That's not how I interpret this:

I interpret that as Jazz Drums won't be available at all after January 15 2009.

I do presume, though, that they will not merely be discarded, but will show up in some larger package at a later date; this could be wishful thinking on my part, however. 

Well, I'm on a PC, not a Mac, but I would expect control-left-arrow to go back a word, not command-left-arrow.

Any browser I've used, for as long as I can remember, on either Windows or Linux, maps back- and forward-a-page commands to alt-left-arrow  and alt-right-arrow.  Since I believe that command-left-arrow is the Mac equivalent of alt-left-arrow, it seems to me that your browsers are behaving as I'd expect them to, and there's nothing that VSL can (or should) do about it.

Are there any programs you normally use where command-left-arrow is previous word but control-left-arrow isn't?

Well, apparently that was the one I meant, then.  If the one with sheet music isn't on the south side of the street, I'll be arbitrarily related to a monkey.

Not always, apparently.

Just a little thing; I notice that the Sibelius 5.2 and Vienna Ensemble (Setup guide) in the user area has a modification time of 2009-09-26 19:07, suggesting that you have apparently managed to release it about a year before it is written.

Actually, dependent on the depth required, you could probably get a dissertation out of tracing the connections between Goldsmith's score for 'Star Trek: the Motion Picture' and various Vaughan Williams symphonies (such as 6 and 7, which Goldsmith admitted to listening to a lot while he was scoring ST:TMP).

Here's a completely bonkers idea: find a way to push the more intensive calculations out to one (or more) Playstation 3s across the network. It's done wonders for the project to release a PS3 client, because of the PS3's ludicrous parallel computational oomph.

Some argue that Cliff Eidelman's score for "Star Trek VI" is heavily influenced by Stravinsky's 'The Firebird', perhaps because of the similarity of the opening bars' arrangement, although I think that Eidelman's score is wonderfully operatic in its own right. (Where else can you hear "To be or not to be" being sung in the original Klingon?)

Also, I think that Holst's "The Planets" could almost lay claim to being one of the works most adapted by film composers; it's practically a masterclass in dramatic orchestral writing.

Chiming in with Brian, my immediate reaction to your question was that it fell into the category of "please do my homework for me", which I hope you didn't intend it to be.

However, my (slightly more considered) response is: "don't do that." 

In my opinion, writing a dissertation on the influence of Stravinsky on film music is a bit like writing a dissertation on the influence of Elvis Presley on popular music. I'm just not sure what you can say that hasn't already been said numerous times, and so I can't see a top-class dissertation coming out of it.  (I am assuming you want to write a top-class dissertation, right?)

In terms of your studies, what are you really passionate about? What are you curious to spend time digging away at, maybe to learn something original? Is it film music? Is it Stravinsky? Is it something else? 

(Listen to me, I've gone from chider to coach in four paragraphs, and short ones, at that.)

Not wishing to be funny, but how?

Making stuff that seems to be good enough to the typical purchaser, but that is made more cheaply because of new technology, is basically the history of the developed world since the Industrial Revolution. Computer technology replacing warm bodies is practically the economic story of our times, and I see no sign that that trend will reverse, particularly for occupations where the activity is labour-intensive.

Indeed, there is even a technical term in economics for what's happening to orchestras in places like Bollywood (and Hollywood): a Schumpeterian wave of creative destruction.  It's what happens when some new piece of technology so fundamentally changes some aspect of how a market works, that there is a sea-change in the behaviour of consumers and producers in the market.

The classic example is the invention of the automobile, which destroyed demand for many skilled occupations, such as blacksmiths and buggy-whip makers, while creating whole new ones, such as engine mechanics and driving instructors. 

If orchestras can find a way to respond to the threat of computers by re-positioning themselves, much as the Swiss watchmakers did once quartz watches trampled the cheap mechanical watch market to death, there might still be some money in it for them, albeit in a significantly altered market.

But if the orchestral players don't actively engage with the possibilities of new technology (or, worse, expect their union or the public to do it for them), then, with regret, they're outta here. 

As already mentioned, the third floor of Foyles on Charing Cross Road has a decent selection of new scores, including Dover scores (but quite expensive), as well as lots of Eulenberg study scores. They also have a whole shelf with different sizes and shapes of manuscript paper pads, amongst other things.

Note that Dover's own book shop on nearby Earlham Street does not carry any of their music scores, so don't go there unless you like wedge-shaped shops full of clip art.

The east side of Charing Cross Road has numerous second-hand book shops which you can have a look at, but there is a dedicated music score shop just off Charing Cross Road, on the south side of Cecil Court (here's a picture looking east along Cecil Court; the music shop is labelled 'Music Opera Dance' on the right). Have a look at Google maps around Leicester Square tube station to see where this is.

Farther north up Charing Cross Road, there are several general musical instrument retailers that might be of interest, particularly around Denmark Street, whose shops I believe contain more guitars than Vienna contains sausages.

Over in Soho,  Chappell's of Bond Street has a large selection of scores too; just to confuse you, they're not on Bond Street any more, having moved to Wardour Street.

As I noted a while ago in another thread, everyone interested in second-hand music should experience the veritable midden of scores surrounding the piano in the basement of the Archive Bookstore at 83 Bell Street, off Lisson Grove in Marylebone. If he's in the mood, you might even get given a glass of sherry by the proprietor, just for keeping him company, as far as I can tell. If you're lucky, in among the piles and heaps and scads and piles of scores he has, you might well find things from the library of the Royal College of Music, or hand-notated performance scores from the BBC, as well as many, many cheap scores; certainly, things that you'll never find on Amazon or eBay, let alone in a normal book shop.

Sounds like some kind of weird vanity publishing company for composers, who were looking to turn you into a customer.

A ropey story-teller, sure, despite his undoubted writing skill.

Also, his shoes are ugly.  

Just to chime in here; I don't know how much time and money to have to dedicate to learning, but if you can afford it, I cannot recommend the Open University course  A214: Understanding Music highly enough. It blasts you from scratch to harmonizing Bach chorales in nine months, teaching you (amongst many other things) how to read orchestral scores along the way. The residential summer school was worth the price by itself, and it's definitely one of the best academic courses I've ever taken. 

Although it starts from scratch, it's not just for musical beginners; many of the students on the course in my year were professional musicians who simply felt that they were missing some basic underpinnings to their conceptual grasp of what music was about.  If anything, they were able to get more out of the course because they knew a lot of the bigger picture already because of their experience.

I think that's a false dichotomy; it's not either/or, because story-telling and writing are essentially orthogonal skills.

For example, thinking back to the science fiction I read in my youth: I think Harlan Ellison and Stanislaw Lem are wonderful writers but pretty ropey story-tellers, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke were great story-tellers but couldn't write a shopping list between them, and Kurt Vonnegut and Alfred Bester had a decent balance of both skills.