bobsideways

And now, back to the thread..... I've been in music for a lot of my life, but the greatest achievement came with a small local choir in my area. A few years ago they were invited to go sing in Carnegie, which was awesome, but I wasn't able to go with them (money and all). The coolest thing, though, is due to that they were invited to go to Austria the next year to sing in Mozart's 250th birthday celebration. I couldn't pass that one up. The trip was awesome. I have to say, for a musician who isn't very far along and who lives smack in the middle of the US, to be able to sing through Salzburg and the hub of all music, Vienna, it was sweet. I'm hoping to go back someday. I wanna do it again!

Dude! I haven't played with those for years. I loved them! My parents never got me anything more than the simple boat set, but I loved it. They rocked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/arts/television/26mass.html?_r=3&ref=arts&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin I had no problems viewing the NY Times one. And at the bottom is an update on the current standings of the "talk" between the two. Sadly it's looking less and less likely that anything will come of it. "Electronic Arts, the giant publisher that owns Mass Effect, has asked Fox News for a correction. A Fox News spokesman would say only that Electronic Arts had been offered a chance to appear on the channel. An Electronic Arts spokesman said the company had not yet decided whether to accept the offer." Sure. Invite them to come onto the channel that flamed them, one that doesn't allow anyone to speak unless they have the same opinion. I can just see how that goes....

Ah... now I understand what you meant. Sorry I assumed.... No hard feelings? And you do have a point. I will agree that it's easier to find out things about an error on a PC. Gotta admit, though, I'd rather let it fix itself and let me get back to work. Handy, that.

And I'm probably not helping. I agree. Get what you want, be happy with it. I'll stop ranting now....

One instance of a force-reinstall: My dad made my PC - not the best, but certainly not bottom rung, and I only used it for some old games so that I wasn't on his. At the time it wasn't attached to the internet. I turned my PC on, then realized one of my favorite shows was on. Before I left, I saw that it was fully loaded and ready for me to use it (after five minutes of waiting as usual). The TV I used was on the other side of my bedroom, opposite my PC. At the first commercial break I turned around, wanting to load the game I was going to use after, but on my screen was the BSoD. I had only turned it on, not used it at all otherwise, and through the log in safe mode no one else had used it but me for almost a month (finals time - oh how I hate them). Even my dad, who has been a computer engineer for almost 30 years now was baffled. Nothing in the hardware was wrong. Nothing had been added or removed that was/wasn't necessary. Tell me that's user error, Kautzman. And even when a Mac says "OS has encountered a problem" it gives the option to send the info to Apple, just like a PC. The only difference? Apple gets back with you to let you know what they're doing to fix it. Good luck getting that from Windows. Sure, I like PCs to a point. I like Macs better. So what? The only reason we keep bugging you guys is because you keep bugging us about yours. Specs make the performance. My 1.83 GHz MacBook is running better than the 2.3 GHz monster that my dad has upstairs, which needs to be high-performance so that he can take work home. He hates Macs too, but knows that they do what they need to a lot better than a PC does. Add that to the fact that OSX loads what it needs to first when it is booted, then starts to load all the programs you have set to load at the start. Windows tries to load it all at once, forcing you to wait five to ten minutes half the time, and even with upgraded parts it still takes longer than it needs to. I tried to do another comparing option with the Macs vs Dell or HP, but only Apple gave me a site where I could add what I want to whatever I want, see its price in real time, and see its new specs, without having to actually order one. Dell's site gave a bunch of jabber and possibilities (the only one that came close to the base Mac Pro settings was the XPS 720 H2C Desktop at twice the price (and not as much available room or ability to max out as the Pro). HP had one though, but nowhere near the availability on their best home model as the Mac Pro. And you can customize the laptops and desktops on the Apple website. Take a look. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore Click on the one you want to check out, then click customize. Enjoy.

My dad is a computer engineer, and I've grown up with Windows all of my life. Every version I had of Windows, from 95 on up to XP (never owned Vista though I have played with it) has crashed on me somehow, even without a program running (in actually most cases). Sometimes, yes, it was because I was trying to run something that my computer couldn't run at the time, but in 9 out of 10 times it was Windows that crashed. There were several times that I had to reinstall Windows just to get it to run again. That happened at least once a month (or it at least certainly seemed that way). I had to update or reinstall drivers all the time. It was constantly downloading "updates" that really only took up space on the hard drive. Even the safe mode and "restore date" option took up more hard drive space than my games - and that's saying something. By far, out of them all, I liked 95 and XP. They crashed the least, and for the most part ran what I wanted them to. However, about a year ago I started getting into Macs, and was given a MacBook from the college I attend so that I could have something to do my homework on. Granted, it was the lowest rung: last of the 60 GB HDs, decent but minimal graphics card; though they upped the RAM to 1GB, so that we could run CS2/CS3 on it better (which really doesn't matter with a 1.83 GHz processor). Yes, I know, it's for art/graphic design and all that, but hey, it's something. The only crashes I have are when the program itself tries to take over all the RAM, can't do it, and shuts itself off. This happens mostly with the designing programs, since they take the most - I have never had OSX itself crash on me, though I do know it happens on occasion. There have been a few times, yes, that I've had to hard reset the thing, but when it restarts it's clean as a whistle again. It clears the main cache every time you turn it off, like all the actions you took that session and all that, and you can clear the cache of everything you want to to keep it running smoothly. You can do this on Windows as well - after finding where they hid it this time in the new one or waiting forever to load the Control Panel. I've only once had to reinstall OSX - and that was because I was stupid and didn't use Boot Camp when I tried to partition the HD to have Windows too. You guys say that Macs crash as much as Windows, which is right, but have you compared the severity? Yes, you have many many back doors to recover all of your files, but what do you have to do to view them all again normally on that machine? Cntl-alt-del only works so much. Yes, it's a fancy, overpriced machine. I'd rather pay more for one that works than pay at all for one that doesn't. I'm not saying it's perfect or god-given or whatever, but come on. Btw - Ramaniscence: to toggle through the windows in one single program is Command-~ (the button just above Tab). You can also Command-Shift-~ to cycle backwards (same with Cmd-Shift-Tab for reverse through programs). For some reason, though, the only time that doesn't work is to cycle through the different tabs on Safari. Weird. Hope that helps!

lol I love those. Just wait until the soccer/schoolboy slap/hammer hit. You'll love those too. Greatest. Party game. Ever.

Every Iron Man comic from the beginning through Dec. '06 on DVD-ROM. 'Nuff said. ^Don't trade RR in! It's so insanely fun you'll love it! My wife hates games like that but she can't stop playing! (unless you're not on a Wii, then feel free. That's the only true way to play that game....)

http://web.mac.com/kaleth.galanodel/iWeb/Sideways%20Music/The%20Music_files/A%20Time%20of%20Darkness.mp3 There we go. Sorry about the delay, but there's an mp3 link to the same song as above. As of yet no changes, but it's for the rest of you that couldn't view the file. Enjoy!

Yep, easy to use, not perfect, but still fun. Though yes I drool at the new Logic. I want I want I want I broke. Oh well. Back to work! Again, thanks!

Yeah, the mp3 isn't that hard, I just need to do it real quick. Vocal panning I didn't like, but it was a temporary fix to lower the background noise. Like I said it will be more "professionally" recorded later. I'll do more with it too, since it's liked so far. The synthy bleepy things are just trying out sounds, and might be changed altogether, though I actually have three jam packs. I don't like a lot of the sounds though--the oboe in particular is a real piece of crap. I've been looking for better soundfonts and stuff, but again the time thing and lack of more money just kinda hinders that. Honestly, though, as you say, the beginning is a lot better than the darkworld theme, though that is of course the whole idea of the title.... But I have a feeling that the Song of Time will be a lot easier to work with, provided the vocals are more recordable (stupid mic).... Thank you for the input. I will work some more (and the ending may or may not actually come, since still working around a lot of it).

Yeah, sorry I will have it in mp3 when I get a chance. School and work kinda take all of my time. Vocals will be re-recorded later, I just wanted to get a feel for it. Sorry for the feedback, I don't have a very good mic but I have "some" ways around it. I know, they're not very high quality right now, but again, that's why it's a WiP, right? And accidental wrong site slip up aside, yes, the crime lords are in and the ever powerful man clad in green is their leader! Mwa ha ha ha---wait that one's taken dang it...... About the rest of it though......thoughts?

http://web.mac.com/kaleth.galanodel/iWeb/Sideways%20Music/The%20Music_files/A%20Time%20of%20Darkness%201.m4a Work in progress. A little more serious than the other one I have on the site, and I'm liking it, but I need feedback. Working on it in Garageband (soooo want Logic '08....droooooollll......). Still getting the hang of the program, so some sounds might not be equal or without reverb, but hey let me know about those too. Thanks!

Sadly I'm not (though I'd like to be...). My wife really wants to visit again. Anyway, thanks guys for the comments. A lot more feedback this time than the last time I posted it. Speaking of which, if you want I can add the original Finale midi thing I used if you want to hear it. Eventually, anyway. An idea comes to mind, though. I've also been thinking about actually adding a live touch to it and playing the violin part. Just a spur of the moment thought, but it might work and then I'd only have to tweek the harmony/backups. What do you think?