M4P to MP3 Conversion

One of the most popular questions I get from friends and co-workers is “how do a put an iTunes/Napster/etc. song on my MP3 Player/CD/etc.” The “lock down” factor here is something called DRM, and that’s a much bigger subject than I care to tackle.

However, smart programmers are finding gaps in the DRM system. The most interesting of these exploits is a little program called TuneBite. Instead of cracking the DRM, TuneBite runs in the background and re-records the songs as the music is played by your system's sound system--just like an old school dual tape deck.

It’s interesting because they aren’t really circumventing the copy protection and they might even be covered under the Audio Home Recording Act.

Anyway, I haven’t used it, but I certainly recommend the idea.

rsssaver (or the r-triple-s...)

I'm working on a little nights and weekends project to design a visually compelling screensaver that displays RSS feeds on your desktop.

It's still in the fairly early stages, but I think it's already pretty cool. Check it out at rsssaver.com.

Prediction: Vintage CASIO LCD Watches to Make Comeback

That’s right; my guess is that you’ll see all the hipsters returning to the geek-friendly plastic LCD watch. Street prices on these things seem to be about $10, just a little too cheap to justify purchasing on line.

Next time my wife drags me to T.J Maxx I’ll be doing a deep dive into their fine electronics selection.

Until then, I’ll have to keep sporting the Sponge Bob Square Pants watch my 3 year old daughter re-gifted me.

CinciClassic, the Classic Video Game Show

Those who know me know that I'm big into "oldskool" video games. So each year, a bunch of fellow nerds and I rent out a space and host what best can be described as a video game swap meet circa 1985.

Tons of good hearted folks put lots of time into this project, and one of the things that I do is put together our direct mailing campaign. (Read as postcards.)

Here is this year's layout. (If you find any proofing errors, keep them to yourself. I already printed them and I'm not doing it again!)

Living in Cin...

One of my work-mates, J-Star, posted some shots of what it's like working and living in downtown Cincinati.

Check out her flicker page here.

Sony Acid XMC for $4.99 shipped after rebate!

People who know me, know I like open source software--and for audio, I love Audacity [Corrected Link]. (Check out some of the old posts for a review...) Audacity can tackle almost any recording project you can think of, but it doesn't really "make" music.

When I saw that Sony had $30 off thier ACID and VEGAS lines of software via a rebate, I jumped on the already value priced ACID XMC.


I was a big fan of ACID when it was owned by Sonic Foundry and the newer version hadn't really added much functionality. But at a net price of $5, it's hard to go wrong.

Congrats to CRE824 Winners!

Alas the team from Bridge Worldwide (poorly named Tentpole) didn't win the CRE824 contest, but we did put together one very good entry. The teams who did win were good people and also had a great entry.

There are a few pictures of me up on the CRE824 site--I'm the guy in the yellow shirt who looks like he hadn't slept in about 3 days.

All in all, it was a good time and I'd do it again.

I'm at CRE824

Myself and a small team from Bridge Worldwide are competing in a 24 hour web design competition for the Web Design International Festival 2006. If our team win we will represent the US in an international version of this same contest in France in 2006.

Here's the poorly translated description of what is happening today...

The Webjam Contest is going to be launched at French hour 2:00 p.m. simultaneously in 10 participating countries. You will (normally) be able to find here a way to live with us and in real time these performing and creative next 24 hours.

Check out the site at CRE824, and wish us luck. I'll try posting some media from the event as it unfolds.

Podcasting Setup for under $150 via a USB Mic

I needed to purchase a small podcasting setup for a project at work and I wanted to keep the budget small enough so it would fly “under the radar” of our sleuthy accountants. I'm also an audio snob so I wanted a setup that was at least as good as my home recording setup that I've built over the years for way too much money. (I'm also kind of lazy—I didn't want to drag my home setup into work to record a day or two of interviews.)

What I netted out with was a nice voice recording setup for under $150 (laptop not included.)

First, I picked up the C01U USB Studio Condenser Mic from Samson. It originally listed for about $225, but Amazon or Sam Ash are currently carrying it for $79. It's not a high end microphone, but the fact that the A/D converter is built-in (and it just plugs into a USB port rather than a crappy sound card) makes it one of the cleanest mics I've ever heard. It's very portable too, I just dropped my Dell laptop into one of the few rooms in our office that has a door, and I was ready to roll.

Next I added add a pop filter and a desk stand. I used my Sony studio headphones, but you could grab any decent set of cheap headphones like the Sennheiser HD 202—even for $20 these will be better than your laptop speakers for playback.

For software I highly recommend Audacity. Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. So no matter what kind of computer you have, this will cut the mustard. It also has built in filters for reverb, compression, equalization, etc. Just don't go nuts with it.

That's it. If you ordered all this stuff from Amazon, your total would be somewhere around $140 and you wouldn't be able to tell you weren't recording in a fancy studio. Well, except for the barking dogs, crying babies, and ambulance sirens that are pretty much 24/7 at my house.

PVR Pics (a.k.a NerdAlert)

So, finally. Here's the final 120GB, dual tuner GB-PVR box in all it's glory. In this photo the DVD drive is ejected.

The uber-quiet fan on the left is controlled by a knob under the DVD drive that allows my to turn all the fans down to make the system nearly silent. When the movie is over, crank the fans back up and the system stays cool even though it runs 24/7.

It is awfully big and slightly menacing, but the door in front locks up to keep the kids out. (Although my youngest does have a habit of hiding the keys around the house in very unsuspecting places.)

If your interested in the full story, dig through the old DIY PVR posts and see how this Tivo-ish thing got built. 

Another Server Upgrade...

I had to upgrade our servers at NO.2 Games again to fix some lockup problems our Linux box had that I just didn't have the time to trouble shoot. Now we're on a phat system that I can remote desktop into to watch all the processes in real-time.

I still have a few dependent websites to move over, but the process is going fairly smoothly.

Bad Day

A really bad day at the office today. Three things I had moved from the "my problem" category to the "not my problem" category returned in thier full glory.

In other news, my wife's blog www.stuntmom.com is proceeding along nicely. I'm quite proud of the quality of her writing. (This from a person who claims not to be able to write.)

So to make this a completely disjointed post, I read today that Nintendo-branded a WiFi Dongle. Go figure.

My 2nd Tuner is Here...

Alrighty, my 2nd tuner showed up yesterday and got a 6 way splitter (antenna, cable, internet and digital phone are all coax connections in my house.)

Hopefully tonight, I will be able to drop the card in and add a extra 40GB hard drive I have laying around just for MP3 music.

Fun, fun, fun. (Well, geek fun that is...)

Where's My 2nd Tuner?!?!?

My 2nd tuner is now over 10 days late. Oh well...

DIYPVR: Adding 2nd Tuner

My plan is to add a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150MCE as a 2nd tuner to my GB-PVR setup this week in prep of all the new seasons of shows...

For $65 I'll be able to record two shows at one time or watch a show while I'm recording another one.

Portfolio Updates

I updated my portfolio area with a few graphic projects and a movie script project.

(I hope to digitize some of my early work in the public access TV area and stick it online in the near future. A few bits might hold up well even though our production values were so low in the mid-90's.)

All My MP3s to CDs

I just bought a new car (the Scion tC) that has both an MP3/WMA car CD player and a handy AUX jack in the arm rest. Although I like the idea of taking my MP3 Jukebox with me in my car for long trips, I'm pretty certain that I’d like to get at least 50% of what I listen to in MP3CD format.

So, this weekend I’ll begin another big conversion process, and it seems like only a few months ago I took all my audio CDs to MP3 in the first place.

DIYPVR: Wireless MediaMPV

A few weekends ago I took my MediaMVP wireless with the help of the Belkin F5D7130 which is both a wireless access point and a range extender. It worked like a charm.

Now I can cut down that 150' long Ethernet cable I strung down the back of my house and get on with listening to my ever growing MP3 collection.

The Server is Up, Yo.

Back to normal. Normalish...

The System is Down, Yo.

Our servers are being moved this weekend, so no email and no sanity until Monday morning.