Author: adminmcq

  • GarageBand actually works.

    It will happily host all of the AU plug-ins you can throw at it. Don’t believe me? Try this on:

    synths.mov

    Believe it or not, it has:

    • 1 ARP 2600 V
    • 1 Moog Modular V
    • 1 Boesendorfer 290
    • 1 Crystal
    • 1 Reaktor 5, and
    • 2 Absynths

    plus a random selection of GarageBand drum loops.

    Even with many of the synths playing more than one note, I was still only running at around 70% CPU according to Activity Monitor.

  • And in the “things you didn’t know about iTunes” department…

    Did you know that you can only “deauthorize all” computers you have connected to the iTunes Store once per year? I didn’t.

    I just found this out the hard way: For some reason, Deb’s laptop, which was authorized to play content from my iTS account, lost its authorization. When I went to re-authorize it, it claimed that I had already used all five authorizations. Of course, it was correct, I had used them all, but one of them should have been that laptop.

    I then tried deauthorizing all, to get back to a clean state and it told me that I could not do this until April of next year.

    Come on guys! First off, it doesn’t make sense to put any constriants on this: If you tell me I can play the music on five computers, then let me pick them. It should be about simultaneous use of the content, not associations with particular machines.

    I can’t even figure out why you would do this. If I was smart, and just authorized whichever machine I was in front of when I wanted to play my content on it, and then remembered (*sigh*) to deauthorize it when I was done, couldn’t I play it on any machine I want? I wonder, do they prevent frequent repeated authorizations too? Given that I’m already in a screwed up state, I’m not going to test it.

    Could it just be that their DRM is so lousy that if they leak too many keys too quickly, someone will be able to crack it?

    Bah!

    [Aside: Why do I have to deauthorize all anyway? When I sync my Macs with .Mac they give me a nice GUI that lists all machines that are currently sync’ing to that account, and let me pick ones to disconnect. That is what the iTS store should have too. Apple, you’re days of owning the monopoly on this stuff really are almost over. It’s time to start actually making your customers happy (and yes, you can add “re-downloading anything you have already purchased for the cost of the bandwidth” to the must-have list).]

  • The Lies of Locke Lamora

    I just finished reading the book “The Lies of Locke Lamora” by Scott Lynch. It’s a story of rogues and cutthroats, with a touch of magic — in other words, it’s just the kind of story I like.

    I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it, since it has a few structural problems that I would put down to it being written by a “bright new voice” (said the promotional material (/em winks)).

    Having said that, it’s definitely worth a read if you’re in the mood for a crime caper with some twists. If you do give it a go, let me know what you think.

  • New look for the Wiki.

    In case anyone cares, I upgraded Great Castle Wiki to the latest version of PmWiki and gave it a shiny new look based on the abitmodern skin.

    Because we all know: style is everything. ๐Ÿ˜‰


    Note: Great Castle Wiki is no more, but I am using a DokuWiki instance as the root for GCW now, so I may copy over some of the old content eventually.

  • [HBDI]:two

    Well, it had to happen eventually. ๐Ÿ™‚ I finally got around to collating enough of my musical experiments to get another album’s worth of music together. Some of it is pretty random, but there are a few good bits. Take a listen and let me know what you think.


    (hint: Clicking on the album title, on the page this links to, will get you a zip of all the songs.)

  • Dealing with Stress

    I’m not great with stressful situations, as you know. Read Deb’s blog for an update.


    So much content lost. Deb’s blog is no more.

  • A problem with the Viewsonic

    As you probably know, I bought a Viewsonic LCD monitor a month ago. Well, when I turned it on this morning, it had a column of pixels on the right side that was all green. Boo. What’s worse, when I packed it all up to take it back to the store for a repair, I couldn’t find my bill.

    Luckily, the store had a record of the transaction, and simply swapped the broken one for a new one. I definitely appreciate that kind of customer service, particularly when they technically didn’t have to do so after the first 14 days.

  • Playbacktime versus Cory

    Normally, I’m not one to randomly link to another blog without having something useful to say about it, but I thought this rebutal to Cory Doctorow’s latest anti-DRM rant was worth flagging. It’s proof that the internet can be used for more than flame wars.


    And another piece of history one gone. This didn’t even have enough context in the URL to look for it elsewhere in the web.

  • I’m on vacation.

    Well, it’s taken a full week, but I’m finally starting to relax. Man, was I ever stressed before I left on vacation. So far, it’s been exactly the kind of vacation I like: lots of computer games, cello playing, cycling and reading. What more could a man want? ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Site WP installs upgraded

    This site and the Deblog have both been upgraded to the latest WP (2.0.4). Let me know if you see any problems.