Re: [Off-topic] Re: [Pan-users] Re: Advice on other lists

[Ron Johnson]

On 2009-08-25 19:30, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:43:22 am Ron Johnson wrote:
> > On 2009-08-25 10:01, Duncan wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> > > But if it's all there on the MP3 player, there's no need to worry
> > > about trying to decide just /what/ to copy over, and then finding
> > > you're in a totally different mood, and it's the /wrong/ thing for
> > > your new mood, when you're on your trip and don't have access to
> > > just go grab something else.
> > However did we survive in the eras of CDs, cassette tapes, 8-track
> > tapes, transistor radios, or before?
>
> It's the magpie urge to collect "stuff". Some people collect music, some 
> people collect stamps, some people collect those Russian nested dolls, 
> and some people collect computer games that they never play.
>
> (I have a workmate who does that. He goes to LAN parties and brings back 
> two or three DOZEN new games every few months. How many does he play 
> even *once*? Perhaps two, sometimes three. He's working on filling up 
> his second NAS full of games he can't bear to delete even though he's 
> never played them, never will, and in some cases may not even be 
> playable on current hardware. But who am I to point the finger? I have 
> a shelf full of old Macintosh floppies I can't bear to get rid of 
> either.)

Right.  But it doesn't all have to be in the palm of your hand every 
moment.

> Technology enables people to mistake "nice to have" for "essential to 
> have". Nobody worried about having to leave their music collection at 
> home when they went out when music was on CDs, or albums, because it 
> simply wasn't an option. "Listen to my music collection" was something 
> you did at home. If you went out and started talking about some band 
> from twenty years ago, and you didn't have their album with you, you 
> talked about something else once you ran out of things to say.
>
>
> > > Or as I've mentioned, if you for instance get talking to someone
> > > about a band from two decades ago that you have a half dozen albums
> > > of... sitting at home on the computer!
> > That just doesn't happen too often.
>
> Yes, but think of it... you're driving along a lonely country road when 
> aliens abduct you and take you up to the mothership. Hu-man," they 
> say, "Emperor Xymatvfg!ohq has sent us to des-troy your dis-gusting 
> plan-et unless you immediately give us the rare 1986 recording 
> of 'Still in Hollywood' from Concrete Blonde's self-titled album."

WTF is Concrete Blonde?

> What will you do now? Is the fate of the entire world worth the risk?

Kiss my arse goodbye?

--
Obsession with "preserving cultural heritage" is a racist impediment
to moral, physical and intellectual progress.