News

As we go into our fourth week of coverage of Sony BMG's digital rights management debacle, it's a good time to review what all the fuss has been about. On October 31, Mark Russinovich postedhttp://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-righ…; his discovery of a root kit—a cloaked file that had been inserted on to his computer's hard drive. Cloaked root kit files are popular tools used by malevolent hackers, so Russinovich was curious about how the files he detected had entered his computer. It came from Get Right With the Man, a Sony DRM-protected disc Russinovich had purchased and played on his computer. When he attempted to remove the hidden files, Russinovich lost the ability to use his CD drive.

With its new Walkman music player, Sony has broken with its tradition of promoting its own proprietary formats. The NW-HD3 will let users import and export tracks in the MP3 format, a concession to the format's near-universal popularity and an admission of the failed appeal of Atrac, Sony's own music-playing software. MP3 compatibility should give the player appeal to a wider audience than a Sony-only machine.

The Super Audio CD is gaining serious momentum.

The month of December was particularly hard on the music world, which lost three of its greatest talents within a few days of each other: Curtis Mayfield, Grover Washington, Jr., and Charles Earland. All were in their late 50s.

Recently, Sound Advice, Inc., a specialty retailer of high-end consumer electronics, announced plans to open five to six stores in Florida over the next 18 months. The company expects that two to three of the stores will be in operation by the end of this calendar year, with the balance to be opened in 1999. Sound Advice is also exploring other ideas, such as smaller-format specialty stores in upscale malls and other high-end retail locations that feature high-quality brand names.

Friday October 5, at 6pm, to coincide with the 2018 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, Soundings Fine Audio Video (8101 East Belleview Avenue, Suite X-1, Denver, CO 80237), a few blocks away from the Denver Tech Center Marriott, is having an open house. Rich Maez from Boulder Amplifiers, Terry Medalen, Jon Derda, and Norbert Schmied from MoFi (Primare, Isotek, and Dr. Feickert), and Bob Graham from Graham Engineering and TechDas will be on hand to answer questions throughout the evening. Drinks and hors d'oeuvres will be supplied by Great Northern.

Like most Stereophile readers, we have grown accustomed to seeing Barry Diament's name on superb-sounding recordings, since he has mastered albums by artists from AC/DC to Warren Zevon—and every letter in between. When the magazine still had its editorial offices in Santa Fe, Diament dropped by one afternoon to say hi, so now we feel like we can brag, "Hey, we know that guy!"