Generally speaking the only issues I've ever had with databases are platform-specific and have nothing to do with the query language ie. Oracle's insanely complex configuration and endless lists of parameters. Performance tuning, indexing, replication, etc.
SQL in itself is easy to learn. What saddens me more is seeing people badly use atrocities like Hibernate instead of figuring out (or hiring someone who will) how a database works.
That being said I totally see how databases such as CouchDB will become more and more popular. Regardless of how proficient one is in SQL the possibilities are pretty much endless when you get to write the map/reduce functions yourself using an expressive language (like Javascript in couchdb)
Surely blocking porn is enough? Blocking anything else is a cat and mouse game. You can be sure that they will figure out how to defeat the filtering anyways.
Funny this gets posted today because just yesterday I was playing Bejeweled (iPhone version) and thinking about the fact that if it were purely random, you'd be hitting 'No Moves Left' all the time and it would be crazy frustrating.
It seems to me that the game works this way: When you destroy some jewels, the game will give you either helpful, harmful or random jewels.
As you go up levels the balance changes - between level 1 and 3 you get mostly helpful jewels and sometimes random ones. At level 4 it starts throwing in harmful combinations. By the time you're at level 10 or so you mostly get random or harmful combination with the occasional helpful.
The helpful combinations make you feel lucky, or at least I think that's the idea.
But boy is it hard.
See, to make a record it's not like the only thing you need is a guitar. You need a place to rehearse with your band. You need a good studio to record what you have rehearsed over the past weeks/months/years. The studio's not empty: you need a professional sound engineer, you need someone to master you records, mix everything... You also need a producer - *removed more things you apparently need*
Of course it's hard. With greater freedom comes greater responsibility - you decide on how polished you want your records to be and when a song is really "done" and whether you need to do another take or not and if the drums are too loud or too quiet, etc.
The technical stuff. I don't really understand how it could take you a whole day to plug your bass into an external sound card. Free software is perfectly fine for mixing a great sounding song. Cheap audio software abounds both on Mac and PCs. If you think that stuff is too hard for you to do, you simply need more practice. Focus on creating your own sound, don't try to emulate what a studio band sounds like if you're just one guy with a computer.
If you must invest in something, get some good studio monitors. Failing that, get some good headphones.
I run a small record label where every artist writes, mixes, produces their own stuff. My role as the label owner is to facilitate that by providing external help when it's needed. I buy audio equipment and lend it to the artists, pay for mastering and distribution and work on marketing and trying to find licensing opportunities. I'll even work on mixing myself if I can be of some help.
Oh and we've stopped making CDs. Only special edition, limited run CD-Rs to sell at shows.
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I don't understand all the hate for SQL.
Generally speaking the only issues I've ever had with databases are platform-specific and have nothing to do with the query language ie. Oracle's insanely complex configuration and endless lists of parameters. Performance tuning, indexing, replication, etc.
SQL in itself is easy to learn. What saddens me more is seeing people badly use atrocities like Hibernate instead of figuring out (or hiring someone who will) how a database works.
That being said I totally see how databases such as CouchDB will become more and more popular. Regardless of how proficient one is in SQL the possibilities are pretty much endless when you get to write the map/reduce functions yourself using an expressive language (like Javascript in couchdb)
Leopard has this capability built in.
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Surely blocking porn is enough? Blocking anything else is a cat and mouse game. You can be sure that they will figure out how to defeat the filtering anyways.
Funny this gets posted today because just yesterday I was playing Bejeweled (iPhone version) and thinking about the fact that if it were purely random, you'd be hitting 'No Moves Left' all the time and it would be crazy frustrating.
It seems to me that the game works this way: When you destroy some jewels, the game will give you either helpful, harmful or random jewels.
As you go up levels the balance changes - between level 1 and 3 you get mostly helpful jewels and sometimes random ones. At level 4 it starts throwing in harmful combinations. By the time you're at level 10 or so you mostly get random or harmful combination with the occasional helpful.
The helpful combinations make you feel lucky, or at least I think that's the idea.