I guess I was wondering if you sought out the Echo Nest folks because they were interested in open-sourcing their code base, or if you'd be equally happy with another service as long as the licensing was workable
ruaok
a little of both.
derwin
I'm happy with the idea that any entity I contribute fingerprints to will not suddenly take their ball and go home..
ruaok
the echonest realized that by open sourceing their stuff they would get much more reach and should be able to build a commodity fingerprint system.
derwin
(as a random user of mb)
n8willis
so who got in touch with who first?
ruaok
and I've been looking for open solutions for fingerprinting for many years now.
n8willis: hard to say. we have an ongoing relationship with the echonest.
this wasn't our first dealings. see project rosetta stone.
and Paul Lamere of EN used to work for Sun, and Sun donated hardware to us before.
n8willis
so it's more of a "mutual good fit" scenario?
ruaok
so this is a continuation of previous relationships.
n8willis
k
ruaok
yes, a good way to say that.
plus EN donated $2k to our hardware fundraiser.
derwin
free as in beer
n8willis
derwin?
ruaok
> And if there is, does Echoprint offer any patent protection for users of its open source software?
when I mentioned patents, they said they were looking into that.
n8willis
ok
ruaok
its best to ask them about patents. :)
n8willis
yeah ... I promise I'm trying ...
derwin
n8willis: I was being slightly jokey about the oft-repeated "free as in speech" vs "free as in beer" dichotomy
n8willis: I was alluding to the idea that $2k was "free as in beer" :)
suriv joined the channel
n8willis
ah
"free as in fundraiser"....
derwin
exactly :)
I'm just the peanut gallery, sorry :)
n8willis
so what's going on with acoustid?
ruaok
luks: you wanna answer that?
luks is the author of that.
n8willis
oh, cool
ruaok
but, MB's view is to try and be fingerprint tech agnostic -- as far as that is possible.
derwin
(when I asked last night, he suggested that they are complimentary and slightly different in design and implementation)
(I probably still have it in scrollback if he's idle, as I shouldn't speak for him)
ruaok
we can now say that we will only have open solutions supported in MB
n8willis
ok
ruaok
and thus, let the best tech win.
and the best tech will be the tech that embraces its users and works to improve the service.
n8willis
last question (promise!) -- the blog says you're testing echoprint on its own server. how's that been going, and have you learned anything yet? like, performance-wise?
luks
"what's going on with acoustid" is a hard question to answer :)
ruaok
n8willis: we're not actually testing their server. we have support for echoprints in our test server echoprint.musicbrainz.org
n8willis
right; I meant your own, not their own....
(as in, not the main MB server)
ruaok
well, thats just copy&pasta from the PUID code, so there isn't much to learn there.
I feel that the echoprint stuff is still very raw and that quite a bit of tuning needs to happen before its really ready for use.
My rule of thumb is that it will be at least a year from the time the authors say their service is done to when its actually done.
could be 2 years.
I think luks is going to be different there. he'll spend 2 years hacking on it and never calling it done. :)
luks
I'll call it done when it's done, I always do that :)
ruaok
but it will likely work better and be more stable than anyone else's fingerprints.
luks: yep, your standards of done are different for most everyone. :)
n8willis
so it's a long ways before we'll see either one fully integrated, then
ruaok
its not about integration, as much as it is about critical mass.
n8willis
not sure I follow you there
ruaok
you wont get critical mass until you convince app authors to include the tech into their apps.
derwin
"adoption"
ruaok
and then you need to build a pile of clean data for everyone to clearly see the value.
once you have both of those, you'll see a good adoption.
Munger joined the channel
Munger joined the channel
n8willis
right; but so I understand what MB is doing -- you don't have to add new Track parameters to support either fingerprinting service?
that's where rosetta stone comes in?
danmichel joined the channel
ruaok
we have to add new tables for the echoprint stuff, but not for acoustid.
acoustid manages the mapping to MB on its own turf.
luks
acoustid integrated with musicbrainz, not the other way around
ruaok
whereas MB manages it for echoprints.
luks
I'd still like to know what those "echoprints" are though :)
Yllona joined the channel
you should answer that mb-devel email, I don't think anybody from the echo nest will
Yllona
hello peoples
ruaok
luks: I've tried to understand it, but I don't. I'll keep pestering alastairp to answer it.
hi Yllona
luks
ruaok: well, it will be your decision at the end
derwin
(what they "are" ?)
Yllona
ruaok! what's up luv?
ruaok
luks: agreed, but I need to understand first. :)
luks
but if MB is going to track the echo nest song IDs, it has nothing to do with echoprints, so it woud be a mistake to call it like that
ruaok
Yllona: same shit, different turn around the globe. you?
Yllona
ruaok: same old, new fabulous digs. did you get my new postal addy?
ruaok
yup
Yllona
coolness
I'm finally settled in, anything i can help with?
ruaok
can you answer my pile of emails?
I never seem to get on top of it. :(
Yllona
I'm willing:) You need an admin asst?
ruaok
heh. that would be nice. but I'd rather have more engineers. :)
Yllona
I hear you. I have time for drudgery tasks. Just send them my way...
kepstin-laptop really should stop doing random one-off hacks, and start actually contributing to project development :)