teamslack.net

Let The Nerdery Begin

Ξ January 25th, 2010 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |

And here we are.

Original post by blah

Why I’m a Lossless Codec Snob (or : It’s all in the math!)

Ξ January 9th, 2010 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |

A lot of people ask me why I prefer FLAC to, say, V0 ripped MP3’s, or some other form of lossy music.

Really, it’s a simple question of math. Let’s assume I could play the music straight from the CD to my brain. We’ll call that a 100 on our perfect-music-injection scale. Let’s also say that a crappy pair of headphones degrades that pure audio by %10. I’d be getting a 90 on my audio-perfection scale once I started listening through my headphones. Still an A, but not perfect.

Headphones aren’t the only thing degrading my audio experience, though. There are a few other things to go through:

• Source
• DAC
• Wiring/Jacks
• etc

There’s a bunch more, but this will do for our thought experiment.

Say that the best MP3 I could get degraded my audio  8%, my DAC another 8%, and my headphones 10% (I have crappy headphones). That would net me this result:

.92*.92*.90 = .7616
or  a 76 on my perfect-audio-injection scale.

A C grade. Not that great.

But if I start with an exact copy of that first audio source, I get this:

1*.92*.98*.90 = .828
or an 83 on the scale.

I don’t know about you, but I can tell the difference between B and C work. Neither are 100%, but one is definitely better than the other. Even through a portable music player, the FLAC will always better, mathematically.

This is of course discounting the storage issue between the two. I don’t currently have a portable player, so its not really an issue for me.

Original post by logikal

Radiohead and UCD

Ξ December 25th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Musician, Recital |

So out of curiosity I googled myself, and something unexpected came up. Check it out:

I wasn’t aware of this! I never attended UC Davis nor have I ever discussed with anyone about performing my arrangement there. Weird! That’s pretty awesome. It was also listed on a Saxophonist’s web site under his list of repertoire. Even cooler! It’s been performed by 4 colleges now, the first performance was right after I wrote it…I was like 18. The UCD performance was a few years ago.

Original post by Sufjan

XBOX 360 Firmware upgrade

Ξ December 20th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Hacks |

I was commisioned with a task to upgrade a couple 360's. Needless to say one of them was brand spanking new. Still in the box to be exact. Well, the 83850c Lite-on drives don't like to have their firmware dumped. Reading through countless articles and posts i decided a solder method was the only way to go.

With permission, i dove in.

This is the board with the protective film removed. I used my leatherman and scraped it off with my knife.

Here are my soldered joints. Not bad for a first time on a super small board ;)

And a close up of the solders.

The switch to enable/disbale the ground.

All put back together and ready to dump :)

Notes:
Use jungle flasher
1. Intro the drive
2. Read the firmware.
3. Make a dummy copy (right click)
4. Load dummy in source, let it auto-ixtreme it.
5. Repair drive (put all the cuts and solders back)
6. Intro it again.
7. Click "Write"
8. Enjoy

Original post by Extreme

Like a crack addict

Ξ December 6th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |

So, I’m looking into playing a few games again now that I have lots of idle time for winter break.

Here’s what’s lined up so far:

Dragon Age Origins
Final Fantasy XII (Yeah, for PS2 ho ho)
Final Fantasy IV (for the DS – started this a few years ago and never finished it)
TF2
L4D 2

Other than those, my friend Tom is trying to pull me into Ragnarok Online which is a terrible and sloppy game. Maybe if I was interested in the worst grind ever and tons of inconsistencies (characters and storyline). No WoW either, keep that cancerous game at bay.

If anyone has suggestions, feel free.

Original post by Sufjan

December…the season of shitty concerts

Ξ November 14th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Musician |

As I feared, the program for December’s concert is made up entirely of Christmas music.

*shoots self*

It’s not like I’m some sort of scrooge, it’s just that playing (a lot) of Christmas music is not very enjoyable – mostly because it’s boring. We all know how Christmas music goes. We all know those stupid horn rips and shit they throw in to make it sound “cool”. What’s worse is we’re also playing a medley – which touches on over half of the rest of the program. Silent Night? Yeah we just played that, but now its got a Latin feel and we’re going to run it straight into Jingle Bells in a new key. Exciting! Pull out the drum kit!

*shoots self again*

What’s worse is we’re also playing some (painfully long and horribly scored) variations on Carol of the Bells which was written by the principal clarinet player. Not only is he creepy and awkward, but he also wrote some pain-in-the-ass horn part that doesn’t make sense (Three strikes, you’re out!). I’m pretty sure he took some staves, a shotgun, fired at random, added a few 16th note embellishments, made sure he outlined a B-flat (E-flat concert) major chord, repeated it for 50 measures and then called it a day. Thankfully it’s not the entire piece, he had time later to write the first and third horn’s parts half a beat off from the rest of the orchestra – not only is it awkward when playing with everyone, it just makes us sound like we’re terrible at keeping time.

We could have done Lieutenant Kije!

Original post by Sufjan

BONE WARS EPISODE II: THE EMPIRE SLIDES BACK

Ξ October 30th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Musician, Recital |

Needless to say I’m looking forward to this recital.  Haha

BONE WARS EPISODE II: THE EMPIRE SLIDES BACK
RUDI HOEHN’S SENIOR BASS TROMBONE RECITAL

Ignite your lightsabers and get ready to have your midichlorian count quadrupled, because BONE WARS is back and this time Red 5 will fly you on a sonic journey from the depths of the Sarlacc Beast’s bowels to the highest towers of Bespin’s shining Cloud City.

NO DROIDS PERMITTED. We don’t serve their kind here.

ALL WOMEN IN SLAVE LEIA COSTUMES GET IN FOR FREE. Actually everybody gets in for free. But still. Slave Leia.

Please keep all tauntauns, blasters, and cellphones silent. Failure to comply will result in some serious Vader-style force-choking.

The program will feature pieces by Bach, Bozza, Ewazen, Faure, Luther, and Robison.

Also featured will be Dr. John Cozza, Joel Elias, Tony Portela, Uiliami Fihaki, Colin Matthewson, Rachel Wilens, and Stephen Bingen.

When: Monday, November 23rd, 8PM
Where: CSUS Capistrano Music Recital Hall
What else: Reception to follow recital
What else else: Birthday celebration at Bonnlair to follow that

STAY ON TARGET
STAY ON TARGET
STAY ON TARGET

Original post by Sufjan

Oh no, On ho!

Ξ October 7th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |

Just for Maker:

It really is great.

Original post by Sufjan

Little Indian

Ξ September 30th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Doodles, Cute |

I doodled this during a very boring, very long phone conversation today. The pen that I used (Pilot Z-Grip Medium) makes me very happy.

Original post by melktart

Strauss – Ein Heldenleben, op. 40

Ξ September 22nd, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ special |

Lately I’ve been working on one of my favorite excerpts, Ein Heldenleben by Strauss, just because it’s really awesome.  It’s a difficult excerpt to some degree, as you can see (in the picture below) it stretches across a whopping 3 octaves, starting in bass clef in the first measure then reaching up to the high b-flat in the 13th measure.  Difficult, yet really cool and really fun to play.

Here’s a recording if you’re interested in how it sounds:
http://hornexcerpts.org/audio_files/straussEH_audio_files/straussEH_1_boston.mp3

Original post by Sufjan

Computron

Ξ September 12th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ special |

After two years, I decided to buy a new computer.  My friend mmax also put together a new computer recently and blogged about it here.  So I might as well do a quick write-up as well.

Specs:

• Lian Li Case (old)
• SeaSonic 650W PSU
• Asus P6T Mobo
• Intel Core i7 920 Processor - Socket 1366
  • Noctua NH-U12p SE1366 Heatsink and Fans
• EVGA Nvidia GTX 275 Video Card
• Corsor XMS3 6GB DDR3 1600 Memory (triple channel)
• 1TB Western Digital Black hard Drive

Original post by ojuice