The shortage of IT workers will end because... [p]rogramming is becoming easier
I see the point a way, but programming is not becoming easier, nor will it ever. Just because Visual Basic allows someone to slap some controls on a form and rather quickly whip up an application with less work, it doesn't suddenly infuse the user with the knowledge of trees, linked lists, good coding practices, etc. As a former TA in the Computer Science department of my alma mater, I can tell you that the great majority who made it through wouldn't be worth hiring. They may possess the degree (and often so by the most tenuous of margins), but that doesn't make them good programmers. The good ones were ones who continuously practiced their craft, learned the newest technologies and truly loved what they did. Sadly, 90% of the 'skilled' workforce just isn't like that.
Sigh. First of all, true as this may be, remember that some of your vaunted classic albums of all time have been recorded in garages or on tiny budgets, just like the guys on MP3.com. All of them were at one point virtual unknowns, just like the guys on MP3.com.
I also infer from your comment that you believe the music quality (both technically and artistically) to be inferior because of this. A home studio can be whipped up with $35 shareware, a decent sound card, a lot of hard drive space for those tracks, and a couple of instruments. Also, if an artist is going to the trouble of creating an MP3.com site, he or she most likely has something of some quality, has something to say, and is probably simply interested in a little feedback. OK, I acknowledge that MP3.com is not really a forum for new artists to get "discovered", but just a interesting melting pot of the average musician looking for what any other musician is looking for--an audience, no matter how small.
I like the wide variety of types of music. I wouldn't be inclined to run out to the store and buy a (for example) trance album, but I'll download such music from MP3 to give it a try. Also, there is truly some unclassifiable stuff on there (as in the industry today), which always makes for an interesting and different listening experience--this is starkly in contrast to listening to radio today!
Give MP3.com a try. Pick stuff at random. Broaden your horizons, and cast away the shackles of your A&R men and marketing directors telling you that "Baby One More Time" is what you want to hear.
An undertone in the article that I noticed, and maybe I'm having one of my typical everyone-bashes-amateur-music-and-I-must-defend-it reactions, is that the vast majority of the musicians on MP3.com is devoid of talent and the music is worthless. How many in the established music industry thought that the burgeoning rock 'n roll scene in the 50s wasn't crap? The same for rap and hip-hop, electronica and world music in the 80s and 90s?
The very thing that is so great about MP3.com is that the wide range of styles, types, and, yes, even relative "talent" of music offered is in itself exciting. The public has a chance to hear musicians with new visions that the industry wouldn't dare take chances on or let us hear. The music industry has no desire in promoting anything new that isn't young, sexy and hip like your Britney Spears or other teenybopper one-hit wonder. And remember, young, sexy and hip means big profits, and usually not quality.
I applaud MP3.com--I have a page up there, and I don't expect to see a red cent or a record contract from what I do. I am happy knowing that there exists a facility where I can post my music and anybody who wants to can go and hear it of their own free will. With radio playing the same five or six songs in rotation every hour, I'll gladly take a so-called low-quality, no-talent, interesting MP3 artist over the latest überproduced pap I feel as if I am being fed every time I listen to the radio or watch TV.
Another interesting thought might be the use of a perfluorocarbon, which is a free-flowing liquid down to -100 degrees Celcius, non-toxic, and has tremendous heat-exhange properties--check out more information at the following address:
Slashdot Mirror
The shortage of IT workers will end because ... [p]rogramming is becoming easier
I see the point a way, but programming is not becoming easier, nor will it ever. Just because Visual Basic allows someone to slap some controls on a form and rather quickly whip up an application with less work, it doesn't suddenly infuse the user with the knowledge of trees, linked lists, good coding practices, etc. As a former TA in the Computer Science department of my alma mater, I can tell you that the great majority who made it through wouldn't be worth hiring. They may possess the degree (and often so by the most tenuous of margins), but that doesn't make them good programmers. The good ones were ones who continuously practiced their craft, learned the newest technologies and truly loved what they did. Sadly, 90% of the 'skilled' workforce just isn't like that.
My two cents' worth.
Guys whose studios are in their garage?
Sigh. First of all, true as this may be, remember that some of your vaunted classic albums of all time have been recorded in garages or on tiny budgets, just like the guys on MP3.com. All of them were at one point virtual unknowns, just like the guys on MP3.com.
I also infer from your comment that you believe the music quality (both technically and artistically) to be inferior because of this. A home studio can be whipped up with $35 shareware, a decent sound card, a lot of hard drive space for those tracks, and a couple of instruments. Also, if an artist is going to the trouble of creating an MP3.com site, he or she most likely has something of some quality, has something to say, and is probably simply interested in a little feedback. OK, I acknowledge that MP3.com is not really a forum for new artists to get "discovered", but just a interesting melting pot of the average musician looking for what any other musician is looking for--an audience, no matter how small.
I like the wide variety of types of music. I wouldn't be inclined to run out to the store and buy a (for example) trance album, but I'll download such music from MP3 to give it a try. Also, there is truly some unclassifiable stuff on there (as in the industry today), which always makes for an interesting and different listening experience--this is starkly in contrast to listening to radio today!
Give MP3.com a try. Pick stuff at random. Broaden your horizons, and cast away the shackles of your A&R men and marketing directors telling you that "Baby One More Time" is what you want to hear.
A4Joy (an MP3.com artist)
An undertone in the article that I noticed, and maybe I'm having one of my typical everyone-bashes-amateur-music-and-I-must-defend-it reactions, is that the vast majority of the musicians on MP3.com is devoid of talent and the music is worthless. How many in the established music industry thought that the burgeoning rock 'n roll scene in the 50s wasn't crap? The same for rap and hip-hop, electronica and world music in the 80s and 90s?
The very thing that is so great about MP3.com is that the wide range of styles, types, and, yes, even relative "talent" of music offered is in itself exciting. The public has a chance to hear musicians with new visions that the industry wouldn't dare take chances on or let us hear. The music industry has no desire in promoting anything new that isn't young, sexy and hip like your Britney Spears or other teenybopper one-hit wonder. And remember, young, sexy and hip means big profits, and usually not quality.
I applaud MP3.com--I have a page up there, and I don't expect to see a red cent or a record contract from what I do. I am happy knowing that there exists a facility where I can post my music and anybody who wants to can go and hear it of their own free will. With radio playing the same five or six songs in rotation every hour, I'll gladly take a so-called low-quality, no-talent, interesting MP3 artist over the latest überproduced pap I feel as if I am being fed every time I listen to the radio or watch TV.
Another interesting thought might be the use of a perfluorocarbon, which is a free-flowing liquid down to -100 degrees Celcius, non-toxic, and has tremendous heat-exhange properties--check out more information at the following address:
o .htm
u percoolin.html
http://members.tripod.com/~Chemo_Gnostic/cryobi
Also, for another similarly mad overclocking example, look at:
http://www.cpusite.examedia.nl/sections/steve/s