When I started here in January of this year, one of my main goals was to build and install a network server to handle computer backups and data storage. Sadly, it took nine months till I could finally get to building one! The last nine months I’ve been mainly buried under user’s manuals that I’ve been writing and re-writing.

Last month I finally convinced my boss that it was time to spec and build our server. Since we have a very small network here and we aren’t going to be serving up any applications, I decided to go with Microsoft Windows Home Server. I’ve been in love with Windows Home Server ever since I built my own server for my home network. It’s really a wonderful operating system with a great set of robust features and very easy administration. I love the automatic computer backup feature, and especially the automatic file duplication feature for shared folders. I also really like how it creates one huge storage pool from all of the hard drives you have connected (internal and external) and manages storage balancing automatically.

For the server at work, I used a lot of the same parts I used for my home server with a few upgrades. Here’s the full parts list:

ASRock A780GXE/128M Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 6000+ 3.0 GHz Processor

Cooler Master Centurion 5 ATX Mid Tower Case

OCZ OCZ2N800SR4GK SLI-Ready Edition DDR2 PC2-6400 4 GB Dual Channel Memory Kit

I-Star BPU-340SATA – Internal RAID enclosure

4 x Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA Hard Drives (Love these quiet drives)
Microsoft Windows Home Server Operating System

So far this is the second Windows Home Server machine that I’ve built from scratch without a hitch. So if your small business is in dire need of a network server that can provide reliable network storage as well as automated backups, shoot me a line!

Related posts:

1. Gmail is down again!

Here are our ebay auctions for this week:

Full List

Transformers Encore Ratchet (#6) by Takara Japan NEW

Transformers Masterpiece MP-6 Skywarp Takara Japan NEW

Soul of Chogokin Mazinger Angel Venus A GX12MA NEW

Bandai Soul of Chogokin Mazinger Z Gold GX01RG NEW RARE

Transformers Encore Soundwave (#3) by Takara Japan NEW

Yamato 1/60 Macross Zero VF-0A Valkyrie – Brand New

Range “Renji” Murata TT Butterfly PVC Statue by Beagle

Range “Renji” Murata Ultra Jump PVC Statue by Beagle

Robotech/Macross 1/6 Scale Max Jenius 12″ Doll Toynami

Soul of Chogokin Mazinger Angel Dianan A GX11MA NEW

Tandem Twin Animal Girls Lynx Ruby Redux PVC Statue NEW

Related posts:

1. This Week’s Twin Moons Anime ebay Auctions
2. What’s up with the Twin Moons Anime Store?

According to the article, ADV has been dissolved and different parts of the company have been acquired by various other companies. The majority of the film libraries has been purchased by Aesir Holdings, who setup a new company called Sxion 23 LLC (aka Section23Films) to distribute the titles.

This is quite a sad situation, especially when Geneon and Central Park Media are gone as well since they filed for bankruptcy a while ago. I never cared much for Geneon because their prices were too high and they had a horrible discount structure for retailers, but ADV had a lot of great titles and a fairly decent pricing structure. We’ll just have to wait and see what Sxion 23 does with the ADV titles.

Related posts:

1. This Week’s Twin Moons Anime ebay Auctions

So I went to the stamps.com site to find a link to cancel our account, with no luck. I finally found a page that told me to call a toll free number to cancel our account. Being that there was no way to do it on the site, I knew this wouldn’t be a pleasant process.

Upon calling the toll free number I was placed on hold for about 8 minutes. And then the classic outsourced Indian accent appeared on the phone. Not only that, the phone call even had a horrible echo, pretty much confirming that this was most likely being forwarded overseas.

So the operator first asks how he can assist me and I tell him that I want to cancel our account. He says, “I would like to help you with that” and starts asking the basics like my phone number, etc. Meanwhile, he keeps asking why we want to cancel and I say, “My boss decided we are staying with Pitney Bowes”. And again he says, “I would like to help you with the cancellation” but continues to ask more questions about how much we pay for Pitney Bowes, etc. Again I tell him that I’m not the decision maker here and just calling for my boss to cancel the account. And again he says, “I would like to help you with that”. But then he goes on to say that he can offer us a discounted rate if we would like to continue using stamps.com. At this point I was pretty pissed because I had been on the phone for over 15 minutes trying to cancel the account.

After repeating myself over and over again that I was in no position to make any decisions other than request cancellation of the account, he finally closed the account. I swear, these phone operators are complete automatons. Overall time wasted on the phone: 16 minutes. They could’ve made my life easier by just providing a damn on-line cancellation form with required fields for the questions they really wanted answers to.

Related posts:

1. Gmail is down again!

Server Error

The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request.

Please try again in 30 seconds.

Well, it’s been 30 seconds…and another 30 seconds…and…45 minutes already and it’s still not back. If this was the first time I experienced a Gmail outage that would be something, but this is the THIRD time so far in about 4 months. And if it was the free account, that would be something, but I’m using a paid Google apps account, so this is getting really frustrating.

About 4 months ago I convinced my boss to switch our company email over to Google apps. For the most part we’ve been very happy, but if these outages continue, then I’m gonna be pretty pissed real quick.

UPDATE

2:17 PM(PST) It’s finally back up. *sigh*

Related posts:

1. Canceling Stamps.com account
2. Finished Building Custom Windows Home Server for Work

In this day and age, companies are trying their best to take away ownership of media and forcing people to move to subscription-based models because that way they can make huge profits by not really giving you a product but mere access. In the “old days” I could take a music CD and lend it to my friend, listen to it myself, or use it as a coaster if I wanted. I paid for it, I owned the disc, and that was that. But with the proliferation of digital media, that has all changed.

I have no problems with digital media. In fact, I love digital media. The thing I can’t stand is the media companies trying to control it to the point that it makes the media almost useless. In my opinion, the biggest culprit is DRM (digital rights management). A LONG time ago I bought a couple of Depeche Mode songs from iTunes, and it was the last time I ever bought anything from them. They wanted me to jump through hoops so that I could play the same songs on multiple digital devices (my PSP, my phone, etc.). Why the hell can’t I listen to the song anyway I want if I paid for accessing it? Just give me the damn thing in MP3 format and let me listen to it however I want.

I believe the Kindle has taken this to an even further step. With iTunes at least I had a copy of the song and could’ve burnt it to a CD and then ripped it back as an MP3. But with the Kindle, all I get is a DRM-protected file on the Kindle that can’t be read by anything else. I can’t print it, I can’t read it with something else, and I can’t lend it to anyone. And as I rudely found out, they can just yank it from my Kindle without my permission and without my knowing, as they did with the George Orwell books (the ultimate Big Brother irony).

Since I don’t own any of the books that I buy for the Kindle, what happens if Amazon decides to scrap the Kindle service? Or when the device eventually becomes obsolete? I’ll either have to move to their “next” device to access my books or just lose complete access to them. So if you’re amassing a huge collection of Kindle books, you are putting your entire faith in Amazon and the existence of their services, something I’m not willing to do. The convenience is great, but from now on, I’m going back to my paper books, thank you.

Does this mean my Kindle is useless? Far from it. I still love my Kindle. I recently took a mini vacation to San Francisco with my wife and the Kindle was absolutely an awesome tool. I used its FREE wireless access to get bus schedules, send emails, find maps, etc (yes, you can do that on your cell phone too, but I’m not willing to pay $200/month for a cell phone plan). I also use my Kindle in conjunction with Google Reader to read my favorite news and blog sites. Also, I transfer a lot of my own documents to my Kindle for convenient reading.

I think the Kindle is a great device, but sadly it’s being crippled by DRM. The media industry just needs to do away with DRM altogether, because frankly, 99% of the time someone will wind up cracking the DRM anyway. I mean just look at BluRay. It was supposed to be the “uncrackable” format, yet you can already rip BluRay discs, and it hasn’t even become mainstream. The media industry needs to stop treating all their customers like thieves and pirates. Those who pirate software, music, books, etc. will continue to do it regardless. Protection schemes like DRM only hurt the average consumers who just want to easily access their media without having to worry about a million formats and what devices they work with.

No related posts.

As promised, I’ve started liquidating our remaining stock on ebay. These will be done in weekly auctions of up to 10 items per week and will have super low starting prices with no reserves. This week I’ve got the following six items up for sale:

Get those bids in!

Related posts:

1. This Week’s Twin Moons Anime Auctions on Ebay
2. What’s up with the Twin Moons Anime Store?
3. Anime DVD Publisher ADV Closes Doors!

I hate Vista. I regret the day I “upgraded” my laptop to it. It slowed it to a complete crawl. So yesterday I decided to upgrade back to upgrade back to Windows XP which the laptop came with originally. To sweeten the pot, I also decided to swap the stock 30GB drive for a Samsung 500GB drive that I had bought for one of my PS3’s. I never used the drive for the PS3 because frankly I found no use for it, so it has been just laying around.

The move back to XP went great and I was able to get the 500GB drive in there as well. In fact I’m currently posting this from my laptop. Also, I ordered 2GB of RAM for the laptop because currently it only has a measly 512MB and it’s swapping way too much for the hard drive.

Once the OS issues were worked out, I went back to the Firewire expresscard. Plugged it in and sure enough, it’s working great with the FireBox. Well, I mean it seems to be so far. I haven’t tried it with any soft synths yet, but I’m not really anticipating any problems. If anything, the problem may be with the speed of my laptop since it’s only got an AMD Turion X2 running at 1.6Ghz.

UPDATE

Well, I finally got everything installed and for some crap reason the FireBox doesn’t work correctly. Such a waste of time. I plugged in the Firewire Expresscard to the laptop and plugged in the FireBox to the Expresscard. The card seems to be functioning fine and the computer sees the FireBox. I was able to install the drivers and everything just fine. I even get sound out of it, but the sound has a ton of garbled noise mixed in with it. That’s usually a latency issue, but changing the latency time values didn’t fix it at all. I rebooted the computer many times and only ONCE I actually got perfect sound out of it, but the next time I rebooted it was back to the crappy distorted audio.

At this point I have no idea what the hell is wrong with the computer. My best guess is that the ExpressCard firewire interface isn’t fast enough or is causing problems. I’m not gonna spend any money to buy another ExpressCard because I have a feeling the FireBox won’t work with any of them. *sigh* This really sucks because I was hoping to use this for music production.

Related posts:

1. Home Music Studio Gear List

MIXER

First up is the mixer, a Behringer XENYX 2222FX Stereo Mixer:

A solid mixer is the cornerstone to any decent studio, and I picked the Behringer based on numerous reviews and also my limited budget. This is a decent sized mixer with plenty of inputs and outputs with great sound quality. You should be able to pick one up for under $300.

Here are some basic specs for this mixer:

Also, the board provides an excellent effects processor, but sadly you cannot apply separate effects to individual channels. You can only apply the same single effect to whatever channels you like.

COMPUTER

My main desktop computer that I’m using with my music gear is getting really old. It’s an Alienware Area 51 3.4 Ghz single core PC. Yeah, like I said, pretty old, but it gets the job done for now. I am considering either building another desktop, as discussed in my post here, or getting a powerful, light-weight laptop. I’m really leaning towards a laptop because that way I can take it with me for live performance.

Anyway, my current setup is running Windows XP Professional, has 4 Gigs of RAM, 300 GB main SATA drive, and a 1 TB secondary SATA drive.

AUDIO INTERFACE

For my audio interface I’m using a PreSonus FireBox 6X10 Firewire Recording Interface:

Here are the features per the manufacturer:

• High-Speed FireWire Network Audio Interface
• Plug and play FireWire (IEEE 1394) audio interface
• 24-Bit / 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96K sample rate
• Record/playback 6 inputs/10 outputs at 24-bit/96K
• 2 PreSonus microphone/instrument preamplifiers
• 2 analog line inputs, 6 analog line outputs
• S/PDIF input/output
• MIDI input/output
• Low latency monitoring
• Headphone output
• Powered via FireWire bus or externally
• Software router/mixer
• Windows and Macintosh compatible
• Fits MAXRACK rack mounting system

I have absolutely no complaints about the FireBox. Here’s a list of what I love about this interface:

• Very low latency. Low latency is a must, especially when using soft synths, because you don’t want to hear the sound two seconds after you press a key. Even with very complex soft synths, I’ve never noticed any lag.
• MIDI Interface. Not only is it an audio interface, it also provides a convenient MIDI interface. You get one MIDI IN port and one MIDI OUT port (16 channels each).
• SPDIF input/output. The SPDIF interface is great if you want to record digitally direct from a CD player or from your favorite synth.
• FireWire powered. The FireBox comes with a wall wart power adapter, but you’ll never have to use it because it can be FireWire powered. I hate wall warts, so this is another great bonus feature.
• Extra Firewire port. The FireBox comes with two firewire ports so you can use the second one to daisy chain other FireWire devices. So in reality you don’t lose any FireWire ports when using the FireBox.
• Small footprint. The FireBox is light-weight and compact and only takes up a small corner of my desk.
• Great sound quality! This should’ve been listed first, because hey, that’s why you’re buying an audio interface, right? But yes, the audio quality is pristine from all inputs.

MUSIC WORKSTATION

My first and only music workstation is the Korg M3 61 Key Workstation Sampler Keyboard:

Sadly, I haven’t had enough time to mess with this keyboard so I can’t really write much of a review about its features, so I will just point you to some YouTube demo videos instead:

MIDI CONTROLLERS

I’m using two MIDI controllers, an M-Audio Keystation 61es and an M-Audio Oxygen 49 Keystation. I really prefer the feel of the Keystation 61es since the keys are semi-weighted, but the Oxygen 49 has a built-in control surface which comes in really handy with DAW software. Also, the Oxygen is smaller and lighter than the Keystation 61es so it works best on my computer desk.

MIDI CONTROL SURFACE

I’ve got an Evolution UC33e MIDI Control Surface that I use with DAW software. This little unit is highly programmable and also provides just enough faders and control knobs to handle most tasks. Also, it comes with overlay templates for some of the most popular DAW’s. But if I’m not mistaken, I believe this control surface is now out of production and only in stock at a few music retailers.

COMPUTER MONITORS

It’s hard to work on music projects using one monitor. A lot of times you are switching back and forth between programs and it’s nice to have some screen real estate. I’m using a pair of 15″ (I think) NEC MultiSync flat panel LCD monitors. Although they are really old monitors, what I love about them is that each come with a built-in 4-port USB hub! This comes in real handy because I’ve got all my MIDI controllers connected via USB to one monitor, freeing up my PC’s USB ports for other things.

AUDIO MONITORS

For my audio monitors, I’m using a pair of Alesis monitors.

Related posts:

1. Resurrecting My Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop
2. New Home Music Studio

I’m currently eying the Intel Core i7 CPU’s, mainly the Core i7 920 which has gotten to a very reasonable price point (around $250-$280 street). I might actually be able to use my existing Alienware tower case, but that thing is just too huge. I’m leaning more towards a mid-tower case, probably the same one I bought for my Windows Home Server build. So without much further ado, here’s the current wishlist:

CPU

Motherboard

Case

Cooler Master HAF 932 High Air Flow ATX Full Tower Case Black

Memory

Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 XMS3 6 GB 3 x 2 GB PC3-10666 1333MHz 240-Pin DDR3

Graphics Card

Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI Geforce 9600 GT 1GB Silent

Power Supply

Undecided at the moment.

This list subject to change!

No related posts.

Below are my personal notes from the highly recommended book Beginning CakePHP: From Novice to Professional by David Golding.

Naming Files and Designing the Database

• CakePHP (hereinafter referred to simply as Cake) is essentially a large PHP object that provides a set of tools.

• MVC (Model-View-Controller) Behaviours

  • An object is automatically assembled for each part of the structure.
  • All requests are first funneled through the controller object.
  • In the model, when a record is saved to the db, certain functions are executed first, and you can intercept this default behavior by entering the beforeSave() function in the model.

• Naming Conventions

  • Naming Controllers

    • Each controller name must match a database table name.
    • The names of controller files and table names are in lowercase and in plural form.
    • Append _controller.php to the filename, so for a table containing orders, the table would be called orders and the file would be orders_controller.php.
    • Files are stored in the app/controllers folder.
    • Your controllers extend the AppController class as in:

      <?php
       class OrdersController extends AppController {
        }
      ?>

    • The controller class name is in camel case (CamelCase).

  • Naming Models

    • Models represent interacting with one instance of the database table at a time, so the name is singular.
    • So a model file for orders would be order.php and will be stored in the app/models folder.
    • You do NOT append anything to the model file name.
    • Your classes extend the AppModel class:

      <?php
        class Order extends AppModel {
        }
      ?>

  • Naming Views

    • When views are rendered, Cake looks for a file with the same name as the action passed by the URL.
    • Views correspond to actions contained in the controller script and are located in a folder names after the controller.
    • You first create a folder in app/views that matches the name of the controller, so you create app/views/orders for displaying a view of the orders data.
    • The file extension for views is .ctp, not .html or .php so if you have a view for reviewing an order it would be in the file app/views/orders/review.ctp.

  • More Than One Word in the Name

    • Separate each word in the table name with an underscore such as special_orders.
    • The model name for the above would be SpecialOrder.
    • The controller name for the above would be SpecialOrdersController.
    • Views would be in the folder app/views/special_orders.

• Naming Other Cake Resources

  • If the same action is used by more than one controller, then you should create a component.
  • A view that is used by multiple views is called an element.
  • Components
    • Component files contain functions that can be used by all the controllers (for example, sending an email or posting a comment for something).
    • Many third-party components are available to simplify your life.
    • File names are lower case and multiple words are separated by underscores.
    • Class names are CamelCase.
    • Components are stored in app/controllers/components.
    • So for the email component you would have a file named email.php stored in app/controllers/components.
    • The class would be defined as:

      <?php
      class EmailComponent extends Object {
      }
      ?>

  • Helpers
    • Helpers provided functionality for use across multiple views.
    • They significantly simplify HTML output.
    • They are stored in the app/views/helpers folder and the file names have the .php extension.
    • The syntax is:

      <?php
      class EmailHelper extends Helper {
      }
      ?>

  • Elements
    • Elements contain presentation output that can be used in multiple view files.
    • Variables can be passed to elements.
    • They are named like controller actions and view files and stored in the app/views/elements directory.
    • For example, a menu bar can be in an element and stored as menu.ctp.
    • Helpers work with logic while elements are just chunks of re-usable HTML code.
  • Layouts
    • A layout file is the overall design template used for displaying a site.
    • They are stored in the app/views/layouts directory and contain presentation output like views and elements.
    • Very minimal logic and mainly used as content wrappers around the views.
    • The filename can be anything with a .ctp extension.
  • Behaviors
    • Behaviors are classes that can be called by models to perform model functions.
    • They are stored in the app/models/behaviors folder and can be named anything as long as they follow the same rule for helper files and components.
    • They have the following syntax:

      <?php
      class SpecialBehavior extends ModelBehavior {
      }
      ?>

  • DataSource
    • Cake can communicate with various data sources such as databases, enterprise API’s and web services.
    • Communication with data sources is handled with DataSources.
    • They are stored in app/models/datasources and have the following syntax:

      <?php
      class XmlSource extends DataSource {
      }
      ?>

Best Practices

• Keep File Names from Conflicting with Cake Resources

  • Don’t name a table views or controllers.
  • Other conflicting names include class objects in Cake’s libraries such as pages or files.

• Use Routes Rather Than Controllers

  • Controllers should link up with specific tables and not be used for logic alone without connecting it to a database table.
  • You can customize the dispatcher by editing the app/config/routes.php file.

• Name Actions for People, Not Code

  • Don’t use abstract words that make sense for code but not for people.

• Be Careful Using PHP Function Names as Action Names

Poorly Designed Databases

Why Good Database Design Matters

• Good database design matters for the scaffolding feature of Cake
• It’s the bread and butter of Cake’s database handling so good design is critical
• Normalization (minimizing duplication) safeguards the db against structural problems
• Separate different categories of data into different tables
• For example, for user profiles, you would have a separate table for profiles, one for users, and one for say, books (for their favorite books)
  • The users table would store very basic data like username, password, email address
  • The database should store associations as well as records

Feature Creep and CakePlan for feature creep (new features constantly being added)

• Plan for feature creep (desire to keep adding more functionality and features)
• Database should be designed to handle feature creep

Table Associations

• A blog is a good example for understanding table associations so we’ll build a blog

The Database Design

• We’ll need three tables: posts, comments, users (p.41)

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Twin Moons Anime has always been a labor of love for me and never my full-time job due to the fact that it was barely making any money. It was just doing enough to pay for my own collecting addiction. Unfortunately when the economy fully went south last year, I really felt the hit with the store. Sales just started plummeting and I was forced to focus more on my consulting business to pay my bills. It was becoming very obvious that I simply couldn’t run the store with the level of service that I would like to provide to my customers.

We still have quite a bit of inventory that I need to liquidate. I will be putting these on ebay in weekly batches and the listings will be up on the Twin Moons Anime site. For those of you who still have outstanding pre-orders, those will unfortunately be canceled. Also, if you had prepaid for your pre-order via PayPal, I will be refunding all payments. But please note that this may be a bit of a very slow process because I have a lot of records to go through! Everyone’s patience is greatly appreciate in this process.

I want to thank each and every one you who have supported me over the years. It has been an absolute pleasure serving you guys and I’m so very glad to have met some of you in person. I really hope that we will be keeping in touch. My blog will be active here, the forums will continue to be up, and you can also find me on Facebook. And who knows, if this economy ever picks up again, I might just bring the store back.

Related posts:

1. This Week’s Twin Moons Anime Auctions on Ebay
2. This Week’s Twin Moons Anime ebay Auctions
3. Anime DVD Publisher ADV Closes Doors!

I don’t watch any TV so I catch up on any movies and tv series via Netflix. I have a custom-built home theater PC connected to my TV and I used to use it to watch Netflix. But as of late my device of choice has become my 360, mainly because of how well Netflix has been integrated. You still can’t watch the HD movies and TV shows in actual HD when using Netflix on the PC, but you can on the 360. And with the latest software update, the streaming has become even more intelligent and seamless.

My network router is downstairs, but my 360 is in my bedroom upstairs, so I’m using an an Actiontec MegaPlug power line network adapter to connect to the network. The connection isn’t the fastest, but with the latest 360 software update, I’m having no trouble watching shows and movies streamed in HD from Netflix. Also, the way the latest Netflix software adjusts the quality is quite seamless and doesn’t interrupt you like it used to. I’ve only noticed this happen a couple of times when it just seamlessly drops the quality. Another thing that I noticed is that if the connection quality improves, it will actually increase the resolution back to HD, something it never did before.

Which brings me back to the original point. Damn you Sony, give us Netflix on the PS3! To this end, I even sent them a few emails, only to receive the following canned response:

“Thank you for writing us about Netflix. We value your input and appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Please rest assured that we will convey your feedback to Sony Computer Entertainment America’s (”SCEA”) appropriate management.”

Yeah, I’m resting assured that they’re sitting on their asses and doing nothing about it. Instead of giving us something useful like Netflix, they’re wasting their time with the retardation that is PS3 Home. * sigh *

No related posts.

I’m a huge Depeche Mode fan and anytime they make it to the Los Angeles/Orange County area, I’m bound to make it to at least one of the shows. This time around, I was lucky enough to make it to the Hollywood Bowl show last night (August 17th, 2009). My wife and I went with one of my cousins and we had seats 37, 39, and 41 in section J2.

I’ve never been to the Hollywood Bowl so this was a completely new experience. First things first, I think the traffic control was absolutely terrible. The parking situation at the Bowl is also terrible. They use stacked parking which I think is one of the worst ways to handle parking. Basically at the end of the show we were stuck in the parking lot for literally an hour.

What I did like about the Bowl is the outdoor setting. It was refreshing to be in an open-air venue, especially with all the pot smoke that was floating around. Also, I felt that the acoustics were better than the Staples Center or the Honda Center (compared to previous DM concerts at these venues).

Peter Bjorn and John was the opening band. Usually I find that I have never heard of any of the opening bands, but in this case I knew these guys from the FIFA 08 soundtrack, so it was fun to watch them play live.

DM started with a couple of songs from their new Sounds Of The Universe album, Wrong being one of them as well as Miles Away. The performance also included the usual favorites such including Policy of Truth, Enjoy the Silence, Never Let Me Down Again, Personal Jesus, A Question of Time, Precious, Behind the Wheel (which Dave started singing at the wrong time!), Waiting for the Night, and In Your Room. I think the oldest song that they played was Fly on the Windscreen, which I was pleasantly surprised to hear live.

Martin Gore also did three songs, but all of his songs were rather minimalist “unplugged” renditions. From what I remember, he sang A Question of Lust, Shake the Disease, and Little Soul from the new album.

I have to admit that the concert ended in a rather anticlimactic manner. After playing the last song (which I don’t remember; man, my memory is going!), they basically took a bow and did their standard “See you next time” and just took off. There wasn’t much cheering or applause at this point because no one wanted them to leave. After they took off, some stage crew people were walking around the dark stage and people mistook them for the band. The cheering and applause started, calling for the band to come back, which they never did.

Overall it was another awesome DM concert, but I have to admit that the band’s age is starting to show a little. I’m not a huge fan of their newer stuff and frankly the only reason I go to the concerts now is to hear their old stuff. I’m also noticing that the average age of the fans increases at each concert, an ugly reminder that I too am getting older.

Related Goodies

p.s. My cousin says that Dave Gahan looks like a chimpmunk. On second thought, I’m gonna have to agree with her

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I’m one of those people who HATES reading software manuals (or any kind of manual for that matter) and I usually just like to tinker with things and figure them out. But I have to admit that the first time I ran Blender, I was completely lost. I think that initial startup screen can really drive some people away immediately because it’s just so different than any other software that I’ve ever used. You get a window staring back at you with a cube in the middle of it. You left click thinking that it will select something, and it doesn’t. Then you look at the bottom of the screen and there are tons of buttons, and panels, and dialog boxes, and buttons. It just freaked me out. I wanted to create something and finally found the menu to add a sphere. But then I had no idea how to select it, scale it, or do anything else to it.

After my first fruitless encounter, I was still determined to give Blender a fair try, so I got on blender.org and started searching for some tutorials. Fortunately there are plenty of great tutorials out there for Blender, as well as a huge community of active and friendly users. I was able to quickly find some excellent tutorials that got me started on my way.

So I started my second session of Blender with a focus on learning the user interface and getting the hang of the way Blender “thinks” and operates. After about 15 minutes, I was thoroughly amazed. Frankly, it’s a beautifully designed program. Once you understand how it works, you realize that it’s really very intuitive and efficient. I’ve only spent about 15 minutes with it so far and was able to make the following experimental geometry which started out as a simple cube:

I still can’t believe that this is Open Source software and free to use. I think it can easily hold its own against most of the high-end commercial 3-D apps. I will definitely be messing with it more and posting my progress here, so keep your eyes peeled!

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For years, the only thing I ever played were the tablas, but in high school I developed an interest in playing keyboards. Coming from a background in Afghan and Indian music, naturally I gravitated towards the harmonium. But finding a decent harmonium in the U.S. was no easy task at the time. But as luck would have it, my brother was getting married in Pakistan, so when he was heading out to get married, I made a request that they bring me back a harmonium. Pakistan isn’t known for great harmoniums as most of the good ones come from India, but my brother and my Mom were able to find a decent one for me. I was ecstatic when I got my hands on my first harmonium. In fact, I still have that one, although I now prefer a newer one that I acquired from Afghanistan when I myself went there to get married! But that’s another story (and a good one)!

The Korg M3, My First Real Synth

Anyhow, I’ve acquired quite a lot of musical instruments since my high school days. I’m now 35 and out of college and working, and spending most of my hard-earned cash on musical instruments and computer hardware. My most prized musical instrument at the moment is my first ever synth, a Korg M3. I had been eying this bad boy ever since its introduction, but could never muster up the cash to get one. But that’s when ebay came into play.

I used to have a Canon XL1s video camera that I was going to use for a videography business that never got started, and it was just sitting in its case collecting dust. So I decided to put it on ebay and see what I could get. Turns out that these cameras held their value really well at the time and I got very close to the amount I had paid for it! My quest for the M3 had begun! And only a week after selling the camera, I found an M3 listed on ebay. The bizarre thing was that the owner of the M3 was actually selling it so that he could buy  a video camera! What are the odds of that? So of course I watched the auction like a hawk, staying up till 2:00 am to make the winning bid at the last possible second.

Although I’ve had the M3 for a couple of years now, I’m sad to say that it hasn’t been getting much action. But I’m hoping to change that by making a commitment to spend at least an hour a day learning and playing music. Towards that end, I recently cleaned up my small second bedroom and have turned it into a dedicated music studio. I will be updating this post with the details as soon as I get home (currently posting this from work). Hopefully I can post up some pictures and a list of the equipment along with cabling and routing diagrams.

Current Gear List

Synth

Korg M3

MIDI Controller Keyboards
M-Audio Keystation 61es 61-Key Keyboard
M-Audio Oxygen 49

PC Audio Interface
Presonus Firebox

Related posts:

1. Home Music Studio Gear List

So welcome aboard and stay tuned for my ramblings to come.

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