(formerly)tangentmind.org

So, I suddenly felt the urge to rant about computer stuff going on. Large companies doing naughty things. Before that, though, I would like to complain.

I got new lenses for my glasses today and I can't really focus on anything. My heard hurts and I have vertigo and stuff. My eyes are all bloodshot. It's possible that my eyes are just adjusting. One of them specifically seems to be having problems and I can see a very noticable ring of glare around the edges. I have a very expensive non-glare, non-scratch coating so I would expect not to have the deal with that.

Also, today was incredibly hot and my air conditioner is hardly working at all. It just dies every few minutes, and starts pumping out stinky, warm, and probably humid air.

Not only that, I got a chair from my brother yesterday, which is a nice chair but it has wheels. This wouldn't be a problem but apparently most of my floor slants toward the North wall at a relatively steep angle for a floor so I'm constantly having to try to keep the chair from rolling away. This isn't exactly comfortable and I think it's giving me even more pains than sitting in the folding chair I used to sit in. This also reminds me of the fact the entire floor of my room is sinking to one side and no one is doing anything about it. There is a speaker near the end of my computer desk and it is sitting at about a 20 degree angle and its' flat on the floor. I can now see that my entire computer desk slants to one side also...as well as my entire freaking room. I mean, it feels like Alice in Wonderland. I really really need to move out, which just reminds me that I'm completely jobless and my funds for school are running out. The stress this causes is more than one person should have to cope with when they haven't done anything to deserve it. I'm probably slowly rolling across my floor toward a complete mental breakdown and countless fits of hysteria.

I'm done complaing now. I'll try not to do it again. Sorry.

I think I mentioned that Apple is going Intel. I would check to see if I have, but that's too much trouble. Anyway, my take on it is thus: They are probably doing it because they desperately needed better performance on Laptops, which are selling more and more all the time. While this could eventually bring great things about in terms of computer useability, and top notch software and hardware(in other words, GAMES) on the Macintosh, it could also be devastating. First and foremost it kind of totally screws over all of Apple's previous PC consumers, because they are suddenly left with inferior products which they will be forced into an expensive upgrade if they won't to continue to be able to run Mac software. They could possibly be able to run some new Intel software on their PPC if they either have hybrid binaries that run on both, or there is some sort of adequate emulation(but emulation will always be relatively slow). Also a windows compatibility layer like wine or dual booting windows could destroy the apple third party application market. I mean, it seems kind of uncool and I'm glad as hell that I didn't buy a Macintosh. If I ever do buy one, it will be no less than 2 years from now, and I can see how the Intel Macs pan out.

However, I saw an article by Robert Cringely about the possibility that Intel bought Apple and is going to use Apple to destroy Microsoft because Microsoft has been pissing off Intel, and Apple always hated Microsoft. It also mentions Apple's anger at IBM for being too busy with the next generation of gaming consoles to deal with their Processor needs. If any of that stuff is true then the tech world should be very interesting in the next few years. I'm nto quite sure how I would feel about Apple being the top OS or computer distributor. I think, if I could build my own machine out of parts of a shelf and then run Mac OS on it I would be very happy. Anything less and I'm sure I would find some problem with it.

Secondly, Microsoft has this nasty nasty Xp Starter Edition thing going on. To quote Larry Ketler from the "Linspire Letter": "Before installing, I had to identify specific hardware that the Starter Edition would run on - difficult for a home user or builder. Next came the English-only installation process, which may not be the best for the emerging markets Microsoft is targeting with this product. Unbelievably, this product restricts you to running only three software applications at the same time, locks you out of creating multiple user accounts, doesn't allow basic networking, and does not include anti-virus, backup, fax or remote assistance software. Even more surprising was that they limited the amount of RAM a machine can have to 256MB and capped the hard disk space at 40GB." I mean, if I lived in a developing country spent a months worth of wages on a computer I'd be pissed as hell if it had that crap on it. I would probably switch to Linux and never look back. Linspire is pretty cool, btw, and I would probably suggest it to everyone if I didn't absolutely hate monthly fees. There's always Ubuntu.

There's something interesting about pretty girls in ugly cars. I'm not quite sure. I think it's that sort of "Trailer Park Princess" thing. I mean, not exactly, but you get what I'm talking about right?

I think Dave Brubeck is my new favorite composer/musician. I haven't heard all his songs, but all I heard were good. The song that compelled me to post that was "Boss Nova USA". It's fantastic.

There is about a week of school left so I need to get a move on.

My mother board is kind of messed up. It has been since before it was given to me(for free). I've never been totally sure of the culprit, but I think the fan over the northbridge doesn't work, which means it probably gets much hotter than it should.

However, I just found this.

If you haven't guessed yet, my motherboard is an ABit, and was probably made around 2002. So, it's possible I am prey to this.

I'll have to check for popped capacitors the next time I decide to look inside my computer.

So, I've spent hours upon hours in the last few days researching audiophile stuff. Mostly headphones and multichannel music. Which is ironic because headphones only have 2 channels(for the most part...haven't researched the "phantom channel", or surround headphones much). So far I haven't found any good 5.1 music to test. I have, downloaded "Monkey Audio" encoded 2 channel music that was downsampled from a 5.1 channel SACD. The two competing formats are DVD-A and SACD. DVD-A is actually better than SACD but for some reason SACD is more popular and people have this false notion that it's better, probably because it's developed by Sony and Panasonic. I think both formats are crippled because all of the audio players for the formats output in RCA analog instead of digital optical, because the Record companies are paranoid that digital outputs will make it too easy to pirate the audio...bunch of bastards.

Some DVD-A discs will play in DVD video players but not only in a DVD-V compatible mode. Same for playing on PC dvd players. Similarly hibrid SACDs will play on DVD and CD players at CD quality. I think most, but maybe not all DVD-A discs are multichannel and some, but not all SACD disks are multichannel. Both formats need enabled players to play them at their full potential. There are benefits to both formats besides being multichannel, specifically "High Resolution" audio. I would link to pages describing them but a simple google search is sufficient.

As for the computer, the computer can play a hybrid SACD in cd quality and can also play DVD-A disks at DVD-V quality(with a DVD drive, of course). I think it's obvious which is better in that scenario. Also, there are a couple formats which support multichannel. The only two I've really found so far are apple's proprietary "ALAC" lossless codec and xiph.org's "FLAC" lossless codec(lossless meaning they do not "lose" any of the audio in compression and are usually therefore quite large in file size). I think the ever-trendy Ipod might be able to play ALAC files and of course Itunes and Quicktime, I think, are the only software players that can play them.

I know of two hardware players that can play FLAC. One of them is a car audio player called the PHAT Box. It is quite sweet, and rather expensive...some might say over priced. The other is the RIO Karma, which I believe is a wholly awesome device. 20gb hard drive, portable digital audio player that suppors a whole range of audio formats, and I think also has good sound reproduction, and costs about $200, at least $100 less than a comparable Ipod. So, I will probably obsess about wanting one of those for a while, but considering how poor I am, I may never get one.

Something more in my price range that I've been obsessing over, though, is the Sennheiser HD201 headphones. Most of my headphone research has been on http://www.headphone.com/ so it's not really well rounded, good research, but I think the HD 201 sounds like fantastic headphones for $20. I should really get a job.

Music:

Dave Brubeck is a jazz musician and well respected composer. I think most, if note everyone, in the world has heard his song "Take 5". Everyone should listen to at least one Dave Brubeck cd in their life.

Chesky Records produces some rather orgasmic music. They also have SACD and DVD-A recordings as well as some good articles on their website.

Fiber seems to have some interesting electronica.

Rothkamm is very interesting music. "FBO1 is music from mathematics played by a human, pure electronic music synthesized via frequency modulation on sine waves, the most fundamental building blocks of sound."

Kahvi.org is always good too

Other stuff:

BeSweet is an audio transcoding tool. it lets you convert audio files from one format to another.
supported formats : MP3,AC3,WAV,MP2,AVI,Aiff,VOB,Ogg Vorbis.

Doom9.org FAQ: Incredibly good source of information on Audio and Video.

I think that's all for now. This post is too long.

Thought it was Courtney? Nah. It was Ritalin.

Yeah, so this is pretty funny. I mean...what was that I was just diagnosed with? Oh yeah, that's right, depression.
Edit: I'm not sure I mentioned that I took methylphenidate(Ritalin) when I was 8 and then took it for a few years after that.

I will admit, I have depression and anxiety and they come and go. So, I'm given one brain drug to cope with the effects of a previous brain drug. For the most part I've learned how to cope with depression and anxiety. I mean, I have my moments, like when my brain seizes up in social situations or my body suddenly reacts like I'm being shot at when I see someone I don't want to see...but for the most part simply learning how not to feel is enough to keep out all the negative vibes. Secondly, learning to laugh at everything makes happiness possible.

What I can not cope with however, is the constant nagging feeling that I should be throwing up. I'd rather not. Not to mention the, much worse than normal, restlessness that makes it impossible to sit still. I think I have been shaking my leg for about an hour straight...maybe 30 mintues. Not sure. I can't tell how much time has passed nad I can't remember what I was doing 5 minutes ago. The watery eyes, runny nose, and constant feeling of yawning(see yesterday's post), does not make anything better. I think my chest slightly burns. Hopefully it's just indigestion or hallucination and not something more serious.

I'm not taking the lexapro tomorrow. Let's see if I crash when I come down.

I know I don't like to talk about myself on this, but this is noteworthy. I had been feeling very poor, and it got to the point where I decided I should get help. So I got a doctors appointment and told them all my symptoms. They were confused, probably because I was so cryptic and they diagnosed me with depression and migraines, without what seemed like a second thought. I was diagnosed 10 mg of lexapro a day, and some migraine drug.

I've been taking the lexapro for three days and so far, 1. I am having trouble focusing on text. Sometimes just looking at a computer screen makes everything blurry and my head hurts. 2. I've been feeling like throwing up. 3. Sometimes everything feels like it's spinning. Is it the drugs? I don't know, but it seems likely and this is not normal and not fun.

Total cost of appointment and drugs? ~$190. Degree at which I'm pissed about it all? Very.

On a lighter note, "The Dead City", which is made with WME(see May 27th's post), is a pretty good ,free, adventure game. I started playing and beat it today. It has nice music.

Another update on a previous post, May 28th's, I saw George Romero's movie "Day of The Dead" for $1 on DVD at Wal-Mart. Also saw Bella Legosi, Abbot and Costello, Betty Boop, Daffy Duck and Popeye dvds for $1.

Ever wonder why so many men have prostate problems that don't get diagnosed?

"Limited Physical Examination
includes check of penis, testicles and examination of prostate prostate exam involves a gloved finger in the rectum in order to feel the back portions of the prostate. This allows for a measurement of the size of the prostate and feel for prostate cancer."

I was trying to make a post on a Forum. It wouldn't sent though. The Forum had been attacked by a hacker and most of the posts had been erased, but I'm not sure if it was related. Anyway, I decided to post it here. The quotations are from a previous post that I was responding to.

"Low Calorie diet, calories start to build at a vary young age, even if they dont result in fat deposites they still line blood vesial walls and restrict blood flow, vary fit people can still have hart attacks at young ages if they dont eat properly."

I'm not sure if that's techincally correct. Calories are a measurement of energy. In the body, if the energy isn't used it is turned into fat. Those calories, of course, come from carbohydrates, fats and proteins. What is important is avoiding certain foods that contain "bad" fats and carbohydrates(and maybe proteins too). The worst carbohydrate is probably sugar(there are good and bad sugars too...the ones in soda are the worst, I think), and the worst fats are transfats. Try to avoid things that actually say that have transfats on the label. If it has "partially hydrogenated" in the ingredients list it has transfats too, but possibly not enough for it so show up in the nutrition facts.

Also,generally, if someone uses all of the energy they gain from food, and they eat enough fiber and drink enough water to flush out anything left over, nothing will build up.

I'm no nutrition expert but I think that's the way it works. I didn't mean for this to be so long. It's hard to explain that in a single sentence though.

Cooked greens may be a good staple food, because they contain lots of nutrients, minerals, fiber, and other good things, but they're not always pleasant to eat.

I have an update about the post on 5/27 about one of the game made with the WinterMute Engine. It's called "The White Chamber" and it is quite freaky and relatively well made.

You can find it here. It is quite large, 306MB, I think mostly because of Videos that were badly compressed or something, but it is still worth the download. You might need bit torrent to download it.

The game has no readme, so I sort of made one myself:

Technical:
The game has an intro video as well as other videos. If you do not see them, try installing the latest divx from divx.com(ffdshow might work too, but I'm not sure)

Controls:
Controls are simple. The entire game is controlled by the mouse. Right click to choose the actions "look" or "interact/pickup". The inventory can be found by moving the mouse the top of the screen. Except, when you control the robot(*slight spoiler*) you use the arrow keys. That's pretty much it.

Playing the game:
Pick up and interact with everything you can. If you are having difficulty playing the game try be more thorough in looking for "hot-spots" or objects in the room. If you think you've found everything in the room, retrace your steps. The game is rather dynamic and different objects trigger different events. In other words, you don't necessarily have to have a screwdriver to turn a screw.

Stuck? Here's a hint. Make sure you grab the blanket.

If you need any other help just e-mail me or ask or whatever.

I will probably repost something about the 6/11 post tomorrow or soon, anyway.

Now that's what I'm talkin' bout.

Did they have to model the camel toe?

I just deleted my post on accident. Instead of creating a link I accidentally went to the page instead, which therefore deleted the post. That just goe sto show that I need to sleep because I'm making stupid mistakes.

The post was about elders in movies and tv, t-shirt printing, and my lack of posting.