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> "prince.org crashed.... The site is a remnant of an earlier Internet, with an ancient design not built for the speed and density of the modern online world."
by exodust 11y ago
> "prince.org crashed.... The site is a remnant of an earlier Internet, with an ancient design not built for the speed and density of the modern online world."
The author is unaware these "ancient designs" are lightweight and actually better suited to speed and traffic. The site crashing has nothing to do with an outdated design and everything to do with the hosting plan the site is on.
The big story (IMHO) not mentioned here, is all the unheard and unreleased songs and videos he locked away in his vault. In a fascinating and hilarious story told by Kevin Smith, he describes how he briefly worked with Prince on a documentary. Smith met a Producer for Prince who told him she'd produced more than 50 Prince music videos of songs nobody has heard and videos nobody has seen. All locked away in the vault. I really like how crazy this is, and hope they are released.
The story told by Smith is about 30 min long, but worth it if you're curious about how odd Prince was, and up for a laugh: https://youtu.be/8LhcParuzpc https://youtu.be/8LhcParuzpc
If you just want to see a really good example of Prince doing what he does best, with awesome female drummer and rockin band, turn this up loud: https://youtu.be/nyyS0FSztKc https://youtu.be/nyyS0FSztKc
- danso 11y agoThat Kevin Smith story is pretty hilarious. I don't begrudge Prince wanting to control his distribution. He wasn't some greedy executive trying to increase his bottom line, he wasn't cheating people out of what they paid for. He was an artist. Art is not completely different than any other resource, in that scarcity makes it more valuable, and not just in the monetary sense. To me, it's not much different than Bill Watterson exerting such tight control over Calvin and Hobbes, including refusing to license his artistic work for merchandise or creative spinoffs. As consumers, we think about how we're getting screwed out of not getting to experience more of what we loved and respected. But we aren't able to perceive how our love and respect for something would likely be diminished if that thing were commoditized. Think about the average respect people have for Peanuts...Peanuts merchandise and spinoffs have so flooded the mainstream market that it's unfathomable to me how it became one of Bill Watterson's most powerful inspirations.
- tamana 11y agoThose ancient pages could be hosted on a scalable CDN to hand the traffic. The hosting design is antiquated, not the pages.
- exodust 11y agoI've never heard the term "hosting design" before! As a charitable gesture let's assume that's what was meant rather than "looks old so must therefore run like a 1974 Datsun".
- exclusiv 11y agoI haven't heard that before either, but I think we engineers have associated design with the look and feel when it's broader than that.
- chubot 11y agoWow both of those videos are awesome... the good and the bad side. The Kevin Smith story is funny, but also a sad example of what you can become when you are a coddled celebrity. It made me lose some respect for Prince.
- bryanrasmussen 11y agoI guess I read the ancient design as being an architectural comment, although it probably wasn't since how would the author know the architecture of the site? But maybe.