Hey guys & gals, I didn’t expect to be writing this the very next day. I actually didn’t expect to be writing it at all, I thought I said it all in yesterday’s anti-BL tirade… But as my wife condensed this dragged out 2 hour show into a mere 45 minutes before she went to work (Tivo of course, are you out of your MIND?), they managed to load me up with enough told-ya-so for at least one more blog.

So guess what happened on last night’s show? I’ll give you two clues. It involves and overweight person, and a knee… LOL YOU GOT IT! One of the dudes hurt their knee during one of the challenges, and of course, screamed his ASS off all northeast American style at one of the other girls in the house saying “I CAN’T RUN! GET IT!? GET IT!? I JUST CAN’T RUN!!!”. Well crap man, he should have read my blog and saved hiself that waddle and bottle of Percoset. I was just pissed that he aimed that nonsensical explosion at his poor partner and not at his crackpot trainer. My guess is because it would be easier to make her cry for TV, and was probably afraid Jilian would beat his tired ass. Like Mustratboy said, it seems the whole world loves to see these people cry and laugh and cry and laugh and…

On the team aspect, they booted the oldest dude on the team, who was the actual guy who PICKED them all to be on his team. Then he went on this rant about how he believes in loyalty and respect and they wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for him, and he comes from a different time. HAHAHA! Come on dude… My answer would have been “Dude, it’s a game… Do you bitch like that when someone wipes you out in Monopoly?” And YES, you are from a different time, when television was only worried about the damage Elvis was doing to us by shaking his ass on television, bet ya never thought it would get this bad huh? But, he had the least weight left to lose on the team, so everyone else could care less, he’s just a lightweight, and needed to go. (What’s with me and Elvis lately?) Coming on to a Survivor-like expulsion show, talking about loyalty… Goofball.

So there you go. One day after I blog about how bad they are beating these people’s knees up on this tv turd, a guy gets hurt. God, I hope I didn’t throw a whammy, that’s not cool.

Hopefully there will be no need to make this article series a trilogy, but we’ll see what happens…

And BTW, GO SAMMI! We don’t care how you screwed over Austin anymore, we’re over it at this point. Keep on with your bad-loser-hostin’-self!

Love -n- stuff,

Right Brain

Hey folks. I just wanted to plug a business that’s owned by a friend of mine that provides online document storage and management, DocuSync. Their feature set and pricing is pretty damned outstanding compared to the other services I’ve tried and I whole-heartedly recommend them to folks in need of such a solution. Which, in reality, is just about all of us with USB thumb drives being notoriously unreliable and the need for high integrity off-site backups being a fact of life.

They offer terrific personal and enterprise plans and even provide licensing opportunities for the application itself.

They’re currently running a free 30-day trial, and you don’t even need a credit card for the trial, so there’s nothing at all to lose.

Go ahead and take a look at www.docusync.com!

LB

P.S. Disclosure: Both Right-Brain and myself do work for these folks now and again, but this wasn’t a paid ad. I’m sincere in my belief that they offer a terrific service.

I had a query regarding the game programming tutorials I’ve been working on. The query is “Where the heck are they?”

Here’s a quick status. I would like to have the game completed before I posted the rest of the tutorials. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances the actual game itself is held up (it’s 94% finished, just hung up getting some animations done).

I’m a little split on if I should go ahead and continue the tutorials with the game as-is, or if I should go ahead and wait for a polished product to deliver to you guys.

What would you guys prefer?

LB

My wife sent me this link while ago. Found myself damned near on the floor. I’ve never been a major D&D player (pretty much right with the author and his experience), but this stuff is a great read.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article73.htm

Enjoy!

LB

Ran into another Flex 2 error the other day that’s again not crystal clear about what it’s trying to tell you. This one is:

Invalid Embed directive in stylesheet - can’t resolve source ‘Embed(source = “assets/my_picture.png”)’

Here’s the source:

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       <mx:style>
		.customVideoTree
		{
			defaultLeafIcon:Embed(source="assets/ds-qhv-film-icon.png");
		}
	</mx:style>

This one is pretty clear in hindsight, but care to guess what that error up there means to say? My initial thinking was that it was a syntax error with the Embed directive, but nope, the $25,000 answer is. . .

file not found

Now you know what can’t resolve source means, which of course makes perfect sense now. . .but sure tripped my up on the spot.

LB

I ran into an error while working on a Flex2 application this morning. The error made zero sense in the context, and I wasn’t able to find anything that explained it (reasonably) via google. So, here’s what I found the hard way :

The error was:

[RPC Fault faultString=”Error #2070: Security sandbox violation: caller cannot access Stage owned by .” faultCode=”Client.CouldNotDecode” faultDetail=”null”]

Here’s some sample code that will replicate the error:

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<mx:application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" width="800" height="600">
	initialize="e4xService.send()"&gt;
 
	<mx:script>
		<!--[CDATA[
			public function handleHttpResult(event:Event):void
			{
 
			}
		]]-->
	</mx:script>
 
	<mx:httpservice id="e4xService" url="assets/videos.xml" result="handleHttpResult(event)">
</mx:httpservice>
</mx:application>

And here’s some example XML for the “assets/videos.xml” file:

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<applications>
	<application label="Web Application">
		<category label="Upload Manager Set Up">
		<category label="Basic File Operations">
			<subcategory label="Uploading">
			<subcategory label="Downloading">
			<subcategory label="Moving and Cut  Paste">
			<subcategory label="Deleting and Recovering">
			<subcategory label="Creating Folders">
			<subcategory label="Setting View Mode">
		</subcategory>
		<category label="Sharing">
			<subcategory label="Shared Folders">
			<subcategory label="Shared Files">
			<subcategory label="Temporary Passwords">
		</subcategory>
		<category label="Address Book">
		<category label="Billing">
		<category label="Sub-Accounts">
		<category label="Search">
		<category label="Web Import (Advanced)">
		<category label="Multimedia">
	</category>
	<application label="Desktop Application"></application>
		<category label="Desktop Application Install">
		<category label="Basic File Operations">
			<subcategory label="Uploading">
			<subcategory label="Downloading">
			<subcategory label="Moving and Cut  Paste">
			<subcategory label="Deleting and Recovering">
		</subcategory>
		<category label="Sharing">
			<subcategory label="Shared Folders">
			<subcategory label="Shared Files">
		</subcategory>
		<category label="Backups">
		<category label="Syncing">
	</category>
</category>
</subcategory></category></subcategory></subcategory></subcategory></category></category></category></category></category></category></category></subcategory></subcategory></category></subcategory></subcategory></subcategory></subcategory></subcategory></category></category></application></applications>

Line 25 had some poorly formatted XML; “<application label=”Desktop Application”/>” (Closing the tag while it had children). This was my problem.

So, the short answer is: If you see this problem and you’re remotely loading an xml file, go over your xml with a fine toothed comb. The text of the error doesn’t make a lot of sense in context.

Hope that helps!

LB

Wooooooo! I can feel the heat coming off the Internet as that title got encoded into binary. FLAME WAR! I could probably end this now, and let everyone finish it in the comments section, and it would surely get ugly, but we’re not here for a big scrapple-dapple now, are we? I’m just going to throw my 2 cents into the pot, stir it, and hopefully you’ll come out feeling 2 more pennies worth of enlightened about DAWs and which platform to roll with.

First of all, I have been recording digitally on PCs since the Quad-4 from Turtle Beach came out (1995), and we had that whoppin’ 4 tracks of digital goodness to noodle with (that we could bounce to 2 virtual tracks! Wheee!)  So, you can say that I am a super freaky early adopter. Windows 3.1 was a great platform for audio recording, and I also believe heroin is really great for your health and longevity… All jokes aside, you already know I’m a geek (see URL above), and since I was 13 me and my computers have been tighter than Luke and R2… point is, I am not afraid of hardware or software of any kind. (That’s right, back off Excel, I’ll take you out just the same!)

Now no offense to Turtle Beach, because it was super early on in digital wonderland, but it outright sucked.  I could usually count on at least 15 crashes before I could complete any mix. I lost lots of great takes, and lots of thick hair. But what I did produce was leagues ahead of what was being produced with cassette based 4-tracks at the time, sound wise. There was a certain amount of hardship you had to endure to get music recorded sans that wonderful tape “HISSSSSSSSSS”… and we endured it.

Now as our systems grew, and got more complex, and multimedia became a more serious concern, our hardware and software got stronger and more integrated, and we grew along with it. Windows 95 made an immense difference (I know, I even feel funny saying that Windows 95 did something good for me.) and then we got DirectX and the audio mix DLL on Windows,
and things REALLY started to chug. With the consistent issues though, I was always extremely thankful that I was an IT person as well, and watched many of my non-techie musician friends say “F this, I would rather just pay a studio.”, understandably.  I had always heard that things were better on Apple, but I didn’t really believe it, and as a long time computer user, I go where
the apps are, and Windows just had all the apps…

So, fast forward to 2006. I was using Cubase SX 2 at the time, hooked up through a Presonus Firepod on an AMD X2. Now compared to the old days, it was AWESOME. Compared to the Mac I got at the end of last year, it just plain sucks. That’s right, flame me all you want. I have a flame retardant psyche, and I will continue to rock out in Mac bliss while you have at it.

Cubase doesn’t crash on OSX. If I happen to plug in or remove any hardware while any DAW application was running on Windows, I would be real lucky if I didn’t lock and lose my work. OSX handles this with grace and ease. Now I won’t lie, and tell you I’ve NEVER had a Windows machine running a decent DAW, I have had those lucky hardware combinations where everything was peachy now and then, but it always involved a lot of swapping out this controller or that interface because it didn’t agree with this motherboard or that memory… Always doing software tweeks, and dealing with random plug-ins not working, it was never perfect.  With my Mac, I can honestly say that I walk into my studio, and I work, as a musician, and a musician only. I have the chance to be creative, and think about music, not about gear. Macs are a little more expensive, but for me, those benefits are priceless.

You can use a PC, and if you are on a real tight budget, I would even recommend it. If you need to make music DEPENDABLY and RELIABLY though, and you can afford it, go with a Mac. I am not a Mac person, or a PC person, or an any computer type person. I am a computer user, and I go with what works, and I go where the applications are. Musicians have always huddled around Macs, so the software for musicians is always going to be there. We work with KNOWN hardware configurations on Macs, and that’s what makes it easier for them to keep things working correctly. PCs have an unlimited amount of variables affecting each individual machine, and that’s where unexplainable (and often unanswerable by any particular vendor) problems seep in.

For the uninitiated, OS X, although a newer OS, is based off of a Unix variant called BSD. Unix is old and strong, and has it’s own philosophy surrounding it, and there’s a reason it’s lasted this long running some of the biggest baddest machines on the planet… Because it works. If it can work for huge corporations, sorting and saving and serving terrabytes and terrabytes of data daily, chances are it will be able to swing the load on your desktop, even if you are running 4 separate effects on each of your 4 vocal tracks, and running 3 instances of that sweet new “Massive” synth from Native Instruments (have I mentioned that that thing rules? That’s
another blog day.).

So, in conclusion: We, my friends, are at the best point ever known for recording in the home. It’s cheaper than ever, and the tools get more impressive every single day. Whatever platform you wind up on, you will still have what you need to make great music and then some, for sure. You will surely have more than what the Beatles had available to them when they were starting out, and look what they did with what little they had!  BUT, if I have to cast a vote, I would surely say Apple is the way to go today. Yes Apple, even with all their nickel and diming. Yes Apple, with their crazy, borderline fanatical keynote speeches and fans, and their crazy patents, and all the other nonsense. Their computers just work, and I know that my life in my studio has been nothing but a joy since that shiny brushed metal monster showed up!

Fire away!

Love and stuff,

Right Brain

Hey folks,  we’ve been quiet this week so I thought I’d drop you guys a note and let you know that we’re not gone.  It’s a hectic week from a personal and professional aspect and we just have our noses to the grindstone.

A little preview of stuff coming up:  Right-Brain has a bug to do a little tutorial on the iPhone and getting 3rd party native apps running there.  I’m still working on part 3 of the AS3 game programming tutorial, and I’ve also started pondering an article on rsync. . .love that nifty little tool.

Anyway, stay tuned, we’re still here and working on bringing you guys some (hopefully) useful info.

LB

P.S.  Oh, two quick things: 1) I’ve updated the vmware-server backup stuff again.  If you’ve been keeping track, take a look.  2) I’m PISSED. . .You can’t make calls to native applications (ie, exec) with Adobe’s AIR product.  That irritates the hell out of me!

If you’re interested in the vmware-server backup script, it’s been updated to include suggestions from you guys. Can see it here.

LB

[Updated 08-30-2007: script updated to fix a typo where the deletion of files after x days wasn’t functioning. The single quotes should have been double quotes. . .apologies folks. -LB]

[Updated 08-10-2007: script updated based on feedback. Now allows for exemptions via the EXEMPTION_ARRAY and will create the backup directories if they’re not there. Also put in a little more documentation -LB]

Ok, I do love VMWare, an absolutely terrific series of products. They solve so many problems, and do it with ne’er a hiccup in my experience. However, this particular post is about a problem, and its solution.

For those that haven’t been keeping up, not so long ago VMWare took their GSX (low-end server) product, relabeled it vmware-server and released it for free (not open source, just freeware). It’s truly a great product, it allows you to create and run VMs in a server environment. It’s not particularly crippled, and that I can recall, I’ve had zero downtime related to vmware-server. If you’re running on the cheap, don’t want to mess with Xen, Microsoft Virtual Server, etc. this is the way that I would recommend going.

However, you notice that I qualified crippled up there. Backing up a vmware-server virtual machine without bringing it down is impossible (at least without a third party product). That being the case, the goal is to minimize your downtime while maximizing the viability of your backup.

With this criteria in place, you do not want to back up the live data. The vmware-server disk images are quite active, and if you were to just copy them live, you would certainly end up with, at best, corrupted data, and at the worst, a completely fubar’d disk image. Either way, it’s most likely a useless backup. So, that means that we need to find a way to back up the disk image while it is not actively in use.

Click “Read More” to see a few options, and the bash script created to solve this issue.

Read more