Not sleeping is a good thing. You get to do all kinds of things that you would have been missing out on if you were sleeping. Like ranting. BlackBox is such a cool Window Manager. I should make a gooder Xwindows for Windows. Then I could have the real BlackBox instead of a clone. Although the clone is good....
But how about that GNU Solfege? It's nice, huh. Eartraining is a good thing.
I had an opportunity to chat at 4AM today. Wheeee!
Voltron is so cool. sugoii desu yo~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
MEGA SPEED!!!!!
It's highly unlike me to post two articles in the same week (a habit that I've been trying to shake), but there's two posts today.
I have just discovered the joy of BBLean.
In the last post, I casually mentioned the Replacement for window's evil shell (explore.exe) called LightStep. It was nice - full featured, to say the least! It was far too bloated - there were far too many times that I had used over 100% of my CPU cycles. It did have a number of nice features, though, like an uber-quicklaunch popup bar - one that could parse !bang commands.
In light of the terrible slowness of LightStep, and in incredible hatred of explorer (with it's never-ending memory consumption!), I looked for a simple window manager. One that would take care of all my window management needs without ANY kind of bloat (Having a Zip Archive extraction and compression tool in a window manager is NOT neccessary!). I looked for the MS Windows equivalent of Blackbox for the X Windowing System.
Luckally for all of us, the nice fellows at bb4win had the courtesy to make BBLean (AKA BlackboxLean).
Blackbox (and thus BBLean) has the wondrously simple interface that many early linux pioneers had gotten used to using. And why not? Blackbox is smaller, simpler, and faster then any window manager out there, then or now. And for those of you who can't stand minimalism, there's even a plug-in system.
When Blackbox is first started, the only thing you will see is the (somewhat badly named) Slit - BB's equivalent of the taskbar, but much better. The Slit gives you access to your running programs, a different way to access the other desktops, your system trey, the date, and the time. All of this fits in a bar that doesn't even reach to either side of the screen. (Technically, the Slit is nothing, just a rectangular container. The functions are provided by special 'docklets.' That's not the official tern, but it's a good descriptive.)
Blachbox has many of the features one would expect from a popular modern window manager - Features like Virtual Desktops (which are invaluable for people who 'multitask in bulk'), a CLI (BBLean just uses windows' "Run" command), a centralized list of major user programs (Such as solitaire and minesweeper), and a way to get help (Which, in the case of BB, is a guy online screaming "RTFM!" at you - it is, after all, an extremely simple system).
It's really difficult to describe just how impossibly simple and easy it is to operate BBWM (The WM part of that means "Window Manager"). It's something that you can tell people, but they won't see why that's so great. Let's start at the menus.
Pop-up Menus are the great helper/launcher/System tree explorer of Blackbox. Right-clicking anywhere on the root window (That's fancy XWS talk for background) will lead you to menus that will allow you to do virtually anything - Launch Programs, view your filesystem tree, change system settings, and change the style. The only things it can't do is switch desktops or find iconified windows. You use the middle mouse button for that.
Another thing that's totally unexplainable is the unbridled speed. For some reason, it's totally faster then any other window manager out there (with the possible exceptions being UWM and XWM, and of course running in a pure terminal environment, but that means no graphics!) Perhaps it has something to do with the time-warping effect of really good gradient backgrounds... or not. Checking with the Windows Task Manager with BBLean, blackbox.exe takes about 2,077Kb of memory - somewhere between one third and one tenth of explore.exe's memory usage - and that doesn't even count any of it's usage of the Page File... (Removing most of Microsoft's junk would probibly free enough memory to be able to remove the pagefile - at least until I start a program).
Well, that was my long-winded rant about Blackbox and BBLean. Thank you for not going insane.
I have just discovered the joy of BBLean.
In the last post, I casually mentioned the Replacement for window's evil shell (explore.exe) called LightStep. It was nice - full featured, to say the least! It was far too bloated - there were far too many times that I had used over 100% of my CPU cycles. It did have a number of nice features, though, like an uber-quicklaunch popup bar - one that could parse !bang commands.
In light of the terrible slowness of LightStep, and in incredible hatred of explorer (with it's never-ending memory consumption!), I looked for a simple window manager. One that would take care of all my window management needs without ANY kind of bloat (Having a Zip Archive extraction and compression tool in a window manager is NOT neccessary!). I looked for the MS Windows equivalent of Blackbox for the X Windowing System.
Luckally for all of us, the nice fellows at bb4win had the courtesy to make BBLean (AKA BlackboxLean).
Blackbox (and thus BBLean) has the wondrously simple interface that many early linux pioneers had gotten used to using. And why not? Blackbox is smaller, simpler, and faster then any window manager out there, then or now. And for those of you who can't stand minimalism, there's even a plug-in system.
When Blackbox is first started, the only thing you will see is the (somewhat badly named) Slit - BB's equivalent of the taskbar, but much better. The Slit gives you access to your running programs, a different way to access the other desktops, your system trey, the date, and the time. All of this fits in a bar that doesn't even reach to either side of the screen. (Technically, the Slit is nothing, just a rectangular container. The functions are provided by special 'docklets.' That's not the official tern, but it's a good descriptive.)
Blachbox has many of the features one would expect from a popular modern window manager - Features like Virtual Desktops (which are invaluable for people who 'multitask in bulk'), a CLI (BBLean just uses windows' "Run" command), a centralized list of major user programs (Such as solitaire and minesweeper), and a way to get help (Which, in the case of BB, is a guy online screaming "RTFM!" at you - it is, after all, an extremely simple system).
It's really difficult to describe just how impossibly simple and easy it is to operate BBWM (The WM part of that means "Window Manager"). It's something that you can tell people, but they won't see why that's so great. Let's start at the menus.
Pop-up Menus are the great helper/launcher/System tree explorer of Blackbox. Right-clicking anywhere on the root window (That's fancy XWS talk for background) will lead you to menus that will allow you to do virtually anything - Launch Programs, view your filesystem tree, change system settings, and change the style. The only things it can't do is switch desktops or find iconified windows. You use the middle mouse button for that.
Another thing that's totally unexplainable is the unbridled speed. For some reason, it's totally faster then any other window manager out there (with the possible exceptions being UWM and XWM, and of course running in a pure terminal environment, but that means no graphics!) Perhaps it has something to do with the time-warping effect of really good gradient backgrounds... or not. Checking with the Windows Task Manager with BBLean, blackbox.exe takes about 2,077Kb of memory - somewhere between one third and one tenth of explore.exe's memory usage - and that doesn't even count any of it's usage of the Page File... (Removing most of Microsoft's junk would probibly free enough memory to be able to remove the pagefile - at least until I start a program).
Well, that was my long-winded rant about Blackbox and BBLean. Thank you for not going insane.
Ut Re Mi
Out of pure insanity, I have installed GNU Solfege.
Well, Not out of pure insanity — I was researching the penny whistle (An English instrument used in early American anthems and modern Celtic music; it's more commonly called the tin whistle), which, in Wikipedia, linked to the Solfege (FYI, The names of the notes are really Ut, Re, Mi, So, Fa, Ti, and Do — notes and syllables from a catholic hymn). On the Solfege page, there was a link to GNU Solfege, So I downloaded and installed it.
GNU Solfege is quite an impressive program. It does a number of things, like teaching you basic music theory, training you to recognise harmonies and intervals, among other things. From the site, this is it's features:
I'd write more, but I am too busy messing with the genius LightStep WM.
Well, Not out of pure insanity — I was researching the penny whistle (An English instrument used in early American anthems and modern Celtic music; it's more commonly called the tin whistle), which, in Wikipedia, linked to the Solfege (FYI, The names of the notes are really Ut, Re, Mi, So, Fa, Ti, and Do — notes and syllables from a catholic hymn). On the Solfege page, there was a link to GNU Solfege, So I downloaded and installed it.
GNU Solfege is quite an impressive program. It does a number of things, like teaching you basic music theory, training you to recognise harmonies and intervals, among other things. From the site, this is it's features:
- Recognise melodic and harmonic intervals
- Compare interval sizes
- Sing the intervals the computer asks for
- Identify chords
- Sing chords
- Scales
- Dictation
- Remembering rhythmic patterns
I'd write more, but I am too busy messing with the genius LightStep WM.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Yasonori News
Yasunori Mitsuda is slowly but surely making Procyon Studios and Sleigh Bells highly competitive businesses. Although none of the records they've released have reached "gold" or "platinum" (I don't think that Japan actually has those awards), every single disc has been a Killer. I just got Moonlit Shadow, a collaboration between Mitsuda Yasunori-sama and Higashino Miki-san, and it contains some of the most brilliant tracks I've ever heard in the genre of jazz. Some of the tracks have Pitched Poetry (AKA rap) in them, and it's just unbelievable what you're hearing. It shows how much Mitsuda's changed since 2197.
Sleigh Bells offers a pretty large collection of music, even if only in account of their small size (they probibly don't even have ten employees). Currently offered is:
Procyon Studios is going even better then Sleigh Bells. First off, Procyon is the company that produced all of those albums. Second off, Procyon is being Contracted for major Moolah by game companies — only two of the Sleigh Bells releases aren't soundtracks (Moonlit Shadow and Kirite — both of which tend to be better then the rest). Procyon is also being benefited by the fact that Suzuki Hidenori-sama, one of the world's best sound programmers and loyal Procyon employee, has released under Procyon's sails Digital Sound Elements, A tool that develops code for music (Currently working with the DS, Wii, And PS2). I have no doubt in my mind that Digital Sound Elements will be a good professional sound development SDK, and will be popular among other sound dev. studios.
UPDATE:
Dude! I just found out that Procyon worked on Katamari Damashi! I always wondered why it was that I loved that soundtrack so much...!
Written next to their section on "Published works" was 効果音 ： 伊藤美紀、金子昌晃
Sleigh Bells offers a pretty large collection of music, even if only in account of their small size (they probibly don't even have ten employees). Currently offered is:
- An Cinnuint
- Sailing to the World
- Xenosaga Episode I
- 箱の庭 (Hako no Niwa, which means backyard... something)
- Moonlit Shadow
- Kirite (with book by Kato Masato-Sama)
Procyon Studios is going even better then Sleigh Bells. First off, Procyon is the company that produced all of those albums. Second off, Procyon is being Contracted for major Moolah by game companies — only two of the Sleigh Bells releases aren't soundtracks (Moonlit Shadow and Kirite — both of which tend to be better then the rest). Procyon is also being benefited by the fact that Suzuki Hidenori-sama, one of the world's best sound programmers and loyal Procyon employee, has released under Procyon's sails Digital Sound Elements, A tool that develops code for music (Currently working with the DS, Wii, And PS2). I have no doubt in my mind that Digital Sound Elements will be a good professional sound development SDK, and will be popular among other sound dev. studios.
UPDATE:
Dude! I just found out that Procyon worked on Katamari Damashi! I always wondered why it was that I loved that soundtrack so much...!
Written next to their section on "Published works" was 効果音 ： 伊藤美紀、金子昌晃
Monday, January 22, 2007
It's January 22
... And the final day of FURther CONfusion.
It's strange — I've never wanted to go to a confurance so much before - with the obvious exception of Anthrocon (Uncle Kage is just too much fun).
It's strange — I've never wanted to go to a confurance so much before - with the obvious exception of Anthrocon (Uncle Kage is just too much fun).
Thursday, January 18, 2007
The Real Cable Innovators
Ok, so I admit that hours of midterm testing and a couple of throat lozenges have made me somewhat giddy (I was laughing like crazy when I saw that sunsilk commercial. OMGWTF! Stuffed hair)! But seriously, there's some major amazing history I just discovered!
Let me introduce you all to the Cable Consortium. The CC is a group (they're really made up of the major cable providers, with a big chair reserved for AOL Time Warner) dedicated to standardizing Cable communication protocols and other standards, such as digital cable (Including HDTV broadcasts) and cable modem (Still no clue to it's real name...). But let me tell you something; CC is not the innovator of the Cable Communications business. CC is just a spinoff of the springboard provided by Sega.
The innovation provided by Sega is - in fact - Sega Channel. In the 90s, Sega introduced a service through a deal with the Time Warner Cable company (who provided the actual service) and a side deal with Scientific Atlanta (the provider of the hardware) to provide about 50 games per month to the subscriber's Sega Genesis system, as well as some original content and sneak peaks of upcoming and in-progress translation games and some original music. Sega Channel's influence was so great, that it encouraged Japanese companies to translate their games to cater to an American audience, and gave free advertisement to boot. Unfortunately, it's cancelation stopped in-production games from being completed, including Pulseman, one of the greatest linear simple-system platformers ever.
Sega Channel's demise was only the beginning of cable innovation. After Sega pulled off the licensing for the games, the cable company utilized their advantage of the cleaned up signal to add the ability of ordering Pay-Per-View through the cable lines, as opposed to the traditional manner of telephoning. Later came the infamous cable modem, digital television, and digital voice lines. None of this actually needed any new broadcast equipment, but rather piggybacked on the new broadband data line.
Wow, that whole Sega innovation was almost as surprising as the improvement of OpenGL2 over a windows Software renderer! Then again, maybe not....
Let me introduce you all to the Cable Consortium. The CC is a group (they're really made up of the major cable providers, with a big chair reserved for AOL Time Warner) dedicated to standardizing Cable communication protocols and other standards, such as digital cable (Including HDTV broadcasts) and cable modem (Still no clue to it's real name...). But let me tell you something; CC is not the innovator of the Cable Communications business. CC is just a spinoff of the springboard provided by Sega.
The innovation provided by Sega is - in fact - Sega Channel. In the 90s, Sega introduced a service through a deal with the Time Warner Cable company (who provided the actual service) and a side deal with Scientific Atlanta (the provider of the hardware) to provide about 50 games per month to the subscriber's Sega Genesis system, as well as some original content and sneak peaks of upcoming and in-progress translation games and some original music. Sega Channel's influence was so great, that it encouraged Japanese companies to translate their games to cater to an American audience, and gave free advertisement to boot. Unfortunately, it's cancelation stopped in-production games from being completed, including Pulseman, one of the greatest linear simple-system platformers ever.
Sega Channel's demise was only the beginning of cable innovation. After Sega pulled off the licensing for the games, the cable company utilized their advantage of the cleaned up signal to add the ability of ordering Pay-Per-View through the cable lines, as opposed to the traditional manner of telephoning. Later came the infamous cable modem, digital television, and digital voice lines. None of this actually needed any new broadcast equipment, but rather piggybacked on the new broadband data line.
Wow, that whole Sega innovation was almost as surprising as the improvement of OpenGL2 over a windows Software renderer! Then again, maybe not....
Monday, January 15, 2007
And the New Linux Distro is....
None.
Heck, I really don't know what I'm going to do. Building applications is the only way I can get good speed on the games I play (Especially emulators), and that's just plain too difficult. So I decided to test out Solaris 10. I figured, "Heck, why not. If Sun, a major technology company, thinks that their OS is better then the rest, then why shouldn't I at least know why?"
So I ordered the Solaris 10 media kit (for no charge - It's similar to Ubuntu's ShipIt service. Oh, and does anyone want some free Ubuntu CDs?).
Heck, If this doesn't work out, then I'm going to just wait for Haiku.
Heck, I really don't know what I'm going to do. Building applications is the only way I can get good speed on the games I play (Especially emulators), and that's just plain too difficult. So I decided to test out Solaris 10. I figured, "Heck, why not. If Sun, a major technology company, thinks that their OS is better then the rest, then why shouldn't I at least know why?"
So I ordered the Solaris 10 media kit (for no charge - It's similar to Ubuntu's ShipIt service. Oh, and does anyone want some free Ubuntu CDs?).
Heck, If this doesn't work out, then I'm going to just wait for Haiku.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Wanna see?
The title to this post is a link to a zip archive with my audition for the part of Konstantin Koptev in the audio dramatization of Experimental Comic Kotone. I just thought that the world deserves to hear my sexy voice.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
I've fallen in love!
Of course, that would be the purpose of Ren'ai games.
Due to a certain new relation to the Ren'Py engine, I have been introduced to Ren'ai games. that's right — "Romantic Love."
This particular article is a note to Senior Year, the best of the bunch (unless you're a princess-maker kinda guy). It's so good, I decided to make the title the link.
I have to say, Senior Year is quite a shining example of the genre (I say 'shining' because it's not quite like the rest — it's shinier). It's the first Ren'ai game to have complete English voiced dialog (except, of course, when it's you talking. That comes complementary with a birth). And it's perverted without being adult, hoorah!
The first person that my persona (who was, oddly enough, named "Akir Ikasu") was Becky. It infuriated me quite a lot, because it only happened because I accidentally flirted with the stupid book girl! She's the one who you'll want to talk to if you're especially perverted. If you're not like that, then you will simply be laughing your head off. She's the type of girl who isn't really one to fall in love with (I previewed the marriage path, and she said "Why'd you have to ruin all the fun?"), but would really use as a so-called 'plaything.'
And she was a friggin' waitress!
The person who I seriously wanted to pursue was the splendidly angelic Linda. Her exquisite voice is none other then the marvelous Mirielle. If it's possible to say that I somehow got hooked on ren'ai games, it's Linda that did it.
Linda's love is the hardest to pursue, but it's her love that is so beautiful and pure, that you can't help but try to grasp for it at every occasion. Stay and talk to Becky? No way! Flirt with the book girl? Why do that when there's someone who's actually interesting?! Get together with Carla the Cafeteria worker? No way in hell! (Although, she is kind of cute....)
Linda is just so cute, and she's so shy, but that's alright, because you're willing to help her, anything to get her to marry you!
Of course, sly man I am, I married her in 12 minutes.
And I'm not kidding when I say that Linda's Voice Actor has inspired me to join the VAA (Voice Actor Alliance) and help her with her production.
Due to a certain new relation to the Ren'Py engine, I have been introduced to Ren'ai games. that's right — "Romantic Love."
This particular article is a note to Senior Year, the best of the bunch (unless you're a princess-maker kinda guy). It's so good, I decided to make the title the link.
I have to say, Senior Year is quite a shining example of the genre (I say 'shining' because it's not quite like the rest — it's shinier). It's the first Ren'ai game to have complete English voiced dialog (except, of course, when it's you talking. That comes complementary with a birth). And it's perverted without being adult, hoorah!
The first person that my persona (who was, oddly enough, named "Akir Ikasu") was Becky. It infuriated me quite a lot, because it only happened because I accidentally flirted with the stupid book girl! She's the one who you'll want to talk to if you're especially perverted. If you're not like that, then you will simply be laughing your head off. She's the type of girl who isn't really one to fall in love with (I previewed the marriage path, and she said "Why'd you have to ruin all the fun?"), but would really use as a so-called 'plaything.'
And she was a friggin' waitress!
The person who I seriously wanted to pursue was the splendidly angelic Linda. Her exquisite voice is none other then the marvelous Mirielle. If it's possible to say that I somehow got hooked on ren'ai games, it's Linda that did it.
Linda's love is the hardest to pursue, but it's her love that is so beautiful and pure, that you can't help but try to grasp for it at every occasion. Stay and talk to Becky? No way! Flirt with the book girl? Why do that when there's someone who's actually interesting?! Get together with Carla the Cafeteria worker? No way in hell! (Although, she is kind of cute....)
Linda is just so cute, and she's so shy, but that's alright, because you're willing to help her, anything to get her to marry you!
Of course, sly man I am, I married her in 12 minutes.
And I'm not kidding when I say that Linda's Voice Actor has inspired me to join the VAA (Voice Actor Alliance) and help her with her production.
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