How can there be sales figures for an out-of-print book?
The content has to be available for there can be any "sales", but there have to be "sales" before the publishers are willing to continue making the content available. That's why I went for chickens and eggs.
I contracted for quite a few years after leaving my Large Corporate Job, and got my family insurance from a local agent who worked for one of NASE's insurance partners. It was a bit pricey, but on the other hand it covered me in TX and my wife in NM with no argument, something that my CORBA provider wouldn't even consider.
And it's present in many industries/areas. No one wants anyone over 40 for rock, screen writers are ignored if they're over 40, since "They don't know what it's like to be a kid."
Great. Just great. I'm a 45-yo software enginneer/programmer/musician/playwright. I'm so fucked I might as well just give up now and move back to the farm.
You're assuming that we can harvest all that energy - solar panels and windmills all over everything. What will happen with the widescale use of geothermal heating? How much will the earth's temperature decrease? Let's slow down all the wind and cool the earth. That sounds like a great way to save the environment!
SWEET! Two birds, one stone... we get more power, and that pesky global warming business can kiss our curvy yellow butts goodbye! How could anything be so perfect?
An architect, an artist and an engineer were discussing whether it was better to spend time with the wife or a mistress.
The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship.
The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because of the passion and mystery he found there.
The engineer said, "I like both."
"Both?"
Engineer: "Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get some work done!
Home recording is hella cheap compared to a couple decades ago
And still, as a rule, hella crappy too. It's great for a jam session, it sucks if you want to do any well-engineered album.
Don't underestimate the importance of good recording techniques in addition to having access to high-quality equipment.
There is more to making a well-engineered album than having good equipment, as well. You can sit the world's best musician down in a million dollar studio, and if he/she doesn't know how to record, produce, mix, and master, the final results will suck. It will suck expensively, but it will still suck. Conversely, a great recordist can get some amazing sounds out of a 4-track Tascam tape deck.
Advances in home recording technology do not guarantee good recordings. They just make achieving a good recording at home possible. You still have to know how to do it. Or know that you DON'T know how to do it (that would be me), but know people that do.
And here you've left out about a million steps, most of which involve a record label or at least some form of professional PR. (I'll get to your specific example in a minute.)
How do you suppose a band that's playing around locally and selling tapes or whatever to local people becomes "eventually" known nationwide? Every local area has dozens or hundreds of bands all trying to do the same thing, so why would somebody pay attention to a local band from 500 miles away?
The answer is they get mentioned in newspapers, they get played on radio stations, they make it into video games, etc. etc. Hopefully at some point before that they get a more professional recording made, which costs a lot of money that most local bands don't have.
None of this happens without a record label.
I have been in one band from my local area that got into the papers and magazines, onto commercial radio, into video game soundtracks, recorded at the same high-end studios that the record labels use around these parts (north TX, USA), done radio interviews on the top local stations and college stations around the state, sold CDs and downloads locally, regionally, nationally, and on the other side of the world (NZ, to be precise). At the time, the bands showed up adequately ranked at in various search engines, as do my current efforts, with minimal effort for SEO on our part. My current groups all have achieved varying degrees of the above as well. And I know of at least a dozen more bands from this area that have done the same...
... and all that happened without any record label of any kind.
Yes we all busted our asses to get those things done, went into debt, dug ourselves out, and by-and-large nobody I know is rich and famous yet. But we've all played stuff we wanted to play, never had to give away any of our rights to a soulless corporation (oxymoron?), and had a difficult, frustrating, and at the same time fabulous time doing so.
And the best part is, I can keep doing this til I'm 90.. without a record label.
A record label is only one way to make some of these things happen. Sometimes a record label can provide you a shortening of the path you would otherwise have to take. But its not the ONLY way.
As the internet changes the face of music distribution and marketing and artists start to distribute independently of the major labels, this will be a good thing. Artists should continue to receive compensation for their creations for as long as people are enjoying them (though copyrights should probably be released after the artists' deaths).
<rant> No, we shouldn't, unless all other professions enjoy the same compensation.
If I'm a chef, and I come up with a fantabulously unique and novel recipe, the best chicken ever cooked (write a hit song), do I expect to get paid forever every time someone makes chicken-ala-mattsucks? No. I might expect to get paid whenever the recipe is printed in a cookbook (a royalty for publication), or when I actually MAKE my recipe for someone (a live performance), but not when the cookbook recipe gets used by Bob's Diner in Sheboygan (selling a copy of chicken-ala-mattsucks at some remote time and place). And not forever. I can come up with other recipes. Hopefully some of them will be pleasing to the palate.
For the record: I am a musician. I write, arrange, perform, record, market, and sell my music. I distribute and market on tha intarweb, have released recordings both through labels and independently, have toured, played sessions for other musicians, written and sold songs, the whole shebang. I would NEVER expect to be paid for something I wrote when I was 20 at the time I retire. It doesn't makes sense to me. I don't think I have the right to do something productive _once_ and then force the rest of the world to compensate me for it forever and ever.
No, any time I generate income, be it from my activities as a musician, or my activities as a programmer, or my activities as a guy pitching hay bales up onto a wagon.. I SAVE some of it. For retirement. Because I don't have the right for society to support me then. It is my choice to retire when I retire, and it is my responsibility to prepare for that.
If someone takes pleasure from my music 45 years from now, that would be an amazing and wonderful thing. I would love to hear about it.. I would love for someone to take my first song, remix it, re-record it, modify it, chop it, skew it, revamp it, and turn it into something new that I never even imagined then. Hopefully a million people will hear the new thing and love it as well, and be entertained by it, and that moment in their lives when they first hear the new thing will be ever so slightly better.
Isn't that the whole point? </rant>
Sorry, this whole topic always pisses me off. And I can't find this damn threading bug. Stupid day job.
Care to help me in this quest of pedantry? Isn't Rae Dawn Chong in that one? A bunch of early humans wander the savanna, searching for the true meaning of "unk" and "grrrrp" ?
I tire of people parroting this "rights are only for US citizens" line. Where in the Constitution does it say that it only applies to American citizens? From everything I've read.. including the Constitution.. there are very very few places. The President must be native-born, hence a citizen. That's about it. ESPECIALLY the limits on governmental power enumerated in the Bill of Rights.. no mention of "citizen vs non-citizen" or any such.
1. It has been proven over and over again that reduced tax rates equal greater tax revenue. Less shackles equals more work.
Therefore, if we reduce the tax rate to 0 we should have infinite revenue. GREATNESS!!!11!!
On the other hand, maybe some research on the Laffer Curve, which is usually the basis for the "reduced tax rates = greater revenue" argument, is in order. I do not think that it means what you say it means.
It crosses my mind that genetic engineering like this is the only chance left for the human species to "evolve". Modern civilization has pretty much short-circuited natural selection, so that's out as an avenue for us to move forward. People like me (with heinously bad eyesight) can survive quite nicely to pass our less-than-optimal traits on to future generations. Back in the day, I'd be wolf food. Thanks to our current civilized ways, I get glasses, live on, and if I so choose father a batch of pasty allergy-prone nearsighted kids.
Instead of the State of NY trying to force Amazon to collect their use taxes for them, what if Amazon just sends State of NY a big annual list of every NY address to which an Amazon purchase was shipped?
Let the State of NY (or TX, or CA, or whereever) go get their own use taxes from their own citizens.
Over the past 15-20 years, I've amassed quite a collection of old computer hardware and electronics. I tend to be a bit pack-rattish, and it goes even farther when it comes to gadgets and geek gear. So here's my plan:
1. Move all my current, active hardware and gadgetry to my friends' house. 2. Fire up one of my vintage boxen. Mmmm Windows 3.11. 3. Click "the link". 4. Sit back and wait for the FBI to come pick up my garbage:-)
With the Bush stimulas package on the way, the economy should rebound nicely just like it did 6 years ago with the Bush tax cuts.
If economies are cyclical, then why do stimulus packages OR tax cuts make any difference during a downturn? The economy will rebound nicely anyway. Right? Cyclical? Beuller?
Slashdot Mirror
C# is too windows-oriented to really be useful, but maybe this will be a revival for Ada?
Having used Ada for years, starting in the 80s, let me say....
oh God please no :-(
You ask the chicken if it hatched from the egg, or you ask the egg if it contains a chicken ;-)
How can there be sales figures for an out-of-print book?
The content has to be available for there can be any "sales", but there have to be "sales" before the publishers are willing to continue making the content available. That's why I went for chickens and eggs.
As far as availability goes, that has to do with economics of demand. So long as the demand is present, the book is available
How do you know there is demand for a book (ie people are interested in it and will read it) if there is no supply?
Chickens and eggs; although in this case the eggs can be made available for pennies each in digital form.
Mmmmm digital eggs .... need breakfast.
And here I thought it was Kyle.
Look into:
National Association for the Self-Employed: http://www.nase.org/Home.aspx
I contracted for quite a few years after leaving my Large Corporate Job, and got my family insurance from a local agent who worked for one of NASE's insurance partners. It was a bit pricey, but on the other hand it covered me in TX and my wife in NM with no argument, something that my CORBA provider wouldn't even consider.
Great. Just great. I'm a 45-yo software enginneer/programmer/musician/playwright. I'm so fucked I might as well just give up now and move back to the farm.
</s>
Mythbusters is to Science as Rule 34 is to ... well ... everything.
You're assuming that we can harvest all that energy - solar panels and windmills all over everything. What will happen with the widescale use of geothermal heating? How much will the earth's temperature decrease? Let's slow down all the wind and cool the earth. That sounds like a great way to save the environment!
SWEET! Two birds, one stone ... we get more power, and that pesky global warming business can kiss our curvy yellow butts goodbye! How could anything be so perfect?
An architect, an artist and an engineer were discussing whether it was better to spend time with the wife or a mistress.
The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship.
The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because of the passion and mystery he found there.
The engineer said, "I like both."
"Both?"
Engineer: "Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get some work done!
Oh yeah, and FWIW: I meant to add that your pathway to not-exactly-fame and-fortune actually sounds like rather more fun than the alternatives.
It has been, and still is.
Thx for the correction, I definitely blew it on the extra-fancy-word that one.
Don't underestimate the importance of good recording techniques in addition to having access to high-quality equipment.
There is more to making a well-engineered album than having good equipment, as well. You can sit the world's best musician down in a million dollar studio, and if he/she doesn't know how to record, produce, mix, and master, the final results will suck. It will suck expensively, but it will still suck. Conversely, a great recordist can get some amazing sounds out of a 4-track Tascam tape deck.
Advances in home recording technology do not guarantee good recordings. They just make achieving a good recording at home possible. You still have to know how to do it. Or know that you DON'T know how to do it (that would be me), but know people that do.
And here you've left out about a million steps, most of which involve a record label or at least some form of professional PR. (I'll get to your specific example in a minute.)
How do you suppose a band that's playing around locally and selling tapes or whatever to local people becomes "eventually" known nationwide? Every local area has dozens or hundreds of bands all trying to do the same thing, so why would somebody pay attention to a local band from 500 miles away?
The answer is they get mentioned in newspapers, they get played on radio stations, they make it into video games, etc. etc. Hopefully at some point before that they get a more professional recording made, which costs a lot of money that most local bands don't have.
None of this happens without a record label.
I have been in one band from my local area that got into the papers and magazines, onto commercial radio, into video game soundtracks, recorded at the same high-end studios that the record labels use around these parts (north TX, USA), done radio interviews on the top local stations and college stations around the state, sold CDs and downloads locally, regionally, nationally, and on the other side of the world (NZ, to be precise). At the time, the bands showed up adequately ranked at in various search engines, as do my current efforts, with minimal effort for SEO on our part. My current groups all have achieved varying degrees of the above as well. And I know of at least a dozen more bands from this area that have done the same ...
Yes we all busted our asses to get those things done, went into debt, dug ourselves out, and by-and-large nobody I know is rich and famous yet. But we've all played stuff we wanted to play, never had to give away any of our rights to a soulless corporation (oxymoron?), and had a difficult, frustrating, and at the same time fabulous time doing so.
And the best part is, I can keep doing this til I'm 90 .. without a record label.
A record label is only one way to make some of these things happen. Sometimes a record label can provide you a shortening of the path you would otherwise have to take. But its not the ONLY way.
As the internet changes the face of music distribution and marketing and artists start to distribute independently of the major labels, this will be a good thing. Artists should continue to receive compensation for their creations for as long as people are enjoying them (though copyrights should probably be released after the artists' deaths).
<rant>
No, we shouldn't, unless all other professions enjoy the same compensation.
If I'm a chef, and I come up with a fantabulously unique and novel recipe, the best chicken ever cooked (write a hit song), do I expect to get paid forever every time someone makes chicken-ala-mattsucks? No. I might expect to get paid whenever the recipe is printed in a cookbook (a royalty for publication), or when I actually MAKE my recipe for someone (a live performance), but not when the cookbook recipe gets used by Bob's Diner in Sheboygan (selling a copy of chicken-ala-mattsucks at some remote time and place). And not forever. I can come up with other recipes. Hopefully some of them will be pleasing to the palate.
For the record: I am a musician. I write, arrange, perform, record, market, and sell my music. I distribute and market on tha intarweb, have released recordings both through labels and independently, have toured, played sessions for other musicians, written and sold songs, the whole shebang. I would NEVER expect to be paid for something I wrote when I was 20 at the time I retire. It doesn't makes sense to me. I don't think I have the right to do something productive _once_ and then force the rest of the world to compensate me for it forever and ever.
No, any time I generate income, be it from my activities as a musician, or my activities as a programmer, or my activities as a guy pitching hay bales up onto a wagon .. I SAVE some of it. For retirement. Because I don't have the right for society to support me then. It is my choice to retire when I retire, and it is my responsibility to prepare for that.
If someone takes pleasure from my music 45 years from now, that would be an amazing and wonderful thing. I would love to hear about it .. I would love for someone to take my first song, remix it, re-record it, modify it, chop it, skew it, revamp it, and turn it into something new that I never even imagined then. Hopefully a million people will hear the new thing and love it as well, and be entertained by it, and that moment in their lives when they first hear the new thing will be ever so slightly better.
Isn't that the whole point?
</rant>
Sorry, this whole topic always pisses me off. And I can't find this damn threading bug. Stupid day job.
Care to help me in this quest of pedantry?
Isn't Rae Dawn Chong in that one? A bunch of early humans wander the savanna, searching for the true meaning of "unk" and "grrrrp" ?
She was so hot.
I tire of people parroting this "rights are only for US citizens" line. Where in the Constitution does it say that it only applies to American citizens? From everything I've read .. including the Constitution .. there are very very few places. The President must be native-born, hence a citizen. That's about it. ESPECIALLY the limits on governmental power enumerated in the Bill of Rights .. no mention of "citizen vs non-citizen" or any such.
Oh, why do I hate America so?
1. It has been proven over and over again that reduced tax rates equal greater tax revenue. Less shackles equals more work.
Therefore, if we reduce the tax rate to 0 we should have infinite revenue. GREATNESS!!!11!!
On the other hand, maybe some research on the Laffer Curve, which is usually the basis for the "reduced tax rates = greater revenue" argument, is in order. I do not think that it means what you say it means.
It crosses my mind that genetic engineering like this is the only chance left for the human species to "evolve". Modern civilization has pretty much short-circuited natural selection, so that's out as an avenue for us to move forward. People like me (with heinously bad eyesight) can survive quite nicely to pass our less-than-optimal traits on to future generations. Back in the day, I'd be wolf food. Thanks to our current civilized ways, I get glasses, live on, and if I so choose father a batch of pasty allergy-prone nearsighted kids.
1) The Unlawful
....
2) Killing
3) of a human being
4) by another
5) human being
Murder 2 adds
6) with malice
Murder 1 adds
7) aforethought
8) PROFIT!
Ironically, the parent post seems to have been ripped from the diary of "Dr Michael Hfuhruhurr" on Kuro5hin, from more than 4 years ago.
Maybe we've all just been Hfuhruhurrrolled ?
Instead of the State of NY trying to force Amazon to collect their use taxes for them, what if Amazon just sends State of NY a big annual list of every NY address to which an Amazon purchase was shipped?
Let the State of NY (or TX, or CA, or whereever) go get their own use taxes from their own citizens.
Gator meat isn't shot full of hormones and other shit. Problem is catching the damn things ;)
I can imagine two gators (on gator-dot?) having the same discussion about _us_.
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. - Churchill
This wouldn't be a problem if the truth would stop having sex with underage mail prostitutes.
Over the past 15-20 years, I've amassed quite a collection of old computer hardware and electronics. I tend to be a bit pack-rattish, and it goes even farther when it comes to gadgets and geek gear. So here's my plan:
:-)
1. Move all my current, active hardware and gadgetry to my friends' house.
2. Fire up one of my vintage boxen. Mmmm Windows 3.11.
3. Click "the link".
4. Sit back and wait for the FBI to come pick up my garbage
With the Bush stimulas package on the way, the economy should rebound nicely just like it did 6 years ago with the Bush tax cuts.
If economies are cyclical, then why do stimulus packages OR tax cuts make any difference during a downturn? The economy will rebound nicely anyway. Right? Cyclical? Beuller?