[BLUG] Chance to win a commercial Linux game

Hello, all,

Some of you may have, at one point or another, bemoaned the unfair
state of commercial games for those of us who prefer not to us
proprietary operating system. Some of you may even have that dirty
little secret Hasefroch partition you dust off every once in a while
in order to play those commercial games that don't work acceptably
under wine (and yes, I speak from experience).

I've heard personally, a few times, the inability to play top-tier
games on Linux cited as the main reason someone wouldn't switch.

A buddy of mine, Matthew, is determined to change this woeful lack of
Linux support by the gaming industry. He runs
<http://www.linuxgamingworld.com>, which is a project/site dedicated
to drumming up interest in commercial games for Linux, both from Linux
users who are traditionally averse to paying for software, and from
game companies who traditionally ignore Linux as a market for their
products. You may have heard him getting interviewed recently on The
Linux Link Tech Show and The Linux Action Show.

Apart from the advocacy work they do, they have a pretty complete
catalog of the titles that ARE available to those of the penguin
persuasion on their site.

Anyhow, he asked me to put the word out here that they've teamed up
with My Game Company (it's not mine, that's just their name) to give
away some Linux game goodness by lottery to anyone who's interested
enough to sign up on the linuxgamingworld.com site and who leave a
comment on the following post:
<http://www.linuxgamingworld.com/?q=node/219>

The game they're giving away is pretty neat game, "Dirk Dashing:
Secret Agent", a family-friendly kids-oriented game (but then, that
doesn't mean it's not fun for kids-at-heart) that I heard reviewed on
Linux and Games Entertainment Weekly (yes, LaGER) and downloaded the
demo version myself. It's a pretty fun side-scroller reminiscent in
style to the old Ninja Gaiden series (except with all non-lethal
weapons ;-) ).

So if you're interested, go for it.

The games question is one of the most controversial in the FLOSS
world, because it's the main area that those of us with a deep
aversion to proprietary software will sometimes break down and
compromise our ideals for the quality games that the open source model
has yet to deliver.

I'm not talking about software quality here, an area open source
naturally excels at, I'm talking about content: story, graphics,
music, general coherence, the whole package. In order to deliver the
seamless excellence of a top-tier game, you need writers, graphic
artists, musicians, actors, etc. and you need them to work in a
sustained and coordinated manner which means paying them. So far a
workable business model to support this hasn't materialized, though we
can hope that someday it will.

In the meantime, the only way we'll get "top-tier" games on Linux is
to convince the industry that we're worth considering as a worthwhile
market while they're deciding what platforms to support with their
next game. That's only going to happen if the companies currently
marketing games to Linux make enough of a profit to keep doing so.

I hope this finds you all having a great evening!

Simón

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Re: [BLUG] considering a job in computers

Ben,

As someone who was a music ed major as well for my first two years of
college, I can say that you're in good company. Probably a quarter of
people involved in the computer industry are musicians. I think you
should think about leveraging your music degrees to get into the
computer industry instead of how to just approach a computer job like
being a programmer or an administrator.

The first thing that comes to mind is games. There are many games
that have a large budget for custom music, often recorded using
electronic instruments.

There are also probably people who act as technology testers or
consultants for music software creators like Reason, Garage Band,
Cubase, etc. Even electronic music equipment manufacturers need these
people for software that they write.

So how do you get these jobs? Perhaps just meet some people who are
already in them at conferences, through forums or whatever. I think the
computer music/audio industry has grown a lot in the past 10 years. For
the first few decades of computing, audio took a back seat to graphics,
but now its finally caught up and there are careers in that kind of
stuff. There is also the whole emerging industry of streaming music and
cataloging it. These are just a few ideas, just look around your own
house and think of how all the electronics are created and realize that
there are many people behind the creation of each one of those items.
Including musicians.

I think Joe Auty and some of the other musicians on the list will have
something to say too.

Mark

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 08:03:15PM GMT, Ben Shewmaker [benshewmaker@yahoo.com] said the following:
> Hey all,
>
> I was hoping to get a little bit of advice from people on this mailing list. After getting an undergraduate degree in music education and starting a masters in saxophone performance at IU, I quit after a semester because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I was looking at other options and thought I'd like to try electronic music and so started a masters in electronic music from the University of Miami. But, after a semester there, I find myself back in Bloomington again searching for a career that excites me and also has a better chance of gainful employment than finding a position to teach electronic music at the university level (which is what I thought I would do with my masters in electronic music. turns out I wasn't that into the program and there are very few positions for what I was training myself for. maybe 5 to 10 positions in the country every year according to a proff at IU).
>
> Anyways, I am again reconsidering my options and was at least glimpsing in the direction of some sort of career involved in computers or networking. I know saying I want a job here is like saying I want a job doing music; music is too broad a categorization as there are many specific areas of study within music. I was just hoping if anyone could at least point me in the right direction to find out what types of positions are out there, how hard they are to get, how rewarding they are, etc. And also, what type of education is required to enter this field and are there any really good schools nearby for computer science type degrees. I know IU has a great music school but I know nothing about their other departments.
>
> Any help anyone could give me would be really appreciated!
>
> Ben Shewmaker
>
>
>
>
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--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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Re: [BLUG] considering a job in computers

Hey Ben,

As you may recall from our past conversations, I was also a music
track student that switched midstream... I was a jazz major, and got
pretty far along playing in the top jazz band at IU, but decided that
I would ultimately be happier when I could approach music in my own
terms, making it a pleasure rather than a source of anxiety and
financial dependency.

There are actually a *lot* of music students that have done this as
well, so you aren't alone. There are several musicians here at UITS,
and I know of several musicians outside of IU working in IT.

Some specialization is useful, as well as some serious thought into a
business model, if you choose to work freelance. Otherwise, if you
want to work a day job in some enterprise computing environment, you
will need to work your skills up to the point where you can compete
for jobs in this space. Since, like me, you probably are all too
familiar with making life as a freelance musician work, freelance
computing or starting your own business might be a good fit for you.

There are many different angles you could explore: web development,
graphic design, and traditional programming are often jobs that work
this way. System administration I'm guess is more of a full-time sort
of job. There is also retail, of course.

If you are semi-interested in any of these areas, it is never too late
to get your chops together. There is a lot of demand for talent, and
the talent doesn't always lie with people with the most book smarts or
experience or certifications, but with people with serious critical
thinking abilities that can figure things out quickly. Your musical
skills should give you a leg up in your problem solving ability, many
successful musicians are quite bright.

What sorts of things interest you, and are you interested in freelance
computer work, or something more career-like/full-time? If the latter,
working at IU can be a good step into the scene, as there is always a
need for talent at IU, and often a shortage of qualified applicants.

On Mar 21, 2008, at 4:03 PM, Ben Shewmaker wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I was hoping to get a little bit of advice from people on this
> mailing list. After getting an undergraduate degree in music
> education and starting a masters in saxophone performance at IU, I
> quit after a semester because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I was
> looking at other options and thought I'd like to try electronic
> music and so started a masters in electronic music from the
> University of Miami. But, after a semester there, I find myself
> back in Bloomington again searching for a career that excites me and
> also has a better chance of gainful employment than finding a
> position to teach electronic music at the university level (which is
> what I thought I would do with my masters in electronic music.
> turns out I wasn't that into the program and there are very few
> positions for what I was training myself for. maybe 5 to 10
> positions in the country every year according to a proff at IU).
>
> Anyways, I am again reconsidering my options and was at least
> glimpsing in the direction of some sort of career involved in
> computers or networking. I know saying I want a job here is like
> saying I want a job doing music; music is too broad a
> categorization as there are many specific areas of study within
> music. I was just hoping if anyone could at least point me in the
> right direction to find out what types of positions are out there,
> how hard they are to get, how rewarding they are, etc. And also,
> what type of education is required to enter this field and are there
> any really good schools nearby for computer science type degrees. I
> know IU has a great music school but I know nothing about their
> other departments.
>
> Any help anyone could give me would be really appreciated!
>
> Ben Shewmaker
>
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.
> Try it now._______________________________________________
> BLUG mailing list
> BLUG@linuxfan.com
> http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

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[BLUG] considering a job in computers

Hey all,

I was hoping to get a little bit of advice from people on this mailing list.  After getting an undergraduate degree in music education and starting a masters in saxophone performance at IU, I quit after a semester because I wasn't enjoying it anymore.  I was looking at other options and thought I'd like to try electronic music and so started a masters in electronic music from the University of Miami.  But, after a semester there, I find myself back in Bloomington again searching for a career that excites me and also has a better chance of gainful employment than finding a position to teach electronic music at the university level (which is what I thought I would do with my masters in electronic music.  turns out I wasn't that into the program and there are very few positions for what I was training myself for.  maybe 5 to 10 positions in the country every year according to a proff at IU). 

Anyways, I am again reconsidering my options and was at least glimpsing in the direction of some sort of career involved in computers or networking.  I know saying I want a job here is like saying I want a job doing music;  music is too broad a categorization as there are many specific areas of study within music.  I was just hoping if anyone could at least point me in the right direction to find out what types of positions are out there, how hard they are to get, how rewarding they are, etc.  And also, what type of education is required to enter this field and are there any really good schools nearby for computer science type degrees.  I know IU has a great music school but I know nothing about their other departments.

Any help anyone could give me would be really appreciated!

Ben Shewmaker

---

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