JoCopedia, or Why the Internet Gives Me a Boner

First, a little background. I haven't really played guitar much at all since my son Zack was born 12 years ago. I'd sold my cherished Gretsch electric and amp due to lack of free time (and impossibility playing with sleeping babies around). Before that, I'd been playing since I was 13.

Back to the future, I happened to watch Live Free or Die Hard on Sunday (edit: see below). The movie ended with Creedance's Fortunate Son, a personal fave, and I thought, "hmm, I bet I could play that." I picked up the acoustic that my sister had given me a few months back and started diddling.

Wasn't able to get it all right away, and started to feel silly rewinding the DVD credits repeatedly, so I Googled for the tablature, and sure enough it's WAY FREAKING EASIER to get music than it was when last I played guitar...

So, I learned both Fortunate Son and Around the Bend, and sat the guitar down an hour later, with sore fingers and a sense of satisfaction.

Fast forward two more days, and I'm at work listening to Jonathan Coulton. That same little bug starts chewing and I Google for Coulton tabs - surely a much more elusive goal. "No, no, you silly man," Google says, "you have made the classic mistake of underestimating the fervor of the modern geek, and the great Jonathan Coulton specifically. Behold: JoCopedia!"

I'm so sorry, Jonathan - I will never again doubt you.


Edit: I forgot to give a shout for Len Wiseman's directing chops. Underworld and Underworld: Evolution are way high on my list, and with LFoDH Mr. Wiseman has proven that his Action Fu is indeed impressive. Can't wait for January 23rd!!!

More Spiff/Coulton WoW Video Love - Uh, Literally...

First off, I'd like to apologize to the incredibly long list of people out there that (don't) read Ditlog for the lack of content. I was hoping that Ditlog would generate a little more buzz and interaction, but seeing none, I've been less than motivated to spend time writing.

Moreover, I'm working on content for a new podcast, so my creative energies have been channeled in that direction. Basically, we're crafting an instructional, episodic World of Warcraft audio program. Expect the content to start out basic, with tips and advice for all the new players out there. As the show progresses, we will delve into more and more advanced strategy. Look for an announcement here with more info soon.

Anyway, back on track, I just wanted to point out that Spiff has released yet another great WoW machinima music video for one of Jonathan Coulton's great tunes, this time First of May. Warning: the song lyrics and especially the video content are very adult in nature - probably not work-safe, and definitely not kid-safe. Enjoy!

George Hrab *is* Mur Lafferty's Man in the Boat

Our huge home town annual event, Musikfest, has come and gone a few weeks back. My friend Jon turned me on to an amazing musician and lyricist, George Hrab, with his excellent philosofunky band the Geologic Orchestra in tow. Awesome night - instant fan. Geo's show was the highlight of my Musikfest 2006, even considering the fact that I got a chance to see Brother twice and the return of the mighty Alice in Chains, virtually in my own back yard.

In seemingly unrelated news, I recently downloaded show #75 of the Wingin' It podcast. I'm not a regular listener, but I am a fan of Mur Lafferty's Geek Fu Action Grip 'cast. Ol' Mighty Mur had explained that this Wingin' It episode had been taped live at DragonCon, and that the antics weren't to be missed.

Imagine my suprise when, only seconds into the show, Mike and Evo announce their musical guest, George Hrab! George busts into a live accoustical rendition of Cruel Spines; the crowd goes wild in drunken hilarity.

Not to be outdone, Mur soon launches into a fervent reading of her essay on the clitorus and associated male incompetance, written on the spot only several minutes before. Laugh out loud stuff, and the audience is totally eating out of her hand. The whole nutty performance is capped off by, at the request of an enthusiastic male audience member, a show-and-tell how-to, complete with a large scale model constructed from a jacket and starring George Hrab's bald pate as the man in the boat. Unbelieveable!

Mike and Evo wrest control back to a degree, do their thing, and the show ends with another tune from Geo, this time Brainsbodyboth.

So, be sure to check out Wingin' It Show #75, whether you're a fan of Mur, Geo, or just want a good laugh.

Edit: I just found out that George Hrab actually lives in central city Bethlehem - got to be a short walk from my house. I'd thought he was a Philly resident, seeing as he's the drummer for the Philadelphia Funk Authority and all. Just makes the coincidence even stranger in my mind.

Spiff's WoW-based Jonathan Coulton Music Videos

Using captured and choreographed World of Warcraft footage, Mike "Spiff" Booth has created some great music videos for a few of Jonathan Coulton's funny, geek-centric songs, including "Skullcrusher Mountain" and my absolute favorite, "re: Your Brains". Check them out on Spiff's YouTube page, and be sure to visit Jonathan Coulton's site as well of course, if you haven't already.

Dr. Stein and the Forbidden Lure of Oblivion

I've been feeling the age of my Wintel PC for some time - at least as far as gaming horsepower goes. With Windows Vista supposedly just around the corner though, I'd made the decision to wait and see what was going to happen regarding emerging DirectX 10.0 hardware and the new OS system requirements before making an investment in a new machine.

Enter Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Back when Morrowind launched, I had taken the Elder Scrolls red pill - big time. It was an amazing, liberatingly open-ended game, and I had lost many an hour of sleep in pursuit of one quest or another. As a result, I've obviously been watching the development progress of Oblivion closely.

Fast forward to Oblivion's launch - it was decision time. I had held off buying a Xbox 360 because I simply wasn't enamored enough with any of the titles to blow my $400. In addition, the 360 is a mixed blessing. Sure, it's 8.8 lbs of next-gen console on nitrous oxide, but what's the point if one only owns a regular-def TV? On an old-school TV, the 360 is basically just an Xbox, in my mind. So, we're not just talking the $500 for the 360 plus accessories, we also need to figure on at least another $500 for an HDTV.

Thing is though, I do own a nice PC monitor. With an adapter cable (and probably a switch box, for convenience), one can play a 360 on one's monitor. So, 360 or PC? I finally figured that the cheapest route was to buy Oblivion for my PC and see whether it would run it.

It did, but not well. Here's what I'm running:

Dell Dimension 8200
Pentium 4 2.66 Mhz
1 Gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6800 (128Mb) video card (AGP)
Soundblaster Live! 24-bit audio
etc.

This system detected as "medium range", and Oblivion set itself up as such. In the end, I think the GeForce 6800 bumped me into the "medium" range, being of the 6800 chipset family, but it shouldn't have. If you don't have a 256 Mb vidio card, Oblivion isn't going to run acceptably (at least, by my standards).

In any case, at Oblivion's autodetected "medium" settings, the game looked gorgeous. Unfortunately though, the framerates were pretty choppy - say 10-15 FPS. Some people are putting up with this kind of speed, but it simply makes my eyes tired too fast and distracts me from the gameplay. Plus, my FPS dipped even further in combat, and I began to realize that in the more difficult upcoming fights, I wasn't going to be able to compete. It's like trying to get by in a boxing ring while blinking one's eyes rapidly - pretty soon both eyes are going to be swelled shut. (Cut me, Rocco! Adriaaan!)

So, I spent the next week or so on the Bethesda message boards, taking notes and tweaking out my settings and .ini file. I ended up with some decent framerates, but the game was no longer beautiful. The world was now kind of flat and less interesting, and I wanted shiny, blazing beauty, dammit!

What to do? I could spend ~$500 on a 360 and yet another copy of the game, and hook the 360 up to my PC monitor. Or, I could buy a new graphics card to put one last-ditch band-aid on my aging PC. Or, I could spring for a new system, which I'd been thinking I needed anyway.

As far as upgrading my current system goes, it is an old AGP-format motherboard, and it only takes the incredibly expensive and ill-conceived RDRAM. I'd added another 512 Mb about a year ago to give WoW a bit of a boost, and it had cost almost $300- youch. The new graphics cards are all PCI Express, not AGP, except for the new GeForce 7800 GS boards. Still, even though those cards are fast, the aging AGP bus simply holds them back.

The bonus to a new PC, on the other hand, is that my 10-year-old son is now getting old enough that he uses my PC all the time for school, and likes to play a bit of WoW himself. (Well, let's be honest here. I've addicted my OWN son to the digital equivalent of crack cocaine...) My current system is still just fine for office apps, surfing, and playing WoW. So, a fine candidate for a hand-me-down PC for Zack (and he was predictably all for that idea).

Finally, Microsoft's announcement about a week back, that Vista has been pushed back to at least early 2007, was the mosquito that landed on the other side of my precariously-balanced teeter-totter. The expensive side of the teeter totter. (At least it will be, if I ever pay it off...)

The last decision was whether to buy a pre-built system, or build a rig from scratch. I was sorely tempted by Alienware's Aurora 7500 systems, which are priced very competitively in the gaming PC sector. In the end though, I just couldn't see paying another $500 for a warranty, some (questionable) phone support, and for them to build it.

I decided to build my own. I had done so several times in the past, and am no stranger to the gorey innards of a PC. That said, I'm not too up on some of the current high-end technology - stuff like SLI-linked video cards and Raid 0 performance hard disk arrays. Damn the torpedoes, though - I specced out the system last week and ordered it all over the weekend.

Here's what's in transit to my door:

The Guts
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Processor (dual core)
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 mobo
2 Gb Corsair 3500LL PRO RAM
(2) eVGA GeForce 7900 GT CO (256 Mb) video cards (to be SLI-linked)
(2) Seagate Barracuda 80GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200RPM hard drives (for a Raid 0 array)
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card
NEC ND-3550A 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive
Enermax Noisetaker II 600W Power Supply
NZXT Lexa case

The Peripherals
Viewsonic VX922 19in LCD Monitor (badass 2ms response time)
Saitek Eclipse keyboard
Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse
Wolfking Warrior gaming keypad
Altec Lansing GT5051 Dolby 5.1 (3.1?) speaker system

In the end, I went a little nutty on the peripherals to match my case. The Lexa case has a clear acrylic side panel, and the fans light up via LED's so that the inside of the case glows blue and shows off my sexy new hardware. I'll probably add a few supplementary blue light sticks inside the case, and underneath to give it that Streetglow modified import hot rod car look:

I actually chose the case for the quality and the cooling efficiency - the crazy glow was just an added attraction. That said, I couldn't resist the Eclipse keyboard and Razer mouse though. They both also glow blue, and will simply look hawt and compliment the case. The knobs on my speaker system even glow blue... Here's a pic of the KB in all its radioactive glory:




One final note to cap off my setup. I've been reading about Wolfking's cool new gaming keyboards, and I just couldn't pass those up anymore. The hot new Wolfking peripherals are simply gaming keyboards made by gamers for gamers. Check out the Warrior's layout:




The Wolfking folks decided to help all us gamers out by creating comfortable input devices based around the WASD configuration. I opted to get the standalone Warrior pad rather than the Timberwolf, which has the gaming pad built right into the left side of a normal keyboard. I wanted to make sure I was comfortable typing when not gaming. Plus, I didn't want to give up my num pad.

Back in the day, PC's were called "clones", short for "IBM clone". Nowadays, unless you're looking for a cool laptop, IBM is pretty much a non-player. In any case, my old pre-Dell machine had been dubbed the Frankenclone, due to its piecemeal incarnations and upgrades. So, I think we're looking at the specs for Son of Frankenclone above. Hence, the titular reference. That, and I'm a huge fan of the Helloween song... :P Only this time, as I scream "it's alive!!", I will be bathed in an unholy, eerie electric blue glow. Muuahahaha!

I can't wait to get Oblivion cranking on this new rig. Mmmmm... FPS-y....

Dark New Day

While I'm touting music, I have to push one more band - Dark New Day.

Our hometown has a huge annual 10-day music festival called, simply enough, Musikfest. My wife and I had volunteered to work as ushers at several shows, including Seether with Crossfade.

The second opening band turned out to be Dark New Day. Forget about the headliners - these guys blew me away. Describing the music might turn some off, as it could make them sound like another clone of the current radio rock, but hang in there. At times, they remind one of elements of Creed, STP, Alice in Chains, but have no fear - they are their own band.

The music has crunch, but is at the some time very melodic and haunting. Sledgehammer testosterone-laden riffs alternating with flowing, clean bright chord work. The singer has a strong, crisp voice, pushing through intelligent, soulful lyrics, but with a firm rock punch. Bold backup vocal harmonies from the bandmembers seal the deal.

Anyway, check them out at their website - be sure to watch the great video for Brother. It streamed well even on our crappy frame relay connection at work. Their album, Twelve Year Silence, is available from both Amazon and iTunes (where I picked mine up).

Dali's Dilemma

Last night, my wife and I were watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica on DVD. We'd only seen the miniseries prequel so far, and holy cow! This show does *not* disappoint, or pale in any way compared to all the hype. Give me more!

I digress though. While watching said delectable sci-fi goodness, I was working at importing the rest of my music CD's into iTunes for eventual transfer to my beloved iPod Photo. I'd only had about 1/3 of my library on the iPod to date, and so at work today I had access to a lot of beloved tunes that I hadn't listened to for a while.

I've got to turn you on to one album in particular: Manifesto for Futurism by Dali's Dilemma. These guys only ever made one album from what I can tell, but *wow* what great stuff. If you like progressive rock - Dream Theater and the like - even a little, I highly encourage you to check this great CD out! Absolutely vibrant tracks, anywhere from blistering to beautiful. Great, great stuff. My good friend Mike had turned me on to them a while back, and so I'm passing on his great recommendation - thanks Mikey!

Here's a link to the album on Amazon, and another at their label Magna Carta. Both sites contain audio samples that you can check out.