The Wall

So what have i been doing for the past, oh i dunno, ages?
When I moved I went through an epiphany period, i realized i cant be a coder. I just dont have it in me. I can script, no problem, im pretty comfortable when it comes to scripting (so long as i have a reference book beside me of course, hey, memory lapses happen to everyone). So unfortunately ive dropped the project i was doing with Zee. Not that i really wanted to, i just know id never be able to deliver a product, and instead of trying to convince myself otherwise, ill just have to wait for the appropriate time to do a game project again.

That being said ive been honing in my PHP and MySQL, doing a project for the past month with a friend or two, figuring things out. I cant officially say what the project is, not until official launch which is around OCt 1st ive been told. So ill have to wait to reveal that.
I havent updated because theres been nothing to update with except also for my daily ventures with Apple.

Actually form this point forward im going to blog about that stuff too because it is tecchy, and ive been dying for some sort of stuff to post here…

On the Apple side of things, i got me my iTunes 9, and totally dig the new Genius Mixes, easily my favorite part of it, even on my iPod Touch! It really is like having the best radio station ever, filled with your favorite songs
Speaking of the iTouch, i had to put it in a box and send it to apple recently. The audio jack has been busted since week 1, only one channel worked fully worked, its like when your headphones are starting to go, one channel keeps fuzzing out except in finnicky positions? yeah it was liek that, except with ALL devices.  I should be getting it back in a week or so
I was watching a tonn of Steve Jobs keynotes over the pst week, ive been on a kick where im trying to learn anything and everything i can about Apple, its history, what its been doing, and everything ive missed. Seriously i think i hit a sweet spot coming into the whole thing around Leopard release… lol, seems otherwise its been a little shaky for the past 4-6 years or so.
When i hitup the 2007 Dev Keynote, jobs start talking about the Apple TV, which got me to thinking, now follow along this is a bit of a story:

A couple weeks before i moved i bought a MacMini from a friend in desperate need of some cash, keeping it in storage until i figured out just what i was going to do with it, especially since it looked pretty pre-leopard i didn’t know what it was even compatible with.
My entire plan was eventually to have it as a streaming media server that would send video, pictures, and music to my PS3 and/or Xbox360 to stream onto my hdtv. Ive tried doing this with my iMac with SOME success, but not as seamless as id like it to be. But a wireless media server? Thats mouth watering.
When i was watching the Apple TV upgrade keynote, it got me to thinking… the MacMini, i could just hook that directly into my TV and use iTunes and FrontRow! So i did some research on it, found its an Intel MacMini with Leopard on it (thought its kinda weird..), its got an infrared censor on it for a remote, and a monitor port tht i might be able to take VGA-VGA. When i got to the Mac Store in Abbostsford, not only was i amazed to see there was an affordable cord ($15) that did what i wanted, but an HDMI version for just $35. So MacMini to HDMI? HELL YES. Also picked up a remote for it too. Overall $65 in hardware upgrades.

Now the plan is to simply have this connected to my TV, and nothing else. (keyboard and mouse will be on backup duty, but nowhere in sight). To rent my movies, I have my iMac setup with Home Sharing and Activated iTunes on the MacMini to share purchases and rentals. So i rent a movie on my iMac or Windows, it starts immediately going for the MacMini, which i can access the content with FrontRow.
why wouldn’t i want to rent directly from the MacMini? It certainly would be just THAT much more convenient, but i dont want the cords and peripherals of a Keyboard and mouse cluttering up my coffee table, and and im pretty positive i cant rent or buy anything out of Front Rows interface, which is a shame, really.

On the Windows side of things, ive been using it alot less lately thanks to my desire to be also fully integrated into the Apple Community. it as my base recording station, i then take the audio files up to the iMac for editing and distribution. honestly im not entirely impressed with the recording methods of Apple, so programs like SoundForge serve me extremely well.
Some might argue “LOGIC!” and i cant get the damn thing to record right, a strange echo whcih only that program produces…
Some might argue “GARAGEBAND!” and yes its an awesome software, but its recording is propriretary to its editing suite, which i honestly cannot stand using.
So the deal is, i record with SoundForge on the PC, and edit with, get this, Soundtrack Pro.
Except for the spontaneous crashing and REALLY long export times, the tools make my mouth water, every single time. Seriously, one fo the best multitrack editors ive ever used in my life! Doubles as a fantastic single track editor for specific files. What more could i ask for?

As you can see, and while i havent provided many examples, im purposly mixing up my workflows between the two platforms to find which tools i love using the most, and getting the most out of both of them.
of course i could just run SoundForge in Parallels or something and i may explore that option in the future, but for now all you need to knwo is, its an ongoing experiement with an ongoing experience.

Well thats a novel and a half, im going to cut it here, and ill update again soon

ciao!~

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.