We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

“The French government favours globalisation”

Brian Micklethwait

Samizdata quote of the day

Understanding politicians and what they are likely to do is much easier once you realise that almost everyone in politics (even the ‘nice guys’ who wear sensible cardigans and remind you of Wallace and Gromit) have more in common psychologically and morally with your typical member of a street gang than with most of the people who actually vote for them

Perry de Havilland

[by request]

Samizdata’s Googlewhack

Fire up Google and type in “chav stakhanovites“… and you get us!

Samizdata quote of the day

We all knew Galloway was a wanker before now anyway but by going onto Big Brother all he’s managed to do is simply broadcast this to a public who previously didn’t know who he was or thought he was that guy who told the American Senate a thing or two. The funniest thing has been the hard left loonies (and others) who applauded his cock sucking antics with Saddam, Assad, Hamas and the Al Aqsa Bastards Brigade but then decided that robotic manouvers in a leotard were beyond the pale.
Blognor Regis

Samizdata quote of the day

No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong
– Winston Churchill

Samizdata quote of the day

Copy protection is guaranteed to fail because it’s a house of cards. No matter how sophisticated the software, it takes only one person to break it, once, and the music is free to roam and multiply on the peer-to-peer file-trading networks.

Damian Kulash, lead singer of OK Go

The future of the music business is here

I have been poking around AllofMP3.com, a Russian music site with a huge catalogue and an excellent interface and even better prices (a typical track can be downloaded typically for around 12¢). The way the system works is you pay ‘by weight’ of the music file: the tracks are coded-to-order to your exact specifications via a vast CD jukebox, thus if you download an mp3 file with a bit rate of 192 (excellent sound quality), you will pay more than if you download the same file in smaller size at a bit rate of 64 (fairly crappy sound quality). The system can be accessed either via a web front-end or an excellent browser application.

It occurred to me that I more or less stopped buying music CD’s about eight years ago and went from someone who maybe once dropped $2000 per year on music to someone who spent pretty much nothing. Yet in the last month, I have spent $70 at AllofMP3.com because the service is good (and secure: they use Chronopay who are totally above board), the interface is intuitive and the price per download makes hunting around fly-by-night peer to peer networks simply not worth the hassle. I have no pecuniary interest in this operation (sadly) but I cannot recommend them highly enough.

This is the future of the music business and it does not matter a damn whether or not Sony or BMG like it. It is here and it works really well.

Music business: adapt or die… music buyers: enjoy like never before!

Samizdata quote of the day

And another thing – the argument that we can all support Cameron’s leftward lurch because it’s all an act and he doesn’t really mean it – he is lying pretty low. I might be prepared to give someone the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that they are telling the truth, but to give someone the benefit of the doubt in the hope that they are lying through their teeth?
Wolfie

Samizdata quote of the day

Last century over 170 million people were murdered by their own governments, and your government doesn’t want you to have a gun. Doesn’t that bother you just a little?
– Unknown

Samizdata quote of the day

Now that they have a fairly sensible and popular sceptic policy on Europe, the Conservatives react with wounded surprise when polls say that the public still do not respect them on the subject. But the reason is very simple: again and again, their actions have belied their words.
Charles Moore

Samizdata quote of the day

But, whatever the crimes of our forefathers, this is the country of Drake, Clive and Kitchener, not of Tipu Sultan, Shaka Zulu or the Mahdi.
Max Hastings

Samizdata quote of the day

These whiners are the same people who complain of American cultural imperialism because people like Coke and Starbucks. [Yet] there is no more rigid, aggressive, ignorant bunch of cultural imperialists in the world than Muslims who, as a group, are intent on forcing their preposterous beliefs on the rest of the world. Give me Starbucks any day.
– Commenter Verity on the ‘Satanic Cartoons’ controversy.