Monday, September 30, 2002|
When I first installed SpamAssassin on my email server, I thought it was great [Aug 8]. It had greatly reduced the number of spams I received in my email inbox. However, yesterday I noticed a false positive from SpamAssassin that was particularly troublesome. First of all, the email was important. Second, it was a reply to an email I had sent (obviously not spam). Lastly, the content would never have been construed, by a human observer, as anything even remotely resembling spam. So, maybe human defined heuristics are not the future of spam detection, but I'm still holding out for the potential of Bayesian based filters. On a positive note, it does make my life a little easier, but I still have to check my "caughtspam" folder every week or so. 11:56:11 PM 
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The origins of salsa music as well as the term "salsa" are still surrounded by lots of confusion. ToSalsa.com has an article and discussion on the topic [here]. I think some of the issues are clarified here, but this article is not the definitive answer. 3:47:24 PM
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SalsaGang is a nice little Salsa weblog based in San Francisco [here]. 1:23:25 PM
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Songwriter, Diane Warren wrote a piece on why music trading is damaging to young talent [here]. On the surface, many of her conclusions seem correct. Certainly within the context of the current domination of the industry by the record companies, she is correct. However, there are a number of factors that she is ignoring. First, she states, "A lot of great songwriters (and bands) get only one commercial hit in their career." In the current environment, the recording industry determines who gets a hit and who doesn't. In a more open market, where music is traded more freely, fans will have complete control over who is popular and who isn't. This type of open environment leaves room for more musicians and more types of music that the record industry currently doesn't support. Second, Warren states that "The money from that one popular hit makes it possible for these artists and writers to devote themselves to the music they really love." This is only true for a small minority of performers out there. The rest are never picked up by the industry and their music is stuck in perpetual obscurity. The major record labels can only afford to promote names that are going to bring in a lot of money. Everyone else is out of luck. Free distribution of music allows for more music and more artists to receive more exposure. This may be a loss for the current recording industry darlings (e.g. Britney Spears), but it is good for the average musician. The recording industry is an aging dinosaur whose primary function was the distribution of media. Creation and distribution of media in the form of LP's, tapes or CD's is very expensive. However, all of that technology is obsolete. The Internet allows for very inexpensive distribution of media. Taking the recording industry glut out of the equation will ultimately lead to more money for musicians, not less. As P2P services like KaZaA mature, I think it is likely that musicians and writers will start to get royalties from traded files. Users are willing to pay for a service if the price and features are right. |
Last update: 10/1/2002; 11:08:25 AM .
