An idea planted by the recent thread on the LUGOD
vox-tech list about CD-RW
drives under Linux led me to make a last effort to solve an old problem.
We had the last of several operas I produced between 1989 and 1998
professionally recorded and put on three CDs. Because the first of two acts
took two discs, the recording engineer began the 2nd CD with track 9 -- a
continuation of the numbering from disc 1. A year later when my early (and
extraordinarily versatile) component CD player suddenly died, I discovered
that very few recent machines can read discs with tracks beginning with
anything other than #1. When I added a CD-RW drive to the box last
weekend, I of course had hoped I would be able to dupe the faulty disc with
normal track numbering. But the Win98 software which came with the drive
proclaimed that an illegal operation had been performed and promptly
committed suicide each time I placed the disc in the machine.
So this morning, I went through the process (a bit daunting for a newcomer
to Linux) of setting up recognition and a scsi emulation for the new drive
and installing the still-on-trial use-at-your-own-risk XCDRoast which comes
with the SuSE 7.1 distribution.
The result is that for the first time in a couple years, I can now hear our
Cosi fan tutte performance again. I'm sure it's no novel concept to others
on this list that unfinished Linux freeware can be so much more robust and
forgiving than commercial winapps, but I will still proclaim my surprise
and delight.
And if Linux is the can-opener which allowed me to open my otherwise
inaccessible recording,
LUGOD
is the resource which helped me understand
enough about Linux finally to make practical use of it. So here's to all
the LUGODs who helped with this small triumph, but especially Bill, who
sent me a 5-page email of basic navigational information, Pete, who
tirelessly worked through the puzzle of my nameserver recognition problem,
and Henry and Rusty, who were never too preoccupied with other visitors'
machines at the Installfest that they couldn't answer the many questions I
threw from the sidelines. This is a generous, good-natured, and genuinely
helpful organization.
