and some sound better than CDs.—I believe AAC may sound better than MP3, but I doubt it sounds better than the uncompressed file from the CD.”

Note the “pristine” and the “some.” Jobs is not lying. You’re assuming that the AAC is generated from CD-quality data. In that case, obviously, you’re right. But if you take a 96KHz, 32 bit studio master file and generate both CD data and AAC from them, then AAC can in some cases be better (i.e., better match the original experience). AAC supports (up to) 96KHz samples, while CD forcibly downsamples to 44.1KHz. For data that has sharp transients (say, percussion) the AAC may do better at matching the original sound. It’s still true that most tracks will sound worse in AAC/128 than CD, if only because most were probably generated from CD data.

Very cool info. Thanks Perry.

Which raises an interesting question.

Democrats currently expect to do poorly in the 2004 elections (see the previous post). Therefore current Democratic rhetoric – including America-slamming speaches by various popular entertainers, such as the Dixie Chicks – isn’t helping the Democratic cause. So the question comes up:

Why are Democrats abandoning leadership of their party to popular entertainers, who do not have expertise in politics, and appear to be doing more harm than good to their own cause?

Democrats expect to lose Senate seats in 2004. Robert Novak reports:

WASHINGTON—Democratic insiders, acknowledging little chance of recapturing the House in 2004, have all but given up hope of winning a Senate majority, unless there is such a transcendent development as an economic collapse.

The early calculation in Democratic circles is for a net loss of four additional Senate seats, extending the present 51-49 Republican majority to 55-45. Democratic seats are in real jeopardy in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, South Dakota and Nevada.

In contrast, Alaska is the only Republican Senate seat up next year that clearly tilts to the Democrats.

And yet there’s no end to harsh rhetoric – which surely isn’t working for them – from some Democratic leaders. The Dixie Chicks may be selling records again, but are they helping the Democratic party?

iTunes Music Store Sells Over One Million Songs in First Week.

“In less than one week we’ve broken every record and become the largest online music company in the world,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Apple has created the first complete solution for the digital music age-you can purchase your favorite music online at the iTunes Music Store, mix your favorite tracks into playlists with iTunes, and take your entire music collection with you everywhere with the super-slim new iPods.”

Apple also announced that new tracks would be added to the store beginning tomorrow. Totaling over 3,200 new songs, Apple will add songs like Jack Johnson’s “On and On,” Andrea Bocelli’s “Tosca” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Say You Will,” as well as pre-release tracks from upcoming albums by artists David Sanborn, The RH Factor, John Scofield, Jesse Harris and Lizz Wright. Also to be added tomorrow are additional albums from the Eagles, Michelle Branch’s album “The Spirit Room,” and new Featured Artist pages for Coldplay, including an exclusive track and music video, and Alanis Morissette, with her catalog of music.

Some Music Biz Companies Develop Anti-Piracy Software Intended to Sabotage Computers.

From the NY TIMES:

Some of the world’s biggest record companies, facing rampant online piracy, are quietly financing the development and testing of software programs that would sabotage the computers and Internet connections of people who download pirated music, according to industry executives.

[.....]

Among the more benign approaches being developed is one program, considered a Trojan horse rather than a virus, that simply redirects users to Web sites where they can legitimately buy the song they tried to download.

A more malicious program, dubbed “freeze,” locks up a computer system for a certain duration ? minutes or possibly even hours ? risking the loss of data that was unsaved if the computer is restarted. It also displays a warning about downloading pirated music. Another program under development, called “silence,” scans a computer’s hard drive for pirated music files and attempts to delete them. One of the executives briefed on the silence program said that it did not work properly and was being reworked because it was deleting legitimate music files, too.

In my opinion none of these things will ever see the light of day. It’d all be illegal.

History of the Palestinians

An observant letter appeared in the LA TIMES this weekend:

One sentence in “Oregon Businessman Charged in ‘Portland Six’ Terrorist Case” (April 29) offers a perfect illustration of those Middle East problems that could defy any “road map” to lead anywhere but back into a maze. A defendant in the trial of the Portland Six is identified as a “Palestinian who was born in Nablus, Jordan.”

Two contradictions in five words: If he comes from Jordan, one would expect him to be Jordanian; and a look at the map shows that Nablus in not in Jordan. Not now. But 38 years ago, when this man was born, Jordan ruled the West Bank. Two years later Jordan lost control of Nablus to Israel in the Six-Day War. And the baby boy who lived there suddenly became “Palestinian.” Yet now, 36 years later, his American wife still speaks of Nablus, Jordan. So apparently, her husband still thinks of it that way. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and company could well find Iraq easy compared with this maze.

Baruch Cohon

It’s inaccurate to say that the Palestinians are former residents of a nation called “Palestine.”

You have no idea how well things are going in Iraq.

There are so many great posts on InstaPundit that it’s almost a public service to point out one’s favorites. Over the weekend Glenn posted a link to this story:

To an amazing degree, the Baghdad-based press corps avoids writing about or filming the friendly dealings between U.S. forces here and the local population—most likely because to do so would require them to report the extravagant expressions of gratitude that accompany every such encounter. Instead you read story after story about the supposed fury of Baghdadis at the Americans for allowing the breakdown of law and order in their city.