Be Excellent To Each Other

I find it hard to get into the digital download of music. While it's partly fuelled by the physical product often being cheaper than the download, I just can't seem to let go of my liking for having the physical product. I need a CD.

But this makes me think of older people that I have thought of as being set in their ways and unable to embrace the modern age. So I thought am I finally at an age where I'm unable to accept new technology? I also still find it hard to read long (ish) things on the web. But still love a magazine.

So what new fangled technology or lifestyle thing are you too old to understand?

I love downloads. They're free mostly!

Oddly I've spent more on vinyl in the last 3 months than I have on CDs or iTunes stuff.

As far as having a lovely physical piece of music, a record with it's lovely cover artwork and inlay pisses over all other formats.

Until it's scratched.

I'm not old. I embrace modern technology.

Even as I type I'm considering an Compact Flash adaptor for my Amiga.

About 3 and a half years ago I broke up with my fiance, moved out of the flat we owned and back in with mum & dad. I'm still here with mum & dad for that matter and it seems that in between leaving them in the first place, moving back in and up to the present day, I've acquired an awful lot of stuff. So much in fact, that I can barely bloody move in my bedroom now. I would tidy it, but I have nowhere to put any of it, which is why most of my shit is strewn across the floor.

Therefore, I have completely, totally and utterly embraced digital downloads. Almost all the music I buy now is from iTunes, the occasional CD I buy or get given gets imported into iTunes then swiftly chucked in the car and I pretty much exclusively get my games through Steam now. I simply ain't gots the room for any more physical products. The only exception I really make is movies, as I am rather partial to increasing my BluRay collection from time to time.

I don't necessarily fight the march of technology, I'm just not interested in a lot of it. I've never owned a mobile phone, for instance, and have little to no interest in downloading music, TV progs or films. On the other hand, where there's no choice in the matter I haven't run away screaming and gibbering - I have a hard drive stuffed with Xbox Live games, for example.

The one thing I will fight to the bitter end is when all games become download only. As a collector, the box/manual/disc/cart/whatever are far too important to give up without a fight.

I also tend to just mooch along with technological trends compliantly, albeit 3 years after everyone else. The only exception I think I would make that may make me "old" is that I can't see myself ever downloading a book to read, I would always buy a physical copy. But that's slightly different to music because of the portability element, although you could argue if I also got an iPhone or summat then I could read my e-book quite happily on the move just as I would read a dog-eared paperback. It's possible I could change my habit eventually, but it would be a grudging change.

I don't think it's gadgets that will act as my barometer for being out of touch. There's that much stuff connected to my wireless network that I'm surprised child protection haven't been round with free tin foil hats for the kids to protect them from all that evil radiation.

It's when I talk to a 20 year old lass who has no idea who Fawlty Towers or even Blackadder is that I feel old.

Strangely I've also got less time for forums / usenet - back in my twenties and early thirties I would spend a ridiculous amount of time racking up stupid post counts and harvesting the contents of every single thread going on a number of forums and newsgroups. Now there's this place - which I only keep in touch with about 50% of the threads and never get involved in the more heated / deeper debates because I quite simply can't be arsed. To my horror arguing on the internet (mainly with Cavey back in the olden days) has lost its lustre.

Ah, yes. I was in the pub a couple of weeks ago with some young American students when that godawful Crazy Frog song came on. I was shocked to discover that they only knew it as the Crazy Frog song, because they'd never heard of Axel Foley/seen Beverly Hills Cop.

Shocking.

To be fair though you are really really old.

Not so old that I ain't gonna bitch slap yo ass at the Manchester meet biatch.

See I am well young - I can type in that peculiar street idiom. innit.

Looking forward to the meet, can't wait to hear about you fighting the Zulus.

We'll get you a chair close to the fire.

If I've left space for anyone, that is. I'll be in the armchair by the fire, in my cardigan and slippers.

I still prefer CDs to downloads, but that's because I get all OCD about the bitrates. Other than that I'd much prefer to not have physical product. Probably half my CD collection has only been inside a player once, when it was ripped.

Well, twice now; I'm re-ripping all my CDs as Apple Lossless.

If any of us can sit down, of course.

Good point. I may bring my inflatable armchair, then.

No! You've discovered Gaywood's super-villain weakness!

"First they said CDs were no match for vinyl. Then they said MP3s were no match for CDs. Now they say streaming music services are no match for MP3s. They're only happy looking in the rear-view mirror.

Crackly warm vinyl sounds wonderful, but you can't listen to it on the bus, or squish it into a machine the size of a raisin. And unless your MP3s are encoded at such a low rate that it sounds as though the band's playing woollen instruments in a water tank, and provided you're listening to some halfway decent music in the first place, your brain quickly cancels out any concerns about "lossiness" and gets on with enjoying the music. I've never quite understood the psychological makeup of the self-professed audiophile – the sort of person who spends £500 on a gold-plated lead and can't listen to a three-minute pop song without instinctively carrying out a painstaking forensic audit of the sound quality. That's not a music fan. That's a noise- processing unit."

@Grim: NOOOOOOOO

@Kissyfur: yes, I agree. I said it was OCD, I didn't say it was rational.

So what happens if an inflatable armchair is in range, then? Just out of interest. I'm sure I won't have space in my bag to bring one.

It's rational for classical music, for me, where low bitrates lead to noise in the parts that are supposed to be silent. That annoys me and always stands out, regardless of how 'in to' the music I get.

Largely, though, I feel the same way as you do about physical products. My CDs get ripped then sit on a shelf, my DVDs get watched once then sit on a shelf, my books usually get read once then sit on a shelf. It's only games where I appreciate a physical product, and that's only due to the comparitively large resale value; actually having to select the disc from my shelf, particularly games requiring disc-swapping, will always be an arse.

If we can't, I promise to be Artie Fufkin for the rest of evening.