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

[Steven D'Aprano]

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.)

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."

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



-- 
Steven D'Aprano