I can see it now. Using this technology, companies will stick a GPS unit on your employee ID card, or fob (that you carry with you all day at work anyhow, to get in and out of the office). Now, they will know if you're at your desk, or if you're spending an inordinate amount of time chatting with your co-workers, playing foosball, or hiding in the bathroom. Plus, when you go out for lunch, they'll not only know how long you're out, but where you've gone... if you're caught interviewing at a competitor's co., watch out! the question is... will the company have to tell you when they start doing this? Either way, Woz makes money... I see this being a big hit.
I have quite the opposite viewpoint, and I dare say I'm a more your target audience since I've bought quite a bit from the Apple Music store.
I don't want to be encumbered by cd booklet, jacket art, or a physical CD. I spent quite a bit of time converting everything in my CD collection to MP3s for portability in file form. I also don't want to be tied to the album format; part of the point of Mp3s is to mix and match songs by artist. Therefore, the liner notes of a CD is uneeded for the song order. The song titles are in the file. The lyrics? If I cared that much, I'd look 'em up online. Art? I'm certainly not looking at the art when I'm listening to this stuff on an iPod...
I'd say in terms of extras you could focus on higher quality audio for people who like the tunes. And, put the lyrics online for those who want them. Lastly, I'd suggest music videos streaming on your website. Other than that, I don't think many people who are into buying Mp3s are going to be overly concerned with all these "extras". The people who are into extras are probably going to be wanting a CD anyway.
It sure would be great if as a result of your "half" strategy, that home prices dropped, the cost of living dropped, the cost of pretty much everything dropped by half, to reflect this. Afterall, such deflation happened in Japan.
And with these lowered costs and expecatations, their interest rates at zero, the Japanese are oh so happy right now. Yeah, right.
Right now the execs are safe because they are the ones calling the shots. They are outsourcing to save the company money, naturally while paying themselves a nice bonus for doing so.
Jobs like project management, sales etc. still need to have a human face on them. Schmoozing with other execs, well you have to speak english fluently for one. But all the people holed up in their cubes, who don't need to meet with anybody on a regular basis to get their job done, well, they've essentially been given that telecommuting gig they always hoped for... except the job is in India and the person doing it ain't you.
Well, seeings how practically every state in the nation is running a deficit, and the federal goverment is hundreds of billions in the red, I think this problem of debt is not only a personal problem for the citizens but for the government itself.
Every entity in this country seems to be spending on credit in hopes the recovery will come soon and we'll just pay everything back.
I'm kinda pissed about this, but maybe some of us should have had more management aspirations. I know a lot of programmers are totally anti-management positions for themselves, but I think this comes back to bite you in the ass... for example if you're a 40 year old coder with no management experience, out of work, looking for a job, competing with others charging half what you are asking... etc.
Secondly, there are plenty of jobs that require you to be onsite other than management and "service" type jobs. Owning your own business, government work, medicine, lawyer, etc.
Right now might be a great time to start your own business. Low office rent, lots of people out of work for you to hire for cheap locally.
But then again, just to play devil's advocate... back in the boom days, employees were quitting their jobs, skippin town, basically trading any sense of locality for the quick buck. I'm sure it pissed the companies off then, that they'd have to pay top dollar to get some programmer just to have him ditch for a.com, getting a 20K bonus in the process, etc.
This isn't meant to justify outsourcing, but I can understand why comapnies don't give a crap about employees anymore. It does them no good when employess don't give a crap about companies, either. The feeling is mutual.
Eh... to tell you the truth, most of those pseudo-programmers lost their jobs and skipped town in 2000, 2001. Plus when you have a whole company go under, they're not picking and choosing between the "real" programmers and the pseudo-programmers... everyone's got the shaft and everyon'es looking for work. I don't deny theres a fair amount of pseudo-programmers unemployed, but take a look at some of the resumes out there in IT and you can't deny, there's some talented people who are just SOL. I'm sure you personally know a few of 'em.
I think this outsourcing trend is the new face of technology in this country. We all have to adapt. We are not going to be able to change the system, because the system is run by the corporations that employ, which have the politicians in their pockets. Take a look at how systematically, the clothing industry, the manufacturing industry, the auto industry has all moved their jobs overseas, to asia, mexico, wherever. At each point, people who lost their jobs in the US made a stink, but nothing was done. I hate to say it but I don't see it any different today, even though our programming jobs are supposedly "white collar"... BFD.
I think we are just going to have to get used to it. We are either going to have to learn to get by on way lower salaries, or get into another career. Technology just isn't the type of job that's going to last for a whole lifetime. I'm already planning an exit strategy.
remember back in the day of 1999... when people said the tech boom was going to change everything? Introduce a whole new way of doing business? Well, that promise is being fullfilled. It wasn't exactly the positive change we were hoping for. But one lesson should be kept from those days. Remember... be adaptable? Get used to change? If you don't change from your old business ways you'll die? All those messages were being yelled at the management, when it should have been yelled at us netslaves, the ones who supposedly "get it". What we need to get is, be adaptable. Tech is simply too volatile to base your whole life's career on. And those who don't adapt and change, will die a slow, horrible death.
Overall I say the break down of the established channels is a good thing. You do raise a common complaint, that because it's so easy for people to make "art" and put it up on the web, there's so much more shitty art out there. Take a listen at the crap on MP3.com and you'll get the idea.
That being said it's hard to say where it will go. Part of me thinks talent will rise to the top, but another part of me is worried that so many people out there have absolutely no sense of taste. You give a bunch of kids video cameras and are there any Coppolas or Spielbergs out there? No, most of them mimic Jackass. Great.
I think most likely we're going to have a severe fragmentation of arts and what people like on the web. People will get obsessed over their tiny little niche of some obscure art form and not venture far from it. Gone will be the days where one type of art is universally popular to all. So the pie of fundage will be divided into infintesimally small pieces. More poeple will get access to the "pie" but the slices will be very very small. Certainly not enough to earn a decent living.
I'd say if they were concerned about the workload they should have just left it as a print style comic book. If they wanted to do a web based comic, just put up a bunch of images. Overall it's the story that matters, not the media, and they have a good story. If they don't want to do a traditional comic book I say they get some animators to help 'em out. I'm not terribly interested in waiting a long time to download a flash flick that ends up just being a comic book where the images slide around.
I'm well aware of the cost and workload of going to full animation... that wasn't the point. I just think since they're already going half way there with flash animation and and audio track the work suffers. As soon as you add motion and sound to drawings, people want to see it animated. And if they think it's too expensive to go this route, then I suggest they go back to boxes and put out a print edition. They'll reach more people that way. I think the story, art, coloring, everything is great but the medium is not appropriate.
First off let me just say this is really great work... great story, great art, great flash programming. I'm excited to see stuff like this coming out, stuff done independently that's quality.
I only have one complaint... I think this story would be better served going all the way to animation. I know the comic purists out there would balk, but to have basic animation, dissolves, and WORD BALLOONS of all things, when you already have audio... this work has already left the roots of comics on a page. This project should just go fully animated.
Oh, and I just have to mention, no Scott McCloud-esque micropayments going on here. Kudos to these guys...
Note how it says once you pay you can save it to your drive. Bad copy protection, game over. I'm a comics fan and even I am reluctant to pay 25 cents for this, because I know I'll be getting this for free sent to me via email somehow.
First, why is it that all these case modders think a clear case that lets you see the wires and fans and garbage inside looks cool? This is the equivalent of one of those invisible human models where you can see the inner organs. NOT COOL. Ugly, and exposing things that were never designed to be looked at. Second, what is so great about sticking an existing computer in a new shape that has no redeeming qualities about it? A pyramid? Who cares? How does a pyramid make you work faster, better, etc? How does the form improve the function? It doesn't. It's just some random shape... according to this logic, if you think a pyramid is cool, then stick a computer in a beer keg, stuffed hello kitty toy, plant pot, mail box, bread maker etc. it will be equally as "cool". In other words, who cares? Ultimately how much skill does it take to pick some random item and stick a computer in it? None!
Although situations like this, with no overtime, make being salaried look like a bum deal, I think you oughta look like it as balancing out those times a person gets to slack off during work (you know, get to work at 10, sneak out at 4, take a two hour lunch) when times are slow, and, because you're salaried, this does not affect your paycheck one bit.
I think these times still happen more often than the work your ass off for a week at a time, at least where I've worked, so I think being salaried is still a better deal.
Other college degrees have been used to these job prospects for quite some time now. I'm sure you know some people who've gotten degrees in English, Sociology, Philosophy, Music, Art... what are a lot of them doing? Most likely they went to graduate school or got a job having absolutely nothing to do with whatever they studied in college.
So just because you got a degree that doesn't automatically lead right into the job of your dreams, who cares. Times are just that a CS degree, for example, might just be the new English major. Chalk it up to "oh well" and life goes on. Or apply to graduate school and become a teacher.
Just think of things that absolutely need a physical presense, that cannot be done through email.
Service industry jobs. Retail. Sales. People can't get their coffee served to them by some guy in India.
Anything to do with real estate and the housing industry. Construction. Selling homes. Mortgage broker. Real Estate Agent. Plumber. Interior Decorator.
Government jobs. Senator. Defense industry.
Health care industry. All the baby boomers retiring are gonna need a lot of care. Nurse, hospital administrator, retirement home orderly etc.
If any of these jobs sound unappealing or exciting to you, that's your perception. But we all gotta eat.
I would argue one could even turn a service industry type job into something interesting. Consider upscale marketing... selling over priced crap to rich people. For example, auto mechanic might sound very unimpressive until you consider how many newer cars have complex computers inside of them. They have to be serviced at the dealer. So, take some classes with your computer skills, get certified at a BMW dealership. That's not exactly a "low class" gig.
Tip for you:
You'll pay that 50K off sooner if you take a lower paying job that is steady and stable instead of be unemployed for several years waiting for a job that doesn't exist.
Say you went to college to get a degree in Computer Science, went $50K in debt via student loans to do so, and are now out on your ass with no work, and someone offers you a great job in construction work. Will you take it?
The poster might, but most people will not. reason being, human nature. To take a job that has nothing to do with what they studied in college (and likely went massively into debt for), is like admitting they made a stupid mistake, and that college education was practically worthless and they are afraid the inevitable question: well, if you were going to be a construction worker, why'd you blow 50K in college, hardy har har?
So a recent college graduate is instead, going to suffer along for a few years, applying to tech jobs in vain, getting contract work that pays barely enough to eat (let alone pay back those loans), move in with room-mates, or their parents, getting more and more discouraged, and then finally has to take some job "that doesn't have anything to do with my major (oh the crying shame!)" just to get by.
That's what most people end up doing, and I think it's pretty sad. We have to be adaptable these days, be prepared to totally change our jobs, our careers, our view of ourselves to get by in these terrible economic times. And I think far too many people are unwilling to do this because they are under the mistaken belief that whatever they studied in college is a ticket to employment success.
Having lived the tale so to speak (I'm in the Bay Area, worked for startups and corporations, through boom times and now slacksville):
We as workers need to adapt. Get used to the idea that you will likely not have your job for a lifetime, let alone five years. Get used to the idea that you will not have a sustainable career, either. You might have to totally change gears every ten years, and get into something related but completely different. The days of job security are over. Companies simply don't give a shit about their workers. Many of the benefits enjoyed by previous generations like pensions and unions are now gone, thanks to the largely empty promises of stock options and equity in the company. Yeah, when times are good, those things can be worth something but the people running the companies always gave themselves more anyways. The disparity between the execs and the workers is shocking to behold. And they will ship your job to whatever country is cheaper so they can save a dime. They don't give a crap about us. That's life, that's business, and it sucks, but we gotta eat, so every day I suck it up and go to work but in the back of my head I'm preparing an exit strategy... just in case.
It sounds harsh, but we all gotta do it. No matter what job you have, no matter how secure you think it is, you gotta pay off your debts, get six months of expenses saved up, and just imagine "what if"... because I've already lived through a layoff where you go to work one day and the next day your out on your ass, a security guard watching you pack up your cube. And you have to learn from this.
I'm saying, in addition to thinking about what you'd do if you lose your job, we all have to think about what else we can do as a career. The reason why recessions are so hard on people is because they think whatever they did at their last job is all they can do. We all have got to come up with other careers to fall back on just in case.
I recently bought a bunch of single cd envelopes from Office Max... really cheap. Under ten bucks for 200 if I remember correctly. Then I got some cd size metal boxes from Crate and Barrel.
I stuck all my cds in the sleeves / boxes with the liner notes, tossed the jewel cases, alphebetized them, and the cases are now in the closet. Took about an afternoon, and the space savings is tremendous. I've found I have not pulled out a single CD since, so the initial thought of having my alphebetizing screwed up within a month was unfounded.
Needless to say, all CDs are converted into MP3 form on the computer. I strongly suggest ridding yourself the extra baggage of jewel cases. It's been nothing but a success for me and I find I don't miss them one bit.
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I can see it now. Using this technology, companies will stick a GPS unit on your employee ID card, or fob (that you carry with you all day at work anyhow, to get in and out of the office). Now, they will know if you're at your desk, or if you're spending an inordinate amount of time chatting with your co-workers, playing foosball, or hiding in the bathroom. Plus, when you go out for lunch, they'll not only know how long you're out, but where you've gone... if you're caught interviewing at a competitor's co., watch out! the question is ... will the company have to tell you when they start doing this? Either way, Woz makes money ... I see this being a big hit.
I have quite the opposite viewpoint, and I dare say I'm a more your target audience since I've bought quite a bit from the Apple Music store.
I don't want to be encumbered by cd booklet, jacket art, or a physical CD. I spent quite a bit of time converting everything in my CD collection to MP3s for portability in file form. I also don't want to be tied to the album format; part of the point of Mp3s is to mix and match songs by artist. Therefore, the liner notes of a CD is uneeded for the song order. The song titles are in the file. The lyrics? If I cared that much, I'd look 'em up online. Art? I'm certainly not looking at the art when I'm listening to this stuff on an iPod...
I'd say in terms of extras you could focus on higher quality audio for people who like the tunes. And, put the lyrics online for those who want them. Lastly, I'd suggest music videos streaming on your website. Other than that, I don't think many people who are into buying Mp3s are going to be overly concerned with all these "extras". The people who are into extras are probably going to be wanting a CD anyway.
It sure would be great if as a result of your "half" strategy, that home prices dropped, the cost of living dropped, the cost of pretty much everything dropped by half, to reflect this. Afterall, such deflation happened in Japan.
And with these lowered costs and expecatations, their interest rates at zero, the Japanese are oh so happy right now. Yeah, right.
I like it. Does this mean that a BS in computer science should be moved to BA?
Right now the execs are safe because they are the ones calling the shots. They are outsourcing to save the company money, naturally while paying themselves a nice bonus for doing so.
Jobs like project management, sales etc. still need to have a human face on them. Schmoozing with other execs, well you have to speak english fluently for one. But all the people holed up in their cubes, who don't need to meet with anybody on a regular basis to get their job done, well, they've essentially been given that telecommuting gig they always hoped for ... except the job is in India and the person doing it ain't you.
Well, seeings how practically every state in the nation is running a deficit, and the federal goverment is hundreds of billions in the red, I think this problem of debt is not only a personal problem for the citizens but for the government itself.
Every entity in this country seems to be spending on credit in hopes the recovery will come soon and we'll just pay everything back.
I'm kinda pissed about this, but maybe some of us should have had more management aspirations. I know a lot of programmers are totally anti-management positions for themselves, but I think this comes back to bite you in the ass ... for example if you're a 40 year old coder with no management experience, out of work, looking for a job, competing with others charging half what you are asking ... etc.
Secondly, there are plenty of jobs that require you to be onsite other than management and "service" type jobs. Owning your own business, government work, medicine, lawyer, etc.
Right now might be a great time to start your own business. Low office rent, lots of people out of work for you to hire for cheap locally.
But then again, just to play devil's advocate ... back in the boom days, employees were quitting their jobs, skippin town, basically trading any sense of locality for the quick buck. I'm sure it pissed the companies off then, that they'd have to pay top dollar to get some programmer just to have him ditch for a .com, getting a 20K bonus in the process, etc.
This isn't meant to justify outsourcing, but I can understand why comapnies don't give a crap about employees anymore. It does them no good when employess don't give a crap about companies, either. The feeling is mutual.
Eh ... to tell you the truth, most of those pseudo-programmers lost their jobs and skipped town in 2000, 2001. Plus when you have a whole company go under, they're not picking and choosing between the "real" programmers and the pseudo-programmers ... everyone's got the shaft and everyon'es looking for work. I don't deny theres a fair amount of pseudo-programmers unemployed, but take a look at some of the resumes out there in IT and you can't deny, there's some talented people who are just SOL. I'm sure you personally know a few of 'em.
Living here in SiliValley I can attest first hand that companies are moving whole programming jobs overseas. For cost reasons, mostly.
I think this outsourcing trend is the new face of technology in this country. We all have to adapt. We are not going to be able to change the system, because the system is run by the corporations that employ, which have the politicians in their pockets. Take a look at how systematically, the clothing industry, the manufacturing industry, the auto industry has all moved their jobs overseas, to asia, mexico, wherever. At each point, people who lost their jobs in the US made a stink, but nothing was done. I hate to say it but I don't see it any different today, even though our programming jobs are supposedly "white collar" ... BFD.
I think we are just going to have to get used to it. We are either going to have to learn to get by on way lower salaries, or get into another career. Technology just isn't the type of job that's going to last for a whole lifetime. I'm already planning an exit strategy.
remember back in the day of 1999 ... when people said the tech boom was going to change everything? Introduce a whole new way of doing business? Well, that promise is being fullfilled. It wasn't exactly the positive change we were hoping for. But one lesson should be kept from those days. Remember ... be adaptable? Get used to change? If you don't change from your old business ways you'll die? All those messages were being yelled at the management, when it should have been yelled at us netslaves, the ones who supposedly "get it". What we need to get is, be adaptable. Tech is simply too volatile to base your whole life's career on. And those who don't adapt and change, will die a slow, horrible death.
Overall I say the break down of the established channels is a good thing. You do raise a common complaint, that because it's so easy for people to make "art" and put it up on the web, there's so much more shitty art out there. Take a listen at the crap on MP3.com and you'll get the idea. That being said it's hard to say where it will go. Part of me thinks talent will rise to the top, but another part of me is worried that so many people out there have absolutely no sense of taste. You give a bunch of kids video cameras and are there any Coppolas or Spielbergs out there? No, most of them mimic Jackass. Great. I think most likely we're going to have a severe fragmentation of arts and what people like on the web. People will get obsessed over their tiny little niche of some obscure art form and not venture far from it. Gone will be the days where one type of art is universally popular to all. So the pie of fundage will be divided into infintesimally small pieces. More poeple will get access to the "pie" but the slices will be very very small. Certainly not enough to earn a decent living.
I'd say if they were concerned about the workload they should have just left it as a print style comic book. If they wanted to do a web based comic, just put up a bunch of images. Overall it's the story that matters, not the media, and they have a good story. If they don't want to do a traditional comic book I say they get some animators to help 'em out. I'm not terribly interested in waiting a long time to download a flash flick that ends up just being a comic book where the images slide around.
I'm well aware of the cost and workload of going to full animation ... that wasn't the point. I just think since they're already going half way there with flash animation and and audio track the work suffers. As soon as you add motion and sound to drawings, people want to see it animated. And if they think it's too expensive to go this route, then I suggest they go back to boxes and put out a print edition. They'll reach more people that way. I think the story, art, coloring, everything is great but the medium is not appropriate.
First off let me just say this is really great work ... great story, great art, great flash programming. I'm excited to see stuff like this coming out, stuff done independently that's quality.
I only have one complaint ... I think this story would be better served going all the way to animation. I know the comic purists out there would balk, but to have basic animation, dissolves, and WORD BALLOONS of all things, when you already have audio ... this work has already left the roots of comics on a page. This project should just go fully animated.
Oh, and I just have to mention, no Scott McCloud-esque micropayments going on here. Kudos to these guys ...
Note how it says once you pay you can save it to your drive. Bad copy protection, game over. I'm a comics fan and even I am reluctant to pay 25 cents for this, because I know I'll be getting this for free sent to me via email somehow.
First, why is it that all these case modders think a clear case that lets you see the wires and fans and garbage inside looks cool? This is the equivalent of one of those invisible human models where you can see the inner organs. NOT COOL. Ugly, and exposing things that were never designed to be looked at. Second, what is so great about sticking an existing computer in a new shape that has no redeeming qualities about it? A pyramid? Who cares? How does a pyramid make you work faster, better, etc? How does the form improve the function? It doesn't. It's just some random shape ... according to this logic, if you think a pyramid is cool, then stick a computer in a beer keg, stuffed hello kitty toy, plant pot, mail box, bread maker etc. it will be equally as "cool". In other words, who cares? Ultimately how much skill does it take to pick some random item and stick a computer in it? None!
somehow your comment with the recent pictures of GW Bush riding a segway ('riding' ... huhuhuhuhuh) made me laugh out loud...
Although situations like this, with no overtime, make being salaried look like a bum deal, I think you oughta look like it as balancing out those times a person gets to slack off during work (you know, get to work at 10, sneak out at 4, take a two hour lunch) when times are slow, and, because you're salaried, this does not affect your paycheck one bit. I think these times still happen more often than the work your ass off for a week at a time, at least where I've worked, so I think being salaried is still a better deal.
Other college degrees have been used to these job prospects for quite some time now. I'm sure you know some people who've gotten degrees in English, Sociology, Philosophy, Music, Art ... what are a lot of them doing? Most likely they went to graduate school or got a job having absolutely nothing to do with whatever they studied in college.
So just because you got a degree that doesn't automatically lead right into the job of your dreams, who cares. Times are just that a CS degree, for example, might just be the new English major. Chalk it up to "oh well" and life goes on. Or apply to graduate school and become a teacher.
Just think of things that absolutely need a physical presense, that cannot be done through email.
Service industry jobs. Retail. Sales. People can't get their coffee served to them by some guy in India.
Anything to do with real estate and the housing industry. Construction. Selling homes. Mortgage broker. Real Estate Agent. Plumber. Interior Decorator.
Government jobs. Senator. Defense industry.
Health care industry. All the baby boomers retiring are gonna need a lot of care. Nurse, hospital administrator, retirement home orderly etc.
If any of these jobs sound unappealing or exciting to you, that's your perception. But we all gotta eat.
I would argue one could even turn a service industry type job into something interesting. Consider upscale marketing ... selling over priced crap to rich people. For example, auto mechanic might sound very unimpressive until you consider how many newer cars have complex computers inside of them. They have to be serviced at the dealer. So, take some classes with your computer skills, get certified at a BMW dealership. That's not exactly a "low class" gig.
Tip for you: You'll pay that 50K off sooner if you take a lower paying job that is steady and stable instead of be unemployed for several years waiting for a job that doesn't exist.
Say you went to college to get a degree in Computer Science, went $50K in debt via student loans to do so, and are now out on your ass with no work, and someone offers you a great job in construction work. Will you take it?
The poster might, but most people will not. reason being, human nature. To take a job that has nothing to do with what they studied in college (and likely went massively into debt for), is like admitting they made a stupid mistake, and that college education was practically worthless and they are afraid the inevitable question: well, if you were going to be a construction worker, why'd you blow 50K in college, hardy har har?
So a recent college graduate is instead, going to suffer along for a few years, applying to tech jobs in vain, getting contract work that pays barely enough to eat (let alone pay back those loans), move in with room-mates, or their parents, getting more and more discouraged, and then finally has to take some job "that doesn't have anything to do with my major (oh the crying shame!)" just to get by.
That's what most people end up doing, and I think it's pretty sad. We have to be adaptable these days, be prepared to totally change our jobs, our careers, our view of ourselves to get by in these terrible economic times. And I think far too many people are unwilling to do this because they are under the mistaken belief that whatever they studied in college is a ticket to employment success.
Having lived the tale so to speak (I'm in the Bay Area, worked for startups and corporations, through boom times and now slacksville):
We as workers need to adapt. Get used to the idea that you will likely not have your job for a lifetime, let alone five years. Get used to the idea that you will not have a sustainable career, either. You might have to totally change gears every ten years, and get into something related but completely different. The days of job security are over. Companies simply don't give a shit about their workers. Many of the benefits enjoyed by previous generations like pensions and unions are now gone, thanks to the largely empty promises of stock options and equity in the company. Yeah, when times are good, those things can be worth something but the people running the companies always gave themselves more anyways. The disparity between the execs and the workers is shocking to behold. And they will ship your job to whatever country is cheaper so they can save a dime. They don't give a crap about us. That's life, that's business, and it sucks, but we gotta eat, so every day I suck it up and go to work but in the back of my head I'm preparing an exit strategy ... just in case.
It sounds harsh, but we all gotta do it. No matter what job you have, no matter how secure you think it is, you gotta pay off your debts, get six months of expenses saved up, and just imagine "what if"... because I've already lived through a layoff where you go to work one day and the next day your out on your ass, a security guard watching you pack up your cube. And you have to learn from this.
I'm saying, in addition to thinking about what you'd do if you lose your job, we all have to think about what else we can do as a career. The reason why recessions are so hard on people is because they think whatever they did at their last job is all they can do. We all have got to come up with other careers to fall back on just in case.
I recently bought a bunch of single cd envelopes from Office Max ... really cheap. Under ten bucks for 200 if I remember correctly. Then I got some cd size metal boxes from Crate and Barrel.
I stuck all my cds in the sleeves / boxes with the liner notes, tossed the jewel cases, alphebetized them, and the cases are now in the closet. Took about an afternoon, and the space savings is tremendous. I've found I have not pulled out a single CD since, so the initial thought of having my alphebetizing screwed up within a month was unfounded.
Needless to say, all CDs are converted into MP3 form on the computer. I strongly suggest ridding yourself the extra baggage of jewel cases. It's been nothing but a success for me and I find I don't miss them one bit.