by Chris Billowsin Hobby Heedings0 comments
Consider this to be my Christmas and Holiday Gift to you. I am releasing for free ( hey, you get what you pay for 😉 ) my first album of Electronica music. I originally composed this music for a computer game that I had in development between 2004 and 2007, but that game has now been shelved and the music was good enough to still be shared. So without further ado… DJ Crsb is pleased to release his debut album called “Never Mind The Billogs Here’s Chris Billows”. Yes, corny is what I aim for, but you will find the music not reflecting that tone. I might not be taking myself too seriously as far as the album name and sleeve is concerned, but I did work pretty diligently on this stuff and am proud of it. Check it out and Merry Christmas to you. Presents (1) Standoff 2:31 (2) Duel 1:54 (3) Rising 1:51 (4) Chalk Shock 2:06 (5) Crystal Lullaby 2:12 (6) Fairy Tale Down 2:53 (7) It’s Never Too Late To Rewind 2:46 (8) Soft Space Scrap 3:11
by Chris Billowsin Hobby Heedings0 comments
Once you begin importing all of your music, what do you do next? Rate them! iTunes has a robust 5 star rating system that allows you to separate the wheat from the chaff. Since rating music is considered to be a personal matter, there are some who think that it does not matter how these ratings are arrived at. Personally I believe in having some standards or rules when it comes to deciding how to rate music. Here are some suggested standards: 1) Don’t confuse bad music as being the same as music you don’t like. Good and bad is pretty relative (though not completely) when it comes to music. Strive to be objective about what you are rating for. Is it about how the music makes you feel? Do you like the instrumentals? The lyrics? Is it what the artist stands for? The production values? 2) Rate only music that you honestly can appreciate. If you don’t like Rap music, then don’t rate it until you have given it an honest try and can appreciate what it trying to do. I think its an form of intellectual dishonesty to rate something you don’t understand. The challenge is to blend […]
by Chris Billowsin Hobby Heedings1 comments
Since I have publicly disclosed my love affair with iTunes, I thought I would share some the my lessons in love. 😉 The first lesson I learnt in importing one’s music library into iTunes is: Do it right from the beginning. (Not really helpful eh?) 😛 What I mean by “right”, is that you should import all of your songs off the entire CD, and do it at the top end of the bit-rate range. The first mistake I made is that when I started doing the importing about two years ago, I was anxious about running out of hard drive space. I would try to pick the top five songs off every CD. When I started importing my CDs, I would listen to them, identify which tracks that I wanted to import into iTunes, write those down, do the import, and finally place the CD in storage. It became a headache in having to debate when a song made the cut or didn’t. Well, I eventually learned that a song that I might have not liked when I first heard it, might be worth re-listening to when prompted by an article or recommendation. Now I had to go dig […]
by Chris Billowsin Hobby Heedings0 comments
I have loved music for as long as I can remember. Playing music on records (I still remember my first record player and albums when I was six), then to cassettes, and then CDs. But it was the combination of music and computers that opened up new possibilities to think about music. Combining music with computers in the form of MP3 files was a revelation for me, but I struggled with finding a program that would do everything I wanted. I tried everything except iTunes since I wrongly believed that I needed an iPod to use it and that it would not play or catalog my MP3 files, just the ones purchased off the iTunes store. So about two years ago, I decided to see what everyone was raving about, I downloaded version 7 and immediately fell in love. What charmed me was that my most wanted features at that time were being provided: iTunes provided a clean and attractive interface that controls the folders of the MP3 files. Unlike many other control freaks out there, I don’t care what the file or folder is named, I just care that the files are there and easily found. iTunes allowed me […]
by Chris Billowsin Hobby Heedings0 commentstags: Comprehensive Analysis, Games Analysis
I have decided to resurrect an old document for the sake of posterity. It is the Ultima Storyline FAQ, which is an old computer game series that ran in at least thirteen installments, helped launch the CRPG niche, and was the basis of the first Mass Multiplayer Online Game, Ultima Online which is currently running. I started the FAQ by posting it to the rpg newsgroup. It was my first attempt at Retroactive Continuity and was one of those points that gave me some excitement relating to world construction which has influenced me in my work with Promaginy. Ultima Storyline FAQ by Chris Paul Billows Final Version 1.5 10/30/95 This FAQ is in no way affiliated with Origin. All information within this FAQ is from the author, contributors or from books. Since this is the final version of the FAQ I will no longer be accepting any comments pertaining to it. Thank you. The purpose of this FAQ is to ask and answer some the questions that come up when one plays any of the Ultima game. These questions do not pertain so much to how to solve the game in particular but is more to try to make sense […]
by Chris Billowsin Hobby Heedings2 commentstags: Games Analysis
I personally don’t understand why Monopoly is liked as much as it is. Its immense popularity is demonstrated by estimates that over 750 million people have played the game. That is sad to me because while the game idea is intriguing (acquiring properties and become a business monopoly), the implementation is boring. Two of the critical aspects of a good game is being presented meaningful choices and keeping the outcome interesting, both which Monopoly lacks. The lack of interesting choices is the first problem. You move around the board and purchase properties. Yes, there is some strategy to that, but generally there are more desirable properties that everyone wants. Once the best properties are bought, your chance of getting any of them is very remote. Trading is something you have control over but again that is pretty set since most people will not trade Park Place for Mediterranean Avenue. The choices that Monopoly presents to the player are just not interesting enough. The second problem with Monopoly then rears its ugly head. Once you are behind, there is very little chance of catching up. When a person has control of most of the board, your chance of actually defeating him […]
Recent Comments