digital lifestyle

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Friday, February 09, 2007

New earbuds on the way!

I've come to the conclusion that my old, taped up iPod earbuds are ready to be replaced. To be honest, I had no choice when I found these babies online the other day.

Uncrate wrote:

Whether you use them with your iPod or Zune, the V-Moda Vibe Earphones ($101) will grab all of the attention. The noise-isolating earphones feature an elegant, lightweight design sculpted from alloy metal. In our sound tests, we were surprised to find that the Vibes rank right up there with Etymotic and Shure earphones we've used. Great bass, mid-range and highs. The earphones come in a leather pouch with three sizes of ultra-soft silicon fittings to fit any ear.

Let's just hope they sound as good as they look, come mailday and I'll let you know.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Guide: Those damn videos that just won't play (Win XP)

There's so many types of different videoformats out there, I just can't wrap my head around which one's what, so... I stopped caring.

The thing is, it's just not that easy. So I thought maybe I'd come up with a guide, so you won't have to smash your keyboard the next time your newly downloaded porn movies won't work.

Like I said, my actual knowledge about how all this stuff works is pretty limited, but I do know of two alternatives that's enabled me to stick with just one player that works well.

The first one comes in the shape of K-Lite Codec Pack, which is my first choice. This comes in three different 'packages', whereas if you're just looking to playback videos, the Standard is your way to go. This includes the playback software Media Player Classic, which so far has played all my media. Even though it might look like crap, it works like a charm, and leaves a very small footprint. (Which translates to 'uses little memory and CPU')

The second alternative is VideoLAN (VLC), which works to my knowledge just as well as The K-Lite pack. It seems to have a small footprint as well, and the only downside I can think of compared with Media Player Classic, is that dragging the timeline works much more smoothly with MPC. On the other hand, VLC is multiplatform and works with Windows, OS-X and Linux/Unix.

The best part of it all: They're both free! Enjoy...

Speaking of letdowns, what are you doing RJD2??

If you haven't been paying attention the last years, RJD2 has been one of the most celebrated alternative producers, making beats and remixing his Def Jux labelmates. But the best part's always been this guys solo albums.

I consider Deadringer (2002) and Since We Last Spoke (2004) to be two of my all time favorite albums. So once again, I must admit my expectations were on steroids when I unexpectedly got a hold of his new album The Third Hand.

His previous albums have been semi-instrumental, where vocals have been restricted to samples. Now, I've never been against artists trying new stuff, but I think RJD2 took a wrong turn somewhere with this release. Word of advice Mr Krohn, surround yourself with different people, because if none of your friends told you you have a terrible singing voice, who knows what kinda shit they're keeping from you!

That's right, he's singing on this record, on almost all of the tracks. And as aforementioned, he's not good at it. But that's not all. His productions seems uninspired, dull and nowhere near the classic tracks he's cooked up in the past years.

If you're new to RJD2, try these songs instead: Clean Living, Good Times Roll Pt 2 and the 'hidden track' (entitled The Air That's Left) on Deadringer. That'll give you an idea of the genious this guy is capable of.

If you're not new, my advice is, lower your expectations and cling on to Murs Beat and Sweet Piece (which are the two songs that doesn't downright suck) while we wait for a new Soul Position or another production

Tracklist:
01. Intro (1:01)
02. You Never Had it (4:04)
03. Have Mercy (3:18)
04. Reality (3:01)
05. Work it Out (3:26)
06. Laws of the Gods (2:10)
07. Get it (3:30)
08. Someday (1:22)
09. Murs Beat (4:04)
10. Beyond (3:57)
11. Sweet Piece (4:00)
12. Rules (4:03)
13. Legends (2:49)
14. Just When (3:28)
15. Evening Gospel (2:53)

The Third Hand is in stores March 06, 2007

Not smokin at all...

Smokin Aces had it all, at least on paper. A good story including the mafia, a sleazy Vegas entertainer and lots and lots of hitmen. So, with castmembers such as Jeremy Piven, Common and Alicia Keys, why did it have to suck so badly?

While sitting through this half assed movie, my ass actually fell asleep due to the crappy chairs at the Rockefeller Rock Cinema, but the only thing that was keeping the rest of my body awake was my expectations. Biggest letdown of 2007 so far!

Guide: Make your Explorer functional & hot (Win XP)

First off: The Basics
If you don't know what I mean by 'Explorer' hit your Windows-key and 'r' simultaneously and type in 'c:'
This will bring up your normal explorer window.
- "That's right mom, it's the file-manager tool."

FindeXer
If you've ever used Finder on a Mac, you've probably spent some time wishing you had those nifty shortcuts on the left column on your Windows OS as well. And if you haven't, you should have. Why? Because if you spend 10 minutes setting up your favorite folders, you have quick access between them, and it makes organizing, copying etc very efficient. Plus it looks good :)

Head over to Tom's Effect and download
Unzip the files to a directory of your choice (ie. C:\Program Files\FindeXer)
Doubleclick the register.bat file and you're set!

This is the point where you start setting it up, which should be pretty easy. If your FindeXer column isn't showing, click View->Explorer Bar->FindeXer.
Drag&Drop your folders to the column, and right click them to edit images and text. Use the options dialog to set it up to your likings.

You can get nice PNGs to use as icons in FindeXer at DeviantArt