Vaelek's Blog

Another unannounced NIN single! :: Discipline

2008-04-28T11:02:00.001-06:00

Still touring, getting ready for Lollapalooza, further defining the YZ era, and still they have time to keep knocking out more songs. So far, since escaping the record label, Trent hasn't done so bad for himself. Ghosts, although it requires the right mood to get into, kicked off very nicely for Trent and his bankroll. Fans are eating this shit up.

And now, another new release straight to Teh Intarwebs, complete with "video".

Enter Discipline.

Not a bad song.. though it kind of sounds like the bastard love child of Only + THTF. The style of the video also reminds me of the Metallica flash parodies involving the whole Napster thing that were everywhere a few years back. Visit nin.com for the full quality mp3 download.

[EDIT]

Being lazy (shutup) I didn't watch the video all the way through prior to posting. WATCH IT! If you've seen the video from those lucky bastards who went to the secret "raided" LA show, you'll get it. If you haven't seen it, get off your ass already!

Not that the whole thing isn't worth viewing, but for the impatient, skip ahead to about 9:00 and just watch the last minute.

Visit OSR for more information and additional footage!

The most successful unfinished album

2008-03-16T18:54:00.004-06:00

"To expand the idea of the "Ghosts" project, Nine Inch Nails is inviting anyone and everyone to create visuals to accompany the album's music. In a few months, we'll be gathering the entries we feel are particularly exceptional and highlighting them. There are no rules to this - be as creative as you like."

In the spirit of Y34rZ3R0 R3M1X3D, Nine Inch Nails are taking video submissions set to music of Ghosts. Hit play below for an introduction to the project from Trent.

You can visit http://www.youtube.com/group/ninghosts to see current fan submissions and here for the main NIN Youtube page should there be more current news. You'll have to register to view the group videos as the content is marked for 18 and up, but so be it. If you don't want to register, you can try here but it's hit and miss whether these logins will work at any given time.
To get the multitrack files for Ghosts, you'll have to register at Nin Remix and make your way to the Mix section. If you haven't heard or are looking for them, you can also find multi-tracks for Year Zero there.

I haven't fully decided what my opinion is of Ghosts. I listened to the entire thing in the car the other day, and it felt similar to if I were to queue up all of my own unfinished tracks. It seemed to go in waves. One song is un-fucking-believably mind-numbingly repetitive, the next better but not fully redeeming, and by the 3rd it seems to have made up for the last 3. This repeats in various lengths for 36 tracks. There are definitely traces of past songs that creep up, some more subtle than others. I've picked out The Becoming, Ruiner, Reptile and Help Me I'm in Hell to name a few.

It will be interesting to see what comes of the visual submissions, and the remixes. Being that Ghosts sortof comes off as an unfinished work, this may be just what it needs. You could say just as well that it is simply another marketing tactic. Either way it's done quite well for Trent, with over $1.6mil in sales in the first few days of being released.

Where can I sign up? ... Please???

2008-03-10T00:04:00.004-06:00

So tonight they had a special on NatGeo on what the planet would be like if humans just disappeared. Highly entertaining. For all of the disasters, and things that in general would just suck, as long as it wasn't alone I would gladly trade the world of today for The Aftermath.

There are a few things that aren't explained very well, like the nuclear ramifications. Supposedly, after ~1 week, backup generators run out of fuel and spent fuel holding tanks all over the world start going into meltdown. There is little mention of the actual radiation effects and it seems as anything outside a 5 mile radius will be fine again by the coming spring. These tanks are normally kept filled with circulating refrigerated water. The 'spent fuel' rods kept in them will start heating to over 1000 degrees without the cooling and cause a meltdown. Now I ask you, how is this spent??? Seems to me there's still use for these things. We can fly to the moon and we can't contain a 1000 degree reaction? Come on folks.

Back on topic here. I couldn't resist that one though. Click below for short term effects. This would probably be the most interesting time to be present for. Of course, for this vacation to work, yes, I said vacation (I would eat this shit up yo!!), you would have to violate the basic rule of NO PEOPLE. But that works for my purposes, so it's exactly what we'll do here. Give me a handful of people to pick that get to live, and throw in oh, let's go with 10000 others. Keep in mind I'm talking about worldwide here. How fucking cool would that be?

Everything has been discovered, someone's been everywhere, someone's claimed everything, there's nothing left to do, nowhere left to go, except space. The second you wipe out the people, you effectively wipe out that statement with it. No jobs, no work to be done, nobody's pockets to line with money. We need some rules though. First of all, see that car? No you don't! Get your grubby hands off. We ain't doing that shit again, you got feet use 'em you lazy asshole!! Don't like it? Get your own vacation! Rule #1: If you can't make it, you can't use it. What's one of the #1 problems today? Nobody knows how to do anything. Sure we've got nuclear power plants, massive power stations, biological shit, other shit (again, my story here, don't like the wording, write your own!), but really, how many people worldwide do you think there are qualified to operate one of those things? They die, then what?

A lot of the movie somewhat resembles most post apocalyptic landscapes, usually reserved for the all popular zombie flicks. Don't hate. Everything's pretty fucked. Chaos everywhere. Dogs and wolves breeding, pigs growing fur, squirrels and skunks living together, where will it end?? All in all, I would live in this world. And it would be FUN! People watch videos from the past, when one actually had to work to survive, and all it's viewed as is that, WORK. I watch them, and just want to live there. I'm not saying I wanna build the railroad. But it'd be nice to be in a world where the only thing left to invent wasn't a better weapon than your itchy-trigger-finger-neighbor; the only undiscovered land so barren or cold you'd never want to go there anyhow. But this get out of bed and go to the store shit is getting old. Give me some land, and get the fuck away from me! Ever since I saw My side of the mountain I think I've wanted that. That is ultimate freedom, not this capitalistic pseudo existence we've got going now. Wow it's been a long time since we've had some destructive video. Very well.

Unfortunately, that's all I've got. I should re-write that music though. I could do much better! There is one major fault in the video though. The entire basis for the idea is that humans simply vanish into thin air. Regardless of whether the entire idea is far-fetched, this does not jive. The fact of the matter is you need to account for billions of dead bodies littered across the planet.

Make no mistake about it, this would be all but paradise for me. The perfect example of adapt or die. You don't get a choice in the matter. No city aid, no health insurance, no hospitals, no police, no anything. If you want it, you make it yourself. At the same time, you know that Trans Fat shit, good vs bad cholesterol, every food preservative that exists (minus salt), and every other bad thing for you, gone, instantly. Assuming you can keep your ass out of the grocery stores. Ok fine, you can go to the store only while you learn how to make the stuff, no longer though!

We can keep things like lighters too. How can I be expected to enjoy this new world I'm spending all my free time rubbing sticks together? Besides, I've already put in my time in that department. I can if I need to, can you? All those episodes logged of Survivorman would also come in fairly handy. What's that? You didn't pay attention? You thought they were boring? You die now.

That's about it. My rules are few, simple, and only what's necessary. If you don't like them, go find your own post apocalyptic heaven to play with. Now I ask you, who's coming with me?

-V

RIP Movie Gallery

2008-02-16T17:40:00.000-06:00

Quite possibly the first store I ever rented a game or (horror) movie from, is closing tomorow. The place was pretty empty when i walked in today, as far as merchendise i mean. There were a fair amount of people in the store. The horror section is nonexistant currently. WTF is nastalgic about a video store??? Who knows. Guess I won't be paying that fine :) this blogging from m y phone shit is convenient as hell too!

I'm mobile yo!

2008-02-11T23:26:00.001-06:00

For now i guess this is ok. Thinking about writing my own app for this. Integrated photos would be mandatory.

Turns out i can attach an image here, though i have no idea what this post will look like on the site. Best of luck!

-V

You dumb bastard

2008-01-31T19:56:00.000-06:00

So there's this story over here about a deer that got into some dude's house, tried to kill it's reflection, and trashed the place trying to get out. From the article "...when he approached the shattered glass and found blood smeared on the walls of the living room..." yadda yadda yadda "A second or two later, a deer poked its head around the corner." Add a few more witty comments, then we get to the jackass of the year speech. "The men tried to wrestle the deer to the ground and hoped to lead it outside -- Morgan said he didn't want Amburn to shoot the deer. It would have made a bigger mess." Now, I'm all for not killing the deer folks. But the reasoning behind this one is downright pathetic. Jerry [Morgan], if I'm ever down in Parker City, I'm coming to rob you. I'll be safe, we all know you wouldn't want to make a mess.

So it gets better, or at least stays lateral, you decide. This guy goes on to, well... "It looks like Charles Manson got loose... It looks like helter skelter." So this must be some crazy horrible shit right? Deer parts all over the place, blood soaked floors, children crying. Check it out, that picture over there, that's... Come on! I've had nose bleeds that have produced more blood than that! And that's straight from the article so you know it's the worst [best] one they've got. Granted this is probably the biggest breaking story... What's this place called.... oh yea, Parker City.. probably the biggest story Parker City's seen in 20 years, but come on guys.

One last thing there Jerry, you say "A disaster cleanup company is coming today", I say I'll wipe that shit off your wall for 1/2 what you're paying them. You have to be one lazy bastard. That or it's time to fire your photographer. Best wishes with the insurance company.

5. 4. 3. 2.

2008-01-01T09:55:00.001-06:00

Just like the pied piper

2007-09-20T14:13:00.000-06:00

They Came
They Rocked.

Last night's show was supposed to be in the Eagles Ballroom but got moved to the Rave instead. (I thought the whole thing was The Rave??) The Rave room is a lot smaller than the ballroom. Kindof reminds me of the MTV Live & Loud set. The band that was playing when we got there was HORRID! There is a good reason there are not more female metal singers. All I gotta say is I would NOT want to get in a screaming match with that chick. Holy shit. We were a bit late and only had to sit through 2 of their songs so that was good. They left the stage about 8:45. From then until 9:30 we just stood there. About every 10-15 minutes the crowd would start chanting "Megadeth..Megadeth" but there was no Megadeth. Not for 45 damn minutes. But they eventually came out and got on with the show. We got some old songs along with new. The set list was:

Sleepwalker
Take No Prisoners
Wake Up Dead
Skin O' My Teeth
Gears of War
She-Wolf
In My Darkest Hour
Hangar 18
Washington Is Next
Kick the Chair
A Tout Le Monde
Tornado of Souls
Reckoning Day
Peace Sells
Never Walk Alone
Symphony of Destruction
Encore:
Holy Wars...The Punishment Due

That's not a complete list but it's the best I can remember and should be close to in order. The sound was pretty bad in the room. I don't know if it was just turned up too much or if it sucks for acoustics in there. Peace Sells, Symphony, A Tout Le Monde, Hangar 18 and Skin o' My Teeth were probably the clearest which was cool because of what they played those were some of the best picks. There's still some that would have been cool.. Anarchy in the U.K., Countdown, High Speed Dirt, 99 Ways to Die, among others. Oh well. Maybe they'll play Summerfest one of these years. It should sound better with an outdoor stage.

Use Google Bookmarks in your C# WinForms application

2007-09-04T23:14:00.000-06:00

Google has a number of services available which I aim to make API's for that nothing exists for currently. The first of those being Google Bookmarks. After lots of hours spent intercepting HTTP requests I have finally created a control capable of retrieving all bookmarks for a given account. In its current version this control only has the ability to retrieve the bookmarks. It cannot create or modify yet, but this will come with a future version. To date I have not found a single piece of code outside of FireFox extensions for utilizing the Google Bookmarks service. I hope you find this of use.

The least you need to know

There are only 4 steps to implementing this control.

Add the tbsGoogleBookmarks class to your project.
Declare an instance of the class
Define a function to handle the BookmarksRefreshed event
Initialize the class with the username and password

Declare an instance

//Because we will assign an event handler to this you
//will want to declare it globally
tbsGoogleBookmarks gBookmarks = new tbsGoogleBookmarks();

Define an event handler in the Form Load event

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
 gBookmarks.BookmarksRefreshed += new RefreshedEventHandler(gBookmarks_BookmarksRefreshed);
}

Handle the event

private void gBookmarks_BookmarksRefreshed(string username)
{
  listView1.Items.Clear();

  for (int bIndex = 0; bIndex <>
  {
         ListViewItem iBookmark = new ListViewItem();
         iBookmark.Text = gBookmarks.Bookmark(bIndex).Title;
         iBookmark.SubItems.Add(gBookmarks.Bookmark(bIndex).URL);
         iBookmark.SubItems.Add(gBookmarks.Bookmark(bIndex).Category);
         listView1.Items.Add(iBookmark);
  }
}

Now we just need to initialize the class and sit back and let it all happen.

gBookmarks.Init("UserName", "Password");

When the bookmarks have been retrieved, the BookmarksRefreshed event is fired and your list is updated. This can easily be applied to a Tool Strip or other similar control to build a menu.

To download the project source or sample application, view the article on CodeProject.

It's about damn time!

2007-08-07T22:27:00.000-06:00

It finally happened. 27 years (god, almost 28.. ugh) and someone's actually going to give me a credit card. Holy shit right?

As you were.

And a domain is born

2007-08-07T21:27:00.000-06:00

Yep, another one. Still working things out but I now have CodingHut.com. Finally broke down and got a hosting deal. I'd prefer to run it out of my closet as I have in the past, which is cool for personal shit, but for anything that could potentially draw a userbase I don't want to give up that bandwidth. I've always had a fairly stable connection so uptime hasn't been much of an issue. It's still a pain (and on occasion painFUL) to have to take it all down to move or something like that.

Maybe it'll turn into something cool, maybe it won't. At least I tried.

-V

Homebrew C# Mailslot Control

2007-06-17T23:11:00.000-06:00

To download the actual project, visit the CodeProject page.

Introduction

For a recent project I needed to create a local LAN chat application that was secure and connectionless. From prior projects I know a simple way to accomplish this is using Windows Mailslots. Unfortunately, .NET does not have built-in support for using them and one is forced to P/Invoke API calls directly. After searching many newsgroups and sites such as CP, I found some suggestions and random P/Invoke signatures but nothing usable so I had to create it from scratch. And now I offer my findings to you.

One important thing to note is that this project will throw an exception if run from the debugger. This is because the OnReceivedData event is fired from a different thread than the UI is running in. There are easy ways around this using TextBox.InvokeRequired which you will find if you search, however this article does not go into that issue.

Background

If you're new to programming, you probably aren't familiar with what a Mailslot is. In simplest terms, a "slot" is a virtual file. In order to pass data between two points, two things must happen at each point. Both ends must open the slot in read mode locally, and in write mode remotely. Remember we are treating the slot as a file. Client A writes a message to the slot \\ClientB\Slotname and Client B reads it from \\.\Slotname. Alternatively, if the remote slot is opened as \\*\Slotname, then the message will be sent to Slotname on all computers on the local domain or workgroup. If a computer receives a message to a slot that it does not have opened, Windows will ignore it by design.

Mailslot communication is done over UDP port 137. The useful thing about this method, is that it requires no actual connection to be established, and no central server is required.

For the rest of the article and source code, visit the link above.

MTV Provides Year Zero review

2007-03-14T10:53:00.000-06:00

Normally I'd say screw MTV, but since they're the only "news" source that's done a YZ write-up, I have no choice. April 17th is way to damn far away! Anyhow, here's a run-down of what to expect on Year Zero next month: (Quoted from MTV News)

Album-opener "Hyperpower!" is all piston-like drums and bit-crushed power chords, a doom-laden instrumental that builds and builds to a snarling frenzy before falling away into silence.

"The Beginning of the End" follows that with a fog of spooky synths and Reznor's order of "On your knees," all hidden behind a wall of feedback and guttural, demonic growls.

The first single, "Survivalism," is next, a certified stomper powered by a startling loud/soft dynamic and a menagerie of electronic baubles (fans of modern-rock radio are already well acquainted with this one).

"The Good Soldier" snakes along atop a meaty bass line and squawking guitars, recalling NIN's "Closer." The verses are filled with Reznor moaning/singing couplets like, "Blood hardens in the sand/ Cold metal in my hand." The chorus makes mention of "I am trying to believe" (the first Web site revealed in the Year Zero ARG), and the whole thing dissolves into a bizarrely lounge-y composition featuring vibraphones and synths.

"Vessel" is a dissonant, dead-ringer for a Shocklee Bros. track, featuring blaring, siren-like synths and thudding drums. The chorus seems to make reference to the drug Opal (another cog in the Year Zero ARG) as Reznor's voice rasps, "My God/ Can it go any faster?/ Oh my God/ I don't think I can last here," and the song features another lengthy, somewhat dancey outro.
"Me, I'm Not" is a down-tempo excursion through howling, barely discernable guitar wails and electronic bleep-bloop that bubbles up like air escaping from an undersea vent.

"Capital G" takes swings at American pig-headedness ("Don't give a shit about the temperature in Guatemala/ Don't really see what all the fuss is about") and a holier-than-thou commander in chief who just might be George W. Bush ("Traded in my God for this one/ And he signs his name with a capital G").

"The Warning" tells the tale of a visitation from the Presence, who delivers a warning about mankind's selfish destruction of the environment (one of the earliest discovered sites in the ARG makes mention of a police manual that describes Opal users feeling as though they had been visited by a Presence, where they "feel the rape of Gaia").

"God Given" kicks off with a tribal, electronic spook show, then steadily quickens to a rush of guitars and a huge build that disappears as quickly as it came, leaving a glaring moment of silence and a sharply whispered, machine-gun missive from Reznor.

"Meet Your Master" is a raucous, unsettling exercise in crunching chords, backed by animalistic howls and bellows and a supercharged chorus, all of which stop on a dime for a spindly, electro solo that builds again before slipping away into "The Greater Good," the album's most disparate track.

"The Greater Good" - Starting off with Reznor imploring us to "Breathe" in barely there pants, the track slithers around on a sinewy bed of electronic noise and synthetic whispers, bringing to mind a windswept desert-scape. Through the subtle noise, a twinkling kalimba builds and builds, until being swallowed by a scraped and scratched ball of noise, which in turn is quickly eclipsed by a gently plucked guitar line. Then it's all submerged in inky blackness, while a looped vocal repeats the mantra "Slowly ... breathe ... a sin."
That's followed by "The Great Destroyer," which features drums that stomp like a mythical behemoth and Reznor singing, "Oh, they cannot see/ I am the Great Destroyer," in a lilting upper register. It crashes about until the second chorus, when Reznor's vocals are suddenly lifted through the stratosphere, and the whole song collapses into a grinding, shockingly placed drill-'n'-bass section that would make Richard D. James (a.k.a. the Aphex Twin) crack an evil smile.
And then we enter the homestretch. "Another Version of the Truth" follows all that clanging with an equally deafening mass of sonic fuzz and the sound of a piano being played in the other room. Perhaps in the haze, there's the buzz of a fly or the drone of a dial tone. The somber piano line is slowly brought to the forefront, as the instrumental track slows to a beautiful maudlin halt. It all falls away, save a single held note, then another wash of white noise and we're on to...

"In This Twilight," a grandfather-clock creaker spotted with respirator breaths. Reznor sings about what appears to be the detonation of a nuclear device ("And the sky is filled with light/ Can you see it?/ All the black is really white/ If you believe it").

And finally, we stumble into "Zero Sum," all wobbly, fuzzed-out bass and breathy whispers, sounding much like wind trying to move through ash-filled atmosphere. It all gradually rises, the clanging increases, and a multi-voiced army chants, "God have mercy on us." Then there's the slow washout, more somber piano and finally, the slow, low drone of hornets or the whispering wind. And then, nothing.

NIN Releases Survivalism in Garage Band format

2007-03-13T17:12:00.001-06:00

In keeping with what began in With Teeth, it was announced today that Survivalism has been released in GarageBand format. Not long after, (minutes) folks over at ETS already had a conversion (Click for torrent link in AIFF format) for those not using a Mac. If that wasn’t good enough, Trent also stated that over the next few months, every track on Year Zero is going to be released this way. VERY COOL! The only downside, is the potential for Year Zero to get real old real quick as all the fanmixes come out. I’ll admit I’m not quite as big a fan of THTF and Only since the remixes began.

Add one DXT3

2005-12-15T12:10:00.000-06:00

Finally got me a drum kit :)

Never a dissapointment

2005-10-18T13:50:00.000-06:00

Can we say Holy Shit?
I bet we can...

"HOLY SHIT" :)

They came... I saw.. They kicked some ass! Click the pic to see more. I will be adding more pictures later too...so check back!

The Setlist:

Pinion
Love Is Not Enough
You Know What You Are?
Terrible Lie
The Line Begins To Blur
March of The Pigs
The Frail
The Wretched
Closer
Burn
Gave up
Eraser
Right Where It Belongs
Beside You In Time
Wish
Sin
Only
Reptile
Suck
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

And every damn one was awesome! I was a bit pissed that they didn't play the new song, Not so pretty now, but so be it. I was going to get a digital audio recorder to sneak in but decided not to. With the security I could have brought a damn bomb into this place so for SURE next time we'll have the whole damn thing recorded.

And this is my BOOM stick..

2005-03-30T11:28:00.000-06:00

It's pretty badass with Reason 3.0, which is actually pretty much the reason I got it in the first place. It doesn't have all the knobs a studio board would have, but it's got pitch bend, volume and 3 programmable buttons along with play/pause/stop/etc, oh and a sustain button and octave shift(s) too. So basically it will work with any program that takes midi input, ie FastTracker!! (or SkaleTracker in it's current form), Cakewalk, Cubase, etc..) Some day here soon I think I'm going to check out some Delphi stuff on reading MIDI input and make up some cheap "hotkey" util.. ...."Hmm.. Photoshop, oh yea, C#" lol!

Just because I can, and someone had to look at it at some point during the process, the note on the invoice that came with this sucker was "Shit Piss Fuck Cunt Cocksucker Motherfucker and Tits!". :-)

-Val.