Learn Everything

I just saw a great Ted talk I hadn't encountered yet. It was on how long it takes to learn something new. Studies show it takes about 10,000 hours. BUT that is the time it takes to become top tier at it, like pro athlete level. That is mastering something not simply learning it. When we look at the learning curve at the start we improve rapidly at the task of learning, then it falls off and plateaus. According to the speaker the time it takes to get to the plateau is about 20 hours. At that point you've learned enough to be functional at your new skill.

As I was watching it I was pondering what I wanted to do for my 20 hours. Then I saw another Ted talk on speed reading - and being a very slow reader - I realized that was it. So I think my 20 hour task is to learn to speed read. It would definitely be useful and would greatly aid in learning other new things. Maybe it'll make future 20 hour tasks easier.

Local 404

So I still don't have LAMP (In my case XAMPP, hoping to get it working once, and never have to deal with it after rebuilds etc) running on my dev box. Oh I've tried to get it going heh. After having issues doing a standard nix LAMP setup (usually this goes smoothly - although I've destroyed my OS - mint - before, installing Apache I think it was) I decided to see if I could do a totally portable LAMP on nix. In the past I've used XAMPP on Windows boxes and it worked great. So I grabbed the Linux version of it.

PHP is working great. So far the only issue I'm having is with MYSQL. I'll start the service, even test it by connecting (Or creating) a DB from the terminal. But if I query the state of the LAMP services, it's not running. And in the browser it behaves as though it isn't running.

Maybe I have a MYSQL service - system-wide - that is running, but the XAMPP version is not. Which would make sense since I can connect to MYSQL, view the DBs etc, yet it shows as not running both in the XAMPP status check and in the browser.

If this is the case I'm not sure why the XAMPP start mysql command would start a MYSQL service outside of XAMPP, since it is supposed to be portable. I have work to do.

End of the Rainbow

Neurofunk is the perfect genre for me. I listen to it every single day and it never gets old. More than that, no matter how many times I try to make it, the sounds I want elude me. Yeah Reese bass is surprisingly straightforward: multiple detuned saws, compression, EQ, and good distortion, along with some mix downs and dumb luck. Yet the sound I'm after escapes me like chasing the pot o' gold at the end of a rainbow.

This is good, it remains a challenge! Each time I try a Neurofunk tune it is like the first time, over and over. Each attempt is unpredictable and exciting. If I never achieve it, it will never become mundane. It will never be simply dialing in the formula over and over.

Maybe the challenge is I don't drop hundreds of dollars on softsynths, but thats Ok. I don't want to simply rehash the same sounds and techniques others do. I want to pursue my own sound. And while it may be frustrating, it keeps the genre exciting and new each and every time.

Reliving the Magic

I don't know about other producers but when I make a new tune I love to go back and listen to it. 'Real' bands practice their songs until they are flawless but making music on a computer is different. You lay it out and tweak it. You do slight adjustments to track volumes or EQ, or mess with the parameters of your effects or synth patches. When you're done, you're done.

I find that listening to songs over and over is the best way to get it where I want it. I hear things that bother me, or get ideas that would improve a song. Then I go back in and add the changes I thought of and repeat the cycle. This goes on until I'm satisfied with the result.

And I get to experience the song again, much like bands do when they practice their songs.

It may seem narcissistic but I think it's more like analyzing your work looking for improvements that could be made. Listening is my 'practice session'.

Turn Up Da Juce

Apparently at one time I knew about VST development in Juce. I must have, it's in my downloads directory. I don't remember knowing about it, but yeah. After rediscovering Juce I've  been watching tutorials on building VSTs. I decided to take the plunge and start getting serious about coding synths and effects.

Juce seems amazing. I've watched youtubers start projects and, in minutes, have a successfully Make'd project. Everything is butter. So I should have a smooth, trouble free start in the world of VST development.

Of course not. lol. First thing - Juce loads up with zero loaded modules. I've tried downloading them. But it won't let me select the directory that contains them - maybe I don't have what it needs. It doesn't connect to the site to get them. Modules-wise I'm dead in the water.

I created a new audio plugin project, tried to run the make - no changes to the source, just the initial template. Total Make meltdown. I haven't had a chance to look at the issues yet.

I'll put VST development on the back burner, I don't feel like beating my head on the desk at the moment.

Test Driven IF?!

Recently I watched a great video on TDD. It walked the viewer through building and running tests using Java and JUnit. It was cool seeing TDD outlined for beginners. It got me thinking about testing IF games. My engine currently handles 'tests', which are essentially just macros, but they make testing so much easier. Running a test, the game developer can perform any number of commands such as taking objects and arming the player with them (If they are weapons), as well as jumping to other locations within the game. But they are simply automated commands to the game's parser.

Now I've built a pass / fail testing engine. This is designed to run unit tests. Each test is defined in Norman notation like the rest of the game. A test consists of an initial input (commands run against the parser) and asserts which contain conditions. If the conditions are met the assertion passes. These are all checks against the output generated by the initial input or inputs within the assert. For example you could test the existence of a torch by moving the player into the room that contains the torch. Then calling the look command. If the output does not contain torch then it does not exist.

I've tested scenarios like the torch as well as hidden passages. So for TDD, I wrote a hidden passage test. It failed I created the hidden passage and hooked up it events and commands. Reran the test and it passed. Then I tested it manually, in game play.

This should be useful for testing complicated puzzles efc within the game.

Walking Through Tourneau's

I just got back from a Vegas getaway. We did a lot of walking, eating, drinking, and marveling at the grand facade architecture. It was good times. And speaking of times, I was on my own little watch shop tour. At the top of my list was the time dome - Tourneau's.

I'm glad I made it. Tourneau's was amazing. Two floors and three levels on the first floor. Everything from the usual luxurious offenders to G-Shock. I was anxious to put the Tudor Pelegos on my wrist again, but they only had her in blue. I wanted to see the black one in person again  ... since I'm trying to save for it. Sad.

Also sad is - I found Tourneau's itself more exciting than  the watches in it. I'm too picky. There were only a couple watches I really liked, and nearly all of those were minimal, classic divers like my Armida. But Tourneau's itself was huge and amazing, like the casino it sits in. I have never been surrounded by that much horology in my life.

You should go, it's definitely something to see.

LAMPin' It

It has been so long since I've installed a LAMP server... environment... local host, whatever. Years. I've had zero interest in web development since I moved away from .NET websites in my work life. I am much happier in the console or querying databases. The little bit of web work I've done recently - the WorldWeaver site - has been painful. The basic core of web development - HTML, CSS, JS etc just feels hokey to me. I realize there are 'cooler' more 'now' ways of building sites, but the end result is the core tech the web has been running forever.

HTML is just a miserable markup syntax, I'm sorry. I've complained about it before. But it really is painful to write. So many brackets, so many quotes, equals signs, special characters, weird tags.

CSS has some elegance to it. I find it to be the most enjoyable piece of the web development puzzle.

JS as a language is nice, aside from my philosophical disagreements with it. It's a C style script/language so of course I like it. Buuut, what was its early purpose? Interacting with the DOM? But how much fun is plain JS when it's doing what it was originally designed to? Not at all. It is telling that you need frameworks just to use it. But with those frameworks it's pretty powerful and fun to write. 

Anyway I'm so rusty I still haven't gotten my blogging framework installed. But yeah.