I too have been looking into this lately. As far as a lawyer or not, I think it depends on your skill level at being able to describe your concept effectively, using the correct buzzwords that the USPO might be looking for. I have many years experience with writing technical documents for the government, reams worth, so I feel confident that I can at least establish the paper work.
There have been a few good answers here. I agree with NOLO books, they are the best. My own little copy-cat method, is to search for the most complicated AWARDED patent that is in the general vicinity of mine, and don't stop writing until it at least looks passable. I think you also have to say to yourself "how much am I willing to lose?" just like any gamble in life. I know my stats: Around $1,000.00, many hours of hard labor writing the thing and making the drawings, and hours more of research making sure every possible corner is covered.
One poster here mentioned that you get two tries? If that is true, then I say I will write my own, submit it, if it gets bounced I'll run to a lawyer then. I have been sitting on this idea for five years now and even have a working mock-up (which I hear you no longer need). I too have looked high and low and still I do not see anything there, but I know something must be creeping out there somewhere. If someone were to challenge me, I guess I would just let them have it.
I don't agree with all this fear of being sued, or fear of not being good enough. I am tired of people being frightened into submission, afraid to put out even a simple flash video or a new web site for fear of infringement. If you are not good at essay writing, and being very descriptive, then patent writing is not for you. But look at these:
Patent App #20020124197
Could someone be trying to patent the CTRL-ALT-DEL or the Function key (Fn) to bring a notebook out of sleep mode?
Or this one: 20020123936 , it seems someone is trying to patent a town web site that includes maps and local merchant access
"generating a home page with links to web pages that are relevant to the specific town, wherein one of the links is a map link to a map page that displays a map of the specific town".
Can you even patent a web page, or more importantly, should you be able to?
Or how about serving content to a client?
I watched a special about bands that went broke, and one of them was TLC. After selling 10mill records, and after all the expeses that were charged to the group, the 3 girls ended up with around 50K each at the end of a very "successful" year.
It's crazy that they are still using such low-tech methods for delivering music for review. Get with the new millenium already! Why don't they just email the MP3's to the reviewers? Is it because they think that would be making it easy for anyone who would break their trust and distribute it? Anyone who would do that, is going to find a way no matter what they do. They should be able to trust their reviewers not to spread the music.
Think of all the shipping and handling they could save. Or they could have a secure FTP site where reviewers can download the music in whatever format(SHN, Ogg, etc)they deem appropriate. Or here's one - they could (GASP!) use their own version of P2P where only approved, contracted personnel have access and either stream or download the secure music.
It also serves them by giving them the politcal answer "We have a put a policy and procedure in place" that they can tout if any Rosen types come knocking. After all, the school is in CA, the home of the entertainment cartels.
All this banning seems extreme. I know of a couple of kids (one at Penn State) that follow a more reasonable rule. Students are given a basic set of etiquette rules, and warned about downloading copyrighted material. Each student is given a limited amount of bandwidth per month, which is monitored. If they go over, they better have a good reason, or they'll lose their net privileges for the rest of the term. This method allows for high tech access to information, and educates them at the same time. Isn't that what school is for?
Some of the big pornstars are millionaires - they could stop anytime they wanted to.
Pu-lease! Maybe their pimps have got some cash, but there are extremely few women who are able to retire off of it. (I can't think of any, but then I don't know of that many) And when they're forced to due to age, they start looking for desk jobs in the business (secretaries only get around 10 bucks an hour). Remember Lovelace? She barely had 50 bucks to her name to go with her 2 black eyes when she got out.
create a unique peer-to-peer (P2P) environment that would offer the tens of millions of adult consumers worldwide the opportunity to share adult content
I don't know if the porn already uses any P2P, but this thought is rather frightening to me. I can just imagine the amount of uncontrolled home videos popping up. Between consenting adults, whatever, but this could end up being an avenue for all kinds of kiddie-porn, rape, snuff, whatever. I'm sure those who want to do this, could find enough ways to hide out on the Internet and not be found. The site would probably be responsible and take stuff down as fast as they could, like eBay, but once its out, its out and very hard to get back. P2P for music is such a good thing. This just freaks me out.
Ever wonder why so many broadband companies use the space shuttle lifting off in their commercials? Because they can. For free - no royalties, just ask. Our government online is still the one place where content is made by the people, for the people. When mob mentalities like the RIAA edge ever closer to stifling what the people want to suit their own needs, you have to wonder what kind of ripple effect will result. If (when?) the day comes that this public domain privilege will no longer exist, it will truly send a shudder through those who believe in the right of fair use.
Back in the day, school kids would frequently slip CDs into the 5 1/4 drive. Today, some will still slip them in the small space below a CD drive. With today's large drives, most CDs are stored on a server so we can keep them out of little hands.
Ever have a kid draw a smiley face on your monitor with a magnet?
People who panic that the network is down, when they hit cancel at the logon window.
After a school summer break, when custodians have cleaned rooms and unplugged things, we always get the 'my computer is broke' when it is simply not plugged in.
E-mail a meeting message to someone, who manages to click 'Accept' but then emails you back to say, 'I'll show up, if you can tell me when the meeting is.'
I had one guy once, an engineer who built big great things for ships. I had recently swept through his building getting everybody on the network and using email for the first time (Win 3.11). About a week later, he said his Eudora mail and Mosaic browser wouldn't work. I went in to check, and noticed the network card sitting on his shelf. He said his 486 computer had gotten slow, so he pulled it out. He was pretty adamant that I don't put it back, but he needed to get his mail. I made him buy a new computer.
I have juggled day jobs and night school for years. Is simply surviving a measure of success? While it's possible to keep up the day work and studies, it seems the family and house keep always come in last. Those who love you are expected to understand and hang in there, and help out where possible, but there are bound to be difficult bumps along the way. If you are not married and have no kids, you are 10 steps better along than a lot of others who do this.
Also, eat well, take vitamins, drink plenty of water, and stay away from drugs and alchohol - a sure fire killer for any endeavor.
I support independent bands by purchasing tickets to their shows, buying their t-shirts and whatever silly little thing they sell. If they let me, I will share in their generosity for allowing trades of their live shows. If they absolutley must go with a large label, I will only purchase my most favorite bands new releases, because I know that this is important to the artist, but I will do it grudgingly, wishing that there was a better way. CD sales can make them popular, but it's the shows that pay them. I no longer support traditional major chain stores and will purchase either directly from the band or from some smaller mom&pop shop.
I'll buy from a major label again when the RIAA brings Napster back.
Combined with an appropriate rule on a linked style sheet, the simpler, more structural markup above will do exactly what the cumbersome, non-standard, invalid markup did, while saving server and visitor bandwidth and easing the transition to a more flexible site based on XML."
I'm from the old school, and I like my pages to be as lean as possible. The more junk on a page, the slower that page will load. I have always been miffed at the amount of extraneous code products like FrontPage put into a page, and thus I don't use them. Heaven forbid I should type one sentence and change the font. I will end up with 2 pages of tags and 6 folders for that.
Nonetheless, experts on money in politics say campaign contributions cannot help but influence decision makers -- and that corporations wouldn't donate if they got nothing in return.
Unless you were glued to the business and political sections of the news, the opt-out plan slipped by most of us until we starting getting all of those signature cards in the mail, discretely buried on the inside of the last page of a very boring policy pamphlet, which most people threw away.
Yet here we are today, struggling with the effects DMCA and meekly trying to fend off a slew of similar bad bills that are swirling around us like a bad storm. The pattern is the same - the general public is unaware, the entertainment industry has gobs of money and are buying our elected officials at every turn.
Now, where is that damn letter I've been working on for a month?
For anyone familiar with Internet before the dot-com stampede, it seemed a little odd that new companies were spending fortunes creating television commercials that rivaled long standing successful companies like Pepsi and Budweiser. The Internet companies that were (and remain) successful got there by word-of-mouth - on the Internet, for people savvy enough to be on the Internet. Companies like Yahoo and Amazon didn't branch into television ads until they had a strong foothold. Companies like Id software, still don't advertise (or very little) on TV, they don't need to. The e-Toys commercials were amazing, and when I first saw them I thought 'How can they do that? They must have spent a fortune on that.' Then there was the Super Bowl that was blanketed with dot-com advertising, the most expensive of ads. Years later now we know. They set up shop in cyber space, then marketed to brick and mortar consumers. They created an imaginary business model built on speculation and pipe dreams. Investors lost fortunes. They only legacy they left was a recipe for a fool-hardy business plan that we can learn NOT to follow.
I agree with this post the most. Getting the music out there is priority. Let tapers tape. They will do the work for you to put out the best sounding shows. Let fans trade. Whenever a band sends me a cd or asks me what they can do, my response is pretty much like this parent post. The post above this one, about making sure your website works, is crucial. A customer re-directed is customer lost. The web site must function cleanly, be easy to find tour information and band bios, and a 'Download Music' with a couple of songs in it should be clearly seen on the home page. Good luck!
Having done both this is a tough call. You need to look at the pros/cons, regardless. After many years as a DoD contractor job security and glass ceilings were the biggest issue. I was lucky and never found myself in the unemployment line, but far too many of my friends did. The job cycles are just too unstable if you are relying on contract dollars. Before that it was insurance. That was the worst. Crabby Dilbert zone all the way. Much back stabbing and clueless management. If you are in tech, and you are getting paid out of over-head dollars in either of these areas, your job will always be at risk, and it doesn't matter how much technology ppl have invested in their company.
I finally left for public schools, and it was the best thing I ever did - sort of. Fair pay, good benefits, lots of vac time, but severely cut budgets to the point where you are almost immobilized. No books, no training, couldn't even get a pen! It's a think quick environment where you have to make something out of nothing all the time. (no computer lab? call and beg every local company in your area for any piece of computer junk they have. Put it all in a room, grab a bunch of high school kids, buy a few spare parts with your meager budget - a few weeks later - a lab:). Both have political games that basically parallel each other. You've gotta know which ass to kiss in either market. (now you have a lab, you have to make it work for all its worth. Great projects must come out of it. This means training teachers and helping with curriculum. Now you have something to fight with at school committee meetings for more $$ so you can buy a real lab) It's a constant battle - but the rewards were immense.
After a few years there, I found myself at a crossroads - political battles had exhausted me and I was ready to head back to commercial. But schools wanted me to stay. It was a tough choice. This new school had a great budget and had a team in place. From router to desktop and everything in-between, both jobs had decent pay and budgets, plenty of training, books, magazines, laptops/toys (little perks add up, and shouldn't come out of your own pocket) and most important, better management. For me it came down to vacation time (2 weeks vs schools=5 weeks, and every holiday), and at schools I would be able to work with kids and teachers. And of course public is fairly recession proof. So I stayed with schools. Now I have a hefty budget, and if I think we need a lab or a video editing station, or a new DV camera, I just get it. But I've had a good rest and now I'm bored.
No it didn't. It is still heavily entrenched in DoD and other fed offices. They have moved to Windows OS's mostly for client/business end of things, like office, email and shared files. In one area that I know, they are still used for travel orders and some old-timers still prefer it's DOSsy mail. They also use a very healthy dose of Unix for engineering (and now Linux for servers are popping up, at least at the experimental level), and the management and graphics depts. still prefer macs. Heck, there are even punch card systems tucked here and there, performing really big tasks, like payroll!
I guess the point is, when large corporations like Disney switch away from a particular product, regardless of the political stance, (and it doesnt really matter which product - in this case Microsoft), the rest of the world will soon follow. Business technology has traditionally followed technologies created or modeled in either the entertainment, military, or medical fields, with the exception of the past few years when commercial business flew past all of them in many ways - to the point that the govt adopted commericial off-the-shelf standards (COTS) instead of their traditional way of hiring programmers to write code for them. Remember WordPerfect? It was hot when it was the govt's preferred choice of word processor. When they switched to MS Office, the rest of the country (and world) was soon to follow. States report to federal. When federal switches, so will the states. When that happens, the smaller entities/municipalities that report to the states will follow.
Disney's poor choice of supporting things like the SSSCA doesn't matter. They are huge and have many sub-contractors supporting their industry. When the customer switches to a particular product, you can bet that the contractors will carry the exact same product in their own offices to ensure seamless compatibility with the customer - thus, a domino effect.
For those adopting open source, we have Peru, Mexico City, some parts of the US Govt, Norway, Disney, and China has long been open source to name a few. I'd say the dominos are starting to topple.
After all, courts have recently been arguing that video games cannot be protected speech; these games make it patently obvious that this view is insane."
I have been noticing this trend. There is a little Tinsel Town video on Eff.org that demonstrates this. I hope it continues to catch on so the courts will realize how foolish it is NOT to protect the artistic, educational, often useful (math blasters/diet programs/financial) and thought provoking programs ppl can come up with.
To a lot of ppl, esp a tech person, it may seem like computers/programming, etc. are more important skills than biology, geography, chemistry. I'm sure there are many doctors/nurses/physicists that would disagree. We put man on the moon with the three mentioned, not computing technology. But instead of blaming the schools, look to your state's dept of education. They are the ones who decide what are core requirements. This is about understanding how the system works, instead of ignorantly pointing fingers in the wrong direction. Many states only require 1 quarter of computing education in a 4 year high school path, and this is satisfied with just Intro to Computers. Others will say that if you don't pass 2 years of PE, you don't get to graduate. It is often not the schools choice how much or how little they get to teach in this area. Why is this important? Because they receive Federal and State funding based on meeting mandated requirements. For all the extra stuff they are often on their own, seeking grants and looking for handouts.
Don't like it? Then find out who is in the top positions in your states DoE and let your voice be heard. Find out who is running for office in your state or town and let them know how you feel technology in education. Don't just sit back and bitch about it. Go to a school committee meeting once in a while. Go to budget hearings. Do something useful with your thoughts, including letting them know that you feel your area's schools need higher qualified personell in the tech dept.
When I was in high school I knew more about computers than anyone else in the building. I knew more than the net admins too.
Some kids like to believe this until the day they find themselves expelled.
I was able to run nwadmin.exe and change anything. I was really tempted to change the mayor's password.
So you hacked in high school and are bragging about it?
If my high school had a full time employee who knew more about computers than anyone else there it would have been great. I wouldn't have to deal with stupid teachers thinking I'm "hackign the schools network" when I'm installing Macromedia flash player.
This is true, but most schools today have realized the need and do have solid professionals on board. Sometimes they come from the commercial world, sometimes they try to recycle burnt out teachers into a second career. I to have witnessed teachers over reacting for silly things like working on VB homework in the library, or running a software update. Its a shame I agree, but it is getting better.
I see these public schools with labs and labs full of too-powerful computers that are only used for MS-Office.
This is true almost everywhere you go, not just schools. Unless you're into gaming or video editing, most folks only use 10% of what their computers can do. This has been true since the days of DOS.
I ask why they have GForce2s,.. If they spent that money more wisely they could have hired a pro to work for them full time, maybe even teach, and help them make better buying decisions.
This is such a misconception for schools. Obviously you are not aware of how school budgets work, or how they fund technology. Most tech dollars come in the form of tech grants. $$ for computers, Internet access, sometimes software, printers. Thats it. Rarely does it cover training and the money certainly doesnt cover hiring someone. Purchasing computers with a solid on-site, 3 year warranty goes a long way in keeping repair bills down. As far as whats in them, schools get unbelieveable discounts on technology. What you may pay 1400 for, we will pay 900. Switching from a high-end video card to a low end one saves us nothing. You might as well grab the best. Sometimes there ARE high-end software packages, like AutoCad or Aegis Map software that will use every ounce of the power you put in.
I'm seeing a freshman year of high school class required for all students in which they learn how a computer works
Many schools already do this, it all depends on how far a teacher wants to take it.
'Educators have a choice: Either they need to adapt or they will be dragged into a new learning environment.'
I left the commercial world to work for IT in school systems 7 years ago. This statement was true then and unfortunately it still is. Some teachers, given the proper training, are up to it, and have come a long way. Others still don't know how to turn their computers on. This is one of the reasons for the continual attempt for things like the Childrens Online Protection Act. Schools won't get federal funding for technology if they won't install a Internet filter. I am against such strong-arm tactics, but I do know that there are many teachers who do not pay attention while kids as young as ten are giggling at p0rn. And if a student simply minimizes the browser, the teacher is lost.
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I too have been looking into this lately. As far as a lawyer or not, I think it depends on your skill level at being able to describe your concept effectively, using the correct buzzwords that the USPO might be looking for. I have many years experience with writing technical documents for the government, reams worth, so I feel confident that I can at least establish the paper work.
There have been a few good answers here. I agree with NOLO books, they are the best. My own little copy-cat method, is to search for the most complicated AWARDED patent that is in the general vicinity of mine, and don't stop writing until it at least looks passable. I think you also have to say to yourself "how much am I willing to lose?" just like any gamble in life. I know my stats: Around $1,000.00, many hours of hard labor writing the thing and making the drawings, and hours more of research making sure every possible corner is covered.
One poster here mentioned that you get two tries? If that is true, then I say I will write my own, submit it, if it gets bounced I'll run to a lawyer then. I have been sitting on this idea for five years now and even have a working mock-up (which I hear you no longer need). I too have looked high and low and still I do not see anything there, but I know something must be creeping out there somewhere. If someone were to challenge me, I guess I would just let them have it.
I don't agree with all this fear of being sued, or fear of not being good enough. I am tired of people being frightened into submission, afraid to put out even a simple flash video or a new web site for fear of infringement. If you are not good at essay writing, and being very descriptive, then patent writing is not for you. But look at these: Patent App #20020124197 Could someone be trying to patent the CTRL-ALT-DEL or the Function key (Fn) to bring a notebook out of sleep mode? Or this one: 20020123936 , it seems someone is trying to patent a town web site that includes maps and local merchant access "generating a home page with links to web pages that are relevant to the specific town, wherein one of the links is a map link to a map page that displays a map of the specific town".
Can you even patent a web page, or more importantly, should you be able to? Or how about serving content to a client?
If these guys can do it, then I certainly can.
I watched a special about bands that went broke, and one of them was TLC. After selling 10mill records, and after all the expeses that were charged to the group, the 3 girls ended up with around 50K each at the end of a very "successful" year.
It's crazy that they are still using such low-tech methods for delivering music for review. Get with the new millenium already! Why don't they just email the MP3's to the reviewers? Is it because they think that would be making it easy for anyone who would break their trust and distribute it? Anyone who would do that, is going to find a way no matter what they do. They should be able to trust their reviewers not to spread the music.
Think of all the shipping and handling they could save. Or they could have a secure FTP site where reviewers can download the music in whatever format(SHN, Ogg, etc)they deem appropriate. Or here's one - they could (GASP!) use their own version of P2P where only approved, contracted personnel have access and either stream or download the secure music.
It also serves them by giving them the politcal answer "We have a put a policy and procedure in place" that they can tout if any Rosen types come knocking. After all, the school is in CA, the home of the entertainment cartels.
All this banning seems extreme. I know of a couple of kids (one at Penn State) that follow a more reasonable rule. Students are given a basic set of etiquette rules, and warned about downloading copyrighted material. Each student is given a limited amount of bandwidth per month, which is monitored. If they go over, they better have a good reason, or they'll lose their net privileges for the rest of the term. This method allows for high tech access to information, and educates them at the same time. Isn't that what school is for?
Some of the big pornstars are millionaires - they could stop anytime they wanted to.
Pu-lease! Maybe their pimps have got some cash, but there are extremely few women who are able to retire off of it. (I can't think of any, but then I don't know of that many) And when they're forced to due to age, they start looking for desk jobs in the business (secretaries only get around 10 bucks an hour). Remember Lovelace? She barely had 50 bucks to her name to go with her 2 black eyes when she got out.
create a unique peer-to-peer (P2P) environment that would offer the tens of millions of adult consumers worldwide the opportunity to share adult content
I don't know if the porn already uses any P2P, but this thought is rather frightening to me. I can just imagine the amount of uncontrolled home videos popping up. Between consenting adults, whatever, but this could end up being an avenue for all kinds of kiddie-porn, rape, snuff, whatever. I'm sure those who want to do this, could find enough ways to hide out on the Internet and not be found. The site would probably be responsible and take stuff down as fast as they could, like eBay, but once its out, its out and very hard to get back. P2P for music is such a good thing. This just freaks me out.
and great FX. Cant wait for the next one.
I'm sure MS and the RIAA will make sure it includes DRM and is Palladium compliant before allowing this to become nationaly adopted.
Ever wonder why so many broadband companies use the space shuttle lifting off in their commercials? Because they can. For free - no royalties, just ask. Our government online is still the one place where content is made by the people, for the people. When mob mentalities like the RIAA edge ever closer to stifling what the people want to suit their own needs, you have to wonder what kind of ripple effect will result. If (when?) the day comes that this public domain privilege will no longer exist, it will truly send a shudder through those who believe in the right of fair use.
Back in the day, school kids would frequently slip CDs into the 5 1/4 drive. Today, some will still slip them in the small space below a CD drive. With today's large drives, most CDs are stored on a server so we can keep them out of little hands.
Ever have a kid draw a smiley face on your monitor with a magnet?
People who panic that the network is down, when they hit cancel at the logon window.
After a school summer break, when custodians have cleaned rooms and unplugged things, we always get the 'my computer is broke' when it is simply not plugged in.
E-mail a meeting message to someone, who manages to click 'Accept' but then emails you back to say, 'I'll show up, if you can tell me when the meeting is.'
I had one guy once, an engineer who built big great things for ships. I had recently swept through his building getting everybody on the network and using email for the first time (Win 3.11). About a week later, he said his Eudora mail and Mosaic browser wouldn't work. I went in to check, and noticed the network card sitting on his shelf. He said his 486 computer had gotten slow, so he pulled it out. He was pretty adamant that I don't put it back, but he needed to get his mail. I made him buy a new computer.
I have juggled day jobs and night school for years. Is simply surviving a measure of success? While it's possible to keep up the day work and studies, it seems the family and house keep always come in last. Those who love you are expected to understand and hang in there, and help out where possible, but there are bound to be difficult bumps along the way. If you are not married and have no kids, you are 10 steps better along than a lot of others who do this.
Also, eat well, take vitamins, drink plenty of water, and stay away from drugs and alchohol - a sure fire killer for any endeavor.
I support independent bands by purchasing tickets to their shows, buying their t-shirts and whatever silly little thing they sell. If they let me, I will share in their generosity for allowing trades of their live shows. If they absolutley must go with a large label, I will only purchase my most favorite bands new releases, because I know that this is important to the artist, but I will do it grudgingly, wishing that there was a better way. CD sales can make them popular, but it's the shows that pay them. I no longer support traditional major chain stores and will purchase either directly from the band or from some smaller mom&pop shop.
I'll buy from a major label again when the RIAA brings Napster back.
Before:
<td width=100%><ont face=verdana,helvetica,arial
size=+1 color=#CCCC66><span class=header><b>Join now!
</b></span></ont></td>
After:
<h2>Join now!</h2>
Combined with an appropriate rule on a linked style sheet, the simpler, more structural markup above will do exactly what the cumbersome, non-standard, invalid markup did, while saving server and visitor bandwidth and easing the transition to a more flexible site based on XML."
I'm from the old school, and I like my pages to be as lean as possible. The more junk on a page, the slower that page will load. I have always been miffed at the amount of extraneous code products like FrontPage put into a page, and thus I don't use them. Heaven forbid I should type one sentence and change the font. I will end up with 2 pages of tags and 6 folders for that.
Nonetheless, experts on money in politics say campaign contributions cannot help but influence decision makers -- and that corporations wouldn't donate if they got nothing in return.
Unless you were glued to the business and political sections of the news, the opt-out plan slipped by most of us until we starting getting all of those signature cards in the mail, discretely buried on the inside of the last page of a very boring policy pamphlet, which most people threw away.
Yet here we are today, struggling with the effects DMCA and meekly trying to fend off a slew of similar bad bills that are swirling around us like a bad storm. The pattern is the same - the general public is unaware, the entertainment industry has gobs of money and are buying our elected officials at every turn.
Now, where is that damn letter I've been working on for a month?
For anyone familiar with Internet before the dot-com stampede, it seemed a little odd that new companies were spending fortunes creating television commercials that rivaled long standing successful companies like Pepsi and Budweiser. The Internet companies that were (and remain) successful got there by word-of-mouth - on the Internet, for people savvy enough to be on the Internet. Companies like Yahoo and Amazon didn't branch into television ads until they had a strong foothold. Companies like Id software, still don't advertise (or very little) on TV, they don't need to. The e-Toys commercials were amazing, and when I first saw them I thought 'How can they do that? They must have spent a fortune on that.' Then there was the Super Bowl that was blanketed with dot-com advertising, the most expensive of ads. Years later now we know. They set up shop in cyber space, then marketed to brick and mortar consumers. They created an imaginary business model built on speculation and pipe dreams. Investors lost fortunes. They only legacy they left was a recipe for a fool-hardy business plan that we can learn NOT to follow.
I agree with this post the most. Getting the music out there is priority. Let tapers tape. They will do the work for you to put out the best sounding shows. Let fans trade. Whenever a band sends me a cd or asks me what they can do, my response is pretty much like this parent post. The post above this one, about making sure your website works, is crucial. A customer re-directed is customer lost. The web site must function cleanly, be easy to find tour information and band bios, and a 'Download Music' with a couple of songs in it should be clearly seen on the home page. Good luck!
Having done both this is a tough call. You need to look at the pros/cons, regardless. After many years as a DoD contractor job security and glass ceilings were the biggest issue. I was lucky and never found myself in the unemployment line, but far too many of my friends did. The job cycles are just too unstable if you are relying on contract dollars. Before that it was insurance. That was the worst. Crabby Dilbert zone all the way. Much back stabbing and clueless management. If you are in tech, and you are getting paid out of over-head dollars in either of these areas, your job will always be at risk, and it doesn't matter how much technology ppl have invested in their company.
:). Both have political games that basically parallel each other. You've gotta know which ass to kiss in either market. (now you have a lab, you have to make it work for all its worth. Great projects must come out of it. This means training teachers and helping with curriculum. Now you have something to fight with at school committee meetings for more $$ so you can buy a real lab) It's a constant battle - but the rewards were immense.
I finally left for public schools, and it was the best thing I ever did - sort of. Fair pay, good benefits, lots of vac time, but severely cut budgets to the point where you are almost immobilized. No books, no training, couldn't even get a pen! It's a think quick environment where you have to make something out of nothing all the time. (no computer lab? call and beg every local company in your area for any piece of computer junk they have. Put it all in a room, grab a bunch of high school kids, buy a few spare parts with your meager budget - a few weeks later - a lab
After a few years there, I found myself at a crossroads - political battles had exhausted me and I was ready to head back to commercial. But schools wanted me to stay. It was a tough choice. This new school had a great budget and had a team in place. From router to desktop and everything in-between, both jobs had decent pay and budgets, plenty of training, books, magazines, laptops/toys (little perks add up, and shouldn't come out of your own pocket) and most important, better management. For me it came down to vacation time (2 weeks vs schools=5 weeks, and every holiday), and at schools I would be able to work with kids and teachers. And of course public is fairly recession proof. So I stayed with schools. Now I have a hefty budget, and if I think we need a lab or a video editing station, or a new DV camera, I just get it. But I've had a good rest and now I'm bored.
No it didn't. It is still heavily entrenched in DoD and other fed offices. They have moved to Windows OS's mostly for client/business end of things, like office, email and shared files. In one area that I know, they are still used for travel orders and some old-timers still prefer it's DOSsy mail. They also use a very healthy dose of Unix for engineering (and now Linux for servers are popping up, at least at the experimental level), and the management and graphics depts. still prefer macs. Heck, there are even punch card systems tucked here and there, performing really big tasks, like payroll!
I guess the point is, when large corporations like Disney switch away from a particular product, regardless of the political stance, (and it doesnt really matter which product - in this case Microsoft), the rest of the world will soon follow. Business technology has traditionally followed technologies created or modeled in either the entertainment, military, or medical fields, with the exception of the past few years when commercial business flew past all of them in many ways - to the point that the govt adopted commericial off-the-shelf standards (COTS) instead of their traditional way of hiring programmers to write code for them. Remember WordPerfect? It was hot when it was the govt's preferred choice of word processor. When they switched to MS Office, the rest of the country (and world) was soon to follow. States report to federal. When federal switches, so will the states. When that happens, the smaller entities/municipalities that report to the states will follow.
Disney's poor choice of supporting things like the SSSCA doesn't matter. They are huge and have many sub-contractors supporting their industry. When the customer switches to a particular product, you can bet that the contractors will carry the exact same product in their own offices to ensure seamless compatibility with the customer - thus, a domino effect.
For those adopting open source, we have Peru, Mexico City, some parts of the US Govt, Norway, Disney, and China has long been open source to name a few. I'd say the dominos are starting to topple.
After all, courts have recently been arguing that video games cannot be protected speech; these games make it patently obvious that this view is insane."
I have been noticing this trend. There is a little Tinsel Town video on Eff.org that demonstrates this. I hope it continues to catch on so the courts will realize how foolish it is NOT to protect the artistic, educational, often useful (math blasters/diet programs/financial) and thought provoking programs ppl can come up with.
To a lot of ppl, esp a tech person, it may seem like computers/programming, etc. are more important skills than biology, geography, chemistry. I'm sure there are many doctors/nurses/physicists that would disagree. We put man on the moon with the three mentioned, not computing technology. But instead of blaming the schools, look to your state's dept of education. They are the ones who decide what are core requirements. This is about understanding how the system works, instead of ignorantly pointing fingers in the wrong direction. Many states only require 1 quarter of computing education in a 4 year high school path, and this is satisfied with just Intro to Computers. Others will say that if you don't pass 2 years of PE, you don't get to graduate. It is often not the schools choice how much or how little they get to teach in this area. Why is this important? Because they receive Federal and State funding based on meeting mandated requirements. For all the extra stuff they are often on their own, seeking grants and looking for handouts.
Don't like it? Then find out who is in the top positions in your states DoE and let your voice be heard. Find out who is running for office in your state or town and let them know how you feel technology in education. Don't just sit back and bitch about it. Go to a school committee meeting once in a while. Go to budget hearings. Do something useful with your thoughts, including letting them know that you feel your area's schools need higher qualified personell in the tech dept.
When I was in high school I knew more about computers than anyone else in the building. I knew more than the net admins too.
.. If they spent that money more wisely they could have hired a pro to work for them full time, maybe even teach, and help them make better buying decisions.
Some kids like to believe this until the day they find themselves expelled.
I was able to run nwadmin.exe and change anything. I was really tempted to change the mayor's password.
So you hacked in high school and are bragging about it?
If my high school had a full time employee who knew more about computers than anyone else there it would have been great. I wouldn't have to deal with stupid teachers thinking I'm "hackign the schools network" when I'm installing Macromedia flash player.
This is true, but most schools today have realized the need and do have solid professionals on board. Sometimes they come from the commercial world, sometimes they try to recycle burnt out teachers into a second career. I to have witnessed teachers over reacting for silly things like working on VB homework in the library, or running a software update. Its a shame I agree, but it is getting better.
I see these public schools with labs and labs full of too-powerful computers that are only used for MS-Office.
This is true almost everywhere you go, not just schools. Unless you're into gaming or video editing, most folks only use 10% of what their computers can do. This has been true since the days of DOS.
I ask why they have GForce2s,
This is such a misconception for schools. Obviously you are not aware of how school budgets work, or how they fund technology. Most tech dollars come in the form of tech grants. $$ for computers, Internet access, sometimes software, printers. Thats it. Rarely does it cover training and the money certainly doesnt cover hiring someone. Purchasing computers with a solid on-site, 3 year warranty goes a long way in keeping repair bills down. As far as whats in them, schools get unbelieveable discounts on technology. What you may pay 1400 for, we will pay 900. Switching from a high-end video card to a low end one saves us nothing. You might as well grab the best. Sometimes there ARE high-end software packages, like AutoCad or Aegis Map software that will use every ounce of the power you put in.
I'm seeing a freshman year of high school class required for all students in which they learn how a computer works
Many schools already do this, it all depends on how far a teacher wants to take it.
'Educators have a choice: Either they need to adapt or they will be dragged into a new learning environment.'
I left the commercial world to work for IT in school systems 7 years ago. This statement was true then and unfortunately it still is. Some teachers, given the proper training, are up to it, and have come a long way. Others still don't know how to turn their computers on. This is one of the reasons for the continual attempt for things like the Childrens Online Protection Act. Schools won't get federal funding for technology if they won't install a Internet filter. I am against such strong-arm tactics, but I do know that there are many teachers who do not pay attention while kids as young as ten are giggling at p0rn. And if a student simply minimizes the browser, the teacher is lost.