That's what I was wondering, as well. If all you use is Photoshop and you opt to get the full suite subscription, sure. But if you use enough of the their products to justify purchasing a suite, I'd say you're saving money in the end because you get all future versions as subscription upgrades. CS7 comes out, you just click download and keep on trucking with the subscription. I do understand the paranoia over losing software access, etc, but right now, the subscription makes sense for me, but I got in on the $20/month plan.
I get pretty irritated when I hear folks talk about states' rights as if its some sort of magic bullet solution. Is "tyranny" (to use the hyperbolic rhetoric used by some) any better if it's instituted at a state vs federal level? Local vs state? And if a state is out of line with the spirit of the Constitution? "You don't like our state laws? Well you can move to another state, bucko! In Kansas, we just don't believe in science anymore!" is a pretty retarded way of doing it...
While it may be hard to believe, that $10 million dollar actor brings in an additional $25-50 million at the box office because people think "OMG is in it, let's go see that movie!" even if it's a piece of shit. That's why the stars get paid what they do. Same with just about any other entertainment industry. Put Kanye or another the top producer's name on a track with another "hot artist" and it's almost like printing money.
As an aspiring independent filmmaker, it's not really as bad as you make it out to be. There are very affordable indie-extremely-low-budget rates for us, and waivers and what not that can be had. Film permits, on the other hand...
I mean, other than the Blizzard stuff, no, I don't use bittorrent at all unless I'm downloading movies (usually) or software (sometimes).
Rapidshare/megaupload/etc work much better for my one-off transfer needs, while I leave media distribution to the masses via Youtube, Vimeo, Bandcamp, and media collaboration to Dropbox and sneaker-usbdrive-net (especially for big projects).
Minor correction: Ayn Rand was no anarcho-capitalist. Indeed, she wrote quite a bit about how the anarchists (including the anarcho-capitalists) were a bunch of idiots and any "anarcho-"system would quickly devolve into dictatorship. She was a "minarchist" using your terms: the proper role of government is police, courts, and military.
Indeed. I'm shooting DSLR films at the moment, and while not really comparable to the devices you listed, I've done the same thing. I've got a tripod for steady shots, I've got a glidecam for follow/chase shots, I've got a shoulder mount for, well, I dunno what I got it for, honestly, but it was $25, and I've got a pistol grip for run & gun guerrilla shots. Honestly, the last one is the one I like the most, even though it's not as steady/smooth as some of the others, simply because it doesn't take up a lot of space, weighs almost nothing, etc. I've added quick release mounts to everything so I can just move my camera from rig to rig as needed with minimal downtime between shots. I've seen some of these guys walking around with terminator style rigs, and while I can definitely see the benefits, just not willing to spend more than my camera + lenses for a decent one.
/* wine terminology should be pretty simple for most any adult */
I must preface my response to "Where the fuck do you live?" Wine knowledge in America is dismal. It's downright horrible. America, in general, is not a wine drinking country. Yes, there are many many exceptions and most of them are very socioeconomic. My parents did not drink wine. Beer? Yes. And I don't mean Microbrews, I mean Budweiser. My entire extended family is the same. Wine? Why get wine when you can drink Budweiser, or if you were one of my more rowdy relatives, drink with Evan (williams) and Jack (Daniels). Even here in Los Angeles, where I've found we have a very large selection of wine purveyors, selling everything from Two Buck Chuck to various cult wines, I'd say 80% of my social circle is absolutely wine ignorant. Including myself, for the most part. So, please forgive me for saying this, but your statement is extremely *ignorant*, which isn't a bad thing. It may boggle your mind the way many of us technologically inclined folks are boggled how people can't tell the difference between a pop-up ad saying you have a virus and need to update your computer and a real dialog window, but the masses continually prove us wrong./* But hell, of late, I can't hardly find a woman that knows how to cook shit. What happened there? */
True fucking story. I can cook better than any woman I've dated. I learned a few basic recipes and learned how to tweak them (basically, how to roast meats and vegetables, and how to apply those same things to the pan and to the crock pot). I'm not deep, but I'm well versed in what I do know, and I like what I cook. Having said that, I'm over "liking to cook". You may like to set aside Sunday for cooking, I like setting aside Sunday for other activities. See, people have different interests and priorities, right? Hell, I went to culinary school and have the student loans and knives to prove it. But something you didn't mention: Yes, go buy some great knives. Don't forget to have them sharpened and don't neglect them. While that may seem like no big deal to you, these are the same people that don't buy suits and other "fine clothing" because they can't be bothered to swing by the dry cleaners regularly. I love my knives (but couldn't tell you who made them), but to get them sharpened, I have to wrap them, pack them, then ride the train 10 minutes to get to the knife shop, drop them off, go putter around for a couple hours while they get to them, then pick them up and go home. It feels like a wasted day at that point. It does remind me, I should do that this weekend. Now, you could say I should learn to sharpen them myself! And right you would be. But I don't give a shit about learning how to sharpen a kitchen knife or acquiring the stones to do it with.
Why go out and eat crap? Three hundred and fifty square feet. The act of getting up and leaving the apartment is something in and of itself, but living in such a small place, you find excuses. If I stay home and cook, i'm still stuck in the same apartment. I get up and walk to the Carl's Jr, I at least get to get some air, daily, and interact with complete and total strangers on occasion.
So, yes, while i agree with your general sentiment, I really can't be bothered to do it. I can think of 10 things I'd rather do than cook these days. Which is why I taught my girlfriend how to cook (and yes, my cooking skills were what wowed her on our first date...;) ). I suppose if I were single, I'd have to break it all out again...:D
/* but all that should matter to you as a businessman is the money. */
No.
If all that matters is money and you throw ethics out the window, then you're a sociopathic asshole who deserves to be dragged out behind the woodshed and repeatedly raped by wild animals. While that's a nice "fuck you, I've got mine" mindset you've got there, it makes the world absolutely suck for everyone else.
I don't think anyone looks good in a suit. It looks and smells of conservative conformity. Your opinions may differ, but frankly, I have other things I'd rather do than worry about dressing like a salesman.
What's that old joke about having the stereotypical european national in wholly inappropriate jobs?
Let's get the Germans to run the TSA/Homeland Security The Greeks to run the IRS The French to run the Defense Department The Italians to run the transportation department
There's the fringe Anarcho-Libertarian branch, heavily influenced by Austrian Economist Murray Rothbard and others. There's the von Mises/Ayn Rand branch that are much more numerous, as you note, who do want a minimal (police, courts, military) government.
That's.40 cents, not 40 cents. Not even a half-penny per play.
But the difference is that you can make the same parallels between coding and music (I do both). You produce works-for-hire. You come in to your regular job, you get paid to produce *something*, typically specced out by someone else based on someone else's needs/ideas, etc. The equivalent of this in the music world are the studio musicians who get paid a salary (or contracted out) to perform a particular piece of music, usually composed/written by someone else, and you hear these pieces of work in commercials, movies, corporate training videos, whatever.
On the other side, you've got coders that aren't getting paid that are working on their own software, their own website, something they think that might make a million dollars or might make them zero. many programmers do this because they love to program and have no expectation of financial reward, others think this is the next google and want to be billionaires, and a whole swathe of folks in between those mentalities. I think screenwriters call this kind of work "spec" work, in that there's no paycheck in the creation, with the expectation that it might be valuable once it's complete. Same sort of deal with musicians. They write their own music, they put together a band, rehearse, and then go out and play it live. For many musicians, they do this because they love to create music and have no expectation of financial reward. Others think they're going to be the next Radiohead and will make millions and can spend the rest of their lives writing music on their own time instead of working around the 9-5 grind (and seriously, I know some folks think that musicians are lazy fuckers, but most of my bandmates all work 2 and 3 jobs leading up to tours so they have enough money to pay bills while they slog from show to show on a daily basis. It's fun, but breaking even is a good tour, much less profitable. My last tour turned a profit of about $20/person after 3 weeks on the road. It happens.) In my particular instance, I program because it's a steady paycheck, and a really nice one, at that. But that means that all my musical pursuits are basically a hobby. I'm too old to tour 9 months out of the year and then try to find a shitty part-time job for the other 3 months so I can help pay rent on whatever shithole apartment I have to share with a girlfriend of *shudder* the fucking drummer. And just try figuring out what kind of jobs you'll be hired for knowing that you'll have to quit after 3-5 months to go do another multi-month tour to support your new record you probably paid for yourself.
I like to get paid for whatever work I do. I do not create musical "works for hire", although it's true that many musicians do this for a living. I'd also compare them to the cube coder: the guys that come in for the paycheck, but you know they've already clocked out a long time ago. It's sad, really. I'm sure some genuinely love doing it, or put up with it, but just like all the programmers I know, almost every one of them has a personal project they'd rather get paid to work on and not some bullshit report generator so the executives can pat themselves on the back and give each other a nice blowjob.
It's not your fault, it's not my fault, but that's the reality.
I've got a half-dozen friends who are all teachers at inner-city schools in one of the most violent cities in America. Most of them are women. They manage to do just fine. I guess you just suck at teaching.
When Tipper Gore and her PMRC tried to couple violent society with violent games and movies... "NANNY STATE! NANNY STATE! PERSONAL RESPONSIBLITY!" was the deafening call from the GOP pundits. And now.. wtf?
I love this one. One of my bosses loves to tell everyone to leave her devs alone; the switching cost is too high. Five minutes later she'll yell across the room and ask a question that completely derails said developer and then can't understand why it takes so long to get things done. "You were able to switch to answering my question, why can't you switch back?" Fuck.
Okay, I got this machine for like $75 off of ebay awhile back. Upgraded the RAM with a 3rd party module off of ebay, tested and works fine. I was going to install linux, but I already have a linux laptop in the form of a Sony Vaio TR3A (Pentium M 900, 1gb RAM (same 3rd party vendor), and a 32gb CF Flash card as a cheap SSD test). Besides, from the research I gathered online, the tablet functions are pretty spotty and I hate having functional hardware that's not supported. Besides, I can always install something else later. Anyway, replaced the HD with the SSD the other night and installed Win8 on it.
Thoughts so far: Okay, it's an old machine, no multi-touch. No finger recognition, but I can use my nails or the stylus and it's generally okay. Definitely not as smooth as my android phone, but this is hardware, not Win8 (it was fine on the tablets I played with the other day). I installed Visual Studio 2012 (I work primarily in the.NET world at work), and ghci and clisp, and just added IntelliJ to the mix earlier today. So far, haven't done anything intensive, but it's not been so bad.
Things I don't like:
Where the fuck do I shut the goddamned machine down? Or do I have to "sign out" everytime I want to use the shut down feature? This is beyond annoying. The spash screen that I have to move to get to a login is an unnecessary step. I think I'll have to dig through the user settings and see if there's a single user mode.
Moving tiles around on the screen is hit-or-miss, at least with my 2005-era hardware. I don't mind moving my tiles around, and using that to launch on the desktop, as that feels like an extra step.
Things I like: As a tablet, and even with crippled touchscreen hardware, I actually like this a lot. I can lay in bed and read or browse books in tablet form, typing with my stylus on the soft-keyboard. A modern tablet touchscreen would make this much smoother, so can't fault Win8 here.
So.. as a serious dev system? since I use the keyboard, a lot of the touch interface seems to be a bit clunky and clumsy. When I'm deving, I don't want to fight metro, i just want a desktop.
As a tablet, web browsing machine: Lots of potential, and wouldn't hate it on a phone, for example.
I'll give it a few more weeks and see how I like it then, at which point I might wipe it and install fedora or mint on it.
LOL. Yeah, here's the thing, though. I killed a half-hour at the Sony Store the other day playing with their tablets and what not and you know what? For web-browsing, etc, it's so much more user-friendly than keyboard + mouse. I had to catch myself on non-touch equipped screens and found myself actually *annoyed* that you couldn't just touch the screen to do basic stuff. I dunno if I'd use it for my IDE (although.. scrolling through code, pinch zooming to change font sizes... that might be a useful thing...). I think my android experience is tempering my old-man-ness.
Slashdot Mirror
That's what I was wondering, as well. If all you use is Photoshop and you opt to get the full suite subscription, sure. But if you use enough of the their products to justify purchasing a suite, I'd say you're saving money in the end because you get all future versions as subscription upgrades. CS7 comes out, you just click download and keep on trucking with the subscription. I do understand the paranoia over losing software access, etc, but right now, the subscription makes sense for me, but I got in on the $20/month plan.
Minor nit:
according to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_trading_partners_of_China
The EU is actually their biggest partner, we're #2. Still, lose the US and that's nothing to sneeze at.
I get pretty irritated when I hear folks talk about states' rights as if its some sort of magic bullet solution. Is "tyranny" (to use the hyperbolic rhetoric used by some) any better if it's instituted at a state vs federal level? Local vs state? And if a state is out of line with the spirit of the Constitution? "You don't like our state laws? Well you can move to another state, bucko! In Kansas, we just don't believe in science anymore!" is a pretty retarded way of doing it...
Let me know if your wealthy single lady has a wealthy ugly friend. I have a films to make, as well. :D
While it may be hard to believe, that $10 million dollar actor brings in an additional $25-50 million at the box office because people think "OMG is in it, let's go see that movie!" even if it's a piece of shit. That's why the stars get paid what they do. Same with just about any other entertainment industry. Put Kanye or another the top producer's name on a track with another "hot artist" and it's almost like printing money.
(also, I used a SAG actor in my last film. I paid him in korean barbeque)
As an aspiring independent filmmaker, it's not really as bad as you make it out to be. There are very affordable indie-extremely-low-budget rates for us, and waivers and what not that can be had. Film permits, on the other hand...
I mean, other than the Blizzard stuff, no, I don't use bittorrent at all unless I'm downloading movies (usually) or software (sometimes).
Rapidshare/megaupload/etc work much better for my one-off transfer needs, while I leave media distribution to the masses via Youtube, Vimeo, Bandcamp, and media collaboration to Dropbox and sneaker-usbdrive-net (especially for big projects).
Minor correction: Ayn Rand was no anarcho-capitalist. Indeed, she wrote quite a bit about how the anarchists (including the anarcho-capitalists) were a bunch of idiots and any "anarcho-"system would quickly devolve into dictatorship. She was a "minarchist" using your terms: the proper role of government is police, courts, and military.
Indeed. I'm shooting DSLR films at the moment, and while not really comparable to the devices you listed, I've done the same thing. I've got a tripod for steady shots, I've got a glidecam for follow/chase shots, I've got a shoulder mount for, well, I dunno what I got it for, honestly, but it was $25, and I've got a pistol grip for run & gun guerrilla shots. Honestly, the last one is the one I like the most, even though it's not as steady/smooth as some of the others, simply because it doesn't take up a lot of space, weighs almost nothing, etc. I've added quick release mounts to everything so I can just move my camera from rig to rig as needed with minimal downtime between shots. I've seen some of these guys walking around with terminator style rigs, and while I can definitely see the benefits, just not willing to spend more than my camera + lenses for a decent one.
Indeed, I just discovered his books a couple years ago and absolutely love his material. I hope he can beat it, but if not, he will be sorely missed.
/* wine terminology should be pretty simple for most any adult */
I must preface my response to "Where the fuck do you live?" Wine knowledge in America is dismal. It's downright horrible. America, in general, is not a wine drinking country. Yes, there are many many exceptions and most of them are very socioeconomic. My parents did not drink wine. Beer? Yes. And I don't mean Microbrews, I mean Budweiser. My entire extended family is the same. Wine? Why get wine when you can drink Budweiser, or if you were one of my more rowdy relatives, drink with Evan (williams) and Jack (Daniels). Even here in Los Angeles, where I've found we have a very large selection of wine purveyors, selling everything from Two Buck Chuck to various cult wines, I'd say 80% of my social circle is absolutely wine ignorant. Including myself, for the most part. So, please forgive me for saying this, but your statement is extremely *ignorant*, which isn't a bad thing. It may boggle your mind the way many of us technologically inclined folks are boggled how people can't tell the difference between a pop-up ad saying you have a virus and need to update your computer and a real dialog window, but the masses continually prove us wrong. /* But hell, of late, I can't hardly find a woman that knows how to cook shit. What happened there? */
True fucking story. I can cook better than any woman I've dated. I learned a few basic recipes and learned how to tweak them (basically, how to roast meats and vegetables, and how to apply those same things to the pan and to the crock pot). I'm not deep, but I'm well versed in what I do know, and I like what I cook. Having said that, I'm over "liking to cook". You may like to set aside Sunday for cooking, I like setting aside Sunday for other activities. See, people have different interests and priorities, right? Hell, I went to culinary school and have the student loans and knives to prove it. But something you didn't mention: Yes, go buy some great knives. Don't forget to have them sharpened and don't neglect them. While that may seem like no big deal to you, these are the same people that don't buy suits and other "fine clothing" because they can't be bothered to swing by the dry cleaners regularly. I love my knives (but couldn't tell you who made them), but to get them sharpened, I have to wrap them, pack them, then ride the train 10 minutes to get to the knife shop, drop them off, go putter around for a couple hours while they get to them, then pick them up and go home. It feels like a wasted day at that point. It does remind me, I should do that this weekend. Now, you could say I should learn to sharpen them myself! And right you would be. But I don't give a shit about learning how to sharpen a kitchen knife or acquiring the stones to do it with.
Why go out and eat crap? Three hundred and fifty square feet. The act of getting up and leaving the apartment is something in and of itself, but living in such a small place, you find excuses. If I stay home and cook, i'm still stuck in the same apartment. I get up and walk to the Carl's Jr, I at least get to get some air, daily, and interact with complete and total strangers on occasion.
So, yes, while i agree with your general sentiment, I really can't be bothered to do it. I can think of 10 things I'd rather do than cook these days. Which is why I taught my girlfriend how to cook (and yes, my cooking skills were what wowed her on our first date... ;) ). I suppose if I were single, I'd have to break it all out again... :D
/* but all that should matter to you as a businessman is the money. */
No.
If all that matters is money and you throw ethics out the window, then you're a sociopathic asshole who deserves to be dragged out behind the woodshed and repeatedly raped by wild animals. While that's a nice "fuck you, I've got mine" mindset you've got there, it makes the world absolutely suck for everyone else.
I don't think anyone looks good in a suit. It looks and smells of conservative conformity. Your opinions may differ, but frankly, I have other things I'd rather do than worry about dressing like a salesman.
FUCK YES!
/* But if I thought Apple killed children and unicorns then I wouldn't use OSX, even if it was the best tool for a job. */
Shit, that'd probably get me to switch to Apple.
What's that old joke about having the stereotypical european national in wholly inappropriate jobs?
Let's get the Germans to run the TSA/Homeland Security
The Greeks to run the IRS
The French to run the Defense Department
The Italians to run the transportation department
etc etc
There's the fringe Anarcho-Libertarian branch, heavily influenced by Austrian Economist Murray Rothbard and others. There's the von Mises/Ayn Rand branch that are much more numerous, as you note, who do want a minimal (police, courts, military) government.
Ghandi and MLK. Next question.
That's .40 cents, not 40 cents. Not even a half-penny per play.
But the difference is that you can make the same parallels between coding and music (I do both). You produce works-for-hire. You come in to your regular job, you get paid to produce *something*, typically specced out by someone else based on someone else's needs/ideas, etc. The equivalent of this in the music world are the studio musicians who get paid a salary (or contracted out) to perform a particular piece of music, usually composed/written by someone else, and you hear these pieces of work in commercials, movies, corporate training videos, whatever.
On the other side, you've got coders that aren't getting paid that are working on their own software, their own website, something they think that might make a million dollars or might make them zero. many programmers do this because they love to program and have no expectation of financial reward, others think this is the next google and want to be billionaires, and a whole swathe of folks in between those mentalities. I think screenwriters call this kind of work "spec" work, in that there's no paycheck in the creation, with the expectation that it might be valuable once it's complete. Same sort of deal with musicians. They write their own music, they put together a band, rehearse, and then go out and play it live. For many musicians, they do this because they love to create music and have no expectation of financial reward. Others think they're going to be the next Radiohead and will make millions and can spend the rest of their lives writing music on their own time instead of working around the 9-5 grind (and seriously, I know some folks think that musicians are lazy fuckers, but most of my bandmates all work 2 and 3 jobs leading up to tours so they have enough money to pay bills while they slog from show to show on a daily basis. It's fun, but breaking even is a good tour, much less profitable. My last tour turned a profit of about $20/person after 3 weeks on the road. It happens.) In my particular instance, I program because it's a steady paycheck, and a really nice one, at that. But that means that all my musical pursuits are basically a hobby. I'm too old to tour 9 months out of the year and then try to find a shitty part-time job for the other 3 months so I can help pay rent on whatever shithole apartment I have to share with a girlfriend of *shudder* the fucking drummer. And just try figuring out what kind of jobs you'll be hired for knowing that you'll have to quit after 3-5 months to go do another multi-month tour to support your new record you probably paid for yourself.
I like to get paid for whatever work I do. I do not create musical "works for hire", although it's true that many musicians do this for a living. I'd also compare them to the cube coder: the guys that come in for the paycheck, but you know they've already clocked out a long time ago. It's sad, really. I'm sure some genuinely love doing it, or put up with it, but just like all the programmers I know, almost every one of them has a personal project they'd rather get paid to work on and not some bullshit report generator so the executives can pat themselves on the back and give each other a nice blowjob.
It's not your fault, it's not my fault, but that's the reality.
I've got a half-dozen friends who are all teachers at inner-city schools in one of the most violent cities in America. Most of them are women. They manage to do just fine. I guess you just suck at teaching.
When Tipper Gore and her PMRC tried to couple violent society with violent games and movies... "NANNY STATE! NANNY STATE! PERSONAL RESPONSIBLITY!" was the deafening call from the GOP pundits. And now.. wtf?
I love this one. One of my bosses loves to tell everyone to leave her devs alone; the switching cost is too high. Five minutes later she'll yell across the room and ask a question that completely derails said developer and then can't understand why it takes so long to get things done. "You were able to switch to answering my question, why can't you switch back?" Fuck.
Install machine:
Fujitsu Lifebook P1620 (tablet.. not multi-touch, etc)
2gb RAM
64GB SSD
1.2ghz C2D
Okay, I got this machine for like $75 off of ebay awhile back. Upgraded the RAM with a 3rd party module off of ebay, tested and works fine. I was going to install linux, but I already have a linux laptop in the form of a Sony Vaio TR3A (Pentium M 900, 1gb RAM (same 3rd party vendor), and a 32gb CF Flash card as a cheap SSD test). Besides, from the research I gathered online, the tablet functions are pretty spotty and I hate having functional hardware that's not supported. Besides, I can always install something else later. Anyway, replaced the HD with the SSD the other night and installed Win8 on it.
Thoughts so far: Okay, it's an old machine, no multi-touch. No finger recognition, but I can use my nails or the stylus and it's generally okay. Definitely not as smooth as my android phone, but this is hardware, not Win8 (it was fine on the tablets I played with the other day). I installed Visual Studio 2012 (I work primarily in the .NET world at work), and ghci and clisp, and just added IntelliJ to the mix earlier today. So far, haven't done anything intensive, but it's not been so bad.
Things I don't like:
Where the fuck do I shut the goddamned machine down? Or do I have to "sign out" everytime I want to use the shut down feature? This is beyond annoying. The spash screen that I have to move to get to a login is an unnecessary step. I think I'll have to dig through the user settings and see if there's a single user mode.
Moving tiles around on the screen is hit-or-miss, at least with my 2005-era hardware. I don't mind moving my tiles around, and using that to launch on the desktop, as that feels like an extra step.
Things I like:
As a tablet, and even with crippled touchscreen hardware, I actually like this a lot. I can lay in bed and read or browse books in tablet form, typing with my stylus on the soft-keyboard. A modern tablet touchscreen would make this much smoother, so can't fault Win8 here.
So.. as a serious dev system? since I use the keyboard, a lot of the touch interface seems to be a bit clunky and clumsy. When I'm deving, I don't want to fight metro, i just want a desktop.
As a tablet, web browsing machine: Lots of potential, and wouldn't hate it on a phone, for example.
I'll give it a few more weeks and see how I like it then, at which point I might wipe it and install fedora or mint on it.
LOL. Yeah, here's the thing, though. I killed a half-hour at the Sony Store the other day playing with their tablets and what not and you know what? For web-browsing, etc, it's so much more user-friendly than keyboard + mouse. I had to catch myself on non-touch equipped screens and found myself actually *annoyed* that you couldn't just touch the screen to do basic stuff. I dunno if I'd use it for my IDE (although.. scrolling through code, pinch zooming to change font sizes... that might be a useful thing...). I think my android experience is tempering my old-man-ness.