Hi everyone.

[Southbird]

It's definitely not impossible, just a significantly larger, more expensive hassle than it is right now.

I've seen USB video capture devices on eBay for as low as $6.49.  Granted you have to wait a while for it to ship from Hong Kong, but if all you're doing is S-Video capture on a Windows machine, they're as good as anything else.

My g/f, Stephanie, eventually had something similar happen to her as well, except she just switched majors since she hadn't graduated yet. I suppose she was fortunate to realize that, at least around this area, an art degree won't get you anywhere. (Before anyone gets defensive, my English degree isn't exactly making employers trip over themselves to employ me, either.)

Art is an unfortunately neglected degree, and colleges should pretty much not even offer it, at least not without a disclaimer that "This degree will most likely never get you professional work without you having to work much harder than most to ever get anywhere with this."  The thing about art or other "humanities" type degrees is that you pretty much need somewhere established to get a foot in the door.  Very big on being a "not what you know, but who you know" situation.  If you just graduate with a humanities degree you are going to have a difficult time; that's just the nature of it.  My sister went to school for art along with several of her friends ... the difference was, she put an education spin on it.  So she now works successfully as an art teacher.  The remainder of her friends have to date not been employed at anything spectacular and certainly not using their degrees.  It's certainly not that art students can't find their way into gainful employment, but it's just not easy, and this country does not find a lot of use for art except in some very niche areas.  Anyway, best of luck to her...

[Redrapper]

I was on Red Vs Blue a few months ago, and I was the opening track on the 25th anniversary street fighter CD.

Other than that, I'm trying to finish this damn movie I shot for 7 months in order to pitch it to Capcom, as well as finish my mixtape and CD for some extra income. I'm doing well overall. I miss all you guys. Why don't we hang out much here anymore? I miss posting something and watching Suitcase cynically scoff or Blaze roll his eyes at it.

I am 90% sure my video capture setup does not work on Windows 7, unfortunately, otherwise I would probably upgrade. I've been told the processor I currently have was made to run better in 64bit, but my video capture capabilities are absolutely essential.

There's 32-bit Windows 7 also... not sure if you were confused on that point

Well, here's the deal: I installed my capture hardware on an old hand-me-down Windows Vista laptop from my Mom. I don't use it for anything but browsing the web and maybe the odd SNES emulator while being lazy in bed

I tried installing the drivers there, and after some song and dance they seemed to work, though they wouldn't record audio. Still, I used it with my desktop's old video card to output via S-Video to feed in to the laptop with the capture card so I could capture footage of a PC game (Left4Dead) without worrying about it impacting the game's framerate. After about five minutes the recording software crashed and the drivers no longer work on that laptop.

I've tried re-installing, and I've tried plenty of supposed "Vista/Windows 7" drivers, but none of them work. I've had a friend with one of the same capture devices and he says he never got it to work on Windows 7, either.

I am not entirely sure if the Vista laptop in question is 32bit or 64bit, but I am willing to bet it is 32bit given its age. The friend with Windows 7 was using 64bit.

Most friends I know capture on Windows 7 64 bit. Sorry to hear your having problems. If I could offer advice-- avermedia has some pretty good  capture cards for gaming.

[Southbird]

Most friends I know capture on Windows 7 64 bit. Sorry to hear your having problems. If I could offer advice-- avermedia has some pretty good  capture cards for gaming.

I don't think Blaze was refuting the possibility of capturing on x64, it was more that his hardware was just not going to survive the transition.

[▲ndrusi]

I've started eating at Bojangles sometimes.  It's pretty awesome.

[Vexiss]

I've started eating at Bojangles sometimes.  It's pretty awesome.

see i always heard good things about bojangles

i went to one about a month ago and it wasn't all that great you know

the people i was with (veterans of the bojangles experience) told meit must have just been an off day at that location

hmm

[Sz]

sup dudes.

My current status is: still doing software dev for a cloud computing startup. Well, now we're doing life sciences stuff, but same company and basically the same work. At home, rising above years of work-driven lethargy to finally find some energy for personal projects -- maybe for the first time since college (+4 years ago now). As a result, the novel is basically done, going to be sent around for final comments, updated with final edits, and published in e-book form under a pseudonym I still haven't come up with. I've basically decided to abandon doing programming-y stuff in my spare time, which has helped a lot. I do it 40+ hours a week, and trying to do more was not working out.

Also investigating 3D printing and debating building a fusor, if I can figure out where to put the latter

[BlazeHedgehog]

My only point of reference for Bojangles is we have Popeyes out here which I have heard described as "off-brand Bojangles".

I have never eaten at either.

Sz: What's your novel about?

[▲ndrusi]

I've started eating at Bojangles sometimes.  It's pretty awesome.

see i always heard good things about bojangles

i went to one about a month ago and it wasn't all that great you know

the people i was with (veterans of the bojangles experience) told meit must have just been an off day at that location

hmm

To be fair I also think Pizza Hut is pretty awesome and I'm told this makes me wrong.

[Sz]

My only point of reference for Bojangles is we have Popeyes out here which I have heard described as "off-brand Bojangles".

I have never eaten at either.

Sz: What's your novel about?

Near term science fiction. A genetically engineered kid has to come to terms with who he is and the fact that his universe's plotting god (that's me) doesn't seem to like him very much.

There are space colonies and guns

[Sofox]

Ohhhh, first chapter preview?

Actually, if you send me the current version of it, I could proofread/critique it for you. I've actually been doing a surprisingly large amount of writing critique recently, mostly short works or individual chapters or excerpts, but if you've got a full sci fi novel to read, I'm game!

[Vexiss]

It's definitely not impossible, just a significantly larger, more expensive hassle than it is right now.

I've seen USB video capture devices on eBay for as low as $6.49.  Granted you have to wait a while for it to ship from Hong Kong, but if all you're doing is S-Video capture on a Windows machine, they're as good as anything else.

My g/f, Stephanie, eventually had something similar happen to her as well, except she just switched majors since she hadn't graduated yet. I suppose she was fortunate to realize that, at least around this area, an art degree won't get you anywhere. (Before anyone gets defensive, my English degree isn't exactly making employers trip over themselves to employ me, either.)

Art is an unfortunately neglected degree, and colleges should pretty much not even offer it, at least not without a disclaimer that "This degree will most likely never get you professional work without you having to work much harder than most to ever get anywhere with this."  The thing about art or other "humanities" type degrees is that you pretty much need somewhere established to get a foot in the door.  Very big on being a "not what you know, but who you know" situation.  If you just graduate with a humanities degree you are going to have a difficult time; that's just the nature of it.  My sister went to school for art along with several of her friends ... the difference was, she put an education spin on it.  So she now works successfully as an art teacher.  The remainder of her friends have to date not been employed at anything spectacular and certainly not using their degrees.  It's certainly not that art students can't find their way into gainful employment, but it's just not easy, and this country does not find a lot of use for art except in some very niche areas.  Anyway, best of luck to her...

yes

the girlfriend loves to paint but instead of doing a painting major is an art ed major

she will find a job eventually but it will not be easy :O

[AJ]

Wow a topic with an actual flow to it. Been a while.

I'm currently living in Florida after moving down here with my girlfriend in June. Liked it at first, kind of hate it now, as we both went back and visited Ohio a few weeks ago and miss it dearly. I was on ABC news for Cincinnati like a week ago because my friend who owns an Arcade was contacted  by Pixar to host the Fix-It Felix Jr. Arcade machine from Wreck-it Ralph. We went there and he asked if I wanted to be the spokesman for the arcade to the news. I did so, and really hyped up the arcade. But when word got out that I drove 1,000 miles (you know to see friends, family, support my friend's business that I used to work at), they twisted the story and made it into "This man drove a THOUSAND MILES to play a VIDEO GAME". (So basically, I single-handedly put us all back twenty years in the stereotypical eyes of the media. You're welcome). It was funny, but annoying at the same time.

Workin' a job I hate down here and trying to get my business thing going. It's been goin' pretty well thanks to donations from friends (including some of you guys). I started a tumblr as well to basically cover my progress of the ever so slowly growing business.

http://blarghboredom.tumblr.com if you're curious

ANNNND other than that, hoping my girlfriend can find a job soon (Florida sucks) so we can save money and eventually move back to Ohio (thinking maybe ... May 2013?) Dunno if we'll stay there, but for now it's where we both wanna be. Long-term I still think I wanna go out to San Diego, but I should probably take a vacation out that way first to see if I like it.

Oh and here is the news story for a good laugh. They cut everything I said out except for my description of the game:

http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/Disney-sends-1-of-7-Fix-It-Felix-Jr-classic-arcade-video-game-consoles-to-Cincinnati

[Sofox]

Hey AJ, that all looks awesome.

Sorry about the media twisting your message for their own story, it happens so often but it's still saddening to still have it happen to such a valient purpose.

And I've followed you on Tumblr, it'll make a nice change from reading about how Republicans don't respect Women's rights (American Republicans, not the ones who support a unified Ireland).

[AJ]

Awesome thanks. Yeah, I haven't really gone out of my way to advertise it's existence yet. I want to try to keep it strictly about the business (or things related to the business) as opposed to a personal blog of sorts. I update it when new things happen, but even that can be tricky seeing I've been completely without a computer for like 8 months now (yet another thing on the long list of stuff I need to acquire). So I occasionally use my girlfriend's when I get a moment, or just do everything from my phone (which is terribly annoying, but still makes it possible so that isn't bad).

The media thing was only annoying because I really wanted to see the arcade get some good press, to help his business grow. As I said in my comment under that video, local news should be supporting local business, not trying to make an "interesting" story all the time. Usually the most interesting stories are, ya know, true ones.

Also, your game that you're making, is this going to be sold to schools or something or just kind of "because?"



Random person who I would really like to know what they are up to now a days: CrazyMrLeo

[Vexiss]

(Florida sucks)

Random person who I would really like to know what they are up to now a days: CrazyMrLeo

left the internet

[chess!!]

oh hey activity.

i'm in college and currently living in japan for a year as an exchange student. it's pretty alright!! i've got one year of college left after this one, and then after that ~~who even knows~~

I didn't know a restaurant called "Bojangles" even existed but now that I do I really want to eat there.

[Mirai]

But when word got out that I drove 1,000 miles (you know to see friends, family, support my friend's business that I used to work at), they twisted the story and made it into "This man drove a THOUSAND MILES to play a VIDEO GAME". (So basically, I single-handedly put us all back twenty years in the stereotypical eyes of the media. You're welcome). It was funny, but annoying at the same time.

Insert "Lamestream Media Bias" joke.

Workin' a job I hate down here and trying to get my business thing going. It's been goin' pretty well thanks to donations from friends (including some of you guys). I started a tumblr as well to basically cover my progress of the ever so slowly growing business.

I wish you had brought this up sooner.  About three months ago, I decided to thin out my game collection and donated my SNES titles and system as well as some old Gameboy and GBA components in favor of emulated versions.  The SNES might not have been saleable as it was haphazardly modded to play Japanese Super Famicom titles (a copy of Rockman & Forte), but had I known, I would've kept them for a better cause.

i'm in college and currently living in japan for a year as an exchange student. it's pretty alright!! i've got one year of college left after this one, and then after that ~~who even knows~~

Ooh. Found a good maid cafe, yet?

[chess!!]

Nope! But I am going to a sort of dogs-cafe next weekend with some pals, so WHO EVEN NEEDS MAIDS. dogs all day

[Sofox]

Drak, whoa that's nice, how are you finding Japan? I hear they speak a whole different language over there.


AJ, best of luck with computer stuff, and yeah, I think it's best to have a clear focus for a Tumblr, otherwise you just end up reblogging everything that takes your fancy and you end up with this weird collage effect where you're not sure if a post was something the blogger created or just repeated.

Also, your game that you're making, is this going to be sold to schools or something or just kind of "because?"

It's something I had the idea for a while ago, and last year I decided to take a chance on it. I do intend to sell it commercially on the App market (I know, but these days if you make an educational game you HAVE to have it on the iPad) and also to schools directly. I believed you could make games fun as well as educational. As for whether I succeeded well, we'll soon see (I'll be doing a lot of testing to find out, on top of the testing I've done already).

[Your Pure Sexcellence]

oh hey activity.

i'm in college and currently living in japan for a year as an exchange student. it's pretty alright!! i've got one year of college left after this one, and then after that ~~who even knows~~

I didn't know a restaurant called "Bojangles" even existed but now that I do I really want to eat there.

There's a Bojangles in Japan?  : O!  I used to work at a Bojangles.  Their cajun chicken sandwich is good, but they're pretty expensive for fast food.  Their tea is addictive, however.  I'll leave it at that. 

[yaj]

i'm...succulent.

[Mirai]

Nope! But I am going to a sort of dogs-cafe next weekend with some pals, so WHO EVEN NEEDS MAIDS. dogs all day

Even better.  Have fun, and enjoy the D'AAWWWWW.

[Zodberg]

I'm having a party november 10th if anyone wants to come.

[Southbird]

I'm having a party november 10th if anyone wants to come.

Where and why?

[yaj]

whoops*