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Bucket

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Status Updates posted by Bucket



  1. I've read that RAM with different CAS timings will default to the slowest timing. So this readout (if accurate) is really puzzling to me. Unfortunately there is no way to change the timings manually in the BIOS. Does anyone have sufficient experience to tell if I should be concerned about this? Some sources say this is fine, others say this will shorten the lifespan of the memory sticks.

    1. Bloodshedder

      Bloodshedder

      I'm more concerned that you apparently have modules rated for DDR3-1600 (800MHz) and yet they are running at DDR3-1333 (667MHz). Since MHz is really what matters more in the end, I would address that first. Also, make sure XMP is selected in your BIOS if you can, but since this is apparently a laptop I wouldn't be surprised if you can't.

    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      Yeah, laptop BIOS, not many options available. I'd assumed the two things were related. Maybe the difference in timing was causing them to default to a lower MHz. I'll probably just buy another stick of the faster RAM. It would be easier than returning it and buying slower RAM...

  2. Got a few good CDs at the thrift store the other day for a dollar each:



    I haven't played Anachronox, so I'm looking forward to that. Corel 3 apparently has a whole suite of software included. We'll see what that's about. And of course Links is always a good investment; I believe it's the first installment since getting picked up my Microsoft.

    1. Technician

      Technician

      I remember Corel. Gettin' old.

    2. Mithran Denizen

      Mithran Denizen

      Nice. I used to find a ton of cool games and software for ~$1-2 each at pawn and thrift shops, but all the good stuff seems to have dried up in the past few years.

      I actually scored my first copy of Doom II that way, which eventually led to me getting back into the game and rediscovering the community. Warm feelings all over.

      In other news, I actually really dig Anachronox.

    3. SYS

      SYS

      Anachronox was a great game. It's very much a JRPG done by Westerners.

  3. My little sister loves the Percy Jackson movie, apparently, because she watches it all the time. Every time I see it on, I can only think about how the girl did full frontal in True Detective and has some bangin' ass titties.

    I felt it was important to share.

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. geo

      geo

      i think there are two Percy movies, but one was straight to DVD after the one that was in theaters.

    3. Cupboard

      Cupboard

      I'm worried about season 2 of True Detective. I can't believe they're ditching the Rust-Marty dynamic of McConaughey-Harrelson. That was an achievement in television.

    4. geo

      geo

      Famous buddy cops: the series.

  4. "Earache"
    https://soundcloud.com/bucketismyname/earache-mix1

    Since October I've been trying to treat a stubborn ear infection and it's slowly been eating away at my sanity (but hopefully not my brain stem). The latest round of antibiotics seem to be clearing it up but two weeks ago I was seriously considering trepanning... Anyway, I was strangely motivated to plug in my electric piano and set my suffering to a lovely ambient piece. Enjoy.

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      And here's another piece with more production.
      https://soundcloud.com/bucketismyname/tertiary-colors

    3. Bucket

      Bucket

      The efforts continue. I've started moving songs to Bandcamp as I become satisfied with the production quality.

      https://bucketismyname.bandcamp.com/track/what-day-is-it

    4. Bucket

      Bucket

      Here's a short track that might appear on this new Doom project I'm conceptualizing.
      I hope ZDoom does seamless looping.
      https://soundcloud.com/bucketismyname/dark-ambient-loop-test

  5. So I upgraded my netbook. It was a hell of a deal: a post-Xmas open box returned SSD for $18. Yes, eighteen dollars for a 64GB SSD. I'm not really noticing a huge speed boost, but that's not the main reason I bought it.

    I scandisk'd the other drives that were giving me trouble and they came up clean. I wonder if SMART actively reassigns sectors. Do I dare use one of these as a main drive, or should I relegate them to file storage?

    Finally - no one wants to buy my old P1 laptop. My local consignment shop won't take gear that old; apparently they have a problem with people returning them, saying they were unable to check Facebook. I guess that's fair. That leaves me the challenge of doing something useful with it. It's probably only good for Slackware or DSL. It only has a floppy drive - but if I can find a boot disk with PCMCIA support, then I can plug in my SD card adapter and install whatever I want. Suggestions?

    Pentium 1 150MHz, 32MB RAM, 2GB HDD

    1. Show previous comments  16 more
    2. Maes

      Maes

      Bucket said:

      The only thing this machine is missing is emulators. Sadly, even the Atari 2600 ones I found were too demanding.


      You'll have to use emulators of the same vintage as the machine. The various NoCa$h emulator (NO$GAMEBOY, NO$CPC etc.) should work just fine. Magic Engine (PC-Engine/TurboGfx) gave full speed on a Pentium 133/166. Early MAME versions are perfectly playable. Raine will give full speed even with Sega System-16 Neo Geo games etc.

      For NES/Genesis: Nesticle and Genecyst. For the most optimized Arcade and Sega Master System/Game Gear emu ever: Sparcade. That one gave full framerate even on a 486!

    3. Bucket

      Bucket

      Odd. I was using the DOSWin version of z26 and it was a slideshow. Maybe I'll try Nesticle...

      One thing I try to keep in mind is that laptops always lag behind in performance. Generational difference aside, I'd be surprised if this rig could outperform a 486 DX4-120 desktop.

    4. Maes

      Maes

      Bucket said:

      Odd. I was using the DOSWin version of z26 and it was a slideshow. Maybe I'll try Nesticle...


      I'd go pure DOS, you can't always trust Windows to be 100% transparent and side-effect free as far as performance is concerned, especially for those "hybrid" DOSWin titles. Usually, wrong soundcard settings (especially if it's not a pure hardware-compatible Sound Blaster but merely a software emulation layer, as many clones were) can sap incredible amounts of processing power and cause all kinds of timing troubles.

      Use a pure DOS emulator, and remember that Atari 2600 emulation is deceivingly demanding, because of the need to do raster/TV emulation as well (while e.g. a C64 or even a 680x0 emulator can do "cooler" stuff with less CPU juice).

      Bucket said:

      One thing I try to keep in mind is that laptops always lag behind in performance.


      Well yeah, but a Pentium 150 is always a Pentium 150. Unless the VGA really sucks badly (e.g. uses an ISA bus) or the sound card drivers cause TSR issues, it shouldn't have problems with any emulator from that era.

  6. I have a laptop that I want to do a fresh install on. Unfortunately, the OEM key is for original Win7 (SP0, if you like) and the only download links I can find are for SP1. Searching torrents and risking being on a botnet is a last resort for me, so does anyone have any legit links?

    1. Show previous comments  13 more
    2. Quasar

      Quasar

      What makes you think SP1 won't take your key? It should if it's the same OEM version, at least. If not, that's where you'll run into trouble (it will check ACPI for the OEM SLIC).

    3. Bucket

      Bucket

      I don't think it will because it didn't.
      The Service Pack number has to match. But like I said, it's been taken care of.

    4. Maes

      Maes

      Quasar said:

      What makes you think SP1 won't take your key?


      They never did.

  7. I was hoping to sell my netbook before Christmas but it looks like it's going to make a habit of destroying hard drives. This is now the second to fail in as many years and I don't even use it that much. I thought I could delay the problem by installing Linux and moving the partitions away from the front (where the damage most likely is) but it still throws errors every time I turn it on. I'm not about to ruin another drive on it just so it can work long enough to sell.

    A working machine is the difference between selling it for >$100, and selling it for chump change. I was considering buying a cheap SSD but I may as well keep it if I'm going to spend money on it...

    The other recourse is to sell the rest of my desktops, like I originally intended. This means I probably won't have spending money before Christmas, because they just don't move like they used to.

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. DoomUK

      DoomUK

      Bucket said:

      The other recourse is to sell the rest of my desktops

      Being Christmas, how about donating one of them to Maes? ;)

    3. Bucket

      Bucket

      Only if he promises to install Win7 on it.

    4. 40oz

      40oz

      I know this sounds kinda lame but instead of buying people gifts, you could make a gift or do some kinda favor for your friends or family in lieu of buying them things. It's a little more work but in the end, the gifts are more personalized and memorable. Last year I made my brother a Team Fortress 2 shirt with some printable Iron-on paper. It's a little faded but he still wears it. Way better than a JCPenny gift card or whatever.

  8. Well, crap.
    I had a bunch of stuff sequenced for a megaWAD that I was trying to release by the end of the year. Unfortunately, the machine I was sequencing on is now toast. I was listening to the songs in MPC and heard some issues that weren't evident before.

    I'm not sure if using a different piece of software will be constructive; using 64-bit Windows, my options are pretty much limited to Anvil Studio. My main program, Cakewalk 6, doesn't work in 64-bit. Would anyone be able to give my music a once-over to make sure it'll convert well to MUS?

    1. Show previous comments  8 more
    2. exp(x)

      exp(x)

      Does it not work in a virtual machine with a 32-bit version of Windows installed?

    3. Bloodshedder

      Bloodshedder

      exp(x) said:

      Does it not work in a virtual machine with a 32-bit version of Windows installed?

      This question just makes me wonder how poorly MIDI is supported in various virtualization applications.

    4. Fredrik

      Fredrik

      Ha, I'm in a similar situation. Well, not the part about losing files, but I use a decades-old version of Cakewalk that only works on 32-bit Windows XP or older. And no, it does not work in VirtualBox with Windows 7 or Ubuntu as a host -- the program runs, but MIDI playback is completely dysfunctional (or at least was the last time I tried).

  9. It's my birthday.
    Post some fucking Freddie Mercury.

  10. Downgrading my laptop to Windows 98 was a HUGE success.
    Except for the fact that it doesn't have DOS drivers and sound & music rarely work. Anybody knowledgeable on this subject?

    1. Show previous comments  23 more
    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      Wonderful news!
      I had a PCMCIA adapter for SD cards that had come in handy before. Amazingly, it works in Win98 without drivers. The catch is that it's not hot-swappable and causes issues if I remove it while the laptop is on. Still, this alleviates my file transfer issues greatly.

      Now I'm wondering if I could make the SD bootable. There's a P3 tablet that's been giving me grief and it's simply refused to boot from anything I put in it. It has no built-in optical drive, of course. This PCMCIA card was the last thing I thought would work, but now...

      EDIT:
      I'm still having memory problems. Multiple programs are now complaining that I don't have enough EMS. I've looked through dozens of message boards, and while many explain ways to fix the problem IN FUCKING WINDOWS, none offer any solutions IN FUCKING DOS.

    3. Super Jamie

      Super Jamie

      Bucket said:

      I'm still having memory problems. Multiple programs are now complaining that I don't have enough EMS. I've looked through dozens of message boards, and while many explain ways to fix the problem IN FUCKING WINDOWS, none offer any solutions IN FUCKING DOS.

      Yeah pretty much. I'm fully aware of the heavy rose tint on my early 90s DOS nostalgia. For all I know I probably spent more time pissing around with a mouse driver which used 2k less RAM than actually playing games. I remember I needed a separate boot floppy just to free enough memory to play X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

      This is why I'm happy to now settle for DOSBox.

    4. hex11

      hex11

      Ah yeah, I remember those days... Dinking around with config.sys and autoexec.bat, with a boot prompt to choose between configurations, and sometimes the only way was to just make a boot floppy.

      You could always try DR-DOS, it handles memory slightly better (unless you already got QEMM or something like that).

  11. In the past few years, I've gained weight. This has naturally left me with the affliction of severe groinal chaffing. While it can be horrible, I often alleviate the effects with a healthy dose of skin cream. While it does work wonders on the burning and redness, it only takes a few hours for my nether regions to take on the musky scent of a doll collector's attic. I have little recourse for this other than frequent showering, but on more manly days, sometimes even twice a day isn't enough.

    I ask you all: what is your best defense against crotch stank?

    1. Show previous comments  50 more
    2. Tango

      Tango

      AndrewB said:

      What you're experiencing is a common problem among people with extremely small genitals.



      i feel like every post you make is just a less explicit version of this

    3. Maes

      Maes

      Tango said:

      i feel like every post you make is just a less explicit version of this


      What's the worst that can happen? A person with extremely small genitals gets emotionally destroyed? He can live with that.

    4. DuckReconMajor

      DuckReconMajor

      *starts crying*

  12. What's with old flames coming back and telling you "you were right" about the whole situation...? "You were right, that guy was an asshole." "You were right, I never should've moved to California." "You were right, banging your best friend was kind of a dick move." Is that some kind of consolation prize? OH SURE, that's why we had the disagreement in the first place. I was just trying to win an argument and the only thing I wanted was to be right. It makes all the pathetic loneliness I suffered totally worth it, because I was right all along.

    I never wanted to be RIGHT. I wanted to be WITH SOMEONE. I wanted to be NOT DESPERATELY ALONE. More to the point, I wanted a woman who didn't need someone to explain how her actions are affecting others. Someone who can sort out her own head BEFORE she throws away half her youth on bad decisions.

    And guys like me get told they were right all along, and these women are realizing too late that it should've been them. So of course, you get the last-ditch effort to rekindle that old feeling, which is laughable. Like anyone wants you now that you're old, flabby and used up, after you've accumulated a decade of baggage and a bastard child or two. Am I supposed to be grateful that I get to scrape up what's left, after a long line of deadbeats wasted the best years of your life? Is that what a good man deserves? Leftovers?

    I already have enough reasons to go chasing barely legal tail instead of trying to invest my time and effort in so-called "mature women". Anyway, there's my venting for the day.

    1. Show previous comments  32 more
    2. DuckReconMajor

      DuckReconMajor

      exp(x) said:

      Ahhh, another classic Doomworld misogyny thread.

      Shut up and go have sweaty, romantic, passionate sex with your wife on the kitchen table, then invite your friends over for dinner while not wiping off the bits of shit that spewed out of her ass from her orgasm spatters that erupted in tune to the thrusts of your throbbing, hard pillar of muscle and uncircumcised flesh.

    3. exp(x)

      exp(x)

      DuckReconMajor said:

      Shut up and go have sweaty, romantic, passionate sex with your wife on the kitchen table, then invite your friends over for dinner while not wiping off the bits of shit that spewed out of her ass from her orgasm spatters that erupted in tune to the thrusts of your throbbing, hard pillar of muscle and uncircumcised flesh.

      Hey man, I'm cut.

    4. Technician

      Technician

      DuckReconMajor said:

      Shut up and go have sweaty, romantic, passionate sex with your wife on the kitchen table, then invite your friends over for dinner while not wiping off the bits of shit that spewed out of her ass from her orgasm spatters that erupted in tune to the thrusts of your throbbing, hard pillar of muscle and uncircumcised flesh.

      Damn that's hot.

  13. So a friend of mine hands me his old work laptop. It's a Dell Latitude PPX and in amazing shape for its age. At first, I was disappointed by its performance; the poor thing was running XP SP3. Now, after dropping in some hardware and Debian Linux, it's a snappy little machine.

    Pentium 3 (Coppermine) 500MHz
    128MB SDRAM 100MHz
    8GB SSD
    CD-ROM, 3.5" floppy, USB, infrared

    Yeah, I bought an ATA solid state drive a while back and I've finally found a good use for it. Instead of that ancient 12GB plate drive grinding away, it's quick and quiet. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my PCMCIA network cards worked without any grief (wired and wireless!) I'd originally tried Windows 2000 and Puppy Linux on this machine, but I think Debian with Xfce gives me a good balance of performance and function.

    Next on the agenda is to update the BIOS. I just found a useful feature in ImgBurn, my favorite optical burning software, to make bootable CDs from scratch. Let's hope it works.

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      Unfortunately, ImgBurn creates bootable disks but doesn't let me ADD files to the image. So I get to waste CD-Rs by burning DOS and the BIOS file separately. Hooray for open source!

      Also, some software is conspicuously missing with Xfce. It doesn't even have the Synaptic package manager. I was planning on selling this machine, so I can't have much of a learning curve. I'm wondering if Xubuntu is a better choice...

    3. ReFracture

      ReFracture

      Isn't it amazing how often the storage device s the bottleneck even on an older machine like this?

    4. Bucket

      Bucket

      Now that I poke around a bit, Xfce is actually doing a worse job of detecting hardware. I'm not about to comb through the packages to see what I need - it might be easier just to start with GNOME Debian and remove items as needed. But the last time I tried that, package removal wouldn't "take". So it goes.

  14. So we have a kitten who we "rescued" from the street, and she's a big fan of human food. I find it annoying, my girlfriend finds it adorable. Today the kitten jumps on the table where I'm working and sticks its nose into my plate. I pick it up by the scruff of its neck, so it spazzes and kicks over my coffee. ALL OVER MY LAPTOP.



    Tonight: kitten steak.

    1. Show previous comments  47 more
    2. Grazza

      Grazza

      The "saving it for later" and "this is shit" gestures are very similar. To me, the only indication which is which is whether the cat has eaten some of the food first.

      The white cat sometimes seems to confuse even himself. Upon being given some food, he'll meticulously do the "covering this shit up" action from every angle, complete with the sniffing action. But sometimes he gets a whiff of a smell he likes, and starts eating. I hope he doesn't do that when he is actually covering up his poop.

      Edit (in response to the post below): and don't even get me started on Mr White's water-drinking rituals. They're cute but utterly baffling.

    3. bytor

      bytor

      We keep the cat's water dish in the bathtub because she has to do lots of scratching before drinking from it and will hook a claw on the edge of the dish which makes a big mess. We tried using a heavy bowl but she still hooked it and knocked it around.

      Then she'll insist that we dribble water out of the tub faucet so she can sit there and use it to clean herself.

      She stands next to the tub and bitches up a storm when we take a shower. I guess she thinks it's her tub and we're not allowed to use it.

      Doesn't do any scratching before or after eating, though, but insists that the food be fresh out of the bag.

      Won't touch the litter in the box. It can be fresh, new litter. Balances on the edge of the box and then scratches the wall to bury it. Then she heads for the tub faucet to clean her paws. "meow meow meow meow..." "Ok, I'm comming! Jeez!" Gotta get up and go turn the faucet on.

      She's a real pain in the ass but we love her to death. Very verbal and shows emotion.

    4. DuckReconMajor

      DuckReconMajor

      Bucket said:

      The stickum they use for some of these labels is disgustingly powerful, and it stays on unless you use some pretty powerful rubbing alcohol.

      Yeah, taking them off really isn't worth the time. One of mine recently started sliding off because my palm has been sliding over it for three years so I flicked that one off. The other is still firmly planted there and I see no need in leaving sticky residue where I've peeled it off.

  15. I'm downgrading my laptop.
    That is, I have a Toshiba Tecra 8000 (P2 266MHz, 256MB RAM, 4GB HDD) with Windows 2000 on it. For a while, there was a novelty to doing new things on an old PC, but that's worn off. Basically I can do the same things on my new laptop and much faster. If I really needed it for all that, I'd be better off with Slackware or Puppy Linux anyway.

    So... instead, I decided to split the HDD in half. The first would have Win98SE and all of my old Windows apps, while the second would have my old DOS apps.

    The first thing I had a problem with is FDISK. How the hell have I used computers for so long having never used this? I guess all the drives we used to buy were pre-formatted. I screwed it up the first time around, somehow making a logical drive that I couldn't delete, leaving me to do the whole thing over with Gparted.

    I managed to get everything working and stable. Looking through all the settings, I'm wondering how I never could get computers to work right when I was a kid. Probably either because we bought cheap hardware at flea markets, or because I'd never heard of online updates. I blame my dad being the last person on the block to go DSL.

    On a related note, I hope to be getting a few old boxen from relatives soon - an 8088 and a Pentium 75MHz. I already got a 286 and 486 to play with, so we'll see what happens.

    1. Show previous comments  4 more
    2. Super Jamie

      Super Jamie

      That's awesome, OPL3 laptops are pretty hard to come by.

    3. Bucket

      Bucket

      I found the most awesome game store in my town. They sell games and peripherals for pretty much any console. I bought a working Atari 2600 and a few games, including Descent for the PS1. I even saw Doom for the 32X there, which would make a wonderful addition to my collection of the worst games ever made.

    4. Super Jamie

      Super Jamie

      There are GameTraders stores here which are full of old games. From Atari and NES though SNES, N64, PSX right up to current games. I've gotten a few retro titles there. They also have old consoles, a Mega Drive is about $100.

  16. So I bought an iPhone 4. FOR WORK.

    The idea was that I could run the business from anywhere, taking e-mails and tethering my laptop so I could access the company website. Supposedly I bought the 3G model - but how do I know it's working? The first thing it did when I turned it on was ask me for a wireless access point. I don't see how a 3G phone would need WiFi. The model # is MC677LL/A and it supports EV-DO Rev. A (800/1900 MHz), if that means anything.

    1. Show previous comments  14 more
    2. Use

      Use

      Maes said:

      The last person I heard this idea from was also convinced that she could use an iPad for composing music while walking around the house.


      Never talk to this person again.

    3. Maes

      Maes

      Use3D said:

      Never talk to this person again.


      Done.

      And just to keep OT:

      esselfortium said:

      Er.. What trouble? Unless there's something in another thread, all he's done is ask why it uses wifi.


      As for that, any sanely programmed "wireless Internet communication device" has a wifi fallback option for when you're in range of a known access hotspot. Several reasons to do that:

      • Using unlimited, cost-free and generally faster internet access when this is possible, to avoid paying unnecessary data traffic.
      • Avoid being limited by the 3G network (assuming it even exists).
      • Connecting to a particular private network (realistic, for wireless intranets) rather than open internet.
      You could even consider the 3G connectivity to be a fallback itself (relative to the cheap & fast WiFi access). No wonder that most smartphones have their WiFi sniffer on by default (you can turn it off though, and on Android devices you can selectively shut off the WiFi module or data access through the cell network, or have both on with WiFi getting priority, for the above reasons).

      Older "smartphones" (non-Android, non-iOs, non-blackberry etc.) or rather, hi-end "normal" cell phones only had Internet access through GSM/GPRS/3G network, without any possibility of WiFi tethering (some didn't even have data cables, IR ports or Bluetooth, so the only way to get data on them was paying the phone company $$$ and use HTTP downloads over WAP).

    4. Planky

      Planky

      I whored myself and got an Ipad 2. No real use for one, except I havent stopped using since I got it. So there must be a real use in there.

  17. Chainsaw Bear Versus Hover Shark: A Lyrical Poem

    (chorus)
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEEEAAARRRRR
    HOVER SHAAAARRRRRK
    CHAINSAW BEEEAAARRRRR
    HOVER SHAAAARRRRRK

    (verse)
    In a secret government program, a bear was trained to wield a chainsaw
    Ten foot tall melee massacre nightmare, clear cut trees and mountain streams stain red

    (chorus)
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEEEAAARRRRR
    HOVER SHAAAARRRRRK
    CHAINSAW BEEEAAARRRRR
    HOVER SHAAAARRRRRK

    (verse)
    In a secret government program, a shark had anti-gravity implants
    Death darts and winds through air like lightning, no where is safe from ubiquitous mayhem

    (chorus)
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEEEAAARRRRR
    HOVER SHAAAARRRRRK
    CHAINSAW BEEEAAARRRRR
    HOVER SHAAAARRRRRK

    (blazing guitar solo)

    (bridge)
    The end
    foretold
    in teeth
    and claws

    (another guitar solo, this time accompanied by sounds of genocide)

    (verse)
    In a cataclysmic event, of unknown scale and horrible magnitude
    Hover shark and chainsaw bear locked in combat, and no one lived to tell the tale

    (chorus)
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEAR VERSUS HOVER SHARK
    CHAINSAW BEEEAAARRRRR
    HOVER SHAAAARRRRRK
    CHAINSAW BEEEAAARRRRR
    HOVER SHAAAARRRRRK

    1. DoomUK

      DoomUK

      This was sublime and I look forward to reading it again.

    2. Hellbent

      Hellbent

      Bucket said:

      here is the outline for my awesome music/song that I want to make into a music video and upload to youtube

      Get to work!

    3. Sharessa

      Sharessa

      This makes me wish I still had dn's "40-ft. Walrus" song.

  18. Well, that's it. After a year of struggling to keep a business afloat, it can no longer survive as it is. The economy got to us in the end. Though we run the kind of business where a recession would hit us last, all it did was give our tiny operation the opportunity to end it gracefully instead of crash and burn.

    I've already skipped plenty of paychecks so I'm down to selling my possessions. The Porsche is the first to go. You should never sell something that expensive when you actually need the money. After that goes the apartment. I'll probably move in with my parents for a few months to save up money for another place to live. I was paying way too much for it anyway.

    My coworkers are somewhat confident that it can survive somehow. On the other hand, my hindsight shows me we were lucky to last as long as we did. Still - even if you make something out of your blood, sweat and tears, there's no guarantee that you won't have to let it go someday because it's financially hurting you.

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      My business is surveys and my Porsche is a 914.
      They're not expensive. You can get one that drives for $5000, and in museum condition for $10000.

    3. Creaphis

      Creaphis

      It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

    4. Mr. T

      Mr. T

      Sux about your business, the recession is hitting hard hey

  19. No picture of an amazing haul this time; I was mostly selling. However, I came across a great used computer for SEVEN DOLLARS.

    eMachines T2341
    1.9GHz Athlon XP
    384MB RAM
    40GB HDD
    S3 onboard gfx, 32MB shared

    I assumed that for $7, something must be wrong with it, though if I could salvage even a few parts from it the money would be well-spent. Imagine my delight when I discovered the fatal issue: one of the RAM sticks is partially unseated. I'm sure the guy who sold it to me thought he was selling junk. Too bad he'll never know I'll be cleaning it up and turning it around for $200.

    1. Show previous comments  8 more
    2. Technician

      Technician

      Bucket said:

      I was selling a lot of my DVDs, since I consider many of them useless now that I have Netflix. A woman approaches the table; she was looking for a movie for her 11-year-old son. She picks up a zombie movie - a genre that commonly features genocide, exploding body parts and people being eaten alive. Her question: "Does it have nudity?"

      America.

    3. 40oz

      40oz

      Was it Dead Alive? Because in the end

      SPOILER ALERT

      the old zombie lady turns into that giant infectious monster thing and her old giant sagging titties are hanging out. So yes.

    4. deathbringer

      deathbringer

      Technician said:

      America.


      Or, if she put it back when he said no, Japan. Or alternatively Germany... back in the good old analogue satellite days their channels were an education.

  20. Since my triple-album prog rock opus is being put on the backburner until I'm rich enough to build a home studio, I decided to go ahead and put out a rap album.

    http://www.cdbaby.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?AlbumID=qdeezy

    Most of the music is my creation. They were composed almost exclusively on free software, with a DAW called LMMS and an old drum sequencing program called Hammerhead. Of course, there was nothing free about the studio we mastered them in. There are one or two tracks made by a friend of mine, who specializes in pirated software.

    This rapper we're working with, Q Deezy, is more versatile than he lets on and we're probably going to be working with his "posse" next round.

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      I claim no responsibility for the artwork.

      We could've done much more with Silver Lining but I say it can wait for the remix. I tend to be the creative force that decides something is "good enough", while my partner is less imaginative but meticulous in achieving a particular sound.

      My favorite tracks are Celebrate, Get Em Outta Here and PHILLY.

    3. Lüt

      Lüt

      I like Bonus Track.

    4. Technician

      Technician

      Ah, so this is what your were doing at the studio. Good for you. I've been wanting to do a comedy rap album but I can't possibly write better material then other people have done.

  21. My girlfriend had a baby this August, though she had to give it up for personal reasons. Both of her other children were with their fathers: one a junkie who kidnapped his daughter and severely neglected her, and the other an ex-junkie who thinks he's too good to let her see their son. She told the father of her third child that she'd have no problem aborting the pregnancy if it wasn't going to have a home and a family. The father swore up and down that he'd do the right thing. Shortly after, the drug dealing and abuse started - once so bad when she was six months pregnant that she had to visit the hospital and the fetus's heart stopped three times.

    When she was eight months, we got in touch. We met a long time ago but went our separate ways. I took her in and sort of unofficially began dating her, though I made it clear that I wasn't ready to be a father. She had no problem with this and chose to give the baby to the woman who took her daughter in when the father went to jail.

    Fast forward four months, this past Tuesday, when my girlfriend gets a phone call from the police. First with an accusatory tone, he was asking the nature of the relationship between her and the foster mother without explanation. Eventually she learned that Jonathan, the baby, was found in his crib not breathing. He was taken to a children's hospital and it was estimated that he'd spent about 30 minutes without air. The only part of his brain left functioning was his brain stem.

    We took an 8-hour drive down to Charlotte to see him. When we finally arrived, we found that he was being kept alive with machines. He would barely take breaths with a respirator. He was pretty much completely gone already, and only technically alive. There was a lot of commotion over who legally owned the baby, who had the right to deny tests and remove life support. Of course, nothing they wanted to do would've made the child better, only removed liability from them.

    We kept getting visits from the foster mother's church group. I figured I'd have to bite my tongue for the next few days. My girlfriend was understandably going through a crisis of faith, so that didn't help matters. Why would you tell a grieving mother that "God has a plan"? They didn't even bother offering help or strength, they were only interested in proselytizing. First they'd pray for a miracle, for Jonathan to get better; then when it was obvious there was nothing to be done, they prayed that Jesus would take him. I understand that people have coping mechanisms, but it's going too far in this situation for something based on false hopes.

    Anyway, we finally decided to unplug the machines because the baby gradually lost the ability to breathe on his own. The two moms took turns holding him as he stopped breathing and his heart slowed. I don't know if you've ever seen a death, but it's completely surreal. As the blood stops flowing and settles, the skin takes on a pasty, plastic texture. The eyes and lips turn blue. We can no longer sense the tiny involuntary movements that tell us someone is alive - and the next thing you know, you're just holding a thing, an object. It has no life inside it and your brain can tell the difference, though what you're looking at has barely changed at all.

    My girlfriend is taking it about as well as you can expect. She has to mourn by herself, without people telling her that everything will be OK and they're so sorry for her loss. All I've thought of to do is try to make things as normal and predictable as possible, and hold her when she stops for a moment, because I can tell when it hits her again. I hope that's enough.

    1. Show previous comments  10 more
    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      Now I'm wondering what the hell is going on. After agreeing to let my girlfriend be involved in her son's life, they turn around and do something like this.

      They left her out of the obituary. She requested that they include her other children, but they failed to include HER. Sure, they put in the adopted mother's adopted mother, or the adopted mother's birth mother who probably never met the baby, but nor HER? My resentment is almost palpable. Considering she took the baby's life in her own hands after learning she had guardianship and the adoption wasn't officially recognized by the state, this almost seems spiteful.

      I don't like how this is adding up. First the adopted mother hardly ever sends updates. Then they travel up north to the neighboring state and don't think to visit us. Then the breathing problems that prompted an emergency doctor's visit last week. The physician who was apparently less than knowledgeable of the baby's condition. The patronizing tone over their thinly-veiled cowardice while we were there. I'm suggesting my girlfriend follow up on the medical examiner's autopsy.

    3. Megalyth

      Megalyth

      They left her out of the obituary.

      That is seriously fucked. What a slap in the face, especially during such a hurtful time.

      I hate reading things like this. People can be so disgusting.

    4. Creaphis

      Creaphis

      It's been a while since a blog post about events in somebody's life kept me interested 'til the end. Kudos for that.

      Oh yeah, the baby. That stuff's just messed up. Good luck with everything!

  22. I don't know if any of you have experienced a similar dilemma, but I have an issue with being the kind of boyfriend I want to be. I always figured that if you do something for someone, it should be because you want to - not because you're asked or expected or trying to be 'even'.

    I wish I could be a generous person but I never get the opportunity, because she asks me for EVERYTHING. "Can you drive me to work? Can you pick me up? Can you buy me this? Can you take me here?" I can't show up at her work and have lunch because she's already asked. I can't offer to pay for dinner because we've already gone under the assumption that I will. It's not that I mind spending the money or gas or time - but I'm never able to do it out of the kindness of my heart.

    The option to surprise her with nice gestures is being taken away from me. I can either do what she wants me to do, or say "no" and be a shithead.

    1. Show previous comments  8 more
    2. Coopersville

      Coopersville

      Buy her something she normally wouldn't ask for... like an island or something. I don't know.

      *is typically a lazy boyfriend*

    3. bytor

      bytor

      It's called "Pussy-whipped"!

      Females get together with their friends to compare notes and put together carefully devised plans to corrale their males so that the only thing a male has left to do on his own innitiative is...buy a diamond ring and pop 'The Big Question'!

      There is a cheaper (but temporary) alternative. Start leaving little love notes hidden in places where you know she'll find them. Again...It's temporary.

      Good luck! She's a smart one!

    4. Mr. Freeze

      Mr. Freeze

      Technician said:

      It's not really something you can talk about.


      Says who?

  23. The Mutter Museum, that is. Home of an amazing collection of medical oddities. If you've ever wondered what a shoulder presentation is, or how syphilis affects the brain, or what tools 19th century doctors would use for eye surgery, this is the place for you.



    Notable exhibits included shrunken heads, the broken ankle of John Wilkes Booth, the Megacolon (seriously, it was bigger than my leg), books bound in human skin, the birth defect exhibit, the collection of swallowed items, the Soap Lady and lots of curved spines. All in all it was an interesting trip. I recommend it to anyone visiting Philadelphia.

    1. 40oz

      40oz

      sounds very nasty. but since i live nearby i guess im obligated to see it now.

  24. To-day I replaced the CPU on my laptop.



    My previous CPU was the TF-20 single core chip, which was appropriate for a while, but seeing it try to multitask was just pitiful. This chip has slightly higher wattage, so I'll have to see if it roasts my thighs. I should even get better life out of the battery now that the CPU doesn't have to struggle to do menial tasks.

    EDIT: Image no worky!
    Anyway, it's an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56.

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      That may have been true in the past but it was seated like a normal desktop chip. The heatsink looks pretty funky, though.

    3. Planky

      Planky

      I have to pull apart my laptop to clean out the dust/cathair/etc, so will have a look at the CPU whilst I'm doing it. Assuming I can get a replacement CPU for it that is.

      Got any before/after stats re performance?

    4. ReFracture

      ReFracture

      Planky said:

      Cool, was it a straight swap? I always assumed laptops had the CPUs soldered in

      As I understand, AMDs are pretty friendly to the concept of upgrading in laptops, whereas Intels.. not so much.

  25. So there's this rapper I'm working with and things are going pretty smoothly. We're working in a smalltime studio with the latest in sound production technology (i.e. a 5-year-old Mac Pro with Pro Logic on it). Some of our material sounds close to radio quality. I presented a challenge to this kid: make a rap song in 7/8. I made a simple enough rhythm. Think he can pull it off?

    http://www.speedyshare.com/files/24550220/seveneight.mp3

    As a point of reference, this is the guy we were working with previously. He got dropped because he couldn't deliver on his end even when everything else was handed to him on a silver platter.

    http://www.speedyshare.com/files/24539647/SKITZO.mp3

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. Bucket

      Bucket

      OK, I'm retarded. Here I was looking for a standalone program and I could've just gotten a VST plugin.

    3. Technician

      Technician

      There yah go.

    4. Bucket

      Bucket

      Now I just have to find a way to unfuck Win7's permissions - because I dare not copy anything to /Program Files/ if I ever want to use it.

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