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It's the Next New Thing
By Eliot Van Buskirk
Associate Editor
(3/24/00)
Napster, a small file-sharing program written by a college student who had never before written a piece of software, has sparked an enormous change in MP3 trading. Sure, some publicity might stem from the fact that the small company is being sued for an astronomical sum by the RIAA, but the real issue is that this is an entirely new type of software. Trying Napster for the first time reminded me of using ICQ instant messaging for the first time--it has the same combination of simplicity and power. The file-sharing concept behind Napster can and will be used for all kinds of things, not just for trading MP3s. Read on to find out more about the different programs out there, what they mean for the world of computing, and why file sharing is the next killer app.
MP3 Nugget: Get Rid of Duplicate Files
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If you're a heavy MP3 downloader, chances are that you've got duplicate MP3s all over your hard drive taking up valuable space. It's also possible that you'll never realize this, because the files are in different folders, or even on different drives. I didn't know that I had this file duplication problem until I came across a free program that solved it, MP3 Space Maker. It removed about 20 duplicate songs on my hard drive, which freed up around 80MB--nothing to sneeze at. You, too, can trim the fat from your MP3 collection with MP3 Space Maker. It's small, free, and smart, and it can turn the duplicate MP3s you didn't know you had into extra hard drive space for yet more MP3s.
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 Rumors, hot topics, and hype from the online music community. |
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