Reed Altemus wrote:
>What's Napster? A website?
From <http://www.napster.com/>: Napster is music at Internet speed.
Napster allows people to share and trade music in MP3 format. It's
threatened with being banned on
many college networks where it makes up to 80% of the internet
traffic. See
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/circuits/articles/20geek.ht
ml> and
<http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,34382,00.html?tw=wn20000217>
.
There's also talk about the virtual as well as real elimination of
the jewel box -- this new "simplicity" crossed with a technologically
cool youth culture; getting ready for the holodeck. Ditto with books
soon enough, especially textbooks, which I
enthusiastically/wholeheartedly condone/endorse/support -- what a
relief for trees and students' backs.
Napster doesn't work with media, it functions digitally to convey and
transport media. Well, you get the idea, try it out. If you're on a
Macintosh, we have a somewhat inferior product available at this
point, unless you run Virtual PC (as Napster didn't originate on the
Mac, it's been ported) but the program promises to get better soon
enough: <http://www.macster.com/>.
From the Napster Forum
<http://forum.napster.com/forum/Ultimate.cgi>:
> The Napster client uses a revolutionary new
> community model called
> "Distributed Aggregation" that allows users
> to interact with each other by sharing their
> musical libraries in the quickest, most
> efficient way possible: one-to-one.
Kathy
<http://forum.napster.com/whatisnapster.html>:
> So, what the heck is Napster?
>
> Napster is a completely new way of thinking
> about music online.
>
> Imagine...an application that takes the hassle
> out of searching for MP3s. No more
> broken links, no more slow downloads, and no
> more busy, disorganized FTP sites.
> With Napster, you can locate and download your
> favorite music in MP3 format from
> one convenient, easy-to-use interface.
>
> What else does it do?
> Quite a bit, actually. Some highlights include:
> CHAT - Allows users to chat with each other
> in forums based on music genre.
> AUDIO PLAYER - Plays MP3 files from right
> inside Napster, in case you don't have an
> external player or would prefer not to use one.
> HOTLIST - Lets you keep track of your
> favorite MP3 libraries for later browsing.
>
> I'm sold, now what?
> Just download Napster now to start building
> your MP3 collection today--faster and
> easier than you ever dreamed possible!
