Music

[Slick Arrado]

check out the .mp3 newsgroups on usenet. Stuff gets posted there all the time.
-Tock

Tock, PLEASE teach me how to use newsgroups!!!! :spudniklu

[Tock]

Tock, PLEASE teach me how to use newsgroups!!11 :spudniklu

First, ya need to have a newsgroup reader (comes free with Outlook Express). Then ya gotta get hooked up to newsgroups with your ISP, then you do a 1-time download of all the available newsgroups (some ISPs have more extensive lists than others, and some keep old postings longer than others--AOL just got rid of all of theirs, so YMMV). Then, you click on whatever newsgroups you want to subscribe to, and then on whichever particular post you want to view.

I download lots of stuff from alt.binaries.sounds.78rpm-era, but if old jazz isn't your karma, look for the music files in the newsgroups with the word BINARIES or MP3 or similar terms . . . to find 'em, just type the words in the search thingy for the list of newsgroups you downloaded from your ISP.

Newsgroups are what was on the local BBS's back in the early 1990's, and what all the computer users used to play on before the Internet got off the ground. It's sorta primitive, but it's been tweaked, and after you get used to it, it makes a lot of sense, and becomes easier to use.
Ya, I got hooked on newsgroups back in days when the Commodore 64 and a 1200 baud modem were state of the art . . . and 12 characters per second dot matrix printers . . .

If your ISP doesn't offer newsgroups, you can subscribe to very good websites that have excellent collections, like

http://www.newsville.com/
http://www.uncensored-newsgroup-provider.com/
http://www.usenet-provider.com/
http://www.mybinaries.com/
http://www.newsguy.com/

I've never used any of their services, but they look pretty good.

Once you get set up, and if you use your MS Outlook Express as a newsreader, you look for an interesting mp3 file to download. They'll generally be posted in 500k pieces, so a 5 MB file will be posted as something like
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[1/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[2/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[3/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[4/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[5/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[6/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[7/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[8/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[10/10]

If your ISP is cheap like mine is, you'll get partial postings, where not all the parts will make it to the news server. But the sheer quantity of postings makes it likely that sooner or later, you'll be able to get a bunch of stuff you like.

Then, if you're using MS Outlook Express, once you get everything downloaded (you just hold down the CONTROL key while you click all the files), a Window thingy pops up, and you COMBINE them, and you get a nice little file icon that you can either click on and play or save to your hard drive. Pretty cool, IMHO.

Dunno how it's done with other newsgroup readers . . . I downloaded another reader for free that's supposed to be better than OE, but it was too much bother to learn something new, and I'm still getting lots of mp3 file the old way, so I guess I just lack the incentive to go to something newer and better.
Oh well.

-----
I recommend, though, that you DON'T use MS Outlook Express as your newsreader, if you're not already using it. The current version does not handle an encryption style known as "Yenc" which is supposed to have size advantages over the usual mp3 encryption format, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't really care about size as my hard drive is huge. But you'll probably see both formats, so it's probably best to use a newsreader capable of assembling Yenc files.

That's about all I can think of to tell ya about this stuff . . . hope it helps . . .

-Tock

[Slick Arrado]

First, ya need to have a newsgroup reader (comes free with Outlook Express). Then ya gotta get hooked up to newsgroups with your ISP, then you do a 1-time download of all the available newsgroups (some ISPs have more extensive lists than others, and some keep old postings longer than others--AOL just got rid of all of theirs, so YMMV). Then, you click on whatever newsgroups you want to subscribe to, and then on whichever particular post you want to view.

I download lots of stuff from alt.binaries.sounds.78rpm-era, but if old jazz isn't your karma, look for the music files in the newsgroups with the word BINARIES or MP3 or similar terms . . . to find 'em, just type the words in the search thingy for the list of newsgroups you downloaded from your ISP.

Newsgroups are what was on the local BBS's back in the early 1990's, and what all the computer users used to play on before the Internet got off the ground. It's sorta primitive, but it's been tweaked, and after you get used to it, it makes a lot of sense, and becomes easier to use.
Ya, I got hooked on newsgroups back in days when the Commodore 64 and a 1200 baud modem were state of the art . . . and 12 characters per second dot matrix printers . . .

If your ISP doesn't offer newsgroups, you can subscribe to very good websites that have excellent collections, like

http://www.newsville.com/
http://www.uncensored-newsgroup-provider.com/
http://www.usenet-provider.com/
http://www.mybinaries.com/
http://www.newsguy.com/

I've never used any of their services, but they look pretty good.

Once you get set up, and if you use your MS Outlook Express as a newsreader, you look for an interesting mp3 file to download. They'll generally be posted in 500k pieces, so a 5 MB file will be posted as something like
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[1/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[2/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[3/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[4/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[5/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[6/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[7/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[8/10]
RockBoppersKittenInParadise(1998)[10/10]

If your ISP is cheap like mine is, you'll get partial postings, where not all the parts will make it to the news server. But the sheer quantity of postings makes it likely that sooner or later, you'll be able to get a bunch of stuff you like.

Then, if you're using MS Outlook Express, once you get everything downloaded (you just hold down the CONTROL key while you click all the files), a Window thingy pops up, and you COMBINE them, and you get a nice little file icon that you can either click on and play or save to your hard drive. Pretty cool, IMHO.

Dunno how it's done with other newsgroup readers . . . I downloaded another reader for free that's supposed to be better than OE, but it was too much bother to learn something new, and I'm still getting lots of mp3 file the old way, so I guess I just lack the incentive to go to something newer and better.
Oh well.

-----
I recommend, though, that you DON'T use MS Outlook Express as your newsreader, if you're not already using it. The current version does not handle an encryption style known as "Yenc" which is supposed to have size advantages over the usual mp3 encryption format, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't really care about size as my hard drive is huge. But you'll probably see both formats, so it's probably best to use a newsreader capable of assembling Yenc files.

That's about all I can think of to tell ya about this stuff . . . hope it helps . . .

-Tock

Thanks for the info. Do I need to call my ISP to get hooked up with the newsgroups? :spudniklu

[Tock]

Thanks for the info. Do I need to call my ISP to get hooked up with the newsgroups? :spudniklu

It's been a while since I configured a newsgroup reader, so I don't recall what's involved other than it's just a couple of phrases typed in a couple of screens, but ya, your ISP can help you get things set up.
-Tock