prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

blue man group's song club nowhere was a song that i really like, but it never made me cry.

i think you'd find that timing is incredibly overrated, really. i run 5-5-5-15 ddr2 800mhz ram, and when i spent some money and got 3-4-4-8 ram i barely noticed a difference. that said, asus doesn't list your board on their site. you might want to confim that board name...what graphics chipset does it use? it's a socket 478, right?

there's a possibility that those tracks are in mp3 VBR and iTunes isn't recognizing the digital tag that lets it know that. try redownloading - likely, a few bits here or there got fragmented on the dl.

in general, when you've got ram with two different timings being installed, the board generally reverts to the slower settings. so, likely, if you installed the cheapest ram (never do rebates, not worth the time...particularly with ram and power supplys, i've found), it'd revert to the timing that's the slowest. in other words, your new ram would function at your old ram's timing. just go with the cheapest ones, any bonus you'd get would be cancelled out by the poor timing on your older ram.

here's the internals in the metal casing that's inside of the plastic case. i'm probably going to install the internals into either a handbuilt case or an old 386 desktop case i've got sitting around for the lulz. with an expanded hard drive, of course. i might just chop up a broken 360 to run backups and xbox originals instead, i haven't decided if it's worth the time getting the software to run backups off of the (also hacked) hard drive. here's a better picture of the motherboard and psu of the xbox. most of this is coming out, of course. a worthy item to note is that the front controller ports are connected through a header card to the motherboard...but they're almost exactly the same as standard usb. i might even be able to reuse the header, we'll see. i'll probably just wind up using those brackets to hold reused usb ports. that's all for now. when my next computer job comes in, i'll buy the parts and get the interior set up. because all of my case mod tools are at the house i grew up in, i'll have to wait till i go home for christmas to do the case modifications. i should be able to set everything up now, though, assuming there aren't any huge issues with space inside the box.

i forgot to take pictures of it before i disassembled it, but here's what i found. there's all the case parts in the box, disassembled. all xboxes have two layers to the case - a plastic layer and a thin metal box inside as well. the plastic layer is what i'll mod up - but i will likely use the metal box to help organize everything in the htpc itself. there's a better view of the case parts. i'm still planning on using the front buttons if at all possible. here's the header for the front buttons. i'm going to try to find some wiring diagrams so i can see what button does what. the eject button should be able to stay wired the way it is (the dvd player's power and controls are attached directly to the motherboard with data through an IDE cable, so this should be easy to continue using). the power button will get a bit rewired, and i'm going to use it like a standard momentary switch with the picopsu.

i thought that the discussion of persona 3, for example, was really great.

jooooiiiin you must joooooiin us

i think that you've got a really good point - video games have grown out of the 2d platformers and are really starting to come of age as a medium of expression - particularly because unlike other mediums, like music, the act of understanding a game means that you play it, you're involved with it. as a classical musician, i can say that music has a similar appeal to me, but it's a much more closed environment - within the confines of a high-level classical performance group - than something like a game, which is pretty much experienced by everyone in the same way. i think that sephfire's youtube video about sex and video games points out some really good ideas on this topic again, and the video was good enough to warrant bringing up here again. does anyone else have a feeling on this? and, for that matter, should this get moved to the flamepit that is ppr?

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/serious-games-issues.ars serious games: ars looks at games that tackle the big issues yet again, ars comes through with another really interesting article that i think a lot of you should read. some really interesting and thought-provoking things are talked about here. thoughts?

wips should not be public unless it's like an audition piece or something. all project pieces should be kept close to the chest until release, it makes for a much better release experience then.

too human is fun, but it's relatively short and way too long at the same time (only four official missions where you can customize your equipment afterwords, very long in that it took some 15 hours to beat the whole thing even though it was only four missions). if you can get someone else to get it too (and pay less than 30$ for it) it's worth the price because playing it together is a lot of fun. DMC4 is great fun if you like buttonmashers and the like. if you're not into pretty much straightforward action games with terrible voice acting and script writing, avoid. but i found the pc version enjoyable, and modable as well. force unleashed is great fun but too short and has a slightly empty storyline. wish it was on pc as well. ok, there's three.

is it por-tiss-head, or por-tih-shed?

have you ever sang that song in context, in an ensemble large enough to make it work? i sat in front of the sopranos. all nintey of them. three pages of high As later (because no soprano, woman or boy, on the planet can sing a high A and project it over an orchestra without making it have vibrato large enough for truck parking), i was crying.

don't be an ass, damned. he's pointing out that while he has been moved, it's a topic he doesn't feel like mentioning because no matter how tastefully they mention it (which he did, nice work thin crust) someone will feel like they're proselytizing. like yourself. i've been moved to tears by several songs i heard in church, notably the keith getty/stuart townsend song 'in christ alone'. it was pretty much the unofficial song of the college i went to in undergrad, and everyone always sang their heart out in chapel when someone played it during worship. i still get a little stuffy singing it in church with my wife (who went to the same school as i did for undergrad).

most don't, and pretty much if you ask too many questions most will just ban your ip for a short time until you stop asking said questions.

that sounds good to me. i might as well give it a shot.

bada bing bada bump

anyone seen video diary 7 yet? it came out on the 2nd, and there's some solid footage about the sound effects and comopsitional content of the game's music. interesting comments on the lead sound designer's take on the soundtrack in the game.

anyone got any good games for 360 they'd be willing to sell for relatively cheap?

generally, just using the box in your profile is the best way to do it. at least, that's what i use when i'm looking for something in particular. putting it in your sig with a link to some samples is a good way, too.

there's a hack for windows allowing the 360 controllers to be used as a control device (think arrow keys, enter, escape, and a few others). if possible, i'm doing that =) dd, i was thinking about fooling with a controller and seeing if i could hack it out and make it work in windows, but i'd have to hand-make a driver for it, and i don't think i'm going to have the time for that. xbox acquired (as of tonight), so when i get it i'll start posting pictures of the insides.

this is why my main desktop system, which is a monster, is going to be doing the grunt work for this. vintage is just going to be a display box.

the journey is a part of it, but i'm thinking about getting a low-profile graphics card to beef up hd content. it wouldn't be transcoding hd content anyways, since i back up all my dvds onto my desktop anyways. this way i can just have it hooked up to the home network and it streams them directly off of my pc.

while perusing the case mod section of overclock.net a few days ago, i came across higgins' great playstationpc thread. i dug around in the pictures a bit, which got me looking around at prices and stats for the new itx standard for motherboard design and the atom 330. which lead to this idea. being an xbox kind of guy as opposed to ps1, my plan is to take an original xbox (broken, they're way cheaper that way) and mod it into an HTPC/conversation piece for my stereo cabinet at home. i might add some adjustable cathode lights along the bottom for effects. i'll add a few fans (likely exhaust under the top logo and intake on the back), replace the controller ports with USB plugs taken from a few old cases i have sitting around, and generally attempt to keep it looking as much the same as the original as possible. i intend to use the original power button. the eject button will likely wind up being used for controlling the lights, if i choose to add them. i will also likely paint the case (my dad's an auto mechanic and has the tools sitting in our garage back home). parts: -used and broken xbox, purchased from ebay -intel BLKD945GCLF2 mini-itx motherboard with included dual-core Atom 330 @ 1.6ghz -picoPSU-90 12V DC-DC ATX power supply -dvd/cd-rw drive from my old school laptop (slim drive) -usb connectors and wiring from extra cases -slim cd-rom to 2.5" IDE adapter -ddr2 667 ram from newegg -80g hard drive from newegg (ideally a notebook drive) what do you think? i'll post pictures as i have them. i'm bidding on a few broken xboxes on ebay as we speak, so i should get one within the next few days. now, i realize that this isn't the norm for stuff that goes here - but i figure that people will think that it's kind of cool. considering that i might sell this when it's done, maybe an idea as to the work that went into it will make people think it's as cool as i do right now when i'm building it. step one: xbox acquired and disassembled. step two: parts purchased, en route till thursday. pics when they're here. thanks (so far) go out to: llamma.com's xbox mod section, www.mini-box.com