Sengin

So for some reason I had managed to avoid watching most of his videos. Then I got bored last Saturday at work and remembered it. I watched a newer one. I then proceeded to watch his videos for the rest of the shift. Four hours of hilarity. I think I loved his Painkiller one the best. Like Sephire, I now eagerly await every Wednesday.

Google is still screwed up for me. Everything I search for takes a couple seconds to load the search page and brings up sites like "moxiesearch" and "areaconnect." But the text in the descriptions are those from the real search results. It did that the other night, then was better, and today it's back to this crap again.

This doesn't change the fact that New Jersey's general population are dicks on the road.

Between updating the "Currently in the Judging Process" thread, how many days of submission are judged usually? I ask because on January 2nd, it was for mixes subbed prior to October 29th (I believe). And now, 3 weeks later, it's mixes subbed prior to November 2nd. Was there just an absolute massive amount of mixes subbed between those two days or was there not a lot of time to review mixes and you just wanted to keep the thread somewhat new (as in, it doesn't take over a month to see any update in the "CitJP" thread)? Or is that the standard, ~5 days of mixes for every 2-3 weeks of judging?

If you are insured with medical insurance (either by yourself, a spouse, or parent), tell them and call your insurance agency and tell them what happened. It could also have been a mistake on the hospital's part, and I would talk to a secretary at the hospital as well (bring the bill, of course, and if you remember the person who told you where to go, find them as well). Unfortunately, people try to scam their insurance agency all the time, so they are very likely going to be skeptical and if may be difficult to get this taken care of. Good luck.

Man that sounds freaking awesome. I can't wait until I'm in the part of my Real-Time class where we're doing that stuff (right now it's just modeling state transition diagrams (i.e. finite state automata), but eventually we'll be synthesizing sounds).

...a while. It's for free so that people who don't have finale can look at the music created by those who do.

Sure. You're welcome.

Yeah, but I heard it was going back to the way it once was. Though it was a while ago that I heard that and I could be gravely mistaken.

I'm back...with typos and stuff. Another interesting read; I gotta say I enjoy reading your stuff. Anyway, onto any problems I noticed: In the section for PS/2, you didn't give it a header (it just says 3.2.8.3 and goes to the next line). Oh, and what a comparison from firewire to usb spreading like [...]. You never mention what IEEE 1394 is in the section. In talking about the surround sound RCA plugs, the center/subwoofer color is orange, and the rear speakers are black (you reversed them). "but lack high-end features like a BIOS that works and more than your basic i/o options." Do you mean something like "like a BIOS that does more than basic I/O options"? "jetway sells models than all of the other companies who sell itx combined" Do you mean that they seel more models? Also, what is an itx board? You mention it a couple times. Good read. A thought to go in the intro somewhere: an explanation of kilo-(bit/byte/hertz), mega-, and giga-, at least that mega is 1000x bigger than a kilo-, a giga is 1000x that of a mega-, and (for hard drives only at this point) that tera- is 1000x that of a giga-. If you do have this somewhere, forgive me, as I didn't read section 2 again.

I was about to bump the thread again soon and ask what the hold-up was.

I have been interested in computers for a long time now. Audio, not as long, but it's definitely a strong interest. Hell, that is why I am taking a Real-Time Systems class (and in the same semester as Operating Systems (no, not using OSes, but making/programming them) and AI): for the audio/dsp components of the class. I really cannot wait until the later labs when we are doing audio stuff (I think the final lab is something to do with synthesis of audio to sound like an orchestra or something). Also note that this class is an elective, and HARD. Including myself, there are 4 students in the class. Apparently I like to tortune myself, as I am the 2nd student to take OS and Real-Time in the same semester (in recent memory of the professor, who actually has a damn good memory - he hadn't seen me in three and a half years and remembered my name), let alone adding AI in there too. ...that's how much I want to learn and do with audio.

I have it - but only because I got it for Christmas (my mother asked my brother if I had it, he said I didn't, and she got it for me). I have to say, the game is extremely "meh." Some parts are fun, but then you realize that stuff like jumping on top of something is excruciatingly difficult because of the really dumbass controls. You see, if you press the 2 button, you "hop," which means you jump like an inch and kinda hover over the ground for a second. To actually jump, you have to hold the 2 button, wait until you start sliding (which also slows you down - yeah, you have to slow down at least a little to jump), then release it to jump. But if you want to actually jump any height more than a couple feet, you have to really slide a little ways. Oh, and to do the homing attack, you have to shake the controller (and by shake I mean thrust it forward) at a specific time. And while this may seem all good and ok, it's definitely not once you realize that you just died because the game didn't recognize you thrusting your controller forward. But you will have died a couple times before that trying to jump to a couple platforms with pits around them because you have not pressed the jump button long enough and did that stupid quick jump, then you will have ran off the end of the first one because you couldn't stop in time, and then some more times for some more stupid reasons. There are some missions where you have to end with zero rings. Sure it doesn't sound that hard, especially considering there are plenty of places to get hit and lose your rings. But the challenge is actually in the last section of the level where there are lots of rings, no ways to get damaged, and no ways to die. It's difficult because no matter how slow you go, the controls are so wonky that it's almost garaunteed that you will get a ring somehow ("oh shit, I tried to jump onto the platform, but I somehow gained extra speed in the air and touched a ring," or "well crap, I THOUGHT I was holding the wiimote perfectly straight, but I somehow boosted to the left and got 2 rings"). And then you have to restart the entire level because you can't die in the last section, and you fail if you have any rings at all. Also, you can equip some "skills" to use as you level up, but some of them should be part of the game without you needing to equip them. As in "makes moving on the ground easier and more fluid." And in the air. And while sliding. Etc. Also, turning is stupid. And tilting the wiimote the same amount won't garauntee that you turn the same amount either (sometimes it's really easy to turn quickly and dodge the fire, while other times it's a garaunteed damage taken). Though I do enjoy Speed Break (Sonic go real fast zoom) and Time Break (everything is slowed down and you can dodge things easily). They are both powerups you get automatically that you can use when you collect enough soul orbs in the level. But yeah, don't waste your money. I would HIGHLY recommend renting it first. Maybe buy it if you find it new for $10 like I saw at Walmart a little while ago. To me, it's not worth $20. MAYBE $10, but even then it's a little stretch.

Plus, the controls were much more stiff and awkward than from Mario 64. Mario 64 had delicious, fluid controls.

I am definitely liking the feature where you click and shake a window to minimize every other window. I have the mouse gestures addon for firefox to open/close/minimize/switch tabs, and I love it. I hope W7 has other things you can do with the mouse such as that, or at least a way to create your own.

If I had a spare/decent computer I would definitely try it out. For now though, I'll just have to rely on what others say.

I am totally in agreement of S3&K being my favorite sonic game. Hell yes. I have played and beaten it so many times, and I keep coming back for more. Sonic 2 was great as well, but S3&K definitely tops it. At this point, I bet a couple fans could put together a better 3D Sonic game than Sega. I don't need anything more than Dr. Ivo Robotnik trying to take over the world while (an average height with the regular shoes) Sonic/Tails/Knuckles (and no one else except maybe Metal Sonic as a boss) travel through various zones with 2 or 3 acts per zone collecting emerals via special stages (which are hard enough that most people don't collect all the emerals the first time through the game) and defeating a boss at the end of each zone, with Robotnik as the last boss. Though maybe walljumping would be a neat addition to gameplay while maintaining Sonic's "Way Past Cool" attitude of the day.

I will definitely be adding more later. I don't want to put a lot of work into the midi when it can be spent elsewhere. I just wanted to get feedback on the arrangement/where I'm taking the remix. I think that adding more to the arrangement will detract from the theme of a spy (that being one of lonesomeness and individualism) by making the arrangement too busy. That being said, there will definitely be some high strings in there, it's not going to be solo piano. I haven't decided on what else to use though, and I'm not sure how the next section will be played out. Edit: I went through and imported everything into Reason and rendered it as an mp3. It's still piano-only at the moment, with no velocity work or anything yet, but I think I'll stick with this style of piano (and old grand). Next I'll work on getting the strings in there. http://www.box.net/shared/gu82fbgguf

So I got this musical idea/theme a while ago, and couldn't think of what song it would go with. I was listening to some music a little while ago, and A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup (from Sonic Adventure 2) came up in shuffle, and I immediately thought of using the intro I already had written with it. I only have a little bit written, and so far it's just using Finale with a keyboard setup. If you can't tell by listening, it's set so far to be reminiscent of a spy. I'll probably call it something like "Psst - The Pumpkin's a Spy" or something using the original title more. I am mainly looking for criticism of the arrangement, since all I have is a midi at the moment. Think strings and maybe some light percussion to be added to it; it may help with where I'm going. If you haven't heard A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup, here's the link: And here's the link to the very early wip: http://www.box.net/shared/ljsisuct1p Now in mp3 form: http://www.box.net/shared/gu82fbgguf Note: I'm not sure which style piano I'm going to use, but I think I like this style (an old grand style, adds more to the spy theme). Thanks.

Hopefully they just won't charge an arm and a leg for it. Oh well, I can probably buy it much cheaper through my university (I should be in grad school at the time).

The link to the main song in the first post doesn't work anymore. Also, you should definitely render a full version of the song witih what you have going right now. I've been looking forward to more!

I use box.net for my storage needs. I haven't had any problems with links expiring, and you can even see how many times each file is downloaded. It's also free.

Yeah, I saw that today and nearly jumped. I'm trying to scrounge up $5 for Bioshock (yeah, money is tight, and I don't have a computer that would run it yet; I'm in the process of building it). I haven't used Steam to download any large-scale games (just Peggle (so addicting...) and Audiosurf). You can download the instruction manual for a game like Bioshock when you buy it, right?

Haha, I know. I was saying how there was a program for Windows that allows me to connect easily. I meant that when I said "In this case, I am...". Though I do agree that it is not clear, at all. What do you mean by "easier to code in"? Because I find it much more painstaking, because I have to use pico, vi, vim, etc..., all command line applications, which I find quite annoying. I much prefer Visual Studio and NetBeans IDE for programming. Or do you mean easier as in "all I gotta do is type 'vim Hello World.c'?" I've never had a nice keyboard for the mac, it's always been the standard keyboard you get with the desktop and it's always been awful (and unadjustable, as far as the physical height of the keyboard off the ground).

Argh, I really dislike the hate that comes from people when I say that I don't like macs. It's easy. Install Visual Studio Express. It's free, easy, and a very nice IDE for C/C++ applications. I have used it especially for OpenGL coding, and I loved it. Not to mention that it is free, and I can do whatever I want with it (you would think that the express version would be like a sort of "limited" version, but I have not found anything that I cannot do with the express version). By your response, I am assuming there is a free C/C++ compiler for macs? I'm asking because I do not know, as I have not had a need to program in C/C++ for a mac (as I generally do everything I can to use a Windows machine over a mac). Yes, I know, as I'm sure a lot of people do (well, unless you are the sort of person who buys a mac because it's "trendy"). C/C++ and Java mostly since they are the most commonly used; however I have also programmed in Lisp, Ruby, PHP, Prolog, and some others using a Windows utility called Putty to connect to my university's Unix machine. In this case, I'm referring to Putty, which is extremely easy to use to connect to the machine so that I am able to use those languages. I have not found a language that is difficult to program in for Windows. I mean how the keyboard is stupidly unresponsive and difficult to type with (as in the keys are not sensitive), and how the mice are generally, in my experience, to be somewhat sluggish (and I have not had the chance to use a two-button mac mouse). I have used a variety of OSes, from Windows to Ubuntu to Mac OS X and others as well. I have to regularly use Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X (though I think some of the machines I've used have Leopard on them). By regularly, I mean I presently use Windows every day, Unix a couple times a month (it used to be more though), and Mac OS a couple hours a week. Why do you think I am one of those anti-mac people for the hell of it? Yeah, I definitely prefer Windows over other OSes, and if I don't like an OS, I have reasons. I hate navigating around the file system in Macs unless I know the absolute path name of my file, opening files in Macs (I tried to open a simple Java file and it took me a couple of minutes of searching online to open an editor that wasn't equivalent to notepad's functionality) and it turns out that the reason I couldn't find it looking through the the applications folder was because the name wasn't anything descriptive about it's use, and plenty of other things (it seems that every time I use a Mac for more than an hour I learn something else I dislike about it).