Stories

Brian Eno to create generative soundtrack for Spore

Brian Eno, widely credited with being the prime influential force behind modern ambient music, has taken an innovative approach to his voluntary conscription as soundtrack creator for the multi-platform, soon to-be-released video game from the creator of the Sims, Spore. Essentially a “game of life” on steroids, Spore, allows the player / creator to create a virtual lifeform / civilization world in essentially a procedural content generation-al game. For the uninitiated, that means that the…

How MIDI works (unintentionally hilarious retro videos)

Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a protocol that allows keyboards to talk to computers, is generally considered to be a retro technology. With the increase in use of USB hardware controllers, soft synths and VSTis, and protocols like ASIO and the groundbreaking concept behind Native Instrument’s Kore, MIDI is decidedly less useful to the electronic musicians of today. For the curious, or those who have a soft spot for the electronics of the 1980s, the multimedia…

How to get music off of your iPod

I got an iPod Mini Nano from my boyfriend for xmas a few days ago, and overall I like it, although there are a few things that really bug me: 1. You can’t re-order your OnTheGo playlist after you’ve added songs to it. This is incredibly annoying, since I’d prefer to click on the tracks that I want to play and then re-order them after I figure out what the best order would be. 2.…

Fruity Loops 6

I’ve been using Fruity Loops on and off for a few years now, and I have to say that its latest incarnation is the most complete, versatile, and excellent. While it has supported VSTs for a few versions at this point, it has continually added functionality and neat toys. Click here for the new stuff in version 6.Get 10% off your copy of Fruity Loops

How to make giftbags out of free shipping envelopes [Part 1: Tyvek Giftbag]

So you’re the type that thinks ahead and you’ve finished your holiday shopping–but you’ve blown all your cash on gifts without remembering wrapping paper. Sure, you could just use newspaper, but that’s so overplayed. Why not surprise your gift recipients with how clever and crafty you are? Make gift bags out of freely available shipping envelopes! Here’s a step-by-step explanation with photos at every stage of how to use a Tyvek envelope to make cool…

Star Trek computer simulation screensaver

This is a seriously cool screensaver that makes your computer look like it’s running LCARS (Library Computer Access and Retrieval System), the computer system of Star Trek. System47, named after a strange inside joke involving recurrances of the number 47, is luckily available for both Windows and OSX. Installation is easy, and there’s an option to turn off the sound, which I’d recommend. Not that the sound is bad, it’s just that random sound coming…

Stainless steel Dreamcast watch

The people over at NCS have a reissue of a stainless steel watch in the shape of a Dreamcast. For the uninitiated, the Dreamcast was / is an excellent (at the time) console by Sega that only had a three-year lifespan before it was discontinued. Some of the more notable games created for it are Seamen (a sea-monkeys-eque “virtual life” game where you raise intelligent live in real time by using your voice), Shenmue (a…

A subtle way to present music criticism: the "Your Beats Are Weak T-Shirt"

Let’s face it–although the internet has broadened all of our musical horizons, it’s also enabled widespread distribution of really, really bad music. Just wear this shirt and let your opinions be heard. I’m thinking this would be make a hilarious photo: just wear this t-shirt out to any club night with a DJ (who you, um, don’t particularly care for), and then bring a friend along to take pictures of you standing in front of…

Geek Girl Gift Guide

Plush Microbes – $5.99 While you’d surely never wish any sort of infection upon your friends, giving them the plush version of Salmonella, The Common Cold, E.Coli, or Ebola would be both humorous and educational. Choose from any of twenty-two microbes for a memorable holiday gift. Surprisingly cute ones are the Flu, Gonnorhea, and Syphillis (shown). Atari 2600 Keychains – $9.99 – $14.99 You can play retro games anywhere you find yourself with an available…

Pong and other pixelated videogame scarves

Here’s a cool scarf based on Pong from the Bits2Die4 shop. Not surprisingly, crocheted and knitted items work very well for displaying pixelated art. The Space Invaders scarf, available in three different colors is also a nice one. I’m not really such a fan of crafty-looking things, even if they have cool pop culture / video refences (ie: check out the “geek” tag at Etsy.com, or the stuff at Renegade Craft Fair), but these scarves…

Leet Pong t-shirt

Anyone who has a gamer guy on their holiday gift list should check out this Pong-based t-shirt. In perfectly-acceptable, perpetually-in-style brown, this t-shirt combines style with 8-bit game sensibility. And, I bet most of you geeky peoples can appreciate the oh-so-serendipitous score that’s totally leet. It’s from Europe, so you can expect a bit of a longer wait time and would need to internally calculate Euros to Dollars, but it’s so worth it. Hurry up…

I'm in ur [house | senate | macaronis]

I found these funny takes on the “im in ur [noun] [verb]ing your [noun]” meme over at boingboing after the election. Then I clicked a few links found the following, and laughed for about five minutes straight. Then I came back to it a few hours later and laughed some more. Hilarious. technorati tags:internet,geek,politics,election,im_in_ur, lol, humor Blogged with Flock