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orlouge82

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Posts posted by orlouge82

    Stop Online Piracy Act

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 possibilities: Either Anonymous' video was a drill, or it only passed in 1 sector of Congress.

    No idea why they say it has passed, but it hasn't in either chamber.

    Markup in Committee has been postponed until next year on SOPA, but unfortunately, cloture (end to debate) was filed on PIPA for Jan 24th in the Senate.

    It's gotta be a drill.

    In any case, there's still time to kill both of these bills.

    Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2011

    in Competitions

    Posted

    None of you Wily source haters have the memory of playing the game after getting it for Christmas after it first came out, and having this song play while feeling that sense of accomplishment after finally figuring out how to beat Elec Man (if you didn't know to use Cut Man's weapon, he was impossible to beat).

    Yeah, it's simple, but so...many...memories.

    Stop Online Piracy Act

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    THE JUDICIAL BRANCH IS NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE LAW!

    Roe V Wade was the opening of the floodgates to judges making law in this country the congress of the time did not call them on it did not impeach them for it and now judges all over the place are taking far too large a step.

    Sorry, I don't want to get off topic here, either, but I just have to correct this massive error.

    [OFF TOPIC]

    Roe v. Wade was correctly decided under the Constitution, and it did not open the floodgates to judicial "law-making." 1803's Marbury v. Madison did. Marbury established the principle of judicial review (i.e. courts ruling that laws are unconstitutional). All Roe v. Wade did was rule that abortion restrictions are unconstitutional. It didn't "make new laws" per se. It set a restriction on Congress's and the individual states' power under the Constitution. If the Supreme Court couldn't do that, the judicial branch would not have any power in the whole "checks and balances" equation that's supposed to keep the three branches of government in check.

    If you disagree with a Court ruling, that's your right as an American to do so, but the Supreme Court is the final legal authority on what's constitutional.

    [/OFF TOPIC]

    Stop Online Piracy Act

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Uh, if your family gets anywhere near a computer with internet(i.e. Youtube or Facebook), SOPA would adversely affect them as well.

    Yes.

    I honestly can't imagine that YouTube will still be around if SOPA passes. Facebook, too, to a lesser extent. Maybe Americans will actually wake up once they can't waste their workdays on Facebook and YouTube anymore and take a stand.

    Otherwise, the Supreme Court's been pretty gung ho on protecting free speech as of late, so hopefully they'll overturn SOPA (it's not a matter of the legal question of whether SOPA is unconstitutional -- it absolutely is -- it's a question of politics and, more importantly, money).

    It'll take several years to get there, though, but we can all hope for federal court injunctions in the meantime to protect us.

    Let's just hope that the damn thing never passes in the first place, though.

    EDIT: As for the Republican/Democrat issue in regards to SOPA, the ones on both sides of the aisle actually opposing SOPA are the ones who still stand by their political beliefs and didn't become complete whores who sell out to the highest bidder (Hollywood). Also, there are those who recognize how catastrophically bad SOPA will be for the country and the world and can't be bought out of their stance.

    Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2011

    in Competitions

    Posted

    A Swarm of Voxels – Just awesome. The chiptunes and the arrangement here make you visualize a swarm of voxels. Terrifying. Anyhow, this is probably one of my favorites that you’ve submitted in this and the GRMRB 2011 (“Save a Horse (Ride a Transformer)” is up there, too). This one is a serious contender for the top 3, and it easily would have made it if not for how awesome the rest of the songs are. The only possible complaint I have about it is the length. I wish there was more to it. Still, just awesome.

    Totally Tubular Fortress – Nice take on Blizzard Man’s theme. I almost didn’t recognize it. And it’s a little slower than some of your other remixes. Although it’s not one of my favorites from you (Cold Dreams is probably that one for me) I really like it. Again, the competition this round is pretty strong.

    WHICH ONE DO I SHOOT?! – If I remember correctly, I think the Search Snake on either makes the real one take damage. Anyhow, great mix. Really clever take on Gemini Man’s theme. Just like with Hylian Lemon’s, this one is probably one my favorites that you’ve submitted for this compo or the GRMRB 2011, and definitely a contender for my top 3. Again, just so many awesome songs this round, otherwise it would have been a shoo-in.

    Megaman Awesome – I really liked the arrangement here and I liked the song overall. I think the production could have been fattened up some. The samples didn’t really seem that full, and the sound wasn’t that robust. Not a bad song by any measure, though, it just seemed to strike me as unfinished.

    Call the Fire Department – We finally get to hear from Zach72. Man, this song was going so well. I wish you could finish it. I really want to hear the rest!

    Wily's Ruin – More power guitar leads from AMT, with the addition this time of lyrics. As I’ve said many, many times before, I’m not a big fan of lyrics in VG music, but these are actually pretty well done, and the song sounds like my taste in music outside of VG music. A definite contender for my top three, which says a lot for a remix with lyrics. Nicely done.

    When The Moon Cries – You just pulled out all of the stops with this one. See above in re: lyrics, but just like AMT’s song, they were well done here. You really did a great job putting together a very cohesive blend of a song. I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but this one’s another contender for my top 3. It didn’t make the cut, but I have no doubt that this song will be one of the top vote-collectors this round, based on how popular yours and your team’s mixes have been so far and how well done this one is. That says a lot since there are so many good songs in this round.

    Black Alleycat – Like I PM’ed you earlier, you are reeeeeally good at the smooth and chill stuff. One of my favorites of the round, and probably the entire compo so far. Ever since I first listened to your EP, I’ve been waiting for you to come up with something like this. Love it. I haven’t decided yet if this gets #1 or #2, but it’s up there. Great work, and sad that this is (or at least may be) the last mix we hear from you in the compo. Hopefully we’ll see you in the Maverick one.

    Float – While your ability to vary between styles so easily and fluidly impresses, even more impressive is your ability to do so while still producing excellent remixes. This is your, what, sixth Bubble Man remix, and it’s unlike any other one you’ve done. The closest one is Bubbling Adrenaline, but that isn’t that similar to this one. And as much as I liked that one, I like this one much better. One of the best of the round. It’s four and a half minutes long, but it always seems to breeze right by when I listen to it that it feels really short. I listened to the songs in order, so I got through most of the songs before yours. I thought that this was going to be an incredibly difficult round to pick my top three because there were sooo many good ones. After hearing yours and Amphibious’s, though, it was easy to pick my top two. That still left the decision of picking one to be my third, which I thought was going to be incredibly difficult, until I heard…

    Halite – Loved this one as soon as I heard it, and it saved me the trouble of having to pick between the other awesome songs this round. I also loved that the entire team collaborated on it, and I would love to know who did what. Very nice transitions between the two sources, great production. Just a great song overall.

    Skull Shield – Wow, this one had the unexpected effect of making me second guess my third place vote. I guess I’ve never heard any of your stuff, so I didn’t know what to expect. This is just great, though. The theme blending is just so-so, but it totally rocked my socks off. I also wish it were a bit longer. This is still pretty damn awesome, and, although a bit of a non sequitur, the sound bite at the end of the song made be chuckle. Looking forward to hearing another mix out of you in Round 9!!

    Stop Online Piracy Act

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    My bad. But it's not like OCR has sponsors across the web was my point.

    Yes, but that doesn't mean that they have other ways to get money to OCR outside of financial institutions. All money transfers go through intermediary financial institutions, and all would be barred from making transfers to accounts owned by allegedly infringing websites. Same story with donations.

    Stop Online Piracy Act

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Still, that would pretty much be a death sentence. Blocked domain --> no new visitors --> decreased traffic --> decreased revenue from ads --> no more ocremix.

    Actually, all of OCR's financial connections can be choked off with the flick of a switch under SOPA. Financial institutions are liable for any infringement for sites that they make financial transfers to. SOPA allows those financial institutions to completely block off all transactions to those sites without any legal liability to the alleged infringer site.

    In addition, the alleged infringer website will be removed from search engines and all sites linking to the alleged infringer are also liable for infringement if they continue to link after notice.

    So yeah, the 12 or so people who know OCR's IP address could continue to access it, but OCR won't have any money and any connection to the web outside of those 12 people. It'll be just fine.

    Stop Online Piracy Act

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Let me just comment about SOPA for a second. Under the word of the proposed amendment, OCR could potentially be shut down for a single infringement notice being filed by ANYONE against it. Let's say you take this mix, which has a small clip from the Pokémon Anime. Under SOPA, OCR could be denied existence by being filtered out of search engines and denied access from its hosting provider if a claim was filed against it for a potential copyright infringement. Note that here I'm taking it as a literal, since we liberally work under the mantra of intepretive music as not infringing on what it is interpreting. The search engines and service providers would deny service because it grants them immunity to being held accountable for the content which this website provides. Furthermore, any website linking to OCR would be censored due to the ripple effect of linking to a website that is supposedly violating copyright. Fair Use be damned, this is about people taking their own security interest over the legitimacy of claims since all lawyers would be quick to say "do whatever it takes to keep your ass out of the potential fire".

    Tell me this isn't a scary thought.

    I wanted to come back to this because you are absolutely right and no one seems to believe that SOPA is really that bad. It is. You aren't just imagining a worst case scenario, either. All it would take is someone filing a complaint or worse - your ISP deciding that OCR isn't worth the risk anymore, and then the site disappears forever.

    It's absolutely ridiculous, and the ironic part is that it is so ridiculous that no one seems to be taking this as seriously as they should be.

    Stop Online Piracy Act

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Recessed until tomorrow morning. I'm not fully educated on what SOPA is, but it really does sound borderline draconian. Some of the recent bills passed honestly look like it's Congress and the White House digging in for some kind of revolt, which I guess was kind of bound to happen but it's still depressing as fuck.

    I guess that's just the way things go...

    I actually just read this article, and it basically says the same thing about digging in for some kind of revolt. Like the powers that be are scared of something similar to the Arab Spring happening here.

    http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/268080/20111215/sopa-signals-end-free-information-age-won.htm

    Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2011

    in Competitions

    Posted

    I didn't say it wasn't a success, where did you get that from? And it's not elitist to want to limit the number of participants to make the management of the competition easier and the voting more competitive. How is the subject of elitism even coming up? Gimme a break, it's a non-issue.

    Brackets work in a tournament setting. Putting teams into brackets changes the entire format and extends the duration of competition two-fold. Not gonna happen here.

    Anyway I probably shouldn't have said anything in the first place, so let's just drop it. WCRG isn't happening again for another year or so anyway.

    Elitism came up for me because when the slots available for participation are limited, that tends to weed out those who aren't as experienced or comfortable in the community as others. Instead of being encouraged to participate (as was the case in this year's compo), community outliers would be discouraged from doing so. With limited seating, only those who are serious and confident in their skills need apply, and that smacks of elitism. The intent of the rule may not be elitist, but the effect surely will be.

    Anyhow, I know next year's is a ways off yet, and I (and everyone else, I'm sure) appreciate the time and effort you put into managing these competitions. They have been great at bringing in new talent to the community because they are so open to everyone. All I was saying is that I want this trend to continue, and that it could be threatened by a participant cap.

    EDIT: I forgot to mention SuperiorX as an artist who has improved a lot since competing, and Amphibious as one who I only became aware of through this compo. I'm sure that I'm forgetting others. The point stands that more participation is better for everyone.

    Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2011

    in Competitions

    Posted

    It will be a long while before I do another compo in this format, but the next time I do, I'm going to limit the number of teams to five or six. Twelve teams is just a lot.

    Didn't expect quite this level of participation?

    I have to agree that it's a little overwhelming to have so many participants (thus making it much harder to vote in many rounds), but I have loved how many mixes come out every week.

    Instead of setting a cap on the number of teams and outright rejecting would-be participants, might there be a way to break up the compo into multiple brackets?

    I suggest this because some of the mixers who were reluctant to join have shown fantastic improvement ([cough] Zerothemaster and Mr. L [cough]), and some teams that have been inconsistent with their submissions have still produced phenomenal mixes ([cough] Jakesnke17 [cough]).

    I think that if participants were capped, it would dissuade all but the most serious and committed of mixers to join, which would be a disservice to listeners, newer and up-and-coming remixers, and the community at large.

    It would also strike me as a bit elitist, which, considering the flack that OCR sometimes gets on this note, is something that should be avoided. I mean, this isn't the judges panel. I thought these compos were meant to encourage as much participation as possible and bring in more people from outside the existing OCR community, which it has done splendidly thus far.

    Anyhow, just my two cents. I wouldn't have heard of several remixers if it weren't for these Mega Man compos (Gario, Pixelwave, TheGuitahHeroe, Jakesnke17, Neblix + many more), and we've seen some awesome improvement in other mixers. My first serious exposure to some remixers (WillRock, prophetik, etc) came from these compos.

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