| Random Quote | | If people from Poland are called Poles, why arent people from Holland called Holes? - Annoymous | |
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| GarrettSites 3.150 | | Welcome to GarrettSites 3.150, the place where all the action is. Well, at least my action. Some people like it and a lot of people think it's boring. If you're one of those who like it (most likely my family), than have at it! And if you think it's boring... go find yourself something else to entertain you. | |
GarrettSites 3.150 Blog  | Hyundai MP3 CD Issues | I ran into a problem today that I couldn't find a solution to on the internet. Occasionally, this happens and I have to attack the problem all alone, using trial and error to find out what works and what doesn't.
Today, I made an MP3 CD (a data CD with MP3 files on it) to play in my Hyundai. The Hyundai's CD player boasts "MP3 CD compatibility". So it will work, I thought. Unfortunately, I thought wrong.
On my 88 track CD, only 60 or so of the tracks played. This was strange, because they were all MP3s, and while some were encoded with VBR and others with CBR, there seemed to be no pattern to which songs played and which ones didn't.
After some unsuccessful stabs at the problem, I decided to rip the ID3 tags off of all the MP3 files. Since all of the MP3s had the song title in their filename, I really didn't need them. After getting rid of all the ID3 tags, and playing the MP3 CD in the car, every single song worked.
So, Internet, if you are having problems playing MP3 CDs in your Hyundai, just strip off those ID3 tags, and all should be well. | Thursday November 27th 2008
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To Solve the World's Problems... | At NYLC this summer, one of my roommates had the key to solve all of the world's problems. To start this article, first let's agree that most problems are caused by humans, and can be fixed by humans. However, it's stubbornness, fear, and regard for self-interest more than other's interest that prohibit us from ever solving problems efficiently. Ever hear of "stalled" peace talks? Refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol? Yeah, that.
Wouldn't it be great to wipe out all these problems? The solution went like this: Sit all the major world leaders down at a conference table, locked in. Serve them tea. This tea will become important later. Have them talk about solving problems. Of course, nobody will want to budge on their stance, and nothing will get done. That's when you slip in the "fairy dust". The fairy dust here is powdered marijuana, in the tea, that the leaders would never notice. After a few of these "happy teas", they'll start to soften up, use more primitive logic, and start to solve problems not thinking about their complicated self-interests, but instead thinking about what they are there for - to solve the world's problems. | |
Updating Now... | Hey! I thought it was time to make an update. After many months of no new news, I figured a sad excuse for news would be sufficient.
I was originally planning on doing a rewrite of the software that this website runs on, but after many months of doing nothing, decided that I was never going to find the motivation, or the time, to redo the entire thing. So, I came to re-settle the lost territory of the past.
I really don't know what I want to ultimately do with this website yet. Maybe a Java/PHP programming resource? A comptuer tech support site? A sales site for my computer repair / video business? ...are all questions I still have to figure out. In the meantime, I'll be relaxing in my chair, occassionally pondering new material to revive this aging spring of information. | Tuesday November 13th 2007
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I'm Just That Awesome | It's no surprise to me, but someone has been pretending to be me again. This time, they are sending out emails from the address "garrett@garrettsites.net" pretending to be "Garret Panera" about my resignation from BZFlag.
This email was NOT WRITTEN NOR ENDORSED by me. Please disregard or delete it, of if you feel up to the challenge, seek revenge on the originating IP address!
I still do play BZFlag, albeit not as often as I used to. For the BZ-players out there, have fun playing the game, and I'll be by to blow you up shortly! | |
Meebo! | I found out about this web-based instant messaging system in Computer Programming class, ironically. It's called Meebo, and you can find it at www.meebo.com . So far, it's awesome. I use it for when I'm away from my home computer, or when some newfangled DLL problem stops Gaim from working.
Here's a test of one of its awesome capabilities:
| Wednesday February 7th 2007
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Battlefield 2 Video | I was playing BF2 with Sean the other day, who always does mad flips and barrel roll tricks with the clunky transport helicopter, when I realized how worthwile it would be to make a video of that. Not many people have mastered the "Apache barrel roll", my guess because it's the absolute WORST aircraft to do barrel rolls with.
After I got the idea, I got to work on rigging up the video capture apparatus. For that I hooked up a composite video cable up to an appratus which connected to the graphics card, which would stream out live video of the monitor. For audio, I hooked up a 1/8th inch to dual composite audio adapter to a homemade audio splitter. This gave me a full composite cable (video, left/right audio) of what was currently being projected out of the monitor and the speakers.
The other end of that cable was attached to the composite port of my trusted video camera, which was set to record input from that port.
Now the fun began. I played a singleplayer match of BF2 while recording the output of my capture appratus to the video camera. I also "Battlerecorded" the match, which would allow me to go back and replay the match in 3rd person view with playback controls (pause, slow-mo, speed up, etc.).
After I played the match, I loaded the Battlerecorder file into BF2 and recorded it to the camera, while adjusting the camera angles. This is where all the 3rd person views came from.
I took the 40 minutes of video and imported it onto the comptuer. From there I edited it like I would any video.
And to boot I uploaded the final product to YouTube
The whole process took about 6 hours, and depending on how well this video does, will determine if I do any more in the future.
| Saturday November 25th 2006
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How I Got a Free iPod | iPod? Me? You might call it crazy. You might call it impulse. For years I've been happily toting a Dell DJ, completely clean of the plague of the white earbuds. I now have an iPod. Don't believe me? Here's proof:
Here are a few of my iPod related quotes: "iTunes runs like a trainwreck on Windows", "Want to speed up your computer? Disable iTunes.", "Apple products are overpriced", and "The only way you'll get me to posess an iPod is if you give it to me for free". Well, the latter quote says it all.
Huh? What's this picture mean? Who's iPod is this anyways?
It's mine! All mine! It's time to begin the story.
It all started with a UIC (University of Illinois Chicago Campus) recruiter who came to our computer programming class a few weeks back. He'd raffled off an iPod Nano. I was frustrated that I had forgotten to sign up, but I looked at the odds of me winning, about 30:1, and realized it was probably a loss anyways.
Today an opportunity came to visit the UIC campus and go on a tour. I was told free lunch would be served. I couldn't wait to go.
Keith came with me. We took the train out of the suburbs to downtown, and proceeded to walk to the UIC campus. On the way, we learned a few valuable things about both the school and the neighborhood. First of all, never trust a staff member for directions - ever. It may seem smart, but all they really do is take the same way in and out of the building every single day. Does that give them a good perspective on the surrounding area? No. And that's why we were sent North when the building we were searching for was certainly South.
Eventually we reached the UIC open house, and it turned out that we were the 2nd ones there. Beautiful. We settled down for some free food.
After the food and a presentation about Computer Science, the raffle began. For selecting the winner, a random number generator coded in-house was used. After some technical difficulties trying to get the random number generator to work (it told us #61 was the winner, out of 22 people), the raffle commenced.
The first item to be raffled was a USB exercise ball. Do not ask me how this worked. I can't answer  . Unlucky #10 received the prize. Next it was the Nano's turn. People panted. People worried. People were anxious. People wanted the Nano. I was no different. Although not a fan of Apple, I am a fan of free stuff.
They called #11. Who's number eleven? Is it... "Mr. Panera"? YES!!! YES!!! I was jumping for joy because I had never... EVER known someone with the last name Panera. So it had to be me! And it was! I received my prize in disbelief, went back to my chair, sat down, and put it my pocket. It was unbelievable.
I paid attention to the rest of the open house, which included a demonstration of a 55-monitor wall display, and I got to fly a virtual spaceship around a 3D model of Mars displayed on a combined total of about 30 LCD panels.
When it was time to leave, we walked back to the Olgivile train station, stopping at a Greek bakery to pick up some food. The 3:40 PM Friday train was surprisingly packed, leaving Keith and I to grab seats on the steps leading up to the upper deck.
Yay for free giveaways. | |
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