iPod compatibility. Thanks to the lack of DRM, and in particular, Windows-specific DRM, songs purchased from Amazon MP3 will play on an iPod, something that has never been true for a mainstream online music retailer (other than Apple) before. Wow. I wonder if this place has ever heard of eMusic.
No waiting to watch the video, and has some nice features to it. While I'm sure most people would say "BOO!" to advertising, Google has made itself known as someone who cares about targeted advertising. I myself have found a number of retailers through Google's contextual advertising which I have patronized.
I guess most people have become disenfranchised with the dubious nature of national adverts for weight loss pills and whatnot, which is understandable. Publishing companies that allow such advertising into their products are doing their customers a disservice, as well as the industry. Look at what it has brought us - the necessity for ad blocking on the web, TiVO, etc.. Who knows if those of us in the publishing industry will ever be able to regain the trust of our consumers (I work in the newspaper industry).
Maybe he's got multiple machines hooked up to a hub, with the XP machine sniffing in promiscuous mode. Maybe he's tunneling the connection through the XP machine. Who knows. While I too am inclined to call BS, the XP argument doesn't fly.
Re:A question for large print graphics designers..
on
The History of Photoshop
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I do graphic design for a living, and there are a number of areas where The GIMP is lacking - but the big issue is in color space allowances. No CMYK support means no worky in the print world (unless your press uses RGB). I have to be able to not only convert an image to CMYK, but also control the colors to an extreme - I've had to remove all the color plates from the shot, increase the black plate to compensate, and then paint in spot red (for our press, that is 100% magenta, 50-60% yellow) over certain parts. Plus, the integration into the other parts of my work (working in InDesign/Illustrator for ads) is purely delightful.
Plus, CS2's RAW image importing is.. well.. I love it. Can't even begin to describe how great it is to use it's interface to import raw photos.
I still use the GIMP regularly - for minor stuff - at home. I still prefer my copy of Photoshop 6, though, for anything with any involvement.
I know a couple of kids who come into a coffee shop I frequent who will sit there and call random people they don't even know - spending hours doing it - just because it is fun. I talked with them at one point, and they told me about how they kept up a 3 month relationship with this older woman, and they professed to be her sister from out of state. Even talked with the older woman's grand children.
If they can't learn the value of the tools we give them, then don't give them the tools. That, or get one of those kiddy phones that only allows 4 pre-programmed numbers - that way, they can call mommy and daddy when their friends ditch them at the ice cream social, or something like that.
it is great that so many of us can afford to give our children luxuries that we never even dreamed of having, but when they don't understand the usefulness of the luxuries and just dick around constantly with them, then something needs to be done.
I was installing it under Slack a while back, so yeah, it could just be the fact that I was being stingy with how I handled my deps (since I was installing manually). Now that I've got an Ubuntu box, I may give it another go.
Did you even READ my post? I actually thought Rosegarden was good for the reasons you specified. I just never mentioned MIDI because, well.. It is implied that you would probably be using it. Ugh. Smooth one.
I've been an independant recording musician/songwriter for a number of years now, and have worked under Linux and Windows.
Linux is certainly a usable platform, but it can't do everything. Ardour is great (from the screenshots and reviews I've seen, at least - never been able to actually INSTALL the sucker, because of the dep. hell), but as far as synthesizing goes, the choices are less than ideal (in my opinion).
I use Windows for my needs, primarily, and it has served me well. There are a variety of great resources available - sure, for a cost - but the quality is superb. I use Reason 3.0 to sequence simple orchestral work for my new albums, and can do strings, piano, synthesizers, anything, with a rich, controllable sound quality. Not to mention the fact that there are a number of EXCELLENT refills/samples available for it. I also use Reason to sequence my percussion - ranging from funk jazz to industrial.
I use Cooledit Pro 1.2 - an old multitrack recording program - to record and mix. It's cheap, and it works very well without being resource intensive.
I'm not a fan of Csound, nor do I really like much of the other alternatives in the Linux market. I did use Audacity to record and master some monologues for a play a while back, and Rosegarden to do some sequencing/songwriting. Rosegarden is actually a superb piece of software - for sequencing. IIRC, that's all it can do. If you've got your external instruments hooked up properly, I'm sure it'd be perfect. I can't afford to buy all the outboard gear I'd need to match what I have with Windows based softsynths.
I want a little more attention paid to standards. What is the point of developing standards compliant, accessible websites if the most used browser in the market screws it up without crappy hacks? Oh, wait.. Notgetting sued is a pretty good reason, I guess. Still, the overhead IE creates for web developers (especially ones in areas with a low budget for design work) tends to make things cost much more than they should for the client.
We'll probably just see them get a little above 60% compliance on this round, though. Apathy is great, isn't it?
I could just say "specialization breeds weakness", but I'll actually give a little more this time, I think:)
The usefulness of a 4 year degree is obvious - although game dev is gaining more and more cred, I would wager that many non-gaming businesses would hesitate to hire someone with a gaming degree (you don't always get to jump right into your ideal career, in many cases). Beyond that, the experiences from a good 4 year program are more than just learning how to make games - think of it like Public School, 400 level. Social interaction (read: networking with potential clients, employers, and coworkers) is a big part of the college experience for any would-be-professional.
Of course, one important aspect of becoming a professional in any tech industry is having experience BEFORE you get you got to school for it. I myself was involved in tech work a number of years before I started college. It'll give you a bit of an edge, or will at least put you on the same level as your peers.
I wish you could convince my employer of that. We get the speech, "We don't want your job to be your life", but that doesn't keep me from having to stay until 1 AM the day before (well, technically, the day of) a holiday.
It isn't a question of which, so much as.. Which industry, and job title you carry. The daily newspaper industry, especially for anybody involved in production, is a demanding mistress. While it is a great idea to be able to clock out at 5 or 6 no matter what the job, sometimes, it just doesn't work that way.
I do this with my own design/consulting business every night. I usually go hang out at the local coffee shop, inviting disruption on occasion (I'm good at multitasking, though). In fact, my business has improved since doing this - I've met most of my recent clients through it.
When doing this for a 8-5 or 9-5, though, you have to worry about whether you are really getting the benefit of the new environment (as many other posters have ranted about) - Here is the key..
.. Don't work more than your normal hours. When you are off work at home, you go home, or to a bar, or whatever you feel like doing in the area of familiarity. When you are off work in a place you've always wanted to be, though, you can immediately enjoy something fresh and new, especially if you travel often. Get off work at 5, and head over to the local theater to take in some of the arts of the culture. Spend your lunch break at an exotic cafe with a sweet little French girl you just met (not a common/. occurance, I know, but bear with me).
Not quite so oblig SW reference..
on
Tor Open To Attack
·
· Score: 2, Funny
"I felt a great disturbance in the Internet, as if millions of child-pornographers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
Now now, I know Tor isn't just used for naughty stuff. I just thought it was funny. Sorta.
The fact that a beautiful woman would be in ANY/.er's bed is strange by itself. We realize that. No need to emphasize the fact that she is strange, because it is plainly obvious that she is warped beyond all belief - or she is a mail order bride.
Well, the short of it is, you need to study at the bare minimum color theory. Much more is required to be a good designer - and honestly, while you may be able to create something moderately attractive, you really need to understand creative communication in art in order to properly convey brands.
I'd honestly recommend that you just contract out for the art side of things. There are numerous artists out there who can design great interfaces, but can't code worth a crap. I like to think of myself as someone who blends both very well, but that's because I spent a large portion of my life studying art, design, and more.
One important rule is that it is more than making something pretty - it is about communicating the ideas of the client and ensuring that the right customers are drawn to it. Of course, in my experience, most clients will refuse to accept that the designer actually knows what they are doing, and they'll ask for some clip-art laden copyright-infringing piece of crap.
I see no problem like what you are talking about in Firefox - Everything seems to render fine and dandy. I do see a lot of errors on the page when trying to validate, but most of those are because of your Javascript (which isn't actually a problem). I did see a number of break tags missing the XHTML-Required closing tag, and your forms don't validate.
I use social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and more, to promote my artwork/design services and music. Most of my fans all have profiles on the same sites, and don't seem to have any problems managing their glitter-animated-gif-laiden profiles. Most of those people are also technologically incompetent. I've never heard any complaints (other than the "Why won't my profile load as fast as yours" crap)
I work at a daily newspaper as an artist and web developer (primarily) - high stress, low pay.
We got $20 Chamber of Commerce gift certificates. Woo. I actually wouldn't care if my hours were decent - while I am supposed to only work 8 hours a day (and regulations state that I can't work more than 6 hours without a break), I have many days where I end up working late when everybody else leaves.
Take, for instance, the day before Thanksgiving. It started at 9 AM, and went until about 12:30 AM Thanksgiving morning, with no break. 15.5 hours. The overtime sucked, too (thanks to taxes).
This friday everybody in the office was told that they could leave at 3 assuming the paper was done. Of course, this means that hourly employees lose a couple hours work. Thankfully, though, my day wasn't done - not even close - at 3 PM. Most people left - one of the artists stuck around and helped for a while, but there wasn't much she could do, so she left too. I got home about 7:30 PM.
Of course, since I'm just a 5 minute walk from the office (I couldn't afford a car and gas, anyway), I'm the one who gets called in whenever something needs to be fixed before the paper can print.
Hooray. $20 that can only be used locally at select places. That makes me feel really valuable. Sad part is, corporate actually has a policy against Christmas bonuses.
An important skill is the ability to give instructions without actually physically SHOWING how to do something.
For instance, teach them how to do some simple Origami (better yet, use something they already know how to do). Then have them write out instructions on paper and have someone not experienced in the process use the instructions to complete the task.
The ability to communicate a step-by-step process is critical, in my opinion.
I would recommend Turbo Pascal, instead. That's what was taught in my high school, and it REALLY helped me gain a stronger grasp on programming concepts. It also has a very similar structure to C early on, so it'll be a good stepping stone for learning the logic required of programming.
Yes, they do - we also have an online portion, too. I actually prefer having a physical copy to read rather than reading it online. Most newspapers have an online front that is fairly strong.
I work at a local newspaper, and we've already got this implemented!
I work as late as necessary, as long as I work 8 hours (starting at 9 AM or earlier). Heck, the day before thanksgiving, I got to work from 9 AM until 12:20 AM Thanksgiving day! YEAH! I even go to SKIP MY LUNCH BREAK! As long as the paper gets done, they don't care how late I work! Well, if the paper is done, they usually want me to leave, or clock out, since they really don't want to pay overtime..
Sarcasm aside, this is great. Wouldn't work in my industry, seeing as how we are usually pretty crunched for time as is.
I work at a newspaper, and we have a number of advertisers who send in out-of-house designed ads that look exactly like a news story (with a very tiny, faint "advertisement" notice). Usually they are for weight loss pills or crap like that.. We run them anyway, though. *sigh*
Slashdot Mirror
No waiting to watch the video, and has some nice features to it. While I'm sure most people would say "BOO!" to advertising, Google has made itself known as someone who cares about targeted advertising. I myself have found a number of retailers through Google's contextual advertising which I have patronized.
I guess most people have become disenfranchised with the dubious nature of national adverts for weight loss pills and whatnot, which is understandable. Publishing companies that allow such advertising into their products are doing their customers a disservice, as well as the industry. Look at what it has brought us - the necessity for ad blocking on the web, TiVO, etc.. Who knows if those of us in the publishing industry will ever be able to regain the trust of our consumers (I work in the newspaper industry).
Maybe he's got multiple machines hooked up to a hub, with the XP machine sniffing in promiscuous mode. Maybe he's tunneling the connection through the XP machine. Who knows. While I too am inclined to call BS, the XP argument doesn't fly.
I do graphic design for a living, and there are a number of areas where The GIMP is lacking - but the big issue is in color space allowances. No CMYK support means no worky in the print world (unless your press uses RGB). I have to be able to not only convert an image to CMYK, but also control the colors to an extreme - I've had to remove all the color plates from the shot, increase the black plate to compensate, and then paint in spot red (for our press, that is 100% magenta, 50-60% yellow) over certain parts. Plus, the integration into the other parts of my work (working in InDesign/Illustrator for ads) is purely delightful.
Plus, CS2's RAW image importing is.. well.. I love it. Can't even begin to describe how great it is to use it's interface to import raw photos.
I still use the GIMP regularly - for minor stuff - at home. I still prefer my copy of Photoshop 6, though, for anything with any involvement.
I know a couple of kids who come into a coffee shop I frequent who will sit there and call random people they don't even know - spending hours doing it - just because it is fun. I talked with them at one point, and they told me about how they kept up a 3 month relationship with this older woman, and they professed to be her sister from out of state. Even talked with the older woman's grand children.
If they can't learn the value of the tools we give them, then don't give them the tools. That, or get one of those kiddy phones that only allows 4 pre-programmed numbers - that way, they can call mommy and daddy when their friends ditch them at the ice cream social, or something like that.
it is great that so many of us can afford to give our children luxuries that we never even dreamed of having, but when they don't understand the usefulness of the luxuries and just dick around constantly with them, then something needs to be done.
I was installing it under Slack a while back, so yeah, it could just be the fact that I was being stingy with how I handled my deps (since I was installing manually). Now that I've got an Ubuntu box, I may give it another go.
Good info. Might have to give it a go.
Did you even READ my post? I actually thought Rosegarden was good for the reasons you specified. I just never mentioned MIDI because, well.. It is implied that you would probably be using it. Ugh. Smooth one.
I've been an independant recording musician/songwriter for a number of years now, and have worked under Linux and Windows.
Linux is certainly a usable platform, but it can't do everything. Ardour is great (from the screenshots and reviews I've seen, at least - never been able to actually INSTALL the sucker, because of the dep. hell), but as far as synthesizing goes, the choices are less than ideal (in my opinion).
I use Windows for my needs, primarily, and it has served me well. There are a variety of great resources available - sure, for a cost - but the quality is superb. I use Reason 3.0 to sequence simple orchestral work for my new albums, and can do strings, piano, synthesizers, anything, with a rich, controllable sound quality. Not to mention the fact that there are a number of EXCELLENT refills/samples available for it. I also use Reason to sequence my percussion - ranging from funk jazz to industrial.
I use Cooledit Pro 1.2 - an old multitrack recording program - to record and mix. It's cheap, and it works very well without being resource intensive.
I'm not a fan of Csound, nor do I really like much of the other alternatives in the Linux market. I did use Audacity to record and master some monologues for a play a while back, and Rosegarden to do some sequencing/songwriting. Rosegarden is actually a superb piece of software - for sequencing. IIRC, that's all it can do. If you've got your external instruments hooked up properly, I'm sure it'd be perfect. I can't afford to buy all the outboard gear I'd need to match what I have with Windows based softsynths.
I want a little more attention paid to standards. What is the point of developing standards compliant, accessible websites if the most used browser in the market screws it up without crappy hacks? Oh, wait.. Notgetting sued is a pretty good reason, I guess. Still, the overhead IE creates for web developers (especially ones in areas with a low budget for design work) tends to make things cost much more than they should for the client.
We'll probably just see them get a little above 60% compliance on this round, though. Apathy is great, isn't it?
I could just say "specialization breeds weakness", but I'll actually give a little more this time, I think :)
The usefulness of a 4 year degree is obvious - although game dev is gaining more and more cred, I would wager that many non-gaming businesses would hesitate to hire someone with a gaming degree (you don't always get to jump right into your ideal career, in many cases). Beyond that, the experiences from a good 4 year program are more than just learning how to make games - think of it like Public School, 400 level. Social interaction (read: networking with potential clients, employers, and coworkers) is a big part of the college experience for any would-be-professional.
Of course, one important aspect of becoming a professional in any tech industry is having experience BEFORE you get you got to school for it. I myself was involved in tech work a number of years before I started college. It'll give you a bit of an edge, or will at least put you on the same level as your peers.
I wish you could convince my employer of that. We get the speech, "We don't want your job to be your life", but that doesn't keep me from having to stay until 1 AM the day before (well, technically, the day of) a holiday.
It isn't a question of which, so much as.. Which industry, and job title you carry. The daily newspaper industry, especially for anybody involved in production, is a demanding mistress. While it is a great idea to be able to clock out at 5 or 6 no matter what the job, sometimes, it just doesn't work that way.
I do this with my own design/consulting business every night. I usually go hang out at the local coffee shop, inviting disruption on occasion (I'm good at multitasking, though). In fact, my business has improved since doing this - I've met most of my recent clients through it.
When doing this for a 8-5 or 9-5, though, you have to worry about whether you are really getting the benefit of the new environment (as many other posters have ranted about) - Here is the key..
.. Don't work more than your normal hours. When you are off work at home, you go home, or to a bar, or whatever you feel like doing in the area of familiarity. When you are off work in a place you've always wanted to be, though, you can immediately enjoy something fresh and new, especially if you travel often. Get off work at 5, and head over to the local theater to take in some of the arts of the culture. Spend your lunch break at an exotic cafe with a sweet little French girl you just met (not a common /. occurance, I know, but bear with me).
"I felt a great disturbance in the Internet, as if millions of child-pornographers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
Now now, I know Tor isn't just used for naughty stuff. I just thought it was funny. Sorta.
The fact that a beautiful woman would be in ANY /.er's bed is strange by itself. We realize that. No need to emphasize the fact that she is strange, because it is plainly obvious that she is warped beyond all belief - or she is a mail order bride.
Ardour is a pretty good multitrack recording program, with a rich feature set. For sequencing, I'd recommend Rosegarden.
Well, the short of it is, you need to study at the bare minimum color theory. Much more is required to be a good designer - and honestly, while you may be able to create something moderately attractive, you really need to understand creative communication in art in order to properly convey brands.
I'd honestly recommend that you just contract out for the art side of things. There are numerous artists out there who can design great interfaces, but can't code worth a crap. I like to think of myself as someone who blends both very well, but that's because I spent a large portion of my life studying art, design, and more.
One important rule is that it is more than making something pretty - it is about communicating the ideas of the client and ensuring that the right customers are drawn to it. Of course, in my experience, most clients will refuse to accept that the designer actually knows what they are doing, and they'll ask for some clip-art laden copyright-infringing piece of crap.
I see no problem like what you are talking about in Firefox - Everything seems to render fine and dandy. I do see a lot of errors on the page when trying to validate, but most of those are because of your Javascript (which isn't actually a problem). I did see a number of break tags missing the XHTML-Required closing tag, and your forms don't validate.
I use social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and more, to promote my artwork/design services and music. Most of my fans all have profiles on the same sites, and don't seem to have any problems managing their glitter-animated-gif-laiden profiles. Most of those people are also technologically incompetent. I've never heard any complaints (other than the "Why won't my profile load as fast as yours" crap)
I work at a daily newspaper as an artist and web developer (primarily) - high stress, low pay.
We got $20 Chamber of Commerce gift certificates. Woo. I actually wouldn't care if my hours were decent - while I am supposed to only work 8 hours a day (and regulations state that I can't work more than 6 hours without a break), I have many days where I end up working late when everybody else leaves.
Take, for instance, the day before Thanksgiving. It started at 9 AM, and went until about 12:30 AM Thanksgiving morning, with no break. 15.5 hours. The overtime sucked, too (thanks to taxes).
This friday everybody in the office was told that they could leave at 3 assuming the paper was done. Of course, this means that hourly employees lose a couple hours work. Thankfully, though, my day wasn't done - not even close - at 3 PM. Most people left - one of the artists stuck around and helped for a while, but there wasn't much she could do, so she left too. I got home about 7:30 PM.
Of course, since I'm just a 5 minute walk from the office (I couldn't afford a car and gas, anyway), I'm the one who gets called in whenever something needs to be fixed before the paper can print.
Hooray. $20 that can only be used locally at select places. That makes me feel really valuable. Sad part is, corporate actually has a policy against Christmas bonuses.
An important skill is the ability to give instructions without actually physically SHOWING how to do something.
For instance, teach them how to do some simple Origami (better yet, use something they already know how to do). Then have them write out instructions on paper and have someone not experienced in the process use the instructions to complete the task.
The ability to communicate a step-by-step process is critical, in my opinion.
I would recommend Turbo Pascal, instead. That's what was taught in my high school, and it REALLY helped me gain a stronger grasp on programming concepts. It also has a very similar structure to C early on, so it'll be a good stepping stone for learning the logic required of programming.
Yes, they do - we also have an online portion, too. I actually prefer having a physical copy to read rather than reading it online. Most newspapers have an online front that is fairly strong.
I work at a local newspaper, and we've already got this implemented!
I work as late as necessary, as long as I work 8 hours (starting at 9 AM or earlier). Heck, the day before thanksgiving, I got to work from 9 AM until 12:20 AM Thanksgiving day! YEAH! I even go to SKIP MY LUNCH BREAK! As long as the paper gets done, they don't care how late I work! Well, if the paper is done, they usually want me to leave, or clock out, since they really don't want to pay overtime..
Sarcasm aside, this is great. Wouldn't work in my industry, seeing as how we are usually pretty crunched for time as is.
I work at a newspaper, and we have a number of advertisers who send in out-of-house designed ads that look exactly like a news story (with a very tiny, faint "advertisement" notice). Usually they are for weight loss pills or crap like that.. We run them anyway, though. *sigh*