Initial Impressions on the Squier Rock Band 3 Pro Guitar

It's a Guitar!
Here's a quick and dirty flash snapshot with some even quicker and dirtier Photoshop masking, showing (Left to Right) the Rock Band 1 Strat, the new Pro Rock Band 3 Squier, an actual Stratocaster, and the Rock Band 2 Strat. The Squier's built in string mute takes the place of the neck pickup, but the bridge pickup is indeed functional when plugged into that Fender Deluxe amp that all these instruments (real, fake, and hybrid) are posing in front of.

The Guitar Pickup
So far, I've only banged out a few quick chord progressions and simple riffs. The pickup is a little noisier, and not as "hot" as either of the single coils or the humbucker in my trusty hot-rodded Strat (or the humbuckers on an Epiphone Dot Studio semi-hollow body). You have to keep the volume knob set much higher on this guy to get similar output SPL levels, because it's just naturally quieter than its cousins. I'll have to come back at some other time to figure out how to properly comment on the tone -- it wasn't offensive by any means, but it does seem a little bit "flatter" and "less interesting" than the other pickups and pickup combinations at my disposal. The pickup is passive, and you really don't want to turn the switch for the active electronics (MIDI, etc.) on when this thing is amped, unless you want an irritating fixed-rate metronome and extra noise to come through your amp.

Fit and Finish
When the UPS guy handed me the box, it seemed light to me. Upon further subjective review, this axe is indeed noticeably lighter than the Strat, but it seems extremely real compared to the 3/4 scale plastic toys. The other thing you'll notice is the sensor package on the fretboard -- it sticks up above where the fretboard would normally end, making for an interesting architecture between the nut and the tuning keys (compared to the Strat, below). The body is apparently a little bit thicker, as things at that end look fairly normal.

I haven't exhaustively tested the out-of-box intonation by playing open - octave - harmonic with the tuner in line, but it wasn't obviously off. What will require some tweaking is the string profile. To me, the strings were unnaturally aligned in a plane out of the box, making it a little more challenging than it should be to hit the 3rd and 4th strings accurately without peeking when playing the in-game tutorials. There's normally a slight arc to the strings, and because this was absent, it felt wrong trying to play riffs. Mercifully, the saddles are adjustable, and the allen wrench is included, so this should be a reasonably straightforward operation. The action is not as low as the Strat, but is not unreasonably high by any means.

The included strings feel like they may be .010s -- pretty comfortable, and they were wound very cleanly (better than I did on the Strat, for sure). As expected, the tuning keys aren't as precise as the higher-cost units I've grown accustomed to. They remind me of my first electric guitar that I had as a kid; they get the job done, but you can feel the minor spacing and slop in the gear train when trying to dial in the tuning.

It's a Game Peripheral!
The version of tablature that Harmonix came up with will take some getting used to before I'll graduate to higher difficult levels, but the fact that it tells you what you currently have fretted is already proving useful. The aforementioned super-planar string profile threw me off a couple of times, and I think it will be easier to accurately jump between strings when playing single notes once I do a little bit of adjustment. (Playing the same "riffs" from the tutorials on my Strat seemed easier.) Even in Easy Pro mode, I can tell that getting good scores at higher difficulties will require actually learning parts of the song, particularly the less-predictable solos and bridges.

I've grown used to sight-reading in 5-button Expert and Hard modes, and haven't practiced a song in a long time. It will take discipline to actually repeat sections, use practice mode, and learn songs if I want to ever play them in the harder difficulties. For single notes, the tablature is easier to try to sight-read than the Pro keyboard track is, but I haven't done much with their chord notation yet...

My normal playing position is just far enough away that I'll probably stick a USB extension cable in line with the 9' cable on the Mad Catz MIDI Pro adapter so it's not laying on the floor. The buttons on the guitar can handle all of the navigation, and the select button and accelerometer can kick off overdrive. So, you don't have to use the buttons on the MIDI adapter for much of anything in-game. The guitar shipped with a 2m MIDI cable, which would be a little long if you were clipping the adapter to a belt or the guitar strap (also included). All of my Guitar Hero and Rock Band controllers have always been wireless, so it's a little bit of a bummer to have to string the MIDI adapter across the room to use the Pro Squier.

Slides are pretty natural in the game, but there's no tremolo so folks who love their whammy bar are going to be disappointed... Also, if you try to bend a held note, the sensors will register that you're on a different string, and you'll break the note. So, no embellishment! It will be interesting to see how the game handles bends (maybe I will have to upgrade that Stevie Ray Vaughn song).

It's a MIDI controller!
Sorry, I haven't had the chance to try this yet.  Maybe over the weekend...

Android client for Blogger

I'm just testing the Android client from my tablet. When moblogging needs supercede tweet capacity, this could prove to be useful...

Foray into Tabletdom with the Archos 101

I picked up an Archos 101 recently.  It is one of the current generation of Android 2.2 tablets, meaning that it runs a version of Android that Google publicly poo-pooed for these larger-screen devices. So, this means that I entered into this technology relationship with full knowledge of the likelihood of the existence of warts.

That being said, Archos did some things that piqued my interest. First, the device has 16 GB onboard, and sports an easily-accessible MicroSD card slot where I currently have another 16 GB (although 32 GB cards are available and supported, they're expensive). Since I have 90-minute 720p videos that occupy less than 800 MB, this is easily adequate for media. The wide-screen form-factor, built-in kickstand, and capacity to easily render HD content are a good combination for on-the-go media consumption. The HDMI out port doesn't hurt in this regard, either.

The Killer App (for me):
More importantly than its significant media prowess is the fact that Archos included a USB Host port, and provides Mass Storage and HID drivers. This was the killer feature that made me want to lay down my 350 bones and see what this thing was all about. With the USB Host, I gain the ability to plug in a memory key, card reader, or HDD. I had one particular HDD in mind when thinking about this device, and that's my Digital Foci Photo Safe II, which always lives in my camera bag. Since I shoot RAW + JPG, I can preview the JPGs on the Archos' big screen, pinch to zoom, swipe to navigate, and do everything else the gallery allows. All of this is significantly better than the experience of reviewing images on-camera, and in many ways easier than using a netbook for the same tasks.

Other Things I Like:

• The wide-screen form-factor makes the Archos 101 comfortable to hold in one hand in portrait mode. 
• This is particularly helpful for web browsing, twitter browsing, e-book reader apps, and portrait-mode games. 
• Also, in this mode, you can hold the device with both hands and comfortably thumb-type on the default Android soft keyboard. 
• In landscape mode, the kickstand is great for table-top and tray table passive usage.
• WiFi actually does 802.11n.
• No 3G/4G support means no contract, ever. 
• The HDMI output is nice to have, although I doubt I'll use it very often.
• HD playback is smooth, and you can jump around the timeline smoothly.
• Battery life is respectable when on WiFi and fantastic when working off-line.
• In mixed operation, with about 40% online time I got through the whole weekend with about 20% to spare.
• Watching 90 minutes of 720p video only sucked about 10% of the screen. (I had it set fairly dim, so it won't always be this good). 

The Dark Side:
Unlike Samsung, Archos didn't lobby Google for Market and Google Apps support. Out of the box, the following are absent: Gmail app, Google Maps, Calendar, and the "standard" Android Market. Archos attempts to bridge this by including some bundled apps and the AppsLib alternate market. AppsLib is not terrible, but it is much more sparsely populated than the normal Market. Mercifully, the community on the XDA forums has managed to close these gaps. By following the community guidance, I was able to get all of the normal Google goodness onto my tablet within hours of taking it out of the box.

Officially-sanctioned Flash support is "coming soon." The aforementioned community has fixed this, too.

Like the Galaxy Tab before it, the micro USB port on the Archos 101 is for data transfer, and not for charging. Don't forget to pack the included charger...

The default Android keyboard is too wide to use effectively in landscape mode.  If you need to type more than a single text or tweet, you'll want to go portrait mode, or use a USB or bluetooth keyboard. Swype won't install, stating that the screen resolution isn't supported :^(.

The screen looks really good, but takes some getting used to from a touch perspective. You have to be super-gentle to effectively long-touch or drag. At first, I couldn't even set up my home screens, but I quickly learned to be delicate. Dragging in games like Robo Defense is still really hard to get right consistently (but seeing the entire board without scrolling is awesome). You can see the grid that controls the capacitive input when the screen is off, and it's spaced out almost 1/4". So, while the screen is big enough to play Slice It comfortably, the input resolution can still lead to frustration.

Unlike the Galaxy Tab, scaling is on by default, so everything goes full-screen. This is perfectly fine most of the time, but can cause some content to be truncated, and the occasional misalignment between where buttons are drawn and where you actually have to press...  

Final Impressions:
If you don't mind (and don't fear) applying some community-supported enhancements, the Archos 101 is a very good device, particularly for the price-point. Although the gripe-list above is pretty long, I am in no way disappointed that I spent my hard-earned cash on this device. I love the fact that it's WiFi-only, and what this means for battery life (particularly when WiFi is off).

I picked this up before CES, and may have waited for a Honeycomb device if this weren't the case.  But, that being said, I have something fun and useful in hand right now... If I'm lucky, Archos will provide an update. If not, c'est la vie...

Finally Uploaded Year-Old Pictures!

I finally uploaded pictures from over a year ago to my gallery, as well as those from a more recent trip. Both galleries are cross-referenced on my Photo Map, too.

So, now you can see orcas and bald eagles along with a fresh dose of mountain goats...

Lack of Truck -- Solved

by the fact that there is no longer a lack...

Definitely makes carrying the kayak easier than it was previously!

Why don't $3k trucks seem to exist?

I need a small truck that can carry my recreational / outdoor equipment. That means the bikes, kayak, camping gear, etc... Unfortunately, it seems like you have to spend 8-10 grand to get a decent used pickup these days. Anybody have any brilliant ideas or hot leads that aren't potentially-stolen goods on Craigslist?

Senseless sketches from a sleep deprived mind

I woke up a 4 this morning and my brain immediately started dwelling on work-related minutia. I tried to meditate to break the train of thought, and manage to get back to sleep. Somehow, this mostly-failed attempt caused me to fully awaken a couple hours later (and just moments before the alarm was scheduled to sound) with the concept of "flockr: the flickr for birds" locked firmly and irrevocably in my head.

Were such a thing to exist in a parallel ornithologically-centric universe, the original napkin sketch used to acquire fine-feathered VC may have looked like this:

 
(At least I had some fun with Autodesk Sketchbook Express and my Wacom tablet...)

Reasons to love the cargo bike: #273 - fixing the car...

It will be fun to see what kind of strange looks I get during my commute tomorrow morning, and compare them to what I encounter when I "ride two bikes" to work...

This time, the cargo in question will be one of the front wheels from my car on which the tire suffered a puncture (a 225/45-18", representing about 35 lb. of aluminum and steel-belted radial, if you're keeping score). "Why not just use the spare?," you may feel inclined to ask. It's a long-ish story*, the simple version of which is "because it's already on the car."

[Sorry for the soft focus in these pictures, but even at f2.8 and with a flash, these were long exposures, and were shot hand-held.]

The solution (Yes, the strapping is overkill, but I haven't ever lost a load):

The problem (OK, evidence thereof -- if you want to pick nits):

The complication (No PhotoShop trickeration here, that is the other side of the car):

-----------------
*: I've been having my rims refinished in a rotating one-by-one fashion (to avoid putting the car on blocks during the process), and number 3 of 4 is currently at the shop, leaving the compact spare already in service on my car...

Hmmm...

Seen in an unnamed parking lot...

Can't stop thinking about Sublime: "...Tell Sanchito that if he knows what is good for him, he'd best go run and hide. Daddy's got a new .45..."

Happy New Year

I did not watch the time-delayed-for-CST version of the Times Square Ball Drop, but still think it's kinda cool that they used human power to make it light up.

Anyhow, however you're celebrating, welcome to the year 2010. The very thought of this year conjured images of a far away and futuristic time when I was a child; however everything is somewhat anticlimatic, just like 2000 was.

P.S.: Beware of mysterious monoliths orbiting Saturn, sentient computers that plot your demise when you try to hit their off switches, etc...

"Good Old Games"

Cool -- semi-retro PC Games: Cheap, and reportedly made to work within modern Windows OSes.
http://www.gog.com/en/catalogue/

I finally did some GeoTagging

Went out on the kayak on the body of water formerly know as Town Lake (which now bears the official moniker of Lady Bird Lake). I have a waterproof housing for my Canon PowerShot G10, and have a nice waterproof bag that fits the Droid. So, both key pieces of GeoTagging field technology were safe on the water.

I fired up MyTracks (an Android app) at the dock and ran a GPS trace of the 2 mile bridge-and-back roundtrip. During said trip, I took a few photos of birds, turtles, and the city. So, now I had a set of photos on one device, and some GPS data on a different device. "How ever shall you properly GeoTag the photos and subsequently display them in an interesting or useful manner?," you may ask. "Furthermore," you may point out, "you seem to have forgotten to synchronize the camera's clock with that of the phone/GPS logger." The answer and solution are both relatively easy:

1. Fix the lack of synchronization:
• Later that night, I took simultaneous pictures with the phone's camera and the actual camera. To minimize the difference caused by lag, I "pressed halfway" on both devices and therefore got as close as possible to popping the shutters "at the same time". With the approximations that will happen later, a few hundred milliseconds isn't going to be significant.
• (Subject and actual time relative to the rest of the photos don't matter -- this is just establishing the offset between the two clocks.)
• (NOTE: Simultaneous shooting of a common subject is also a great technique for dealing with situations where there are multiple cameras involved in a shoot.)
2. I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which makes correcting the time offset simple. In my case the Canon hadn't been adjusted for the end of daylight savings, and was off by a couple of minutes, even if the hour had been correct.
• In Lightroom, I examined the metadata for the phone's version of the "common picture," and noted the capture time.
• I then selected the set of pictures from the Canon -- starting with the "common picture," and Shift-clicking back to the first one in the series that needed to be corrected.
• Lightroom has a function for modifying the date and time, and if you apply a correction to this type of selection, it is clever enough to know that you want to change them all by the same offset, versus setting them all to the same exact time. This is a nice, big, timesaver!
3. Since I was already in Lightroom to fix the captre times, I processed the RAW photos from the Canon, and exported them as JPGs (because most of the cost-effective/free GeoTagging apps don't really handle RAW files).  
4. So, now I had the photos, but I needed the Geo data...
• MyTracks lets you export a GPX trace file to your SD card. 
• Copy that over to your computer because most tagging apps know how to use GPX.
5. I used a Mac app called GPSPhotoLinker to stick the location information into the EXIF data for each JPG file.
• This program lets you load the GPX trace file and the images, and then you can apply the location data either manually or as a batch process. 
• It will also interpolate the location based on the time, and give you a better estimate of the location when there isn't a perfect 1:1 match between the time a picture was captured and when a point in the trace file was recorded. (Of the 13 photos I tagged, only one lined up exactly -- and that was sheer luck.) 
6. So, now I have pictures that are technically GeoTagged, and I can stick them in a traditional gallery. But that's not the best way to benefit from the location data...  
7. Enter JetPhoto Studio, which can not only export a KML file that you can modify to use absolute paths and then overlay on a Google Map (I didn't modify this file, so the pictures use relative paths and don't show up in this view), but also uses this to build a fully functional Google Maps-based web gallery that can be easily uploaded to your site.
8. The results are pretty cool. If you want to see larger renditions, the "traditional gallery" does still have its uses ;^)

My take on the Nexus One "Google Phone"

I think it's an experiment to test the American consumer's tolerance to a more open model for mobile telecommunications. Right now, we generally begrudgingly accept the subsidized phone hardware with a two-year expensive contract model. But, there are already a couple of other similar experiments going on:

• T-Mobile has introduced an alternative set of plans (Even More Plus) wherein you pay more up front for the device,  but get a cheaper monthly rate for the same services. If they would extend the lower pricing but allow you to "bring your own device", that would be nice.
• Nokia is offering their N900 only as  fully unlocked and completely un-subsidized device.

I see this as a way to test the waters and see if we are willing to look to a model more akin to how we deal with our computers and ISPs. Most of us would think it was completely ludicrous if Apple would only sell us a Macbook for $899 with a two-year contract from Time-Warner's Roadrunner division. But somehow we have allowed this business model to prevail for the devices that are always with us. Just replace Macbook with iPhone, $899 with $199, and TW/RR with AT&T if you doubt that statement.

If all of this had been imminent 6 weeks ago, I probably wouldn't have purchased the Droid. I really do like the device, but now I'm stuck with Verizon for 2 years and will have to deal with crazy stuff if my hardware fails during that time. I was also glad that there was no VCast NASCAR that I can't remove from my phone's ROM. That would actually have been a deal-breaker, despite the other compelling features and functionality.

Having a model where I can pick the "best of breed" for the device and the carrier independently -- while finding a way to not get reamed on the price of both -- seems like a fundamentally good thing to me. If this is indeed Google's intent, then I certainly hope it proves to be successful. Outside of things that are essential for functionality, I would prefer if this model also means that no "crap" will be installed on the ROM -- giving the device's owner more control.

Minor Updates to the Home Page

http://lonewolf-digital.com/ has a new index page, and an alternative QR Code based index page, too.

I ditched the huge graphic in favor of the one below, added a couple of direct links, etc. Still have to clean up some of the old-school tags and refine my CSS to get it to validate as "good" XHTML, but most browsers are forgiving enough that it will render reasonably well in the meantime.

One of my favorite Mac developers dislikes the App Store...

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/2009/11/23/airfoil-speakers-touch-1-0-2-is-now-available/

Links back to the ordeal they had using legitimate API calls and still having their app held up for months because of undocumented internal Apple processes that -- in this case -- arbitrarily managed to change for the better. (It's also possible for said processes to arbitrarily change for the worse...)

Austin on Two Wheels

http://austinontwowheels.org/

Things Google Search can do...

Nice link that covers some functions you may not know about... I knew about the calculator and conversions, and recently discovered the localized "movies" search on Android. Would never have thought to try the package tracking (I still prefer going directly to the shipper's site)...

ADC2 Winners

Some award-winning Android apps to look at: http://code.google.com/android/adc/gallery_winners.html 

Just a test

Seeing if my moblogging client can handle an image upload...

Note: Picture of Lady Bird Lake, taken with my Droid.

Some Apps for Android - Turbo QuasiReviews

My Tracks -

• What: GPS Track logger, saves statistics and maps -- can upload to MyMaps and Google Docs spreadsheets.
• Pros: Save and review workout data, do GPS data logging for geo-tagging apps (export GPX or KML).
• Cons: GPS-based altitude is pretty poor, and shouldn't really be trusted.
  

Andoku -

• What: Sudoku and some variants. 
• Pros: Easy interface with "pencil marks", variants offer variety. 
• Cons: "only" 100 puzzles of each type/difficulty. (But, by the time you finish them all, will you really remember the solution to the first one? I doubt it...)

Word Wrench -

• What: Anagram-based game, somewhat like "TextTwist"
• Pros: Pauses automatically and resumes nicely. Can change the allotted time.
  
• Cons: Interface it really basic; grays out and makes it hard to see what you missed.

Jewellust -

• What: Similar to Bejeweled, but with some unique power-ups and other features.
• Pros: Every bit as addictive as Bejeweled.
• Cons: Every bit as addictive as Bejeweled.

Pandora (no description necessary, does what you'd expect)

Photoshop.com Mobile - Crop and color-balance on your phone. Great for contact photos, etc.

ConnectBot - ssh/telnet client. Very solid, plenty of screen real estate on my Droid.

ES File Explorer - Local file manager with network SMB share access (nice way to grab files from NAS or upload pix, etc.).

SportsTap - Scores, schedules, etc. Good interface, but refreshes kinda slow...

AndFTP - FTP, SFTP, FTPES client. Seems pretty stable so far.

FTPServer - Exactly what it says. Perhaps a little scary, but good in a pinch, especially if you monitor it and make sure there aren't unexpected users...

Twidroid - Twitter client -- I use a task manager to close it so I don't get alerted by every new Tweet in my little world.

Blogaway - Blogger interface. Basic, but works for simple moblogging (That's a super-compound internet word). Doesn't make urls hot, but does allow picture uploads.