A few months back I acquired a couple of new rifles. That is nothing strange for me as I have owned guns all my life.
A few days later at least thirty news feeds about guns started showing up.
I have been writing here on the forum about playing by ear for a day or two.
Is it normal for things like this to show up? Is everything we do on the internet being looked at, and decisions of what will appear on MSN made by spying on me? Not that I care, I have nothing to hide, but damn folks. Is nothing private?
Strange stuff,
Billy
Last edited by Planobilly; 12/26/2410:21 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Today, I logged on to this YouTube site about piano instruction.
After a few hours, I got this.
I also asked ChatGPT who Planobilly was, and it returned a bunch of information about my SoundCloud and BIAB accounts, my real name, and where I lived, and people I have played with in the past. There were never any non disclosuer agreements I have made with the government/millitary when I have worked for them. They have no real reason to track me but they do. Homeland showed me part of some files they had on me one day when I cleared coming back into the country in my airplane.
But all this seems very different.
Is all this normal?
Billy
Last edited by Planobilly; 12/26/2410:52 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Is it normal for things like this to show up? Is everything we do on the internet being looked at, and decisions of what will appear on MSN made by spying on me?
There were complaints about a year ago where people were seeing what looked like extremely targeted ads on Facebook, and concluded that Facebook must be listening to their conversations on their phones.
That turned out not to be the case, but the amount of information that's collected via our browsing habits is astonishingly large. I was talking to a co-worker who's working on selling a product that will integrate multiple trackers, and sell targeted ads to users.
I've seen the ear training videos pop up in my feed because I've visited musician-oriented websites, so it's not necessarily as targeted as you think.
Then again, if there's money to be made, no doubt someone will parse out the pages we're visiting to gather even more information.
Does everyone who has a Windows computer have MSN in the taskbar? On mine, there is a cloud with a moon, 64 F, and Mostly Cloudy. When I click on that MSN comes up.
The information contained here is generally emotionally charged subject matter, advertisements for things for sale, and weather information.
I will try to figure out some sort of test to see if it is directly related to something discussed on this site.
Is it illegal to monitor information on a site like P G Music Forum and sell that information to an advertiser?
I don't really care about targeted advertising, although it can sometimes be useful. It just seems strange based on a music forum if that is actually happening.
Billy
Last edited by Planobilly; 12/26/2411:25 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Cookies, Billy, and not the chocolate chip kind. I'll bet your browser allows cookies (most do, they are nearly impossible not to have enabled), and those cookies can watch everything you do. That's largely what they are all about.
I'd start with cookies... When I get asked to install cookies, if it is compulsory (the web page won't load otherwise), I always select 'strictly necessary cookies only', never anything else. More detail on cookies here.
It states this about Tracking Cookies: "Tracking cookies, and especially third-party tracking cookies, are commonly used as ways to compile long-term records of individuals' browsing histories."
There is more info on the Wikipedia website on Tracking Cookies (see link above).
Hope this helps, Trev
BIAB & RB2025 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
Adding to Trev's excellent advice I use FireFox as my browser and it will delete cookies when shut down. There is an exclude list you can make for those sites you use the most, like PGMusic.
This doesn't eliminate the problem but it really cuts down on tracking. YMMV
Whenever I get something stuck in the back of my throat, I dislodge it by drinking a beer. It's called the Heineken Maneuver.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Adding to Trev's excellent advice I use FireFox as my browser and it will delete cookies when shut down. There is an exclude list you can make for those sites you use the most, like PGMusic.
This doesn't eliminate the problem but it really cuts down on tracking. YMMV
I second this. I have Firefox delete all cookies on exit and I close and reopen Firefox between certain sites. I close and reopen both before and after any access to my financial affairs.
I also don't give much information about me personally on social media and the like. I'm cagey about where I live and I try to avoid all the clickbait that asks banal questions, because many are collecting and collating trivia that eventually begins to form a picture. I also deliberately follow things that go on elsewhere to lay false trails. Mostly that seems to keep me fairly private. Not so easy if one has to have a public persona. Yes, I do still get some targetted stuff, mostly about music, sailing, electronics and software.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
If you are on Google, YouTube, Facebook and other sites, remove everything that is personal about yourself. On Facebook, there is nothing personal about me at all, no picture, no birthday, no schools, no interests, etc...
Same thing on Google.
Remove all tracking on Google that you can find.
Use a VPN!!! That is a must.
Download and install OO Shutup and run it. That stops just about all tracking from MicroCrap. The only thing I allow access to is my Microphone in case I do some recording. You have to do research to stop the vast majority of apps tracking you.
My cell phone is for calling only. I don't do YT, Facebook, Mail or other app. That is for my Desktop where I can have more control over it.
Another example, I ordered a guitar from Sweetwater and it tooks months for the ad's to finally trickle off. I learned that if I want to see something on a commercial website like Sweetwater, Amazon, Guitar Center, etc..., I open up the website in a Private Browsing window on Firefox. If you really want to go deeper, you can use TOR. You can't stop it all unless you go a full "Ted Kaczynski" and just drop off the tech grid 100%. You just do what you can to keep the data from feeding back.
BIAB2025 Windows 10 Pro WA6NCB No Longer on a Crappy Laptop!
There are two components to all this. One is the tracking and how to stop it. The other is whether any real danger exists as a result of the tracking.
I assume the type of tracking we are talking about controlling has little to do with actual criminal activity. The solution to possible future criminal issues is being taken care of by other professionals I have had to hire. I had a banking issue where a fraudulent cashier's check was cashed on my business account. That caused a bit of hassle but not a super big deal. It was a good bit of money, $230,000.
I do not have any real problems with the fact that a bunch of music advertising ends up on my MSN feed.
The fact that I live in Florida is well known and easy for anyone to find that information. I am not hiding out any longer even though All My Exes Live In Texas...lol
The advertising tracking idea seems pretty stupid, as I only get the advertising after I have bought something.
I see most people being very secretive about a lot of things, such as health. I had Cancer and was lucky enough to get over it. I can't imagine what value there would be in trying to hide that fact.
All this potential looking over my shoulder, so to speak, just seems a little weird.
If these people who wanted to sell me things were smart, they would just contact me once a month and ask what I needed to buy. Hell, I would be glad for someone to go do all the research I have to do to make buying decisions!
Billy
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Welcome to the new AI world! Their bots are scouring sites day & night for anything they can find to 'improve' their ChatBots. Privacy is nonexistent; it's on the public internet, same as taking a picture of you in public; no right to privacy.
I get how beneficial AI can be, but I also see the intrusive abuse every day. They eat up bandwidth I pay for to scrape unimportant trivia .. <sigh>
I, for one. do not welcome our new overlords, especially the ones making big $$ off other peoples data while they foot half the bill. Did a ground breaking study? That's our data now! Wrote a song? Ours!
</rant off>
Last edited by rharv; 12/27/2404:15 PM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: VST3 Plugin Support
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® now includes support for VST3 plugins, alongside VST and AU. Use them with MIDI or audio tracks for even more creative possibilities in your music production.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Macs®: VST3 Plugin Support
Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: Using VST3 Plugins
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll also keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
From overviews of new features and walkthroughs of the 202 new RealTracks, to highlights of XPro Styles PAK 8, Xtra Styles PAKs 18, the 2025 49-PAK, and in-depth tutorials — you’ll find everything you need to explore what’s new in Band-in-a-Box® 2025.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac is here, packed with major new features and an incredible collection of available new content! This includes 202 RealTracks (in Sets 449-467), plus 20 bonus Unreleased RealTracks in the 2025 49-PAK. There are new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 4, two new sets of “RealDrums Stems,” XPro Styles PAK 8, Xtra Styles PAK 19, and more!
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Cari amici
È stata aggerate la versione in Italiano del programma più amato dagli appassionati di musica, il nostro Band-in-a-Box.
Questo è il link alla nuova versione 2025.
Di seguito i link per scaricare il pacchetti di lingua italiana aggiornati per Band-in-a-Box e RealBand, anche per chi avesse già comprato la nuova versione in inglese.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 pour Windows est disponible en Français.
Le téléchargement se fait à partir du site PG Music
Pour ceux qui auraient déjà acheté la version 2025 de Band-in-a-Box (et qui donc ont une version anglaise), il est possible de "franciser" cette version avec les patchs suivants:
Band-in-a-Box 2025 für Windows Deutsch ist verfügbar!
Die deutsche Version Band-in-a-Box® 2025 für Windows ist ab sofort verfügbar!
Alle die bereits die englische Version von Band-in-a-Box und RealBand 2024 installiert haben, finden hier die Installationsdateien für das Sprachenupdate:
Update Your Band-in-a-Box® 2025 to Build 1128 for Windows Today!
Already using Band-in-a-Box 2025 for Windows®? Download Build 1128 now from our Support Page to enjoy the latest enhancements and improvements from our team.
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