It's total fraud then. They are decieving consumers into believing that they can play this CD (as it is sold in the store) on their CD player, regardless of CD player it is. If anything, their should be a HUGE (full cover) sticker in blaze orange telling people they can buy this CD but it will not work. Else, they should require all stores selling their music to read you a contract upon purchase. I'm sure this would go over well during Christmas time.
are they (record companies) so scared? No one wants to rip them off. Most people are going to buy their albums, regardless of format. Sure, some people will steal their stuff, and I have grabed some albums from friends that I never bought, but that;s how it works. I buy most of my music, but I have bought bad music and I can't get a refund.
I guess my point is, they should really stop alienating their customers. I have never seen a business model that treats their customers so badly. People are still going to buy your albums! We made copies of cassette tapes, we're going to make copies of CD's and were giong to make copies of MP3's. Get over it, it's how it works. You're still going to make so much money! Get over it, ok?
They're probably spending more money fighting this stupid war on whatever than they are going to save. All they are doing is making people resent them and want to steal from to the point where smart people are going to keep cracking their stuff and become passionate about distributing it all. Another day, another enemy for the RIAA. Because of their actions, I would wadger that they have made many people angry to the point where they don't want to buy their albums, where they want to steal their albums and frankly, it's a war they will not win. You cannot go to war with your consumers. They are your friends!
Think about it, what other business would do this? If you walked into a store and they started accusing you of stealing and would only sell you things in such a way where you were oblivious to most of what it contained and treated you like shit all around, who would come back? I'm getting to the point where I'm going to want to steal all their music, just to spite them.
In short, they need to settle down and just accept the market as it is. They choose a digital format because it is VERY cheap to make, thus increasing profits one billion fold and yet cannot cope with the fact that this cheap medium will also allow people to send a "free" album out to someone from time to time.
And lets face it, I would bet most albums people download etc are albums they probably would not buy in the first place. How many play lists of people have you seen that have tons of songs you know they would never buy anyways?
Anyways, the main point is that the customer just BOUGHT the album, WTF are you doing? They B-O-U-G-H-T it!
AHHHH!!
Re:outside the box and inside the box
on
AI Going Nowhere?
·
· Score: 1
You're 100% correct. We don't have computers can write software (advanced) for itself. If we cannot solve the problem of a computer programming itself, why waste time with other things. If we could get it to program itself, it could teach itself things. The domain of AI should be the computer itself. Our world is far too complex to develop a system to interact with when it cannot even interact with itself.
Then again, I don't ever want to see this tech, as I would probably be out a job.
Oh, and my favorite part of it all: Record company: $710,000 Producer: $90,000 Manager: $51,000 Studio: $52,500 Previous label: $50,000 Agent: $7,500 Lawyer: $12,000 Band member net income each: $4,031.25
You cannot say they made a bad contract either, it's HOW IT IS. If you don't like it, piss off. This is why, of course, you stick independent. The only bands that make a dime are those that sell well over 3 million albums.
this is a bit of good reading from Steve Albini. If you don't know who he is, well, he has been a figure on the indoe music seen from bands like Big Black and Shellac. He has engineered albums from Nirvana as well. His production style is often imitated. In short, he's the shit. Go
here to learn something
doing the right thing? Scanning peoples computers and aaccusing them of things which are untrue? They didn't do the right thing. They did the the only thing they could do, and weasled out of it at that. It's a shame Penn State doesn't fuck them back. They sent the professor a CD and t-shirt. What an insult. So, now that they sent it to him, it is up to him to make MP3's of it all and post it on his server.
Wow, I didn't realize that it took that little. I really thought it would be more, but you mention textures and that makes sense. Thanx for the info. Just as opinion, what API is better (if you can generalize like that) OpenGL or direct X. I have been using OpenGL myself, as it's portable and I love portable code but have heard good things about Direct 3D. Any advice?
"And the z-buffer doesn't double memory ussage, it uses the same amount as the primary framebuffer"
That's what I meant, just sayng in worst case situation. Was just wondering how the memory was allocated or if all the different bufferes shared the same memory. All this makes memory management harder, huh. Thanx for the info!
I know a Z-Buffer demands that you double the memory used so I was wondering if anyone knows if that doubles the video memory or if there is a special memory unit for hidden surface removal that the z-buffer makes use of. In this case, it would mean that you actually have 128MB of video memory and 128MB z-buffer. Anyone know?
No one should listen to me. If anyone takes advice from a slashdot forum as gospel, then they problems. I don't have any credentials as far as advice giving goes. Anything I have said however would not hurt someones chances of better finding a job.
To be honest, I think personality is probably the most key element of getting hired. I have always gotten hired easily, and I think it is because I carry myself well, listen and have an air of creativity, as well as good knowledge of what I do. Perhaps it helps that I am tenacious in pursuit of what I want as well. I am arrogant, yes. But if you don't believe you're the shit, then who will?
I haven't been coding as long as you and you're probably more suited for just about any job, but are people going to want to be around you? For all I know, you're probably a great person but it is rough time right now and a lot of good people slip through the cracks.
And no, I don't have a wife or kids. I am getting a higher degree now though, as slow as that goes. Won't get married until I have enough money for that (never?). Another tip, don't complain so much, just do it. I probably have no right to say that to you but I've been thrown a lot of curve balls but I don't care. Just keep pushing and moving forward. It makes it sweeter. Good luck!
Good to see public phones may have a use after all...at least the space the consume. I wondered the other day what was to become of all these pay phones as many people have cells, except me. Good idea.
Yeah, it's sad that the folks who do the hiring have no clue often. From the sounds of it, someone like you would be perfect just about anywhere. Also, by the sound of it, it seems you have been able to find employment for the most part.:)
There is, obviously, no silver bullet, no guarentee's for anything. I would imagine though, someone like you will never have to look that hard for work. Perhaps it's worse than I think.
When you mention that some people want 7 years of experiance in.NET or J2EE, it's a great suttle joke. It's not so funny though because as you imply, it's often true.
But what you say is very true, and I was going to add something like that to the first post, that although you should be able to pick most tech's up, it's often a good idea to specialize not in a tech, but in a field of tech, such as networks, graphics, user interfaces, testing, assembly, audio, etc. Not to pigeonhole yourself in, but to have an expertise in a certain study(s) of foo. For example, don't become an Oracle master, study the theroy behind data bases, data mining, database languages and theroy and become an expert in database design and implementation as well as the other things those guys do. With this, your knowledge will have a long shelf life compared to the guy with an Oracle certficate. And, in the big fish eat little fish paridigm, he (Oracle person) does not have work unless you do. Become the dependency.
True enough, but sending in resumes doesn't hurt. When getting a job you are dealing with people and if you can convince them to take a chance on you, you're in. It's tough and often not fair....but experiance can something like helping at a local college (like writing code for their homework assignments/labs). Another GREAT tactic is to work on an open source project...anything on it. There are literally thousands of projects that want YOUR help now. Sign on and get involved. nothing an employer want's to see more than that. If you can say you have worked on X amount of projects over Y amount of time, your'e good to go.
Granted, you're not going to get a senior design offer right away, but neither did the current senior design engineers. You get to earn that. And you will.
My advice is to go to sourceforge right now, browse for a few days on all the cool projects, pick on that interestes you, looks to be moving along and seems feasable. You don't have to be great to work on these things. Documentation writers are ALWAYS needed, plus there are usually a few easier things that these projects need if you ask. Trust me, they'll find a place for you on most projects.
..is that you're foolish to beleive that a job as a programmer or engineer is going to be really hard to find. If you are low skilled, say just a Java programmer or something like that...you know the type, then sure, it may be bleak. But think about all the devices that are out and even more coming out that need EE people to make, programmers to program etc. Perhaps being a network guy or sys-admin is going to be harder to come across but I think the future is going to be even greater for programmers, at least programmers with a good foundation such as a CS degree or by someone who is enthusiastic and self taught.
Think about it, PC's will soon be the smallest market for IT, so if your career is based around writing business apps or PC related software then you may be in trouble. But with so many things going digital, there will be greater demand for people to make these systems, and they will be complex systems.
Although the job market is trash right now for IT, it is trash for just about everything else, except maybe a bankruptcy lawer.
You log onto a site like dice or monster and you see thousands of jobs. The only problem is these jobs demand skill and knowledge. Real knowledge, not the kind that a certifcate from a 5 month program gives you.
I hope I don't come across as a troll, but seriously, most of these certificates A+, MCSE etc are nothing more than going to a factory and reading a really long manual on how to operate a machine. We need people for this of course, but don't expect to be paid well for it anymore as we have found out that anyone can do this if they are willing to put a few months effort into it.
Go back to school right now and learn something real. If not, at least go to the library and read some hard material, the kind that takes a while to learn. These are the types of people needed desperatly right now. People are having a terrible time sifting through the people who can actually solve problems that are defined with the domain of their limited skill set.
I don't know, just some thoughts, but did you really think it was going to last? Eaasy come, easy go goes the saying. I'm convinced if the unemployed IT "professionals" took time off to learn some things, like how a computer really works, they would see the rewards. Then again, nothing is guarenteed and I need as little competition as possible to keep my wallet fat.
We talk about the need for robust software, well become a robust programmer. Don't paint yourself into a corner by putting it all on X technology. Learn the foo and you can adapt to anything.
"How possible is it to learn and use this "language" to the point of forgetting your native one?"
I think you may be forgetting these people are crazy.
As far as forgetting a native language, it is very possible. Although not as dramatic, I used to have a boss from Algeria who has lived here for many years and even thinks in English now. He natively speaks French but admits to forgetting words often. Especially nouns.
They mentioned that the lead monkey started bashing the computer with a rock as the monkey's first action with this computer. It's amazing how survial is encoded in everything like that...something foreign comes into a domain and fear is the first instinct brought upon it. You can expect that from a monkey, but humans have this reaction as well often. In a way it depresses me that we are not far from monkeys in this respect.
It should be noted I liked how the leader monkey was first to approach the computer...if only the worlds leaders would be the first in combat I'm sure we would have a lot less fighting.
...this is great. For those of you who don't kow, we get games rairly on our favorite OS so when something as small as a 3 year late patch comes out it's like getting a new game to us. And it's FREE!:)
Oh, no doubt the people buying the software know what's going on, at least I hope so. They should obviously know the advantages and disadvantages of open source and commercial software. I was just making the point most tax payers/voters don't have a clue. Just like most people don't know of most usually independent, grass roots, independent movements. There are a ton of them I don't know about. I'm into computers, indie music, film, art and guitars but I'm sure there are great independent movements for many things that I don't have a clue about.
From a political point of view though, these law makers have some great reelection ammo now considering everyone is looking to save money and in many cases open source software can save money, at least in the long run, if anyone is interested in the long run anymore.
I'm not saying any facts about OSS, just the the political folk can really spin this. I'm sure they could convince voters that they will save the money on the license and the support costs for the next 4 years, even if that turns out not to be the case. 4 years from now no voter will be paying attention to that unless it's a complete disaster and if it ends up costing as bit too much, they will just cut another social program or something. It's what they do.
Most people are not even aware open source software exists. This is what law makers thrive on, ignorance. And yes, it is downright untrue to say it is "free", but these are politicians we are talking about! The point is, they could make the argument that they would spend the same on support and get the software for free, which is what they are doing....but the point of a politician is to put spin on it to make themselves appear to be saviors of the land.
Slashdot Mirror
It's total fraud then. They are decieving consumers into believing that they can play this CD (as it is sold in the store) on their CD player, regardless of CD player it is. If anything, their should be a HUGE (full cover) sticker in blaze orange telling people they can buy this CD but it will not work. Else, they should require all stores selling their music to read you a contract upon purchase. I'm sure this would go over well during Christmas time.
are they (record companies) so scared? No one wants to rip them off. Most people are going to buy their albums, regardless of format. Sure, some people will steal their stuff, and I have grabed some albums from friends that I never bought, but that;s how it works. I buy most of my music, but I have bought bad music and I can't get a refund.
I guess my point is, they should really stop alienating their customers. I have never seen a business model that treats their customers so badly. People are still going to buy your albums! We made copies of cassette tapes, we're going to make copies of CD's and were giong to make copies of MP3's. Get over it, it's how it works. You're still going to make so much money! Get over it, ok?
They're probably spending more money fighting this stupid war on whatever than they are going to save. All they are doing is making people resent them and want to steal from to the point where smart people are going to keep cracking their stuff and become passionate about distributing it all. Another day, another enemy for the RIAA. Because of their actions, I would wadger that they have made many people angry to the point where they don't want to buy their albums, where they want to steal their albums and frankly, it's a war they will not win. You cannot go to war with your consumers. They are your friends!
Think about it, what other business would do this? If you walked into a store and they started accusing you of stealing and would only sell you things in such a way where you were oblivious to most of what it contained and treated you like shit all around, who would come back? I'm getting to the point where I'm going to want to steal all their music, just to spite them.
In short, they need to settle down and just accept the market as it is. They choose a digital format because it is VERY cheap to make, thus increasing profits one billion fold and yet cannot cope with the fact that this cheap medium will also allow people to send a "free" album out to someone from time to time.
And lets face it, I would bet most albums people download etc are albums they probably would not buy in the first place. How many play lists of people have you seen that have tons of songs you know they would never buy anyways?
Anyways, the main point is that the customer just BOUGHT the album, WTF are you doing? They B-O-U-G-H-T it!
AHHHH!!
You're 100% correct. We don't have computers can write software (advanced) for itself. If we cannot solve the problem of a computer programming itself, why waste time with other things. If we could get it to program itself, it could teach itself things. The domain of AI should be the computer itself. Our world is far too complex to develop a system to interact with when it cannot even interact with itself.
Then again, I don't ever want to see this tech, as I would probably be out a job.
Oh, and my favorite part of it all:
Record company: $710,000
Producer: $90,000
Manager: $51,000
Studio: $52,500
Previous label: $50,000
Agent: $7,500
Lawyer: $12,000
Band member net income each: $4,031.25
You cannot say they made a bad contract either, it's HOW IT IS. If you don't like it, piss off. This is why, of course, you stick independent. The only bands that make a dime are those that sell well over 3 million albums.
this is a bit of good reading from Steve Albini. If you don't know who he is, well, he has been a figure on the indoe music seen from bands like Big Black and Shellac. He has engineered albums from Nirvana as well. His production style is often imitated. In short, he's the shit. Go here to learn something
doing the right thing? Scanning peoples computers and aaccusing them of things which are untrue? They didn't do the right thing. They did the the only thing they could do, and weasled out of it at that. It's a shame Penn State doesn't fuck them back. They sent the professor a CD and t-shirt. What an insult.
So, now that they sent it to him, it is up to him to make MP3's of it all and post it on his server.
Wow, I didn't realize that it took that little. I really thought it would be more, but you mention textures and that makes sense. Thanx for the info. Just as opinion, what API is better (if you can generalize like that) OpenGL or direct X. I have been using OpenGL myself, as it's portable and I love portable code but have heard good things about Direct 3D. Any advice?
"And the z-buffer doesn't double memory ussage, it uses the same amount as the primary framebuffer"
That's what I meant, just sayng in worst case situation. Was just wondering how the memory was allocated or if all the different bufferes shared the same memory. All this makes memory management harder, huh. Thanx for the info!
I know a Z-Buffer demands that you double the memory used so I was wondering if anyone knows if that doubles the video memory or if there is a special memory unit for hidden surface removal that the z-buffer makes use of. In this case, it would mean that you actually have 128MB of video memory and 128MB z-buffer. Anyone know?
Finally, The electrical engineers are to blame. I knew my code was correct!
And it's the damn truth.
"Why should anyone listen to me"
No one should listen to me. If anyone takes advice from a slashdot forum as gospel, then they problems. I don't have any credentials as far as advice giving goes. Anything I have said however would not hurt someones chances of better finding a job.
To be honest, I think personality is probably the most key element of getting hired. I have always gotten hired easily, and I think it is because I carry myself well, listen and have an air of creativity, as well as good knowledge of what I do. Perhaps it helps that I am tenacious in pursuit of what I want as well. I am arrogant, yes. But if you don't believe you're the shit, then who will?
I haven't been coding as long as you and you're probably more suited for just about any job, but are people going to want to be around you? For all I know, you're probably a great person but it is rough time right now and a lot of good people slip through the cracks.
And no, I don't have a wife or kids. I am getting a higher degree now though, as slow as that goes. Won't get married until I have enough money for that (never?). Another tip, don't complain so much, just do it. I probably have no right to say that to you but I've been thrown a lot of curve balls but I don't care. Just keep pushing and moving forward. It makes it sweeter. Good luck!
Good to see public phones may have a use after all...at least the space the consume. I wondered the other day what was to become of all these pay phones as many people have cells, except me. Good idea.
Yeah, it's sad that the folks who do the hiring have no clue often. From the sounds of it, someone like you would be perfect just about anywhere. Also, by the sound of it, it seems you have been able to find employment for the most part. :)
.NET or J2EE, it's a great suttle joke. It's not so funny though because as you imply, it's often true.
There is, obviously, no silver bullet, no guarentee's for anything. I would imagine though, someone like you will never have to look that hard for work. Perhaps it's worse than I think.
When you mention that some people want 7 years of experiance in
But what you say is very true, and I was going to add something like that to the first post, that although you should be able to pick most tech's up, it's often a good idea to specialize not in a tech, but in a field of tech, such as networks, graphics, user interfaces, testing, assembly, audio, etc. Not to pigeonhole yourself in, but to have an expertise in a certain study(s) of foo. For example, don't become an Oracle master, study the theroy behind data bases, data mining, database languages and theroy and become an expert in database design and implementation as well as the other things those guys do. With this, your knowledge will have a long shelf life compared to the guy with an Oracle certficate. And, in the big fish eat little fish paridigm, he (Oracle person) does not have work unless you do. Become the dependency.
Good luck!
True enough, but sending in resumes doesn't hurt. When getting a job you are dealing with people and if you can convince them to take a chance on you, you're in. It's tough and often not fair....but experiance can something like helping at a local college (like writing code for their homework assignments/labs). Another GREAT tactic is to work on an open source project...anything on it. There are literally thousands of projects that want YOUR help now. Sign on and get involved. nothing an employer want's to see more than that. If you can say you have worked on X amount of projects over Y amount of time, your'e good to go.
Granted, you're not going to get a senior design offer right away, but neither did the current senior design engineers. You get to earn that. And you will.
My advice is to go to sourceforge right now, browse for a few days on all the cool projects, pick on that interestes you, looks to be moving along and seems feasable. You don't have to be great to work on these things. Documentation writers are ALWAYS needed, plus there are usually a few easier things that these projects need if you ask. Trust me, they'll find a place for you on most projects.
..is that you're foolish to beleive that a job as a programmer or engineer is going to be really hard to find. If you are low skilled, say just a Java programmer or something like that...you know the type, then sure, it may be bleak. But think about all the devices that are out and even more coming out that need EE people to make, programmers to program etc. Perhaps being a network guy or sys-admin is going to be harder to come across but I think the future is going to be even greater for programmers, at least programmers with a good foundation such as a CS degree or by someone who is enthusiastic and self taught.
Think about it, PC's will soon be the smallest market for IT, so if your career is based around writing business apps or PC related software then you may be in trouble. But with so many things going digital, there will be greater demand for people to make these systems, and they will be complex systems.
Although the job market is trash right now for IT, it is trash for just about everything else, except maybe a bankruptcy lawer.
You log onto a site like dice or monster and you see thousands of jobs. The only problem is these jobs demand skill and knowledge. Real knowledge, not the kind that a certifcate from a 5 month program gives you.
I hope I don't come across as a troll, but seriously, most of these certificates A+, MCSE etc are nothing more than going to a factory and reading a really long manual on how to operate a machine. We need people for this of course, but don't expect to be paid well for it anymore as we have found out that anyone can do this if they are willing to put a few months effort into it.
Go back to school right now and learn something real. If not, at least go to the library and read some hard material, the kind that takes a while to learn. These are the types of people needed desperatly right now. People are having a terrible time sifting through the people who can actually solve problems that are defined with the domain of their limited skill set.
I don't know, just some thoughts, but did you really think it was going to last? Eaasy come, easy go goes the saying. I'm convinced if the unemployed IT "professionals" took time off to learn some things, like how a computer really works, they would see the rewards. Then again, nothing is guarenteed and I need as little competition as possible to keep my wallet fat.
We talk about the need for robust software, well become a robust programmer. Don't paint yourself into a corner by putting it all on X technology. Learn the foo and you can adapt to anything.
"he has access to music, video, and games during drive time."
I hope he doesn't plan on watching many videos or playing many games while driving.
"How possible is it to learn and use this "language" to the point of forgetting your native one?"
I think you may be forgetting these people are crazy.
As far as forgetting a native language, it is very possible. Although not as dramatic, I used to have a boss from Algeria who has lived here for many years and even thinks in English now. He natively speaks French but admits to forgetting words often. Especially nouns.
...and I can't even find my keys!
They mentioned that the lead monkey started bashing the computer with a rock as the monkey's first action with this computer. It's amazing how survial is encoded in everything like that...something foreign comes into a domain and fear is the first instinct brought upon it. You can expect that from a monkey, but humans have this reaction as well often. In a way it depresses me that we are not far from monkeys in this respect.
It should be noted I liked how the leader monkey was first to approach the computer...if only the worlds leaders would be the first in combat I'm sure we would have a lot less fighting.
...this is great. For those of you who don't kow, we get games rairly on our favorite OS so when something as small as a 3 year late patch comes out it's like getting a new game to us. And it's FREE! :)
You act like this Website has anything to do with Linux :)
select count(posts) from slashdot where
(post.topic = 'austin powers') or (post.topic = 'dr. evil');
Oh, no doubt the people buying the software know what's going on, at least I hope so. They should obviously know the advantages and disadvantages of open source and commercial software. I was just making the point most tax payers/voters don't have a clue. Just like most people don't know of most usually independent, grass roots, independent movements. There are a ton of them I don't know about. I'm into computers, indie music, film, art and guitars but I'm sure there are great independent movements for many things that I don't have a clue about.
From a political point of view though, these law makers have some great reelection ammo now considering everyone is looking to save money and in many cases open source software can save money, at least in the long run, if anyone is interested in the long run anymore.
I'm not saying any facts about OSS, just the the political folk can really spin this. I'm sure they could convince voters that they will save the money on the license and the support costs for the next 4 years, even if that turns out not to be the case. 4 years from now no voter will be paying attention to that unless it's a complete disaster and if it ends up costing as bit too much, they will just cut another social program or something. It's what they do.
Most people are not even aware open source software exists. This is what law makers thrive on, ignorance. And yes, it is downright untrue to say it is "free", but these are politicians we are talking about! The point is, they could make the argument that they would spend the same on support and get the software for free, which is what they are doing....but the point of a politician is to put spin on it to make themselves appear to be saviors of the land.