Comment In that case... (Score 1) 242
I'm gonna have to try that much harder in 2010... I know that, through my own personal hard work and dedication, I can get that figure down to $6,199,999,900,000...
Comment Best practices only go so far... (Score 3, Informative) 477
"Quality" can be both objective and subjective, and it seems this post is leaning towards the latter in terms of what it's getting at... while I believe in having formalized guidelines of some kind, I've found the best way to seek out and improve the elements that can't be easily quantified is through (drum roll) code reviews/walkthroughs. It seems like these are rare, at least where I'm at, and it's hard to get buy-in when you're talking about contractors charging by the hour, but in my opinion a single quality code review can save TONS of time down the road and is necessary for projects over a certain size.
Also, read "The Pragmatic Programmer" and "Code Complete" for some of the best guidance on this topic.
Submission + - When Composers & Fans Meet: Deus Ex ReMix (ocremix.org)
djpretzel writes: OverClocked ReMix (www.ocremix.org) has just posted its first collaboration between a game composer and a fan/remixer — Alexander Brandon (Unreal, Deus Ex, Tyrian) teamed up with artist/judge Big Giant Circles (Jimmy Hinson) for a ReMix of 'The Synapse (Hong Kong Streets)' from Deus Ex. The mix is freely available, along with an interview of Brandon that covers his long history in VGM, from the tracker/demoscene up to his latest work on Dust: An Elysian Tail.
Comment Re:Download/preview options, misc. (Score 1) 52
I love it; it feels far more powerful than language-specific solutions like Smarty, it's W3C, and it's procedural and can be used to flatten/infer hierarchies and do all sorts of neat stuff, once you get over the learning curve.
Yeah, if your only exposure with it was on a fed contract, I can see why it might not seem like the bee's knees, but imo it's very underappreciated in the OSS community and a far better technical solution.
I just wish XSLT 2.0 was more widely supported...
Yeah, if your only exposure with it was on a fed contract, I can see why it might not seem like the bee's knees, but imo it's very underappreciated in the OSS community and a far better technical solution.
I just wish XSLT 2.0 was more widely supported...
Comment Download/preview options, misc. (Score 5, Informative) 52
As an additional note, if you're reluctant for whatever reason to download, you can stream/preview at Last.fm and/or check out the theatrical trailer over on Youtube.
Our torrent tracker is indeed experiencing some load issues but we're working on getting the MP3s up in a single zip mediaupload/rapidshare fashion shortly, and individual MP3s are of course available at the site. The full torrent does include FLAC.
If running the site for almost ten years has told me one thing, it's that you can't please all the people all the time, but from a genre perspective at least this album features electronica, rock, orchestral, jazz, and much more. If Final Fantasy isn't your thing, please do check out the rest of our albums and individual mixes!
And, as a random side note, I administer/develop the site, it's LAMP, and I use Eclipse/PDT for all development and the Oxygen XML editor plugin for XSLT, which drives the frontend templating outside the wiki and forums. You know, just in case any one was wondering...
Our torrent tracker is indeed experiencing some load issues but we're working on getting the MP3s up in a single zip mediaupload/rapidshare fashion shortly, and individual MP3s are of course available at the site. The full torrent does include FLAC.
If running the site for almost ten years has told me one thing, it's that you can't please all the people all the time, but from a genre perspective at least this album features electronica, rock, orchestral, jazz, and much more. If Final Fantasy isn't your thing, please do check out the rest of our albums and individual mixes!
And, as a random side note, I administer/develop the site, it's LAMP, and I use Eclipse/PDT for all development and the Oxygen XML editor plugin for XSLT, which drives the frontend templating outside the wiki and forums. You know, just in case any one was wondering...
OC ReMix Releases Final Fantasy 4 Tribute Album 52
quintin3265 writes "Today Overclocked ReMix released its latest free fan tribute album, Final Fantasy IV: Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption. The 46-track album is described by the project's coordinators as a 'narrative' set 'to recreate the story of Final Fantasy 4.' 36 artists contributed in a variety of genres, from classical to techno. This album is the latest of several free entirely fan-created albums produced by Overclocked ReMix, which recently composed the professional soundtrack for Super Street Fighter II HD Turbo Remix. Individual tracks can be downloaded from the website, or you can grab the torrent."
Comment There's at least one thing it does faster... (Score 2, Interesting) 532
I *have* noticed that IE7 handles one very specific thing MUCH faster than Firefox - copying large amounts of tabular data. If I load up a table with ~5 columns and ~2000 rows, it takes FF3 much longer just to highlight all of those rows, and attempting to copy that data to the clipboard usually kills the browser entirely. IE7 just plains handles it, usually in a matter of seconds.
Not a common use case at all, and don't ask me why I'm even trying to do this, but as an FF fan I'd prefer it do EVERYTHING better than IE, and here's one instance where it doesn't.
Submission + - Street Fighter HD Remix Makes Soundtrack History (ocremix.org) 1
djpretzel writes: "OC ReMix just released for free download our official soundtrack to Capcom's Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles.
While video game companies have worked with fans in the past, HD Remix is the first major video game with a completely fan-made soundtrack. More than twenty gamers from around the world contributed remixes of the original Street Fighter games' music for inclusion in the updated game, in styles including jazz, hip-hop, reggaeton, spaghetti western, garage rock, big beat and electronica.
MP3s and torrent (also incl. FLAC) are available at http://www.ocremix.org/hdremix/."
While video game companies have worked with fans in the past, HD Remix is the first major video game with a completely fan-made soundtrack. More than twenty gamers from around the world contributed remixes of the original Street Fighter games' music for inclusion in the updated game, in styles including jazz, hip-hop, reggaeton, spaghetti western, garage rock, big beat and electronica.
MP3s and torrent (also incl. FLAC) are available at http://www.ocremix.org/hdremix/."
Hellgate: London To Be Closed, Possibly Saved? 91
Namco Bandai recently announced that Hellgate: London would be shut down on January 31, 2009. They'd been supporting the game's servers since Flagship Studios saw massive layoffs in July. Now, a fansite has located an announcement on the game's Korean site suggesting that it may be picked up by a Taiwanese company called Redbana. The English version of the announcement says, "In the meantime, stay alert: the Hellgate will soon re-open, and your valor will be needed again."
Researchers Claim To Be Able To Determine Political Leaning By How Messy You Are
592
According to a study to be published in The Journal of Political Psychology, you can tell someone's political affiliation by looking at the condition of their offices and bedrooms. Conservatives tend to be neat and liberals love a mess. Researchers found that the bedrooms and offices of liberals tend to be colorful and full of books about travel, ethnicity, feminism and music, along with music CDs covering folk, classic and modern rock, as well as art supplies, movie tickets and travel memorabilia. Their conservative contemporaries, on the other hand, tend to surround themselves with calendars, postage stamps, laundry baskets, irons and sewing materials. Their bedrooms and offices are well lit and decorated with sports paraphernalia and flags — especially American ones. Sam Gosling, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, says these room cues are "behavioral residue." The findings are just the latest in a series of recent attempts to unearth politics in personality, the brain and DNA. I, for one, support a woman's right to clean.
Comment In the land of the blind... (Score 4, Insightful) 243
Scary thing is, I've always found their doc decent... relative to other companies.
This judge needs to attempt to assemble some of the more ornate IKEA offerings - she'll have a new appreciation for MSDN/Technet...
Submission + - Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream (ocremix.org)
djpretzel writes: "Today OverClocked ReMix released its ninth album, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream. The album, made by fans for fans, honors the recent 10-year anniversary of the Square Enix PlayStation video game Final Fantasy VII with 45 arrangements of composer Nobuo Uematsu's original score. Available for free download at http://ff7.ocremix.org, Voices of the Lifestream is not affiliated with or endorsed by Square Enix. More than 40 artists from the OverClocked ReMix community contributed more than three hours of music to the album, with interpretations covering a variety of genres and styles from jazz to electronica to rock to symphonic."
Submission + - 4-CD Final Fantasy VII Fan Remix Album Released!
Anonymous writes: "Over forty musicians at OverClocked ReMix have collaborated to release a project 20 months in the making; Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream , a 4-CD set of remixes from the legendary game Final Fantasy VII. With a total of 45 tracks and nearly three and a half hours of music, Voices is the biggest album project to be released on OC ReMix to date. The album encompasses a wide variety of genres from trance, to film score orchestral, metal, jazz, new age, and many more.
Voices was recently reviewed and showcased at Music4Games, with reviewer Jayson Napolitano calling it "One of the most impressive and encompassing listening experiences in the world of video game music." Well-known industry composer and creator of Video Games Live Tommy Tallarico has also praised the album; "OC ReMix has done it again! I'm always impressed with the amazing talent that comes from the OCR community. This album is a further testament to that quality and passion. It's an honor for video game composers around the world to have their material be a part of the OCR community. This album rocks!" Voices of the Lifestream is available free-of-charge at http://ff7.ocremix.org/ via individual MP3 downloads or BitTorrent."
Voices was recently reviewed and showcased at Music4Games, with reviewer Jayson Napolitano calling it "One of the most impressive and encompassing listening experiences in the world of video game music." Well-known industry composer and creator of Video Games Live Tommy Tallarico has also praised the album; "OC ReMix has done it again! I'm always impressed with the amazing talent that comes from the OCR community. This album is a further testament to that quality and passion. It's an honor for video game composers around the world to have their material be a part of the OCR community. This album rocks!" Voices of the Lifestream is available free-of-charge at http://ff7.ocremix.org/ via individual MP3 downloads or BitTorrent."
Submission + - Final Fantasy VII Rearrangement Album Released!
KingBahamutX writes: OverClocked ReMix released a rearrangement album today titled Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream (VotL). This album is a 45 track saga encompassing various genres, including jazz, trance, rock, contemporary dance, and hip hop, and has been in the making for about 2 years. It features many prominent artists of the community, such as djpretzel, zircon, pixietricks, Star Salzman, bLiNd, Mustin, and much more, and in many cases, VotL showcases some of these artists' best work.
As a result of these efforts, VotL has already garnered much praise, in advance and current, such as from industry composer Tommy Tallarico, famed for his soundtracks and his Video Games Live concert series, who has said, "OC ReMix has done it again! I'm always impressed with the amazing talent that comes from the OCR community. This album is a further testament to that quality and passion. It's an honor for video game composers around the world to have their material be a part of the OCR community. This album rocks!"
As a result of these efforts, VotL has already garnered much praise, in advance and current, such as from industry composer Tommy Tallarico, famed for his soundtracks and his Video Games Live concert series, who has said, "OC ReMix has done it again! I'm always impressed with the amazing talent that comes from the OCR community. This album is a further testament to that quality and passion. It's an honor for video game composers around the world to have their material be a part of the OCR community. This album rocks!"
Submission + - Music 4 Games Posts Review of FF7 Fan Album (ocremix.org)
djpretzel writes: "Today Music 4 Games, the premier resource for news and reviews about Video Game Music, posted an exclusive advance review of the upcoming OverClocked ReMix album, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream. This review marks the first time a freely available, fan-made album of game arrangements has been evaluated alongside commercial video game soundtracks on the site.
Reviewer Jayson Napolitano writes that it "doesn't get much better than this when it comes to arrangement albums," calling Voices of the Lifestream "one of the most impressive and encompassing listening experiences in the world of video game music." More information about the album, which will be released freely online this Friday, September 14th, can be found at http://ff7.ocremix.org.
Hundreds of free game music arrangements and a thriving community of game music fans can be found at OverClocked ReMix's Web site, www.ocremix.org."
