Another improvement would be, instead of buying tracks we should buy memberships to channels.
These channels, or sites should provide forums like this, and many many exclusive innovative features, interviews with the band, and whatever else. And include mp3s with the package, but not AS the package.
In the same way an AOL user gets AIM, Mozilla, Winamp, and all these cool software, but its not why they pay for AOL, its just what makes AOL a good package.
Theres two options. One option is to sell the product, I dont really think this would work very well but it would make some money..50 per mp3 is sometihng people would be willing to pay if you are good, if you arent all that good,.25 per mp3.
Micropayments are an option.
The other option is subscription option, and this is the option I think will ultimately work. If we treat music like we treat TV, and we create channels for certain labels, you can charge someone to subscribe to a channel.
So on your site if you are a channel, you list the price of all your musicians, and combine it up, then offer a subscribe button which a user clicks and makes payment to subscribe.
Once they subscribe for maybe $1-5 a month, the user now can access all the music from that label as long as they pay their fee, or you can charge them for the whole year, charge them around the price of a CD, maybe $15-20, and they can access the music all year.
There should be more than music, this means the whole community, the blogs, the forums, the pictures, video clips, everything you offer and you should offer as much as possible.
Look at AOL, they are king not because they offer the net, we all can get the net, they are king because they offer the features people are willing to pay for, they improve the net experience.
Its your job as a music company to improve the listeners music experience. INNOVATE, dont treat the listener as a sale, treat them as a member.
The problem is people think selling mp3s is a good idea, you have to sell services and INCLUDE mp3s.
Selling mp3s is like selling webpages, people will not pay on a per site basis, EVER.
However, people will pay for quality and service, people do subscribe to gaming sites, if you offer it at a cheap $1 a month, or $12 a year, people will subscribe. You also must offer alot of things in the members sections, not just mp3s, but video clips, tourdates, blogs, forums, pictures,interviews, etc. You have to make it into almost an online magazine, you need to build a community, then you charge people to access that community
You charge the fans to access a SCENE, because to the fan, its all about the scene, just like to the musician its all about the art. Treat it like what it is, art! Do not treat it like product, when you treat it like product and worry about how many sales of mp3s you'll get, you wont sell any.
I suggest you let a person subscribe to your site, your fans will subscribe, you may only have a few thousand fans, but thats enough. 5000 people paying $12 a year, is decent money, more money than you'd make trying to sell mp3s.
You wont make alot of money trying to sell mp3s, however if your mp3s are 40-50 cents each, it will work. I'll buy a few mp3s if you dsell them for 50 cents each, price is the issue.
I suggest you make your mp3s cheap, and make them high quality 360. Let us pay via paypal.
Another way to handle it, if you dont want to go this route, is to let fans subscribe through paypal for say $1 a month. For $1 a month they recieve access to a site you setup which has mp3s on it, comments from the band like a band blog,pictures of concerts, and a list of when the concerts will be in the area etc.
Sell your services, dont sell your mp3s, people want to pay for services not for music. Do what AOL does, dont sell the websites, sell the service, set it up so we have to pay to access the blog, the mp3s, the pictures, and anything else a fan may like, make them pay to access the forum, and use MP3s are just part of the whole package.
give away a few mp3s so new people can listen and see if your band is actually good, but keep everything else for subscribers.
Video clips, Mp3s, Forum, Blog, Pictures, if your band is good, fans will pay for this.
Hmm, could this have anything to do with your attitude or social skills? My attitude is not on display here, and I don't try to pretend like I'm socially talented, I aim for jobs which do not require me to spend long hours talking to annoying people
Please tell me where you live? You don't accept $15 an hour? Where are jobs going?
"There is NO jobs." Especially not for someone with a limited grasp of the English language. Can't even get a job at McDonalds? GET REAL. Fast food has one of the highest turn-over rates of any industry out there. Period. The 'recession' that, in your eyes, is crippling the economy is NOT bad enough that people are clinging to their exploitative, dangerous minimum-wage jobs. Your posts are simply absurd. You, sir, are lacking credibility.
My English skills are better than about 80% of the population, now I admit I'm no English major, but my writing skills were good enough to get my through highschool and college.
The reccession is causing people with more experience and or degrees to compete me for that MC Donalds job. Lets also remember I must compete with MILLIONS of college students because I'm in Boston and not some little hickville town like yourself. About 70% of us have degrees in Boston, this isnt Texas or Virginia where everyone has a GED. You come to Boston and I promise you wont have a job here, just because you can get a job in a ghetto where everyones ignorant, doeosnt mean you can come to the most educated state in the country and get a job. I have to compete with Harvard and MIT students for that Mc Donalds job, you have to compete with bubba and his GED.
Especially not for someone with a limited grasp of the English language. Can't even get a job at McDonalds? GET REAL. Fast food has one of the highest turn-over rates of any industry out there.
Mc Donald's is not offering Jobs, I went to MC Donalds first, guess what, they were out of applications. I went to every fast food place I knew and none of them were hiring,The list? Mc Donalds, Burger King, Wendys. I also went to Sears, BestBuy(they at least were willing to interview me), Walmart, CVS, GNC, eventually I gave up and signed up with the temp agency, why? Because theres a shortage of jobs. Teenagers dont even have jobs this summer, I suggest you do some research on the economic situation in Boston else shut up because you dont know shit. If you know where theres jobs in Boston which will pay me $15 an hour, show me so I can send them my resume. I however think you are talking bullshit, sure before the recession you could make $15 an hour, there were millions more jobs than there are now, now we have alot less jobs, you take whats offered or you are jobless.
There is a little place where the rest of us live, it's a place called REALITY. Check it out.
There is a little trait you should learn, HONESTY. Try it.
"Try looking around you. I have held a number of them, ranging from $40,000 to $130,000 a year. I don't have any degree. And yes, I have lived in America all my life. It may take a bit of work, but even a good waiter can clear $35,000 pretty easily."
yeah just ignore the fact that WE ARE IN A RECESSION. We have lost MILLIONS of jobs. Yes before the recession I was making $35-40k a year myself, the recession came and I decided to go to college.
Then move somewhere reasonable. In most of the country, houses in that price range are strictly the domain of the richest in the community. I only paid $130,000 for a 2000 square foot, 3 car brand new home in the most expensive subdivision in the area, with nothing but a stream and open land behind me. My property taxes are around $1,500 a year I believe.
In Massachusettes a house in the ghetto will cost you about $200,000. Why? Because its in the city where all the jobs are, where the colleges are etc. I'm a college student, I'm not even thinking about getting a house, I may never get a house, apartment and condos however cost $1000 a month, with a roomate you can bring it down to $500-600 a month.
Transportation is a factor of where you live
Where you go to school and where you work decides where you live, not you. There is a reason most college students all live in the same general area.
Either you get a more expensive place close to work, or you get a cheaper place farther out and pay to commute. If you go with the boat option, you are already downtown in a lot of coastal cities, and only need a bus pass for around $30/month.
Yes because boats are free! So is the space where your boat is parked! Be realistic.
If you are single, savings is not that hard. The continuing difficulty I see in your ideas is college. It is possible to make a pretty decent living without a degree, you just have to hustle a bit to get the job. I have already shown how cheap life can be
People WITH degrees are getting laid off from their jobs, 3 million jobs lost, yet you seem to think that me, a 22 year old with little to no experience is going to get hired?
MY uncle is a chef with 20 years experience, and hes working for a temp agency just like I am. In fact hes working for the same temp agency!
I've been supporting a wife and three children for years without a degree, but I have lots of skills. I know how to use them together to be more useful to a business than a specialist out of school in many cases. College is a great way to learn, and a good path for many people, but certainly not the only way to make it. In many cases, you'll find that the money spent and wasted years really don't get paid back. The 3-5 years and $50,000-$100,000 dollars could have been better used, the years working your way up in a trade or company, and the money invested. Unless you specifically want a career in one of the few that requires college, you can make a great living without.
No one is willing to hire me!!!! Why cant you get it through your thick skull? Theres not unlimited jobs, once they hire all the people who they are going to hire, thats it. You got lucky, try going for a job now in a completely new field which you dont have years of experience in and see how difficult it is. You wont even be able to find a job at mc donalds, people with degrees are taking those jobs too.
Go to a coastal city, live on a boat for a bit.
Boston is a coastal city, you come here with your boat and I'll move in.
Your expenses will be very low, you will own your "home" very quickly, and if you see better opportunities in another city, moving is easy.
What is the precise cost of living on a boat, where can I get a free boat? And I'd think if boats were so cheap EVERYONE would be living in them instead of in cheap apartments, projects, and other places. Prove me wrong.
We need a group to setup a site. I should be able to click on a link and then click join OpenSource or whatever. Then I pay $5 a month and I fund open source development. I pay for votes transgaming style.
Me and the other paying users vote on where the money goes, programmers can sign up and get money to develop certain applications or services, and we can set up bounties, where programmers can accept.
When the code reaches beta we review it to make sure it works, and when its finished they get paid.
Transgaming currently does this, but we need a general open source transgaming style setup.
Why cant we set up something like Transgaming, or the EFF, where people pay $5 a month or something, and then we vote to set up bounties to fund development. Whoever develops it wins the money.
Traffic on the Morpheus service also fell 15 percent, Net Ratings said, while usage on iMesh dropped 16 percent. BearShare usage dropped enough that it fell below NetRatings' cutoff point for tracking.
I sleep around 6 hours, personally work around 4, that leaves plenty of time for everything else. If you choose to go to college, then you shouldn't complain about the cost. College is no more a necessity than watching TV.
I see you dont live in America. What job can you get in this economy without a degree?
For your lifestyle, why do you have to pay rent, bills, pay for education or transportation? With a couple of years of extra work and frugal living, you should be able to have a paid off house, mobile home, or boat.
What the hell are you talking about? Houses cost a quarter million dollars. I'll never be able to afford a house by myself but even if I did have a house, the property taxes are too high.
No more rent. If you choose the boat or mobile, your only bills are fuel and filling water, not exactly expensive. College is a luxury item, not a necessary expense. Transportation is only needed if you buy a home far from the rest of the things you need.
Boats cost more than cars, yes I could live in my car but I dont have a license yet.
Transportation costs money, I dont know where you live but you have to pay at least $1 to get on a train, and almost $1 to get on a bus, without a car you pay about $60 a month for a pass.
For the simple bills like gas and food, you should be able to pay it mostly from well invested (not risky) savings, or at most a very minimal work schedule of around 10 hours a week or less.
I'm 22 years old, not 50, what savings?! 10 hours a week? Ok let me explain. College costs $10,000-30,000 a year, the average wage for an uneducated college student is around $10 an hour.
This means I can make about 400 a week, when you take away taxes its more like 325 a week.
If rent is $1000 a month, thats 3 weeks of work just to pay rent.
IF you live with a roomate, thats 2 weeks of work just to pay rent.
What I still don't see is what you think the point of life is? You don't want to work, be happy, make money, be poor, go to school, go without school, etc. Why do it then?
People who go without school are bums, The life of a bum isnt any easier than the life of a student. At least when you are a student you get help from the government via financial aid, when you are a bum people spit on you.
You enjoy being a bum begging people for food, because without an education you won thave a job.
8 hours of your day is work, 8 hours of your day is sleep, 2 hours of your day = preparing for work.
Then theres house chores and studying. 90% of a persons day is work, if they are likely they get a couple of hours to watch TV.
Life is about doing what makes you happy and what helps you grow. Many people have tried the happiness through work/money path,
I dont think life is about me or how I feel. I believe that my existance is more important than that. Perhaps you are selfish but not everyone does everything for emotional reward.
Also I'm not a puritian or whatever you want to call it. People can spend their life being silly and partying, its their life.
If you don't have a family to support or expensive desires, it doesn't even take that much.
I guess you've never been in college.
With a frugal lifestyle for a couple of years, you can easily get to the point where the only work you'll ever have to do is for yourself (cooking, doing the dishes, etc.) for the rest of your days.
No, you have to pay rent, pay bills, buy food, pay for education and trasportation to school and work.
The mistake you made in your post is that you believe happiness is essential to life. Its not.
I know what you are saying, I just disagree with you.
Is this not the argumentation of a victim? As long as you're playing the victim, of course you will feel trampled and stuck. Being a victim, you force yourself to believe you have no choice, that you are stuck, have to do what your parents expect, that there is no way out, that this is how life is and supposed to be forever and ever.
You dont understand my point, I dont consider myself a victim. What I'm saying is life isnt about YOU, its not about emotion. I can see you like to act all emotional, either life must be a great happy experience, or an extremely sad experience as if theres no way to live life without feeling one extreme or the other.
Its not that I feel I'm a victim, where did that come from? I just said life isnt a game. Its not about fun, its about work.
You are sad or angry because you can't do everything your mind tells you you want to do. I tell you, if you got everything you desire, nothing would be attractive to you anymore. Is a über-spoiled life worth living? Some do, others envy them, but maybe you're supposed to live a different life, instead of the artificial stereotype life being pushed through media and family pressure?
Actually I'm emotionally neutral. See its your own emotional thinking which causes you to believe I must be motivated by emotion. Emotion does not play a role here. Like I said, its not about me, I'm a part of something bigger and I'm playing my role.
Same goes for the people, but further on, they're a reflection of you. Do you see the popular people, what they do? They talk to everyone and take an interest in other people's lives. While how others treat you, is a reflection of what you think of yourself and how you treat others. Improving relationships with others, can really make you realize that other people are not so dumb as you think! Even though they can be stuck in silly things too, they also live, breathe, think, dream and learn.
Here you go again. I know how to be popular, theres benefits and drawbacks. I want to be balanced, I want to be known and remembered in a good way, I know if I became famous just as many people would hate me as love me, and I'd prefer to not be known at all than to be disliked by the masses.
I truly don't know what life is about, then it also has the most potential.
Life isnt about you and your emotions, life is about the role you play in this world, and the effect you have on other things which are alive. We all are part of a system, we all are supposed to be on a team even though we actually arent.
If you focus on the problem, it will grow bigger and bigger. When focusing on the solutions, you will become active and don't waste energy thinking about what you should have done. Again, be active, don't be a victim.
Once again you are assuming a person can be one extreme or the other. Problem solving is life, but when did I say I only focus on the problems and never the solutions? Don't assume stuff.
If the world was only bliss and happiness, the population would leave it because it would be boring. Or the minds of people would come up with something to fuss it up once more! The people make the time and place, so if they do not match, changes will occur.
Actually I wouldnt leave it, in fact thats my goal in life, to make the world better, hopefully something like that.
Some people just as mentally screwed up and cannot be happy in any world, but those people also do most of the damage which prevents everyone else from being happy, my role in this world is to fix the damage and solve the problems caused by others who were here before me.
If you truly want a change, then become that change with your own life. A positive change is absolutely possible and within your reach, you just have to reach out and do it.
If you think what you have is 'hard work' then you're just spoilt. I *know* I have it easy compared to at least 5 billion of the world's population. I know I have it easy compared to 99% of the world's population prior to 1950. Since you have access to a computer,
Actually, they have computers in Africa, India, Iraq, Tokyo,Hong Kong. The computer is not something only we have.
t's likely the same applies to you as well. There are many, many people out there for whom life is a horrible struggle from which there is no way out, and no hope of ever improving their lot.
Give me an example of no way out? I mean I can see if you are in a dungeon as a slave, or in prison, but if you are a free person whats your excuse? We have people in Africa who are programmers working and making money improving their lot.
It doesnt matter where you are, if you are smart you'll take advantage of what you have, and find ways around what you dont have.
I dont have money, I find ways around that. Your point?
. But for the vast majority of those who can post on Slashdot, this isn't true. Yes, I was broke and working over 60 hours a week a couple of years back - but I did that through choice and to get where I am today - my work is interesting, albeit underpaid.
What makes you think a kid in Africa or China cant pick up a book on C++, then go to an internet cafe and practice programming so he can get a job?
What makes you think people cant learn at the same rate or maybe even faster than you with less?
Its not that I'm spoiled, I understand that hard work bypasses everything, if you work harder than everyone else you'll have more knowledge.
The only thing I'm against is the selling of information, if theres anything you can do to keep these poor kids in third world countries in a hole, its by having a copyright on all information so they cant afford to learn.
Other than that, how do you plan to keep ahead of the more highly motivated less lazy Indian/Africa/Chinese competition?
Life requires hard work, from what you say it seems you never worked hard, you grew up in an average middle class family, most likely went to private school, and never experienced poverty in the USA.
Poverty is poverty, In India theres poverty, they have cities in India and their poverty is the same as our poverty here, Poverty in Africa is the same as our poverty here with one exception, they dont have any medicine and they have more disease because its Africa.
China has poverty in the rural areas, alot of people there dont eat very well, and unlike us they cannot get free food, doesnt matter because food is the least of their problems, their problem is lack of an economy, they have to work twice as hard to get a job because theres more of them.
But in terms of lifestyle, all of our lifestyles are the same once we do have a job, actually in the USA we have less vacations and work longer + harder than any other country in the world.
Its a proven fact and there was a slashdot story about it a short time ago. Where you live has nothing to do with how hard you work, the reason the US works the hardest is because our culture is the most competitive, theres no teamwork here, everyone is about self.
So I can name a list of countries where life is easier, Canada, most of Europe, Japan, most of Asia.
Our country while we have alot of freedom, we also have boring lives which are high stress. Our kids are the most highly educated population in the world, because we force our kids to go to school for more years than kids in Japan or China, our kids also pay more for school so they get bogged down with bills before they even get established in the real world.
Stress one of the number 1 killers in the USA, our lifespan is shorter than Japan and most of Europe, our quality of life is lower.
So next time you want to talk about how we Americans have it easy, we dont have it easier when it comes to lifestyle, to live in the USA you have to be the smartest hardest working person in the world.
Slashdot Mirror
Another improvement would be, instead of buying tracks we should buy memberships to channels.
These channels, or sites should provide forums like this, and many many exclusive innovative features, interviews with the band, and whatever else. And include mp3s with the package, but not AS the package.
In the same way an AOL user gets AIM, Mozilla, Winamp, and all these cool software, but its not why they pay for AOL, its just what makes AOL a good package.
Theres two options. One option is to sell the product, I dont really think this would work very well but it would make some money.
Micropayments are an option.
The other option is subscription option, and this is the option I think will ultimately work. If we treat music like we treat TV, and we create channels for certain labels, you can charge someone to subscribe to a channel.
So on your site if you are a channel, you list the price of all your musicians, and combine it up, then offer a subscribe button which a user clicks and makes payment to subscribe.
Once they subscribe for maybe $1-5 a month, the user now can access all the music from that label as long as they pay their fee, or you can charge them for the whole year, charge them around the price of a CD, maybe $15-20, and they can access the music all year.
There should be more than music, this means the whole community, the blogs, the forums, the pictures, video clips, everything you offer and you should offer as much as possible.
Look at AOL, they are king not because they offer the net, we all can get the net, they are king because they offer the features people are willing to pay for, they improve the net experience.
Its your job as a music company to improve the listeners music experience. INNOVATE, dont treat the listener as a sale, treat them as a member.
The problem is people think selling mp3s is a good idea, you have to sell services and INCLUDE mp3s.
Selling mp3s is like selling webpages, people will not pay on a per site basis, EVER.
However, people will pay for quality and service, people do subscribe to gaming sites, if you offer it at a cheap $1 a month, or $12 a year, people will subscribe. You also must offer alot of things in the members sections, not just mp3s, but video clips, tourdates, blogs, forums, pictures,interviews, etc. You have to make it into almost an online magazine, you need to build a community, then you charge people to access that community
You charge the fans to access a SCENE, because to the fan, its all about the scene, just like to the musician its all about the art. Treat it like what it is, art! Do not treat it like product, when you treat it like product and worry about how many sales of mp3s you'll get, you wont sell any.
I suggest you let a person subscribe to your site, your fans will subscribe, you may only have a few thousand fans, but thats enough. 5000 people paying $12 a year, is decent money, more money than you'd make trying to sell mp3s.
You wont make alot of money trying to sell mp3s, however if your mp3s are 40-50 cents each, it will work. I'll buy a few mp3s if you dsell them for 50 cents each, price is the issue.
I suggest you make your mp3s cheap, and make them high quality 360. Let us pay via paypal.
Another way to handle it, if you dont want to go this route, is to let fans subscribe through paypal for say $1 a month. For $1 a month they recieve access to a site you setup which has mp3s on it, comments from the band like a band blog,pictures of concerts, and a list of when the concerts will be in the area etc.
Sell your services, dont sell your mp3s, people want to pay for services not for music. Do what AOL does, dont sell the websites, sell the service, set it up so we have to pay to access the blog, the mp3s, the pictures, and anything else a fan may like, make them pay to access the forum, and use MP3s are just part of the whole package.
give away a few mp3s so new people can listen and see if your band is actually good, but keep everything else for subscribers.
Video clips, Mp3s, Forum, Blog, Pictures, if your band is good, fans will pay for this.
You are funny, I hope you get modded up for that post.
So why do cities build "affordable housing" and cheap projects, when they can just build a bunch of boats and have the poor all live on deck?
Anyway thanks for the help, I will do some research into this and see how feasable it is.
DO I need some kinda boat license or something? I dont know how to drive a boat.
The idea sounds cool if I can find some roomates to tag along and help me pay for the boat.
I see no point in paying $800 when I can pay $500, and I'd rather live with roomates than live alone,
What are you talking about? Get off your couch and do something.
You are talking about entertainment here, not responsibility. 4 year olds dont understand responsibility, I do.
Now shut up and go back into your cave with bin laden you troll.
Hmm, could this have anything to do with your attitude or social skills?
My attitude is not on display here, and I don't try to pretend like I'm socially talented, I aim for jobs which do not require me to spend long hours talking to annoying people
Please tell me where you live? You don't accept $15 an hour? Where are jobs going?
"There is NO jobs." Especially not for someone with a limited grasp of the English language. Can't even get a job at McDonalds? GET REAL. Fast food has one of the highest turn-over rates of any industry out there. Period. The 'recession' that, in your eyes, is crippling the economy is NOT bad enough that people are clinging to their exploitative, dangerous minimum-wage jobs. Your posts are simply absurd. You, sir, are lacking credibility.
My English skills are better than about 80% of the population, now I admit I'm no English major, but my writing skills were good enough to get my through highschool and college.
The reccession is causing people with more experience and or degrees to compete me for that MC Donalds job. Lets also remember I must compete with MILLIONS of college students because I'm in Boston and not some little hickville town like yourself. About 70% of us have degrees in Boston, this isnt Texas or Virginia where everyone has a GED. You come to Boston and I promise you wont have a job here, just because you can get a job in a ghetto where everyones ignorant, doeosnt mean you can come to the most educated state in the country and get a job. I have to compete with Harvard and MIT students for that Mc Donalds job, you have to compete with bubba and his GED.
Especially not for someone with a limited grasp of the English language. Can't even get a job at McDonalds? GET REAL. Fast food has one of the highest turn-over rates of any industry out there.
Mc Donald's is not offering Jobs, I went to MC Donalds first, guess what, they were out of applications. I went to every fast food place I knew and none of them were hiring,The list? Mc Donalds, Burger King, Wendys. I also went to Sears, BestBuy(they at least were willing to interview me), Walmart, CVS, GNC, eventually I gave up and signed up with the temp agency, why? Because theres a shortage of jobs. Teenagers dont even have jobs this summer, I suggest you do some research on the economic situation in Boston else shut up because you dont know shit. If you know where theres jobs in Boston which will pay me $15 an hour, show me so I can send them my resume. I however think you are talking bullshit, sure before the recession you could make $15 an hour, there were millions more jobs than there are now, now we have alot less jobs, you take whats offered or you are jobless.
There is a little place where the rest of us live, it's a place called REALITY. Check it out.
There is a little trait you should learn, HONESTY. Try it.
"Try looking around you. I have held a number of them, ranging from $40,000 to $130,000 a year. I don't have any degree. And yes, I have lived in America all my life. It may take a bit of work, but even a good waiter can clear $35,000 pretty easily."
yeah just ignore the fact that WE ARE IN A RECESSION. We have lost MILLIONS of jobs. Yes before the recession I was making $35-40k a year myself, the recession came and I decided to go to college.
Then move somewhere reasonable. In most of the country, houses in that price range are strictly the domain of the richest in the community. I only paid $130,000 for a 2000 square foot, 3 car brand new home in the most expensive subdivision in the area, with nothing but a stream and open land behind me. My property taxes are around $1,500 a year I believe.
In Massachusettes a house in the ghetto will cost you about $200,000. Why? Because its in the city where all the jobs are, where the colleges are etc. I'm a college student, I'm not even thinking about getting a house, I may never get a house, apartment and condos however cost $1000 a month, with a roomate you can bring it down to $500-600 a month.
Transportation is a factor of where you live
Where you go to school and where you work decides where you live, not you. There is a reason most college students all live in the same general area.
Either you get a more expensive place close to work, or you get a cheaper place farther out and pay to commute. If you go with the boat option, you are already downtown in a lot of coastal cities, and only need a bus pass for around $30/month.
Yes because boats are free! So is the space where your boat is parked!
Be realistic.
If you are single, savings is not that hard. The continuing difficulty I see in your ideas is college. It is possible to make a pretty decent living without a degree, you just have to hustle a bit to get the job. I have already shown how cheap life can be
People WITH degrees are getting laid off from their jobs, 3 million jobs lost, yet you seem to think that me, a 22 year old with little to no experience is going to get hired?
MY uncle is a chef with 20 years experience, and hes working for a temp agency just like I am. In fact hes working for the same temp agency!
I've been supporting a wife and three children for years without a degree, but I have lots of skills. I know how to use them together to be more useful to a business than a specialist out of school in many cases. College is a great way to learn, and a good path for many people, but certainly not the only way to make it. In many cases, you'll find that the money spent and wasted years really don't get paid back. The 3-5 years and $50,000-$100,000 dollars could have been better used, the years working your way up in a trade or company, and the money invested. Unless you specifically want a career in one of the few that requires college, you can make a great living without.
No one is willing to hire me!!!! Why cant you get it through your thick skull? Theres not unlimited jobs, once they hire all the people who they are going to hire, thats it. You got lucky, try going for a job now in a completely new field which you dont have years of experience in and see how difficult it is. You wont even be able to find a job at mc donalds, people with degrees are taking those jobs too.
Go to a coastal city, live on a boat for a bit.
Boston is a coastal city, you come here with your boat and I'll move in.
Your expenses will be very low, you will own your "home" very quickly, and if you see better opportunities in another city, moving is easy.
What is the precise cost of living on a boat, where can I get a free boat? And I'd think if boats were so cheap EVERYONE would be living in them instead of in cheap apartments, projects, and other places. Prove me wrong.
Even better, just go with a very inexpensive
We need a group to setup a site. I should be able to click on a link and then click join OpenSource or whatever. Then I pay $5 a month and I fund open source development. I pay for votes transgaming style.
Me and the other paying users vote on where the money goes, programmers can sign up and get money to develop certain applications or services, and we can set up bounties, where programmers can accept.
When the code reaches beta we review it to make sure it works, and when its finished they get paid.
Transgaming currently does this, but we need a general open source transgaming style setup.
Have people vote on a specific feature. Set your rate which you expect people to pay for that feature, and then have people pay.
The other way is via membership, like what the EFF does.
But in my opinion there should be some centralized open source funding group which everyone can join, instead of divide evverything.
Why cant we set up something like Transgaming, or the EFF, where people pay $5 a month or something, and then we vote to set up bounties to fund development. Whoever develops it wins the money.
See GNUnet GNUNET
Research
Silly File THIEVES and PIRATES use of P2P to commit robbery increases
Traffic on the Morpheus service also fell 15 percent, Net Ratings said, while usage on iMesh dropped 16 percent. BearShare usage dropped enough that it fell below NetRatings' cutoff point for tracking.
Check out the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A73
Seems to me filesharing is increasing
Ok so you dont share files. hundreds of millions of people do, and hundreds of millions of people think its right.
No one stopped sharing, they just switched to networks which are harder to monitor.
People arent stupid, they know the RIAA is looking at Kazaa.
Just as many people are on Kazaa, but if you think Kazaa is the best place to find music files you are wrong.
Face it, no one is going to stop.
I just logged into Kazaa and saw just as many people offering files as usual.
Where is CNN or whoever getting their statistics from? The RIAA?
I sleep around 6 hours, personally work around 4, that leaves plenty of time for everything else. If you choose to go to college, then you shouldn't complain about the cost. College is no more a necessity than watching TV.
I see you dont live in America. What job can you get in this economy without a degree?
For your lifestyle, why do you have to pay rent, bills, pay for education or transportation? With a couple of years of extra work and frugal living, you should be able to have a paid off house, mobile home, or boat.
What the hell are you talking about? Houses cost a quarter million dollars. I'll never be able to afford a house by myself but even if I did have a house, the property taxes are too high.
No more rent. If you choose the boat or mobile, your only bills are fuel and filling water, not exactly expensive. College is a luxury item, not a necessary expense. Transportation is only needed if you buy a home far from the rest of the things you need.
Boats cost more than cars, yes I could live in my car but I dont have a license yet.
Transportation costs money, I dont know where you live but you have to pay at least $1 to get on a train, and almost $1 to get on a bus, without a car you pay about $60 a month for a pass.
For the simple bills like gas and food, you should be able to pay it mostly from well invested (not risky) savings, or at most a very minimal work schedule of around 10 hours a week or less.
I'm 22 years old, not 50, what savings?! 10 hours a week? Ok let me explain. College costs $10,000-30,000 a year, the average wage for an uneducated college student is around $10 an hour.
This means I can make about 400 a week, when you take away taxes its more like 325 a week.
If rent is $1000 a month, thats 3 weeks of work just to pay rent.
IF you live with a roomate, thats 2 weeks of work just to pay rent.
What I still don't see is what you think the point of life is? You don't want to work, be happy, make money, be poor, go to school, go without school, etc. Why do it then?
People who go without school are bums, The life of a bum isnt any easier than the life of a student. At least when you are a student you get help from the government via financial aid, when you are a bum people spit on you.
You enjoy being a bum begging people for food, because without an education you won thave a job.
Oh please, you act like you never sleep?
8 hours of your day is work, 8 hours of your day is sleep, 2 hours of your day = preparing for work.
Then theres house chores and studying. 90% of a persons day is work, if they are likely they get a couple of hours to watch TV.
Life is about doing what makes you happy and what helps you grow. Many people have tried the happiness through work/money path,
I dont think life is about me or how I feel. I believe that my existance is more important than that. Perhaps you are selfish but not everyone does everything for emotional reward.
Also I'm not a puritian or whatever you want to call it. People can spend their life being silly and partying, its their life.
If you don't have a family to support or expensive desires, it doesn't even take that much.
I guess you've never been in college.
With a frugal lifestyle for a couple of years, you can easily get to the point where the only work you'll ever have to do is for yourself (cooking, doing the dishes, etc.) for the rest of your days.
No, you have to pay rent, pay bills, buy food, pay for education and trasportation to school and work.
The mistake you made in your post is that you believe happiness is essential to life. Its not.
So because apple sold all their songs in a week now they have nothinng left to sell.
New york times is profitable? Maybe because a website doesnt cost alot to host, they also get ad revenue, they dont exactly sell access to their site.
I manage to log into their site without paying a dime.
Think before you post, everything you have posted has been wrong.
Respond, I dare ya.
Nothing in it is a lie, I did my research, how about you?
I know what you are saying, I just disagree with you.
Is this not the argumentation of a victim? As long as you're playing the victim, of course you will feel trampled and stuck. Being a victim, you force yourself to believe you have no choice, that you are stuck, have to do what your parents expect, that there is no way out, that this is how life is and supposed to be forever and ever.
You dont understand my point, I dont consider myself a victim. What I'm saying is life isnt about YOU, its not about emotion. I can see you like to act all emotional, either life must be a great happy experience, or an extremely sad experience as if theres no way to live life without feeling one extreme or the other.
Its not that I feel I'm a victim, where did that come from? I just said life isnt a game. Its not about fun, its about work.
You are sad or angry because you can't do everything your mind tells you you want to do. I tell you, if you got everything you desire, nothing would be attractive to you anymore. Is a über-spoiled life worth living? Some do, others envy them, but maybe you're supposed to live a different life, instead of the artificial stereotype life being pushed through media and family pressure?
Actually I'm emotionally neutral. See its your own emotional thinking which causes you to believe I must be motivated by emotion. Emotion does not play a role here. Like I said, its not about me, I'm a part of something bigger and I'm playing my role.
Same goes for the people, but further on, they're a reflection of you. Do you see the popular people, what they do? They talk to everyone and take an interest in other people's lives. While how others treat you, is a reflection of what you think of yourself and how you treat others. Improving relationships with others, can really make you realize that other people are not so dumb as you think! Even though they can be stuck in silly things too, they also live, breathe, think, dream and learn.
Here you go again. I know how to be popular, theres benefits and drawbacks. I want to be balanced, I want to be known and remembered in a good way, I know if I became famous just as many people would hate me as love me, and I'd prefer to not be known at all than to be disliked by the masses.
I truly don't know what life is about, then it also has the most potential.
Life isnt about you and your emotions, life is about the role you play in this world, and the effect you have on other things which are alive. We all are part of a system, we all are supposed to be on a team even though we actually arent.
If you focus on the problem, it will grow bigger and bigger. When focusing on the solutions, you will become active and don't waste energy thinking about what you should have done. Again, be active, don't be a victim.
Once again you are assuming a person can be one extreme or the other. Problem solving is life, but when did I say I only focus on the problems and never the solutions? Don't assume stuff.
If the world was only bliss and happiness, the population would leave it because it would be boring. Or the minds of people would come up with something to fuss it up once more! The people make the time and place, so if they do not match, changes will occur.
Actually I wouldnt leave it, in fact thats my goal in life, to make the world better, hopefully something like that.
Some people just as mentally screwed up and cannot be happy in any world, but those people also do most of the damage which prevents everyone else from being happy, my role in this world is to fix the damage and solve the problems caused by others who were here before me.
If you truly want a change, then become that change with your own life. A positive change is absolutely possible and within your reach, you just have to reach out and do it.
What makes you think I dont already do this?
If this
If you think what you have is 'hard work' then you're just spoilt. I *know* I have it easy compared to at least 5 billion of the world's population. I know I have it easy compared to 99% of the world's population prior to 1950. Since you have access to a computer,
Actually, they have computers in Africa, India, Iraq, Tokyo,Hong Kong. The computer is not something only we have.
t's likely the same applies to you as well. There are many, many people out there for whom life is a horrible struggle from which there is no way out, and no hope of ever improving their lot.
Give me an example of no way out? I mean I can see if you are in a dungeon as a slave, or in prison, but if you are a free person whats your excuse? We have people in Africa who are programmers working and making money improving their lot.
It doesnt matter where you are, if you are smart you'll take advantage of what you have, and find ways around what you dont have.
I dont have money, I find ways around that. Your point?
. But for the vast majority of those who can post on Slashdot, this isn't true. Yes, I was broke and working over 60 hours a week a couple of years back - but I did that through choice and to get where I am today - my work is interesting, albeit underpaid.
What makes you think a kid in Africa or China cant pick up a book on C++, then go to an internet cafe and practice programming so he can get a job?
What makes you think people cant learn at the same rate or maybe even faster than you with less?
Its not that I'm spoiled, I understand that hard work bypasses everything, if you work harder than everyone else you'll have more knowledge.
The only thing I'm against is the selling of information, if theres anything you can do to keep these poor kids in third world countries in a hole, its by having a copyright on all information so they cant afford to learn.
Other than that, how do you plan to keep ahead of the more highly motivated less lazy Indian/Africa/Chinese competition?
Life requires hard work, from what you say it seems you never worked hard, you grew up in an average middle class family, most likely went to private school, and never experienced poverty in the USA.
Poverty is poverty, In India theres poverty, they have cities in India and their poverty is the same as our poverty here, Poverty in Africa is the same as our poverty here with one exception, they dont have any medicine and they have more disease because its Africa.
China has poverty in the rural areas, alot of people there dont eat very well, and unlike us they cannot get free food, doesnt matter because food is the least of their problems, their problem is lack of an economy, they have to work twice as hard to get a job because theres more of them.
But in terms of lifestyle, all of our lifestyles are the same once we do have a job, actually in the USA we have less vacations and work longer + harder than any other country in the world.
Its a proven fact and there was a slashdot story about it a short time ago. Where you live has nothing to do with how hard you work, the reason the US works the hardest is because our culture is the most competitive, theres no teamwork here, everyone is about self.
So I can name a list of countries where life is easier, Canada, most of Europe, Japan, most of Asia.
Our country while we have alot of freedom, we also have boring lives which are high stress. Our kids are the most highly educated population in the world, because we force our kids to go to school for more years than kids in Japan or China, our kids also pay more for school so they get bogged down with bills before they even get established in the real world.
Stress one of the number 1 killers in the USA, our lifespan is shorter than Japan and most of Europe, our quality of life is lower.
So next time you want to talk about how we Americans have it easy, we dont have it easier when it comes to lifestyle, to live in the USA you have to be the smartest hardest working person in the world.