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Okay so there are two sides to this coin. On one side, commercial music has alowed artists to distribute their music across nations and has alowed musicians to get paid rightiously for their hard work. It is the fuel behind music and without it there would probably be alot less good music out there to listen to. If you think about it, it pays for all the major artists, it gets the music heard, it inspires more musicians who create more music and we get a never ending, increasing cycle.On the other side of this very same coin, we find that the same money that fuels the music has also corrupted it. It seems to me like all the big bosses of those record labels and radio stations and media outlets see are dollar signs when they hear music. I mean, I'm about my money but not more than I am about writing and recording quality music. We have reached a point (and have been here for a while) where music isn't made for the sake of making music, it is made for making money. Some seem to have forgotten what music really is. Some seem to believe that music serves one purpose and that purpose it to fatten wallets.When you create songs and base lyrics and melody and style on what will get sold the most, as opposed to how you'd like it to sound, are you still being creative? When you base yourself on demographics instead of what feels right, are you still being true to what you set out to do? I don't think so.Moving on to Hip Hop. All this booty shakin, gun cockin, bubble gum crap is, in my honest opinion, corny and lame. I mean, when it's used to tell a story or convey an emotion or feeling, fine. But when you string words together and repeat them over and over just cause it 'would be dope in a club', are we still even talking about music?Hip Hop started out as a way to give youth in urban areas a way to speak out and get themselves heard. The music industry lets emcees speak their opinions louder than ever before but, with the price of their message being twisted and contorted into what people want to hear. I guess there are different ways of seeing it, different opinions on what Hip Hop should be, what it was and what it will be, all I know is the good music is underground and relatively unheard compared to the shiny packaged noise that comes out of the big labels. This isn't to say there are no fresh mainstream artists, just to say that they grow sparse.

Definatly. I think concentration is a strong point. If you have several un-active sections in your forum that are similar in topic, consider grouping them all into one, although remember that alot of changes are never good, so if you're going to make several changes, do them over time. The thing about sections is that having too many sections and not enough active users will make some sections appear unactive and when users think a forum is unactive the usual reaction is to ease up on participation and visit less often. The problem however is that if you don't have enough of the right sections, your users may not be inspired on what to write about, you know? Like, if your forum has a section for rants (*coughtrap17cough*) if users have something on the mind that they want to rant about they may be inspired to write it out. So once again there is a fine balance between too many and not enough sections in a forum but generally the more you grow the more sections you will need.I think that the number one thing to do with any forum decisions, think up all possible outcomes for each option and logically decide using your own common sense which option would be most beneficial for your goals. This pretty much goes for anything but yeah, it's always about that fine balance you have to find.

I think everyone here has good points but as far as people suggesting that she change her habits and the way that she looks, my question is: Why should she have to change the way she dresses and acts for some immature boys? It is true that it is easier to change yourself than to change everyone else, but I think since this is a rant, perhaps she isn't seeking advice but merely venting a little anger at these kids. One thing someone was saying about control, I'm a guy and I'm 17 and you won't catch me walking around feeling chicks up in the hall at school... Matter of fact usually if I see a guy do that unprovoked I get a little angry and if I know the guy I might ask him you know, "what the **** was that?"So I guess the basic message is "if you dress like a ****, stop" but honestly if that's the way you feel comfortable dressing then do it. Be yourself. But if it's a confidence issue, find a way to boost it other than showing yourself off.Really if worse comes to worse and someone is really pissing you off and you've told him before to stop, collect evidence and/or witnesses and report it to the proper authorities. Take one down and you'll send a message to the rest of them.Anyways it's like anything else you get, take it with a grain of salt and maintain your own values you know? Good luck!Sean

Okay I visit alot of forums and this is part stuff that I notice and part just general marketing/business theory that can be applied to any product. I noticed that alot of forums change the way they arange their sections CONSTANTLY. Like I'll see the same category redivided into different sections like 5-6 times in 4 months.Here's your problem. Customers subliminally seek consitency in the products that they use. You can think of your Forum as a product, but you can also think of each category and each section individually as seperate products when you analyze a forum, since your users have a choice of only using certain parts of your forum. So anyways, if you're constantly changing the way information is arranged in your forum, for example if your graphics section one day has the following sections: "Show Off, Requests, Battles" and the next day has "Show off signatures, Show off Avatars, Show off random stuff, Battles, Sig Requests, Avatar Requests" you are forcing your users to change the way they use your product. This can become annoying, especially with forums since some people have your different sections bookmarked and will get a 404 error the next time they try to access a certain section. This might cause confusion, perhaps a little anger and often leads to a reduced active user base.There is a fine balance, however, between annoyance and innovation. If you truly believe that your way of doing it is better, you need to think before changing. You need to really go through everything inside your head and wonder 'will my users be encited to use this feature more, or will they be distracted by the changes'. Because usually, the only reason you should really be changing anything at all in an established forum is to encite more users to come more often, right?So the next time you decide to make a change in the way you organize your information, especially when it changes the way people access and insert that information, make sure it will be in a way that will cause users to use your forum more often and will cause more users to join up.Good luck in all your projects!SeanPS Feel free to discuss and make points, I don't know everything and I'd love to hear your opinions on the subject This is a community right? Lets help each other.

I wonder how it is that these people get to us but they just do. It might be this one person who shows up to a group who you don't know but just from the few things he's said so far already know you hate him. Sometimes it's someone you know who is just ticking you off at a particular moment especially when you're in a good mood and they just somehow manage to piss you off enough to kill it.Here's my story: I was chilling at a friend's party, just having a good time, meeting people and we were sitting around a fire and this guy who I guess was a friend of my friend's shows up and I mean, from the first glance I got of him I didn't like his face and he just started whining and moaning about stuff, people, in particular one girl who was at the party who I guess he had a problem with and was just ripping on for like 3 hours. I was playing guitar and he mentioned that the particular song I was playing sounded like I was playing drums and that it was gay. Okay so now you're really looking for beef. Honestly, who comes to a party and disses someone they don't even know? I didn't even respond I just stared at the guy with a "what the *** is your problem" kind of look and he ended up leaving half an hour later. Thank god too cause if I wasn't so emotionally attached to my guitar he would have been wearing it around his head.And uh.. yeah that's my rant. Post your stories up!

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not too sure what you mean about the drums being off, I think it might be the slow attack on the strings making it sound like that. As far as the bass it might be your speakers cause it's thumpin over here In any case thanks for listening!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.c;songID=5406849 100% composed by yours truly I'm still working on perfecting my mix but it's still pretty good quality imo, tell me what you think of it!

Interesting theory, although to help you would have to first define "Great" and then define "Manipulator" heh. Cause we can talk about a great person who is just a really nice person, or it could be a really powerful person, rich, famous, honoured etc. And then, manipulator can be taken positively or negatively depending on the situation. Now I don't quite understand the history of India to a full extent so forgive any mistakes I make here but if this person or persons who led the people to freedom never existed, would anyone have fought? Would thos people who you believe should be placed higher ever have died fighting for freedom? If we take Manipulator as meaning "Leader of people" then perhaps it is a positive thing. Leaders are a natural thing. They have existed in our society since recorded history whether formally or not. They exist in ant and bee colonies and even in wolf packs and other animal groups in the wild and in captivity. They are essential imo to society as a whole. I mean, without the persons who led your people to freedom, would you have your freedom today? Without someone to say "Hey, let's fight this" ? I guess we will never know.There are also the simulated greats. This would be like all the famous rockstars and rappers of the music industry. Behind them are massive corporations controlling their image and sound, marketing, advertising, promoting, just basically moulding these people into record sellers. At this point credit is due to the people behind the person (dare I say artist?) and much less to the person him/herself.I guess that's my opinion on the matter. I can't really vote in your poll and respect my idea but excellent thread anyways!

Hehe, that's pretty nice for a myspace layout Most of the major record label artists and bands now have rather decent myspace pages, and since it seems every artist has a myspace as part of their marketing, I was basically forced to do the same with my own band. The myspace can be found here: https://myspace.com/browser Add me! WARINING: Auto playing music gotta get heard! Also tell me what you think of my layout!

If I understand correctly, you're looking to create a kareoke type thing where the website will play the song and display the lyrics to sing along with? If so, read on. Okay so you've got several issues to deal with to make this a reality. First of all, you can just put any music on a website and call it legal. Allow your viewers to listen to mainstream stuff for free and you will have lawsuits coming in left, right and center. This means you will either have to acquire rights to play the music (will get quite expensive in my estimation) or find/make some royalty free music to play on your website, music that you can play without worries about copywrite claims like music under a Creative Comons license (read more: https://creativecommons.org/ ) or some of your own work. Now to display lyrics and play music you have several options. For the music, you could use Flash to stream the song to the net, or you could embed an object like QuickTime or Windows Media Player or offer your viewers a choice between the two. for more information on that, search up Embedded Quicktime html or something like that in Google. For the lyrics, are you thinking of lyrics that show which part to sing at a specific moment like auto scrolling to the beat of the song? Or just displaying the lyrics on the page? If you're not scrolling anything, you can easily display the lyrics with some HTML code. If you are scrolling, you can do it via Javascript of Flash (other methods exist, these imo are the best) if you are using Flash to stream your song, you might aswell display the lyrics in the same file. You'll have to figure out how to sync the lyrics to the music by yourself. Same thing with Javascript + Quicktime/Windows Media Play. On top of all this, if you want a dynamic, easily maintainable website where adding, removing, sorting and editing of all your songs is made easy and efficient, you'll have to code some sort of Content Management System in a programming language such as PHP or ASP, OR find a Content Management System (CMS) that already exists to suit your needs. Search up "Content Management Systems" on google and read up on a couple. I hope this helps in your quest! Sean

Obviously nobody has noticed but this is a thread from 2004. Thus, your PSP and iPod video arguments are invalid Atleast I think they came out after...

Well looks come down to opinion cause I find that the archos is damn sexy . I guess it is kinda bulky compared to a nano, it all depends on what you use it for really. I mean, no one mp3 player can suit everyone's needs right?As far as the Zune's Wifi song transfer capability, they've still got their feet deep in DRM land and any song sent via WiFi can be played up to 3 times before it becomes unplayable. When this whole DRM *BLEEP* blows over things will change and music and information in general will be alot more free.

Every once and a while we get stuck. Sometimes we don't even know where to start. As designers we are free to be as creative as we can be but creativity sometimes runs low. The real problem is to question creativity itself. What is it? In my personal opinion you need to feed your creativity with new ideas to help it grow. Not only is it feeding your creativity, it's also fun to do! Here's my sources of inspiration: Nature: I know, people say this all the time but its true! Take a walk in the park or in the woods depending on where you live, take it in, look at stuff, textures, shapes, contrast, colours, it's all there! Architecture: This is easier if you live in the city. Go look at buildings. Old ones, new ones, the lines, the patterns, the layouts etc. Now on to links: CSS Garden - http://www.csszengarden.com/ Choose a design on the right. Basically this website is done in CSS and designers are challenged to redesign it completely using only CSS, each of these designs are available to be viewed, go through a couple and see what you like! https://color.adobe.com/ - This is an awesome wesbite/community for sharing colour swatches. There are tons of different sets, and their tagged so you can search for a theme and perhaps find colours that match it. This is really awesome if you dont know what colours to use http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ - This is also great for colour. Choose a few colours and the rest will be calculated to match. This is a tool for designing rooms but it's awesome for website colour schemes too. (click "START COLORSMART") http://www.deviantart.com/ - Awesome art community. Consider browsing through some of the sections that might be more relevant to what you're designing at the moment. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/ Awesome. See for yourself. This website is the epitemy of useful. Those are the ones I use most often, what are yours?

Yeah the iPod is way overrated in my opinion. You might consider other players which may or may not better suit your needs as a consumer. There are some gangsta media players out there, this one in my opinion is way better than the iPod video Introducing the 199$(circuit city) 3.5-inch screen, supercompact body, 30GB; video, music (including subscriptions), and photo player: The Archos 404 Yeah, that's right, 3.5-Inch screen. if you wanna go to 4.3 inches widescreen, shell out another 100$ for the bigger brother the Archos 604. It has Wi-Fi They both come with optional dock that allows voice/video recording directly from camera/mic/television which is pretty sweet, I think the dock is another 100$ though but they keep it seperate to keep the base price low. plenty of other features are available that I won't go into right here to keep this short and sweet but yeah, it's a hot buy if you were looking for a portable video player. Read more about these guys and others via Google. There are plenty of reviews available. The screen is soooo big *drools*

Well, I'll always have webdesign to fall back on since my partner and I have already made a few $ via some contracts at the university of Ottawa, so we've already got a sort of reputation building and I often spend several hours a day reading web design articles or just design articles in general, worse comes to worse I'll take a proper college degree in Web Media or something of the sort. As far as knowing people, I do have connections however it's more of a "friend of a friend of mine" type thing. As far as the music theory goes, I do already have lots of theory from guitar lessons that I've applied to producing and to keyboard. Scales, Keys, Chord Building, Key Changing in a song, Rythm, Arpeggios, structure, aswell as a little bit of drums I picked up from the web like rolls and fills and basic patterns, flow w/e lol I don't know the proper names for it, most of what I know about drum patterns comes from experimenting and holding tempo comes from playing guitar/keys with metronome. So basically I know quite a bit and I'm contantly learning already so when I hit Berklee it hopefully won't be that steep of a hill to climb. I've always loved art in most forms, with the music, the webdesign (large part of which is art), street art/graffiti, acting/drama, it's always been part of my life so if I can turn it into a living then that's what I'll do. My purpous is to be heard. Sean PS Metronomes are awesome if you have one, use it, if you don't, buy one.

Blessed: Like I said in the topic description of this thread, I'm talking about a musical instrument, not a typing one, so I am not very well placed to answer your question lol. However, a little googling shows that apparently you CAN use the mac keyboard on PC but you'll have to use an application like this one: http://www.randyrants.com/2004/03/sharpkeys_11_of/ to remap some of the keys as there are certain keys that mac has that windows doesn't and some that Windows does and mac doesn't. Other than that, apparently it works fine! I've never tried but I guess if it doesn't work out you could always return it Good luck! Sean Okay now back to the topic at hand!

That would be pretty cool if we ended up in the same class! Well I've still got a year of high school to go so I will be starting most likely in September 08. I also have tons of experience, you can check out some of my tracks here at http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ however my latest beats are not uploaded yet. Perhaps we can trade advice or something. PM me your msn address if you have one Sean

Thanks for the answer guys.jkhaslip: Agreed. My favorite quote: "You give before you get." - Napoleon Hill (I might have said that one before on here ) Thanks guys!Sean

Hehehe, excellent tip although I don't know how many keyboards actually come "Spill proof". My recommendation would be to keep food and drink at a reasonable distance just in case something like that happens. Good to remember though! Thanks

I noticed after my first 2 posts that there was a 10 credit limit per post, what confirmed it was posting my massive guide on purchasing a keyboard which is much larger than my first posts yet I only recieved 10 credits. I find it kind of odd personally.

Right, so you're looking to purchase a keyboard but you're not sure what's available and what's right for you. I've gone through the process a few times before and I'm going to lay out onto the table everything I know so that you can figure out what features you need and which ones you don't. This will hopefully save you some time at the music store. (although we all love to look around when we get there, don't we? ) Okay, so here goes: First off, there are several different types of keyboards on the market right now. Lets analyse each one and decide which one is right for you. Digital Pianos: These keyboards aim to mimic a real piano. They usually have weighted keys which reproduce the feel of a real piano so your fingers can build the strength needed to play. They typically come with only a few different voices (voices are different instruments you can make it sound like) which are often all different piano tones. These are ideal if you would like to learn or already know how to play piano on a real piano. This is the next best thing imo. If you're looking to play classical pieces this is probably the keyboard for you. They range from moderate to high in the price range. Keyboard Synthesizers: These keyboards range in price in the upper end of the spectrum. They usually feature very powerful synthesizers, these days mostly digital although I'm sure there are still some analog keyboards available. I won't get into the whole Digital VS. Analog debate but suffice to say some people say Analog's subtleties give it a warmer, true-er feel. Wether this is true is up to your ears to decide. These keyboards are useful if you are going to be recording the sound directly from the keyboards as they offer superior sound quality for recordings and such. They can also be used as midi controllers to trigger sounds on your computer or a synth module. These guys often come with sequencers which means you can usually create full songs with many layers of different sounds and loop patterns etc. etc. directly on the keyboard. They often include knobs, sliders and the like for midi controlling. Most of the "top of the line" keyboards are in this category. Keyboard Controllers: These guys typically have no sounds of their own. They are usually used in the studio and/or in conjunction with your computer or a synth module of some sort. They act as midi controllers and allow you to play the synth modules or intruments on your computer such as VSTi's. Most other keyboards these days can also be midi controllers, the advantage with these however is that they are much cheaper since they contain no preset sounds and often include knobs and sliders that you can assign to knobs and sliders in your software, useful for controling a mix etc. If you are a producer or composer I'm sure you can think of something. These keyboards generally range in the lowest prices which makes them efficient ideas for a studio. Finally, Personal Keyboards: These are like the middle ground of all the other types of keyboards. They offer many voices to play with, although they are usually not up to par with the quality of Keyboard Synths. They can be used as Controllers (then again, they all can) and they obviously include at the very least one piano patch (A patch is a sound that can be played by the keyboard), usually 3-4. You can find them with and without weighted keys and they are often loaded with features to help you learn, perhaps have a few songs and drum loops you can jam to, maybe even a few songs you can learn. These are probably the most likely candidate for the average consumer next to the digital piano. WAIT! THERES MORE! MUCH MORE! Right, on to the features you might find, might need or might be wasting money for. Keys keys keys. How many do I need? Right, so here are you options: 25, 37 or 49 keys - Yikes! Well, this keyboard will probably be alot less expensive, but you are severely limiting yourself. You'll probably be doing some 1 hand playing on this thing. These are however much more portable. 61 or 76 - Now you're talking. 61 is still kind of small but it's do-able although there'll be many songs you can't play in full range. 76 is approaching, it will usually allow you to play what you want although there are a couple of those classical pieces that reach past 76 88 - This is as high as it goes as far as I've seen. This is regular piano length and will allow you to play almost everything (aslong as you have the skill to play it ) I don't know of any keyboards with more keys than this. If there are, please inform me! NEXT UP: Weighted Keys: I already explained this, but just to go over pros and cons, Weighted keys are designed to mimic the resistance and feel of a real keyboard, they will help you build muscles in your fingers. Unweighted keys have alot less resistance and are better suited for if you're not planning on playing real pianos and/or if you play techno, stuff like that that requires quick playing. Mod & Pitch Wheels: These are wheels usually located to the left of the keys, here's what they do: Pitch wheel... well it modifies the pitch of whatever note your holding down, going up or down. This can help to create some rather expressive performances. Think of a bend on a guitar or a bass, how it kind of slides from note to note, that's what this wheel does. The Mod Wheel is usually assignable to a filter/effect to modify the timbre of the tone. This is often used in techno when you hear the sound kind of ramping up, it's quite useful for electronic music aswell as producing/recording etc. If you wanna go Scott Storch style, you'll definatly need the pitch wheel. You won't find any of these on Electric Pianos. Sequencer or Recorder: This would allow you to record and create songs directly on the keyboard for playback. usually this means you can record multiple layers with different instruments etc. Which is a useful feature if you're going to be writing songs and don't have a software sequencer on your computer like FL Studio. If you're writing music, this is a plus. Arpeggio/Arpeggiator: This cool feature is awesome if you're playing live or techno or stuff like that. Basically it allows you to hold down a chord then the arpeggiator will play the notes in this chord seperatly in cool patterns making it easier to create cool songs without having to arpeggiate the chord yourself with your fingers. This is cool but when used in recording or songwriting feels like cheating to some people. If you don't need this, don't let it influence your purchase desicion as you probably won't use it. Split & Dual: Split allows you to have one instrument triggered by one half of the keyboard and another by the other half. So you could all at once play the bass line with one hand and the chords with the other. This is also cool if you're writing or performing. Dual allows you to layer two different sounds so that they both play with the same key press. So you could have a bell and a violin sound together. This is also cool if you're gonna be recording etc. Preset Songs, Rythms, Styles: These are a cool feature, the songs are often demos of what the instrument can do, and with some instruments (most yamahas atleast) you can learn these songs note by note. Rythms or Styles usually play drum tracks or other accompaniement which is useful for jamming along with if you know some theory, also once again great for performances. Assignable Knobs and Sliders: Everyone loves buttons, knobs and sliders. These are usually assigned to some filter or modifier that will modify the sound of the keyboard, or they can be assigned via midi to sliders in software so that you can control say, the sound level of a channel or perhaps a few of them, perhaps control an EQ filter or something of the sort. Lots of fun Extra Storage Ability: If you can record songs or create your own synths (probably only on Keyboard Synths) or if you keyboard has the ability to play outside samples, you might need some extra room to store all those creative ideas. Flash cards, USB memory sticks, find out what works best for you. Most people probably won't need this btw. That's about it, you'll probably find other features on certain keyboards but these ones are the most common that I have seen. One thing you want to do is try out a couple of the keyboards that fit what you're looking for and just listen to the tones. If a keyboard has cheesy or corny tones they might get annoying after a while. Take a listen to a few different sounds and see if you hear anything you like. This is probably more important in Electric Pianos where they aim to mimic real pianos. If the tones included don't sound very good to you, it's probably a good idea to choose another keyboard. That's just about it! Decide what you really want and what you can do without, and don't forget the stuff you can do without when you get to the store, cause there are alot of gimicks that raise prices. You don't want to pay for something you don't use, right? I say, get a general idea for what you want before you go, explain to the salesman what you're looking for and he/she will probably have the knowledge to narrow it down to just the right keyboard for you! Good Luck and happy shopping! PS: If there's anything I've missed in this guide, please feel free to point it out and I will amend the article with your point.

Lmao! Sorry to break it to you, but this would be nothing new. Microsoft's modus operandus is anti-competition. Now with the whole Linux patent war too, I don't really know what to think anymore.

If your planning on creating commercial games like the ones found on Xbox and Playstation etc. like fffanatics said C++ & OpenGL or DirectX and I'd like to add perhaps also purchasing (or finding a free) engine to build off of. This will help you and prevent you from having to code every single little tidbit of logic yourself. Depending on what type of game the engine is built for, it should help you out by having functions that will do some of the tasks you would normally have to code by hand.Good luck!

There are a a few less expensive Flash editors out there although they probably won't teach you how to properly use flash. Marcromedia Flash, actually I think it's Adobe Flash now, is the way to go. Otherwise, you could go with a program like SWiSH which you can find here: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ which allows you to create flash files with a simpler, easier interface however it makes it hard to do complex stuff

PHP Frameworks What do you guys think of coding websites using framworks like Zend or CakePHP? I used to code my applications from scratch but it does get tedious and because PHP is not as structured as other languages it's very easy to create redundant, unmaintainable code. I think a framework should be more than just a bunch of libraries. It's true that having libraries for functions specific to what you are trying to do might help alot but it takes more than that to create some maintainable code. What I' m talking about is MVC and Front Controllers. The Model, View, Controller (MVC) way of coding seperates the data from the functions and the functions from the display. It is much easier at this point to implement site-wide modifications and fixes. Frameworks allow you to do this easily by already having an engine to do the communication between these 3 layers. Read more on the MVC method by googling it Here are some available Frameworks. Read up on them and their documentation and find out which one is right for you're website. Frameworks, by the way, can be difficult to learn at first, but once you get down, will greatly improve your efficiency, speed and maintainability. https://ellislab.com/codeigniter (Very fast and light weight) http://cakephp.org/ https://framework.zend.com/ (Only runs on PHP5 but is apparently very extensive) http://www.xisc.com/ (Prado: Not MVC oriented) http://symfony.com/legacy http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ http://www.phpwact.org/ There are plenty more out there that you can find, list your favorite, post questions etc. I'm currently learning how to use CodeIgniter, my new record label website will be built on it. (Hoping to turn this into a portable CMS which I can use in developpement of other websites, as clients don't like mucking around in HTML source and I'm tired of using other people's bloated CMS software when all I need is something simple.) Hope this helps all you programmers out there! Sean