# The internet



## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Do you ever get the feeling that you have exhausted the potential in the internet? More and more I am feeling like it is cable TV. Hundreds of channels but nothing worth watching.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Not quite nothing worth watching. It is true that as with TV, most of what is on the web is horse manure. But some specific sites quite consistently turn up gold, and those are the ones I keep on returning to. Wikipedia, YouTube, some individual blogs by scientists and artists whose work I like, and of course my favourite message boards. 

I now get just about all my arts and entertainment from the web: I cannot remember when last I bought a CD (or sheet music), I almost never watch any TV anymore, I have gotten rid of most of the boring friends I had and retained only a small circle of real ones (seeing as I find far more stimulating conversation on the web), and I will probably soon stop buying books as well. 

So on the whole I am pretty happy with the interwebs.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

Well as for me there is plenty online like i can watch & here music on youtube.Also i like anime as well they are funny also but only certain ones.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Go to Wikipedia and learn some things, you ****.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

The Berliner Philkarmoniker and Medici TV have fabulous digital concerts.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

can't say I've ever felt that way. Pretty much all I can think of (and then some) is on the internet in some way.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Honestly what you said reminds me of my ten-year-old informing me she is bored in a room that is overflowing with books, toys, art and craft equipment, Cds and games. Try:

Concerts and Music on YouTube, Arte TV, Medici, Vimeo.

Also learn to do something - How to knit

Ted talks.

Listening to Music course from Yale http://oyc.yale.edu/music/musi-112#sessions


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Like any contemporary product, there is a mountain of "just everything," from the terrible and useless to the great and edifying.

As a contemporary in a contemporary world, one must discipline yourself to edit out all the garbage, find that which interests, and only once in a while dipstick check the rest... if you do not edit the internet, and your use of it, you will be overwhelmed, at sea, and get only frustration or wasted time from it.

Youtube, once you have decided on some interests, is like being in a huge public library, recommends of more like or near like coming up on the right of the page... You can create your own channel, keep it private, make playlists, and subscribe to those whose channels have content you care for. One can overboard on that easily enough, full length operas, plays, ballets, films, music links, recordings, etc. Again, narrowing down your selections (like limiting your topic when writing a paper) is the way to go.

Never forget though that it is a huge public market-place of sorts, and there will be many products, whole tables or booths of little or no interest to you, and you have to do some work other than clicking on enter to get what benefits you care to get from it.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Without a quick trog round my sites, then a prolonged YouTube blast of L'orchestre du roi soleil playing Lully, I doubt I could get up in the morning...


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

drpraetorus said:


> Do you ever get the feeling that you have exhausted the potential in the internet? More and more I am feeling like it is cable TV. Hundreds of channels but nothing worth watching.


Reminds one of Dr Johnson:

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

(Replace as appropriate.)


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

One's perception of the internet, as with anything else, is entirely dependent on how one filters content. It's easy to say that the internet is rubbish if all you expose yourself to is twitter and YouTube's Fred, but it is in fact a boundless resource of information on anything you can think of, and many things you can't. All the art, music, philosophy, drama, comedy, politics and whatever else there is is available to you almost instantaneously with minimal effort and no monetary cost on your part. I almost sound like a used car salesman, but it's the truth, the internet really is that good!


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

But truly, it's the world that is boring!


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## BlazeGlory (Jan 16, 2013)

I usually google first before going to wikipedia. Here is what my search for **** resulted in.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

its like saying you're bored with the printed word.


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## BlazeGlory (Jan 16, 2013)

LordBlackudder said:


> its like saying you're bored with the printed word.


Only when the printed words are boring.


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

Couchie said:


> Go to Wikipedia and learn some things, you ****.


I've got about 70% of my information of the world from wikipedia, it's the only cause i really feel guilty about not donating to.

I know that Richard Wagner was the first lesbian to sail the Pacific ocean in search of the dead sea scrolls, for example. You just won't read that in books!


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

brianvds said:


> Not quite nothing worth watching. It is true that as with TV, most of what is on the web is horse manure. But some specific sites quite consistently turn up gold, and those are the ones I keep on returning to. Wikipedia, YouTube, some individual blogs by scientists and artists whose work I like, and of course my favourite message boards.
> 
> I now get just about all my arts and entertainment from the web: I cannot remember when last I bought a CD (or sheet music), I almost never watch any TV anymore, I have gotten rid of most of the boring friends I had and retained only a small circle of real ones (seeing as I find far more stimulating conversation on the web), and I will probably soon stop buying books as well.
> 
> So on the whole I am pretty happy with the interwebs.


Hah. So... except for the core group, you are replacing casual f&b friends with the Internet sort? I gather that Facebook is a goldmine for those. And with them civility is optional, there being an endless supply, eh?

[Yes, I am subtly suggesting that you maintain enough f&b social activity to avoid the Fortress Syndrome.]


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I am always intrigued by the wealth of knowledge that has become available on the internet. For sure, the daily news grind is quite boring (wars, hunger, celebrity gossip, etc) and I try to avoid that as much as possible.

Being a professional musician, I am always seeking out technology sites storing music scores, keeping my 'virtual library' up to date with the addition of more public domain scores every week.

My goal is to provide and present music [at my church] that written by mostly unknown composers for organ. Of course, I do mix in the popular pieces/composers over time, but the lesser known pieces are just as pleasing for the listener as they are for the player, being myself.

Without the internet, I would have never found these pieces ... sure, we have the University of Arizona that has an extensive music library, but there is an annual fee for its use ... whereas sites like thePetrucci Music Library better known as IMSLP has a plethora of public domain scores.

I also use the internet to keep in contact with family ... via email mostly ... I lease drive space "in the cloud" for the storage of my music recordings ... makes a wonderful way to share this music with other family and friends as some files are rather large [185 MB].

Whether or not the internet is here to stay, one can only guess. True, we all got along just fine without it when I was growing up ... we did not have mobile phones either, and the TV was black and white mostly, and not every household had one ... and yet we survived nicely.

Would I be disappointed to see the internet go away? No doubt about it. But if it weren't around anymore, my life would go on normally. When away on holiday/vacation, the internet stays at home. It will all be there when I get home.

Kh ♫


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Mesa said:


> I've got about 70% of my information of the world from wikipedia, it's the only cause i really feel guilty about not donating to.
> 
> I know that Richard Wagner was the first lesbian to sail the Pacific ocean in search of the dead sea scrolls, for example. You just won't read that in books!


THAT is good ole Wikipedia for ya!


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

PetrB said:


> THAT is good ole Wikipedia for ya!


PetrB-- I can't find the note you sent! Where do these get stored? They just disappear! Would you resend it if it's in yr 'saved' box? SVP


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Hah. So... except for the core group, you are replacing casual f&b friends with the Internet sort? I gather that Facebook is a goldmine for those. And with them civility is optional, there being an endless supply, eh?
> 
> [Yes, I am subtly suggesting that you maintain enough f&b social activity to avoid the Fortress Syndrome.]


No, actually my list of FB friends is quite short, because I use FB only to keep in touch with my real friends. I never accept friend requests from people I don't know, or used to know back in the early 14th century but have no desire to keep in contact with now.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Mesa said:


> I've got about 70% of my information of the world from wikipedia, it's the only cause i really feel guilty about not donating to.
> 
> I know that Richard Wagner was the first lesbian to sail the Pacific ocean in search of the dead sea scrolls, for example. You just won't read that in books!


:lol:

Many, many years ago, before Wikipedia, I once received an e-mail in which I was invited to write material for this new online encyclopedia. The novel thing about it would be that when it eventually went online, anyone at all would be able to edit it.

And I thought, these people are utterly insane. An encyclopedia that anyone can edit? Anyone!? How could such a thing ever work? I didn't submit anything, believing it would be a waste of time, and that Wikipedia would sink like a brick.

I don't think I have ever been quite as spectacularly wrong about anything in my life. 

Yes, I do now and then see things on there that look a bit like Mesa's (hopefully hypothetical) example above. But it is pretty rare, and even rarer with subjects that, unlike the biographies of celebrities, actually matter. If memory serves, research done some years ago indicated that Wikipedia is in fact not much less accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica, and unlike Britannica, it is virtually completely up to date on almost all subjects, and it contains information on, probably, a thousand times as many subjects as Britannica.

Thus, on the whole, if you want a quick introduction to just about any subject, Wikipedia is the place to go first; by no means is anyone compelled to stick to whatever Wiki says, or to consider unsourced Wiki articles as being exactly as authoritative as the ones with lots of sources and external links.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

I am on the Van Cliburn Competition's website right now, pleasantly listening to all of the performances at their recent competition. What a fabulous resource.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> I am on the Van Cliburn Competition's website right now, pleasantly listening to all of the performances at their recent competition. What a fabulous resource.


Thanks for the reminder!. I'm doing the same right now thanks to this post!.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

aleazk said:


> Thanks for the reminder!. I'm doing the same right now thanks to this post!.


Is really crazy to see how Ligeti's piano etudes have _quite_ entered the mainstream in less than 25 years!.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

aleazk said:


> Is really crazy to see how Ligeti's piano etudes have _quite_ entered the mainstream in less than 25 years!.


I know! And in the Honens, one guy performed the Brahms F minor sonata and Petrouchka suite...but he linked them with beautiful etude No. 5 ♥


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## Ryan (Dec 29, 2012)

Between talk classical, youtube and redtube there are meant to be many other websites to browse, regretfully I am yet to discover them.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

There's still endless discovery, learning, communication. No chance of tapping its resources. Just call me Mr. Positive.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ingenue said:


> Without a quick trog round my sites, then a prolonged YouTube blast of L'orchestre du roi soleil playing Lully, I doubt I could get up in the morning...


Lol. This reminded of a season, long ago in the land of turntables and LP records, when for perhaps a third or half of an entire year, this was the wake-up start the coffee get going music -- EVERY morning.
Milhaud ~ Suite provençale


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

drpraetorus said:


> Do you ever get the feeling that you have exhausted the potential in the internet? More and more I am feeling like it is cable TV. Hundreds of channels but nothing worth watching.


That is why we have and need to have ART in our lives. Good art.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Vaneyes said:


> There's still endless discovery, learning, communication. No chance of tapping its resources. Just call me Mr. Positive.


"Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899 (attributed)


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