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See the original image at rollingstone.com —

The World's Most Dangerous Geek

rollingstone.com — If you've downloaded a song in the past few years, it's in large part because of Justin Frankel. Seven years ago, when he was just eighteen, he invented Winamp, the first software program that made it easy to play digital music on your computer. But Justin Frankel, the man who popularized file-sharing, has even bigger plans....

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  • PFinn, on 03/14/2008, -2/+418good read and all, but it was written in 2004..... quite an old article in the life of technology
    • Zippo, on 03/14/2008, -0/+153makes me feel old when I realize that 1998 was a decade ago.
      • IHaveIssues, on 03/14/2008, -1/+38http://www.theonion.com/content/node/75159
      • rizla420, on 03/14/2008, -6/+38ooh 1998..my freshman year of college. Year i built my first PC. P2 Celeron 333Mhz overclocked to 5 something (one of the best processors then for easy overclocking), 128MB RAM, 10 gig drive. Back then I remember getting most of my songs from IRC and FTP servers. Winamp was THE player. Once shoutcast came out, i was using it. Doing daily broadcasts from my dorm room while skipping classes. Did epic sessions while tripping on acid with friends jabbering on the mic to random people in Canada and Cali. Ordered pizza late night while doing a broadcast live and put my hand over the mic when i was giving my credit card info, only to realize that it didnt mute ***** and my CC# was popping up on the chat window. Canceled it asap. Tech9 was my "handle".. lame. MP3spy was big then..

        -sorry, just had to take a trip down memory lane. 98 was my awakening.
        • bflfab, on 03/15/2008, -0/+3Your CC paid for my pizza too.
        • brad3378, on 03/15/2008, -1/+2oh yeah - I remember those days. Chillin' out maxing relaxing all cool And all shootin' some b-ball outside of the school When a couple of guys who were up to no good Started makin' trouble in my neighborhood I got in one little fight and my mom got scared And said you're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air I whistled for a cab and when it came near The license plate said "Fresh", and it had dice in the mirror If anything I could say that this cab was rare But I thought man forget it yo homes to Bel-Air I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 And I yelled to the cabbie 'yo homes smell ya later' Looked at my kingdom I was finally there To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel-Air. That brings back fond memories.
          • bflfab, on 03/15/2008, -1/+1long version
            Now this is a story, all about how
            my life got flipped, turned upside-down,
            And I'd like to take a minute,
            So just sit right there,
            I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air


            In West Philadelphia, born and raised,
            On the playground is where Ii spent most of my days
            Chillin out, maxin', relaxin' all cool,
            And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school
            When a couple of guys, who were up to no good,
            Started makin' trouble in my neighborhood,
            I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
            She said 'You're movin with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air!'

            I begged and pleeded with day after day
            But she packed my suitcase and sent me and my
            She gave me a kiss
            And then she gave me my ticket
            I put my Walkman on and said 'Might as well kick it!'

            First class
            Yo this is bad
            Drinkin orange juice out of a champaine glass
            Is this what the people in Bel-Air livin like?
            Hmm...this might be alright

            But wait I hear the prissy,
            Bushwa and all that
            Is this the kind of place that they just send this cool cat?
            i don't think so
            I'll see when I get there
            I hope they're prepared
            for the Prince of Bel-Air!

            Well I,
            The plane landed and when I came out
            There was a dude,looked like a cop,
            standin there with my name out
            I ain't tryin to get arrested yet
            I just got here
            I sprang with the quickness
            and like lightening dissappeared

            I whistled for a cab and when it came near
            The license plate said 'Fresh'
            And had dice in the mirror
            If anything I could say that this cab was rare
            But I thought 'Nah, forget it - Yo, home to Bel-Air!'

            I pulled up to a house about seven or eight,
            I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo home, smell ya later!'
            I looked at my kingdom,
            I was finally there!
            To sit on my throne as the prince of Bel-Air!
        • Zippo, on 03/16/2008, -0/+3*****, 10 gigs in 1998? That was some machine, dude.
          Winamp was definitely the one and only player. I remember my dad told me about Winamp in 1998... and he he told me about these new things about mp3s... they were like wav files, only they were compact. Wow, those were the days.

          It's kinda funny, because my Dad was pretty tech savvy back in those days, and now he's well... stuck in 1998 I guess... he wasn't able to keep up and now he comes to me for help.
      • ICSU, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2They year I didn't think world is ***** up.
        • bflfab, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1The world has been ***** up for a very long time, you just weren't aware.
    • davidjunit, on 03/14/2008, -0/+52Yeah, the "Seven years ago..." bit threw me off because I remembered a friend using Winamp in 1997.
      • scottschiller, on 03/14/2008, -1/+7I was using Winamp around that time, 96/97 - I actually paid the $20 USD to "register" it (though it only then showed your name in the info section I think, no other features were unlocked etc.), I really wanted to see its continued development. I recently moved to OS X, and I have to say, it is one of the few things I -really- miss about Windows.

        This stuff was way ahead of its time, with the "It really whips the llama's ass" first-install sound, the hidden "nullsoft" secret titlebar trick, hidden kitten imagery in the .EXE and other things.
        • RobotBuddha, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2If you really wanted to, I'd be surprised if it didn't run in darwine. Winamp was one of the first semi-large programs I had any success with in wine back in the day. In the years when it took some tinkering to get anything more than notepad running.
    • jabberwolf, on 03/14/2008, -7/+6Thank god iTunes took advantage of Napster's demise by the entertainment industry, attached DRM, and made a killing by charging people what they were always sharing before.
      But of course, NOW, after itunes is slowly losing business to users going back to sharing, Apple is all for removing DRM.(1 billion dollars later)
      • dephrye, on 03/14/2008, -0/+7You don't think Unbox has a little to do with it? And sites like eMusic and Amie.ST?
      • mm911, on 03/15/2008, -2/+1A.) Unbox is Amazon's movie site, which is DRM'd up the ass.
        B.) The fact that eMusic is still in business is one of the great mysteries of the Intarwebs.
        C.) No one ever heard of Amie Street before Spitzer's ho was exposed.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 03/14/2008, -8/+2WinAMP bought by AOL which in turn merged with TimeWarner to become AOLTimeWarner.
      • ryansmith18, on 03/14/2008, -0/+3Relevance...?
        • MacSuxWindozSux, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1Tries to install AOL on the computer with WinAMP.
      • mm911, on 03/15/2008, -0/+4And is now again known simply as Time Warner.
    • diablo75, on 03/14/2008, -8/+3I KNEW I had read this already! Upon reading about half of it for a second time, skipping through most of it because ..... what a long winded article. Sorry. I said it.......bury me now, I guess.
    • cambob76, on 03/14/2008, -2/+1Thanks for not making me do the math in my head.
    • alpha19, on 03/14/2008, -5/+3Lol... Winamp used to be decent. Now it's AOL bloatware with fun advertisements.

      And Gnutella? A stupid name, and it set the stone for applications like Bearshare? Some of the worst file sharing applications on the planet. Spread the viruses with ignorance!
    • jemka, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/comment ...
  • maninblac1, on 03/14/2008, -1/+81All hail Winamp.
    They talk like WASTE is gone, it's not, it's still on sourceforge, and 1.5b3 works well enough for daily use. If only someone would pick it up again and make it better.
    That was the funny thing, after AOL yanked it, all the devs said, er no...it GPL, you have no rights to it, it's too late now, and it returned.
    • infinitus64, on 03/14/2008, -4/+24www.foobar2000.org/download.html made by a freelancer for nullsoft awhile back, yes it sure does kicks the lamas ass.
      • IHaveIssues, on 03/14/2008, -2/+10Does Foobar allow you to create a private P2P network?
        • OverlordXenu, on 03/14/2008, -0/+17There's probably a component for that somewhere.
    • Amiga500, on 03/15/2008, -0/+3Yeah, Winamp was cool back in the day, but subsequent releases under AOL's fecal department turned it into a laggy POS. Switch to XMPlay. While it lacks the goofy style of Winamp, it's ultra fast and feature packed.
  • Beltiras, on 03/14/2008, -59/+6WROTE Winamp. Programs are NOT invented.
    • rsek, on 03/14/2008, -3/+53please, go play outside with your dog
    • JedicodeWarrior, on 03/14/2008, -10/+3'tard!
    • UnWeave, on 03/14/2008, -1/+52That's like saying inventors don't invent things because the atoms they use already exist. Shut up.
    • DarkSamus, on 03/15/2008, -1/+8me and your mom wrote you
  • goeatsmsht, on 03/14/2008, -3/+300Justin Frankel - He really whips the llama's ass!
    • JedicodeWarrior, on 03/14/2008, -21/+2or spank's his monkey
    • fety, on 03/14/2008, -10/+0...with sheep baaa-ing in the background.
    • aredsodeep, on 03/14/2008, -2/+12AOL sucks a cheetah's dick!
    • digitalpencil, on 03/14/2008, -0/+4I'd forgot about that, thanks.. Why did it say that?
    • AnimobileAWS, on 03/14/2008, -7/+1i don't get this...are we just listing wesley willis songs?
    • ninjan, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2the first 20 or so times I heard "llama's ass!" I thought it was "lawman's ass" :D
    • haroldyates, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1Rock over London, rock on Chicago
      • corde5, on 03/18/2008, -0/+1Wheaties, the breakfast of champions.
  • DigTheDoug, on 03/14/2008, -0/+39Super points for the Real Genius shirt.
    • kidego365, on 03/14/2008, -2/+2First thing I noticed....too cool!

      You can get a better replica of the shirt at founditemclothing.com.
    • stilesja, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1Are you there Kent? Its Jesus Kent. Stop touching yourself.
    • wilf_brim, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1In the immortal words of Socrates, "I drank what?"
  • hs112186, on 03/14/2008, -0/+15waste was fun to use but it gets dull if you have less than 10 people on the network, its like a more secure DC++
  • Pissoff, on 03/14/2008, -0/+31"So what's he doing now?".

    This: http://www.cockos.com/
    • burgermind, on 03/14/2008, -0/+4I didn't know he was working on Reaper... Seems like that DAW has a lot of potential.
    • Waskonator, on 03/14/2008, -0/+30***** Operating System?
      • BradBrown, on 03/14/2008, -1/+8I was wondering what their slogan might be...here are some suggestions:

        "From our pants to your PC"

        "The OS for the rest of us (homosexuals)"

        "Just Hold Still"
    • mike42979, on 03/15/2008, -1/+0Umm you would think with his millions of dollars and uber talent he could design a better website. :p
  • martinherrera, on 03/14/2008, -0/+26ha, i read the synopsis at the top and it said winamp was created 7 years ago, and i said what? i remember using winamp in 1997. this is def an old article.
  • reconflux, on 03/14/2008, -15/+1Some would say he's bigger than..... Jesus. BOOO
  • nxxm, on 03/14/2008, -18/+62004! 2004!!!

    its 4years by now. get over it moron.
    • dannyb37, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2The reply feature is really useful, you might want to use it before you look like a moron!
  • cuoops, on 03/14/2008, -2/+69I still use winamp. It's got a little too bloated but not as bad as wmp or other programs.
    • IHaveIssues, on 03/14/2008, -3/+12oldversion.com
    • infinitus64, on 03/14/2008, -11/+10www.foobar2000.org/download.html
    • belly917, on 03/14/2008, -3/+29don't install the default plug-ins you don't need. You can easily select which ones to omit. For example, I don't install visualizations, dashboard, history, bookmarks, online media.

      Even if you do install all the default plug-ins, Winamp 5.x still uses 1/10th the resources of iTunes and supports many more formats.

      @ infinitus64 - foobar is nice, lightweight & customizable.. but it requires way too much fiddling/hacking/customizing to get it to a comfortable state.
    • bytor4232, on 03/14/2008, -4/+3xmms ftw
      • xerox, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1xmms isn't updated anymore i think, due to xmms2. Amarok still holds my heart though.
        • RobotBuddha, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2It's still updated, but not in a meaningful sense. More along the lines of having a typo fixed somewhere every now and again.
    • NinjaBoy, on 03/14/2008, -2/+7I only use Winamp for milkdrop. Thats the best visualizations i have ever seen. (any one else got suggestions im down)
      Milkdrop + HD Projector + hallucinogens = EPIC night
      • TeagueSterling, on 03/14/2008, -0/+2Milkdrop is one of the many things I miss from giving up WinAMP when moving to Linux. After a little bit of researching it looks like it's been picked up by ProjectM and can be used on Linux or iTunes. I haven't really tried it out, but it looks promising. http://projectm.sourceforge.net/
    • apextek, on 03/14/2008, -6/+1new version sucks the llamas ass, i dumped it earlier this year and i was a die hard fan for many years
    • Amiga500, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2XMPlay
    • th3heretic, on 03/15/2008, -0/+4Bloated? Since when is 20mb of ram and 2% of your CPU bloated? It goes down to 7mb of ram when you minimize WInamp, and im using the largest skin for Winamp as well, its definitely the same ole' Winamp. I guess if you don't like having an organized music library, stick with the old one...
      http://i27.tinypic.com/e7f47m.jpg
    • dn11, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1I like the "bloated" version. Unlike just about every other app that has grown over time - almost every bit and piece of it is modular. You can disable and uninstall every part that you don't like. But I think it has the best media library out there.
  • jamspt, on 03/14/2008, -10/+2It really whips the llamas' ass!
  • jsinger, on 03/14/2008, -4/+190You've got to love Digg... the only place where a 4 year old technology article is breaking news.
    • bromac, on 03/14/2008, -1/+25You have to go outside and see the sun sometimes to notice years going by.
  • bromac, on 03/14/2008, -4/+39Winamp is my favorite application of all time. It just keeps getting better and better. iTunes, WMP, RealPlayer and Quicktime just seem to be synonyms for "bloat".

    Just give me a media player with a good organization tool, an equalizer, and a slim uncluttered interface. Winamp does just that.
    • infinitus64, on 03/14/2008, -11/+7www.foobar2000.org/download.html
      • stateofmind, on 03/14/2008, -2/+4Thanks for the heads up. I'm near and dear to Winamp, but pleased to find a solid alternative.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 03/14/2008, -1/+6Yeah WinAMP is better than iTunes, but iTunes has the store and drm lock-in.
    • theclansman, on 03/14/2008, -0/+3Yeah, I switched to foobar for a bit but I prefer winamp it is still very lightweight and its so easy to use.

      The shortcut keys are awesome, J to jump to file, *****-Enter queues songs..I can queue up a nice little playlist in about 15 seconds
    • drizzlelicious, on 03/14/2008, -0/+3Wouldn't exactly call Winamp uncluttered
      • tas08, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1I agree but it can easily be made uncluttered though.
    • AdmiralKarelia, on 03/14/2008, -3/+1If you're on a PC, I have to agree with the comment on iTunes. However (like a lot of Apple software, hmm), it works flawlessly on the Mac.
      • iamnobody8614, on 03/15/2008, -0/+0I've used iTunes both on PCs and Macs. They're the same damn thing.
    • zzz@tkz, on 03/15/2008, -0/+3Amarok > All
  • blockbot, on 03/14/2008, -2/+14Uhh...why is this being dugg now?
    • D1Foley, on 03/14/2008, -1/+22Because it's a good story and I havn't seen it before
    • automate, on 03/14/2008, -1/+3cos it was popular on reddit
  • dougs55, on 03/14/2008, -3/+6Yeah it's an old article but does anybody know if the VW van mentioned was an old microbus or 70s type and if he still has it ? Just curious, I like those things myself.
  • Jade10145, on 03/14/2008, -6/+18Its funny,years and years ago geeks were made fun of, beat up by their more muscular jock counterparts in high school. Now a days geeks are revered and if you are unwise enough to try to beat one up they will either ***** your online life up, or better yet, become a millionaire.
    • TheSabre, on 03/14/2008, -3/+20"Now a days geeks are revered"

      Only by other geeks. No geek will "***** your online life up" because no one gives a ***** about that stuff, other than geeks. The only difference is that jocks no longer beat them up, they just act like friends and use them for what they want (i.e. test answers or whatever). The only thing that changed is that the geek community is getting larger. Not more "revered".
      • Jade10145, on 03/14/2008, -2/+3I beg to differ about the revered part, although I think I might need to use another word. I perhaps should say geeks are more utilized and useful. What I mean by this is that there is some much technology that is used in every day life that at some point someone needs a geek to fix it or show them how to use it. Although I must say that utilized is far from revered. People think that someone who is good with technology enjoys fixing every problem. Most of the time your not even thanked, they just think that you enjoy it.
      • RobotBuddha, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1I'd agree with the part about not being feared. At least not by people younger than the boomers. But at least we're seen as being money makers, which ups the dating prospects by a pretty large margin.
    • rizla420, on 03/14/2008, -0/+7its also becoming more splintered. The definion of geek has become vague. What is a geek to you? bet it differs from someone else. Technology is so vast at this point that there are varying "levels" of geek.
      • Jade10145, on 03/14/2008, -1/+4I agree with you, you have your computer geeks, you have A/V geeks, you have general geeks and so on...
      • RobotBuddha, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1I knew someone that actually described herself as a "shopping geek". She also commented once on how her friend was a genius because she could always find really cool pants. That was the day "geek" died as a meaningful word for me.
    • n99nyrwg, on 03/14/2008, -0/+2Keep dreaming nerd-boy.
  • dougerdo, on 03/14/2008, -9/+1Kevin Mitnick is one bad boy as well. Best hacker there ever was.
    • Nosty, on 03/14/2008, -2/+2Dade Murphy > Kevin Mitnick
      • AdmiralKarelia, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1Dade Murphy = not real.
        Kevin Mitnick = real

        Therefore... Kevin Mitnick > Dade Murphy
    • rizla420, on 03/14/2008, -0/+5wasnt Mitnick more of a social hacker with alright tech skills. I dont think he's some uber tech guy.
    • Xlr8ed, on 03/14/2008, -0/+3Ahh No

      Mitnick only used old unpatched vulnerabilities and social engineering to get into networks and machines....While he was a excellent social engineer, even Mitnick has said in SEVERAL interviews that he was not that good of a hacker...
      • bigsteve, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1Hey may have not been that good of a *cracker* ... but I'd still classify him as a hacker.
        • Kucher, on 03/14/2008, -1/+1The cracker/hacker verbiage debate is dead now thanks to the media and people who don't give a *****... just give up man. Hackers are malicious in the eyes of every layperson. Do you tell people that you're "a bit of a hacker..." and then spend the next five minutes explaining the difference?
      • AdmiralKarelia, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1It doesn't really matter how you get in, the point is that you got in when you weren't supposed to.
  • mindspaceindia, on 03/14/2008, -1/+7Winamp, with the ipod plugin, DSP enhancer and auto tag feature rock my world
  • thehype2049, on 03/14/2008, -2/+9excellent read, and a true pioneer in the internet industry.
  • merlinxlr, on 03/14/2008, -13/+3So Old. Buried
  • topbob, on 03/14/2008, -12/+1I didn't know you could invent a Winamp... all this time I thought it was a program that plays music.
  • JJ2K1, on 03/14/2008, -0/+20AOL really crumbled itself. How many bad mistakes can you do one after another? Oh well thats what they get for those years of leasing the internet to its customers by the hour.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 03/14/2008, -0/+13And mailing countless disks to people to only have landfills littered with them.
    • kanabiis, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2AOL is definitely on my list of worst companies ever, but charging by the hour is something EVERY ISP did back in those days. The one 'good' thing AOL probably ever did was move to unlimited internet usage, this caused the entire industry to follow suit, and a huge black eye for AOL since their modem infrastructure was unable to handle the new load.
      This was way back, in October of 1996.
    • pikpikcarrotmon, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1Notice something missing from "http://www.timewarner.com/"? There must be a reason for not mentioning one third of the largest media conglomerate in the country, if not the world.
  • ceruleanocte, on 03/14/2008, -1/+15It's a look back at our roots. Dugg for the history lesson and nostalgia.
  • shaymein, on 03/14/2008, -2/+3so what's he been up to since the article?
    • kidego365, on 03/14/2008, -0/+2Judging by the pic in that article, watching a whole lot of "Real Genius".
    • arizonabay, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1Swimming in money and ***** super models.

      Wait. You did ask what *I* would do if I sold my company for $100M, right?
  • regeya, on 03/14/2008, -5/+9Four year old article, but back in the late 90s, I loved me some Winamp. At least, until I switched to 100% Linux (didn't happen until the early 2000s) and then it was XMMS FTW for a short time. Nowadays I think we expect quite a bit from our players, and Winamp has never quite done it for me after other players started coming out.

    Just this week I decided to give the default GNOME Rhythmbox player another go, and was I surprised. Since nobody talks about it, I just thought it was stagnant, dead. Hey, folks, it's managed to replace Quod Libet on my machine, and until the KDE 4 Amarok is ready, it'll probably stay that way. I'm not 100% in love with the high GNOME dependence (though given its 'Music Player' status in the GNOME menu, that's not surprising) but right now, it's whipping the llama's ass for me.
    • rizla420, on 03/14/2008, -1/+2been usin 'buntu for close to two years and i've mainly used Rhythmbox too, it works well for me. I was a winamp loyalist in the win world. Although, towards the end it became way too bloated and slow. Packed too much crap into it. I just wanted a bare bones player that was skinnable. Drop my tunes in and hit random and i was set.
  • daFilms, on 03/14/2008, -1/+2For someone once considered the world's 'Most Dangerous Geek' you sure don't look like much...
    ... ...anyone?

    Anyhow... the title is quite an oxymoron.
  • fcorbier, on 03/14/2008, -1/+2http://reaper.fm/ - DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that Justin is working on these days.
  • enmattp, on 03/14/2008, -4/+2Frankel's a hero!
  • CCmachined, on 03/14/2008, -4/+6for the n00b diggers out there: Gnutella is the file-sharing (P2P) protocol that LimeWire is based on.
    • rizla420, on 03/14/2008, -2/+1haha. I got into the leeching game prior to napster and once napster exploded to the point where stupid sorority girls were talking about it, i knew it was doomed. I prefered FTP as my means of file acquisition. Now (as of a few days ago), Giganews. Seriously. That ***** ROCKS my socks. 27.2GB in 24hour download. SSL encryption.. uh, pure unadulterated goodness. Did I mention that it keeps my DSL pegged at max download speed. Might switch to cable for the 16mbps down.. wonder if comcast will give me ***** if i'm using that much bandwith daily.
      • SHv2, on 03/15/2008, -0/+0Comcast doesn't give a ***** about bandwith usage. At least not here in the northeast. 40GB a day down at times with 10GB up a day and zero complaints.
        • rizla420, on 03/17/2008, -0/+1Yea they do, i got a coworker who got busted by them for using too much bandwith, BT traffic.
    • cozmo88, on 03/14/2008, -0/+6the "n00bs" wouldn't be wondering what Gnutella is if they hadn't read the article, if they did that is already explained in the article itself. Pointless comment
      • ZigVicious, on 03/14/2008, -0/+4this is digg. we don't read articles here.
        • BLiNk0, on 03/14/2008, -1/+0Word
        • cozmo88, on 03/19/2008, -0/+0kind of proving my point there are you not, if they are like all digg users and don't read articles they wouldn't be wondering what Gnutella is, therefor his comment was pointless
  • ooter, on 03/14/2008, -3/+4Actually, WinPlay3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winplay3) was the first real mp3 player for windows. I remember using it back in the day because mp3 playback with Winamp would stutter on my 486, while Winplay3 worked great.
  • JJcollection, on 03/14/2008, -1/+2even if four years old, this is a great article! What's frankel doing now? just spending his money??
  • schapman43, on 03/14/2008, -0/+4That guy is my hero!
  • trezegol, on 03/14/2008, -0/+5It has been a long while since an article like this has kept me glued to the screen, even though its a little old. BTW thanks Justin Frankel for Winamp!
  • deaftly, on 03/14/2008, -0/+3The first great mp3 player and I still use it to this day, one of my all time favorite pieces of software.
  • globaldigger, on 03/14/2008, -1/+2An incredible and inspiring story...wonder what took me so much time to find him....but I am glad that I came across this story...thanks Blakovitch
  • lyncho99, on 03/14/2008, -3/+12I love it when my news is 4 years old.
    • Sawta, on 03/15/2008, -0/+2Old articles != Invalid articles

      At the very least, it's better than say, having the same three articles hitting the front page constantly.
  • ElBeh, on 03/14/2008, -3/+4I have a new idol.
  • Shelter22, on 03/14/2008, -3/+3(January 13, 2004)
  • JrGhoull, on 03/14/2008, -1/+4apparently i heart Justin Frankel....winamp for the win...i honestly dont know any music player that even begins to be as good as winamp
  • eavesdrop, on 03/14/2008, -2/+1On windows I use an earlier version of winamp, but foobar2000 I think has replaced it.
  • cottonslurpy, on 03/14/2008, -1/+4Good find. I always wondered why winamp turned into a suck sandwich overnight. Even though it's an old article, I never really knew what happened to winamp.
  • dunbone, on 03/14/2008, -0/+8Great story! I still use winamp to this day as it still whips the llama's ass.
  • withears, on 03/14/2008, -1/+6I love the older version of winamp. The new one kind of sucks. (Musicmatch has the same bloat problem)

    But he's sums it up well - ""When Hail to the Thief leaked on the Internet," Frankel says, "I was like, 'Right on!' But I still bought the CD. I think it's wrong to download music and never give anything to the artist. But if you download something and you're like, 'This sucks,' and you never listen to it again, I don't think there's anything wrong with that." A true child of Sedona, Frankel maintains a heartfelt sense of morality and karma."

    TOTAL AGREEMENT.
    • dozilla, on 03/14/2008, -3/+1but, we all don't have 100 million dollars to go and buy the cd of the music we just illegally downloaded...
    • DynamicBits, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1I'm still using 2.91 and I'm glad to see someone else agrees with me. I guess some people like the other players that take up at least half the screen to do the same thing Winamp does. I just want something that plays my music and stays out of my way. It is too bad that most people always think newer=better.
  • grayapple, on 03/14/2008, -7/+3Do many people still use WinAmp?
    I thought everyone jumped over to Open Source software or iTunes.
    • sjps220, on 03/14/2008, -1/+2I used winamp for a long time, but stopped recently. I liked how trim it was, but it did seem to lose that with updates. Also, I felt like it was updating far too often near the end of my time using it.
  • Beltiras, on 03/14/2008, -7/+1I was dug seriously down, 3rd comment from top for saying that programs are not INVENTED, programs are WRITTEN. I put it to you: Are software patents a-ok? If they are, programs are invented and math is no longer teachable since most of it will be patented in the form of software "inventions".

    Is that ok by y'all?
    • Totz83, on 03/14/2008, -0/+3Welcome to Digg, please leave your pride at the door.
      • clogmoney, on 03/14/2008, -0/+2Was the Internet not invented either?
        • Beltiras, on 03/14/2008, -1/+2The Internet is not a program.
          • clogmoney, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1No your quite right the Internet is a collection of programs....
        • hysterix, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1It's obviously a serious of tubes.
  • law1ess, on 03/14/2008, -0/+2Digg - the online microfiche reader.
  • irishjays, on 03/14/2008, -0/+2The first program I ever "Skinned"
  • btools, on 03/14/2008, -7/+0http://www.flyatease.com
  • SpookyET, on 03/14/2008, -2/+1Can you say, "OLD?" I've read it in 2004.
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