Now, while I may or may not prefer Britney Spears to ToePhunkGrooveMaster 3000, I definitely do *not* have the time or inclination to wade through the previous 2,999 iterations of their crap to find something I like. I want someone else to do that for me.
Pandora goes through music and tags it with metadata that allows it to be tailored to your personal tastes. I believe that presently they employ people to do that tagging. If there was an open-source version of this, musicians could tag their own music. Something like "retro-early-70s-psychedelica-with-womens-choral-group-heavy-on-the-drums" and if that is to your taste, you could have your own personal radio station that draws on the 10,000 new songs put out that day. Choice is good and I don't think we need to be nostalgic for the old model of music distribution.
Look. I'm sure this seems like a chance for you to be all munificent and a geek hero to your building-mates, but why spend Your money on this? If these guys are into gaming and computers hit them up for money, you are going to have to manage the project anyways, so collecting money isnt that much more work. Otherwise you're just blowing your cash. Or do you have a share in ownership of this building?
I have read massive amounts of sci-fi and fantasy over the years. I stopped reading much several years ago, because it all started to seem the same to me. (See Robert Jordan and all the other LOtR imitators) So I was very pleased to discover several writers who are not just imitating what has sold well for others. These were originally recommended to me by the owner of Dark Carnival, here in Berkeley.
'Altered Carbon' by Richard K Morgan. Sci-Fi.
A hard-boiled detective novel (think Phillip Marlowe) set in a future in which people can switch bodies. You can live and die, over and over. Fast-paced, and with some dynamite political asides thrown in. Best since Snowcrash.
'Across the Nightingale Floor' Fantasy. Set in medieval Japan. A young man with high-level Ninja skills has to choose between his heart and the various demands of society. Lyrical and amazingly well-written. First of a trilogy.
'Sabriel', 'Lirael' and 'Abhorsen' by Garth Nix. Fantasy. Set in a world literally divided into Science and Magic by a Wall. Follows the lives of a family of 'Abhorsens' whose job is to keep the Dead from returning to the world of the living. Evocative, well-drawn world and characters.
'The Golden Compass', The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass' by Phillip Pullman. Fantasy.
Lately this has been marketed as a 'Young Adult' series. Don't be put off by that. I've been re-reading this after my first time throught the series a couple of years ago. Things that you do not expect keep happening. A sense of wonder that I haven't felt in years. Like being a kid again.
Re:Now One Won't Be Able To Try Before One Buys...
on
Books on Demand
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· Score: 1
Exactly. This thing is more like McDonalds. It's strong point won't be in turning out high-quality stuff. Has McDonald's driven every other hamburger place and restaurant out of business?
Even if this thing actually does start to show up in the real world (and not just on slashdot : ) )
we will still see all the other kinds of bookstores
Re:When will businesses be clueful?
on
Books on Demand
·
· Score: 1
Piracy won't be a problem. Since most of the cost of the books will be in the printing. Why would you stiff an author for his $1 when it will still cost $5-$10 just to print it?
Sure, some big outfit might run off a bunch of pirate copies, but, they do that now.
Sometimes, when I look at a Van Gogh, it breaks my heart,it is so beautiful. When I look at these pictures, I get the same nausea-induced feeling that any cheap knock-off imitation gives to me. It's not even interesting technology.
It may not just be memory-related.
When we got a Performa 6300 back in 94, my 10 year old learned much faster than I. I'm not dumb, so I tried to see what the difference was.
He wasn't afraid of breaking it!
People who have grown up with physical tools have been told to be careful! or you'll break it! or put your eye out! We have a mental set that says to go slow and careful with tools.
Have him do the install of the solitaire game for instance. Have him look up information on his obscure hobbies at groups.google.com.
Better yet , have him use all the menu items on the dropdown menus in different applications. Open up too many pictures in Photoshop. Let him see that he can crash it and it won't break...
Oh yeah, then show him how to fix it....:)
Get him excited and let him get in trouble and then show him how to get out of it..
My son is a 16 yr old programming geek. What advice can you give us in terms of what kind of education or experience it takes to be an awesome game programmer?
Slashdot Mirror
In addition to the free books available on the Internet, Wikibooks has a bunch of textbooks available. The CS ones are here:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computer_science
BB
Pandora goes through music and tags it with metadata that allows it to be tailored to your personal tastes. I believe that presently they employ people to do that tagging. If there was an open-source version of this, musicians could tag their own music. Something like "retro-early-70s-psychedelica-with-womens-choral-group-heavy-on-the-drums"
and if that is to your taste, you could have your own personal radio station that draws on the 10,000 new songs put out that day. Choice is good and I don't think we need to be nostalgic for the old model of music distribution.
One of the issues here has to do with whether copies of WOW that exist only in RAM are violating copyright.
So I hear a song on the radio and it gets stuck in my head. One of two possible scenarios occurs to me:
1) The RIAA sues me for making unauthorized copies of their product and violating copyright.
2) I sue the RIAA for invasion of privacy.
BB
http://www.rightstuf.com/resource/resource.shtml
Go to this site for a good history/cultural context primer on anime in Japan and the US.
BB
Look. I'm sure this seems like a chance for you to be all munificent and a geek hero to your building-mates, but why spend Your money on this? If these guys are into gaming and computers hit them up for money, you are going to have to manage the project anyways, so collecting money isnt that much more work. Otherwise you're just blowing your cash. Or do you have a share in ownership of this building?
I have read massive amounts of sci-fi and fantasy over the years. I stopped reading much several years ago, because it all started to seem the same to me. (See Robert Jordan and all the other LOtR imitators) So I was very pleased to discover several writers who are not just imitating what has sold well for others. These were originally recommended to me by the owner of Dark Carnival, here in Berkeley.
'Altered Carbon' by Richard K Morgan. Sci-Fi.
A hard-boiled detective novel (think Phillip Marlowe) set in a future in which people can switch bodies. You can live and die, over and over. Fast-paced, and with some dynamite political asides thrown in. Best since Snowcrash.
'Across the Nightingale Floor' Fantasy.
Set in medieval Japan. A young man with high-level Ninja skills has to choose between his heart and the various demands of society. Lyrical and amazingly well-written. First of a trilogy.
'Sabriel', 'Lirael' and 'Abhorsen' by Garth Nix. Fantasy.
Set in a world literally divided into Science and Magic by a Wall. Follows the lives of a family of 'Abhorsens' whose job is to keep the Dead from returning to the world of the living. Evocative, well-drawn world and characters.
'The Golden Compass', The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass' by Phillip Pullman. Fantasy.
Lately this has been marketed as a 'Young Adult' series. Don't be put off by that. I've been re-reading this after my first time throught the series a couple of years ago.
Things that you do not expect keep happening. A sense of wonder that I haven't felt in years. Like being a kid again.
Even if this thing actually does start to show up in the real world (and not just on slashdot : ) ) we will still see all the other kinds of bookstores
Piracy won't be a problem. Since most of the cost of the books will be in the printing. Why would you stiff an author for his $1 when it will still cost $5-$10 just to print it? Sure, some big outfit might run off a bunch of pirate copies, but, they do that now.
Sometimes, when I look at a Van Gogh, it breaks my heart,it is so beautiful. When I look at these pictures, I get the same nausea-induced feeling that any cheap knock-off imitation gives to me. It's not even interesting technology.
It may not just be memory-related. When we got a Performa 6300 back in 94, my 10 year old learned much faster than I. I'm not dumb, so I tried to see what the difference was. He wasn't afraid of breaking it! People who have grown up with physical tools have been told to be careful! or you'll break it! or put your eye out! We have a mental set that says to go slow and careful with tools. Have him do the install of the solitaire game for instance. Have him look up information on his obscure hobbies at groups.google.com. Better yet , have him use all the menu items on the dropdown menus in different applications. Open up too many pictures in Photoshop. Let him see that he can crash it and it won't break... Oh yeah, then show him how to fix it....:) Get him excited and let him get in trouble and then show him how to get out of it..
My son is a 16 yr old programming geek. What advice can you give us in terms of what kind of education or experience it takes to be an awesome game programmer?