Any game where the goal is to shuffle around parts desperately until you fail in the end, and where 'winning' is just a matter of how long you survived, has a whiff of evil about it.
Aren't you describing just about every arcade and console game from 1970 to 1985?
I know it wasn't technically the first game to have an ending, but one thing that made Super Mario Brothers (and Nintendo games in general) so revolutionary was that there was an actual goal. Before that, most games just fed you the same set of levels over and over again until you "died" or unplugged the machine.
I hope for the best, but I worry the powers-that-be aren't going to let the internet continue to exist as we know it when real time, broadcast-quality video becomes a reality.
The moral outcry groups will certainly demand filters and censorship. The government will cave in to them and set laws (they always do, no politician wants to be seen as promoting indecency.) The entertainment conglomerates will buy up or shut down most of the content providers. And the RIAA and MPAA will weigh in-- copyright violations will likely be rampant, from myspace kids using RIAA music and clips of the Matrix in their video journals to people posting movies and episodes of TV shows.
Hopefully I'm wrong. If not, we'll have a few good years during the transition, at least... But moving beyond pictures and text could easily turn out to be the end of the internet as we know it.
Hey Sony, why just just skip to the next step?
on
Mythic Rips SOE a New One
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Why go through all of the bother of brokering auctions? Just create an in-game store that takes real-life cash for ultra-rare artifacts. Make it so we can buy experience points and skills, too. I'm tired of being lvl 1 every time I start a new character, I want him to be godlike and I want it now. Everquest 3 should have one central location, let's call it "The Mall." You go to the mall and outfit your character with as much cool stuff as you can afford. Then you go next door to "The Gym" and max out all of your skills and stats. Now you have a legendary hero who can go kick the ass of every monster in the realm without fear (not that you had to fear anyway, because there's no permadeath.)
In fact, let's do away with all that adventuring and killing monsters and digging through dungeons crap all together. It just takes way too much time. I want a game where you all you do is buy stuff and then strut around town showing it off.
With 10.0-10.2, any Beige G3 or Wallstreet PowerBook G3 was fully supported. For Panther, they required built-in USB, thus knocking Beige G3 and Wallstreet systems out of the mix. Now for Tiger, it requires built-in FireWire. The only systems that come to mind without FW but without USB are early iMacs, some clamshell iBooks, and Lombard PowerBooks. That's a fair number of people that are starting to get left behind of the upgrade cycle.
Realize that you're talking about sub-500mhz G3 machines that were designed to run OS9... OSX performance is and always will be barely adequate on these systems.
In their time, in OS9 a G3 ran Photshop as snappily as a 2mhz G5 does now (at least until they inevitably crashed), but with OSX you can barely run anything beyond a word processor on a less-than-G4 computer.
I think the upgrade cycle will slow down a bit when the last of the "classic" machines (designed for OS9, before OSX was viable) are phased out.
First isn't always best. "Star Wars" wss hardly the first science fiction movie, but many would say it defines the genre. The first comic strip was "The Yellow Kid", but now it's a footnote in history. The Beatles weren't the first psychedelic rock band. Etc., etc.
When you're trying to get something repaired you're not dealing with a company-- you're dealing with the people who work at that company. Some people are assholes, and some will bend over backwards to help you. Every comapny has it's share of assholes-- or just people who are tired, in a bad mood, whatever. The guy at the Apple store who said "ours fails the same way" doesn't speak for the entire company, he's most likely a college student with a part time job. If you want it fixed, talk to the manager, if that fails call Apple, if that fails try again. Same goes for the guy who held you up with paperwork.
You get what you give with customer service. If you're angry (and you sound angry) they will do whatever they can to shut you down-- either giving you what you want, or telling you "we can't help you" to get you out of the store or off the phone. It'll probably be the latter. If you talk to the representative like a person-- and understand they're a person with a job, not the entity that is Apple Computers-- you will likely get the issue taken care of.
Actually, the entertainment unions are one of the last places where the big guys stick up for the little guys. SAG, the WGA, etc. leverage the known (and much sought-after) talent to make sure those who aren't in a position to bargain get something close to a fair deal. Actors, directors, writers, animators etc. are in a highly competitive business where it's tough to break in (and stay in) and the powers-that-be (studios, networks and production houses) know it. Aspiring actors would happily sign their lives away for a shot on a sitcom, a young writer would work on a network series for a hundred bucks a week if the rules weren't in place-- yes, because they're desperate, but also because there's enough competition that if they tried to negotiate it would go to the next guy. Look at the record industry, which has no union to protext musicians, to see how badly young arists are screwed.
I mean, this will still not prove it for most creationists, since it will only show what can happen under closed, controlled conditions. It's never realistic enough to change the lives of the people to whom absolute, totally undeniable proof of evolution would be a faith-shattering experience.
There will always be room for another Scopes Monkey Trial, even today. There are still creationist education groups. It's not like the evidence will be easily accepted by them, either. It will take more than just some simulated ecosystems.
There is no argument that could or ever would shake a devout Christian, no matter how well educated he or she is (and there are many intelligent and well-educated Christians.) Facts and theories will never win against faith, because faith doesn't need facts. They don't need proof to believe Creation happened. They just know it did. "On the first day, God created the world" is the first sentence of the bible, and to deny that is to deny everything they believe.
I'm not going to defend a movie I haven't seen... But it seems common sense to me that a radio play and a movie are vastly different things.
Obviously you only have audio on the radio, so the story is driven almost entirely by dialogue (with the occasional sound effect.) A few minutes of funny (but otherwise meaningless and action-free) banter works, and works well. But talking heads are death in a big-screen movie, there has to be some sort of action.
Then there's the fact that a radio play (or television series, for tha matter) is episodic, so there is no set time limit to tell the story. There's plenty of room for side plots and funny tangents that go nowhere, and the stories don't have to be "big." A movie is two hours or less, has to have a well defined story arc (and again, enough action to justify it being on the big screen-- and justify the millions and millions more dollars it costs to make.) Dialogue has to be more to the point and further the story.
A TV series, IMHO, would be much more in keeping witht he spirit of the source material. Good TV comedy can be much more more abstract (Home Movies on Adult Swim, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Family Guy etc.) You have more time to go off on "flights of fancy" and see the little details of a world in TV... Look at The Sopranos, they take their time in telling stories (and some go nowhere.) If The Sopranos had to compress to the confines of a movie, it would be Analyze This. Movie comedies that are truly funny are rare-- they tend to be slapstick and broad, especially when dealing with sci-fi-ish material.
You fail to mention that this system is listed at nearly double that price, and the link shows you how to go through rebate hell to get a deal. And the deal expires tonight.
"Going outside" isn't always an option. It's been twelve years since I was a pre-teen, but I remember well growing up in a pretty typical suburban housing development. There was no nature to explore, only endless fenced-off bacyards. For that matter there was no open space to gather on to play football or soccer (the yards were also very small, the best we could do was play basketball on the driveway.) If you wanted to play a sport other than driveway basketball you had to do it at school or join a regulated soccer or softball league. We weren't allowed to ride bikes much further than a friend's house two or three streets over because we were surrounded by heavily trafficked streets (double or triple lanes with cars whizzing by at 45 mph.) The development had a pool and tennis courts, but minors had to be accompanied by an adult to use them.
The "Leave it to Beaver" days are over and for kids in urban and heavily congested suburban areas "playing outside" isn't always an option. The popularity of video games isn't necessarily a cause of this-- I see it as a side effect instead. And if kids are going to while away the after school hours gathered around the Playstation, it would be nice if they got some exercise doing it.
would charging their users a small fee pay for all the licenses? I use VLC on windows and OS X, and there must surely be a linux version too. so they've cornered all major markets.
This could possibly get them into more trouble, as someone who makes a profit (or could be perceived as making a profit) could be sued for damages, while a freeware product would more likely be told to cease and desist.
That said, VLC for OSX must be kept alive. It's the only Mac app that plays every file you throw at it-- especially those avi/divx files that Quicktime can only handle half the time (and that's with all of the proper codecs in place.)
This fluff piece was so devoid of helpful tips created a vaccuum it actually sucked useful knowledge out of all of the articles around it.
All the author seemed to care about are the most common Nintendo games-- Zelda and Mario. Is it really that hard to figure out how to get a deal on those? I mean, they only made millions of those carts... Why not tell us how to find something off the beaten track, like rare Dreamcast RPGs?
He suggests buying new games that bundle or repack the classics on different systems (e.g. the original Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy.) Never mind that many retro gamers want to own the original cartridge on the original system-- it's not just about the actual game (why not just use an emulator?), but recreating the experience. A game boy doesn't play the same as the NES.
His advice for eBay buyers is ridiculous. Of course you check the sender's location, that's eBay 101. Anyway, I don't recall ever seeing a flood of used game (or used anything!) sellers from China-- at most, there might be one or two UK or Australian sellers on a page.
I could go on, but it's just too sad. Need we be subject to college newspaper quality articles just because they're about games?
If it's truly open to the world, the RIAA and MPAA and God knows who else would shut this thing down in a week. Not because it's competition, but because the copyright violations we're going to see are going to be immense. Is Google going to police every video to make sure the filmmakers aren't using copyrighted music, or clips from "real" movies and TV shows? And how is Google going to protect itself from being sued by the infringed-- a disclaimer and a box to check saying you aren't using "borrowed" material when the film is uploaded? I don't think that's going to hold much weight...
I just thought I should point out, it's thought by many (all opinion, of course) that The Shining by Steven King and 2001 by Clarke are competent (but only that) genre books, and Kubrick's film versions are vastly superior.
... It's a way for the fans to reach you, and for interested parties to find your music... But you won't be found if no one knows who you are. The only reason left to sign up with a label is their publicity machine; they would potentially get your videos on MTV, advertise in Spin and get your songs on TV and movie soundtracks (of course it's more than likely they'd just sit on your contract and do nothing, but that's another issue.)
So if you're going at it alone, you have to do more than put your music on P2P and your web site. You have to TOUR, extensively and relentlessly. Get a good booking agent to find the prime clubs and team you up with bigger names. Hit the big cities as often as you can, particularly L.A. and New York. Make a lot of friends, because people listen to indie bands because they're "cool guys" as often as they like their music.
You're also in charge of your own merchandise, and I would tell you to go all-out to make it good. Don't just have your little brother who thinks he knows Illustrator make your shirt-- get a well-known underground artist, cartoonist or designer if you can, even if you have to pay for it. T-shirts are billboards, and if yours gathers attention just for being cool to wear people will seek out your band. Don't skimp on the CD design, either-- instead of duping your own and printing the label on the inkjet, have the label screened and the insert printed professionally (and again, designed by a pro.) It WILL pay off.
Consider doing a funny cover song or two. Not only will it get noticed on the P2P networks (by people searching for the real thing, of course), but it's a crowd pleaser that will draw people in to the rest of your music. Find a cheesy 80's or 90's song and make it good. This isn't for everybody, but when it works it works well. Along the same lines, it's kind of cheesy but consider having a "look" beyond jeans and a t-shirt. If you can, hook up with an aspiring fashion designer. Image counts for a lot, and some sort of costume or theme goes a long way towards creating a memorable show. Make it look like you put a lot more money into it than you really did...
Finally, consider hooking up with artists in other mediums. Get your music into an indie film if you can, or a cool Flash cartoon.
On second thought, just sit in your basement and put your songs on KaZaa. I don't need the competition.
... But expecting mass hysteria for a spring release was wishful thinking on Sony and the retailer's part. Christmas time is the only time this works in the USA, primarily because parents have to placate their kids on a certain day and hearing the hot item is in short supply drives them into a frenzy.
In the Spring, of course, consumers don't have to have it "right now." They can wait a few weeks... Or months. And it's easier for a parent to just tell the kid no, or for an older gamer to wait until the next paycheck or two.
No offense to you but I asked a member of your "Geek Squad" a test question: "How do I get started with Perl programming?" The response? Perl is a mixture of C++ and Java so you should buy C# and go to Sun's web site and download the Java SDK. Well, they were right about getting the Java SDK from Sun's web site; but how clueless do you have to be to mistake any programming langage for a "mixture of" two? I was pissed, when you don't know the answer to a question should you just throw buzz words at someone? No! You try to answer their question or admit that your clueless.
No offense to you, but asking a Best Buy employee (most likely a $8-an-hour community college student who likes gadgets) about relatively complex programming languages is akin to asking the guy who recommends wine at the grocery store how to start a vinyard. If he was motivated enough to know Perl, don't you think he'd be anywhere but that hellish crap job?
TG is owned by OSTG, the parent company of Slashdot, so activate all conspiracy theories now
It's not a "conspiracy." It's just shameless. Really, what's the difference between this and "product placing" Coke ads in movies, or ESPN ads in video games?
One faux story using ThinkGeek site would be fine, but this is a crapflood. I hope your Sharper-Image-wannabe parent company cashes in the extra traffic today, Slashdot, because you sold out your dignity for a few very cheap gags.
I agree it makes sense on paper-- the synergy of superstar Paris Hilton brings an "excitement" that OSS is lacking, and will surely bring the Us and Glamour magazine covers so sorely needed to bring Linux to the masses.
However, this will set the perception of the OS as a secure alternative to malware-ridden Windows back decades. Ms. Hilton is well known for high profile hacks: her infamous video, her Sidekick, etc. And it's a well-known fact that she is "easy", i.e. it's easier to get between her legs than to possess a firewall-free pre-SP2 XP machine.
someone will come latter and release a better version not near as gay (Apple maybe?)
Two things come to mind from this post...
First: In the future, Kevin, I'd suggest using another word in place of "gay." I'm not saying Slashdot posts should adhere to the rules of political correctness or accusing you of homophobia, but it is both juvenile and mildly derogatory to use the word in that matter.
Second: I can't believe an Apple product is actually being used an example of something "less gay."
Anyway, Christmas is the only time you can really pull off the massive-rollout-with-shortages-and-screaming-and-c lawing fans campaign... Which is often more media hype than anything else, and of course has everything to do with parents wanting to placate their kids. In March, the need to get-the-new-thing-right-now isn't there... And a purchase like the PSP can wait a week or month or two.
I expect the PSP to do well and for the platform to last, but expecting the rollout to be bigger than the Beatles is just folly.
Unfortunately Apple has painted themselves into a corner with the feline names. The next release will clearly be "Lion", and where can you go from there? I'll give them one mythical beast ("Chimera", perhaps) and one made-up breed ("Fantasticat?"), but that still leaves three releases to be named.
If I was Steve Jobs, I would've started with Bobcat or even Tabby and worked my way up from there (and thus 10.4 would be "Ocelot", a respectable mid-size species that still allows room to grow.)
I work in animation. It is (at least, I imagine it is) much like game development-- long, thankless hours of extremely technical and repetitive work (often 12-hour days for months at a time) and not nearly as "fun" as a fanboy might think.
But it is satisfying to work in a field that I love, and there's absolutely nothing better than seeing the final product up their on the big (or small) screen and knowing I had a significant part in creating it. It's cool to see teenagers wearing my show's characters when I go to the mall. And more and more, I'm able to offer creative input, which is also really cool. Oh, and the pay's not bad either.
You got to do what makes you happy... And "happy" and "fun" don't necessarily go together.
Oh... And what career is really "fun", anyway? Fireman? Carnival Barker? Astronaut?
Slashdot Mirror
Any game where the goal is to shuffle around parts desperately until you fail in the end, and where 'winning' is just a matter of how long you survived, has a whiff of evil about it.
Aren't you describing just about every arcade and console game from 1970 to 1985?
I know it wasn't technically the first game to have an ending, but one thing that made Super Mario Brothers (and Nintendo games in general) so revolutionary was that there was an actual goal. Before that, most games just fed you the same set of levels over and over again until you "died" or unplugged the machine.
I hope for the best, but I worry the powers-that-be aren't going to let the internet continue to exist as we know it when real time, broadcast-quality video becomes a reality. The moral outcry groups will certainly demand filters and censorship. The government will cave in to them and set laws (they always do, no politician wants to be seen as promoting indecency.) The entertainment conglomerates will buy up or shut down most of the content providers. And the RIAA and MPAA will weigh in-- copyright violations will likely be rampant, from myspace kids using RIAA music and clips of the Matrix in their video journals to people posting movies and episodes of TV shows. Hopefully I'm wrong. If not, we'll have a few good years during the transition, at least... But moving beyond pictures and text could easily turn out to be the end of the internet as we know it.
Why go through all of the bother of brokering auctions? Just create an in-game store that takes real-life cash for ultra-rare artifacts. Make it so we can buy experience points and skills, too. I'm tired of being lvl 1 every time I start a new character, I want him to be godlike and I want it now. Everquest 3 should have one central location, let's call it "The Mall." You go to the mall and outfit your character with as much cool stuff as you can afford. Then you go next door to "The Gym" and max out all of your skills and stats. Now you have a legendary hero who can go kick the ass of every monster in the realm without fear (not that you had to fear anyway, because there's no permadeath.)
In fact, let's do away with all that adventuring and killing monsters and digging through dungeons crap all together. It just takes way too much time. I want a game where you all you do is buy stuff and then strut around town showing it off.
With 10.0-10.2, any Beige G3 or Wallstreet PowerBook G3 was fully supported. For Panther, they required built-in USB, thus knocking Beige G3 and Wallstreet systems out of the mix. Now for Tiger, it requires built-in FireWire. The only systems that come to mind without FW but without USB are early iMacs, some clamshell iBooks, and Lombard PowerBooks. That's a fair number of people that are starting to get left behind of the upgrade cycle.
Realize that you're talking about sub-500mhz G3 machines that were designed to run OS9... OSX performance is and always will be barely adequate on these systems.
In their time, in OS9 a G3 ran Photshop as snappily as a 2mhz G5 does now (at least until they inevitably crashed), but with OSX you can barely run anything beyond a word processor on a less-than-G4 computer.
I think the upgrade cycle will slow down a bit when the last of the "classic" machines (designed for OS9, before OSX was viable) are phased out.
First isn't always best. "Star Wars" wss hardly the first science fiction movie, but many would say it defines the genre. The first comic strip was "The Yellow Kid", but now it's a footnote in history. The Beatles weren't the first psychedelic rock band. Etc., etc.
When you're trying to get something repaired you're not dealing with a company-- you're dealing with the people who work at that company. Some people are assholes, and some will bend over backwards to help you. Every comapny has it's share of assholes-- or just people who are tired, in a bad mood, whatever. The guy at the Apple store who said "ours fails the same way" doesn't speak for the entire company, he's most likely a college student with a part time job. If you want it fixed, talk to the manager, if that fails call Apple, if that fails try again. Same goes for the guy who held you up with paperwork.
You get what you give with customer service. If you're angry (and you sound angry) they will do whatever they can to shut you down-- either giving you what you want, or telling you "we can't help you" to get you out of the store or off the phone. It'll probably be the latter. If you talk to the representative like a person-- and understand they're a person with a job, not the entity that is Apple Computers-- you will likely get the issue taken care of.
Actually, the entertainment unions are one of the last places where the big guys stick up for the little guys. SAG, the WGA, etc. leverage the known (and much sought-after) talent to make sure those who aren't in a position to bargain get something close to a fair deal. Actors, directors, writers, animators etc. are in a highly competitive business where it's tough to break in (and stay in) and the powers-that-be (studios, networks and production houses) know it. Aspiring actors would happily sign their lives away for a shot on a sitcom, a young writer would work on a network series for a hundred bucks a week if the rules weren't in place-- yes, because they're desperate, but also because there's enough competition that if they tried to negotiate it would go to the next guy. Look at the record industry, which has no union to protext musicians, to see how badly young arists are screwed.
I mean, this will still not prove it for most creationists, since it will only show what can happen under closed, controlled conditions. It's never realistic enough to change the lives of the people to whom absolute, totally undeniable proof of evolution would be a faith-shattering experience.
There will always be room for another Scopes Monkey Trial, even today. There are still creationist education groups. It's not like the evidence will be easily accepted by them, either. It will take more than just some simulated ecosystems.
There is no argument that could or ever would shake a devout Christian, no matter how well educated he or she is (and there are many intelligent and well-educated Christians.) Facts and theories will never win against faith, because faith doesn't need facts. They don't need proof to believe Creation happened. They just know it did. "On the first day, God created the world" is the first sentence of the bible, and to deny that is to deny everything they believe.
I'm not going to defend a movie I haven't seen... But it seems common sense to me that a radio play and a movie are vastly different things.
Obviously you only have audio on the radio, so the story is driven almost entirely by dialogue (with the occasional sound effect.) A few minutes of funny (but otherwise meaningless and action-free) banter works, and works well. But talking heads are death in a big-screen movie, there has to be some sort of action.
Then there's the fact that a radio play (or television series, for tha matter) is episodic, so there is no set time limit to tell the story. There's plenty of room for side plots and funny tangents that go nowhere, and the stories don't have to be "big." A movie is two hours or less, has to have a well defined story arc (and again, enough action to justify it being on the big screen-- and justify the millions and millions more dollars it costs to make.) Dialogue has to be more to the point and further the story.
A TV series, IMHO, would be much more in keeping witht he spirit of the source material. Good TV comedy can be much more more abstract (Home Movies on Adult Swim, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Family Guy etc.) You have more time to go off on "flights of fancy" and see the little details of a world in TV... Look at The Sopranos, they take their time in telling stories (and some go nowhere.) If The Sopranos had to compress to the confines of a movie, it would be Analyze This. Movie comedies that are truly funny are rare-- they tend to be slapstick and broad, especially when dealing with sci-fi-ish material.
You fail to mention that this system is listed at nearly double that price, and the link shows you how to go through rebate hell to get a deal. And the deal expires tonight.
"Going outside" isn't always an option. It's been twelve years since I was a pre-teen, but I remember well growing up in a pretty typical suburban housing development. There was no nature to explore, only endless fenced-off bacyards. For that matter there was no open space to gather on to play football or soccer (the yards were also very small, the best we could do was play basketball on the driveway.) If you wanted to play a sport other than driveway basketball you had to do it at school or join a regulated soccer or softball league. We weren't allowed to ride bikes much further than a friend's house two or three streets over because we were surrounded by heavily trafficked streets (double or triple lanes with cars whizzing by at 45 mph.) The development had a pool and tennis courts, but minors had to be accompanied by an adult to use them.
The "Leave it to Beaver" days are over and for kids in urban and heavily congested suburban areas "playing outside" isn't always an option. The popularity of video games isn't necessarily a cause of this-- I see it as a side effect instead. And if kids are going to while away the after school hours gathered around the Playstation, it would be nice if they got some exercise doing it.
would charging their users a small fee pay for all the licenses? I use VLC on windows and OS X, and there must surely be a linux version too. so they've cornered all major markets.
This could possibly get them into more trouble, as someone who makes a profit (or could be perceived as making a profit) could be sued for damages, while a freeware product would more likely be told to cease and desist.
That said, VLC for OSX must be kept alive. It's the only Mac app that plays every file you throw at it-- especially those avi/divx files that Quicktime can only handle half the time (and that's with all of the proper codecs in place.)
This fluff piece was so devoid of helpful tips created a vaccuum it actually sucked useful knowledge out of all of the articles around it.
All the author seemed to care about are the most common Nintendo games-- Zelda and Mario. Is it really that hard to figure out how to get a deal on those? I mean, they only made millions of those carts... Why not tell us how to find something off the beaten track, like rare Dreamcast RPGs?
He suggests buying new games that bundle or repack the classics on different systems (e.g. the original Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy.) Never mind that many retro gamers want to own the original cartridge on the original system-- it's not just about the actual game (why not just use an emulator?), but recreating the experience. A game boy doesn't play the same as the NES.
His advice for eBay buyers is ridiculous. Of course you check the sender's location, that's eBay 101. Anyway, I don't recall ever seeing a flood of used game (or used anything!) sellers from China-- at most, there might be one or two UK or Australian sellers on a page.
I could go on, but it's just too sad. Need we be subject to college newspaper quality articles just because they're about games?
You're right... Assuming only eight hours of video a day are uploaded.
If it's truly open to the world, the RIAA and MPAA and God knows who else would shut this thing down in a week. Not because it's competition, but because the copyright violations we're going to see are going to be immense. Is Google going to police every video to make sure the filmmakers aren't using copyrighted music, or clips from "real" movies and TV shows? And how is Google going to protect itself from being sued by the infringed-- a disclaimer and a box to check saying you aren't using "borrowed" material when the film is uploaded? I don't think that's going to hold much weight...
I just thought I should point out, it's thought by many (all opinion, of course) that The Shining by Steven King and 2001 by Clarke are competent (but only that) genre books, and Kubrick's film versions are vastly superior.
... It's a way for the fans to reach you, and for interested parties to find your music... But you won't be found if no one knows who you are. The only reason left to sign up with a label is their publicity machine; they would potentially get your videos on MTV, advertise in Spin and get your songs on TV and movie soundtracks (of course it's more than likely they'd just sit on your contract and do nothing, but that's another issue.)
So if you're going at it alone, you have to do more than put your music on P2P and your web site.
You have to TOUR, extensively and relentlessly. Get a good booking agent to find the prime clubs and team you up with bigger names. Hit the big cities as often as you can, particularly L.A. and New York. Make a lot of friends, because people listen to indie bands because they're "cool guys" as often as they like their music.
You're also in charge of your own merchandise, and I would tell you to go all-out to make it good. Don't just have your little brother who thinks he knows Illustrator make your shirt-- get a well-known underground artist, cartoonist or designer if you can, even if you have to pay for it. T-shirts are billboards, and if yours gathers attention just for being cool to wear people will seek out your band. Don't skimp on the CD design, either-- instead of duping your own and printing the label on the inkjet, have the label screened and the insert printed professionally (and again, designed by a pro.) It WILL pay off.
Consider doing a funny cover song or two. Not only will it get noticed on the P2P networks (by people searching for the real thing, of course), but it's a crowd pleaser that will draw people in to the rest of your music. Find a cheesy 80's or 90's song and make it good. This isn't for everybody, but when it works it works well. Along the same lines, it's kind of cheesy but consider having a "look" beyond jeans and a t-shirt. If you can, hook up with an aspiring fashion designer.
Image counts for a lot, and some sort of costume or theme goes a long way towards creating a memorable show. Make it look like you put a lot more money into it than you really did...
Finally, consider hooking up with artists in other mediums. Get your music into an indie film if you can, or a cool Flash cartoon.
On second thought, just sit in your basement and put your songs on KaZaa. I don't need the competition.
... But expecting mass hysteria for a spring release was wishful thinking on Sony and the retailer's part. Christmas time is the only time this works in the USA, primarily because parents have to placate their kids on a certain day and hearing the hot item is in short supply drives them into a frenzy.
In the Spring, of course, consumers don't have to have it "right now." They can wait a few weeks... Or months. And it's easier for a parent to just tell the kid no, or for an older gamer to wait until the next paycheck or two.
No offense to you but I asked a member of your "Geek Squad" a test question: "How do I get started with Perl programming?" The response? Perl is a mixture of C++ and Java so you should buy C# and go to Sun's web site and download the Java SDK. Well, they were right about getting the Java SDK from Sun's web site; but how clueless do you have to be to mistake any programming langage for a "mixture of" two? I was pissed, when you don't know the answer to a question should you just throw buzz words at someone? No! You try to answer their question or admit that your clueless.
No offense to you, but asking a Best Buy employee (most likely a $8-an-hour community college student who likes gadgets) about relatively complex programming languages is akin to asking the guy who recommends wine at the grocery store how to start a vinyard.
If he was motivated enough to know Perl, don't you think he'd be anywhere but that hellish crap job?
TG is owned by OSTG, the parent company of Slashdot, so activate all conspiracy theories now
It's not a "conspiracy." It's just shameless. Really, what's the difference between this and "product placing" Coke ads in movies, or ESPN ads in video games?
One faux story using ThinkGeek site would be fine, but this is a crapflood. I hope your Sharper-Image-wannabe parent company cashes in the extra traffic today, Slashdot, because you sold out your dignity for a few very cheap gags.
I agree it makes sense on paper-- the synergy of superstar Paris Hilton brings an "excitement" that OSS is lacking, and will surely bring the Us and Glamour magazine covers so sorely needed to bring Linux to the masses.
However, this will set the perception of the OS as a secure alternative to malware-ridden Windows back decades. Ms. Hilton is well known for high profile hacks: her infamous video, her Sidekick, etc. And it's a well-known fact that she is "easy", i.e. it's easier to get between her legs than to possess a firewall-free pre-SP2 XP machine.
someone will come latter and release a better version not near as gay (Apple maybe?)
Two things come to mind from this post...
First: In the future, Kevin, I'd suggest using another word in place of "gay." I'm not saying Slashdot posts should adhere to the rules of political correctness or accusing you of homophobia, but it is both juvenile and mildly derogatory to use the word in that matter.
Second: I can't believe an Apple product is actually being used an example of something "less gay."
Well, college students do have the summer off.
c lawing fans campaign... Which is often more media hype than anything else, and of course has everything to do with parents wanting to placate their kids. In March, the need to get-the-new-thing-right-now isn't there... And a purchase like the PSP can wait a week or month or two.
Anyway, Christmas is the only time you can really pull off the massive-rollout-with-shortages-and-screaming-and-
I expect the PSP to do well and for the platform to last, but expecting the rollout to be bigger than the Beatles is just folly.
Unfortunately Apple has painted themselves into a corner with the feline names. The next release will clearly be "Lion", and where can you go from there? I'll give them one mythical beast ("Chimera", perhaps) and one made-up breed ("Fantasticat?"), but that still leaves three releases to be named.
If I was Steve Jobs, I would've started with Bobcat or even Tabby and worked my way up from there (and thus 10.4 would be "Ocelot", a respectable mid-size species that still allows room to grow.)
I work in animation. It is (at least, I imagine it is) much like game development-- long, thankless hours of extremely technical and repetitive work (often 12-hour days for months at a time) and not nearly as "fun" as a fanboy might think.
But it is satisfying to work in a field that I love, and there's absolutely nothing better than seeing the final product up their on the big (or small) screen and knowing I had a significant part in creating it. It's cool to see teenagers wearing my show's characters when I go to the mall. And more and more, I'm able to offer creative input, which is also really cool. Oh, and the pay's not bad either.
You got to do what makes you happy... And "happy" and "fun" don't necessarily go together.
Oh... And what career is really "fun", anyway? Fireman? Carnival Barker? Astronaut?