Odp: [sdiy] MIDI spec

[charlie lamm]

Neil makes some good points here.  After rereading my rant I realize that
I probably have offended anyone who is spending time in working for the
MMA, and that was not my intention.

I guess I need to take a few deep breaths next time I am frustrated by a
lack of deep pockets to finance a programming project (yes, Neil, I am a
commercial enterprise--a struggling one!).

Again, if I have pissed anyone off, I am truly sorry.  --CL

On Sat, 30 Nov 2002, Neil Johnson wrote:

>
> On Sat, 30 Nov 2002, charlie lamm wrote:
> > Not to get off on a rant, but midi.org is as far from a "dot org" as I
> > have seen.  If it's really non-profit,
>
> But that doesn't mean they have to run at a loss either...
>
> > then I suspect someone is eating too many midi.org expensive account
> > dinners w/ the guys from Roland and Korg.
>
> More likely covering the travelling costs of the various committee members
> who give up their free time to help steer this important technology away
> from vested interests.  I know everything is dirt cheap in the US compared
> to over here in Europe, but I'm sure that airline tickets still cost
> *something*.
>
> > Compare midi.org to a real "open standard" site like php.net..
>
> Hmmmm...."open standard" like "open head".... And I wouldn't really use
> the word "standard" with reference to PHP either.
>
> Not really a valid comparison though:
>
> - MMA consists of various committees that interface with other committees
> (AES, ISO/IEC, etc) to make sure that MIDI is supported as widely as
> possible by as many manufacturers as possible, and to stop them
> specialising MIDI in the way that Microsoft does to standards (otherwise
> there'd be "Roland MIDI", "Korg MIDI", "Yamaha MIDI", etc...oh joy)
>
> - PHP is a hack put together by a bunch of programmers doing it because
> they can.  They don't have to concern themselves with international
> standards bodies, or in fact anyone who builds hardware.  Keeping up with
> the various versions of PHP that appear is a fun task in itself (as I know
> from experience... *sigh*)
>
> > ..hmmm, quite a difference in the amount of available documentation on
> > line, eh?
>
> Indeed--PHP documentation is free to get as many people using it as
> possible, where many of the users of PHP are bedroom-hackers who winge at
> paying for anything unless it looks and tastes like a pizza.
>
> MIDI is a standard primarily for industry, and to be honest $50 for a
> weighty tome that is the MIDI Standard is pretty good value IMHO.  Even
> the $200 a year for a Manufacturers ID is peanuts to company selling MIDI
> gear.
>
> > As I see it, Midi.org's site is a joke.  The official spec doc apparently
> > has not been updated since 1996,
>
> So, *swoon*, you're saying the MIDI standard has been stable for about 6
> years!  Great, if only all standards were that stable.... at least the
> manufacturers don't have to update drivers and wotnot every six months or
> so.
>
> > and a "new one" is due in 2002--they'd better skip a few dinners out and
> > get cracking!  For $50 I don't want to roll the dice on a document that
> > is getting revised (real soon now??)
>
> Q: do you _really_ need a copy of the standard?  There's already plenty of
> info on the web, or books with enough info about MIDI to get you by.  I
> recommend "MIDI Systems and Control" by Francis Rumsey (its stocked on
> Amazon.com---link too long to quote).  Oops, sorry, that costs $47.99, so
> _way_ too expensive again ;-)
>
> > Everything--membership, getting a sysex ID, the documentation for the spec
> > itself--costs a surprising amount of money.
>
> I think its quite reasonable given that what you're buying is a set of
> pages hand-copied and bound.  Ask Bernie Hutchins how much he wants for
> copies of Electronotes.  All the rest covers committee members travel, the
> running costs of the website, admin, etc.
>
> And $50 for a specification is actually pretty damned good value!  Just
> ask the IEEE for a copy of a standard and see how much they charge!!  A
> few quick examples:
>
> IEEE-1364-2001 Verilog Hardware Descrption Language    $115.00
> IEEE-802.11    Wireless Standards Package              $432.00
>
> > They should call it midi.com.  Maybe that domain name was already taken?
>
> Maybe not at the time, but then it would not have been appropriate, given
> that they are a non-profit technical standards organisation.
>
> So, "www.charlielamm.com" ... you're a commercial entity then?
>
> I'm not really up for an argument, but it seems to me that too many people
> see free stuff on the net, then complain when everything else is _not_
> free.  Has no-one learned from the dot.bombs of recent times?  And
> whatever happened to the saying "you get what you pay for"..?  It seems
> these days that a lot of the "free" stuff on the net has zero worth.
>
> How much do you value your time?  Remember: you have, on average, about
> 600,000 hours in your lifetime, and I'm guessing that about a third have
> already been used up.  You don't get any back, there's no rebate system.
> So, again, how much do you value your time?  Lets say $25 an hour.  You
> have a choice: spend a couple of hours downloading, printing and binding
> around 270 pages of information, or send $50 to the MMA and spend the
> remaining one hour, 55 minutes doing something else.  Your choice.
>
> Neil
> (about to spend a very pleasant couple of hours with his synths :-)
>
> --
> Neil Johnson :: Computer Laboratory :: University of Cambridge ::
> http://www.njohnson.co.uk          http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~nej22
> ----  IEE Cambridge Branch: http://www.iee-cambridge.org.uk  ----
>