PC Hardware

Today I want to talk a bit about computer hardware, as a preface to the next topic I want to write about. After buying my college desktop back in 2003 (still my best and most thought out purchase), I have made every mistake in the book when it comes to buying computer parts, accessories, and everything in between. I have been suckered into buying "deals" that were actually rebate hells. I have bought on impulse rather than shopping around, causing me to overpay or get a lower quality product. I have bought on impulse without looking at what I needed, leaving me with hardware that was incompatible.

Most of this stems from the fact that I don't keep up to date with the latest and greatest tech when I am not in the market for it, and when I am, it typically means that something has broken, and I need a fix immediately. So of course I do not do any research - I cannot, or sometimes do not want to wait, and since I haven't had any time to save up money, my only requirement is that what I buy is cheap. The pricetag is the most misleading labels on a product, and burned me time and again.

The other problem is that no one makes buying hardware easy. Taking your time to do some research and comparisons will always help, not simply because you spend the time, but because spending that time forces you to spend even more in order to cross reference and check everything you read. Because that glowing review you read for a video card is guaranteed to be contradicted by a few others. Meanwihle hardware focused sites and message boards will have their own opinions, most of which are of little use for people who don't upgrade their hardware on a yearly basis.

Once you find the "one", that one answer to all of your troubles, your excitement will immediately diminish once you find out that it is either too expensive, too crappy, outdated, or that the true best product is out of your price range. The best video card I ever bought was the Radeon 9800 Pro. It took me almost a year, and a genuine price drop, to determine that it would meet my needs. My younger brother spent two months trying to research his own college PC, asking me questions almost nightly.

I am not trying to say we should not spend time looking into major purchases, but I do think that it is possible to overthink them. That is because the Internet can be a a hindrance as much as it is a help to shopping. For example, 'net denizens are often suspicious of premium, name brand products, which they fear (or simply know) are ripoffs . This is great when dealing with companies like Bose or Monster Cable. But there are other situations in which the reverse is true. PC enthusiasts will always recommend the highest quality RAM for your computer upgrades, and there are specific brands they chose for this purpose. If you stick with the former mentality, you will be screwed over by the multitude of cheap Chinese wares that flood even good sites like Newegg. If you go with the former, you will most certainly be swindled one time or another, and you will always have that doubt in your mind that you could have spent your money more wisely.

My solution to this dilemma is evolving, but it currently involves two major steps. First, never run out and buy non a new piece gear right away. Wait a while - a year if you have to - in order for the technology to get better and for the market to grow. Doing this successfully requires being happy with what you have, or if you have none, then being able to live without for a little while longer. Thankfully this isn't hard to do - any tech junkie that tells you otherwise is acting like a brat. The second step is to try and take good care of your hardware, including learning how it works and how to troubleshoot it. I almost trashed my (now six year old) college PC because of malfunctions, until I found out that a cooling fan was unplugged and that it was dusty as hell inside. I used the same tiny Flash drive for five years thanks to painter's tape and a sharp eye (so it doesn't get lost). A little bit of DIY can go a long way.

I have a third step that I am not quite prepared to believe in - sometimes it is worth going with the name brand for the sake of convenience and security. Can you find an MP3 player that is better and cheaper than an iPod? Of course. But I can finally see why people clamour for them. They just want to listen to their tunes, and with millions of iPod users out there, they can be confident that it will allow them to do just that.

I guess this can all be distilled into saying "when in doubt, play it safe." Now all I have to is follow through with future purchases.

Football Season

Not much to talk about with the start of the current NFL season. It was an exciting enough first week, but it will not be indicative of how many teams perform down the stretch.

What I did find interest in was the simple, though oft repeated remark by ESPN's Bill Simmons about how football, a typically blue collar sport that captivates most of the nation, has become a white collar event, at least if you want to see it live. Tickets are pricey, parking is pricey, food is...pricey, which has been the case for long enough. But now you have teams charging for seat licences to help pay for and raise the profile of their pricey new stadiums. Meanwhile, the economy is making it so that longtime season ticket holders cannot afford their seats, and longtime waitlisters may not be able to act on their one and only chance.

As Simmons has pointed out, this leads to a situation in which homefield advantage means very little in some fields, where the only people who can afford to go do not really care that much about the team. The people who do are at home watching on a nice TV (which, while pricey, is easier to save up for than tickets), or at the bars. That's not the best situation for America's Game to be in. Thankfully, Hi Definition and good camera work can make the home experience pretty intensive. But how this obvious sign of class division can continue to go on without anyone really noticing or caring is more than a little unsettling.

Pleasant Surprise

I just finished playing Wheelman, a fairly standard looking GTA clone starring Virtual Vin Diesel. But while the game might look unnecessary on the surface, Diesel's luck with the Chronicles of Riddick games rubbed off on it.

I won't go into a full schpiel until I write the review, but suffice to say that Wheelman ditches a lot of what has bogged GTA down over the years, in favor of a straightforward action film script, and missions that do their best to constantly elicit the excitement of a good car chase. Oh, and it doesn't make you travel to your mission every time you attempt it. The game isn't as memorable as GTA at its very finest, but ends up being worthy by not being full of itself.

I find myself gravitating to this kind of game lately - something stupid and relatively quick that I can start and finish on the weekend. I like to have momentum with any game I am playing, and when the work week leaves you with little time or energy, this becomes difficult. I might log 15 hours into an RPG during a light week, only to find it collecting dust two months later, when I have forgotten where I was and what was happening, and ultimately do not continue. With a simple action game, I can usually beat it in a handful of sittings, and if not, it can probably be polished off with an or two on Monday night. Worst case scenario, I call it quits, and guess how the cliche plot ends. This leads into the other advantage - this system plays well with Gamefly. I can get a game on Friday, mail it back on Sunday, and get another one the next Friday. The games spend their time in the mail on the days that I can't give them attention, and arrive exactly when I can. Plus it means I can get my money's worth from the service, while spending less on purchasing games (which I will then not play).

Most importantly, I find myself getting tired with everything else. I have played too many RPGs with piecemeal plots or 50+ hours. Too many games with OCD driven tasks. Too many highbrow, artsy titles that aren't actually fun. I still believe in the medium's ability to be something bigger than cheap thrills, but most that shoot for this lofty goal still come up short, and I do not have the time for that anymore. Give me the cheap thrills so I can actually stop thinking for a brief period during the week, and maybe save some money to be spent on other areas of interest.

I'm not abandoning gaming, but when life changes, sometimes your hobbies have to adapt.

Just Walk Away

Dammit, it happened again - I fell out of love with a gaming forum that I thought I would never leave. I lost count of the number of times this has happened, though I think I have finally figured out why it happens to me. It all has to do with the nature of the Internet.

Say you have a small, intelligent message board that somehow explodes in popularity. The arrival of new users of varying degrees of posting quality will eventually bring down the board's overall quality. You can't really stop this trend, however, so I find that the best thing to do in this situation is to move on and not lament.

Another scenario is that the board is part of a massive community website, in which users come and go quickly, and the idea of a "regular" is measured in the span of months. This causes the nature of its content to fluctuate, so that it will have "good" and "bad" periods of various lengths. The trouble here is that you never can tell where the forum is heading towards. You may join in when it is great, only to see it devolve into endless list threads. Will the next influx of regulars turn it around into something interesting? Or will the lists simply give way to something else that is aggravating? Usually it isn't worth finding out.

There is one more situation I am thinking of, and it applies to the forum that I am currently at. We often lament how the internet is hampered by people who are varying parts hateful and unintelligent, but just as troublesome is its ability to shelter us from the people and thoughts we do not want to hear from. When a community is so small, so tight knit, it tends to become insular and warped. Without fresh blood or fresh ideas to challenge the status quo, the members simply reinforce each others ideas until their belief becomes unshakeable. They also end up repeating themselves. You will hear about the same games time and again, and you will read the same debate play out exactly like it did a month or two ago. You can get to the point where you can accurately guess what news will be worth creating a post for, what people will say, and how others will respond. It becomes boring, and as the users keep going through the motions, they become caricatures of not only themselves, but the people they claim to avoid on the internet. The hate, the sarcasm, the snark all creep in, and they can't even tell that it has happened.

This time, I don't think I will go about looking for a new board to post in. If I find one, terrific, but if not I have plenty of good offline relationships to spend my time with. And if I do find myself on another one, I should be able to walk away before it gets on my nerves.

Pink Floyd

In some cases, getting into a classic rock band is a straightforward process. You hear a couple of tunes you enjoy, do some research to find out which album people consider the best (or at least the best to start with), and check it out. If you like it, you do some more research and add to your collection.

But with some bands, this process is not so clean cut. Maybe they have too large of a discography, or their albums are a dizzying mix of live and studio recordings. Maybe they had distinct eras in which different members put their own spin on the sound. For me, Pink Floyd was one such challenge. I have had genuine exposure to them since I went to college in 2003, and it is only this year that I have grown to have an appreciation for their music. For many of the above reasons, as well as a few others, I found them incredibly challenging to "get into".

For starters, you have the fanbase. Even in 2009, every college campus has at least a few stoners who absolutely adore Floyd and all their works. These folks will easily expose you to them, but their passion is so great that it is difficult for them to recommend a good starting place for budding fans. Your other option is the radio, which isn't any better. Most classic rock stations rely on small stable of Pink Floyd songs which they reach for whenever they come up on the playlist. It mostly consists of tracks from Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, with a handful of other tunes from the rest of their catalogue. Not only are these radio safe songs unable to demonstrate the band's full talent and style, but it is easy to grow tired of them. To this day, I still can't listen to Money. I believe that this overexposure was the major factor in keeping my interest in Floyd down for years. In any case, for a long while, I was completely indifferent to Floyd. I respected them as a major force in classic rock, and I would pay lip service to die hard fans that I talked to, as I knew enough about their history to sound like an expert. But deep down I had no urge to take a serious look at their music.

The solution to my troubles was purely accidental. I was driving around with my roomate for a few long trips, during which we listened to The Wall and Wish You Were Here almost to completion. Sitting there, being able to listen to these works the way they were intended to be heard, was the key. I had nothing to focus on but the music, thus all the subtleties and mezmerizing sounds were unlocked. I listened to them a few more times on my own, and I went from being indifferent to at least being interested. Then I purchased and listened to Animals on my own, and after that I was hooked.

Or at least, I would like to think I am hooked. But the only albums I have mentioned so far compromise the band's "Big Four", the releases which saw their best commercial success, and which many people think of when they think of what defines the Pink Floyd sound. But there were releases afterwards, when the band was in turmoil, and even more from before, when they were going through changes in their lineup and musical styles. I still haven't explored these offerings, and if my research is any indication, there is no guarantee that they will click with me in the same way. But for once I am willing to take a chance, and at the very least I have an anchor point. It took a long time to get to this point, but the journey was more than worth it.

The Best

Last night I had a very random revelation - for almost every era of your life, there is someone who will tell you they are your "best years". Which made me wonder why they felt so, and if there are so many differing opinions, is any of them truly the best.

High School - High school is often considered the best years of your life because it is a time when you are young, carefree, and most definitely curious. It is a chance to make memories and build friendships without having to shoulder any responsibilities. Or so they say.

But these days high school involves a lot of work, at least if you plan on attending college. It also involves growing up and making mistakes. Most importantly, I think high school is our least permanent time. We don't tend to keep our HS friends, or stay in our home town. Many of us will move up or down on the social ladder. Our favorite music at the time often doesn't last with us by the time we are 30 (this is opposed to our favorite things from childhood, which often stick with us due to stronger nostalgia). High school is an important time for growing up, but the years later are when we will learn more pertinent life lessons, and when more important goals can be achieved. I often feel that those who miss their HS days are the folks who peaked at that time, and have struggled to make something of themselves ever since.

College - this is another time without full responsibilities, with the added benefit of often leaving home for the first time, as well as the eventual ability to drink. Unlike high school, this is the time where one can fully take advantage of the wonders of youth.

Looking back, I have great memories of college, but I still wouldn't call it the very best of times. The problem with this period is that the experience is different for everyone. Some of us go in with mom and dad footing the bill, and can take more than four years in order to dick around with a liberal arts degree. Others have student loans to pay, and absolutely need a job after gradtuation. What your situation is will largely affect how much of your college years are filled with work or play, and the kind of school you go to will also have a great impact on what you end up doing. College is far more important than secondary school in regards to one coming of age, but it can be a bumpy road.

Post college - this is the time in which I find myself in right now, and in a lot of ways it is fantastic. I have money to spend, and no one to look after but myself. This is the time wherein one can bask in luxuries that one cannot have while raising a family, as well as a chance to maximize your free time with activities that are a bit more active than staying around at home all the time. But I find that this is only half of the picture. All that money still comes from a job, one that may or may not involve a lot of hard work and long hours. Often I find myself unwilling to leave the house on the weekends due to fatigue, nor do I have the ability to stay up until the wee hours of the morning. This is when real life kicks in, and that means you have responsibilities which cannot be avoided. I think that those of us in this age group are acting out on the last dredges of immaturity, trying to recapture the excesses of college in a time when they should be coming to a halt. We don't want to become old and boring, but we also fail to accept why it is that people become old and boring. Here's a hint: it is a good way to get through life.

Old Age - This time is supposed to be for when you are retired, and can finally sit back and worry about nothing but yourself.

I haven't reached this point yet, but I imagine that whether or not it is the best time of your life depends on your health. And wether or not all your hard work led to a position in which you can tackle all those things you never had time to do. Otherwise....I'd rather not think of otherwise.

Lastly, I wonder if maybe the best time of our life isn't middle age. Sure, we regret what we missed out on, and regret having to continue to do so. But it is also a time during which we have learned enough to prevent making the mistakes of youth, and when we still have enough years to complete a goal. It all depends on whether or not one is willing to start striving for something again. I'll guess I will know in about ten years.

In the Studio

These days, I often find that the kids absolutely love live music. A music fan should always appreciate, say, an accoustic or live version of a great song, especially when a good ban improvises or changes it. For example, a lot of live recordings of Jimi Hendrix are staggeringly good. Aside from their clarity, they often consist of some crowd noise, an intro from Hendrix, and then a string of rock without interruption. You can hear the man play, and any doubt of his talent goes away. The Who's Live at Leeds is another great disc, as the band goes apeshit on some songs, and are practically their own unique versions.

But sometimes live music has its own problems. Not when you are there usually, but if you are listening to it on CD. When you are at the show and the whole crowd is singing along with the lyrics, it is a damn good feeling, as everyone gets lost in the music. But go ahead and record that, taken completely out of the moment. Usually that doesn't sound too good to me, especially with a lot of the jam bands that college folks fawn over, where the singer sounds terribly lazy and/or stoned and the audience seems to do more singing than they do (John Mayer can also be placed here). I came to hear the performers show off their talents, not to hear how much of a fan you are. I'm not blaming fans for that, as I would be doing the same if I were with them at the show. But that's one reason why we go to the show, rather than listen to an album at your desk. There is a certain magic that comes from live performance, and trying to capture that on disc is impossible. Some would disagree, and so they continue to listen to really poor recordings and bask in the placebo affect.

What got me thinking about this were some musings on the opposite of the stage: the studio. When it comes to recording music, the studio can be a blessing and a curse. Some bands have used the technology and the variety of instruments one can fit into a studio and used them to great extent. Sgt. Pepper was recorded with a variety of experimental recording techniques, and the amazing drum sounds in When the Levee Breaks were made by placing John Bonham in the bottom of a stairwell. Also, while I'm not a huge fan of Radiohead, I appreciate some of the comments made about recording Kid A, where the band felt that the recording process involves so many different steps to get from mic to your speaker, that it is silly to say that the sounds of a recorded guitar are any more real than something generated electronically. In the end, it is all music, and we should not fear the studio if it means the sounds you hear were not naturally produced by a human plucking a string or hitting a key.

The dark side to this is that the studio can also destroy and deceive. Technology allows a smart studio to create an image around a person, and alter their voice into a perfect sound. It also allows engineers to participate in the so called "loudness war", where dynamic range is sacrificed in order to make songs louder. It can be difficult to determine what a performer can really do, or whehter certain affects were even their decision. What is genuine, what was cobbled together? Maybe we are missing out on some rich sounds? Because of these issues, more and more people seem to be afraid of studio music. I feel torn about the issue; as a lover of technology, I recognize the benefits and dangers of it, but I do not feel like innovation should be held back by an insistence on analog, vinyl, and everything in between. When it comes to music, the importance is how it sounds, more than how the sound got there.