thanks man - I'm sure there's some truth to what you're saying about the decline of SD. Of course I don't want to believe it.
BTW - did you ever hear the 1973 live recording from the Record Plant (or Record Factory)? It's incredible. I only have it on cassette:-(
I haven't been able to find any live Steely Dan prior to the 90's...
Impatience is really it...
I didn't even know they had a new album out. You're right though - I need to actually wait to get the CD in my hands first I guess.
thanks! I really had no oidea. I'm so used to one method of finding music, that I didn't even check the official website. Most groups I like have no official website...
BTW - I've got primo seats for Steely Dan at Jones Beach this summer;-)
I've found an increase in decoy files out there. I was attempting to download some songs from the new Steely Dan album - hoping to preview before I buy the CD. And oh yes, I will be buying the CD no matter, I have them all. Anyway, all of the different song files were there, but each one of them was the exact same song (some old Steely Dan song from several albums/years ago). No matter what user I tried to pull from, they all had the same (single) bogus song deceptively named incorrectly. I experienced a similar phenomena when the new Chili Peppers CD came out (I bought that CD too).
Sure I've pulled down songs, listened to them, and not bought the CD (and since I didn't dig the song, I deleted it). Is this wrong? I've actually found myself finding more and more groups this way to get into. I spent my college days working in Record World and seeing just how much it cost to produce a CD compared to how much the store charged. Nothing worse than buying the CD for one song and getting slayed by the rest of the songs (that are useless).
With the realism that is coming to many of the console games as well as the ubiquity of the PS2 and other consoles, it stands to reason that more and more of the mainstream will join the ranks of the gamers. The sports titles (which are marketed out the ass) seem to attract the biggest following of non-geeks.
However, the draw to computer science (and thus geekdom) is largely steeped in gaming. For example, a few years ago I returned to my high school for "career day". I was the guy who gave the talk on what students needed to focus on in college in order to end up sucessfully working as a software developer. First, I asked this question:
"Who here wants to be a software developer?"
They all raised their hands.
"How many of you want to work in the financial sector?"
All but one kid put his hand down.
"Ok, how many of you want to develop games?
Almost all the hands went back up.
I too was drawn into writing code for a living because of games. I wrote countless games in Basic on my Commodore Vic20 (and saved them to cassette tape!) when I was in grade school, but the cold reality of the industry became clear to me after graduating college in the early 90's - that game development is a competitive low paying path for the most part:-(
So maybe attracting kids into computer science is one aspect of gaming that could be viewed positively - as opposed to the visions of the unshowered jobless clowns playing Evercrack all day.
You're absolutely right - once Scotty realized he couldn't use the mouse like a microphone, he looked at the keyboard and said "How quaint" and then started going at it at a rate of 60 words per minute. And yes, how the hell would he know what to do with an old fashioned keyboard from centuries ago?
I look forward to the day when there are no need for keyboards. What a ridiculous way to communicate for people who can speak and think.
Don't get me wrong - I code for a living, so I can certainly appreciate the value of the keyboard as a user interface peripheral. A good friend of mine who had RSI in his wrists really bad switched to using Dragon speech recognition software exclusively. Listening to him attempt to code (in Perl) was pretty funny, e.g. saying "twiddle" for "~" and such.
Mod me down for being off topic, but I cannot resist mentioning the Star Trek (#4 - with the whales) movie where Scottie attempts to use the computer from the past by talking to it.
"Computer, please calculate the mass of..."
"No Scottie, you have to use this" (pointing to the mouse).
"Oh, okay". He picks up the mouse like it is a policeman's radio and begins to speak into it "Computer, please calculate the mass of... ".
It just goes to show how far off we are in terms of a truely intuitive user interface.
Symantec's stock (SYMC) is up.54 at present. Yes, this is 1% gain, but you can always count on their stock going up - regardless of market conditions - when reports of a new virus or worm are released.
I cannot help but wonder if Symantec has their own "special" R&D team that not only develops virus code in hopes of preemptively defeating them, but perhaps even gets a little careless and releases a virus here are there "accidentally". I know it sounds outlandish and has zero basis in fact, but given the relationship to the existences of new worms/virus threats and the absolute need for anti-virus products (especially for non-technical PC owners), it has to at least be considered...
Well - dominating doesn't necessarily mean you have to make your money via online ad revenue (which is fairly passe in 2003). Obviously we have to adapt to the market.
Our site, www.goofball.com (shamless plug too), was doing close to a million pageviews per day in 1999. All the content was free and given that it has always represented the largest database archive of funny/filthy/crazy videos (and anything else funny), people loved coming in and grabbing it for free - much like they probably do your games. We got paid CPM advertising rates, so we were able to cover our huge hosting/bandwidth costs.
Times changed and we had to switch to a different model - membership fees. Yes, our traffic is now a quarter of what is once was, but so are our hosting costs and we're still in the black. Not dominating for sure - but slightly profitable (or even just breaking even) is far better than what we've seen with some larger sites (massively in debt / shutting down).
I guess the point is to keep your site alive, particularly since you're obviously passionate about the subject matter. Maybe offering a preview version of the games for free and having people pay for a more full version might be one idea you could try? I do not mean to oversimplify your situation of course...
I have an unopened copy of Neverwinter Nights sitting on my desk at home since Christmas. I am so certain that I am going to love it, that installing it will only lead to the opening of a black hole that will suck me in, making hours/days pass by in a blink.
The only thing that has saved me is keeping my PC's dual boot defaulted into going into Linux.
Now a Linux version - this might be the the final straw. I wish I didn't love games so much - especially the D&D kind. I know my wife and kids feel even more strongly about that...
But my favorite move by the marketing guy, who after telling me he just sold some functionality/product/magic-button that doesn't exist to an advertiser and then me explaining to him how the project can't reasonably fit into the development schedule (or can even be done at all) is :
"So what do you want me to do? Give the $50,000 back to the advertiser?"
Never mind the agreement between the marketing team and our development team that marketing cannot promise a delivery date on anything before at least having a short conversation with us first - it can often be that surreal, on par with a Dilbert cartoon...
Jeez I should cut down on the caffiene and/or take some ritalin or something. All I saw was this part...
Low-quality copies of the film on DVD have also been reported for sale at a major traders' market in London.
Although it is not unusual for pirate copies of blockbuster films to appear on the internet soon after release, they are often of poor quality, filmed on a hidden videcamera by a cinemagoer
I must have missed the important part of the story.
Doesn't this movie simply demand to be seen in some big screen format (either the actual theatre or in some nice home theatre system) with the properly set up sound etc.?
I understand how certain people don't want to see this movie pirated, but one the other hand, couldn't seeing a grainy version of the film with bad sound quality only want to make you pay the money to either go to the theatre or buy the DVD?
It's not like the actual DVD has been ripped and that's being pirated around the net. Now that would be a different story wouldn't it...
Re:Another bad Slashdot analogy
on
I, Spammer
·
· Score: 1
First of all, the comment was plainly made with the intention of being a "bad" analogy. No need to get worked up about it. Look at the other responses - like washing your brain out with bleach - a funny response to an obvious attempt at a funny post. Sorry if I offended...
Publishing your email address may be the best way to have unknown people get a hold of you - but given the spam ridden climate we live in, it's simply not the most practical.
There are options out there, but if you are too stubborn to adapt to using them, then it seems you'll be awash in a sea of spam until either the laws change or something else happens to impact the ability of spammers to reach you.
I'm not sure why you think I'm unaware that people have jobs. I do;-) Anyway, when I want to place a job posting on the web and having thousands of people get in touch with me electronically, I simply point them to a place on a website, have them fill in the form, and when they hit submit, the info is mailed to me. This is just one example of how to solve your problem.
I'm not saying I love having to jump through hoops like this, but it beats the alternative...
Slashdot Mirror
BTW - did you ever hear the 1973 live recording from the Record Plant (or Record Factory)? It's incredible. I only have it on cassette :-(
I haven't been able to find any live Steely Dan prior to the 90's ...
I'm with you. I don't get it. NOT deleting fakes? Makes no sense. Lazy ass people ...
Impatience is really it ...
I didn't even know they had a new album out. You're right though - I need to actually wait to get the CD in my hands first I guess.
thanks! I really had no oidea. I'm so used to one method of finding music, that I didn't even check the official website. Most groups I like have no official website ...
BTW - I've got primo seats for Steely Dan at Jones Beach this summer ;-)
Oh please don't send me to Federal-Pound-Me-In-The-Ass-Prison!
Weird thing is - how is it that the real files are just not out there amidst all the fakes?
Sure I've pulled down songs, listened to them, and not bought the CD (and since I didn't dig the song, I deleted it). Is this wrong? I've actually found myself finding more and more groups this way to get into. I spent my college days working in Record World and seeing just how much it cost to produce a CD compared to how much the store charged. Nothing worse than buying the CD for one song and getting slayed by the rest of the songs (that are useless).
Perhaps we are nearing the end of an era?
Worse still - maybe I could get your scary job ...
Perl and C++ "legacy technology"? I guess I'm headed for tech support on the midnight shift ...
However, the draw to computer science (and thus geekdom) is largely steeped in gaming. For example, a few years ago I returned to my high school for "career day". I was the guy who gave the talk on what students needed to focus on in college in order to end up sucessfully working as a software developer. First, I asked this question:
They all raised their hands. All but one kid put his hand down. Almost all the hands went back up.I too was drawn into writing code for a living because of games. I wrote countless games in Basic on my Commodore Vic20 (and saved them to cassette tape!) when I was in grade school, but the cold reality of the industry became clear to me after graduating college in the early 90's - that game development is a competitive low paying path for the most part :-(
So maybe attracting kids into computer science is one aspect of gaming that could be viewed positively - as opposed to the visions of the unshowered jobless clowns playing Evercrack all day.
wow - just read the article - sounds like I need to try that stuff at least once!
You can get a case of Red Bull for $39. That's a couple of weeks (or less, depending on who you are) of brain food for you right there son.
BTW - you're coding example doesn't sound much like actual code, more like creating HTML tags. Writing HTML is not coding.
You're absolutely right - once Scotty realized he couldn't use the mouse like a microphone, he looked at the keyboard and said "How quaint" and then started going at it at a rate of 60 words per minute. And yes, how the hell would he know what to do with an old fashioned keyboard from centuries ago?
It's a floor wax. It's a dessert topping. It's both!
Don't get me wrong - I code for a living, so I can certainly appreciate the value of the keyboard as a user interface peripheral. A good friend of mine who had RSI in his wrists really bad switched to using Dragon speech recognition software exclusively. Listening to him attempt to code (in Perl) was pretty funny, e.g. saying "twiddle" for "~" and such.
Mod me down for being off topic, but I cannot resist mentioning the Star Trek (#4 - with the whales) movie where Scottie attempts to use the computer from the past by talking to it.
It just goes to show how far off we are in terms of a truely intuitive user interface.
Why would a person who runs a "mod-chip only" business want to be put OUT of business by some supposed software development?
Am I missing something here?
And yes - to the poster above, the whole concept sounds like a bluff to begin with ...
BTW: I recently moved and opted to get an unlisted phone number. It's great - no calls from solicitor's (yet).
I cannot help but wonder if Symantec has their own "special" R&D team that not only develops virus code in hopes of preemptively defeating them, but perhaps even gets a little careless and releases a virus here are there "accidentally". I know it sounds outlandish and has zero basis in fact, but given the relationship to the existences of new worms/virus threats and the absolute need for anti-virus products (especially for non-technical PC owners), it has to at least be considered ...
Our site, www.goofball.com (shamless plug too), was doing close to a million pageviews per day in 1999. All the content was free and given that it has always represented the largest database archive of funny/filthy/crazy videos (and anything else funny), people loved coming in and grabbing it for free - much like they probably do your games. We got paid CPM advertising rates, so we were able to cover our huge hosting/bandwidth costs.
Times changed and we had to switch to a different model - membership fees. Yes, our traffic is now a quarter of what is once was, but so are our hosting costs and we're still in the black. Not dominating for sure - but slightly profitable (or even just breaking even) is far better than what we've seen with some larger sites (massively in debt / shutting down).
I guess the point is to keep your site alive, particularly since you're obviously passionate about the subject matter. Maybe offering a preview version of the games for free and having people pay for a more full version might be one idea you could try? I do not mean to oversimplify your situation of course ...
The full story is here if anyone is interested ...
The only thing that has saved me is keeping my PC's dual boot defaulted into going into Linux.
Now a Linux version - this might be the the final straw. I wish I didn't love games so much - especially the D&D kind. I know my wife and kids feel even more strongly about that ...
Never mind the agreement between the marketing team and our development team that marketing cannot promise a delivery date on anything before at least having a short conversation with us first - it can often be that surreal, on par with a Dilbert cartoon ...
I must have missed the important part of the story.
Mod me down with a vengance - I deserve it :-(
I understand how certain people don't want to see this movie pirated, but one the other hand, couldn't seeing a grainy version of the film with bad sound quality only want to make you pay the money to either go to the theatre or buy the DVD?
It's not like the actual DVD has been ripped and that's being pirated around the net. Now that would be a different story wouldn't it ...
Publishing your email address may be the best way to have unknown people get a hold of you - but given the spam ridden climate we live in, it's simply not the most practical.
There are options out there, but if you are too stubborn to adapt to using them, then it seems you'll be awash in a sea of spam until either the laws change or something else happens to impact the ability of spammers to reach you.
I'm not sure why you think I'm unaware that people have jobs. I do ;-) Anyway, when I want to place a job posting on the web and having thousands of people get in touch with me electronically, I simply point them to a place on a website, have them fill in the form, and when they hit submit, the info is mailed to me. This is just one example of how to solve your problem.
I'm not saying I love having to jump through hoops like this, but it beats the alternative ...