I’ve Got Rhythm….
April 2nd, 2008
Well actually I don’t! After years of feeling uncomfortable on a dance floor, I decided to go to the Arthur Murray Dance School for one-on-one dance tuition. Things didn’t go too well in my initial evaluation, and after an hour the instructor informed me that it was impossible to teach me to dance, I had no sense of rhythm and she was going to give me a complete refund of my money. It was the first time the instructor had ever had to admit defeat and I think we were equally disappointed. I can’t imagine an Ingres instructor ever telling a client that they could never be taught to be an Ingres DBA, but I could be wrong.
Following a recent conversation with our CIO, Doug Harr, who is a walking wikipedia of information relating to music, I decided to purchase the game “Rock Band” for my PS3. Rock Band includes peripherals to simulate electric guitar, bass and a drum kit as well as a microphone for the lead vocalist. The aim is to form a band and to score points by hitting scrolling notes on-screen. I’ve always wanted to play drums, but being devoid of rhythm and being completely uncoordinated I believed it was beyond me, but I’m really adept at computer games, so I figured that if I could treat it as a game rather than a musical challenge I could probably beat it (pun intended). I’m happy to report that I’m hitting notes now with 95%+ accuracy, which is on a par with my more coordinated and rhythmic friends.
I now have two games with almost identical USB peripherals to simulate guitars for the PS3 and I’m irritated by the fact that the peripherals are incompatible. There are third party peripherals available that will work with either “Rock Band” or “Guitar Hero”, but the manufacturers of these games have decided to cripple their peripherals to maximize their profits. It seems that taking advantage of one’s position as the sole provider of a piece of software to maximize revenue is not limited to the business software world.
Doug Harr is going to join me in the Ingres blogosphere next week. Doug’s blog will focus on our 100% OSS/SaaS strategy and like topics. He will mix in some tidbits about music and parallels in that marketplace. I’m sure it will be fun and informative, and I for one can’t wait to read him
