verso

Haven't been around here in a while. Sorry to hear about your computer 'woes'. Usually, when something like that happens to me - I just reformat. I have everything that is important to me backed up to another partition. So, I lose nothing. Heh. Oh and, heh. I like your little quote. "I'm a Canadian - like an American but without a gun." I'll just assume that it's in jest and you do not actually believe all Americans have guns. Though I do. Heh. - Steven

"stop downloading mp3's that that riaa reedited to have those gaps to annoy users?" Well Jay unfortunately for you, (unfortunate because now you look like an ***), I don't download music from the internet illegally. I either purchase the CD from a retail store and rip it myself, or I will download the music online legally - as most of the bands whom I listen to allow their live music to be freely distributed on websites such as nugs.net and archive.org So basically, yeah - that was a foolish assumption to make. Heh. It's a problem with winamp, not the songs themselves. - Steven

Well I've tried everything, and nothing has yet worked. I posted a new thread at the winamp forums. I'll see what they have to say about it.

TPG, Thanks, I changed it to DirectSound, I'll test it out a little while later as I'm a bit busy right now. Thanks a lot for all of your help, I'll let you know how it all goes. - Steven

TPG, Sorry! I'm an idiot, heh. It's enabled when the music is playing. Here is what the screen looks like, does anything look funny to you? - Steven

TPG, I uninstalled Winamp and reinstalled it, I'm still having playback issues (still skipping). I followed your directions but it appears to me that neither waveOut nor DirectSound is enabled. I hit 'configure' on each one and under 'status display' each one says 'not active'. Hmmmm. - Steven

I'll look into it. Sounds like it might be a good read.

Thanks TPG! I'll give that a try, first I uninstalled Winamp, and will reinstall it when I find the time. If it still stutters I will try to do what you've suggested. Thanks again! - Steven

Hello everyone, I'm still loving these PM 2.1's! Heh. Anyways, I'm having a problem with 'stuttering' - some of you may know what I am talking about. Now, I thought I was noticing some stuttering - and now I'm sure of it! I was listening to a song in Winamp, and browsing looking at wallpapers (customize.org). Suddenly, the music just turns off for like a full second, I thought the song stopped! Then it started playing again! Yikes! Intrigued, I left the computer alone and let Winamp play. No stuttering. Then I starting browsing the website again. "Crash int..." ... "...o me! Crash into me!" Dave Matthews just cuts out on me! lol! So I close Winamp and fire up Windows Media Player. I browsed the same website, browing wallpapers - same way nothing changed, and not a single stutter! After some Googling, I found others with a stuttering problem that applied to all media players, Winamp included but not specifically. And the resolutions were all different for them. Reinstalling the drivers, setting Winamp as a higher priority in XP, etc. So what do you guys think? Has anyone here had that problem before with Winamp, specifically? Hmmm. - Steven

http://www.soundwise.org/mods/cablemod/cablemod2.htm I'm following that tutorial. Will probably make them Saturday or Sunday when my fahter is off from work.

Heh, I won't buy from Monster Cable anyways. I was going to purchase the upgrade kit - but not anymore. I purchase the Radio Shack 16G speaker wire (50ft spool), the 2 golden 1/8" mini phone plugs, and some solder. I'll make my own speaker cables. I would never support a company like Monster Cable.

From what I am told, No they haven't sued anyone yet. But they have threatened to sue baseball teams, tv shows, etc.

Yeah, actually it does look like a dent from a BB gun...

DGB, I know exactly what Queen song you are talking about. It can be found at this website: http://www2.memlane.com/jmilner/stairwaybackwards.htm And that sounds pretty cool, reversing the hubs of cassettes so they would play backwards. EDIT: Can you explain how this is done? Sounds interesting...

LIKE/LOVE: 1.) Klipsch 2.) AMD 3.) MSI 4.) Dasani (I drink this stuff like a fish. Heh.) 5.) SBC DISLIKE/HATE: 1.) Monster Cable 2.) America Online (multiple reasons)

"RAM makes a huge difference but so do hard drives. RAM helps you run more programs at once better and so does the processor." What it comes down to is that, really all of the components in a computer are important. Heh. But RAM is especially important, in my opinion. "I noticed a HUGE and I mean HUGE difference when I upgraded my hard drive from ATA100 to SATA150, even without a RAID configuration." SATA drives kick ***. Heh. "If your motherboard supports it, get 2 sticks of 256MB of RAM and run them in dual channel mode." I second that. But even if your motherboard does not support a 'dual channel' mode, don't worry about it. Because running two sticks of the same RAM in 'dual channel' mode will only offer maybe a 5% increase in performance at best. Or so I'm told. "Others, like myself, know how to be a "packrat," with the use of self extracting zip files and folders, deleting unnecessary programs, and streamlining the usage of the space available, for the puter's usage." I agree, well I wouldn't consider myself a 'packrat' but no one really needs a 250GB hard drive, an 80GB hard drive is sufficient, in my opinion. "the ati vs. nvidia war will rage on for quite a while." I'm an NVIDIA man, myself. Heh. - Steven

Stairway to Heaven and a few other songs backwards can be also found at this website: http://www2.memlane.com/jmilner/stairwaybackwards.htm I've actually reversed the song myself - and it comes out the same way (with the 'satanic messages') There are many other songs from other artists with strange hidden 'messages' as well. Of course the majority of these are probably coincidence. But Stairway to Heaven strikes me as particularly odd - because it isn't a word or two - it's like, an entire passage. - Steven

"Do the bands at Archive.org actually record the shows themselves, or pay someone to do it? Or have anything to do with it whatsoever, besides "allowing their fans to download live performances?" Hmmm...I wonder which one has better production quality? Maybe professional quality IS worth paying for" No money changes hands. The bands allow their fans to tape their shows and then they upload them to the website where they can be downloaded in lossy or lossless formats free of charge. These recordings are rarely amateur. The sound quality is excellent. Maybe not 'professional' but pretty damn good. And ok, professional quality is worth paying for. Even the bands I listen to will not allow for some shows to be uploaded and downloaded freely - because they plan to in the future market the show. It's understandable. There's nothing wrong with marketing a few shows. But not Metallica, no they'll have none of that! Metallica wants the money from all of their shows. Heh. Do you really think that if Metallica all of a sudden made all of their live performances readily available for download - that they wouldn't be rich anymore? Heh. Please! They'd still be collecting enormous amounts of revenue from their shows and from their studio recordings. It's about respect, it's about the music. "Hey I went to that Metallica show and it kicked ***! I'd like to get a copy of it...what? I need to pay - again?" Way to hose your fans. Heh. Think of it like this, a museum of art. Now, to see the original pieces of art you'll have to pay to get into the museum and look at them. But you can jump on Google and find a picture of the piece of art - it won't be the real thing (like a professional quality CD of a live performance or an actual studio recording) but it'll do just fine. Now Metallica is that museum, right? And what they're saying is - "No! That's our piece of art and no one can look at it on Google! Or we'll sue them! You have to come into the museum and pay!" That isn't the best analogy but it works. - Steven

Amy, The layout is much (much!) better. I think it's cool the way you ask the forum members what they think about the new layout before it's put up. That's all I have to say about that. Heh. - Steven

"I don't see them doing anything different than any other band out there, except for the fact that they were outspoken about the Napster ordeal." And began suing their fans. Joe, I cannot think of any other band - well maybe a few - but not a whole lot of bands that go to such lengths to "protect" their music. Check out www.archive.org - those bands allow their fans to download their live performances for free so long as no money changes hands. Metallica on the other hand, sells their live performances and do not make them available for free to their fans. "Among other things, making money is why they do what they do." Uh, exactly? That's why I said with Metallica it is about the money and not the music. - Steven

Heh, I agree. Metallica sucks. Anyone who likes Metallica, that's cool - but just know that they probably don't like you. ...unless you have money that you want to give them! Yeah I said it. LOL! - Steven

The point is, the band is aggressive - they try and shake every penny from their fans. That's wrong. It's not just me, heh - a lot of people do not like Metallica for the same reasons. With Metallica it's about the money, not the music. - Steven

You have to purchase the shows! That's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. A great example of how Metallica shakes every penny from their fans. And this is why I will never be a fan of Metallica. Heh. - Steven

We poke fun at Metallica because they aggressively protect their studio recordings. Here is a good article about how Metallica began suing their fans: http://www.shreddingradio.com/metallica.html Oh and this article when Metallica began to sue schools that use Napster: http://www.uwire.com/content/topnews041400001.html Oh and when they filed suit against a Canadian band for using two chords: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/dmca-activists/2003-07/msg00013.html The list goes on and on. And believe me I don't want any of your Metallica songs. Heh. I prefer downloading (legally) the music from bands I respect - bands who do not try and shake every penny from their fans or sue a band over two freaking chords! LOL! And that, my friend, is why they are the 'bad guys' - Steven

Steven, Nice name. Heh. Thanks for the reply. Yeah, FLAC files are HUGE. Although I do have an 80 GB hard drive - one full show will take up about a GIG! Yikes. But Ogg files sound pretty good to me. According to Winamp they play at about 128kbps. Although, according to Winamp my VBR MP3's play at about the same. (shrugs). Actually the bitrate fluctuates... - Steven