Happyblox

New Gear Bowl Jam.

 

I Feel... Inspired.

What's In The Box For HAPPYBOX?

Details to come.

Like A Phoenix Rising The HAPPYBOX IS Reborn.

Out of the ashes that is/was/will forever be Windows, comes a bigger, stronger, faster HAPPYBOX machine. Yes, the computer that is my square headed girlfriend, the one who makes HAPPYBOX Productions possible was in need of a clean install and with that in mind why not take the opportunity to update some hardware too right? After all your only up to date for a few days with hardware and on that scale I am way due. On the ever clever; borderline clairvoyant overseeing of Howie The Wanderbug, who by the way was the HAPPYBOX's original designer and creator, having the idea of modifying a not-even-outdated Quantex machine back in the mid 90's. A few software tweaks and a new graphic card later and I was on my way to "build your own computer land" where parts are cheap and labor is free because the only guarantee is that something will go wrong first. Many builds later and the HAPPYBOX is truly a collaboration that is ongoing. Learning Mr. Wanderbug I now build all the hardware solo and the software and networking is all him. That is until it gets new new. Then it's mostly all him. For instance this latest build. Ditching some 250 G SATA hard drives for a mirrored terrabite drive running on an array. Howie tells me this means the machine can grab info from both drives and that one drive dying will not rupture my machine or my wallet. They plug in with SATA connections as well, right into the motherboard. She is back up and running and here are the pictures to prove it. Thanks again Howie for another successful happy endeavor in homemade computing. Rock on.

Project H.A.L.

As with most stories of any worth this one starts with some dangerous free time and a borderline unhealthy obsession with science fiction. My old buzzer, which let's me know people want to come see me, was hardly aesthetically pleasing and thus not worthy of such a distinct and important job. I had tried over the years to spruce it up with assorted drawing sessions using markers and a little paint but nothing ever made it look... functional. To top it off, there is a leak behind the wall which has been endlessly patched and worked around, never really fixing the problem. That has left the wall thin and brittle. You can even see it move slightly when you apply pressure with your finder tips. It is covered in crumbling drywall and paint and bears new gross water marks every few weeks. Long ago I stopped painting it realizing the effort was futile but it is a high traffic area in my apartment and I need to keep that area clear. In other words, I can't put a piece of furniture in front of it or cover it with a tapestry or something. 

The two buttons on my buzzer are very important to me. Along with the above mentioned task it is also how I get food, play the "which one of my friends is here and used the name Jeraldo?" and also to relay Mets scores to Ed the doorman who is not allowed to watch TV or listen to the radio, which is super lame. So not only did I need a buzzer that looked cool because it was on a wall that is less than nice looking but I needed one that looks cool because it was the obvious right thing to do. That can only be achieved by tapping into the genius of Arther C. Clarke and a Mr. Stanley Kubrik. I should have guessed. One minute into 2001, A Space Odyssey and I knew the fate of my buzzer. The intercom from the early 60's was going to get a well deserved and very overdue make over. I needed the advanced calculations and constant watchful eye of my very own HAL 9000 super computer.

Stage 1:
Destruction.
First the old plate comes off and the grinding begins. With the plate off the intercom you can see what 40 years of water damage looks like. It is amazing the electronics still work. They certainly don;t make them like that anymore.  Below you can see an old "HERE" imprint from the original design...I guess.

Stage 2:
Paint.

Here I mask out some silver lines and the base of what HAL will look like. I was not going for perfect replication by any means. I wanted more to make my own HAL. Hal8500. 

Stage 3:
Grille.
Here I got lucky and had an old speaker lying around. This had some sweet metal mesh on it, almost exact to the real hal. How could I pass that up?

Stage 4:
Egg Me.
Had a "Magic Egg" lying around so I decided to use it by printing out a high resolution picture of Hals eye, rather than trying to completely reconstruct it, and enclosing that in the dome of the plastic. Below I build a cardboard base for the eye.

Stage 5:
Daisy.
All finished! Well everything except the name, which I have not deiced on. I think I may just put my address in there, don't know yet. Any suggestions? Next time you ring, you will know that HAL let you in. Doesn't that just make you feel safe? Hey at least I don't pay attention to that wall anymore. Evil super computers are much more interesting.

WinAmp Is Still Cool.

Yes itunes is the best, all hail itunes, blah blah blah. Seriously though itunes is an organizational masterpiece. I am an avid music collector and I like things all neat and tidy when it comes to it. One of the only facets of my life I need to be this way but it is what it is. I try to get every album artwork or pictures from the live shows, I like to make sure all the tracks are in the correct order and the bit rates are equal. No program in the history of music has made keeping these things that are near and dear to me in some kind of sane manor. If I want to add I drag and drop, if I want to burn I hit the obvious radioactive burn icon. The less thinking the better when your stuck in itunes. Whatever the easiest way to get there is is most likely the answer. It's like the physical device of acoms razor. There are however other good mp3 playing programs out there and WinAmp has always been one of them. Dare I say they even have itunes trumped in a couple of areas.

One area is it just looks like a cool player. Many skins are available but the basic ones are stellar. I have a feeling itunes tried to copy WinAmp in this department and did a nice job making it their own but to me music on my computer should look like this.Look at that picture! It's like a little slice of music playing future. Another area itunes can't touch is the visualization zone. itunes has a nice default one and some okay down loadable ones that are neat but don't really hold my interest. Even back in the day WinAmp had great visuals. I remember the first time I saw one full screen and was amazed by the lights dancing to the beats. Now the scripts are crazy intricate and involve even more creativity. There are also TONS to download so you can switch between them (within WinAmp's regular design) and offers smaller versions of the visualization window that you can place anywhere, something I dig a lot. It also has something called Active Desktop which projects your visualization as your desktop... thats right a moving desktop...SO COOL! (click on top animated gif to see it in action)
I recently started running a Dell 1920 X 1200 monitor and full screen WinAmp bad ass-ness is simply jaw dropping. I was listening to live Bob Dylan and then live Megadeth and the visuals adjusted perfectly.

To be honest other than simplicity, which I agree is most important, itunes doesn't do all that much that WinAmp couldn't. Play lists, advanced libraries, EQ options, even recoding audio file types. itunes just does most of them easier so with less headaches and more time to listen to music. But if you just downloaded that killer live Pink Floyd show and you want to revel in the warm glow of your HD monitor, or you want your mp3 player to look like a Cylon built it, WinAmp is still your man... er, machine... program. Itunes will always be my bread and butter, staple audio program and it replaced WinAmp for very good reasons but the original has still got some cool looking tricks up it's sleeves. I ended that lame but I don't care, I have some Hendrix to watch.