Archive for the Category "Random Musings"
Did you go and change your Wordpress theme and now your blog isn’t tracking stats properly? Well luckily for you the fix is simple and painless.
Just go into your admin area and under appearance click on ‘Editor’. Open up the footer.php file and at the bottom just above the tag paste in this line:
<?php wp_footer(); ?>
And your done! Easy peasy!
Just found her today and immediately fell in love with her style, lyrics and sound. Her music is as unique as the video is, such a wonderful style in the face of commercial mainstream. Just watching it makes me smile, but then I started paying attention to the lyrics and it got that much better. The same is true for the rest of her album.
I was watching a performance on TED today of a young woman playing the Yamaha Electone Stagea. Truly a remarkable piece of technology that allows the player to perform pieces that would normally take an entire orchestra. The horns are always an instrument that I find electric keyboards don’t do justice but give it time and it’ll soon be indistinguishable from the real thing. Either way I am inspired at how technology is allowing these gifted humans to truly achieve musical potential and greatness that had never been dreamt of until very recently. One person composing and playing the entire role of an orchestra. Truly amazing.
A presentation of the Stagea
Added Multiwinia to the top because A.) I’ve got mad respect for Introversion and their products but this trailer is just a bold brilliant move. The piano makes you instantly sad for the suffering and pain of war. The brilliance lies that you feel, albeit only slightly, this tinge of sadness for the scenes you are witnessing, when the scenes and the game multiwinia itself is so abstact that normally you would never feel this. Great GREAT game, great company, wicked use of music and to make a trailer that essentially tells you nothing about the game who’s purpose is only to illicit an emotional response well that takes balls and brains, cause they pulled it off.
Such a beautiful song that lends itself surprisingly well to the trailer, a testament to those who created it.
You have to give them credit, the boys over at the M$ marketing department know better than anyone how to create a compelling experience with audio in a game trailer
Original WoW trailer. The song on the soundtrack is called ‘A Call to Arms’(are at least it’s similar enough to see it was used) and is one of the most powerful game pieces ever written. It’s too bad the song is slightly muted, worth listening to it all on it’s own here
I had to bring in a trailer from AITD as the 2008 OST is definitely one of the more powerful soundtracks created in recent years.
How many companies offer remixes of their commercials? I mean come on, the musical component in itself might not be worthy of a mention but it’s use and the fact that money was spent to pump this out sure as hell is. Plus it might have the best last line for any trailer ever 
One of the most recognizable pieces of music from any game trailer without a doubt. I dare you not to get goose bumps from this.
Bravo! When faced with the challenge of how to represent visually the music of the Beatles in a trailer they could have gone down so many cop out, traditional routes but instead they put their balls out there and made something beautiful and creative.
Beautiful song for sure, good call Ubisoft
I’ve had no choice but to smile ear to ear with every trailer for this game, but the music in this one makes me more than otheres
There can be no denying the brilliant pairing of Big Band style music with the visual style presented in TF2. Both compliment and strengthen each other so well that one viewing of a TF2 commercial and it’ll be in your head for days.
The mellow guitar riff beautifully juxtaposes what is going on in the scene. Plus the big band sounding theme for TF2 itself is brilliant.
The song just makes everything seem so serene and graceful, even when it involves violence. I imagine that being the point EA was going for to describe the way the character in mirrors edge moves and acts
Got some more that I missed here? By all means lets hear it!
***Additional Suggestions I Missed***
Brilliant, again the use of music to juxtapose what is happening in the music has such a great impact I am surprised we aren’t seeing this technique more
http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/domain-registry-of-canada-scam-with-direct-mail-and-online/
If at any point you receive correspondence from these guys do what any sensible person does and take the return stamped envelope, collect some animal feces with it and mail it back to their address. They are a huge scam preying on the general ignorance of people saying that their .ca domains need to be protected by them and only them for an insanely inflated price of 40.00 per year. You can get the same protection, or better anywhere else for a fraction of the price.
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/multimedia/2009/04/st_timeline
Wired has a neat little piece about all of the times that humanity has gotten all gung-ho about the end of the world and that the powers that be were damn certain that this was it. Surprise surprise they were wrong(we’re still here), and after 1000 years of predicting the end, and 1000 years of getting it wrong you would think that by now we would worry less about when tomorrow is ending and more about living today to it’s most. Hit up the link above for all the pretty pictures associated with the dates below
It’s the biggest unsolved mystery: how the world will end. Here, we present our favorite expiration dates.
With turn of millennium, Christians across Europe wait eagerly to welcome back Messiah. Messiah blows it off.
Pope Innocent III does the math: It’s been 666 years since Islam ramped up. Time for the Second Coming, right? Right?
Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman claims Jesus will return—to Strasbourg, Germany. Hoffman dies in prison, 1543.
Across US, 50,000 Millerites prepare for Second Coming on October 22, now known as The Great Disappointment.
Imminent return of Halley’s Comet sparks fears that nasty tail gases will snuff out humankind. Mark Twain dies instead.
Battle of Armageddon is upon us, Jehovah’s Witnesses say. Rain dates (1925, 1975) also pass uneventfully.
According to The Jupiter Effect, rare planetary alignment threatens massive quakes. Result: High tide up by 0.04 mm.
With Earth about to be “recycled,” 39 Heaven’s Gate cultists catch ride on comet Hale-Bopp—via mass suicide in new Nikes.
New millennium once again inspires countless visions of religious apocalypse. Not even Microsoft Windows crashes.
Mayan calendar’s 5,125-year cycle ends December 21—along with human civilization. We’re doomed for sure!
I just added my two cents to a massive forum debate on gun control so I figured I would copy and paste my post here as it was already typed up and all
The whole argument about ‘if you crimilize guns only criminals will own guns’ is fear mongering at it’s best. I am not sure at all why anyone would argue against the fact that less guns mean a LOT less deaths in society. Take any country at all that makes hand guns illegal, compare the amount of deaths from firearms to any country where hand guns aren’t illegal.. The biggest problem I see with arming a population is that you have stressed out, overworked, unemployed people getting into situations where something happens that just pisses them off so incredibly much, loosing their cool going into road rage and in their pocket is a solution to all of this.. It isn’t the people that plan out murders methodically that troubles me, as has been said before those people will find a way to kill people either way. It is the people that loose their minds for 5 minutes that in any other country would be forced to get into a fist fight, or forced to just walk away, but in a country with hand guns in their insanely raged state they grab into their pocket and before their brain even has the chance to say ‘whoa buddy, this is the wrong thing to do here’ they have shot someone.
I imagine this accounts for more deaths than anything else, the simple fact that if they didn’t have quick easy access to this gun they would have had a chance to cool down for even a few minutes allowing the situation to difuse, or at the very worst beating someone unconscious(but at least they aren’t dead).
Anyone not living in the states can attest to the palpable feeling of uneasiness in the air and in the people when you enter that country.. People are on edge to such a larger degree it makes your skin crawl, there is an under current of unease that permeates the city centers that you can feel it to the point of being uncomfortable if you aren’t used to it. If I knew that x out of 10 people around me were carrying a hand gun I sure as hell would feel that same way too.
The worst part is that people quote ‘their right’ to own a gun. Do you actually know the details of this right, have you EVER engaged in any independent critical thought about WHY we should have this right as a human being? 200 years ago, it was every white man’s right to own a slave, not constitutionally, but no one would dare question that right. Why? Because no one for one second had an independent critical thought on the subject and ask themselves ‘why’ is this my right? The same for guns, before you go off about the ‘obvious’ points like self-defense, go and tell me what the rate of robberies is in countries where guns are illegal, go and do honest research about how many unarmed people in these countries are killed by guns and honestly tell me if they would be alive today if they were carrying a gun. This isn’t an 18th century duel where both men draw their guns, this is a random event that kills you before you have a split second to react. You could have a mini-gun in your pocket and it won’t mean a damn. Don’t just regurgitate what the people around you say, don’t spit out the same fear you’ve been fed, do honest research and think for yourself.
Here are gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in the world’s 36 richest countries in 1994:
United States 14.24; Brazil 12.95; Mexico 12.69; Estonia 12.26; Argentina 8.93; Northern Ireland 6.63; Finland 6.46; Switzerland 5.31; France 5.15; Canada 4.31; Norway 3.82; Austria 3.70; Portugal 3.20; Israel 2.91; Belgium 2.90; Australia 2.65; Slovenia 2.60; Italy 2.44; New Zealand 2.38; Denmark 2.09; Sweden 1.92; Kuwait 1.84; Greece 1.29; Germany 1.24; Hungary 1.11; Republic of Ireland 0.97; Spain 0.78; Netherlands 0.70; Scotland 0.54; England and Wales 0.41; Taiwan 0.37; Singapore 0.21; Mauritius 0.19; Hong Kong 0.14; South Korea 0.12; Japan 0.05.
Now I also have to be open, if there are good arguments for why Canada has over 3 times less gun related deaths per capita than the USA I definitely want to hear them.. I mean both countries are becomming more and more one every day, both are right next to each other and share pretty much all the same values and ideals. Where is that 300% divide coming from? Or Japan? .05 per 100,000 ?
Some reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States
http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/00046149.htm
http://www.guncite.com/cnngunde.html
Chris Rock’s solution is just so simple it might work
Someone replied that the gun crime rates was related to the population size more than anything else, as well as being related to organized crime. So I went and typed up another bloody essay, figured I would just append it to this post:
Again it is the lack of critical thinking and research that troubles me the most about gun advocates, or people in general for that matter. You yourself have thrown out theories that gun crime has an exponential relationship to population? These words, to someone desperate to believe you hold weight as they sound intelligent but what is it that you even mean by that? You are saying that the number of gun crimes exponentially goes up with population? and what are you basing this theory on? The first thing you should have done is to break down the country list by population to see if you are actually correct. When estonia is #4 the gun crime list at 1.2 million people and Japan is dead last at 127 million people you have to do some very serious rethinking of your initial theory. There are numerous numerous studies from universities around the world that clearly links crime, murder and burglary to 2 things: Education and Poverty – not population size. Not right here I would make a case that another way to combat gun crimes would be through better Education programs for the under privileged but that is not what we are talking about.
But the main problem is that you postulate your theories and possibly become entrenched in them, like many many people as am not singling you out by any means, before you even take the time to find out if they are true or not. Herein lies the problem, being ‘right’ becomes more important than being ‘correct’
Take a look at the lowest countries on the list. What do most of them all share in common? It isn’t population, it isn’t wealth, and it isn’t education levels. It is that they are All essentially island states, they have a much much greater ability to police what is coming in to their country than the top countries. I say essentially because South Korea only borders with North Korea and having a border with them, traffic wise is as dead as having a border to no where. The same goes for HK being in China, which no doubt has the tightest controls on weapons or trade in the entire world.
So not only do they have strict gun laws but they also have more efficient means of controlling the flow of weapons into their countries making the weapons that much harder and more expensive for your average person to get a hold of. This leads me to believe that if you make it more difficult for the ‘average’ person to get their hands on weapons, you are going to see drastic decreases in gun crime.
We aren’t going to be naive and say that organized crime doesn’t exist in large numbers in these countries, especially Japan, it does just like any other well populated country, and I wouldn’t doubt that these gangs are armed.
One last thing to consider, over 50% of all gun related deaths are suicides. Do you think these people would have killed themselves if they didn’t have such a quick, easy and convenient way of doing it? You think if they had proper support and/or counseling they would have made a different decision? But just like the enraged maniac I mentioned in my last post, in this fit of emotional unrest that drives them to a temporary states of insanity, they have a solution to their problems right there and then and before they can even think if it actually is the right solution they’ve pulled the trigger on a decision that no one can ever take back.
1994:
Highest Gun crimes – Pops all over the board
United States 14.24 Population : 307,212,123
Brazil 12.95 Population : 198,739,269
Mexico 12.69 Population : 111,211,789
Estonia 12.26 Population : 1,299,371
Argentina 8.93 Population : 40,913,584
Northern Ireland 6.63 Population : 4,203,200
Finland 6.46 Population : 5,250,275
Switzerland 5.31 Population : 7,604,467
France 5.15 Population : 64,057,792
Canada 4.31 Population : 33,487,208
Lowest Gun Crimes – again pops all over the board
England and Wales 0.41 Population : 61,113,205
Taiwan 0.37 Population : 22,974,347
Singapore 0.21 Population : 4,657,542
Mauritius 0.19 Population : 1,284,264
Hong Kong 0.14 Population : 7,055,071
South Korea 0.12 Population : 48,508,972
Japan 0.05. Population : 127,078,679
And just a little satire to strike the point home
In The Know: New Iraqi Law Requires Waiting Period For Suicide Vest Purchases
What a delicious looking film. An adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s story, where Max, a disobedient little boy sent to bed without his supper, creates his own world–a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max as their ruler
 |
Catherine Keener | … | Connie |
 |
Max Records | … | Max |
 |
Mark Ruffalo | ||
 |
Lauren Ambrose | … | KW (voice) |
 |
James Gandolfini | … | Carol (voice) |
 |
Catherine O’Hara | … | Judith (voice) |
 |
Forest Whitaker | … | Ira (voice) |
Couldn’t help but paste this IRC log from today:
[12:16] <T0aD> no im a squirrel
[12:20] * Azer_ runs over t0ad
[12:22] <T0aD> asshole
[12:22] <Unconnected> see if you would have said you were a gerbil he would have been much more gentle with you
[12:22] <T0aD> i have no idea what a gerbil is
[12:23] <T0aD> and im too constipated to type dict on my shell
[12:23] <Azer_> thats because of the gerbil use
Alright so you have a USB mic and Ubuntu is being a bitch about it. Meaning it probably is thinking that your primary input device is in your soudn card somewhere as apposed to a USB port.. How on earth do we tell get Ubuntu to use the USB port instead of the Soundcard? We’ll I’m glad you asked because coincidentally that is what I’ll be going over today
First thing first, for most all applications with the exception of those running in WINE, you can to get your butt over to this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=789578 and get PulseAudio installed.. Pulse is the key to running a proper sound server in Ubuntu(as long as you can get it running properly – something that took me weeks)
The key I found to making sure that pulse works properly in skype with multiple options for inputs is to make sure that in /system/preferences/sound you have everything on auto detect except for the Sound Capture – which is set to Pulse and that your Mixer track is set to ALSA PCM on dmix via DMA PulseAudio Mixer.
The other thing I found was that you NEED to make sure that your ~/.asoundrc file is blank. This will become key as in the latter part of this post I will show you that you need to fill that same file with a bunch of good stuff if you want to run a USB mic in WINE appz.
So for a lot of you that probably does it for USB mics and Ubuntu.
Now for the rest of you running games and appz in WINE the story is a little different. This is where my struggles with learning how to get audio properly working in a linux environment when from taxing to hellish. First a word of advice to all of you wanting to use TeamSpeak and ubuntu with a USB mic or headset – USE WINE and the Windows version. don’t even bother with the linux version as you will have days and weeks of your life sucked away. It just doesn’t work
For some reason, at least for me WINE and pulse do NOT mix very well when it comes to the input side of things. So when I want to use an ingame chat or Teamspeak the first thing I need to do is to shut down Pulse and rely soley on ALSA. Now this means that a lot of the nice convenient mixer stuff that pulse does needs to be done manually. I posted all this up in the Teamspeak discussion forums and but I’ll save you the trouble of going there and copy it here as well
Now from this point onwards I am going to assume you are using ALSA , if not then you have your own google adventure to go on.
So:
go into your home directory (cd ~) and create a file called “.asoundrc” minus the quotations of course with your favorite editor ( vi ./.asoundrc ) if it doesn’t exist already.. If it does you need to make a backup of it and clear it all to start fresh
The .asoundrc file in your home directory acts as kind of a configuration file that is used to override default settings
Our goal here is to make our default capture device our USB mic and NOT our sound card, this is accomplished by inserting the following text into the .asoundrc file:
pcm.!default {
type asym
playback.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "hw:0,0"
}
capture.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "hw:1,0"
}
}
***Something to note: “hw:0,0″ and “hw:2,0″ are MY card locations for my soundblaster and my usb mic. Yours might be different. ***
In order to find out what your desired output device is you type the following in terminal:
“aplay -l” and you should receive and output something like this:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 0: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 1: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 2: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 3: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Obviously My card is 0 as that is the only one that shows up, so I use “hw:0,0″ you need to make extra sure what yours is and use that.
now to find my capture device I type:
“arecord -l” and my output should be something like this:
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 0: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 1: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 2: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 3: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: default [AK5370 ], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Now we already know that Card 0 is my soundblaster, which I don’t want to use, so we can rule that out.. The only other option(which is conveniently labeled USB Audio) is Card 2 so that means I used “hw:2,0″ . Yours could be different so edit your .asoundrc file accodingly.
I quickly check to make sure WINE was seeing my usb mic by running the command ‘winecfg’ and going into Audio and making sure that the ALSA WAVE IN device show up as USB Audio.
I have Hardware Acceleration set to Emulation as well as Driver Emulation checked on, not sure if it matters but it is on for me and works.
So there you have it, easy peasy! Well it is easy to do but figuring this out with next to no documentation on this specific subject was a bitch..Hope this helped
After going through the same problem again and the above solution wasn’t working all that hot for whatever reason.
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm “combined”
}
pcm.combined {
type asym
playback.pcm “playback”
capture.pcm “hw:1,0″
}
pcm.playback {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm “hw:1,0″
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096
rate 44100
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}
ctl.dmixer {
type hw
card 1
}
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