"It's easy to look at how much difference things like electricity and running water make in our lives and describe them as revolutionary, but they probably seemed pretty weak to the people who experienced the change."
You are absolutely right. Early critics of toilets, whose only experience was crapping in stinky outhouses, couldn't believe that people would want the crapper brought INTO THE HOUSE. I hear similar things all the time: "Why would I want to do my banking at home? Why would I want to work from home? Why would I want to download a book/cd/movie?"
I attended a paid focus group a few weeks ago, which discusses online banking and phone banking. Some of the non-online banking types were concerned that it takes 'a long time' to do your banking on the computer, due to slow internet connections. I pointed out that the slowest internet connection is still faster than driving to the bank.
"In contrast, the internet has only made exchanging money easier. It hasn't forced huge segments of the population to move or change their way of living."
In fact, it enables people to move from the city back to the country if they want. As soon as I can talk an employer into letting me code remotely, I'll be moving to a cottage on a lake.
The impact is incredible, but people are either too young or forgetful to realize. I'm 29, but here is one solid example that I remember from my childhood in the 1970s:
Banks used to be closed on weekends, and were only open from around 10-4 on Mondays to Wednesdays, and 10-6 on Thursdays and Fridays. There was no such thing as direct deposit, so everyone had to take their paycheques to the bank. Most people got paid on Wednesday or Thursday, in order to hit the one-hour window during their lunch-hour the following day, or the one-hour window after work on either Thursday or Friday.
There was no such thing as ABMs, direct-debit payments at stores, and credit cards were not nearly as widespread as they are now, so most purchases were with cash. If you missed your one-hour opportunity to deposit your cheque and get enough cash for a week, then you were screwed until Monday at lunch.
Aside: You know the little fence posts that denote the line-up area at the bank? Each one of those had an ashtray built into the top, and half the people in line were smoking the whole time.
Don't poo-poo the digital revolution if you were born well after it started. Ask someone old, like me, and they'll tell you about long distance phone calls for around $1 a minute, buying 16k memory packs for a ZX-81, being amazed by arcade games like Pac-Man, and that you could change the channel without getting up from your chair. Mike van Lammeren
"Bottom line, there are too many lawyers trained in Intellectual Property law for IP to disappear."
There may be too many lawyers for Intellectual Property Law to disappear, but you're missing the point: Distributing copyrighted music over the internet is already illegal. All the existing laws have yet to dent the widespread practice of downloading MP3 files. Don't equate lawyers and law too closely with reality.
"Gibson is underestimating the degree to which MP3's have been allowed to prosper, so as to force the hands of the courts, the houses, the lobbyists, and the competitors."
I think you're overestimating the collective intelligence and cunning of the five remaining media corporations. Maybe you have read too many Gibson novels...
Here is a key quote from the article:
"This erosion of revenue will simply transform the cultural industries under attack. Musicians may have to put up with poor CD sales, but will make money through live appearances, endorsements or merchandising."
Most bands only get 25 - 35 per CD that is sold. The other $15 - $20 goes to the store, distributor, record label, etc. With the exception of the handful of mega-bands like U2 & Pearl Jam, most bands make the bulk of their money from playing live. This means that if a band could get a few pennies for every song that is downloaded, they would be money ahead, and wouldn't have to compromise themselves artistically.
Film-makers, given the inexpensive and powerful equipment readily available to them, could start putting out films the same way bands can record and release their own music. Think of local stage productions, which often use part-time, semi-pro actors and directors. That same group of people could put together a film and release it on a website like The New Venue.
I think that music corporations should be thankful for the century or so that it was possible to make trillions of dollars off recorded music. Like tobacco farmers and land-mine manufacturers, they should start looking for a new line of work.
"Excuse me, but isn't formulaic the last thing a good story should be?"
No, good stories are very formulaic. In fact, the absence of formula often produces only boredom or confusion in an audience. This has been true for as long as we have recorded myth and story.
Think of the typical Schwarzenegger or Stallone movie. At some point one 'superman' type guy will have to single-handedly kick dozens of bad-guy asses. Realistic? No. Expected? Yes. Satisfying? Yes.
Flash back hundreds of years to Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus returns home to find bad guys all over his castle. He has been gone so many years that only his dog recognizes him. After giving the dog a pat on the head, he proceeds to singlehandedly disembowel and decapitate hundreds of bad guys, but not without taking time to throw out a few wisecracks while he is at it.
There are only a few stories that people like, and we tell them over and over and over.
Only if they intentionally give it to you, like by spitting in your Jolt.
Mike van Lammeren
Re:Yeah, I worry about this a lot...
on
Too Old To Code?
·
· Score: 4
You can stop worrying. You won't have any problems finding a job once you graduate.
After my first degree, I had a bunch of crappy jobs, then wound up working as a trainer for a Macintosh-only software company. After four years, I quit and went back to school to get a second degree, this time in Computer Science. I'm 29 now, I just graduated, and have had no problem getting interviews and lots of interest in my resume.
I just had a great interview today where they were impressed by my breadth of experience. Even though I don't know any given technology inside out, I have been a technical writer, radio DJ, music reviewer, etc. What's that got to do with computing?
When people are looking to hire computer programmers, no one is interested how l33t you are. It is more important that you're NOT an asshole, since you are going to be in very close contact with those people, 40-50 hours a week. I know, because in some of my past jobs I have had to interview people, and this is the primary thought in your mind when talking to applicants: "Is this person going to be easy/fun to get along with, or am I going to want to kill them?"
"Machines never make mistakes? Sure they do, but the mistakes they make aren't only an issue of programming--they're an issue of interpretation."
And once in a long, long while, computers actually make a mistake. Out of the billions and billions of times a computer sets a bit in ram, for instance, every so often the bit is simply not set.
"Under Hitler their was very little crime in Germany. Guns were outlawed, books were burned, and citizens were monitored and spied upon continuously. Is that what you would like to see? "
I'm all for a good argument, so I think it's only sporting of me to point out that the rhetorical technique you have just used is a "call to authority," unfortunately you have used Adolph Hitler as your authority figure. That's not likely to get you any points, and quite frankly, makes readers wonder to whom you look up.
As to crime in Nazi Germany, it seems to me that there was an awful lot of crime, hence all those ongoing war crimes trials.
"Crime is NOT caused by gun ownership."
I'd like to get away from the whole 'crime' thing, and discuss rather the merits of killing/not killing people, and owning the tools for killing people, namely handguns.
Cars can and do run people over, but by and large they are not used for that purpose. Here's an example to help you understand. Picture an empty parking lot, with cardboard cutouts of people. Someone training to drive a car would try NOT to run the cardboard people over, someone training to fire a pistol would try TO shoot the cardboard people. Now do you understand? Or do I have to use more capital letters?
No. I'm assuming that handguns are for shooting people. I admit that I forgot about sport shooting, which is not shooting at people, but targets shaped like people. I will continue to assume that the target-practice is to make one a better shot, when the time comes to shoot a person.
"You can't assume that the person owning the gun is going to do something illegal with it."
Can I assume that someone owning a plastic gun is going to try to sneak it on an airplane? Can I assume that someone owning special bullets that can pierce a bullet-proof vest is going to shoot a cop?
If you BUY a FUCKING handgun, then you at least have to FUCKING admit the possibility that you are going to shoot someone.
Slashdot Mirror
"This sounds to me something like when the hairs on the back of the neck stand up when sensing danger."
No, that happens from dead people tickling the back of your neck. D'oh! It's happening to me right now as I write this.
THANKS KID! Now I'm freaked out for the rest of my life about that.
Mike van Lammeren
Well I'll be a Lemur's uncle!
Mike van Lammeren
"Yet another lame MS "techonology" marketing name. LOL !!!"
The first thing I'm going to do with C# is write some programs for MS Bob.
Mike van Lammeren
"It comes from pronouncing #define as 'pound define'."
I always say "number-define."
Mike van Lammeren
"I know, I know... you meant A- T -Ms."
No, I'm in Canada, and here we call them ABMs - Automated Banking Machines.
Just be glad that I didn't write anything about cashing cheques!
Mike van Lammeren
How many milliseconds until someone logs in and changes the password? Tick, tick, tick...
Mike van Lammeren
"It's easy to look at how much difference things like electricity and running water make in our lives and describe them as revolutionary, but they probably seemed pretty weak to the people who experienced the change."
You are absolutely right. Early critics of toilets, whose only experience was crapping in stinky outhouses, couldn't believe that people would want the crapper brought INTO THE HOUSE. I hear similar things all the time: "Why would I want to do my banking at home? Why would I want to work from home? Why would I want to download a book/cd/movie?"
I attended a paid focus group a few weeks ago, which discusses online banking and phone banking. Some of the non-online banking types were concerned that it takes 'a long time' to do your banking on the computer, due to slow internet connections. I pointed out that the slowest internet connection is still faster than driving to the bank.
Mike van Lammeren
Yes.
Mike van Lammeren
"Proof please?"
That's what the lead singer of Skrew told me. Before turning to a life of code, I was a rock journalist.
Mike van Lammeren
"In contrast, the internet has only made exchanging money easier. It hasn't forced huge segments of the population to move or change their way of living."
In fact, it enables people to move from the city back to the country if they want. As soon as I can talk an employer into letting me code remotely, I'll be moving to a cottage on a lake.
Mike van Lammeren
"I do not see any improvement of that magnitude with computers."
I disagree with you. If you disagree with me, then write out your answer on a piece of paper and mail it to me.
Mike van Lammeren
The impact is incredible, but people are either too young or forgetful to realize. I'm 29, but here is one solid example that I remember from my childhood in the 1970s:
Banks used to be closed on weekends, and were only open from around 10-4 on Mondays to Wednesdays, and 10-6 on Thursdays and Fridays. There was no such thing as direct deposit, so everyone had to take their paycheques to the bank. Most people got paid on Wednesday or Thursday, in order to hit the one-hour window during their lunch-hour the following day, or the one-hour window after work on either Thursday or Friday.
There was no such thing as ABMs, direct-debit payments at stores, and credit cards were not nearly as widespread as they are now, so most purchases were with cash. If you missed your one-hour opportunity to deposit your cheque and get enough cash for a week, then you were screwed until Monday at lunch.
Aside: You know the little fence posts that denote the line-up area at the bank? Each one of those had an ashtray built into the top, and half the people in line were smoking the whole time.
Don't poo-poo the digital revolution if you were born well after it started. Ask someone old, like me, and they'll tell you about long distance phone calls for around $1 a minute, buying 16k memory packs for a ZX-81, being amazed by arcade games like Pac-Man, and that you could change the channel without getting up from your chair.
Mike van Lammeren
"Bottom line, there are too many lawyers trained in Intellectual Property law for IP to disappear."
There may be too many lawyers for Intellectual Property Law to disappear, but you're missing the point: Distributing copyrighted music over the internet is already illegal. All the existing laws have yet to dent the widespread practice of downloading MP3 files. Don't equate lawyers and law too closely with reality.
"Gibson is underestimating the degree to which MP3's have been allowed to prosper, so as to force the hands of the courts, the houses, the lobbyists, and the competitors."
I think you're overestimating the collective intelligence and cunning of the five remaining media corporations. Maybe you have read too many Gibson novels...
Here is a key quote from the article:
"This erosion of revenue will simply transform the cultural industries under attack. Musicians may have to put up with poor CD sales, but will make money through live appearances, endorsements or merchandising."
Most bands only get 25 - 35 per CD that is sold. The other $15 - $20 goes to the store, distributor, record label, etc. With the exception of the handful of mega-bands like U2 & Pearl Jam, most bands make the bulk of their money from playing live. This means that if a band could get a few pennies for every song that is downloaded, they would be money ahead, and wouldn't have to compromise themselves artistically.
Film-makers, given the inexpensive and powerful equipment readily available to them, could start putting out films the same way bands can record and release their own music. Think of local stage productions, which often use part-time, semi-pro actors and directors. That same group of people could put together a film and release it on a website like The New Venue.
I think that music corporations should be thankful for the century or so that it was possible to make trillions of dollars off recorded music. Like tobacco farmers and land-mine manufacturers, they should start looking for a new line of work.
Mike van Lammeren
Screw MS Office on Linux! I want to see ClarisWorks run on Linux.
Mike van Lammeren
"Excuse me, but isn't formulaic the last thing a good story should be?"
No, good stories are very formulaic. In fact, the absence of formula often produces only boredom or confusion in an audience. This has been true for as long as we have recorded myth and story.
Think of the typical Schwarzenegger or Stallone movie. At some point one 'superman' type guy will have to single-handedly kick dozens of bad-guy asses. Realistic? No. Expected? Yes. Satisfying? Yes.
Flash back hundreds of years to Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus returns home to find bad guys all over his castle. He has been gone so many years that only his dog recognizes him. After giving the dog a pat on the head, he proceeds to singlehandedly disembowel and decapitate hundreds of bad guys, but not without taking time to throw out a few wisecracks while he is at it.
There are only a few stories that people like, and we tell them over and over and over.
Mike van Lammeren
Only if they intentionally give it to you, like by spitting in your Jolt.
Mike van Lammeren
You can stop worrying. You won't have any problems finding a job once you graduate.
After my first degree, I had a bunch of crappy jobs, then wound up working as a trainer for a Macintosh-only software company. After four years, I quit and went back to school to get a second degree, this time in Computer Science. I'm 29 now, I just graduated, and have had no problem getting interviews and lots of interest in my resume.
I just had a great interview today where they were impressed by my breadth of experience. Even though I don't know any given technology inside out, I have been a technical writer, radio DJ, music reviewer, etc. What's that got to do with computing?
When people are looking to hire computer programmers, no one is interested how l33t you are. It is more important that you're NOT an asshole, since you are going to be in very close contact with those people, 40-50 hours a week. I know, because in some of my past jobs I have had to interview people, and this is the primary thought in your mind when talking to applicants: "Is this person going to be easy/fun to get along with, or am I going to want to kill them?"
Mike van Lammeren
True enough. Somewhere in my basement is a copy of MS Word for Atari. Hasn't been updated lately...
Mike van Lammeren
"Machines never make mistakes? Sure they do, but the mistakes they make aren't only an issue of programming--they're an issue of interpretation."
And once in a long, long while, computers actually make a mistake. Out of the billions and billions of times a computer sets a bit in ram, for instance, every so often the bit is simply not set.
Mike van Lammeren
"Apple Puts Off Joining 20th Century Until 2001."
Do you mean the 21st Century? The 20th Century refers to the 1900s.
Mike van Lammeren
"Under Hitler their was very little crime in Germany. Guns were outlawed, books were burned, and citizens were monitored and spied upon continuously. Is that what you would like to see?
"
I'm all for a good argument, so I think it's only sporting of me to point out that the rhetorical technique you have just used is a "call to authority," unfortunately you have used Adolph Hitler as your authority figure. That's not likely to get you any points, and quite frankly, makes readers wonder to whom you look up.
As to crime in Nazi Germany, it seems to me that there was an awful lot of crime, hence all those ongoing war crimes trials.
"Crime is NOT caused by gun ownership."
I'd like to get away from the whole 'crime' thing, and discuss rather the merits of killing/not killing people, and owning the tools for killing people, namely handguns.
Mike van Lammeren
Cars can and do run people over, but by and large they are not used for that purpose. Here's an example to help you understand. Picture an empty parking lot, with cardboard cutouts of people. Someone training to drive a car would try NOT to run the cardboard people over, someone training to fire a pistol would try TO shoot the cardboard people. Now do you understand? Or do I have to use more capital letters?
Mike van Lammeren
No. I'm assuming that handguns are for shooting people. I admit that I forgot about sport shooting, which is not shooting at people, but targets shaped like people. I will continue to assume that the target-practice is to make one a better shot, when the time comes to shoot a person.
Mike van Lammeren
"That would make you?"
Probably not a sheep. More likely a parrot.
Mike van Lammeren
"You can't assume that the person owning the gun is going to do something illegal with it."
Can I assume that someone owning a plastic gun is going to try to sneak it on an airplane? Can I assume that someone owning special bullets that can pierce a bullet-proof vest is going to shoot a cop?
If you BUY a FUCKING handgun, then you at least have to FUCKING admit the possibility that you are going to shoot someone.
Mike van Lammeren