Having to VPN lately in the afternoons due to a class... I've had to relocate to places like chain book stores and *%'s due to the deal on wireless service i get with my provider.
Over the past month I've noticed a really concentrated culture of people who operate cellphones in public places. And yes, they are annoying at times.
But in more than one particular instance, I've overheard the opposite side of the spectrum... The guy behind the counter of one chain was complaining about how the cafe where he goes has a bright red sign that prohibits the use of cellphones... and how if he had it his way... he'd make sure that this place was the same. This was in a particularly busy *$'s with wi-fi and at around a particularly busy time time of day... that acts as a hub for alot of suit and tie types... some of which keep to themselves and some of which are annoying beyond belief.
The point the general populace has to realize is that anywhere you have wi-fi... you are bound to have virtual commuters... I don't go to the local whole earthy, mom and pop place to do work... I go there to relax and trust me I leave the phone off.
I go to chains because I get a good deal per month and I have the opportunity to change surroundings and do my work away from home... and honestly sometimes I feel more motivated as well.
But its amazing how many people for whatever psychological reasons will project this 'hate your kind' aura... even if you are just checking your voicemail. Its not like I'm whipping out my cellphone in the middle of a library or upscale dining establishment and yelling "BOB get me those TPS reports, STAT."
There are plenty of places where cell phone usage is not courteous... and believe me I try to be as mindful as the next person... but employees and visitors of chains like the aforementioned need to realize there are places where it is a fact of life. You don't like those places... support a place like the mom and pop's that encourage cafe usage for relaxation. Don't go all neo-luddite and get yourself an EMP.
The kind that do that are just as worse... and probably the exact same psychological profile as the people they hate... abrasive, intrustrive, and ego driven... full of opinions on how the world ought to be.
When I moved to this city I learned really quick how much easier and less expensive it was to have a cell... Ameritech when I first moved here took 3 months to install a phone in my apartment... I've moved three times since then and never installed a phone line since.
Robotron is hard and yet an addicting experience that keeps you pushing wave to wave... you die... and you continue... and you progressively get better... FPS multiplayer games are frustrating to me because I don't have six hours a day at work to spend honing my mouse aiming skills against a human opponent that logs more man hours than it takes to fly a commercial plane in one week.
I play games to relieve stress... not to be beat into submission at entry level... thats why I find the multiplayer experience to be more and more what I can't deal with.
I don't mind leisurely putting an hour or two in a week on something like Neverwinter Nights. Because I use it as an escape from the real world. Playing online you have to deal with the exact same attitudes you deal in the real world... if not worse because of the fourth wall and the ids gone wild.
at least with a complicated single player experience you can save face.
It definately has to be the most annoying thing for any tech to have an end user that knows 'enough to be dangerous.' Its got to be even infinitely more annoying and berating to have a user that knows just as much as they do, if not more.
It is the service industry though. And that comes with the territory. You get to see every personality type in action for better or for worse.
I recently had to bring a laptop into the apple store for a warranty replacement (for the second time mind you) on the logic board. Each time I spent there during this process I saw end user hell. The genius bar looked no better than the taco bell drive through... complete with a fight between two "geniuses" over their half hour lunch.
And then there was the token angry white man wanting his ipod replaced.
In their defense, someone has some stock line to berate you into getting quicker service in any industry... In my case, working at an art school... the stock line is "I pay too much for this school" In computer store or Denny's... its your standard "I want to speak to the manager." The ISP its "Put me into second tier support." If you call the bank its "I want my money back."
If you are resorting to tech support or any support of any kind, you obviously have a problem... one that is making you some degree of angry. Possibly angry because you spent money on something that now does not work. And the tech dealing with it is angry because he doesn't get paid enough to deal with your attitude.
So the bottom line is money and expectations. Which means the answer for both parties is to take a deep breath and deal with it. It could be a whole hell of a lot worse for both of you. You can tell when someone is having a bad day... you can also tell when someone is just a straight up asshole... use your best unbiased judgment (which is extremely hard to do if you think you are teh on3)
the fact that a couple of articles ago... someone posted a link to torrentse.cx on slashdot to a copy of the TS version of the matrix...
teh slashdot effect hath mutated.
Final Scratch has been delayed since April... I had one on preorder originally back then... full price down... then after delay to delay... kept 100$ down... and then after this months delay alongside a statement on the OSX/OS9 version not being until the end of the year... I basically gave up...
I really don't doubt that it will come out... but they are taking their sweet time with it... as well as have a wonderful forum for questions about the setup that basically consists of no company contact whatsoever... and a bunch of wannabe's stroking each other profusely
I'm luddite as hell... I'm still basically using a cutting head in Colorado to put unreleased stuff onto vinyl (to get that real vinyl feel with extra crackles from the acetate)... I have also been using a little program called Megaseg... which has a really nice feel and interface (http://www.megaseg.com)
Although it may be Stanton's 'killer app' if they even know what means... they are nieve in thinking that there are no alternatives to their 'revolutionary' product that they've announced was hitting the street for the last five months... and also nieve to lock out alot of Pro-Audio types using Mac based studios... It does follow the Stanton mindset perfectly though with previous products... (looks around the room frantically for any equipment with the stanton logo on it...)
for us mac types... there ARE alternatives... one of which is Serato Scratch (only a plugin at the moment with plans to be more)... the aforementioned CDJ-1000... and even THIS...which... in total anti-slashdot lingo... gets the big ups... troll me now or troll me later...
the fact of the matter is... there are people... especially in drum and bass... which has its own small niche... that have a need for playing unreleased stuff... especially if you are a producer... the norm has been cutting 'dubplates'... which cost 50$ a pop... after cutting exclusive tracks... you are looking at 300-400$ a month to satisfy yours and your audiences habit...
the 500$ pricetag is pretty cheap regarding that... but its a first generation product... that continues to be delayed for mysterious reasons... and highly dependant on issues such as latency and processor speed... and we've already seen Darwin kicking major ass when it comes to audio latency under HEAVY system load... which I don't doubt the product demands... and OSX support is pretty much nil until some fairytale date... and they've already been telling us longwinded stories about its release date...
It definately leaves you scratching your head as to why AG catered to people like us... and what services will continue to pick up that torch in the future... for right now its a sad day... I'm sure people like us will find an alternative... (I Hope)
For now, I'll just sulk to the five different versions of Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay" I copped from AG...
There were a whole lot of us... reaching for stuff that was extremely hard to get a hold of in public even that popped up on AG effortlessly. Some of this same stuff had been forgotten by the music industry eons ago... sentenced to a scrap yard somewhere from some storeroom shelf or cut out bin...
I learned a great deal about the history of music especially Jazz, extremely underground 80's hip hop, Egyptian traditional music, lounge, noise, you name it... alot of it I found impossible to track down at local record stores... when I liked something I went out and bought it... but this was akin to the listening stations at your favorite big budget slaughterhouse... like Virgin Megastore, Tower, or Borders even...most of which... when you scanned a cd in their "listening preview system... no one cared enough to add it... if it was even in the store to begin with...
When I could track down these rare bits... I was more than likely buying an out of print record... because the people who initially mass produced it... deemed it unfit to produce more of... and then I was forced to pay some collector 10 TIMES what it originally cost... sometimes 20 TIMES... Sometimes the collector HADN'T EVEN LISTENED to the work in question...
I hate to paint it out as this extremely epic thing... but Audiogalaxy changed my life... educated me on what good music really is... by allowing me to listen to WHAT I WANT... The radio sure as hell isn't a good teacher... I discovered stuff that had been buried because it wasn't valid currency... because it couldn't buy someone suffering from extreme penis envy a jaguar that month... Stuff like Edwin Birdsong, Guitar Wolf, Abdel Halim Hafez, Krown Rulers, Lakim Shabazz, etc, etc, etc... the bent list goes on...
its an education that while it lasted had a deep effect on me... yeah there will be other services... where you can download the latest MTV jingle... but thats not what I'm into... but I don't like to be spoon fed... I liked using it as a Library... checking out works that had serious amounts of dust on them... and learning about the world of good music... not good currency.
the RIAA isn't interested in good music in the slightest... they want money... If I farted into a microphone, recorded it and put it on the internet, they'd probably want a cut of that too... and to that...
they get the gas face.
thanks for the memories AG:)
entro
Slashdot Mirror
Having to VPN lately in the afternoons due to a class... I've had to relocate to places like chain book stores and *%'s due to the deal on wireless service i get with my provider. Over the past month I've noticed a really concentrated culture of people who operate cellphones in public places. And yes, they are annoying at times. But in more than one particular instance, I've overheard the opposite side of the spectrum... The guy behind the counter of one chain was complaining about how the cafe where he goes has a bright red sign that prohibits the use of cellphones... and how if he had it his way... he'd make sure that this place was the same. This was in a particularly busy *$'s with wi-fi and at around a particularly busy time time of day... that acts as a hub for alot of suit and tie types... some of which keep to themselves and some of which are annoying beyond belief. The point the general populace has to realize is that anywhere you have wi-fi... you are bound to have virtual commuters... I don't go to the local whole earthy, mom and pop place to do work... I go there to relax and trust me I leave the phone off. I go to chains because I get a good deal per month and I have the opportunity to change surroundings and do my work away from home... and honestly sometimes I feel more motivated as well. But its amazing how many people for whatever psychological reasons will project this 'hate your kind' aura... even if you are just checking your voicemail. Its not like I'm whipping out my cellphone in the middle of a library or upscale dining establishment and yelling "BOB get me those TPS reports, STAT." There are plenty of places where cell phone usage is not courteous... and believe me I try to be as mindful as the next person... but employees and visitors of chains like the aforementioned need to realize there are places where it is a fact of life. You don't like those places... support a place like the mom and pop's that encourage cafe usage for relaxation. Don't go all neo-luddite and get yourself an EMP. The kind that do that are just as worse... and probably the exact same psychological profile as the people they hate... abrasive, intrustrive, and ego driven... full of opinions on how the world ought to be. When I moved to this city I learned really quick how much easier and less expensive it was to have a cell... Ameritech when I first moved here took 3 months to install a phone in my apartment... I've moved three times since then and never installed a phone line since.
Robotron is hard and yet an addicting experience that keeps you pushing wave to wave... you die... and you continue... and you progressively get better... FPS multiplayer games are frustrating to me because I don't have six hours a day at work to spend honing my mouse aiming skills against a human opponent that logs more man hours than it takes to fly a commercial plane in one week. I play games to relieve stress... not to be beat into submission at entry level... thats why I find the multiplayer experience to be more and more what I can't deal with. I don't mind leisurely putting an hour or two in a week on something like Neverwinter Nights. Because I use it as an escape from the real world. Playing online you have to deal with the exact same attitudes you deal in the real world... if not worse because of the fourth wall and the ids gone wild. at least with a complicated single player experience you can save face.
It definately has to be the most annoying thing for any tech to have an end user that knows 'enough to be dangerous.' Its got to be even infinitely more annoying and berating to have a user that knows just as much as they do, if not more. It is the service industry though. And that comes with the territory. You get to see every personality type in action for better or for worse. I recently had to bring a laptop into the apple store for a warranty replacement (for the second time mind you) on the logic board. Each time I spent there during this process I saw end user hell. The genius bar looked no better than the taco bell drive through... complete with a fight between two "geniuses" over their half hour lunch. And then there was the token angry white man wanting his ipod replaced. In their defense, someone has some stock line to berate you into getting quicker service in any industry... In my case, working at an art school... the stock line is "I pay too much for this school" In computer store or Denny's... its your standard "I want to speak to the manager." The ISP its "Put me into second tier support." If you call the bank its "I want my money back." If you are resorting to tech support or any support of any kind, you obviously have a problem... one that is making you some degree of angry. Possibly angry because you spent money on something that now does not work. And the tech dealing with it is angry because he doesn't get paid enough to deal with your attitude. So the bottom line is money and expectations. Which means the answer for both parties is to take a deep breath and deal with it. It could be a whole hell of a lot worse for both of you. You can tell when someone is having a bad day... you can also tell when someone is just a straight up asshole... use your best unbiased judgment (which is extremely hard to do if you think you are teh on3)
the fact that a couple of articles ago... someone posted a link to torrentse.cx on slashdot to a copy of the TS version of the matrix... teh slashdot effect hath mutated.
how about vaporware...
a sp
Final Scratch has been delayed since April... I had one on preorder originally back then... full price down... then after delay to delay... kept 100$ down... and then after this months delay alongside a statement on the OSX/OS9 version not being until the end of the year... I basically gave up...
I really don't doubt that it will come out... but they are taking their sweet time with it... as well as have a wonderful forum for questions about the setup that basically consists of no company contact whatsoever... and a bunch of wannabe's stroking each other profusely
I'm luddite as hell... I'm still basically using a cutting head in Colorado to put unreleased stuff onto vinyl (to get that real vinyl feel with extra crackles from the acetate)... I have also been using a little program called Megaseg... which has a really nice feel and interface (http://www.megaseg.com)
Although it may be Stanton's 'killer app' if they even know what means... they are nieve in thinking that there are no alternatives to their 'revolutionary' product that they've announced was hitting the street for the last five months... and also nieve to lock out alot of Pro-Audio types using Mac based studios... It does follow the Stanton mindset perfectly though with previous products... (looks around the room frantically for any equipment with the stanton logo on it...)
for us mac types... there ARE alternatives... one of which is Serato Scratch (only a plugin at the moment with plans to be more)... the aforementioned CDJ-1000... and even THIS...which... in total anti-slashdot lingo... gets the big ups... troll me now or troll me later...
the fact of the matter is... there are people... especially in drum and bass... which has its own small niche... that have a need for playing unreleased stuff... especially if you are a producer... the norm has been cutting 'dubplates'... which cost 50$ a pop... after cutting exclusive tracks... you are looking at 300-400$ a month to satisfy yours and your audiences habit...
the 500$ pricetag is pretty cheap regarding that... but its a first generation product... that continues to be delayed for mysterious reasons... and highly dependant on issues such as latency and processor speed... and we've already seen Darwin kicking major ass when it comes to audio latency under HEAVY system load... which I don't doubt the product demands... and OSX support is pretty much nil until some fairytale date... and they've already been telling us longwinded stories about its release date...
you can witness the carnage for yourself at:
http://www.stantonmagnetics.com/forums/default.
It definately leaves you scratching your head as to why AG catered to people like us... and what services will continue to pick up that torch in the future... for right now its a sad day... I'm sure people like us will find an alternative... (I Hope) For now, I'll just sulk to the five different versions of Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay" I copped from AG...
There were a whole lot of us... reaching for stuff that was extremely hard to get a hold of in public even that popped up on AG effortlessly. Some of this same stuff had been forgotten by the music industry eons ago... sentenced to a scrap yard somewhere from some storeroom shelf or cut out bin... I learned a great deal about the history of music especially Jazz, extremely underground 80's hip hop, Egyptian traditional music, lounge, noise, you name it... alot of it I found impossible to track down at local record stores... when I liked something I went out and bought it... but this was akin to the listening stations at your favorite big budget slaughterhouse... like Virgin Megastore, Tower, or Borders even...most of which... when you scanned a cd in their "listening preview system... no one cared enough to add it... if it was even in the store to begin with... When I could track down these rare bits... I was more than likely buying an out of print record... because the people who initially mass produced it... deemed it unfit to produce more of... and then I was forced to pay some collector 10 TIMES what it originally cost... sometimes 20 TIMES... Sometimes the collector HADN'T EVEN LISTENED to the work in question... I hate to paint it out as this extremely epic thing... but Audiogalaxy changed my life... educated me on what good music really is... by allowing me to listen to WHAT I WANT... The radio sure as hell isn't a good teacher... I discovered stuff that had been buried because it wasn't valid currency... because it couldn't buy someone suffering from extreme penis envy a jaguar that month... Stuff like Edwin Birdsong, Guitar Wolf, Abdel Halim Hafez, Krown Rulers, Lakim Shabazz, etc, etc, etc... the bent list goes on... its an education that while it lasted had a deep effect on me... yeah there will be other services... where you can download the latest MTV jingle... but thats not what I'm into... but I don't like to be spoon fed... I liked using it as a Library... checking out works that had serious amounts of dust on them... and learning about the world of good music... not good currency. the RIAA isn't interested in good music in the slightest... they want money... If I farted into a microphone, recorded it and put it on the internet, they'd probably want a cut of that too... and to that... they get the gas face. thanks for the memories AG :)
entro