I was the odd-ball without an NES, but oh the love I had for my Sega Master System -- Phantasy Star, Ys, Miracle Warriors, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Zillion, Walter Payton Football, Quartet, Space Harrier -- oh the hours of my mis-spent youth
The lack of a firewire port is the one big missing thing for me -- not being able to hook this thing to my video camera or audio recording interface is a big bummer, because other than that, I'm in serious new-mac lust.
Actually, as an independent band with our digital distribution handled through CDBaby, we get about $0.60 per iTunes sale. I think 60% is a pretty fair shake for something that costs us nothing. And, getting checks without worrying about remaining physical inventory is a delight. We sell CDs primarily at shows now.
You are right in one sense -- HD is not going to make bad content turn good, but after getting the over-the-air HD content and A/B'ing it to the standard def content it is much less pleasurable to watch the SD anymore. Think of it like the evolution of digital cameras -- the 1 MP snapshot your cell phone captures will let you get the idea of something, but with a DSLR at 8MP you can savor the vivid color, sharp pictures, and notice details you couldn't with the low-res picture.
By hook I don't mean "standard pop song structure." I mean something that is catchy, something memorable, something you might find yourself humming or singing to yourself out of the blue -- something that "hooks" you. I'm not saying a song can't be good without an easily identifiable hook (it just sure ain't gonna be a radio hit), and I wasn't even saying this song was terrible. I was pointing out that this example of YouTube's "best" is woefully pedestrian and has been done a thousand times before by a thousand other emo teenage songwriters.
As a songwriter and performer, I was curious to go see this Terra Naomi who is YouTube famous. Consider me unimpressed. Nice voice, sure, but the song has no hook! Yet because she's a teen aged girl on the internet, she gets bajillions of page views and a major label deal? Seriously?
There are hundreds of hard working touring songwriters of both genders who deserve this shot more than this three chord emo wonder.
That's exactly the point I came in to make -- the statistics quoted in the summary show that Apple's 1% market share is achievable.
What I wonder is why not release a "phone-less" version of the iPhone at the same time -- take out the cell phone features, leave the wifi and widescreen iPod and you've still got a very desirable device, but without the contract commitment and monthly fees. Then watch them fly off the shelves...
Of all the finalists, this one seems to be the most innovative -- if it lives up to its promise, it would be phenomenal as a songwriting tool. Hum a melody and beatbox your drums and voila! an instant demo of your musical idea.
Not that a virtual plant or the weather on your desktop isn't cool, too. I mean who has time to put a real plant near their desk, or to get up from their chair to see what the weather is outside?
My first exposure to RAW was through the Principia Discordia and the Illuminatus! trilogy, but it was his other books that changed the way I think about a lot of things, Cosmic Trigger and Prometheus Rising especially. Quite honestly, I consider him a great influence, and I suspect there are a lot of others like me. That is why this call for help is meaningful here and elsewhere, and why I'm sending a donation.
Those of you who haven't read any of his work and also feel some sort of strange self-righteous lack of human kindness to the point of telling a terminally ill man to "get a job at Wal-Mart" might do well to never grow old, sick, or widowed.
Here's another vote for an external firewire interface.
For what you are trying to accomplish, you should be able to get an interface and a chinese large-diaphragm condenser together in the $300-500 range. For example, a PreSonus Firebox (~$300) and a Studio Projects B1 (~$100).
For a place to get started shopping, Sweetwater has incredible customer service. BSW has some "podcast" packages with everything you'd need to get started.
My carpooling buddy it for his PSP and I played it this week -- INSTANTLY hooked me. I haven't played the first installation, but I'm going to go and find it now for my mac, since Lego StarWars II isn't out for the mac yet.
The humor (like two stormtroopers in a hot-tub at the end of the first level), the sheer perfect joy of seeing the SW world as legos, and great gameplay make this a real winner.
Um, yeah, I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there.
As someone who hasn't had a console since N64, and with a young family, Wii Sports is the game I'm most interested in. I love that Nintendo is including tennis, baseball, and golf right out of the box (heck, as a golfer, I'd buy the thing just for the golf!) in a format that will be fun to play together? And my guess is that before you bought a second "wiimote" you could pass the controller around...
Sure, other games are going to be the big attraction for lots of folks, but, to me, Wii Sports looks like a great introduction to the system.
I admit I had the All-in-one fears before getting our 20" G5 iMac, but the machine is simply amazing: Fast, quiet, and, as my wife says, "pretty." Sure there's the "if it dies" worry... but even seperates can and do break. The MacPro and mini are always there if you want something headless...
Guitar Hero ain't gigging, but it sure is fun --
on
New Guitar Hero 2 Info
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I made my living for 5 years as a touring songwriter / frontman for a rock band, and I expected very little from Guitar Hero -- how could it be anything like playing a real guitar?
But I LOVE the game -- the guitar controller is suprisingly good (I'd like it to be heavier tho'), and the easier settings let anyone jump right in and rock out. In my opinion, it is best in multiplayer with a group of friends.
Personally, I can't wait for Guitar Hero 2.
I carpool with a guy who's got a PSP, which is my only exposure to the machine. He replaced the firmware so he can run emulators of old consoles, as well as load his UMD games on a 2gig memory stick. I've had fun with it on the days when I ride and he drives--the new NCAA football is great. Crazy, though, that he had to hack the thing to make it "fun."
That said, he's the only person I know with a PSP -- and I've run into several folks lately the DS and every kid's got a GBA. Seems to me that significantly dropping the price point would be the only way for Sony to catch up at this point.
Personally, I can't wait for the Wii...
It would be great to see Apple extend this to Linux support, too. Since this is really a glorified boot loader (albeit a pretty one that finds drivers, too) how much trouble would it be to allow for tri-booting and helping support the F/OS world, too. I don't yet have an intel mac, but this could be handy even on the PPC side.
Sure, the intarwebs have been great for bands -- including mine! -- but, for me, the joy, the passion, the reason for doing it is the live shows. I love touring to new towns and clubs and making new fans. People dancing, drinking, having a great time. Playing music FOR people.
I think the advent of easier video will continue to bring great opportunities to indie musicians, but it ain't touring.
For those who've been asking, Switchfoot is actually quite talented. I haven't heard this new disc yet, but the last one, Beautiful Letdown, has got some great tunes and hooks on it.
And, for what it's worth, I'm not even a christian and I dig 'em, even though they are labeled a christian band.
Slashdot Mirror
I was the odd-ball without an NES, but oh the love I had for my Sega Master System -- Phantasy Star, Ys, Miracle Warriors, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Zillion, Walter Payton Football, Quartet, Space Harrier -- oh the hours of my mis-spent youth
The lack of a firewire port is the one big missing thing for me -- not being able to hook this thing to my video camera or audio recording interface is a big bummer, because other than that, I'm in serious new-mac lust.
Actually, as an independent band with our digital distribution handled through CDBaby, we get about $0.60 per iTunes sale. I think 60% is a pretty fair shake for something that costs us nothing. And, getting checks without worrying about remaining physical inventory is a delight. We sell CDs primarily at shows now.
And the hour before "Heroes," the recent series "Chuck" is chock-full of iPhone placement...
You are right in one sense -- HD is not going to make bad content turn good, but after getting the over-the-air HD content and A/B'ing it to the standard def content it is much less pleasurable to watch the SD anymore. Think of it like the evolution of digital cameras -- the 1 MP snapshot your cell phone captures will let you get the idea of something, but with a DSLR at 8MP you can savor the vivid color, sharp pictures, and notice details you couldn't with the low-res picture.
By hook I don't mean "standard pop song structure." I mean something that is catchy, something memorable, something you might find yourself humming or singing to yourself out of the blue -- something that "hooks" you. I'm not saying a song can't be good without an easily identifiable hook (it just sure ain't gonna be a radio hit), and I wasn't even saying this song was terrible. I was pointing out that this example of YouTube's "best" is woefully pedestrian and has been done a thousand times before by a thousand other emo teenage songwriters.
As a songwriter and performer, I was curious to go see this Terra Naomi who is YouTube famous. Consider me unimpressed. Nice voice, sure, but the song has no hook! Yet because she's a teen aged girl on the internet, she gets bajillions of page views and a major label deal? Seriously?
There are hundreds of hard working touring songwriters of both genders who deserve this shot more than this three chord emo wonder.
Sigh.
That's exactly the point I came in to make -- the statistics quoted in the summary show that Apple's 1% market share is achievable. What I wonder is why not release a "phone-less" version of the iPhone at the same time -- take out the cell phone features, leave the wifi and widescreen iPod and you've still got a very desirable device, but without the contract commitment and monthly fees. Then watch them fly off the shelves...
I voted for Whistler.
Of all the finalists, this one seems to be the most innovative -- if it lives up to its promise, it would be phenomenal as a songwriting tool. Hum a melody and beatbox your drums and voila! an instant demo of your musical idea.
Not that a virtual plant or the weather on your desktop isn't cool, too. I mean who has time to put a real plant near their desk, or to get up from their chair to see what the weather is outside?
My first exposure to RAW was through the Principia Discordia and the Illuminatus! trilogy, but it was his other books that changed the way I think about a lot of things, Cosmic Trigger and Prometheus Rising especially. Quite honestly, I consider him a great influence, and I suspect there are a lot of others like me. That is why this call for help is meaningful here and elsewhere, and why I'm sending a donation.
Those of you who haven't read any of his work and also feel some sort of strange self-righteous lack of human kindness to the point of telling a terminally ill man to "get a job at Wal-Mart" might do well to never grow old, sick, or widowed.
Here's another vote for an external firewire interface.
For what you are trying to accomplish, you should be able to get an interface and a chinese large-diaphragm condenser together in the $300-500 range. For example, a PreSonus Firebox (~$300) and a Studio Projects B1 (~$100).
For a place to get started shopping, Sweetwater has incredible customer service. BSW has some "podcast" packages with everything you'd need to get started.
My carpooling buddy it for his PSP and I played it this week -- INSTANTLY hooked me. I haven't played the first installation, but I'm going to go and find it now for my mac, since Lego StarWars II isn't out for the mac yet.
The humor (like two stormtroopers in a hot-tub at the end of the first level), the sheer perfect joy of seeing the SW world as legos, and great gameplay make this a real winner.
Um, yeah, I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there.
As someone who hasn't had a console since N64, and with a young family, Wii Sports is the game I'm most interested in. I love that Nintendo is including tennis, baseball, and golf right out of the box (heck, as a golfer, I'd buy the thing just for the golf!) in a format that will be fun to play together? And my guess is that before you bought a second "wiimote" you could pass the controller around...
Sure, other games are going to be the big attraction for lots of folks, but, to me, Wii Sports looks like a great introduction to the system.
Shhh.... the Beatles will hear you! Do you want to get sued?
I admit I had the All-in-one fears before getting our 20" G5 iMac, but the machine is simply amazing: Fast, quiet, and, as my wife says, "pretty." Sure there's the "if it dies" worry... but even seperates can and do break. The MacPro and mini are always there if you want something headless...
I made my living for 5 years as a touring songwriter / frontman for a rock band, and I expected very little from Guitar Hero -- how could it be anything like playing a real guitar? But I LOVE the game -- the guitar controller is suprisingly good (I'd like it to be heavier tho'), and the easier settings let anyone jump right in and rock out. In my opinion, it is best in multiplayer with a group of friends. Personally, I can't wait for Guitar Hero 2.
I carpool with a guy who's got a PSP, which is my only exposure to the machine. He replaced the firmware so he can run emulators of old consoles, as well as load his UMD games on a 2gig memory stick. I've had fun with it on the days when I ride and he drives--the new NCAA football is great. Crazy, though, that he had to hack the thing to make it "fun." That said, he's the only person I know with a PSP -- and I've run into several folks lately the DS and every kid's got a GBA. Seems to me that significantly dropping the price point would be the only way for Sony to catch up at this point. Personally, I can't wait for the Wii...
As a professional designer, I feel the need to share, from a certain perspective, that "spec" design work hurts both the designer and the client.
See what the folks at No-Spec.com have to say about specs, and design contests in particular: http://www.no-spec.com/?page_id=38
I would advocate that, instead, Taco hire an agency or designer that he likes to do the work.
It would be great to see Apple extend this to Linux support, too. Since this is really a glorified boot loader (albeit a pretty one that finds drivers, too) how much trouble would it be to allow for tri-booting and helping support the F/OS world, too. I don't yet have an intel mac, but this could be handy even on the PPC side.
Sure, the intarwebs have been great for bands -- including mine! -- but, for me, the joy, the passion, the reason for doing it is the live shows. I love touring to new towns and clubs and making new fans. People dancing, drinking, having a great time. Playing music FOR people.
I think the advent of easier video will continue to bring great opportunities to indie musicians, but it ain't touring.
For those who've been asking, Switchfoot is actually quite talented. I haven't heard this new disc yet, but the last one, Beautiful Letdown, has got some great tunes and hooks on it. And, for what it's worth, I'm not even a christian and I dig 'em, even though they are labeled a christian band.
All Hail Discordia! Been ages since I've played a rowdy game of INWO!
where do I sign up to get my free dual G5?
/.?
the real question is -- who was the anonymous donor? Do you have to write an OS to get one, or just write inane posts on
Microsofts loss is my GAIM.
ha.