I imagine part of the reason they limited the languages was to keep all the Java programmers (who had stayed up for three days straight working on their programs), from committing suicide when they found out the winner was a Perl one-liner that doubled as a JAPH.
It's almost an apples vs oranges thing. Every nation (before the euro) had their own unique currency. The U.S. and Boliva (IIRC) are the only two countries that *don't* use the metric system. Changing a standard to sync up with a international one isn't quite the same as changing your own personal standard just because.
How about the 'standard' size of the paper currency slot and countless vending machines and change machines accross the nation? Who's going to upgrade them all (and pay for it)? Who's going to design the new devices that accept 4 different sizes (1, 5, 10, 20) of money (and pay for it)?
What about the banks? All those money counting machines have to be redesigned and replaced.
Poor standard indeed. I've YET to go in to a grocery store and mistakenly give the cashier a 50. I tend to look at the numbers printed all over the face or back of a bill before I let go of it.
Sadly it seems you're amoung the mis-informed. Ever head of 'recoupables'? The record label does front the money for all the things you list, but that money is recoupable by the label from the artist after they get their royalties from CD sales (which is pennies per CD). In other words, the band ends up paying for most if not ALL of the cost of recording, production, etc, etc.
The artists gets a few pennies, the cost of making the physical medium is a few pennies, distrubtion of that cd is a few pennies.
So, where does the rest of that $18 go? Take your favorite CD, and look at the list of names in the liner notes. Produced by: Mixed by: Engineered by: etc. And don't forget the owner of the copyright on the music. That's right, the RECORD LABEL is the copyright holder not the artist in the vast majority of the cases. All these people get a cut of that $18...and do you want to take a guess who's cut is the biggest?
If the record doesn't make it big the ones who loosing their pants are the artists. They end up in debt to the record label for all those up front costs.
Now of course your argument would be..."but look at (insert popular band), they're filthy rich". How did they get that way? Touring and Endorsements. They get a pretty big cut of that $35 dollar concert ticket, and that $15 t-shirt, and they are paid for their endorsements of their equipment. Ever seen an ad for a Mark Tremonti signature guitar, or him in front of a set of Mesa Boogie amps in a guitar mag?
on this you are perfectly correct. There is an axiom I've heard for a long time. "people are promoted to their level of incopetence". It kinda goes like this..."you know what bob, you're an excellent programmer, how about a promotion to manager?" so bob is now a manager, and he does decent job at it. "you know what bob, you're an pretty good manager, how about a promotion to senior manager?". And now bob is a senior manager which he sucks at, and he never receives another promotion offer. So now we have a once excellent programmer being a crappy senior manager. It happens all the time. It makes me wonder if this whole military hierchy idea isn't fundamentally flawed. Generals, major, sargents, etc works because they are all soldiers...doesn't work so well when you have different types of people.
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I imagine part of the reason they limited the languages was to keep all the Java programmers (who had stayed up for three days straight working on their programs), from committing suicide when they found out the winner was a Perl one-liner that doubled as a JAPH.
It's almost an apples vs oranges thing. Every nation (before the euro) had their own unique currency. The U.S. and Boliva (IIRC) are the only two countries that *don't* use the metric system. Changing a standard to sync up with a international one isn't quite the same as changing your own personal standard just because.
What about the banks? All those money counting machines have to be redesigned and replaced.
Poor standard indeed. I've YET to go in to a grocery store and mistakenly give the cashier a 50. I tend to look at the numbers printed all over the face or back of a bill before I let go of it.
The artists gets a few pennies, the cost of making the physical medium is a few pennies, distrubtion of that cd is a few pennies. So, where does the rest of that $18 go? Take your favorite CD, and look at the list of names in the liner notes. Produced by: Mixed by: Engineered by: etc. And don't forget the owner of the copyright on the music. That's right, the RECORD LABEL is the copyright holder not the artist in the vast majority of the cases. All these people get a cut of that $18...and do you want to take a guess who's cut is the biggest?
If the record doesn't make it big the ones who loosing their pants are the artists. They end up in debt to the record label for all those up front costs.
Now of course your argument would be..."but look at (insert popular band), they're filthy rich". How did they get that way? Touring and Endorsements. They get a pretty big cut of that $35 dollar concert ticket, and that $15 t-shirt, and they are paid for their endorsements of their equipment. Ever seen an ad for a Mark Tremonti signature guitar, or him in front of a set of Mesa Boogie amps in a guitar mag?
on this you are perfectly correct. There is an axiom I've heard for a long time. "people are promoted to their level of incopetence". It kinda goes like this..."you know what bob, you're an excellent programmer, how about a promotion to manager?" so bob is now a manager, and he does decent job at it. "you know what bob, you're an pretty good manager, how about a promotion to senior manager?". And now bob is a senior manager which he sucks at, and he never receives another promotion offer. So now we have a once excellent programmer being a crappy senior manager. It happens all the time. It makes me wonder if this whole military hierchy idea isn't fundamentally flawed. Generals, major, sargents, etc works because they are all soldiers...doesn't work so well when you have different types of people.