In case I find the two dimensional nature of my imaginary NSFW t-shirt company (Phat Cock Tees) constraining to the point of hindering my artistic vision, I now have a “Plan B”.
Dirty things out of dimensional lumber and exotic hardwood!
Hot Japanese Cherry Blossom action.
Got wood?
Shiny meh-tal. Hard as steel.
Tonight I spent some more time playing with the Harmony Remote. A nice touch I noticed (cuz I don’t RTFM until I F’n Have To) is a tilt sensor in the device so if you touch it, it kicks on the backlight so you can see it in the dark.
Played with setting up my favorite channels and added some channel icons. This just sends the channel numbers to the screen 8-4-7 (select), kinda slowly, but I think you can adjust the delay.
Also started changing the screens for my audio receiver, which came pre-loaded with 18 screens of 6 options. On my first screen in the device, I wanted to setup the audio inputs (Replay, DVD, SAT2, iTunes). Since you control the naming, I can easily map Replay to InputDvd/Ld. With my other remote I had to know the source was #4, but there was a little TV label underneath it. iTunes is an Airport Express feed but haven’t figured out which command triggers it. The receiver thinks it should be InputTape, but the Harmony triggers the feed from my other satellite box. There are only 30+ Inputs to pick from so this could take some trial and error.
I also tweaked my Replay controls so the arrows will also trigger Replay (7 sec back) and Advance (30sec skip). Digging around I noticed that in a Device mode you can specify which buttons send which commands to any device. My other remote locked sound control to receiver, but Harmony takes it to another level.
Never thought so much about how I would like to control my TV. Plus realize now that I have something to compare, how worn out my other remote is. Note to self: Please change everything all the time to keep a fresh perspective.
Progamming a remote control that you have to reboot once you upload your changes. What do full-on non-technical people do? I wonder if anyone one has some freaky version of linux and apache running ruby-on-rails over IR on this thing yet. Harmony won’t support Bose gear since the RF is Z-Wave, but if I can convert my Bose to IR, it might.
Bomp bomp bomp bomp. I <3 techno.
Between starting to read Godel, Escher, Bach… AGAIN (a super brain bender about Strange Loops) and listening to “How to Think Like Leaonardo da Vinci”, I decided to play with music/time this weekend.
About a year ago my favorite music store in SA, Hermes Music, sold out to Guitar World. Since I’ve bought a lot of light gear from them, they dropped me a post card letting me know they were having a sale. I went there looking for some XLR cables, speaker stands, and some new lights for Halloween but I ended up carrying out an M-Audio Trigger Finger(a USB midi drum pad controller) and a set of conga drums. Conga drums? Yep. DRUMS!
So I used to bedroom DJ techno/house parties in Indiana and got really into tribal house. DJing gave me a musical outlet although I can’t sing or play an instrument so I’m not sure how strong an urge it could really have be satisfying. Then there’s drums, the beat of the whole show, those low frequency grooves that grab you by the chest an pull you in. Plus, one of my favorite scientists, Richard Feynman, used to play bongos in the desert to go think about problems Considering he was playing with subjects like Quantum Electrodynamics, I imagine he became a good drummer for a physicist.
I’d also Amazon-ed some Conga books so I flipped through them to see which one made the most sense. So using Conga Drumming by Alan Dworsky, Garage Band, my Trigger finger, and my Congas, I set to learn a little drumming.
Here’s what I did.
The Conga book has a nice abstract notation to learn with which was perfect for me since I have no musical training, at all. It looks like this:
Rhythm 1-1: Calypso high drum part | 1 | + | 2 | + | 3 | + | 4 | + | 0 0 0 0 R L R L
This means on up-beat 1 in 4/4 time, play an open tone, with your right hand. Simple to read. Me likey. The book came with a CD where the dude plays each rhythm in the book (175 total), but they aren’t recorded so you can loop them. I have two programs that would let me make loops, Ableton Live 6 (free version with the Trigger finger) and Garage Band (free with my MacBook). Turns out to use Ableton Live, I’d need to learn a lot of stuff. Like most things Apple, when I plugged in my Trigger Finger, Garage Band just worked.
After reading a little bit of the Garage Band Help, I was able to add a new track, use the Jazz Drum Kit, and create the beat pattern for Rhythm 1-1. Then I just set the pattern to loop and drummed along with it. Kinda cool. Now I just have to practice for the next ten years.
I’m thinking about grabbing the Garage Band Jam Pack: World Music since it may have a Conga Drum Kit in it. The Jazz Kit works, but I’m faking the open tones, slaps, and bass tones by adjusting the velocities, where it might be more important to use more accurate Conga drumming sounds to learn the complex patterns later in the book.
One and Two and Three and Four and… Rock out!
…but its a universal remote I’m playing with from Logitech.
So far I like:
Things I might not like:
My A/V setup is not that crazy. I have 2 DirecTV receivers, Stereo w/ 5 disc CD, DVD 5 disc, a ReplayTV, IR distribution, a 4 channel A/V distribution thing, and an XBox w/XBMC. Its more of a cabling nightmare than anything and I still need to install a small media rack in my closet.
I know I’m ready for a new remote, my existing RCA Universal Custom 8 is old and wearing out. I haven’t thought through what I am looking for in my dream remote so experimenting with the Harmony 720 should help me clarify.
I can haz ur TeeVee chanjin’ ur channelz to pr0n! Wurd.
