I was speaking with a co-worker the other day who introduced me to a website which houses a large database of pdf/text files. You’ll find things like sheet music scanned into PDF format, Dilbert cartoons, instruction/product manuals, cooking recipes, etc. You name it. I think of it as YouTube for documents, rather than videos. It’s an outstanding resource and you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement. Somehow, it’s legal. Take a look for yourself:

Below is an image from Forza Motorsport 3’s photo mode. I took this while racing with two friends.

I took this image to photoshop to create a sig for a forum and came up with the following.

Let me know what you think. Note: I cut the spoiler off of the Mercedes. This will be fixed. =)

NOTE:  Both Files auto play.  Stop them both, then click play on one at a time.

Keep in mind, there isn’t much talent here and even lesser structure to these audio clips.  They are entirely improvisation, hence the chaos.  My purpose is to record, listen, improve, record, listen, improve, repeat.  If in the interim I can obtain some feedback from people I know and also those I don’t, I’ve accomplished a bit more.  Thus, the reason I place a sample or two here.

Mic: Samson Q1U USB

Specs: USB interface, 16bit 48kHz sampling rate AD converter, 50Hz-18kHz response range

I placed the software on my computer (Cakewalk Music Creator LE) and wasn’t able to figure it out just yet.  It’s ironic, considering the fact that the thing is called Cakewalk.  However, I put together a recording method using Windows Movie Maker that seemed to work fairly well for now.  It’s MONO sound, so it’ll only come out of your left speaker.  I’ll improve the recording quality, etc, soon but for now, let me know what you think!

Recording 1 – Electric Using Flash

Recording 2 – Acoustic Using Flash

This is a decent run I have recently made of a single lap of Nurburgring. It serves as the second full lap I’ve done of the ‘Ring since purchasing Forza 3. I’m a little rusty, so my line isn’t great, but I do acheive an 8:33.49, which is on par for this car class. Enjoy.

I’ve recently joined a Forza team by the name of Formula One Evolution (F1E) and have submitted an entry to their race livery contest. Above is an example picture of my entry. For those that follow Forza, check out the team website, Formula1Evo. For those that don’t, =P

What can I say? I love racing.

I’ve come across some videos on You Tube that have done nothing short of blow me away.  These musicians are pure artists, playing guitar, piano, violin, and singing with an essence of grace and perfection that I haven’t seen anywhere else.  The studio is called Candy Rat Studios and they post under the username rpoland. I’ve not seen anything of them on TV.  I don’t believe they belong on TV.  Their music is entrancing, nearly every single one of them.  I personally recommend Andy McKee, Bob Ross, and Andrew White.  I have posted a couple of their videos here.  Follow the links on the YouTube page lists for their other songs.  Comment!

Andy McKee – For My Father

Andrew White – Wild Eagle [Widescreen]

So my design finger was itching this afternoon so I sat down for a few hours and compiled a new background for the theme that we were using to give the site an updated personality.  I’d like to get everyone’s opinions on it so just comment on this post and I’ll make the modifications as I have time.

I do plan on slowly tweaking the rest of the aspects on the site (ie: font type, font size, colors, logos, footer, etc…).  Right now I’d like to just concentrate on the background.

Here was my source of Inspiration.

Other areas of updates:

• Favicon
• Comments
• Footer
• Header
• Sidebar

Areas of comments / concerns:

• Background not dark enough – I have modified this to be darker, please let me know what you think of the new color and if it makes the text on the first post any easier to read.

Thanks in advance for the comments.

I’ve put together a paint job for my tutorial car.  I figured I’d play a bit with the Vast Reality design on a previous car.  While sitting at work, I drew up a design on a sketch pad and was able to convert it to FM2.  I like the way it came out.  This car will be featured in future tutorials as well.  Let me know what you think.

This is the second of two tutorials explaining the process of tuning camber in Forza Motorsport 2. The previous edition has some issues with mastering of the vocal narration over the sounds of the game, but those issues were corrected in this video. If this is helpful to you in any way or you would like to make a suggestion for further tutorials/videos, post it here or on YouTube, as I check them both daily (as of today).  More tutorials to come. 

Ok, seriously… I’ve heard some kick ass things about solid state drives and their speeds, but these guys did something unthinkable.  They built a RAID of 24 256 GB SSD Hard Drives.  The link has a video that goes through the build of the computer and what it can do.

High level:

• Open all Microsoft applications in .5 seconds (Yes, that’s 1/2 of a second)
• Open 53 base start menu Windows applications in 18 seconds
• Defrag the entire machine in 3 seconds
• Transfer data over 2 GB per second
• Recycle 700 files totaling 5.6 GB in the blink of an eye
• Copy a 700 MB DVD rip from one location to another faster than the DVD can drop from a 2 story window (. 8 seconds)

Watch and be amazed

Solid State Deliciousness