[HN Gopher] The Prince symbol has been salvaged from a 1993 flop...
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       The Prince symbol has been salvaged from a 1993 floppy disk
        
       Author : glitcher
       Score  : 208 points
       Date   : 2021-11-30 15:13 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (cdm.link)
 (TXT) w3m dump (cdm.link)
        
       | ok123456 wrote:
       | This was around the time Prince was sending out cease and disease
       | letters to people hosting Prince midi files.
        
       | ComputerGuru wrote:
       | After all that, they uploaded it to the archive as an image
       | rather than as a font or vector file!?
        
       | Stampo00 wrote:
       | The title is a bit hyperbolic. Although it's cool to secure an
       | original diskette and read it, archived versions were already
       | available online.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | jareklupinski wrote:
         | yea I wish they went into a bit more detail on _how_ they
         | extracted it, so the next person who needs to dump an
         | unarchived floppy can follow their steps
        
       | dhosek wrote:
       | Part of the dispute Prince was having with the label continues to
       | this day and is why Taylor Swift has re-recorded all her albums.
       | It is "standard practice" for the label to take ownership of the
       | copyright on the recorded material (called phonographic copyright
       | and indicated with ) while charging all the costs of recording
       | against the artist's share of the royalties which can result in
       | an artist owing the label money for a hit record.
       | 
       | Ray Charles was a pioneer in insisting that he own the
       | phonographic copyright on his recordings when he moved from
       | Atlantic to ABC-Paramount yet this remained something out of
       | reach for most artists. Robert Fripp was engaged in a decades-
       | long lawsuit against EG to regain control of the phonographic
       | copyright on King Crimson material (as well as to recoup
       | illegally withheld royalties). Squeeze is another artist who re-
       | recorded their albums to reclaim the phonographic copyright.
       | 
       | It's worth noting that Warner Brothers' response to Swift re-
       | recording her albums was to update their contracts to prevent any
       | other artist from following in her footsteps.
        
         | mikepurvis wrote:
         | "It's worth noting that Warner Brothers' response to Swift re-
         | recording her albums was to update their contracts to prevent
         | any other artist from following in her footsteps."
         | 
         | Is there any indication how this is working for them and their
         | artists? I would think given the massive publicity that the
         | Taylor Swift effort has received, it would be quite the other
         | way, with more artists insisting on getting those rights
         | upfront. I know they're typically young and desperate/powerless
         | when these things are being negotiated, but I would think the
         | "go it yourself" route is if anything more robust now than ever
         | before-- no one cares about physical distribution, there are
         | many paths to getting your stuff on Spotify and iTunes, and
         | most small-time artists I know are doing the
         | publicity/engagement side themselves with some combination of
         | regular video content on YouTube and streaming mini-concerts.
         | 
         | What can WB or any other major label offer an artist like this
         | in exchange for the gigantic ask that is "we own all your stuff
         | forever and btw we also own any re-recordings of these songs"?
        
           | Hokusai wrote:
           | > with more artists insisting on getting those rights upfront
           | 
           | I doubt that unknown artist can negotiate anything. What you
           | are offered is better than nothing. Big corporations abuse
           | their position all the time, individuals can not
           | realistically opt out. The only option is regulations and law
           | enforcement.
           | 
           | > What can WB or any other major label offer an artist like
           | this in exchange for the gigantic ask that is "we own all
           | your stuff forever and btw we also own any re-recordings of
           | these songs"?
           | 
           | Advertisement, legal protection (mainly from themselves),
           | access to traditional media, and distribution in general. How
           | many artist make it out of the big labels system? There is a
           | reason for that.
        
             | mikepurvis wrote:
             | "How many artist make it out of the big labels system?"
             | 
             | Lots, particularly if your criteria is "big labels" and not
             | just "labels":
             | 
             | https://www.complex.com/pigeons-and-
             | planes/2017/07/independe...
        
         | phkahler wrote:
         | "Oh, you need to sign over the copyright to us so we can
         | legally make and distribute copies." I think that's
         | approximately the line of bullshit they give. No, by default
         | creators own their copyright and can license that on terms they
         | allow. Once you sign that over it's just not your material
         | anymore.
        
         | fossuser wrote:
         | In the old world the business model made sense, it no longer
         | does.
         | 
         | Part of what gets distorted by Taylor Swift and Dave Chappelle
         | is the larger context. Similar to VC the vast majority of label
         | supported musicians are economic failures. The big winners pay
         | for the rest of the failures.
         | 
         | With modern distribution this is mostly a bad deal.
         | 
         | Since the 'Non Fungible Taylor Swift' [0] is really in control
         | she can subvert this (until contracts get updated), but
         | generally people can just go direct now and do their own
         | marketing or negotiate better terms for investment.
         | 
         | I'm not fan of the music labels or how their clinging to an
         | outdated business model for decades has set back their market
         | cap by probably billions (compare to free to play videogames),
         | but the way this is often portrayed by the rare breakout
         | artists is similarly warped and one-sided. You never hear from
         | the failures the label funded that didn't make it.
         | 
         | [0]: https://stratechery.com/2021/non-fungible-taylor-swift/
        
           | thaeli wrote:
           | > compare to free to play videogames
           | 
           | What's the music equivalent of abusive lootbox and gatcha
           | mechanics? Those seem to drive a lot of the free-to-play
           | profit..
        
             | fossuser wrote:
             | In games its give away the game and pay for the skins,
             | characters etc.
             | 
             | In music its give away the songs and pay for the merch,
             | shows, access to artist, etc.
             | 
             | The market for the latter is huge. The music is the viral
             | hook you can use to take advantage of the internet's
             | distribution in order to get the attention to create fans
             | and drive them towards the other stuff.
             | 
             | With the internet you don't even need to rely on mega-pop
             | stars, there's enough people at scale for a lot of niche
             | audiences.
        
           | smcameron wrote:
           | I don't think it _ever_ made sense. Steve Albini wrote an
           | article about how fucked up it all was back in 1993:
           | https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music
        
             | chaosharmonic wrote:
             | During the Napster era Courtney Love made a similar
             | argument that record labels are the real pirates. [0]
             | 
             | https://www.salon.com/2000/06/14/love_7/
        
             | bingohbangoh wrote:
             | Not entirely related, but one doesn't necesarily use the
             | advances as cash in the pocket -- you dump it into assets
             | that pay you money (e.g. bonds).
             | 
             | Taken to an extreme, you see David Bowie who floated the
             | royalties of all his records as a financial instrument that
             | you can buy. [0]
             | 
             | [0]: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bowie-bond.asp
        
             | fossuser wrote:
             | I think there's a reasonable argument there, but I can
             | understand the model better before the internet (since
             | distribution was way harder and more expensive). The terms
             | were definitely bad for talent because early talent had no
             | leverage before the internet (and couldn't coordinate).
             | 
             | After the internet whatever argument the record companies
             | had was way weaker and their unwillingness to update
             | (instead attempting to fight everything legally) cost them
             | enormous returns.
        
             | dllthomas wrote:
             | _" I prove to you that I am bad enough to get into hell,
             | because I have been through it! I have seen it! It has
             | happened to me! Remember: I was signed for Warner Brothers
             | for eight fucking years!"_ - Zappa in '79
        
           | cycomanic wrote:
           | What is truly enraging in the story about major music labels
           | and copyright is how they essentially pushed through massive
           | law changes in many countries making breaking copyright
           | crimes (not just civil cases) and going after some file
           | sharers with absolutely outrages claims of lost earnings (and
           | often won).
           | 
           | At the same time they got caught red handed disregarding
           | copyright themselves multiple times (Sony's rootkit which
           | used some linux copyright IIRC, or the case of several major
           | record labels releasing compilation albums of music without
           | artist consent and copyright in Canada are just two
           | examples). By their own calculations used against file shares
           | the damages should have amounted to billions, but they got
           | away with not so much but a slap on the wrist. I wish some
           | judge would have really made an example of some of them.
        
             | BrandoElFollito wrote:
             | In France they managed to make the country pay for the hunt
             | against P2P.
             | 
             | There was a governmental agency (Hadopi) that costed
             | millions of euros and due to the stupid law managed to won
             | I think one case for 2000EUR.
             | 
             | They got merged into another useless agency and was
             | forgotten. I am not sure whether they still exist, nobody
             | really cares.
             | 
             | This is how pay of our tax money is spent in France, on
             | subsidized sandboxes for politicians.
        
             | fossuser wrote:
             | No disagreement with me there, the copyright laws are a
             | disaster and have long lost their way from the 'means' to
             | "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by
             | securing for _limited Times_ to Authors and Inventors the
             | exclusive Right to their respective Writings and
             | Discoveries. "
             | 
             | The purpose is to incentivize creative works for the public
             | benefit with the _limited time_ exclusive rights, not
             | retroactively extend copyright years after the death of the
             | author to enrich their rights-holders in perpetuity every
             | time expiration comes up.
             | 
             | As it is, you can't even make something public domain
             | yourself - the best you can do is add a permissive license
             | since all rights are reserved by default without
             | registration.
             | 
             | But this is getting somewhat off topic.
        
       | chriscjcj wrote:
       | If it was part of a font, then I would think that the logo was in
       | vector form. (It could have been a bitmap font, of course, but if
       | you're sending the font to magazines and publishers, a postscript
       | or TueType font would have been more appropriate.) If it did
       | exist in the font as a vector based image, it seems strange to
       | upload a rasterized version to archive.org. It wouldn't have been
       | too hard to upload it as an svg or eps and maintain its quality
       | regardless of its size/resolution.
        
         | pavon wrote:
         | The article says the Mac version was a bmapfile which is a
         | rasterized image format, not vector form. That said, they
         | really should have uploaded the original files to archive.org,
         | in addition to the conversion to a more common format.
        
       | mmastrac wrote:
       | Not snarky at all, but this would be great as an SVG - which
       | could then be turned into a proper TTF using the private-use
       | area.
       | 
       | EDIT: seems to be available as a TTF here (but apparently under
       | 'S' rather than 'P'):
       | https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvj2ss4jfymvir1/AADXW3RWGwgykj1mg...
        
       | marcodiego wrote:
       | Hmmm... Prince, not Prince of Persia.
        
       | jonplackett wrote:
       | CompuServe. That's a name I forgot I used to know so well!
        
         | AutumnCurtain wrote:
         | I still have a freebie shirt they gave me in like 1994. Who
         | knew it would outlast them
        
           | fullstop wrote:
           | I have a Sun Microsystems shirt from the same era. It still
           | fits!
        
             | mnw21cam wrote:
             | I was given a Sun t-shirt that had been compressed into a
             | surfboard shape at a conference. Unfortunately they gave me
             | a size that could probably have fitted three of me in, so
             | it got worn a couple of times and then used for painting
             | until it wore out.
        
         | scrumper wrote:
         | Nice that their legacy lives on, thrives really, in GIFs.
        
       | SavantIdiot wrote:
       | This article grossly understates how much Anil Dash adores
       | Prince! Anyone who's followed Anil knows it goes quite deep.
        
       | teajunky wrote:
       | The name doesn't matter to me. I would like to hear these five
       | hundred songs
        
       | dr-detroit wrote:
       | Some muppet will give you a million dollar if you say its an NFT
        
       | linsomniac wrote:
       | Prince's name change reminds me of that Bit of Fry and Laurie
       | police station sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-
       | dchJPXGA
        
       | xg15 wrote:
       | This could be solved today with a short application to the
       | Unicode consortium and a few OS updates, so I guess we made
       | progress :)
        
         | Tijdreiziger wrote:
         | Well, no -- that's discussed in the article:
         | 
         | > Parker Higgins investigated whether Prince could be honored
         | in unicode with this symbol. (Answer - no, on three counts, as
         | it's personal, a logo, and protected intellectual property.)
        
         | rectang wrote:
         | From the article:
         | 
         | > _Parker Higgins investigated whether Prince could be honored
         | in unicode with this symbol. (Answer - no, on three counts, as
         | it's personal, a logo, and protected intellectual property.)_
        
           | xg15 wrote:
           | Argh, I'm sorry. And that's why one should always read the
           | article fully before commenting...
        
           | ajb wrote:
           | Apparently some fans proposed a combining-character
           | representation though: http://www.unicode.org/mail-
           | arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML...
           | 
           | T
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | watch it become part of a future version of fontawesome
        
         | rsynnott wrote:
         | The Unicode consortium is generally quite resistant to this
         | sort of thing; I think you'd probably have to establish more
         | use than just "one person uses this as a name".
         | 
         | Notoriously, they won't even allow Klingon.
        
           | BeFlatXIII wrote:
           | No Tengwar, either.
        
           | revolvingocelot wrote:
           | >Notoriously, they won't even allow Klingon.
           | 
           | I can't resist, gotta agitate about this. Unicode allocated
           | space for the legendarily-untranslated Minoan script _Linear
           | A_ , for fuck's sake! Unicode allocated space for fucking
           | _Ogham script_ -- not that that 's inappropriate, but it's
           | unlikely to be used by the vast majority of people, now or in
           | future, simply as a consequence of its antiquity and
           | obsolescence.
           | 
           | Of course I'm revealing my 90s-trek power level here, but
           | it's seriously puzzling (shading all the way up into quietly
           | infuriating) that these dead languages' scripts are welcomed,
           | while an, er, conlang that has actual _living speakers_ can
           | 't have any of the frankly voluminous Unicodespace. _QI
           | 'yaH_!
        
             | DonaldFisk wrote:
             | Dead languages and scripts are studied, though. The Unicode
             | is there for them so that scholars can type and print what
             | was actually written/carved, instead of a Roman alphabet
             | transcription. The problem with Klingon is it's a conlang,
             | and anyone can design a new script for their conlang and
             | demand a Unicode block.
        
             | nathell wrote:
             | My pet peeve is U+A66E (CYRILLIC LETTER MULTIOCULAR O, )
             | [0], a glyph that had literally been used _once only in
             | history_ by a 15-century scribe before making its way into
             | Unicode. And when it did, the reference rendering (7-eyed)
             | is different from the one originally used by that scribe
             | (10-eyed).
             | 
             | [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiocular_O
        
               | malermeister wrote:
               | It's even funnier, the one use of the multi-ocular o was
               | in a text referring to many-eyed (i.e. multi-ocular)
               | seraphims.
               | 
               | Sounds like the only documented use was a visual pun from
               | 600 years ago.
        
               | Macha wrote:
               | There's also plenty of "ghost" kanji which first appeared
               | in a dictionary with no evidence for use and some which
               | have been positively identified to a single source as a
               | mistaken/sloppy handwritten attempt at a different real
               | kanji character.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > a glyph that had literally been used once only in
               | history by a 15-century scribe before making its way into
               | Unicode.
               | 
               | Your Wikipedia article says "certain manuscripts", not a
               | single use. (It does say it is only ever used in one
               | specific _phrase_ , though,)
        
               | tata71 wrote:
               | Anyone have a curated list of cool Unicode shapes?
        
               | dotancohen wrote:
               | The Unicode symbol preceding the topic of discussion,
               | "Cyrillic letter Double Monocular O", has a rather
               | suggestive shape:
               | 
               | Everywhere I look something reminds me of her...
        
               | dotancohen wrote:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5OQMoSCrqw
        
               | sdenton4 wrote:
               | well, that's definitely going into all my future Call of
               | Cthlhu games whenever a shggth is mentioned...
        
               | klyrs wrote:
               | They better have an i with a heart replacing the dot...
        
               | jfk13 wrote:
               | You may be looking for https://www.evertype.com/standards
               | /iso10646/pdf/n258a-heartd...
        
             | WorkLobster wrote:
             | Personal anecdote, but since Ogham has been available in
             | Unicode, I've seen the odd person start being interested in
             | it to write out names, exclamations, etc. It feels like a
             | small previously-closed gate has been opened for a nice
             | little way for people to connect and engage with an old
             | part of our culture.
        
               | revolvingocelot wrote:
               | Oh, that's wonderful, actually! Between my perception of
               | its rarity, and the seeming ability to easily represent
               | it with vector graphics of straight lines, I figured it
               | was a laudable target but I see that it isn't. After all,
               | the idea of a niche script getting more attention because
               | of its inclusion in Unicode is exactly what I'm all
               | excited about.
               | 
               | I'll happily replace Ogham, in future rants, with that
               | fucking multiocular O mentioned in a sibling to the
               | parent.
        
             | mumblemumble wrote:
             | I am guessing that the big difference here is that ogham
             | and linear A are public domain, while Paramount claims
             | copyright ownership of Klingon.
        
               | revolvingocelot wrote:
               | >Paramount claims copyright ownership of Klingon
               | 
               | Well, _sorta_. Not according to the Language Creation
               | Society! From the fallout of the case where Paramount
               | /CBS sued the Axenar guys for the temerity to make a fan
               | film without paying them for it comes this Washington
               | Post opinion [0] (I've added the links found in the text
               | at [1] and [2]):
               | 
               | >It seemed a stretch to suggest that the plaintiffs were
               | claiming copyright in the Klingon language itself, and
               | the court agreed, taking the somewhat unusual step of
               | denying LCS's motion to file its brief [1], on the
               | grounds that the court didn't have to "reach the issue of
               | whether languages, and specifically the Klingon language,
               | are copyrightable" in ruling on the case.
               | 
               | >The LCS has declared victory -- at least to the extent
               | that the final ruling in the case will not hold that the
               | Klingon language is protected by copyright. Its statement
               | -- with a translation into Klingon, for those of you who
               | read Klingon -- is posted here [2].
               | 
               | The situation doesn't seem as rosy as the LCS' statement
               | suggests, but as a consequence, I feel comfortable in
               | claiming that Paramount does not currently, successfully,
               | claim copyright ownership of Klingon. That said, "not
               | getting sued by Paramount in future" is a pretty good
               | reason for Unicode to exclude anything.
               | 
               | Tengwar, the script used to write Quenya and Sindarin,
               | however...
               | 
               | [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-
               | conspiracy/wp/201...
               | 
               | [1] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzmetJxi-p0VN0t5MWNP
               | OTZ4SU0...
               | 
               | [2] https://conlang.org/axanar/#updates
        
               | WorldMaker wrote:
               | There is a difference between the copyright standard of
               | the language itself (which may not be a copyrightable
               | thing, though the court left that for future courts to
               | decide in the given case) and the copyright standard of
               | custom glyphs used by that language though. The custom
               | glyphs themselves to "write" the language are artistic
               | design elements usually recognized to have some copyright
               | protections as with any works of art. (There's also
               | further protections in they way they are often used that
               | sometimes trademark protections also may be applied and
               | looser defined "trade dress" protections as well.
               | Aurebesh, the custom glyphs of Star Wars is pretty
               | heavily defended by such protections in commercial
               | projects.) Unfortunately, the sources for the Klingon
               | glyphs are copyrighted movies and fonts owned or
               | commissioned by ViacomCBS and there's not much of an
               | argument to be made that they aren't art designs they
               | own.
               | 
               | I believe the same applies to Tengwar that too much of
               | comes from artistic work written and/or commissioned for
               | books still in copyright and owned by Houghton Mifflin
               | Harcourt.
               | 
               | Perhaps when more of the copyrights expire on these
               | originating works Unicode can revisit them.
               | Unfortunately, that's not going to happen soon. (Even
               | Tengwar isn't expected to expire until 2044, 70 years
               | after JRR Tolkien's death.)
        
               | mumblemumble wrote:
               | That, and it sounds like this is only covering a case in
               | US copyright law. Unicode potentially has to worry about
               | the rest of the world as well.
               | 
               | I can imagine that the Unicode Consortium's general
               | feeling on the subject is outside the scope of their
               | mission, and that pleasing a sci-fi fandom just isn't
               | really worth the potential for headaches, and that it's
               | better to let them continue to rely on ConScript.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > >Paramount claims copyright ownership of Klingon
               | 
               | > Well, sorta.
               | 
               | Paramount definitely claims copyright on the "Klingon"
               | glyphs from various ST properties that fans have mapped
               | to the language described in _The Klingon Dictionary_
               | (which is newer than the glyphs), so as far as those
               | glyphs and any derivative works are concerned - what both
               | the Unicode Consortium _and_ any font makers would be
               | concerned with - Paramount's copyrights are a problem.
               | 
               | Whether they own the language beyond that may be a murky
               | legal question, but it is also beside the point.
               | 
               | (And, actually, what your source supports is that
               | Paramount definitely claims ownership of Klingon, the
               | other party in the case disputed it, and the court found
               | that they didn't need to decide the issue to resolve the
               | case. That is in no way a "sorta" on "Paramount claims
               | copyright ownership on Klingon". That a third-party
               | seeking to file an amicus brief against Paramount's claim
               | on that point chose to do a victory dance because they
               | were told to go away because the issue they were
               | concerned with was ultimately not material to the
               | resolution of the case is...interesting spin, but not
               | much else.)
        
               | revolvingocelot wrote:
               | >That is in no way a "sorta" on "Paramount claims
               | copyright ownership on Klingon"
               | 
               | I see the problem. IANAL, but I take "Paramount claims
               | copyright" to mean something legally enforceable; an
               | uncontroversial legal right that they are claiming [0].
               | As suggested by both parent and the sources further
               | above, that matter has yet to be settled, and wasn't
               | addressed in the decision. The statement "Paramount
               | claims that it has the copyright to the Klingon language"
               | I wholeheartedly agree with (and disagree, obviously, on
               | the ability of Paramount to claim copyright on a
               | collaborative intellectual effort between James Doohan,
               | Marc Okrand, and others, both due to nerd fervour and a
               | bunch of hand-waving about the intersection of IP and
               | morality that are beyond the scope of this tangent).
               | 
               | [0] Possibly this is due to the ubiquity of the phrase
               | "copyright claim", deployed to describe the monetization
               | of someone else's intellectual property. The uh claimant
               | is presumed to have a legal right to the material being
               | claimed, but it's not clear that Paramount has that legal
               | right.
        
               | xg15 wrote:
               | Ok, my takeaway is that the question "can you copyright
               | languages in the US copyright system?" currently sits at
               | "maybe".
               | 
               | But we're at least sure you can't patent "a procedure for
               | producing ATP using O2 as catalyst and energy source",
               | right?
               | 
               | Right?
        
               | DonaldFisk wrote:
               | Voynichese script is public domain but there's no Unicode
               | for that either. You can get a font for it though, but
               | people studying the Voynich Manuscript usually make do
               | with a transcription based on the Roman alphabet + Arabic
               | numerals (e.g. EVA). Unlike Linear A (or Ogham), there's
               | no consensus that Voynichese means anything, and there's
               | only one book written in it.
        
             | Finnucane wrote:
             | Having been involved in archival projects including archaic
             | scripts, I can tell you that academics feel a similar that
             | the Unicode consortium seems to be prioritizing rafts of
             | new emojis over texts that would be useful to academics.
             | Let alone trekkie fanservice. Just use the PUA, if you
             | really feel that strongly about it.
        
               | rsynnott wrote:
               | AIUI emoji are a different working group to languages
               | (also I _think_ languages of academic interest might be a
               | different group to languages in current use).
        
             | dangerbird2 wrote:
             | Also, how are we read Shakespeare in the original Klingon
             | on the internet?
        
             | rsynnott wrote:
             | So I think the main excuse at the time was that people
             | usually use latin for Klingon. Which honestly feels like a
             | bit of a chicken and an egg problem to me...
        
               | revolvingocelot wrote:
               | Exactly! The Latin character set is used precisely
               | because _Klingon fonts aren 't standardized_!! Nnh!
               | 
               | *hits inhaler*
        
           | dragonwriter wrote:
           | > Notoriously, they won't even allow Klingon.
           | 
           | Copyright issues seem to be a big factor there.
        
           | jhallenworld wrote:
           | Their thinking is too small.. I mean why shouldn't everyone
           | on earth be able to have their own personal symbol? The
           | technical challenge does not seem that insurmountable.
           | 
           | Also it's a business opportunity along the lines of the star
           | name registry.
        
       | notpachet wrote:
       | Prince's struggles with Warner bore other wonderful fruit, as
       | well. Emancipation, Prince's first album after casting off the
       | metaphorical shackles of Warner, is a superb album. It has 36
       | songs and spans 180 minutes, to give you a sense of the amount of
       | artistic freedom that Prince must have been feeling at the time.
       | Highly recommended listening for any casual Prince fan who wants
       | to expand their knowledge of his repertoire. The man was an
       | unqualified musical genius.
        
         | e40 wrote:
         | He was also way ahead of the curve connecting directly with
         | fans. He had a BBS/forum/something that a friend of mine who
         | was a huge Prince fan was a member of. As a member, they got
         | early access to new tracks. I don't remember how much it was,
         | but my friend loved it.
        
           | Wingman4l7 wrote:
           | David Bowie was a pioneer in this space as well -- he had his
           | own ISP, BowieNet:
           | 
           | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/11/david-
           | bow...
        
         | elb2020 wrote:
         | I personally like his stuff from before Diamonds and Pearls,
         | mostly. After that I think he got further and further removed
         | from his original funk roots, and I think he sort of drifted
         | off into a sea of wishy-washy new age stuff that he never fully
         | re-emerged from. I know his later stuff will, still, be
         | endorsed by hardcore fans, but I do not think it's for the
         | casual listener.
        
       | pvaldes wrote:
       | Losing it would be a minor problem, when could had been redone
       | easily in metafont from any of the millions of singles of the
       | most beautiful girl in the world available.
       | 
       | We have a scientific symbol yet for the representation of both
       | sexes, hermaphrodyte. Is in unicode yet (if I'm not wrong) so
       | there is not a real need to use this. Would start a war for every
       | artist and band in the planet asking for their personal symbol in
       | unicode. Rolling stones tongue should be for example. Is as much
       | iconic than the trumpet key, if not more.
        
       | bob332 wrote:
       | Lol sex is binary, anyone who thinks otherwise is utterly
       | delusional
        
       | 1-more wrote:
       | Limor Fried continues to be a hero.
        
         | uncletammy wrote:
         | I came across Limor's Minty MP3 player when I was young, broke,
         | and looking for an open alternative to an ipod. It was back
         | before Adafruit existed as a web store. Minty was just an open
         | PCB design hosted on a single page with a parts list and a link
         | to a forum where people would help each other source parts and
         | assemble the thing.
         | 
         | I have very fond memories of this because it changed the
         | trajectory of my life. It showed me how powerful a tool the
         | internet could be for organizing people around ideas, many of
         | which sought to improve people's lives through free and open
         | technology.
         | 
         | The other thing this experience did was to make me feel safe
         | tinkering with hardware and electronic circuits. Consumer
         | devices had felt like mystical black boxes that could never be
         | understood, much less re-created by me. After Minty, I was
         | empowered to take things apart and learn how they worked. I
         | grew an appetite for technical knowledge that hasn't slowed
         | down to this day.
         | 
         | EDIT: Found a capture. It's slightly different than I remember
         | it but it's a nice little snapshot of Adafruit's origin story.
         | 
         | https://web.archive.org/web/20050215023236/http://web.media....
        
       | habitue wrote:
       | I guess add one more falsehood programmers believe about names:
       | 
       | - People's names aren't a non-unicode symbol that a person made
       | up just to refer to themselves
        
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