Scott said:

Dear Scott, you may have all these people fooled, so let me pop your pompous ass balloon: your main "optimization" consists of one thing: whereas in the past videos and downloads were all passed through ONE PHP script, you have now removed this. Of course this will "improve performance", because now your servers don't have to run the PHP engine in memory whenever anyone is watching a video or downloading a zip or listening to the music in the online players, they now can simply send the files directly to the users (something the servers are optimized for to do). Moreover, users' browsers will now also properly cache those files.

But to this day all that precious content is UNPROTECTED. I'd have expected that you would have at least bothered to implement Basic Access Authentication (which was used by the v2 version of the NPGMC, which was set up after Tekadence was sent packing after months of displaying their utter incompetence), but even that seems to have been too hard for an "expert" like you. (Not that I'm a fan of that kind of authentication, because it's still fairly vulnerable, but at least there is SOME security in place.)

Does Prince now that you're hosting his music and videos in a way that is so vulnerable that someone who's intent of distributing his music doesn't even have to bother with uploading it to another service? No, said person can simply hand people a URL to a file on your server farm.

Congrats Scott, you've managed to compile quite an impressive list of serious security breaches. How come an "expert" like you is so utterly incompetent at this?



No wait, THIS is beyond pathetic. Didn't you use to run some kind of film site in the past, Scott? Haven't you noticed that people now download hundreds of MBs at the drop of a hat?

Scott said:

Most videos are crap to begin with and look like they were ripped from bootleg DVDs by someone who's never ripped a video before. Some/most are in MONO.

Scott, just admit defeat. Reimburse all fans. Resign. Take down this abomination of a site. Treasure your memory of singing Play That Funky Music with Prince backing you, and do the world a favor: never pretend you're web savvy ever again.

.
[Edited 3/28/09 13:04pm]

BartVanHemelen said:

Prince shoulda just hired you. You seem like you know it all.

Prince shoulda just hired you. You seem like you know it all.

PEJ said:

I don't think so PEJ.. Bart never seems to say anything nice and it sounds like he wakes up that way everyday, the way he comes across in his posts like it's his daily orange juice. Constructive criticism is one thing, and there's various ways to give advice, but being miserable 24/7 is another. No one is willing to listen to what you have to say when you're spewing negativity all day.
[Edited 3/28/09 14:27pm]

2elijah said:

system administration and managing networks isn't about saying nice things and making people feel good. it's about ensuring the systems and the network remain functional. admins just need a 'jen' character to run interference.*

(* see episodes of 'the it crowd.')

stanleylieber said:

No thanks, I would rather work hard for someone that shows me respect rather than have someone go the "anal" route just to prove he can be an ass....no pun intended of course.

I remember we had a supervisor like that with that same type of attitude, that individual didn't last long. He caused low morale among his subordinates, and caused people to quit, and the company was losing money and time. They finally replaced him with a real, human-being, that expected those he supervised to perform the job right and was upfront when things were not up to par, but did it in a respectable manner, and won the respect of many back, because he didn't have to make others feel "small" by spewing his egotistical BS and nastiness to prove he knew how to manage while maintaining a productive work force.
[Edited 3/28/09 14:35pm]

2elijah said:

people like bart don't belong in management. you want them putting hands on the actual systems to make sure everything keeps working. you need a people person to run interference between the 'barts' in the server room and the guys wearing silk socks reading the wsj.

BartVanHemelen said:

Prince shoulda just hired you. You seem like you know it all.

In any case, I'll leave that mess alone, and get back on topic. Nice chatting with you though.
[Edited 3/28/09 14:50pm]

2elijah said:

facedown7 said:

Prince, of course. Although he's much older and could possibly die before their careers are finished.

But in March of 2009, the Jonas Brothers are about 1,000 times bigger.

BartVanHemelen said:

Prince shoulda just hired you. You seem like you know it all.

errant said:

but has about 1000 times more experience! That cracks me up,

Prince shoulda just hired you. You seem like you know it all.

No thanks, I would rather work hard for someone that shows me respect rather than have someone go the "anal" route just to prove he can be an ass....

2elijah said:

My last performance review was top notch, and it is in a large part a peer review.

Trust me: amateur hour shit like this Lotusflow3r website crap ain't happening at our place. Yet Prince has been putting up with it for over a decade:
- L4OA: yeah, brilliant idea, let your official site be run by a bunch of backstabbing fans and reward the biggest asskissers.
- NPGMC v1: yet another brilliant idea: let's get some guys in who haven't proven a thing and let them run your subscription website via software that's based on a beta version of Quicktime, coupled with Java so it will be extra slow. At least those guys had the balls to talk for themselves on amp unlike this Scott dude who is sending emails to prince.org.
- NPGMC v2: actually not that bad considering how quickly it was made to replace the craptastic v1. Too bad that it didn't fulfill the MINIMUM that was promised to subscribers.
- 3121: yeah, let's close off the website from the public and charge people for the same kind of baloney we used to get for free in the past, like "concert reports" by nutbags.

Why does he keep fucking up? Simple as that: because he won't take no, even when that's the only correct answer.

Scott said:

Dear Scott, you may have all these people fooled, so let me pop your pompous ass balloon: your main "optimization" consists of one thing: whereas in the past videos and downloads were all passed through ONE PHP script, you have now removed this. Of course this will "improve performance", because now your servers don't have to run the PHP engine in memory whenever anyone is watching a video or downloading a zip or listening to the music in the online players, they now can simply send the files directly to the users (something the servers are optimized for to do). Moreover, users' browsers will now also properly cache those files.

But to this day all that precious content is UNPROTECTED. I'd have expected that you would have at least bothered to implement Basic Access Authentication (which was used by the v2 version of the NPGMC, which was set up after Tekadence was sent packing after months of displaying their utter incompetence), but even that seems to have been too hard for an "expert" like you. (Not that I'm a fan of that kind of authentication, because it's still fairly vulnerable, but at least there is SOME security in place.)

Does Prince now that you're hosting his music and videos in a way that is so vulnerable that someone who's intent of distributing his music doesn't even have to bother with uploading it to another service? No, said person can simply hand people a URL to a file on your server farm.

Congrats Scott, you've managed to compile quite an impressive list of serious security breaches. How come an "expert" like you is so utterly incompetent at this?



No wait, THIS is beyond pathetic. Didn't you use to run some kind of film site in the past, Scott? Haven't you noticed that people now download hundreds of MBs at the drop of a hat?

Scott said:

Most videos are crap to begin with and look like they were ripped from bootleg DVDs by someone who's never ripped a video before. Some/most are in MONO.

Scott, just admit defeat. Reimburse all fans. Resign. Take down this abomination of a site. Treasure your memory of singing Play That Funky Music with Prince backing you, and do the world a favor: never pretend you're web savvy ever again.

.
[Edited 3/28/09 13:04pm]

BartVanHemelen said:

You'd think I'd have learned to just ignore your posts by now, but two things:

1) The NPGMC did, in fact, fulfill the promises made. The delivered product may not have been what people assumed they would get, but no one was ripped off.

2) 3121 paid? What the heck are you talking about?

2elijah said:

My last performance review was top notch, and it is in a large part a peer review.

Trust me: amateur hour shit like this Lotusflow3r website crap ain't happening at our place. Yet Prince has been putting up with it for over a decade:
- L4OA: yeah, brilliant idea, let your official site be run by a bunch of backstabbing fans and reward the biggest asskissers.
- NPGMC v1: yet another brilliant idea: let's get some guys in who haven't proven a thing and let them run your subscription website via software that's based on a beta version of Quicktime, coupled with Java so it will be extra slow. At least those guys had the balls to talk for themselves on amp unlike this Scott dude who is sending emails to prince.org.
- NPGMC v2: actually not that bad considering how quickly it was made to replace the craptastic v1. Too bad that it didn't fulfill the MINIMUM that was promised to subscribers.
- 3121: yeah, let's close off the website from the public and charge people for the same kind of baloney we used to get for free in the past, like "concert reports" by nutbags.

Why does he keep fucking up? Simple as that: because he won't take no, even when that's the only correct answer.

IstenSzek said:

I would recommend that you save the .flv file(s) to your HD to keep frustration at bay. Throw it away after viewing, if so inclined, to avoid any moral dilemmas.

PEJ said:

No, I don't know it all. But I do know a thing or two, considering that I write CRM apps for one of the world's biggest electronics companies; I work at their European HQ and I'm part of a team that handles 80% of their data. Part of my job is determining how we display data to our users, and that can involve changing their minds when it comes to UIs.

I know what I'm talking about, and unlike some I am not blown away by Scott's pathetic updates.

Your posts are tiresome.

funkteer said:


but factually correct, and all the prince/scott apologists should at least read them to know what they're in for. You really trust the website with your credit card when they make the albums available for download to the whole world for free without any security?

On another topic, are the albums (mp3 and Wav) DRMed? If not, that would be at least one lesson learnt from NPGMC.
[Edited 3/28/09 22:01pm]