Finale Reader Download Fixed
Eleanore Bansmer
Recently MakeMusic released its new SongBook music reader app for the iPad. The app has been expected for many months now, ever since it was first announced back in January of 2012. Back then I wrote that I was looking forward to seeing the finale format music notation app, now known to be called SongBook, and recently was able to put it through its paces. My first impression, good but still lacking in a few key areas. Read on to find out more.
SongBook is a free iPad app that allows you to open, view, and play back music notation files stored in MakeMusic's proprietary Finale file format. The SongBook app loads first to a list of files that are available for the program to open. Out of the box, so to speak, it comes with a selection of songs already included to demonstrate the capabilities of the program. Getting your own songs into the program is a little more complicated. In order to load songs into the SongBook app you have to open iTunes, navigate to the apps tab, load the desired files, then sync. Honestly, I hate apps that force you to load data in this way. I hate using iTunes on a PC, and having to do it this way is cumbersome, especially when other music notation readers like ForScore have things like DropBox support built in. That's when I noticed a small line at the very bottom of one of the help files.
Those MMAjunkie MMA reader consensus picks will be part of the TUF 27 Finale staff picks we release today ahead of the event. The TUF 27 Finale takes place Friday at Pearl Theater at The Palms in Las Vegas. The event airs on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.
Why did the author think she had to wrap it up with a bow? Why do we who write nonfiction, who work as (or are learning to become) narrative journalists, often feel compelled to create a tidy package to deliver to the reader? Why is it such a struggle to write ourselves to a satisfying ending?
The middle chunk of a serial project is the comfy bit. You have readers, and they know the drill. The story and characters are established and the wheels are turning. You no longer have to explain everything, because that was done in Phase 1.
But when I think about ending the project in relation to this post, it does feel like closing off on the story that happened to be published last would be a little anti-climatic for how long of a journey it will be. I do like the idea of some sort of little bonus for seeing every story that could work as a grand finale, but it'd have to be in line with fourteen different versions of events. Maybe if it was set just far enough in the future where nobody would mention their placing in their tournament.
By this point readers will also know that you\u2019re serious. You\u2019re not going to disappear and abandon it after a handful of chapters. This is when word of mouth is a thing, with readers helping to spread the word. There\u2019s a momentum and history to the project.
Phase 2 is also when you have to find ways to keep things interesting. Be too formulaic, or if you drag it out for too long, and you might see readers start to drift away. Play with the formula and structure or what you\u2019re doing: regular readers will likely enjoy such experiments.
Look back through the project so far. If you\u2019ve been serialising for months or years you might have forgotten some plot elements, or supporting characters. These might be key details that you absolutely need to address in the finale, or they could be incidental moments which might enhance the ending.
Remember that your readers have a different relationship to your project than they do a typical novel. A book is a finished product that someone reads in days, or perhaps weeks at most. A long-running serial has been part of the reader\u2019s life for months or years. It\u2019s an interesting quirk to consider when designing the ending.
The interesting thing here is that you don\u2019t really need to worry about whether the foreshadowing is going to pay off. It\u2019s OK to have elements that don\u2019t come back in the finale! Readers won\u2019t mind (or even notice) if certain things aren\u2019t referenced again: but if you can point to something in chapter 10 that pays off in chapter 70, they\u2019ll think you\u2019re a genius.
We said last week that the CCDP Deep Focus would be the final Deep Focus feature of 2020. Somehow we blew it, so here we are again, thews tense, heaving each breath in a King Henry-esque fettle, pointing to the walls of Harfleur and bellowing at our fellow besiegers to imitate the action of the tiger. OK, maybe it's not quite as dramatic as all that.
Each year we use the Deep Focus prism to look separately at both the female and male Salary Survey participants. So today, we had the idea of looking at everyone together. For our really for reals last call grand finale reader-take-all dip into the Deep Focus well, we're considering the entire body of Salary Survey participants.
Here's what the salary picture looks like for, well, everyone who responded to the Salary Survey:
All U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $102,880
Median Annual Salary: $100,100
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 8.5 percent
Very Satisfied: 20.6 percent
Satisfied: 43.1 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 21.5 percent
Not At All Satisfied: 6.3 percent
All Non-U.S. Respondents
Average Annual Salary: $50,740
Median Annual Salary: $36,380
How satisfied are you with your current salary?
Completely Satisfied: 3.3 percent
Very Satisfied: 12.9 percent
Satisfied: 39.5 percent
Not Very Satisfied: 33.4 percent
Not At All Satisfied: 10.9 percent
The largest single body of certified IT professionals to participate in the survey is made up of U.S. residents (52.9 percent of those surveyed), but we did hear from tech pros in 98 other countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The IT industry has been largely male-dominated for as long as information technology has been with us, but there are more women entering the field now perhaps than ever before, and 14.6 percent of the certified IT pros who participated in the 2020 Salary Survey are female. For the most part, both male and female IT professionals are either in the thick of middle age or getting close to it, with 81 percent of those surveyed older than 24 but younger than 55, either between the ages of 25 and 35 (25.9 percent), between the ages of 35 and 44 (31.4 percent), or between the ages of 45 and 54 (25.1 percent). Just 3.5 percent of respondents are younger than 25 either 18 or younger (0.1 percent) or between the ages of 19 and 24 (3.4 percent ) with everyone else either between the ages of 55 and 64 (12.8 percent) between the ages of 65 and 74 (1.2 percent), or 75 or older (0.1 percent).
Roughly 83 percent of certified IT pros who responded to the survey have an educational background that includes time spent at a college or university. The highest level of education completed by most is either a bachelor's degree (42.6 percent of those surveyed), master's degree (27 percent), associate's degree (8.8 percent), professional degree (2.9 percent), or doctorate (1.7 percent). Most of the remaining survey respondents exited the realm of formal education after completing some level of post-high school technical training (8.3 percent), along with a handful who either checked out after graduating from high school (6 percent) or are currently in the process of furthering their education (2.5 percent). And if you're in favor of no formal education at all, well, 0.2 percent entered the workforce armed with only their native wits.
An impressive 93.8 percent of certified IT professionals who responded to the survey are employed full-time, with 3 percent holding part-time jobs and 1.5 percent out of work. That leaves 0.6 percent who are on sabbatical and 1.1 percent who are students. Among those who have full-time jobs, most have either a standard 40-hour work week (39.3 percent of respondents) or put in between 41 and 50 hours per week (44.1 percent). The outliers are the 8.9 percent of those surveyed who put in more than 50 hours per week, the 6.4 percent who work between 31 and 39 hours per week, the 0.8 percent who work between 20 and 30 hours per week, and the 0.5 percent who are employed full-time but also on the clock for fewer than 20 hours per week.
Roughly 78 percent of certified IT professionals are (or were, pre-COVID-19) spending most of those hours in a traditional workplace, putting in either 10 or fewer hours per week from home (60.8 percent) or between 10 and 20 hours per week from home (17.2 percent). There are certainly some tech pros from the survey, however, whose office is more virtual than real: those working from home either between 21 and 30 hours per week (5.8 percent of respondents), between 31 and 39 hours per week (6.4 percent), 40 hours per week (5.3 percent), or more than 40 hours per week (7.3 percent).
In terms of workplace standing, the largest single group of certified IT pros who participated in the survey are employed at the senior specialist level (40.6 percent of respondents). The rest, in descending order, are either specialists (18.5 percent of those surveyed), rank-and-file employees (17.7 percent), managers (10.4 percent), senior managers (5.8 percent), directors (4.7 percent), or executives (2.3 percent).
A notable 39.3 percent of certified IT professionals who responded to the survey are IT veterans, having worked in a role that directly utilizes one or more of their certified skills for more than a decade. The rest have been plying their certified skills for either between zero years (1 to 11 months) and 2 years (19.7 percent), between 3 and 5 years (20.7 percent of respondents), between 6 and 8 years (12.5 percent), or between 9 and 10 years (7.8 percent).
Finally, here's the view of our 2020 Salary Survey participants, in aggregate, on key questions from the survey about how certification impacts job performance:
At my current job I use skills learned or enhanced through certification:
Several times a day: 44 percent
Several times a week: 24.9 percent
Several times a month: 12.6 percent
Occasionally: 12.7 percent
Rarely: 5.8 percent
Since becoming certified, I feel there is greater demand for my skills.
Strongly agree: 25.9 percent
Agree: 41.8 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 23.6 percent
Disagree: 5.7 percent
Strongly Disagree: 3 percent
Becoming certified has increased my problem-solving skills.
Strongly agree: 23.6 percent
Agree: 42.9 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 21.4 percent
Disagree: 8.2 percent
Strongly Disagree: 3.9 percent
Becoming certified has increased my workplace productivity.
Strongly agree: 21.8 percent
Agree: 40 percent
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 25.8 percent
Disagree: 8 percent
Strongly Disagree: 4.4 percent