PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: Uh-oh! I don’t like the sound of this. Is it going to be an awfully LONG text?
Something like the Upgrade topic perhaps?
Yes, I’m afraid so – Arm yourselves with patience…
■ “The natives are restless”
Over the past 7 weeks or so I got lots of requests as well as some messages urging me to post “new stuff” – ANYTHING would do just to show the blog is still *active*.
Some of you went even further and nominated me for the “Slacker of the year” Award.
I mean, come on! Slacker of the year? Summer’s maybe 😛
Anyhow, there’s a perfectly good explanation for this major setback (besides watching every single World Cup game that is).
Remember how at some point (almost) every uploaded file started to be *corrupted*?
Well, over the time the problem deteriorated…
Starting July the 2nd I realised the upload speed has plummeted beyond belief <= Go ahead, click it won’t hurt you!
We’re talking one sixth of the nominal value (which is 1024 kbps) or less!
That’s approximately 170 kbps, not far from what a dial-up user (ISDN subscription using both channels) would get a decade ago (back to STONE AGE are we?)
Now, can you estimate how long it takes to upload a FLAC rip under these conditions?
(the *average* RAR archive containing FLACs is usually 400MB or more)
WAY WAY WAY too long, unFUCKINGbelievably long and that’s for one hoster only; multiply by 2 or 3 depending on the number of “mirrors”.
The last thing I managed to upload at full speed was Eclipse‘s sophomore album (spectacular in every aspect) “Are you ready to Rock” which can be found here.
After that it’s been an utter mess, a complete CHAOS.
Nod if you got it.
You did? That’s good to know.
■ “Waiting for the phone to ring”
I let a day or two pass hoping the problem would just *go away*. During that time, I tried switching routers, cables, reconfiguring the hardware etc.
Every attempt failed, so I prepared myself for the ULTIMATE ordeal which is none other than getting actual help from Tech Support.
Although I noticed some improvements (the staff responsible for receiving calls are no longer clueless), solving issues related with the copper wire (e.g. crosstalk/noise/interferences etc) remains difficult and painfully time-consuming.
As a first step they tweaked a few things – actually it was only one, the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio).
That’s the easy part done remotely but in my case it didn’t improve things at all.
When they realised this approach had no effect whatsoever, they forwarded my request for a line check to the respective department of another ISP – the one that owns the so-called “last mile”.
The latter gave a vague “the problem is not on our end” answer (Note: it’s not uncommon to PRETEND to check such requests when it comes to clients of competitive internet providers) so an appointment with a dedicated technician was scheduled in order to do some readings in the building.
Did I say scheduled? That’s really a euphemism. You see it took more than a week before the guy appeared.
Terrible delay and so many calls I’ve lost count; after numerous postponements the tech finally showed up on Friday the 16th.
■ “Houston, we have a problem!”
It came as no surprise: Short circuit (I hope I got the correct term in English) 852 meters from the building.
The equipment (a SunSet MTT handheld analyzer) spotted the EXACT point leaving no room for misunderstandings and/or (cheap) excuses.
I had solid, undeniable evidence in my possession – Hell, I even took pictures just in case.
Don’t laugh! Did you know they CHARGE some €50 extra for sending “unnecessary tech support”?
■ “All’s well that ends well”
Well, NOT quite.
You see, although the line was ultimately restored (took 5 more days after the tech’s visit) it was done so partially.
Sure the speed is now decent but the files still get corrupted on transfer. Often. Infuriatingly often.
So bear with me and just follow the simplest-guide-it-could-ever-be right below the last download link, will you?
Hopefully the problem will be solved permanently when I switch to another ISP 😉
-21grams, don’t spend your time and ears with any BS people could say/write about you or your blog.
I think this is one of the best sources of HQ rips of Rock (there are plenty HQ blogs for Jazz, but not for REALLY GOOD Hard Rock).
So, keep posting all these gems please!
I live in Brazil and I used to have a blog also… I must say that internet services here are 10.000 times worse, so I know what U R talking about, pal.
ISPs used to call DL data rates of 400 kbps as “broadband”… Can you believe it?
Regards, zm @ Sao Paulo, BZ
There will always be bastards who will bug you about “their” music.
I had to shut down my blog 2 years ago… sigh.
Anyway, like I mentioned several times this kind of sharing cuts both ways IMHO.
I discovered loads of great stuff which I would never have discovered otherwise.
Being a collector myself, this means what I really like, I buy!
Nothing beats the original CD. Furthermore I know several people like Cybersnake who also buys loads of CDs which he “discovered” on the internet.
So, I would say, ignore these people and keep up the GOOD work.
Thanks for all your effort (this goes also for the musicians, otherwise there will be nothing left to discover).
I’ll keep supporting the artists like you do yourself 😉
In my opinion, you’re doing a great job. Thanks once again.
Still trying to get in FLAC format: Thunder – The magnificent seventh [2005; Japanese edition inc. bonus track; Enhanced CD]. Unfortunately all links are down. Thanks in advance.
akira
Free
-21grams
-21gramns
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
Uh-oh! I don’t like the sound of this. Is it going to be an awfully LONG text?
Something like the Upgrade topic perhaps?
Yes, I’m afraid so – Arm yourselves with patience…
■ “The natives are restless”
Over the past 7 weeks or so I got lots of requests as well as some messages urging me to post “new stuff” – ANYTHING would do just to show the blog is still *active*.
Some of you went even further and nominated me for the “Slacker of the year” Award.
I mean, come on! Slacker of the year? Summer’s maybe 😛
Anyhow, there’s a perfectly good explanation for this major setback (besides watching every single World Cup game that is).
Remember how at some point (almost) every uploaded file started to be *corrupted*?
Well, over the time the problem deteriorated…
Starting July the 2nd I realised the upload speed has plummeted beyond belief <= Go ahead, click it won’t hurt you!
We’re talking one sixth of the nominal value (which is 1024 kbps) or less!
That’s approximately 170 kbps, not far from what a dial-up user (ISDN subscription using both channels) would get a decade ago (back to STONE AGE are we?)
Now, can you estimate how long it takes to upload a FLAC rip under these conditions?
(the *average* RAR archive containing FLACs is usually 400MB or more)
WAY WAY WAY too long, unFUCKINGbelievably long and that’s for one hoster only; multiply by 2 or 3 depending on the number of “mirrors”.
The last thing I managed to upload at full speed was Eclipse‘s sophomore album (spectacular in every aspect) “Are you ready to Rock” which can be found here.
After that it’s been an utter mess, a complete CHAOS.
Nod if you got it.
You did? That’s good to know.
■ “Waiting for the phone to ring”
I let a day or two pass hoping the problem would just *go away*. During that time, I tried switching routers, cables, reconfiguring the hardware etc.
Every attempt failed, so I prepared myself for the ULTIMATE ordeal which is none other than getting actual help from Tech Support.
Although I noticed some improvements (the staff responsible for receiving calls are no longer clueless), solving issues related with the copper wire (e.g. crosstalk/noise/interferences etc) remains difficult and painfully time-consuming.
As a first step they tweaked a few things – actually it was only one, the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio).
That’s the easy part done remotely but in my case it didn’t improve things at all.
When they realised this approach had no effect whatsoever, they forwarded my request for a line check to the respective department of another ISP – the one that owns the so-called “last mile”.
The latter gave a vague “the problem is not on our end” answer (Note: it’s not uncommon to PRETEND to check such requests when it comes to clients of competitive internet providers) so an appointment with a dedicated technician was scheduled in order to do some readings in the building.
Did I say scheduled? That’s really a euphemism. You see it took more than a week before the guy appeared.
Terrible delay and so many calls I’ve lost count; after numerous postponements the tech finally showed up on Friday the 16th.
■ “Houston, we have a problem!”
It came as no surprise: Short circuit (I hope I got the correct term in English) 852 meters from the building.
The equipment (a SunSet MTT handheld analyzer) spotted the EXACT point leaving no room for misunderstandings and/or (cheap) excuses.
I had solid, undeniable evidence in my possession – Hell, I even took pictures just in case.
Don’t laugh! Did you know they CHARGE some €50 extra for sending “unnecessary tech support”?
■ “All’s well that ends well”
Well, NOT quite.
You see, although the line was ultimately restored (took 5 more days after the tech’s visit) it was done so partially.
Sure the speed is now decent but the files still get corrupted on transfer. Often. Infuriatingly often.
So bear with me and just follow the simplest-guide-it-could-ever-be right below the last download link, will you?
Hopefully the problem will be solved permanently when I switch to another ISP 😉
-21grams, don’t spend your time and ears with any BS people could say/write about you or your blog.
I think this is one of the best sources of HQ rips of Rock (there are plenty HQ blogs for Jazz, but not for REALLY GOOD Hard Rock).
So, keep posting all these gems please!
I live in Brazil and I used to have a blog also… I must say that internet services here are 10.000 times worse, so I know what U R talking about, pal.
ISPs used to call DL data rates of 400 kbps as “broadband”… Can you believe it?
Regards,
zm @ Sao Paulo, BZ
No worries for me.
I can wait and I thank you for all the work you’ve done.
It’s summertime, relax and have fun.
Just remember that you don’t have to upload FLAC files, 320 kbps will do just fine.
Or 256 and 192 kbps. It saves you time and the quality is nice.
Ignore the critics mate, you have an excellent blog here and your efforts in keeping it live are appreciated.
Cheers,
Marshall
I second ZM-JazzRock.
Keep your lossless posts as usual.
Thanks for all your effort.
Cheers from Brazil.
There will always be bastards who will bug you about “their” music.
I had to shut down my blog 2 years ago… sigh.
Anyway, like I mentioned several times this kind of sharing cuts both ways IMHO.
I discovered loads of great stuff which I would never have discovered otherwise.
Being a collector myself, this means what I really like, I buy!
Nothing beats the original CD. Furthermore I know several people like Cybersnake who also buys loads of CDs which he “discovered” on the internet.
So, I would say, ignore these people and keep up the GOOD work.
Thanks for all your effort (this goes also for the musicians, otherwise there will be nothing left to discover).
I’ll keep supporting the artists like you do yourself 😉
In my opinion, you’re doing a great job. Thanks once again.
Don’t let the trolls rule, keep up the good work!