There is no good reason for someone to make money off of (and more importantly retain exclusive rights to) something they did 90 years ago.
There are plenty of reasons not to:
* Doesn't promote the advancement of arts and sciences in given fields. * Relegates the person's work to obscurity (who the hell would pay for recordings from the early 1900s for example - if they were not in the public domain, no one would even know they exist). * Doesn't serve the public good from a cultural and historical perspective. * It's not morally justifiable - particularly given most people have to work every day of their lives to make ends meet - 75 years is enough to milk it, and I think that is too much. * It sucks money out of the economy that could be used to develop new works - thus stagnating the business. Of course this just drives new artists into the Open Source/Indy arena - further shrinking the traditional record labels and limiting their influence - so that might not be all bad.
I was writing code before I entered the military (Air Force - 702x0 and later Army - 11B/19D), and I'm still writing code. Of course, now I get paid more than what a Colonel makes in my civilian job, and I don't have to polish my boots if I don't want to. There are only two skills the military taught me that are useful in my present capacity - touch typing, and leadership. Everything else is interesting conversation at dinner parties, or useful in the outside chance that the country gets overrun by terrorists or large monsters from outer space.
Just because you're cerebral doesn't mean you have to be a lazy out of shape slob either. Mind and body are not separate - they are intimately intertwined, so you neglect one at the expense of the other imho. Also, from my experience I found all the gamut of personality types and skills in the military that I do in the civilian world. People don't stop playing a musical instrument, for example, when they put on combat fatigues. In fact most of the misinformation regarding the military comes from people who have never been there and don't know what they are talking about.
One thing I have found different: most military/ex military people tend to look at adversity as a challenge, and are calm in the face of what makes many of their civilian counterparts melt down. Just like any broad statements there are always exceptions to the case YMMV.
I just think about characters and they come out of the keyboard.
Actually I think in terms of words and phrases, and my fingers dash madly across the keyboard to keep up. I rarely have to think about the spelling of a given word - it just flows. For a large number of 'non-complex' words, my mind has created heuristics that approximate a pattern that that gets applied very rapidly in sequence - sometimes with humorous results when applied inexpertly.
As a result, the keyboard (and by extension the computer) have become extensions of my body (in a holistic sense - blurring the artificial division between body and mind).
This is also why I think voice recognition will have limited viability in a traditional computational setting - the user will lose that visceral connection. For controlling robots yes -- for general programming and doing other work with a computer - no. ymmv.
That is why I love python; in most cases there is only one way of doing it - which improves readability, testability, and debugging.
I was a long time perl programmer before I made the switch to python. All my headaches with perl went away, and no new headaches of similar magnitude have surfaced. So for me it has been an net improvement.
KISS, DRY, and various other good engineering/development paradigms are embodied in python's development model.
Perl made it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. Python makes it hard to shoot yourself in the foot -- but you can if you want to. That probably best sums up their differences.
She's been playing console games for 10 years, and I've been a pc gamer as long as there have been games for the pc.
Our daughters both starting using the console at about 6 years old. My oldest discovered PC games (mostly RPGs) in her teens (she is 20 now in college and continues to play WOW). My youngest started playing single-player games at 7 on her laptop, and at 8 we let her use online kid sites with monitoring by Mom and Dad. The key is paying attention to what your kids are doing, don't just lock them away in their rooms and let them run wild; engage them in conversation about what is happening in the games - and regulate what games you allow them to play for a given age group.
One thing we have noticed is that both of them were larger than both my wife and I at the same ages - due to neglecting physical exercise. We've addressed that in the youngest by regulating her 'game time' recently to force her to engage in outdoor play - and she has started to go back to her ideal weight.
My spouse and I were old enough that we did not come into contact with computers until we were in our teens (PCs didn't exist in significant numbers until I was 16). This had the benefit of us reading more during our developing years, as well as engaging in physical activity more frequently - usually as a result of mom throwing us out of the house - which probably also gave mom a breather from dealing with us. Looking at pictures of us back then - we were skinny, but strong (like long distance runners/mountain climbers -- long muscles).
Now my wife and I are realizing that maybe mother did know best.
Selling CD's at the gig can be the difference between eating and stopping "work". The audience sharing the music can make it unviable.
In the 70s and 80s people shared music via cassette tapes. The record companies were up in arms and wanted the practice banned. The courts ruled in favor of mix tape sharing. In that same time period sales of recordings in the new cassette medium were breaking records - even while record sales leveled off (kept alive mainly by the sale of singles). Then along came the compact disk, which sealed the fate of Vinyl records.
Fast forward to today - we are going through a similar paradigm shift as the result of the progression of technologies. Vinyl records can no longer be found at your mainstream record stores - replaced by compact disks. But now ubiquitous computers and digital music formats are changing the way people listen, mix, and buy music. As a result CDs are seeing a decline in sales - even as other formats and business models see an increase in revenue. We are in the midst of these changes - so it is hard to point to irrefutable proof. Nonetheless, if history tells us anything, it shows that the new technologies are shifting the power to control music production and distribution from the large record companies to the individual.
In that environment - if we look into the future and follow current trends out - we can see that clinging to the old model will be a loss leader. Is any mainstream record company pumping out millions of vinyl records today? No - because the changes to technology made that business model obsolete. Similarly, selling compact disks will drop off as the new distribution models shake out. Additionally, I would also argue that more of the profits will be available to artists because the technology eliminates the requirement for a 'middle man'.
Given this trend, you - as a musician - would do better over the long run to start thinking about network distribution, and reducing your costs by building your own recording capabilities.
For established bands this will be difficult initially - it is really easy to let to record label handle all that 'stuff' for the lions share of the profit. But that cash cow is going to dry up - unless they embrace the new business models, which the RIAA so far has been resistant to.
The Grateful Dead were real pioneers in this area (encouraging concert goers to record and distribute their performances). The most recent experiments by such groups as Radio Head, and abandonment of traditional record label by Madonna are just signals that change is imminent. You can either ride the wave, or be overtaken by it. You can't ignore the network and only be a regional band if you want to make a living doing it - with rare exception. As the baby boomers retire to fixed incomes, and the Gen X/Y kids gain affluence you will see this accelerate rapidly.
That is my 2 cents (2p or 2/100th of a Euro...whatever that is; please don't be offended if I ignored your favorite monetary system - yen, peso, shekel etc...).
I did not make the assertion that the network capabilities would replace other venues. In fact I simply prefaced my statements with 'There is another model'. To put it another way: more people now have options that were largely unavailable/too expensive to pursue just 10 years ago.
This was in response to the parent post regarding the trade-offs of gigging and having a day job. If you are losing money gigging - and/or are complaining about burning the candle at both ends to make ends meet by holding a 'day job', then I suggested an alternative that would provide the satisfaction of pursuing music while limiting the hassles to what you can manage (e.g. gig as much or as little as you want - and fill in the rest using the technologies I mentioned - so you can keep your day job, and still get enough sleep to be functional the next day). On a personal level, I've done enough gigging to know I don't particularly enjoy 90% of the venues that a typical band can book (I've been in dives where the stage was surrounded by a chicken wire cage, and the band, the gear, and crew ended up covered in beer by the end of the night - not to mention the threat of bodily injury -- who needs that crap?)
People like live gigs, real life not second life.
There are also people that use Second Life, myself included, that enjoy live music in that venue - you're argument is a logical fallacy that, to paraphrase: 'everyone likes live gigs in RL only (not Second Life)'. I've attended 6 concerts in the past month in Second Life - for a fraction of the cost I would have payed, and time lost traveling to the same number of RL concerts. I also got to talk to the artist, and since the crowds were smaller (20 to 70 people at most) - it was a more intimate experience, which allowed the artist to open up about their music and life - more than they would at a club in RL. This aspect is particularly appealing to me as a musician. Now, the simple fact that I, and many others prefer attending Second Life gigs - invalidates your argument.
My experience in this area illustrates that it is doable. To be successful I would argue it needs to be a hybrid model - where you provide a path for your music to travel from pay to free content as time progresses (e.g. sell premium CDs - but also provide lower quality MP3s for free, and/or eventually provide high quality.wav lossless files of older music for audiophiles etc - there is any number of models I can think up that would probably work and please your fans (customers)) - and gigging or not gigging to what ever degree you see fit can be a part of that too. Ultimately YMMV.
There is another model - You don't gig in the traditional sense - except very selective to your tastes (local club you like etc). Instead your primary audience is world-wide - you use online venues - such as Second Life - to expose people to your music and earn a few bucks (I've been to quite a few of these - and it is really cool to be able to interact directly with the artist - and the artist has an appreciative audience that is actually interested in the music, rather than a captive one that is only there to drink beer and pick up women - not to mention dealing with club management that primarily wants to sell beer and stiff you on the proceeds).
This way:
1. You can keep your day job while you see if the demand is viable enough to think about music as a primary occupation. 2. You can spend more time writing and recording music, rather than packing the van - which means more recordings for your fans. 3. You can sell your latest CD for a set period of time (until your next CD is ready), then give away your previous recordings, and perhaps a few teaser tracks from your current work; competition is fierce so you can't demand premium prices when people can download headliner tracks from iTunes for a buck - without driving your fans away. The consolation is you don't have to share any of your profit with a bunch of middle men. 4. Merchandising is easy online (T-shirts, Mugs, etc...) and again, most of the profit goes to you.
You're not going to be mega rich unless you're really popular and can drum up enough volume to make the buck-a-song and merchandising model scale, but at least your music can enrich your life in other ways without driving you insane or into the poor house while you pursue that goal (if that is your goal - some folks are happy to let music be a hobby rather than a job).
I've toured with bands before as a roadie, and a sound and light tech, and I'm a musician myself - so I know what that is like - not fun beyond the first few gigs...I like the freedom that the internet and associated new technologies provide. Particularly as I get older (I'm in my 40s now).
how exactly do we car-pool to work at 3am when a server crashes and we need to get it up and running before the next day's business?
1. At 3AM you can drive in because there won't be any traffic on the roads. 2. Why isn't your server configured as a pair (or a pool of primary/secondary pairs depending upon the application) with fail-over capability? This would help you avoid those trips, as well as provide better service for your customers. 3. There are remote power controls and terminal servers you can add to your system that even let you remotely power cycle a system and monitor the console as it boots up.
My front door is 500 meters from the bus stop. The transfer station is only 1 mile away (if I want some exercise - which I usually do after work - walking from the station all the way home).
Down town the bus stop is 400 meters from the front door of my work place.
That being said, since I started riding the bus I've saved $150 per month (gas), incalculable wear and tear costs on my vehicle, and I've gone down 3 pants sizes (and am continuing to lose weight), not to mention polluting a bit less than before.
Now, the flip side of that is the time spent (2.5 to 3 hours per day), encountering the occasional insane/smelly hobo, or strange liquids/powders in seats. Most of that is easy to deal with (pay attention to your surroundings - and don't sit in someone's mess). And I think of the 3 hours as 'me' time - I listen to music, entertain myself by observing strange behavior on the bus, talk to the occasional sane person, and get that aforementioned exercise.
Now I may have lucked out -- the U.S. certainly doesn't have the ubiquitous public transportation I experienced in Europe. But it isn't that bad either -- unless you live out in the sticks.
I lived in England for several years, and you are right --- London, and most of the outlying towns have the cafes, markets, pubs etc within walking distance of most places (although we had to drive to 1 hour to find a roller skating rink - but that is another story).
America, with rare exception is in no way shape or form like Europe in this regard. Most of our major shopping areas are separated from the housing areas by significant distances, or barriers (such as an eight lane highway) that make walking prohibitive. We can thank our zoning policy and the developers (who prefer miles of tract homes on ever smaller plots to maximize profit) for this state of affairs.
That being said, there seems to be a resurgence of development in the inner cities now -- the old core is slowly being rebuilt for young up-scale metropolitan residents who prefer lofts and walking to the corner Starbucks than rehashing their parents and grandparents flight to the suburbs. As this gains momentum, smaller establishments will cater to these clients in those locations. So there is hope for American cities.
don't know whether this guy seriously believes that students shouldn't be leveraging libraries in their code, but I've got news: that's the way the world works.
That may be how the world works, but I have news for you: it works very poorly.
Case in point, several years ago we put out an RFC to build a system. The winning bidder built the system in Java -- but using several obtuse libraries. For about a year this system worked - to what we thought was spec. But then traffic on the system reached a critical threshold - and the system bogged down to the point of being wedged, at which point we had to restart the application.
After poking around the java logs -- we determined that the system had a 'virtual' memory leak. Basically their application was allocating resources that garbage collection was not collecting because the objects were still in scope. This quickly filled up the available memory - reaching Java's 'high water mark' setting.
We rebuilt the system in Perl for the cost of our time - *without* using libraries - and it runs faster and more reliably.
The key problem here is that individuals are approaching problems with a largely empty tool kit. They only know Java and some specific libraries that they may have used before. As the cliche goes: every problem is not a nail, and every tool is not a hammer. Undoubtably this individual never learned system programming basics - enough to know that he was over-engineering the solution in a way that was detrimental to the performance of the system.
I am not saying 'never use java'. What I am saying is use the appropriate tool for a given job - and that takes understanding how to use various tools, and more importantly their strengths and weaknesses in a given problem domain.
In short, it all comes down to whatever the student wants. They can choose which way they prefer. Myself, I learned in a tricycle gear Cessna 172, and I don't regret my decision. Flying is fun!
This is a false analogy.
To make a better analogy: imagine you only fly tricycle gear aircraft for your job (you work for FedEx delivering widgets cross country). Now imagine the management comes down and says "we're spending too much on fuel for this one leg that you are flying -- we are going to issue you a piper cub (tail dragger) aircraft. You will begin flying tomorrow."
Of course, you've never had training on the tail dragger, so lo and behold - you ground loop on your first landing attempt. Luckily you survive, and they issue you another piper cub...and they cycle repeats itself. Meanwhile your customers are not getting the packages they wanted on time (or in one piece for that matter).
Full disclosure: I too am a pilot, as well as a programmer.
A key aspect of computer science is understanding the history of computers and computer development, from the earliest mechanical calculators to the present high speed systems (both those ideas that worked, and those that didn't...to paraphrase Alexander Bell when queried about all his hundreds of failures, "now I know 500 ways *not* to make a lightbulb").
This would include understanding that magnetic core memory was a precursor to transistor based memory systems.
This is also the source of the term you used: 'core dump'.
Now, I may have never worked on a system containing magnetic core memory - but I understand the concept, its historical significance in the advancement of technology, and would be able to either figure out what the old timer said from context, or be smart enough to ask the question in a way that he would be able to clarify it for me in reference to a modern machine.
The CS waters are deep. Most only swim on the surface. Some few dive deep.
To grok, or not to grok; that is the question that should concern you.
Re:Godzilla movie from the POV of the civilians...
on
Cloverfield Discussion
·
· Score: 1
WTF *was* the monster?
Watch the very last scene in the movie carefully (where they are on the ferris wheel at Coney Island).
The brother's fiance makes it out on the first chopper -- so not everyone died. (She had to live so she could go on to work the CSI TV show - she was the most recognizable actor in the movie - save the battalion commander seen at the command post)
That being said, there was only one part of the movie I found objectionable: When the 2nd chopper crashed - the apparent angle of attack and descent speed would have obviated anyone from surviving, much less walking away from the wreckage.
Additionally - there were a few 'easter eggs' in the movie - that gave you a more complete understanding of the story if you were careful to watch; if you blinked you might have missed them. I won't say what they were...:)
...if they have to decide between the death of their child, or the death of 2 or 5 or 10 strangers, are going to save the strangers?
Reality is not that black and white - the state is always shades of gray. I'm sure you've heard stories of people doing amazing things when emergencies happen (lifting a 2000 pound vehicle off of a person etc). In your logic, they would do nothing, rather than risk their lives doing an impossible task. Yet they do it anyway.
There is never a clear cut choice one way or the other. I would start off with the premise that I'm going to save everyone - or die trying.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, you know both 'Chic' and 'Granny' are probably 50 year old men who live in their mother's basement...
If you do any piloting at all in a simulation (even ground vehicles) a joystick is indispensable. Mice and game pads don't hack it.
Given the number of flight/combat sims out there and the average player base, I would agree this is probably a niche market.
I've seen many very bad pilots who were obviously using a mouse or game pad to try to fly. They usually go down in flames and frustration.
The joystick is alive and well - you just have to know where to look.
There is no good reason for someone to make money off of (and more importantly retain exclusive rights to) something they did 90 years ago.
There are plenty of reasons not to:
* Doesn't promote the advancement of arts and sciences in given fields.
* Relegates the person's work to obscurity (who the hell would pay for recordings from the early 1900s for example - if they were not in the public domain, no one would even know they exist).
* Doesn't serve the public good from a cultural and historical perspective.
* It's not morally justifiable - particularly given most people have to work every day of their lives to make ends meet - 75 years is enough to milk it, and I think that is too much.
* It sucks money out of the economy that could be used to develop new works - thus stagnating the business. Of course this just drives new artists into the Open Source/Indy arena - further shrinking the traditional record labels and limiting their influence - so that might not be all bad.
I was writing code before I entered the military (Air Force - 702x0 and later Army - 11B/19D), and I'm still writing code. Of course, now I get paid more than what a Colonel makes in my civilian job, and I don't have to polish my boots if I don't want to. There are only two skills the military taught me that are useful in my present capacity - touch typing, and leadership. Everything else is interesting conversation at dinner parties, or useful in the outside chance that the country gets overrun by terrorists or large monsters from outer space.
Just because you're cerebral doesn't mean you have to be a lazy out of shape slob either. Mind and body are not separate - they are intimately intertwined, so you neglect one at the expense of the other imho. Also, from my experience I found all the gamut of personality types and skills in the military that I do in the civilian world. People don't stop playing a musical instrument, for example, when they put on combat fatigues. In fact most of the misinformation regarding the military comes from people who have never been there and don't know what they are talking about.
One thing I have found different: most military/ex military people tend to look at adversity as a challenge, and are calm in the face of what makes many of their civilian counterparts melt down. Just like any broad statements there are always exceptions to the case YMMV.
Cheers!
John Tutor -- is that you? :D
...Time to die.
That's Batty (Rutger Hauer) from Bladerunner.
I mourn for our future...
Vista should come with at least 15 pieces of flair...
Actually I think in terms of words and phrases, and my fingers dash madly across the keyboard to keep up. I rarely have to think about the spelling of a given word - it just flows. For a large number of 'non-complex' words, my mind has created heuristics that approximate a pattern that that gets applied very rapidly in sequence - sometimes with humorous results when applied inexpertly.
As a result, the keyboard (and by extension the computer) have become extensions of my body (in a holistic sense - blurring the artificial division between body and mind).
This is also why I think voice recognition will have limited viability in a traditional computational setting - the user will lose that visceral connection. For controlling robots yes -- for general programming and doing other work with a computer - no. ymmv.
I find paper airplanes work rather smashingly! ;)
hmmm every IDE I use that has a python mode translates tabs to spaces.
I work in a corporate environment - so we have defined spaces to be the standard - and this follows the python recommendation for new projects per pep-0008.
Sounds like a non-issue to me.
That is why I love python; in most cases there is only one way of doing it - which improves readability, testability, and debugging.
I was a long time perl programmer before I made the switch to python. All my headaches with perl went away, and no new headaches of similar magnitude have surfaced. So for me it has been an net improvement.
KISS, DRY, and various other good engineering/development paradigms are embodied in python's development model.
Perl made it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. Python makes it hard to shoot yourself in the foot -- but you can if you want to. That probably best sums up their differences.
My wife and I are both game savvy.
She's been playing console games for 10 years, and I've been a pc gamer as long as there have been games for the pc.
Our daughters both starting using the console at about 6 years old. My oldest discovered PC games (mostly RPGs) in her teens (she is 20 now in college and continues to play WOW). My youngest started playing single-player games at 7 on her laptop, and at 8 we let her use online kid sites with monitoring by Mom and Dad. The key is paying attention to what your kids are doing, don't just lock them away in their rooms and let them run wild; engage them in conversation about what is happening in the games - and regulate what games you allow them to play for a given age group.
One thing we have noticed is that both of them were larger than both my wife and I at the same ages - due to neglecting physical exercise. We've addressed that in the youngest by regulating her 'game time' recently to force her to engage in outdoor play - and she has started to go back to her ideal weight.
My spouse and I were old enough that we did not come into contact with computers until we were in our teens (PCs didn't exist in significant numbers until I was 16). This had the benefit of us reading more during our developing years, as well as engaging in physical activity more frequently - usually as a result of mom throwing us out of the house - which probably also gave mom a breather from dealing with us. Looking at pictures of us back then - we were skinny, but strong (like long distance runners/mountain climbers -- long muscles).
Now my wife and I are realizing that maybe mother did know best.
In the 70s and 80s people shared music via cassette tapes. The record companies were up in arms and wanted the practice banned. The courts ruled in favor of mix tape sharing. In that same time period sales of recordings in the new cassette medium were breaking records - even while record sales leveled off (kept alive mainly by the sale of singles). Then along came the compact disk, which sealed the fate of Vinyl records.
Fast forward to today - we are going through a similar paradigm shift as the result of the progression of technologies. Vinyl records can no longer be found at your mainstream record stores - replaced by compact disks. But now ubiquitous computers and digital music formats are changing the way people listen, mix, and buy music. As a result CDs are seeing a decline in sales - even as other formats and business models see an increase in revenue. We are in the midst of these changes - so it is hard to point to irrefutable proof. Nonetheless, if history tells us anything, it shows that the new technologies are shifting the power to control music production and distribution from the large record companies to the individual.
In that environment - if we look into the future and follow current trends out - we can see that clinging to the old model will be a loss leader. Is any mainstream record company pumping out millions of vinyl records today? No - because the changes to technology made that business model obsolete. Similarly, selling compact disks will drop off as the new distribution models shake out. Additionally, I would also argue that more of the profits will be available to artists because the technology eliminates the requirement for a 'middle man'.
Given this trend, you - as a musician - would do better over the long run to start thinking about network distribution, and reducing your costs by building your own recording capabilities.
For established bands this will be difficult initially - it is really easy to let to record label handle all that 'stuff' for the lions share of the profit. But that cash cow is going to dry up - unless they embrace the new business models, which the RIAA so far has been resistant to.
The Grateful Dead were real pioneers in this area (encouraging concert goers to record and distribute their performances). The most recent experiments by such groups as Radio Head, and abandonment of traditional record label by Madonna are just signals that change is imminent. You can either ride the wave, or be overtaken by it. You can't ignore the network and only be a regional band if you want to make a living doing it - with rare exception. As the baby boomers retire to fixed incomes, and the Gen X/Y kids gain affluence you will see this accelerate rapidly.
That is my 2 cents (2p or 2/100th of a Euro...whatever that is; please don't be offended if I ignored your favorite monetary system - yen, peso, shekel etc...).
This was in response to the parent post regarding the trade-offs of gigging and having a day job. If you are losing money gigging - and/or are complaining about burning the candle at both ends to make ends meet by holding a 'day job', then I suggested an alternative that would provide the satisfaction of pursuing music while limiting the hassles to what you can manage (e.g. gig as much or as little as you want - and fill in the rest using the technologies I mentioned - so you can keep your day job, and still get enough sleep to be functional the next day). On a personal level, I've done enough gigging to know I don't particularly enjoy 90% of the venues that a typical band can book (I've been in dives where the stage was surrounded by a chicken wire cage, and the band, the gear, and crew ended up covered in beer by the end of the night - not to mention the threat of bodily injury -- who needs that crap?)
There are also people that use Second Life, myself included, that enjoy live music in that venue - you're argument is a logical fallacy that, to paraphrase: 'everyone likes live gigs in RL only (not Second Life)'. I've attended 6 concerts in the past month in Second Life - for a fraction of the cost I would have payed, and time lost traveling to the same number of RL concerts. I also got to talk to the artist, and since the crowds were smaller (20 to 70 people at most) - it was a more intimate experience, which allowed the artist to open up about their music and life - more than they would at a club in RL. This aspect is particularly appealing to me as a musician. Now, the simple fact that I, and many others prefer attending Second Life gigs - invalidates your argument.
My experience in this area illustrates that it is doable. To be successful I would argue it needs to be a hybrid model - where you provide a path for your music to travel from pay to free content as time progresses (e.g. sell premium CDs - but also provide lower quality MP3s for free, and/or eventually provide high quality
There is another model - You don't gig in the traditional sense - except very selective to your tastes (local club you like etc). Instead your primary audience is world-wide - you use online venues - such as Second Life - to expose people to your music and earn a few bucks (I've been to quite a few of these - and it is really cool to be able to interact directly with the artist - and the artist has an appreciative audience that is actually interested in the music, rather than a captive one that is only there to drink beer and pick up women - not to mention dealing with club management that primarily wants to sell beer and stiff you on the proceeds).
This way:
1. You can keep your day job while you see if the demand is viable enough to think about music as a primary occupation.
2. You can spend more time writing and recording music, rather than packing the van - which means more recordings for your fans.
3. You can sell your latest CD for a set period of time (until your next CD is ready), then give away your previous recordings, and perhaps a few teaser tracks from your current work; competition is fierce so you can't demand premium prices when people can download headliner tracks from iTunes for a buck - without driving your fans away. The consolation is you don't have to share any of your profit with a bunch of middle men.
4. Merchandising is easy online (T-shirts, Mugs, etc...) and again, most of the profit goes to you.
You're not going to be mega rich unless you're really popular and can drum up enough volume to make the buck-a-song and merchandising model scale, but at least your music can enrich your life in other ways without driving you insane or into the poor house while you pursue that goal (if that is your goal - some folks are happy to let music be a hobby rather than a job).
I've toured with bands before as a roadie, and a sound and light tech, and I'm a musician myself - so I know what that is like - not fun beyond the first few gigs...I like the freedom that the internet and associated new technologies provide. Particularly as I get older (I'm in my 40s now).
1. At 3AM you can drive in because there won't be any traffic on the roads.
2. Why isn't your server configured as a pair (or a pool of primary/secondary pairs depending upon the application) with fail-over capability? This would help you avoid those trips, as well as provide better service for your customers.
3. There are remote power controls and terminal servers you can add to your system that even let you remotely power cycle a system and monitor the console as it boots up.
My front door is 500 meters from the bus stop. The transfer station is only 1 mile away (if I want some exercise - which I usually do after work - walking from the station all the way home).
Down town the bus stop is 400 meters from the front door of my work place.
That being said, since I started riding the bus I've saved $150 per month (gas), incalculable wear and tear costs on my vehicle, and I've gone down 3 pants sizes (and am continuing to lose weight), not to mention polluting a bit less than before.
Now, the flip side of that is the time spent (2.5 to 3 hours per day), encountering the occasional insane/smelly hobo, or strange liquids/powders in seats. Most of that is easy to deal with (pay attention to your surroundings - and don't sit in someone's mess). And I think of the 3 hours as 'me' time - I listen to music, entertain myself by observing strange behavior on the bus, talk to the occasional sane person, and get that aforementioned exercise.
Now I may have lucked out -- the U.S. certainly doesn't have the ubiquitous public transportation I experienced in Europe. But it isn't that bad either -- unless you live out in the sticks.
I lived in England for several years, and you are right --- London, and most of the outlying towns have the cafes, markets, pubs etc within walking distance of most places (although we had to drive to 1 hour to find a roller skating rink - but that is another story).
America, with rare exception is in no way shape or form like Europe in this regard. Most of our major shopping areas are separated from the housing areas by significant distances, or barriers (such as an eight lane highway) that make walking prohibitive. We can thank our zoning policy and the developers (who prefer miles of tract homes on ever smaller plots to maximize profit) for this state of affairs.
That being said, there seems to be a resurgence of development in the inner cities now -- the old core is slowly being rebuilt for young up-scale metropolitan residents who prefer lofts and walking to the corner Starbucks than rehashing their parents and grandparents flight to the suburbs. As this gains momentum, smaller establishments will cater to these clients in those locations. So there is hope for American cities.
That may be how the world works, but I have news for you: it works very poorly.
Case in point, several years ago we put out an RFC to build a system. The winning bidder built the system in Java -- but using several obtuse libraries. For about a year this system worked - to what we thought was spec. But then traffic on the system reached a critical threshold - and the system bogged down to the point of being wedged, at which point we had to restart the application.
After poking around the java logs -- we determined that the system had a 'virtual' memory leak. Basically their application was allocating resources that garbage collection was not collecting because the objects were still in scope. This quickly filled up the available memory - reaching Java's 'high water mark' setting.
We rebuilt the system in Perl for the cost of our time - *without* using libraries - and it runs faster and more reliably.
The key problem here is that individuals are approaching problems with a largely empty tool kit. They only know Java and some specific libraries that they may have used before. As the cliche goes: every problem is not a nail, and every tool is not a hammer. Undoubtably this individual never learned system programming basics - enough to know that he was over-engineering the solution in a way that was detrimental to the performance of the system.
I am not saying 'never use java'. What I am saying is use the appropriate tool for a given job - and that takes understanding how to use various tools, and more importantly their strengths and weaknesses in a given problem domain.
This is a false analogy.
To make a better analogy: imagine you only fly tricycle gear aircraft for your job (you work for FedEx delivering widgets cross country). Now imagine the management comes down and says "we're spending too much on fuel for this one leg that you are flying -- we are going to issue you a piper cub (tail dragger) aircraft. You will begin flying tomorrow."
Of course, you've never had training on the tail dragger, so lo and behold - you ground loop on your first landing attempt. Luckily you survive, and they issue you another piper cub...and they cycle repeats itself. Meanwhile your customers are not getting the packages they wanted on time (or in one piece for that matter).
Full disclosure: I too am a pilot, as well as a programmer.
A key aspect of computer science is understanding the history of computers and computer development, from the earliest mechanical calculators to the present high speed systems (both those ideas that worked, and those that didn't...to paraphrase Alexander Bell when queried about all his hundreds of failures, "now I know 500 ways *not* to make a lightbulb").
This would include understanding that magnetic core memory was a precursor to transistor based memory systems.
This is also the source of the term you used: 'core dump'.
Now, I may have never worked on a system containing magnetic core memory - but I understand the concept, its historical significance in the advancement of technology, and would be able to either figure out what the old timer said from context, or be smart enough to ask the question in a way that he would be able to clarify it for me in reference to a modern machine.
The CS waters are deep. Most only swim on the surface. Some few dive deep.
To grok, or not to grok; that is the question that should concern you.
Watch the very last scene in the movie carefully (where they are on the ferris wheel at Coney Island).
The brother's fiance makes it out on the first chopper -- so not everyone died. (She had to live so she could go on to work the CSI TV show - she was the most recognizable actor in the movie - save the battalion commander seen at the command post)
:)
That being said, there was only one part of the movie I found objectionable: When the 2nd chopper crashed - the apparent angle of attack and descent speed would have obviated anyone from surviving, much less walking away from the wreckage.
Additionally - there were a few 'easter eggs' in the movie - that gave you a more complete understanding of the story if you were careful to watch; if you blinked you might have missed them. I won't say what they were...
or more simply you could just execute:
/home/me/Desktop/women -exec grep "white female" {}\;'
'find -type f
Reality is not that black and white - the state is always shades of gray. I'm sure you've heard stories of people doing amazing things when emergencies happen (lifting a 2000 pound vehicle off of a person etc). In your logic, they would do nothing, rather than risk their lives doing an impossible task. Yet they do it anyway.
There is never a clear cut choice one way or the other. I would start off with the premise that I'm going to save everyone - or die trying.