My first computer was a TI-99/4A - the family computer:
Hey, mine too. With a couple of one-button joysticks for all the game cartriges. Plus some off-brand cassette tape recorder to save/load any custom programs you wrote. Nothing like having to listen to five minutes of screeching tape just to play a simple game.
4x CD-ROM drive (that plugged into the sound card)
They still do that, although I'm not sure why they bother anymore.
I bet his was like my first CD-Rom drive though - where the controller for the drive was actually on the sound card too. IIRC the ribbon cable that controlled the drive and the little CD sound wire thing both plugged right into the Sound Blaster cards.
Does anyone else remember when sound cards added wave table instruments for midi music? I recall it being a huge deal playing Doom on a friend's machine that had the Wave Blaster addon card and the music was insanely better than my old Sound Blaster.
iTunes is, in my opinion, the best application to use to manage your music/your iPod. If you're on a Mac, it's really the only choice. I know Winamp can talk to iPods, but I don't like the interface. Not sure about WMP.
The only real accessory you need for your iPod is a screen protector (something like this). Get a case if you care about the back getting scratched, but otherwise, I find that accessories are a waste of money.
As far as scratch protection goes, I've always had good luck with www.bestskinsever.com. They have custom-cut skins to fit pretty much every device that aren't very expensive. I've had one on my 5G ipod, phone, and DS and haven't had a problem yet.
For my 5.5gen, I really like the Contour Showcase. I know some people just use screen protectors or rubber sleeves, but those aren't really going to help at all if you drop the thing. I like the hard case/rubberized edges. Sure, it won't perform miracles, but I'd rather have it there than nothing at all.
And lo, they make one for the classic as well: link
It's a really nice case, matches the black finish, screen is protected behind a plastic piece, and it doesn't bulk it up too bad. I had a similar case for my 4th gen iPod, and liked it so much I bought the same case for the classic when I bought it.
For my 5.5gen, I really like the Contour Showcase. I know some people just use screen protectors or rubber sleeves, but those aren't really going to help at all if you drop the thing. I like the hard case/rubberized edges. Sure, it won't perform miracles, but I'd rather have it there than nothing at all.
And lo, they make one for the classic as well: link
My friend has one, and there is also a non mirrored version.
For my 6th gen 80gb, im actually using a 5th gen 60gb Agent18 hard shell case. Since the 6th gen is slimmer than the old ipod there is some empty space between the back to the ipod and the back of the case. So i solved this by cutting up a bandana and folding it accordingly to where it fills up the gap. I get compliments on it all the time.
My friend has one, and there is also a non mirrored version.
For my 6th gen 80gb, im actually using a 5th gen 60gb Agent18 hard shell case. Since the 6th gen is slimmer than the old ipod there is some empty space between the back to the ipod and the back of the case. So i solved this by cutting up a bandana and folding it accordingly to where it fills up the gap. I get compliments on it all the time.
Well, if you're like me, you'll want some way to play it through your car stereo. If you have a tape deck in your car, I'd say go with a tape adapter- the radio transmitters often have static issues, in my experience.
The only other accessory I've used, aside from a case, is the Altec Lansing inMotion IM9. It's the best portable player I've seen, it's rugged, it's loud, doesn't drain its batteries too quickly, etc. I probably sound like a shill, but I really do recommend it, if it looks like the sort of thing you'd use.
So, it's been a long time coming but here is the latest on the future of our forums.
vBulletin is dead, long live Vanilla
After looking at the software solutions out there we have decided to run Vanilla Forums. Vanilla Forums is an open source project written in PHP backed with a MySQL database server. The core developers of the project formed a a startup company to provide a variety of services (including hosting).
Why Vanilla?
I'll make a longer post about this in the future. In short, they "get" forums. When we approached different vendors they were the only ones that asked the right questions. "What games do you guys play?" "How do you deal with spam?" "How do you deal with trolling?"
From a code perspective, the Vanilla Forums software is built on top of a plugin architecture. This makes the code much easier to customize than vBulletin. This modularity has made it pretty easy to extend Vanilla to include the community features that we have come to rely on: reporting posts, marking posts as awesome, infractions and jails, spam control, etc.
From a management perspective, the forums have this knack of crashing right before big events (Child's Play/PAX/etc). This large crash during the holiday Child's Play seasons was really poorly timed. Obviously I want to make sure the forumers are taken care of but I also have obligations to other readers as well (child's play donors, store customers, etc). The Vanilla Forums guys will manage the day-to-day technical bits powering the forums for us, patching software, tuning MySQL, taking backups, etc. We will still be involved but at the end of the day the Vanilla guys will be the ones "on call" for our forums.
Wait, I thought MySQL is the devil's database! Why aren't we switching? What about searching?
I've been working with the guys over at Vanilla to make MySQL work for us. This includes simple things like using InnoDB to reduce lock contention and more complex changes like using Sphinx to power searching. We have contingency plans setup to run replication in the event we really need that extra performance.
Why not develop our own forum software?
We definitely have the community talent. I was overwhelmed with all of the responses and I even had built out a spreadsheet of people/skills. We would have had the ability to make a rocking forum software, but it would have taken a while. Developing our own was always our "last ditch effort."
What's next?
The development of the new forums is already underway. Our own Erika Greco will be minting a new design to make the forums look more like the new mainsite design. The goal is to have a beta of the forums available for you guys to play with before PAX East. We aren't looking to pull a Digg here, so we will be looking for feedback early in the process.
the first 17 are rare (only one of those per pack), so buying 17 packs will "guarantee" a full set with 1-to-1 trading (in america anyway, apparently everyone else is getting hosed with smaller packs)
edit: oh, and it looks like scanning the villager figure into happy home designer gives you a gold statue item
every card is a character and, if I understand correctly, is thus a "level" for home designer
the 17 rare/special cards are mostly the major NPCs, and thus (some of?) those cards may work in animal crossing party like their figure counterparts(??)
the first 17 are rare (only one of those per pack), so buying 17 packs will "guarantee" a full set with 1-to-1 trading (in america anyway, apparently everyone else is getting hosed with smaller packs)
edit: oh, and it looks like scanning the villager figure into happy home designer gives you a gold statue item
Posts
Followed a few years later by a Digital Rainbow 100 - also a family computer:
This later had an expansion card installed called an RBG Link -- which was a fully functional IBM 286 PC.
The first machine I bought and built for myself was an IBM 286, 16Mhz with 640K RAM, CGA graphics card and an Ad-Lib Sound card.
I played asteroids on it for hours.
It had so much character
Woo, what fun.
Hey, mine too. With a couple of one-button joysticks for all the game cartriges. Plus some off-brand cassette tape recorder to save/load any custom programs you wrote. Nothing like having to listen to five minutes of screeching tape just to play a simple game.
You plan on hacking the Gibson with that?
I bet his was like my first CD-Rom drive though - where the controller for the drive was actually on the sound card too. IIRC the ribbon cable that controlled the drive and the little CD sound wire thing both plugged right into the Sound Blaster cards.
Does anyone else remember when sound cards added wave table instruments for midi music? I recall it being a huge deal playing Doom on a friend's machine that had the Wave Blaster addon card and the music was insanely better than my old Sound Blaster.
I know iTunes is the basic, but I'm fairly new to the product, curious on what everyone's opinions are.
The only real accessory you need for your iPod is a screen protector (something like this). Get a case if you care about the back getting scratched, but otherwise, I find that accessories are a waste of money.
And lo, they make one for the classic as well: link
It's a really nice case, matches the black finish, screen is protected behind a plastic piece, and it doesn't bulk it up too bad. I had a similar case for my 4th gen iPod, and liked it so much I bought the same case for the classic when I bought it.
I have one of these, it's pretty nice.
http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Reflect-Chrome-Mirrored-Case/dp/B000MVJ1MU
My friend has one, and there is also a non mirrored version.
For my 6th gen 80gb, im actually using a 5th gen 60gb Agent18 hard shell case. Since the 6th gen is slimmer than the old ipod there is some empty space between the back to the ipod and the back of the case. So i solved this by cutting up a bandana and folding it accordingly to where it fills up the gap. I get compliments on it all the time.
That sir is a fucking awesome case.
It darkens it up a little bit, but unless you are in bright sunlight it doesn't really affect it. Just have to set the brightness all the way up.
You've just been pimped
The only other accessory I've used, aside from a case, is the Altec Lansing inMotion IM9. It's the best portable player I've seen, it's rugged, it's loud, doesn't drain its batteries too quickly, etc. I probably sound like a shill, but I really do recommend it, if it looks like the sort of thing you'd use.
vBulletin is dead, long live Vanilla
After looking at the software solutions out there we have decided to run Vanilla Forums. Vanilla Forums is an open source project written in PHP backed with a MySQL database server. The core developers of the project formed a a startup company to provide a variety of services (including hosting).
Why Vanilla?
I'll make a longer post about this in the future. In short, they "get" forums. When we approached different vendors they were the only ones that asked the right questions. "What games do you guys play?" "How do you deal with spam?" "How do you deal with trolling?"
From a code perspective, the Vanilla Forums software is built on top of a plugin architecture. This makes the code much easier to customize than vBulletin. This modularity has made it pretty easy to extend Vanilla to include the community features that we have come to rely on: reporting posts, marking posts as awesome, infractions and jails, spam control, etc.
From a management perspective, the forums have this knack of crashing right before big events (Child's Play/PAX/etc). This large crash during the holiday Child's Play seasons was really poorly timed. Obviously I want to make sure the forumers are taken care of but I also have obligations to other readers as well (child's play donors, store customers, etc). The Vanilla Forums guys will manage the day-to-day technical bits powering the forums for us, patching software, tuning MySQL, taking backups, etc. We will still be involved but at the end of the day the Vanilla guys will be the ones "on call" for our forums.
Wait, I thought MySQL is the devil's database! Why aren't we switching? What about searching?
I've been working with the guys over at Vanilla to make MySQL work for us. This includes simple things like using InnoDB to reduce lock contention and more complex changes like using Sphinx to power searching. We have contingency plans setup to run replication in the event we really need that extra performance.
Why not develop our own forum software?
We definitely have the community talent. I was overwhelmed with all of the responses and I even had built out a spreadsheet of people/skills. We would have had the ability to make a rocking forum software, but it would have taken a while. Developing our own was always our "last ditch effort."
What's next?
The development of the new forums is already underway. Our own Erika Greco will be minting a new design to make the forums look more like the new mainsite design. The goal is to have a beta of the forums available for you guys to play with before PAX East. We aren't looking to pull a Digg here, so we will be looking for feedback early in the process.
As always, I'll be around to answer questions.
That is freaking me out. Do Quiznos sandwiches give you precognition?
the first 17 are rare (only one of those per pack), so buying 17 packs will "guarantee" a full set with 1-to-1 trading (in america anyway, apparently everyone else is getting hosed with smaller packs)
edit: oh, and it looks like scanning the villager figure into happy home designer gives you a gold statue item
the 17 rare/special cards are mostly the major NPCs, and thus (some of?) those cards may work in animal crossing party like their figure counterparts(??)
I love them so!
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
No Bam. No cards for me.
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