The ProjectMix I/O is M-Audio’s answer to the more expensive Digidesign (despite being part of the same company, AVID), Tascam, and Mackie control surfaces. It gives you a flexible audio interface and motorized fader-based control-surface. I’ve debated making the leap in purchasing this thing on several occasions. I don’t have any need for it now, but seeing how M-Audio likes to drop driver support for certain products, I’m glad I didn’t pick it up.
It’s safe to assume that the ProjectMix I/O is one of (if not) the flagship devices M-Audio makes currently. OS X Leopard (10.5 to be exact) was released October of 2007 and M-Audio still has not provided support for the operating system. It seems odd to me that a company that has such a partnership with a software manufacturer could be “caught with it’s pants down” when it’s new, much publicized, operating system is released. No doubt M-Audio was given advance access to the pre-release copies of Leopard as to allow them to release updates to their product lines. Why a company as prolific as M-audio is in the Mac Pro-Audio field would not be able to write a driver update for their flagship hardware devices after over a year is beyond my sphere of understanding.
I’ve already come to grips that I won’t be able to use my much-beloved Omnistudio Pro USB anymore, since they’ve stated they have “no plans” to support it into OS X Leopard. Fine. It’s an older device; gone discontinued since 2005, I believe. Sucks, but I can take it. How the hell is anyone to have any confidence with this company when you can’t be guaranteed to have drivers prepared for your $1500 recording device a YEAR after an operating system is released. For fuck’s sake, point-releases are coming through (already 10.5.2 and 10.5.3 on the way) and nothing. I don’t envy ProjectMix owners.
Currently, I’ve been experiencing problems with my FastTrack Pro USB interface that I purchased to replace the OmniStudio (I believe in second chances). The audio will drop out after functioning normally for an arbitrary amount of time. I don’t know if it’s a problem with the device or with the driver software that M-Audio dutifully provided, several months after OS X Leopard was released. I like to know if there’s a company out their more trust worthy than M-audio to fill the void on reliable audio interfaces. I hear bad stuff about everyone else’s products like Tascam, Lexicon, Focusrite, etc, (minus Pro Tools rigs, but I hear issues regarding the software required to run them, plus I want be able to use software other than ProTools), maybe this is all their is? All I can do is tune in and wait.
I thought that I would contribute to the historical record and shoot some fat, dead fish in a barrel with a new project. I always find it amusing to reminisce over the fuck-ups of the past, especially technology fuck ups.
I was browsing some of the now defunct video game systems on Wikipedia when I ran across a flop from the mid-nineties that I used to talk about and lust after when I was a kid. The 3DO looked promising on paper, until you read the price.
Looking at things now, jesus, what a piece of over-promised shit! And if that wasn’t enough, 3DO attempted to release another system, with even more hype than the first. This is a tech demo from a trade show, featuring the possible “next-gen” 3DO that never was released. It features a “Shooter” theme but it doesn’t represent a game, nor a realtime performance of the actual 3DO “M2″ hardware, but a fat, nutty wad of pre-rendered dogshit.
This is an other “tech demo” from the same show.
Who knows if it was running realtime or not. I guess they did need to back up their visuals with actual horsepower to sell their software back in the day like they do now. (snark)
All I remember being released for the original 3DO was demolition man, and though it looked sort of good (visually) compared to what was offered from Nintendo and Sega at the time, why the fuck would anyone pay for it? For $700 bucks at launch time they really could have served themselves better by putting a bullet in their heads. Instead, they suffer through a prolonged massacre at the hands of their competition, then decide to regroup for another ass fucking with the “M2″. By comparison, for expensive as the Neo Geo was, at least it had great games. It seems so clear now how fucked these guys were out of the gate. It’s a pity they got so far.
There are those moments in your life (increasingly so, now that the Internet is so ubiquitous) were you may experience something for the first time, only to find out later that the opportunities to do so are drastically limited, or worse yet, in your ignorance, you discover that you will never experience it again. This is case with myself and kung fu cinema.
I really didn’t start watching and buying movies until the end of the 90′s, about the time when the modern-classic age of hong kong cinema was coming to and end. China now had possession of Hong Kong and many famous directors had fled for fear that their craft would be handicapped in some way by the political shift that was taking place. The great films of the 80′s and 90′s had already made their mark on the collective soul of chinese action cinema, and I was seeing it all for the first time.
The Prodigal Son
Out of the movies I’ve seen, “The Prodigal Son” film stood out. It stood out from the thousands of films because of it’s technical merit and because the respect for the chosen technique, featured in the story; Wing Chun.
No…not the band Wang Chun, or whatever…Wing Chun is a close-range Chinese fighting style. It is the style that Bruce Lee had been proficient in prior to creating his own forms. The secret behind the style is that the practitioner can defend and attack at the same time, without wasting energy with wild movement. Whether or not it could stand up to a Brazilian Ju-Jitsu onslaught (see “no”) is not my concern. It is a poetic style and lends itself well to being the featured art of a kung fu film.
Here is a scene from The Prodigal Son, which is, in my opinion, the finest technical fight scene I’ve ever seen in a film:
The fight scene is masterful in adhering to the rules of Wing Chun and not only is it fast, but it’s technically flawless. Very cool. That’s one that benefits from a slow-motion viewing or two.
Along with the riveting action sequences and technical accuracy there’s a great story and some comedy too. As with most Hong Kong action cinema you get a little of everything. One second someone’s wife could be getting raped, and the next there’ll be a fart joke. Couple this with the fact that the bad guy always gets killed/defeated and you now have the principle reasons why I love kung fu movies.
With the tone of recent martial arts action movies out of China turning, primarily, to tragic themes (Curse of the Golden Flower, Hero, Fearless, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, to name a few), I miss the old care-free days of “Cantonese comedy”-infused films.
Just for fun, here’s the final fight scene (complete with shitty dubbing and ass-hair-burning musical score)(watch for the headbutt, awesome!):
Fucking Sweet
The actor in the first fight scene on the bridges, who is practicing Wing Chun, is Lam Ching Ying. Who died in 1997 from liver cancer. So he was long dead by the time I even saw this movie. Sucks that he’s not around to school the next generation of action stars.
Here’s a great page detailing the life and death of a great kung fu action star.
I know I’m opening myself up for attack on this one… but since you all post stuff about games, movies, and whatever else it is that makes you get hard-ons, I’m posting my deepest, darkest fetish… New Kids on the Block are getting back together… and they’re having some sort of performance/news conference tomorrow morning on the Today show.
YUM-O! I feel like a twelve year old girl again… minus the acne and bad hair.
If I turn up missing — it’s likely because I skipped town with the fine honey on the left. (Sorry JT )
Not sure if this is true, but was sent to me by my program director pal over at WJOB — Field Trip time???
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton will be in Hammond, IN on Friday March 28th to hold a town hall meeting.
WJOB is efforting to carry the event live on AM 1230 WJOB in Hammond and on heyregion. com
Doors Open: 10:00 a.m. CDT
Event Begins: 12:00 p.m. CDT
Hillary Clinton Attends “Solutions for the American Economy” Town Hall
Hammond Civic Center
5825 Sohl Avenue
Hammond, IN
Additional Details TBA
So my co-worker and I went out to the site of the Johnny Depp movie in Crown Point last night to see if we could get a glimpse of Edward Wonka Depp Sparrow Dillinger. We weren’t able to see Johnny last night (filming was running late and they wanted to get the hell out of NWI — can you blame them???) But while we were there, my co-worker was telling me about how some guy dressed up like Jack Sparrow and climbed the courthouse — and was up there by the clock with a sign. I laughed and said “I would have peed my pants if I had seen that.”
Well, this morning, we find the video of the incident on Northwest Indiana Times website. And after looking at it… I realize that the guy dressed like Captain Jack is my fucking electrician. Yes, this is the guy who fixed the outlets in Brian and I’s kitchen and laundry room. Should I be frightened???
First look at Snake-Eyes from next years live action G.I. Joe movie. Looks pretty f’in good to me. He’s being played by Ray Park, the same guy who was Darth Maul. I can’t wait to see him in action. Stephen Sommers, the director, has already indicated he’s going for the feel of the original Snake-Eyes so the character will be mute and a lone wolf type. He’ll use both his sword and guns when fighting! I’m hoping for something similar to the Gun Kata from Equilibrium but with some sick swordsmanship thrown in!
Also for all you Cobra fans Storm Shadow will also be in the film. I’m sure we’ll get to see at least 1 or 2 epic confrontations between the two!
I am totally psyched about this TBA release by KORG. Korg managed to fit a software emulation of the popular patch synth MS-10, recently revived through a software plug-in bundle, onto a standard Nintendo DS. Being able to program a synth and sequence some beats, all using the tiny little DS would be a blast on the train to work. With people still composing music using the original Nintendo Entertainment System, the fact that you can chain up 8 DS’s together means that an “All DS music group/project” will no doubt be around the corner.
Eight DS’s would give a programmer a maximum of 16 synth voices and 32 drum tracks. That’s insanely more than your standard, dedicated chip artist out there would need to craft an opus. Check the specs and video from MESSE08.
From SonicState.com:
DS-10
World’s first music tool software created for the Nintendo DS
Two patchable dual-oscillator analog synth simulators:
Four-part drum machine that uses sounds created with the analog synth simulator
Six-track (analog synth x 2, drum machine x 4) /16-step sequencer
Delay, chorus, and flanger sound effects available from the mixing board
Three note-entry modes: touch-control screen, keyboard screen, matrix screen
Real-time sound control mode via touch-control screen
Exchange sounds and songs and play multiple units simultaneously through a wireless communications link
Update
I guess the sonic state video of the ds-10 was pulled…here’s another from youtube…
I received the obligatory ad email from VMWare today, having test drove their latest emulation software for Mac (Fusion), and within this advertisement was a this photo and caption:
I’m wondering what Mac software evangelist has been holding on on buying Fusion for lack of Sinbad’s take.
Last night, NBC (NoBallsCommunications) debuted their 2008 continuation of my favorite tv show when I was but a wee bastard, Knight Rider. Allow me to first recant my feelings for the old show before I delve into dismantling and recycling the new one (Shouting Grounds is an eco-friendly website, chall).
I loved Knight Rider, dude. Michael Knight was the shit, and all I wanted was a black Trans Am with the little red lamp in the hood to tear around the country in, solving crime and shit. When I was little, everything except for immensely non-complicated storylines made sense to me…a super fast talking Firebird that could leap through concrete and defy the laws of physics and common sense at will. What’s not to believe?!
Years later, like three years ago…I finally got my hands on a copy of Season 1 of my beloved childhood show, and I couldn’t wait to relive the good old times. Sadly, after you’ve discovered logic and science, this classic doesn’t hold up quite like it used to. Sure, the car still rocks, Bonnie was still hot and Michael still cool…but the show turned from sharp cheddar to swiss awfully quick. Anyone over the age of 14 knows that “Turbo Boost” doesn’t equal “rampless jump”. However, the nostalgia is still there.
Okay, so last night. Tuned into channel 5 to watch what NBC thought about my new show. I even took real time notes for chall, which I’ll paste below. My expectations were low, since A) NBC has no budget for good computer effects on pilot shows, if you saw Bionic Woman you know what I mean, B) Since they had sunk my T/A and replaced it with the NEW SHELBY FORD MUSTANG GT500 KR NO WAY DOOD!!!, I knew there would be plenty of commercials lauding Ford as the savior of the automobile in America. That being said, I was ready to give it a chance. My notes:
CGI red lights instead of actual lights in the hoodscoop = GAY…if we could do it in the 80′s why not now?
Acting terrible, the bad guys are always snarling and scowling…guess the screenwriters are fresh outta fifth grade?
So this old guy (Graiman) was building KITT by hand, but then he had a heart attack from just being accosted? (Note: explained later on as a double)
the original KITT didn’t have ANY pontiac branding…this KITT says SVT, Mustang and Ford all over…at least try to suspend disbelief here
Val Kilmer is KITT? Guess NBC doesn’t have much faith for this show beyond tonight.
And who wouldn’t have guessed that the codeword was ‘Knight’?
NBC’s KNIGHT RIDER is brought to you by the star of the show, the FORD MUSTANG…FUCK!
How many times do we need to see the bullet-dent effect on KITT? Why not just use the ‘molecularly bonded shell’ from old?
The bullet effect on the glass was lame as balls.
The mouse-shaped mechanic is gonna work on KITT in the end, right?
Does the bad-guy nerd have to be so obvious?
Number of obvious Ford product placements: incalculable
SOMETHING GOOD: Cliffhanger commercial leadin during first chase
VW commercial with Lev Andropov during Knight Rider, funny irony
The shapeshifting body effect would have been cooler if it had just been the paint. The physical shape of the grill, hood and spoiler changed, making it less believable. This opens it up to allow the car to reshape any body panel Terminator style. If you want to do something like that, explain it a little bit so it doesn’t look so out of place.
Prometheus = Skynet; more than obvious, and I had just switched over from Terminator 2 on AMC when Knight Rider came on
Christ, they made this show awesome 20 years ago, why is it so fuckin hard to do now?
627mi in 3.28 hours = 191.16mph max speed; an @ least believable ‘super pursuit’ speed
KITT: “That does suck”…does he or does he not understand human behavior? The level of his AI humanity is inconsistant
The CGI is terrible, obvious and awkward
How many times do we need to see the Cobra logo? This car is supposed to fight crime, not the American people’s faith in foreign auto manufacturers
KITT had a mac keyboard in his glovebox…FUCK FUCK FUCK WHY? At what point do you have to activate a terminal windows to interface with KITT?
Sarah Graiman: “It’s not a thing, it’s a car” Car = Thing, whore!
2 commercials in 10 minutes from 8:40 to 8:50, then 9:03, 9:13…this is ridiculous…9:23. Commercials that last 4 minutes, meaning there’s 1.5 minutes of show for every 1 of commercial. That’s fucking terrible. If you don’t have 2 hours of content don’t fill it with double the commercials…another @ 9:33. From 8:30 to 9:30, there was 36 minutes of show and 24 minutes of commercials (rough estimate)…GOD AWFUL!
Blackriver = Blackwater? LOL, that’s some comedy there. Way to rage against the machine, NoBalls.
“Somebody removed all the hard drives”, referring to the workstations. NBC can’t help but breed stupidity!!!! STOP CALLING PC’S HARD DRIVES, ASSRAMS!
Michael’s whore: “KITT’s not another Trans-Am is it?” BITCH!
KITT: “Are you a homosexual?” LOL
Bad guys had no idea where to look in the desert between California and Vegas, yet were only 12 miles away when they found out where Charles was. They were more likely to stumble upon the last known home of the Manson family.
Nerd Bad Guy can hack KITT? Please, an AI system should be immeasurably ahead of a human trying to hack it in speed and adaptability. And if Doogie had the encryption codes, then why did he have to ‘hack the firewalls’? And who the fuck leaves some wireless interface open on this super car death machine so that any obvious-malcontent can h4XX0r th3 f00k1n c4r?
The part where KITT got Tboned and annihilated the other car was fucking great, even though they showed it in an earlier commercial cut, so you knew it was coming. NBC couldn’t just keep that one for the end.
The limo scene @ the end would have been the perfect time for Charles to interject the “One man can make a difference” line that Wilton Knight told Michael in the first show. But they assfucked that pooch.
Who didn’t see it coming that Michael would be at the funeral at the end? Honestly?
Scratch the “One man…” post above, it was better when Michael said it. Thank christ they made sure he cameo’d…at least that made me happy
The 4-part commercial series with KITT and Mike was fucking terrible. But don’t think that I didn’t enter to win the sweepstakes, cuz who doesn’t want a GT-500 KR?
They’ve replaced the good old FLAG semi with a C-130? Make a whee more sense from a logistical/interior space perspective, since the old lab would never have fit in the semi. However, the horrible CG wouldn’t convince anyone that you could fly a Herc 2″ above the ground. NBC’s CGI is pre-Roger Rabbit.
So there you are, my thoughts poured out John Doe-style. In case you can’t read my contempt between the lines, this show was barely watchable. If I hadn’t been obsessed with it when I was a lad, I would have turned it back over to AMC to finish Terminator 2. Even though I expected the Ford bullshit throughout, I wasn’t prepared to have it tattooed onto the back of my eyeballs. Logic would suggest that with so much Fordvertising, NBC should have a pile of cash to put into making the show a little more believable, better acted and have way better computer effects WHEN NEEDED. There were plenty of CG shots that didn’t need to be there, and could easily have been achieved with traditional shots. Instead, this money quite obviously went into the Butt-Grooming fund for the NBC Board of Dick-rectors.
However, I hope that NBC combs the shit out of their asshairs and puts it on tv for an hour a week. With the following changes:
Spend a week with Ronald Moore and the boys at BSG (a Sci-Fi show, which is owned by NBC…go figure) and talk to them about making your computer effects semi-believable
Spend more than an hour throwing together your script
Find some people that have acted successfully in the past to be your bad guys…I’m not talking Sean Connery here, but better than Days of our Lives castoffs
Can some of the tertiary good guys. Charles Graimen and the FBI broad can hit the road face first. Keep Androginethnic Mouse and the hot daughter to work on KITT
Figure out a better way to deploy KITT. The FLAG truck, while not-so-believable inside was relatively non-descript in town. A spectre gunship orbiting any town/city/state is going to raise some eyebrows and could endanger Mike’s undercover status
Either explain better or lose the ‘nanotechnology’ skin on KITT. I’ll buy it if you sell it better, knowwhaddamean?
Strip some of the over-the-top body features of KITT while in normal cruise mode. The old KITT stood out only because it was a black coupe in mostly hillbilly towns. This KITT stands out because it’s an obviously impossible custom worth easily over $100,000, and that’s without the vacu-formed computer in the backseat. Honestly all it would take is a quick flick of that nanotech armor, right? Shit.
Follow my quick and easy steps, and you might just have a winner. Think about this, the WB is into their fifth season of Smallville I think, and that show is ghastly. NBC would just have to tweak Knight Rider and they might have a success instead of a one-shot novelty.
Bottom line: craft a better fucking show, fuckheads.
From time to time I’ve heard various rumblings about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Recently, however, Vanity Fair has published an very informative Article detailing many more specifics regarding the game.
I have to admit reading the article got me excited about the game and I can honestly say if this game turns out as good as they say, it will be the sole reason behind me purchasing an XBOX 360.
In any event check out the article as well as the trailer in the links I posted above.
Also, apparently they forwent using James Earl Jones as the voice of Vader in the game an instead went with some bloke named Matt Sloan who made a YouTube video called Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager. The video, in itself, is fairly lame but I will say this guy has Vader’s voice and inflections down pretty fucking good. It’s not as good as the real deal, but I’ve heard worse.
