Don't take it personally. Lots of people around here rush to judgement, usually looking for a cheap Insightful mod. Once I mentioned that I sometimes go to movies without my girlfriend. There were a bunch of replies to the tune of "You should treat her better!", never once did anybody mention that not all ladies are interested in sci-fi. Heh.
Anyway, getting back on topic: Do you have any interest in 3D? There are lots of apps out there (Lightwave, Maya, 3D Studio MAX, etc...) that are darned good tools, but there's always something missing. There's always a demand for new plugins, particularly ones that solve annoying problems. This would require some initiative on your part, but if you were to generate a few plugins and put them up on a site, you could make a few bucks on the side. (Paypal's very friendly for this type of work...) It'd take a little investment up front (Lightwave is $800...), and it'd take some time to get going, but you could generate a revenue stream for yourself for a while. I'm not sure if this is the sligtest bit interesting to you or not, but you'd broaden your skillset. There are a variety of things you can do with a 3D app (image processing, UI enhancement, automation, modelling tools, etc.) Might even find yourself working at a movie studio if this gig you have now ends!
"More seriously, trying to stay up to date on every new trend is pointless. You're better off picking a few things and learning them well."
Seconded. When I was in high school I took whatever programming classes I could get into. I started with Basic and moved on to Pascal. That gave me some good fundamentals to work with. When I entered the work-force, I found myself scripting quite a bit for Lightwave. (For the uninitiated: Lightwave is a 3D program commonly used in television effects.) Recently we've been using Maya a lot more. I was able to shift over and start writing scripts for it. Why? Lightwave scripting gave me the experience I needed to know what I'm looking for, so when it came time to use another language, I had what I needed to get going fairly quickly. This has even spilled over into writing a little bit of PHP code and so on.
I took the scenic route here, but yeah, develop a solid skill, and when you need to move into another language it'll go pretty smoothly. I was involved in the process of hiring engineers and we had a number of applicants who were dabblers. "I know OpenGL!" "Great! What have you done with it?" "I made a box rotate on the screen! (It was really hard!)" "Okay, so what's your expertise?" "..." We didn't feel comfortable hiring those people because we had no idea where they would have been best suited. Jack of all trades, master of none, yadda yadda yadda.
"If you're really so curious why don't you read the fucking article where an entire analysis is conducted on this topic."
Heh. I did read it. I want to hear HIM talk about it instead of assuming an analysis that admits it doesn't have all the numbers in place is the unvarnised truth. Sue me.
You'd think we would have learned this lesson with the various TCO 'studies' that have flown by here over the years. Yeesh.
Im curious now if he's talking about the percentage he gets or if he's talking about volume. In other words, is he making less because people just buy the songs they want?
If it's the former, well the RIAA just plain sucks. (I'm sure this will be heavily covered before this topic is closed so I'm not going to bother being more eloquent.)
If it's the latter... sorry Al, I think you're talented and love your music, but that's supply and demand, man. If iTunes means a fairer price for all involved, then I'd ask you to take it in stride. The RIAA had quite the gold mine going there, and I don't blame them for trying to maintain it, but we legit customers were getting gouged.
I feel your pain, man. I've moved several times in the last 5 years and jewel & DVD cases have been big problems for me. Here's a couple of things I've done:
1. Ive purchased a few of those Nylon CD case thingies at Best Buy. Okay, I'm an idjit for not knowing the proper name for them, but hopefully you get the idea. I intentionally bought ones that are very different in design so I could tell them apart. I have a grey one that I keep the DVDs in and a black one for backups. I also have a blue one for some of my PS2/Dreamcast games etc.
2. I have a big hard drive that I've copied a number of the CDs to. Nearly all of my driver and application installs are there and I can just browse to the folder and get it started. I've also downloaded cracks for a few of my games so I could do that as well. (I love how that makes me a pirate even thoug I own the game.) Every year or so I buy a new hard drive and move the data over. Lately I've been using external drives so that this process would be a little more laptop friendly.
Eventually I'm going to rip my DVDs and do the same little trick I mentioned in step 2. I have a DVD +RW DVD burner that my DVD player happily plays, so on movie night I can just get a burn going and play it. (More specifically, start the burn the night before... but you probably get what I mean.)
With hard drives as big as they are these days, physical media is becoming more and more of a nuisance. Netflix is looking awfully good to me right now.
"A little teensy bit of mass murder is OK, because the alternative is worse, gotcha!."
I don't recall using the word 'OK' anywhere. Not that it matters, the problem was in convincing the other side to stop killing people. In any event, no, you're not understanding the 'concept' at all.
"Shouldn't we focus on building cleaner, safer atomic power for civilian use?"
Considering how much the USA has been pissing off the world lately, no. Besides, what's holding up progress on nuclear power has little to do with R&D.
Heh. At a company I worked at a couple of years ago we had net send disabled becaues we kept getting ads through it.
Well, since I'm wasting space with this post, I'll ask a question: Did Microsoft finally fix that in XP, or did they just disable the service by default?
" its because its packaged as a delivery media for ringtones and crappy games. not just as a pipe."
Huh?
All three of the cellular carriers I've used actually went out to the net. I've even posted on Slashdot with one of them. (Very short post, heh.) I haven't tried this with my latest provider, but I've also been able to use hand-set to get my laptop on the internet wirelessly.
In all three cases, the phones were pre-configured with bookmarks etc taking me to their stores etc, but that's about the extent of it. Did I just pick the right providers?
"An elevator with the Mac UI would have a picture of the building, and you'd drag the elevator over the floor you wanted to go to, at which point the picture would change to be a picture of that floor, and then you'd drop the elevator on the specific room you wanted to go to, and it would take you to that room."
And if you want to exit the elevator, you intuitively drag the picture of the elevator to the trash can!
"I don't believe that founders and managers of a multi-billion dollar enterprise are so dumb that they don't realize what they are doing."
I was not trying to imply that. They obviously feel very comfortable with what they're doing, but that alone will not protect their users. In theory, the gov't shouldn't have even asked them for the records, yet it still happened. Worse, we've got a monkey in the white-house that may bend the rules a bit to try even harder. Now maybe my imagination's getting ahead of me, but just because they think they know what they're doing doesn't mean anybody's safe. Once you've commited the data to Google, that's it, you cannot undo it.
"It seems weird for them to call it a computer. I would think a better tactic is to call it a multimedia centre."
I dunno how weird that is. They're trying to position the PS3 as a PC-as-a-game-machine killer. In addition to that, there are nice little tax incentives to selling a computer as opposed to a game console. This is why they make this statement on every iteration of the Playstation.
"It depends on how much of correct data you provided when you signed up."
I don't think it's as simple as that. If you're using GMail, you're likely logged in to Google every time you do a search. Do a bunch of porn viewing, and Google has the means to link that to your login. Take it a step further and keep your bookmarks there.. well... they certainly have more to draw on.
Personally, I'm not so worried about what Google sees. I'm worried about the recent moves by the gov't to collect that info. Google is unintentionally setting up a nice little trap for a bunch of people. (No, this isn't a Google is evil statement, just pointing out the dangers of centralizing all this stuff.)
Slashdot Mirror
"I certainly didn't expect this reaction."
:) Gnite!
Don't take it personally. Lots of people around here rush to judgement, usually looking for a cheap Insightful mod. Once I mentioned that I sometimes go to movies without my girlfriend. There were a bunch of replies to the tune of "You should treat her better!", never once did anybody mention that not all ladies are interested in sci-fi. Heh.
Anyway, getting back on topic: Do you have any interest in 3D? There are lots of apps out there (Lightwave, Maya, 3D Studio MAX, etc...) that are darned good tools, but there's always something missing. There's always a demand for new plugins, particularly ones that solve annoying problems. This would require some initiative on your part, but if you were to generate a few plugins and put them up on a site, you could make a few bucks on the side. (Paypal's very friendly for this type of work...) It'd take a little investment up front (Lightwave is $800...), and it'd take some time to get going, but you could generate a revenue stream for yourself for a while. I'm not sure if this is the sligtest bit interesting to you or not, but you'd broaden your skillset. There are a variety of things you can do with a 3D app (image processing, UI enhancement, automation, modelling tools, etc.) Might even find yourself working at a movie studio if this gig you have now ends!
Something to think about.
"More seriously, trying to stay up to date on every new trend is pointless. You're better off picking a few things and learning them well."
Seconded. When I was in high school I took whatever programming classes I could get into. I started with Basic and moved on to Pascal. That gave me some good fundamentals to work with. When I entered the work-force, I found myself scripting quite a bit for Lightwave. (For the uninitiated: Lightwave is a 3D program commonly used in television effects.) Recently we've been using Maya a lot more. I was able to shift over and start writing scripts for it. Why? Lightwave scripting gave me the experience I needed to know what I'm looking for, so when it came time to use another language, I had what I needed to get going fairly quickly. This has even spilled over into writing a little bit of PHP code and so on.
I took the scenic route here, but yeah, develop a solid skill, and when you need to move into another language it'll go pretty smoothly. I was involved in the process of hiring engineers and we had a number of applicants who were dabblers. "I know OpenGL!" "Great! What have you done with it?" "I made a box rotate on the screen! (It was really hard!)" "Okay, so what's your expertise?" "..." We didn't feel comfortable hiring those people because we had no idea where they would have been best suited. Jack of all trades, master of none, yadda yadda yadda.
"Cue trojan condom jokes, where's my +5 funny?"
By announcing that you wanted a +5 Funny, you screwed your chances.
That's neat! Ever thought about getting a wi-fi enabled PocketPC with VNC and making a remote?
"But I don't think Weird Al is hurting for money..."
That matters because....?
"If you're really so curious why don't you read the fucking article where an entire analysis is conducted on this topic."
Heh. I did read it. I want to hear HIM talk about it instead of assuming an analysis that admits it doesn't have all the numbers in place is the unvarnised truth. Sue me.
You'd think we would have learned this lesson with the various TCO 'studies' that have flown by here over the years. Yeesh.
Im curious now if he's talking about the percentage he gets or if he's talking about volume. In other words, is he making less because people just buy the songs they want?
If it's the former, well the RIAA just plain sucks. (I'm sure this will be heavily covered before this topic is closed so I'm not going to bother being more eloquent.)
If it's the latter... sorry Al, I think you're talented and love your music, but that's supply and demand, man. If iTunes means a fairer price for all involved, then I'd ask you to take it in stride. The RIAA had quite the gold mine going there, and I don't blame them for trying to maintain it, but we legit customers were getting gouged.
I feel your pain, man. I've moved several times in the last 5 years and jewel & DVD cases have been big problems for me. Here's a couple of things I've done:
1. Ive purchased a few of those Nylon CD case thingies at Best Buy. Okay, I'm an idjit for not knowing the proper name for them, but hopefully you get the idea. I intentionally bought ones that are very different in design so I could tell them apart. I have a grey one that I keep the DVDs in and a black one for backups. I also have a blue one for some of my PS2/Dreamcast games etc.
2. I have a big hard drive that I've copied a number of the CDs to. Nearly all of my driver and application installs are there and I can just browse to the folder and get it started. I've also downloaded cracks for a few of my games so I could do that as well. (I love how that makes me a pirate even thoug I own the game.) Every year or so I buy a new hard drive and move the data over. Lately I've been using external drives so that this process would be a little more laptop friendly.
Eventually I'm going to rip my DVDs and do the same little trick I mentioned in step 2. I have a DVD +RW DVD burner that my DVD player happily plays, so on movie night I can just get a burn going and play it. (More specifically, start the burn the night before... but you probably get what I mean.)
With hard drives as big as they are these days, physical media is becoming more and more of a nuisance. Netflix is looking awfully good to me right now.
"A little teensy bit of mass murder is OK, because the alternative is worse, gotcha!."
I don't recall using the word 'OK' anywhere. Not that it matters, the problem was in convincing the other side to stop killing people. In any event, no, you're not understanding the 'concept' at all.
With the right filenames, you could store all your stuff on P2P for eternity!
"Shouldn't we focus on building cleaner, safer atomic power for civilian use?"
Considering how much the USA has been pissing off the world lately, no. Besides, what's holding up progress on nuclear power has little to do with R&D.
"Tell that to the forefather of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Yeah, I'm sure they'd have been far more keen on the "kills lots more people" alternatives the USA had.
"Do as I say, not as I do. k."
Said the cop to the vigilante.
"Net Send and find a gui?"
Heh. At a company I worked at a couple of years ago we had net send disabled becaues we kept getting ads through it.
Well, since I'm wasting space with this post, I'll ask a question: Did Microsoft finally fix that in XP, or did they just disable the service by default?
"Darn RSS headline-only POS..."
Lucky you. The only headlines I get from Slasdot's RSS are "You've been banned for 48 hours".
"Friends. You need friends. Something the typical slashdotter does not have." :( That's why I got a DS.
"OK, now go out on the net and buy a song or video for your phone ... can't be done. Get it?"
Um, yeah you can. Have you ever actually tried this?
" its because its packaged as a delivery media for ringtones and crappy games. not just as a pipe."
Huh?
All three of the cellular carriers I've used actually went out to the net. I've even posted on Slashdot with one of them. (Very short post, heh.) I haven't tried this with my latest provider, but I've also been able to use hand-set to get my laptop on the internet wirelessly.
In all three cases, the phones were pre-configured with bookmarks etc taking me to their stores etc, but that's about the extent of it. Did I just pick the right providers?
"Is a job which would pass you over because of your personal life really one worth having anyway? I mean really?"
Not everybody can go job shopping as if it were a pair of shoes. So, no, you're not going to get a unanimous answer on this.
"An elevator with the Mac UI would have a picture of the building, and you'd drag the elevator over the floor you wanted to go to, at which point the picture would change to be a picture of that floor, and then you'd drop the elevator on the specific room you wanted to go to, and it would take you to that room."
And if you want to exit the elevator, you intuitively drag the picture of the elevator to the trash can!
"All these posts about Google wanting to undermine peoples privacy neglects to see the fact that the real danger lies elsewere."
Heh. That was the point of both my posts.
"I don't believe that founders and managers of a multi-billion dollar enterprise are so dumb that they don't realize what they are doing."
I was not trying to imply that. They obviously feel very comfortable with what they're doing, but that alone will not protect their users. In theory, the gov't shouldn't have even asked them for the records, yet it still happened. Worse, we've got a monkey in the white-house that may bend the rules a bit to try even harder. Now maybe my imagination's getting ahead of me, but just because they think they know what they're doing doesn't mean anybody's safe. Once you've commited the data to Google, that's it, you cannot undo it.
"Thank God! I thought the Steel Age was never going to end!"
Well, it's not like we were using a good strategy in the first place. Do you realize how many villagers that takes?!
"It seems weird for them to call it a computer. I would think a better tactic is to call it a multimedia centre."
I dunno how weird that is. They're trying to position the PS3 as a PC-as-a-game-machine killer. In addition to that, there are nice little tax incentives to selling a computer as opposed to a game console. This is why they make this statement on every iteration of the Playstation.
"It depends on how much of correct data you provided when you signed up."
I don't think it's as simple as that. If you're using GMail, you're likely logged in to Google every time you do a search. Do a bunch of porn viewing, and Google has the means to link that to your login. Take it a step further and keep your bookmarks there.. well... they certainly have more to draw on.
Personally, I'm not so worried about what Google sees. I'm worried about the recent moves by the gov't to collect that info. Google is unintentionally setting up a nice little trap for a bunch of people. (No, this isn't a Google is evil statement, just pointing out the dangers of centralizing all this stuff.)