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darnitallband-blog · 7 years ago

Audio

Yesterday we released what both Tara and I would most likely consider our first bonafide "single". Incidentally, we chose to record "Victim of the Mainstream" first because we thought it was the least commercially viable song in our setlist. After having looked into what it would cost to hire someone to engineer and produce one of our songs, we quickly realized that we were going to have to do our own production.

This was a frightening realization when one considers the fact that we wanted both a "radio quality" production as well as a production we could stand behind artistically...in other words, a production "without apologies".

From start to finish, it took us nearly an entire month to track, mix and master "Victim of the Mainstream". It took almost two weeks just to get a drum sound (before mixing). When it came to guitar, we had first started out with mic-ing my beloved Peavey Heritage VTX with an Shure SM-57. That was going okay until the amp decided to blow both a high tension fuse and a power tube at the same time. After opening the amp up, I realized, this was a much bigger problem than just replacing a couple simple parts, I was going to have to spend some time troubleshooting, yet we didn't have that kind of time on our hands. We only had about one month free from live gigs in which we needed to figure out how to get the perfect production for our needs and tastes. Oh, did I also mention that my favorite guitar that the pick-ups from my favorite home-assembled guitar that my late father had put together when he was a teenager also started to fail and needed to be replaced? Yeah, that too.

So we decided to try amp simulators. Not having a budget, we just had to deal with whatever we could find floating around gratis on the interweb. Going DI with into an amp sim is not easy to make sound authentic. The ears are immediately assaulted by a harsh grainy sound that feels like sandpaper on the soul. Let's just say that it was less than satisfying. For days, I was scouring the internet looking for ways to make simulated amps sound real. None of the advice I found really seemed to advance our sound. Frustrated, I just started noodling around in my digital audio workstation until the sound started cleaning up and I was able to get rid of the bulk of the digital grain that was consuming my life's essence.

Once the guitar sounds started coming together, the CPU on my little laptop began reaching its limit and the sessions were continuously crashing. So we had to commit and bounce all our primitive guitar and drum sounds down .wav files and re-import them into the session with all the effects, eq and compression written on the tracks. Any tinkering of the final sound would have to be done on top of what was already committed, since just trying to open the previous sessions would crash my laptop.

Eventually, we were able to pull together a rough mix between the drums and guitars that we could deal with and decided to move on to the most scary part of the tracking process...vocals.

The condenser microphone I had borrowed from a friend wasn't at all doing our vocals justice, so we did a little homework and went out and maxed out our credit card buying a very nice vocal mic, at least nice by our paltry standards. The nice thing was, that I had 60 days to return it in case we couldn't afford it, which we can't, however, I think we will keep it anyway and just see what happens with the bills later. Oh yeah, I also had to get a new guitar to record/play with which was also a long process, since I generally don't like most guitars...well, don't like is a bit harsh, let's just say that I feel there are very few pieces of musical equipment out there that suit me. Most likely, I am not alone in this sentiment as many musicians become very picky once they pass the beginner stages.

So the mic sounded pretty good, but even getting well-recorded vocals to sit in the mix and sound big and bold can be another daunting task. No matter, little by little, exercising the patience of a Star Wars junkie standing on line outside a theatre on premier night, we painstakingly carved out the vocal sound that we wanted to achieve.

...and just when you think you've got a great mix going, you realize that it's time to master. Well, since we weren't impressed with any master samples we found people offering on the internet for under $1000, we decided to go at that ourselves as well. We didn't think it would be that difficult, after all, we did have some experience doing "home masters" and the mix was better than anything we had done previously...the song should practically master itself, right?

If you've tried mastering songs at home yourself then you know how laughable an assumption that is. So we've pulled up some alt rock tracks that are being played on the radio and juxtaposed them in our digital mastering suite. We tried a little EQ and Compression and came to the rapid realization that we needed to fix the mix before we could really master. We learned that simply attempting to master a song will magnify absolutely everything that is wrong with your mix. So it ended up being another week or so of going back and forth between the mixing and mastering suite until finally, it sounded like the modern radio hits we were comparing it too. We even checked out all the numbers to see if they were comparing to that of the radio hits and they were!!! Shit on shingle were we in shock.

Then we sent it out to a few producer friends of ours along with a couple distant acquaintances to get some outside perspective that we could trust. Taking everything into consideration and begging for the CPU to give us a few more seconds before crashing, we exported the final master and voila...that's what you are hearing now.

We've learned a lot and now we hope to successfully repeat this process throughout the year.

When you're just consuming music, it's very easy to be under the impression the music production "just happens". Many people assume that you simply download Logic Pro X or Reaper and "bam!", you're songs magically appear on MP3 for the world to hear.

I suppose what can sometimes seem even sadder to me is the phenomenon of consumers judging the level of a particular artist's or groups talent by how high their production ranks on the current industry standards of whatever time period the track is produced.

Don't get me wrong, it's not as though I'm claiming that I have never fell "victim" to this "mainstream" way of thinking. That said, since I did grow up listening to mostly underground music performed by bands with very small budgets or knowledge of music production, I feel that I may have been a skosh more focused on the over feeling of the bands rather than their budget. There was even a time in my very early teens when I would actually get angry at one of my favorite bands if they release something too "polished".

What we've come to understand is that there are certain sonic faux pas that will drag down the integrity of the song and/or the musical group as a unit in the ears of the listener. For better or worse, in the ears of most listeners, they won't give your song a fair chance unless it sounds the way a song "should" sound overall. Unattenuated toxic frequencies will turn off many music consumers before they have even given your song a fair chance.

What if we had just left those guitars sounding digital and grainy? Would the song be given a fair chance?

That was the goal of these productions for us. We didn't want our lack of budget standing in the way between our potential fans and our songs. Sure, some people will hate your music no matter how well it sounds. There are mountains of artists out there who are releasing perfectly produced music that I feel is complete garbage and harbors zero artistic merit, and there will be hordes of music consumers who will hear our songs and find it distasteful. C'est la vie.

We're just very grateful (and surprised) that we were able to release something that we can stand behind for the first time. What's more we are grateful for everyone who ends up digging it.

Until next time...

- Spickler

#mainstream #gurnge #pop #punk #recording #amp sims #simulators #mastering at home #mastering #mixing #DAW

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sheminecrafts · 6 years ago

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The 9 biggest questions about Google’s Stadia game streaming service

Google’s Stadia is an impressive piece of engineering to be sure: Delivering high definition, high framerate, low latency video to devices like tablets and phones is an accomplishment in itself. But the game streaming services faces serious challenges if it wants to compete with the likes of Xbox and PlayStation, or even plain old PCs and smartphones.

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

We saw Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (a lot) and Doom: Eternal, and a few other things running on Stadia, but otherwise Google’s presentation was pretty light on details as far as what games exactly we can expect to see on there.

It’s not an easy question to answer, since this isn’t just a question of “all PC games,” or “all games from these 6 publishers.” Stadia requires a game be ported, or partly recoded to fit its new environment — in this case a Linux-powered PC. That’s not unusual, but it isn’t trivial either.

Porting is just part of the job for a major studio like Ubisoft, which regularly publishes on multiple platforms simultaneously, but for a smaller developer or a more specialized game, it’s not so straightforward. Jade Raymond will be in charge of both first-party games just for Stadia as well as developer relations; she said that the team will be “working with external developers to bring all of the bleeding edge Google technology you have seen today available to partner studios big and small.”

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

Do you pay a subscription fee? Is it part of YouTube or maybe YouTube Red? Do they make money off sales of games after someone plays the instant demo? Is it free for an hour a day? Will it show ads every 15 minutes? Will publishers foot the bill as part of their normal marketing budget? No one knows!

It’s a difficult play because the most obvious way to monetize also limits the product’s exposure. Asking people to subscribe adds a lot of friction to a platform where the entire idea is to get you playing within 5 seconds.

Putting ads in is an easy way to let people jump in and have it be monetized a small amount. You could even advertise the game itself and offer a one-time 10 percent off coupon or something. Then mention that YouTube Red subscribers don’t see ads at all.

Sounds reasonable, but Google didn’t mention anything like this at all. We’ll probably hear more later this year closer to launch, but it’s hard to judge the value of the service when we have no idea what it will cost.

3. What about iOS devices?

Google and Apple are bitter rivals in a lot of ways, but it’s hard to get around the fact that iPhone owners tend to be the most lucrative mobile customers. Yet there were none in the live demo and no availability mentioned for iOS.

Depending on its business model, Google may have locked itself out of the App Store. Apple doesn’t let you essentially run a store within its store (as we have seen in cases like Amazon and Epic) and if that’s part of the Stadia offering, it’s not going to fly.

An app that just lets you play might be a possibility, but since none was mentioned, it’s possible Google is using Stadia as a platform exclusive to draw people to Pixel devices. That kind of puts a limit on the pitch that you can play on devices you already have.

4. What about games you already own?

A big draw of game streaming is to buy a game once and play it anywhere. Sometimes you want to play the big awesome story parts on your 60-inch TV in surround sound, but do a little inventory and quest management on your laptop at the cafe. That’s what systems like Steam Link offer.

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

Letting people show they own a game and giving them access to it is a recipe for scamming and trouble, but not supporting it is missing out on a huge application for the service. Google’s caught between a rock and a hard place here.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

This is a bit more of an abstract question, but it comes from the basic idea that people specifically come to YouTube and Twitch to watch games, not play them. Mobile viewership is huge because streams are a great way to kill time on a train or bus ride, or during a break at school. These viewers often don’t want to play at those times, and couldn’t if they did want to!

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

To be fair, the idea of a game trailer that lets you play what you just saw five seconds later is brilliant. I’m 100 percent on board there. But people don’t watch dozens of hours of game trailers a week — they watch famous streamers play Fortnite and PUBG and do speedruns of Dark Souls and Super Mario Bros 1. These audiences are much harder to change into players.

The potential of joining a game with a streamer, or affecting them somehow, or picking up at the spot they left off, to try fighting a boss on your own or seeing how their character controls, is a good one, but making that happen goes far, far beyond the streaming infrastructure Google has created here. It involves rewriting the rules on how games are developed and published. We saw attempts at this from Beam, later acquired by Microsoft, but it never really bloomed.

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Games these days have mind-blowing graphics. I sure had a lot of bad things to say about Anthem, but when it came to looks that game was a showstopper. And part of what made it great were the tiny details in textures and subtle gradations of light that are only just recently possible with advances in shaders, volumetric fog, and so on. Will those details really come through in a stream?

Damn.

Don’t get me wrong. I know a 1080p stream looks decent. But the simple fact is that high-efficiency HD video compression reduces detail in a noticeable way. You just can’t perfectly recreate an image if you have to send it 60 times per second with only a few milliseconds to compress and decompress it. It’s how image compression works.

For some people this won’t be a big deal. They really might not care about the loss of some visual fidelity — the convenience factor may outweigh it by a ton. But there are others for whom it may be distracting, those who have invested in a powerful gaming console or PC that gives them better detail at higher framerates than Stadia can possibly offer.

It’s not apples to apples but Google has to consider these things, especially when the difference is noticeable enough that game developers and publishers start to note that a game is “best experienced locally” or something like that.

7. Will people really game on the go?

I don’t question whether people play games on mobile. That’s one of the biggest businesses in the world. But I’m not sure that people want to play Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey on their iPa… I mean, Pixel Slate. Let alone their smartphone.

Games on phones and tablets are frequently time-killers driven by addictive short-duration game sessions. Even the bigger, more console-like games on mobile usually aim for shorter play sessions. That may be changing in some ways for sure but it’s a consideration, and AAA console games really just aren’t designed for 5-10 minute gaming sessions.

Add to that that you have to carry around what looks like a fairly bulky controller and this becomes less of an option for things like planes, cafes, subway rides, and so on. Even if you did bring it, could you be sure you’ll get the 10 or 20 Mbps you’ll need to get that 60FPS video rate? And don’t say 5G. If anyone says 5G again after the last couple months I’m going to lose it.

Naturally the counterpoint here is Nintendo’s fabulously successful and portable Switch. But the Switch plays both sides, providing a console-like experience on the go that makes sense because of its frictionless game state saving and offline operation. Stadia doesn’t seem to offer anything like that. In some ways it could be more compelling, but it’s a hard sell right now.

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

It used to be that someone just picked up the second controller and played Luigi. Now you have friend codes, accounts, user IDs, automatic matchmaking, all kinds of junk. If I want to play The Division 2 with a friend via Stadia, how does that work? Can I use my existing account? How do I log in? Are there IP issues and will the whole rigmarole of the game running in some big server farm set off cheat detectors or send me a security warning email? What if two people want to play a game locally?

Many of the biggest gaming properties in the world are multiplayer focused, and without a very, very clear line on this it’s going to turn a lot of people off. The platform might be great for it — but they have some convincing to do.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

I guess the idea is that each player is kind of in a stadium of their own… or that they’re in a stadium where Ninja is playing, and then they can go down to join? Certainly Stadia is more distinctive than stadium and less copyright-fraught than Colosseum or the like. Arena is probably out too.

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

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topdiyhub · 6 years ago

Link

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

3. What about iOS devices?

4. What about games you already own?

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Damn.

7. Will people really game on the go?

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

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#IFTTT #Blogger

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basshouse · 6 years ago

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Bring on the FAQs

I know you have questions! Oh, ok, I’ll honor the era of the fact check (be the change you want to see int he world, after all!): I think you have questions and I know I want to use questions as a framework for telling you more about my life. On board?? In case your answer is “no” and you choose not to click “keep reading” below, here’s the obligatory picture right up front:

That’s me in San Jose a couple days ago. Yes, I have a “bum bag” (super apologies to everyone I ever mocked for a fanny pack, a sweatpant, or a mini van, and a reminder to us all that it’s ridiculous to judge people for the things they decide enhance their quality of life...are heavily starched jeans in my future? who can say?). Also, yes I am on the North American continent. Sadly not with enough time or planning to be able to connect with many people, plus it’s a work trip and I’m freezing by balls off. More on that later (the work part, not my balls). Let’s get to the Q&A!

A bit of a heads up: a lot of these are combo questions, I grouped them by flavor to make things more compact... you bunch are good at asking the same question multiple ways.

1. Do you miss home/Seattle/the States? What do you miss the most?

Alright, I’m going to leave out the obvious friends, family and a certain tiny dog, because...duh. Do you really need the validation? You know I miss you. As for P-dog, he was IN A WEDDING. IN A BOWTIE. So suffice it to say that while I still get sad when I get in bed at night and he’s not curling up at my feet, his new family is showing their commitment to him in a whole new and completely adorable way.

I do not actively miss living in Seattle or the States. I haven't been homesick. and to be clear, Seattle is an amazing place and our lives there were full of amazing people and things. It’s just that I am enjoying being somewhere else and doing new things (and many of the old things in a new location). I can love Seattle (and you!) and love somewhere else at the same time, how amazing is that? One good thing about being faced with losing my job and visa was that I had to ask and answer the question of whether it was best to just “go home” -- and it was clear for both me and Jason that we did not want to leave Christchurch yet. No, we did NOT ask the kids this time :-).

I DO miss some things about living in Seattle, and if you know me you won't be surprised to hear they are largely food related...La Palma. Pickles. Gardenburgers. Caesar salads that don’t have a poached egg on top. The ability to fulfill a special order (say, make a Caesar salad without an egg on top). Jale-frickin’-penos! It’s not to say that NZ doesn't have good food; overall the quality of the food is high and it’s nice that all the coffee shops serve real food. Also, you almost never have table service, which threw me off at first, but now I really appreciate being in control of when I order and when I pay my bill. A non-tip economy has its perks for sure, including less math at the dinner table! But there are some foods for each of us that fulfill a craving, are a go-to, and when you can’t get them, even a close approximation or a really good option just won’t do. This problemhas inspired me to learn how to cook new things, at least. Haven’t nailed the gardenburger yet.

Also, I miss yoga. A LOT. Props to Core Power, Shefa, Haute, and Maven for being awesome places to practice a powerful flow in the heat with music. Thanks to all of you who taught me and those that let me teach you. Christchurch has more bars and restaurants and interesting places than we expected, but this style of yoga just isn't there as far as I can tell. So hit me up if you're interested in investing in a probably-not-very-profitable business in NZ once I have a visa that lets me own a business, and you can weigh in on whether “Surfing Donkey Yoga” (Jason’s nomination) is on brand or not. I have an opinion but no harm in workshopping it.

2. Wait, you said in an earlier blog you don't overwork (or sometimes even work at all when you should be)...what do you do/are you going crazy/how do you handle it/are you really you?!?!?

This is an honest question I have gotten in phone conversations, and since I assume you know me and my, um, rather industrious ways, you may have it too. I mean, it’s not a secret that when I lived in Seattle I worked A LOT, and stressed over work A LOT, and talked about work A LOT, and did work-y things outside of work, and worked at home and on the weekends FAR TOO MUCH. And for background: in New Zealand I have had a much better work life balance. And at the end of my time at SLI there were many many hours that I went to work but did not really have work to do. So while I have done what I needed to do, and contributed to the business, and used my skills, working and being at work has NOT defined my life here, even in the slightest, which it did in Seattle. That pains me a little, because I also did lots of of things besides work in Seattle, and I never valued being a person who was stressed about work all the time (at least, I did not value that for other people or in principal, though I did build up some kind of addiction or compulsion based on an anxiety about not working). Can I attribute being ok with more balance to a “less demanding” job? In part that would be fair, but after giving it some thought I also must attribute it to both breaking the chain of bad habits and the general difference in culture, For, as far as I can tell, in New Zealand, it is not common to work outside hours or on vacation; people value value and respect family time; and there's a much more subtle and prevalent difference that's hard to explain about the feeling that everything really is going to be ok if you don't struggle to get it all done in record time -- there’s an undercurrent of pressure that does not exist, at least not for me, and I think it’s a Kiwi thing. An informal poll and some observational data (e.g. one boss told me when I sent an email on a sick day not to do it again, no laptop, employment contract stating a 37 hour work week) backs it up.

So what do I do and am I still me and not going crazy? Well, I’ll tell you and yes and no to those questions. Let’s be clear that I still work 37-40 hours a week which is plenty so don't get too exited, but here’s a wee list of some of the things I’ve been doing with “all this time.” Sadly not enough yoga :-(

I write a blog! You're welcome.

Cook, surf, hike, bike, gym, listen to records...I think you knew that already. Same shit, different continent.

Burlesquercize! Yes, it’s what it sounds like -- a sluttier version of Jazzercise. My friend Tas and I also did a 6 week burlesque course that culminated in an actual performance. On stage. In. Front. Of. Real. People. Body positive, pro-female and anti-agist? You betcha. Terrifying? Kind of. Entertaining? I hope so. And no, we did not take our clothes off (that would have moved the answer to “terrifying?” waaaaay up).

Tennis lessons! Finally fulfilling a desire to learn and play tennis that I have had my entire adult life, I joined an adult beginner group lesson at the tiny Opawa Tennis Club. Really, in American terms, this should be “club” -- because like the lawn bowling club and croquet club near my house, this is the kind of club that where pay $100 bucks to get a key so you have access to equipment and courts when you need them, and there are organized games and lessons a few hours a week. Plus a water fountain. Croquet might be my next project, as I am still as shockingly bad at tennis as I was in junior high when I got moved from the 8th grade beginner team down to the elementary school group at a “real tennis club.” But learning tennis is fun, and I have met some great people, and hey, it’s summer in December so why not?

I grew tomatoes. It didn’t take that much time, so I could still do tennis and burlesque, thank god.

I make pickles like twice a month. In NZ, pickles are almost exclusively sweet gherkins. Most of you are probably like “making pickles is super easy, der.” You're right. I don’t know why I ever paid for them...oh except they were pretty cheap and super convenient to buy pretty much anywhere. It’s remarkable how scarcity, a bit of dill and a head of garlic can drive such commitment to a new activity. Now if I only had a goddamn Gardenburger to eat with my pickle slices!

On a career path note, I became a volunteer city coordinator for Product School meetups and am working to get that off the ground. I am mulling over ideas about generating and delivering content and education in the product management space...there may be a great opportunity to leverage my skill set and breadth of professional experience in NZ and I’m doing some activities that will help me network and consider the possibilities.

I have read more books since we moved than I think I read in the last 10 years. I do miss the New Yorker, I think I could finally be crushing the cover to cover in a week challenge. If you haven't read This is Where I Leave You, you should.

TV: In the interest of transparency...I don't just read and write and exercise, and as much as I’d like to present as that virtuous, I can’t lie to you, even by omission. If you have not seen the Amazon TV show Red Oaks, I highly recommend it. Obviously the tennis montages have a new-found appeal for me, but the rest of it was really good too.

Roadtrips! There’s a lot to do around NZ, even within an hour or two of Christchurch. I’m trying to think of a good way to tell you about the things we have done, there will be more posts to highlight what we’ve done so far.

We hang out with friends, host guests, and sometimes try to make new friends. More on that in other posts as well.

Here’s another thing we did, which was attend an interactive improv-y game show at the Busker Festival...yes, I am realizing as I get ready to hit “publish” that it sorta seems like Jason and I are into a whole new realm of adult entertainment. 😱. We’re really not, not that there's anything wrong with it. I just thought you might appreciate this picture of Jason:

Next up in the blog: more FAQs. Political! Personal! Practical! See you soon.

PS: I don’t just cook with cheese...and these are my tomatoes:

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tech-battery · 5 years ago

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Acer Predator X35 review: I'm finally sold on ultrawide gaming

Acer has added to the the extra-high-end PC gaming monitor arena with the Predator X35, a commanding 35-inch 1440p ultrawide with G-Sync Ultimate, a 200Hz refresh rate, 2ms response time, and VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification. It certainly fulfills the needs of most gamers out there, but it comes with a huge price tag that's more than what most people spend on a gaming PC. I've been basking in testing the Predator X35 for a couple of weeks to see exactly what Acer has delivered.

What I love about the Acer X35 Predator

The Predator X35's 35-inch display has a 21:9 aspect ratio and 1800R curve. It's a huge monitor that takes up a ton of space on your desk, but the curve is ideal for the size. It's not too aggressive for the width, and it does a decent job of pulling you in for increased immersion. The metal stand has a split-foot design to take up the least amount of room possible while still offering sufficient stability, though if you have a small desk with keyboard, mouse, and PC tower already established, you're likely going to have to make some changes to fit the huge screen.

The stand offers decent ergonomic options, including adjustments for height, tilt, and swivel. No rotation for portrait mode; the display is meant to be used horizontally. I like my monitor set up at about eye level to prevent slouching and back pain during long gaming sessions, but the stand doesn't get quite high enough without adding a riser. For a more permanent setup, there are 100mm x 100mm VESA on the back.

The monitor is relatively thick, but to be fair it's packing some intense hardware, including a cooling system. The back panel has customizable lighting controlled through the on-screen display (OSD) menu, dual 4W speakers, and a collection of ports in a dedicated cutout section. Altogether it looks rather stylized, especially with the additional thermal vents positioned from the middle out.

Ports include DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm audio, three USB-A, and one USB-B, spaced out adequately to not cause crowding if you're taking advantage of multiple ports. To control the OSD, a joystick and four physical buttons live near the right side of the back panel. There are a number of presets available, including three customizable gaming modes for action, racing, and sports, as well as an eco mode, graphics mode, movie mode, and user mode where you can set things up exactly how you'd like. I was able to delve deep to get the exact picture I wanted, and there are joystick shortcuts — including brightness control — so that you don't have to open the full menu for common, quick adjustments. A blue-light filter can be enabled to help with gaming or working after hours.

Acer has removed most of the bezel along the top and sides of the display, with a slightly thicker chin along the bottom that includes a Predator logo. It's an impressive picture. The screen has a bit of an anti-glare finish on it, though it's not as powerful as you'll find on something like a business laptop. It's enough to keep the picture clear without adding too much grain. Considering how bright the monitor gets, especially with HDR enabled, you shouldn't have any problems gaming in a well-lit room.

Connecting an NVIDIA graphics card (GPU) with DisplayPort allows you to make the most of the X35, including up to a 200Hz refresh rate, 2ms response time, G-Sync Ultimate, and HDR. I mostly used the monitor without the 200Hz overdrive enabled — my PC hardware isn't quite up to pushing 200 frames — and even at 144Hz without HDR enabled games looked amazing. A 1440p resolution is an ideal middle ground between 1080p and 4K for most people, and with G-Sync turned on the picture is smooth and tear-free.

The panel offers 100% sRGB and 83% AdobeRGB color reproduction, as tested with my Datacolor Spyder5 Pro colorimeter. To put itself in line with VESA DisplayHDR 1000 standards, it also manages about 90% DCI-P3 color. I primarily played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition; the picture from both games blew me away. The former game, especially in missions with night-vision goggles, made the variable backlight with 512 separate zones especially evident. Dark spots in the scene remained dark despite bright lights nearby, with little to no bleeding over.

The variable backlight (which is also flicker free to be easier on the eyes) is enabled by default with HDR enabled. You might see a bit more bleeding over due to the lights and dark being so much more pronounced, but overall the HDR picture is incredible. The Predator X35 easily offers the best picture I've ever seen from a gaming monitor. Colors are vivid without looking unnatural, and every game I tested seemed to take on a new life. The combination of precise color reproduction, high refresh rate with G-Sync, and ultrawide format sucks you in and offers a PC gaming experience that's not easy to reproduce.

What I dislike about the Acer Predator X35

The Acer Predator X35 delivers an outstanding picture and features premium gaming features, but it's not a perfect piece of hardware. The dual 4W speakers on the back get loud and they remain clear, though they don't really deliver anything more than average sound. If you're watching a movie or playing casually you should find they get the job done, but for any sort of competitive gaming — or for the most immersion possible — you'll want to invest in either a quality headset or separate set of dedicated gaming speakers.

Monitors with this level of performance include a fan to keep hardware cool, and for the most part you won't notice the noise overtop of whatever noise is coming from your PC. However, I did notice a few times that turning the monitor off with the physical button rather than letting it go into sleep mode on its own caused the fan to kick into high gear. Leaving my office and returning minutes later, it sounded like someone was vacuuming behind the closed door. This didn't happen every time, but it did occur more than once. I resorted to leaving the monitor alone after use.

One last thing I noticed during regular use was slight backlight bleed along the bottom edge of the display. It wasn't anything egregious and it can certainly be ignored, but it is there. And then there's the price. The Predator X35 reaches nearly $2,500, making it pricier than what most people spend on an entire gaming PC. This puts it into a narrow user-base and makes it a waste of money for anyone not using high-end PC hardware. The NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU I used to test the monitor with couldn't come near getting the most out of the X35 when used with modern AAA games. That doesn't mean I didn't fully enjoy what I was able to get out of it, but if you're spending that much money, you want to milk every last drop.

Should you buy the Acer Predator X35?

Answering whether or not you should buy the Acer Predator X35 really comes down to your budget. If you have disposable income to blow on PC gaming, this is about the best picture and performance you're going to find. The X35 has some flaws, but it's going to majorly elevate your immersion and enjoyment no matter the game you play.

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 6 years ago

Link

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

3. What about iOS devices?

4. What about games you already own?

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Damn.

7. Will people really game on the go?

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2W4pca6 ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

toomanysinks · 6 years ago

Text

The 9 biggest questions about Google’s Stadia game streaming service

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

3. What about iOS devices?

4. What about games you already own?

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Damn.

7. Will people really game on the go?

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/19/the-9-biggest-questions-about-googles-stadia-game-streaming-service/

0 notes

fmservers · 6 years ago

Text

The 9 biggest questions about Google’s Stadia game streaming service

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

3. What about iOS devices?

4. What about games you already own?

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Damn.

7. Will people really game on the go?

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

Via Devin Coldewey https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes

mccarranhandymanservices-blog · 6 years ago

Video

youtube

Best Toilet Installation Service and Cost in Las Vegas NV – McCarran Handyman Services

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Best Ways to Find a Handyman or Contractor

After buying a home, many buyers discover they want to personalize that home, change the environment to suit specific tastes, and that means finding a handyman or contractor. When I think about the best ways to find a handyman or contractor, this old joke pops into my head. It goes like this. People want three things in a handyman or contractor. They want a contractor who is: 1. Affordable 2. Highly skilled, and 3. Punctual, so pick any two. Meaning it is impossible to get all three characteristics in a contractor.

But it's not impossible, of course.

You can find a great handyman or contractor and be the envy of all your friends. Everybody has a horror story to share about contractors. Ask any friend and you'll hear about guys who did not finish jobs, stole money, or left the homeowner in the lurch after doing a lousy job and vanishing. Naturally, you don't want any of this stuff to happen to you, and you're probably a bit cautious about choosing a contractor; I don't blame you. It's all about whom you choose.

Determine the Type of Handyman or Contractor You Need to Find

The first step is to choose the right tradesman or tradeswoman for the job. If it's a simple job, where little can go wrong, you can hire a handyman/handyperson, but for jobs that involve a situation in which something could easily go wrong, you might be better off with a professional who specializes in a specific field.

Stop and consider the job. If it's your heating or air conditioning that needs work, you would need an HVAC specialist. If you're installing light fixtures, you would look for an electrician. Replacing a faucet or toilet, call a plumber. Refinishing wood floors or installing new hardwood, get a flooring installer.

You will find specialists who work entirely in ceramic and various types of tile such as travertine or marble. The benefit to hiring a professional is they do this type of work over and over and the process is generally second nature.

The other obvious benefit about hiring a specialist is they know what do if the job turns out to be more complicated than it appears. Sometimes, you don't know what can go wrong until you're in the middle of the project, and if you haven't hired the right person, it can be too late.

When I made my first trip to my vacation home in Hawaii, for example, I noticed the kitchen faucet, a pull-out, was losing its integrity, hanging its head in shame into my sink. I ran out to Lowes and picked up a beautiful stainless steel pre-rinse with a coiled neck and a pull-down sprayer to replace the ugly white fixture. Having no tools at the house yet, I bought plumber's tape and a basin wrench, too.

I laid out all my purchases on the kitchen counter and was about to crawl under the sink when it hit me. Hey, I'm on vacation. Why am I putting in a new faucet when I can find a handyman or contractor to do this job? Not only that, but my house is 25 years old. It means the shut-off valves might be too difficult to turn by hand, or, worse, they could leak, and do I want to deal with that?

I turned to my laptop to find a plumber. My painter, who was in the middle of repairing cracks in the ceiling caused by an earthquake, offered to install my faucet. He could fix anything, he said, he was a handyman. No, he was a painter. I hired a plumber, and indeed the hot water shut-off valve needed replacement. On top of that, he knew enough to know how to turn off the hot water at my solar water heater, which involved turning 3 knobs. I would not have known how to do that if I had tried to do it myself, and it is doubtful my painter could have figured it out.

Hire a Handyman or Contractor Who Has Accountability

The problem with plucking a stranger out of the Yellow Pages or a single website is that individual might be accountable to nobody. In our modern world, service industries live and die by reviews.

It is human nature to want to do a good job when you know your reputation is on the line.

I do not suggest trying to find a handyman or contractor from a source website that stands to make a financial gain from your selection. Some of those types of websites receive marketing dollars or kickbacks from the service providers they refer. The referrals are not always vetted or checked out. Some of these people get listed simply because they pay a fee for the privilege.

If you have to fill out a form and wait for a handyman or contractor to contact you, it could very well be an aggregator site that does not verify nor substantiate the quality of the individuals they refer to you. If you want assurance of quality, there are better ways to find a handyman or contractor. Here are 5 of my best ways to find a handyman or contractor:

1. Find a Handyman or Contractor on Google

Google searches are all about local. If you've already got a Gmail account, you are already signed into Google and it knows where you are located. If on a mobile, turn on location services. Search by the type of contractor and your city. In the "local" box you will see vendors with websites and it will indicate the number of reviews, especially if that company or individual has a Google Business Page.

Be careful when you read reviews and ask yourself if it sounds like a friend of the individual posted that review or if it's an actual client. Anybody with a Gmail account can post a review on a Google Business Page, even a person who is not a client but, say, a family member. Click on the link of the person who posted the review to see if that person has reviewed other businesses. If this is the only review, you might be suspicious.

Do not click on ads in Google. The ads are listed first. These are companies or individuals who are paying Google to advertise, and are identified as an ad. Skip by those to reach organic results.

2. Find a Handyman or Contractor on Angie's List

On Angie's List, you can search for contractors a number of ways. I do not suggest searching by promotions and coupons because those are companies who are paying to be promoted. Instead, search by the number of miles from your location. Keep broadening the miles until you find at least 3 contractors with a fair number of reviews.

Since you have a choice on Angie's List, why not start with the A-rated reviews? Read the entire review. Angie's List also offers a bluebook on pricing, so you can find out the low-end and high-end costs of your proposed job. Some vendors on Angie's List will give you a discount if you mention that you found the company on Angie's List.

3. Find a Handyman or Contractor on Yelp

Yelp offers reviews for a wide variety of products and services, so you can also find a handyman or contractor on Yelp. Sometimes you will find more reviews on Yelp from unhappy customers than from satisfied customers. That's because people tend to feel more urgency to post a bad review when they feel like they did not get what they paid for.

Take into consideration the type of person who left the review, too. Anybody can post a review on Yelp. Is the bad review posted by a disgruntled co-worker or perhaps a former romantic interest who got dumped and is out for revenge? It helps to read between the lines and listen to the tone of the review put forth by the reviewer. Also, click on the link to read other reviews by that person to determine if that is a person who likes to complain. From Yelp, you can also visit the handyman or contractor's website to get more information.

4. Find a Handyman or Contractor From Your Realtor

Your Realtor works with dozens of contractors and handymen. She can give you all sorts of referrals if you ask. Your Realtor wants to be your agent for life and vets her referrals very closely. If a client ever logged a valid complaint against a contractor, you can bet that Realtor will remove that individual or company from her list of referrals.

Your Realtor's reputation is at stake when she hands out a referral to you. She has a vested interest to make sure you are happy and taken care of. Agents have connections with all sorts of people from all walks of life, and you may as well take advantage of her contacts. She will be happy to help.

5. Find a Handyman or Contractor From Your Store

With the exception of places like Home Depot or other large home improvement stores, you can probably rely on the referrals to contractors from the vendor who sells the product. The reason I caution against finding a contractor through a big box do-it-yourself store is because they often take a cut or otherwise share in the profit, which means you can pay more.

Smaller companies tend to work with the best contractors and typically have a few business cards on hand to give you. They want a happy customer and are not too big to be ambivalent. Some of the relationships between the store and contractors are formed long term over dozens of years.

Tips Before Hiring a Contractor or Handyman

· Be sure to disclose where you found the individual or company and also make it very clear that you intend to post a review after the job is completed. While this does not ensure superior service, it is definitely a motivator.

· Don't pay a contractor in advance and be wary of those who demand large upfront fees. Generally, you would pay a small deposit, enough to cover materials if you don't have the product on hand, and the balance when the job is completed.

· Ask to see licensing verification and insurance.

· Find out if you need a building permit.

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service-omaha-blog · 6 years ago

Link

Best Toilet Installation Service and Cost in Omaha NE – Service-Omaha

Looking for Toilet Installation services? Service-Omaha specializes in Toilet Installation. Call today for your free quote for Toilet Installation services. Cost Of Toilet Installation? Free Estimates! Call Today Or Schedule Toilet Installation Online Fast!

REQUEST A QUOTE TODAY

TOILET INSTALLATION

AFFORDABLE TOILET INSTALLATION SERVICE AND COST IN OMAHA NE

Best Ways to Find a Handyman or Contractor

But it's not impossible, of course.

Determine the Type of Handyman or Contractor You Need to Find

Hire a Handyman or Contractor Who Has Accountability

The problem with plucking a stranger out of the Yellow Pages or a single website is that individual might be accountable to nobody. In our modern world, service industries live and die by reviews.

It is human nature to want to do a good job when you know your reputation is on the line.

1. Find a Handyman or Contractor on Google

Do not click on ads in Google. The ads are listed first. These are companies or individuals who are paying Google to advertise, and are identified as an ad. Skip by those to reach organic results.

2. Find a Handyman or Contractor on Angie's List

3. Find a Handyman or Contractor on Yelp

4. Find a Handyman or Contractor From Your Realtor

5. Find a Handyman or Contractor From Your Store

Tips Before Hiring a Contractor or Handyman

· Ask to see licensing verification and insurance.

· Find out if you need a building permit.

BEST TOILET INSTALLATION SERVICE IN OMAHA, NE!

SERVICE-OMAHA

REQUEST MORE INFORMATION! CLICK HERE

0 notes

myupdatesystems-blog · 8 years ago

Text

How to Make Money Writing Books

New Post has been published on https://myupdatesystems.com/2017/04/14/how-to-make-money-writing-books/

How to Make Money Writing Books

We live in a world of quiet revolutions. Only a few years ago the idea of a flat-screen TV was considered to be in the realm of Star Trek. Today you cannot buy a traditional cathode ray TV. That’s just one example.

This report is about an equally quiet revolution that has massive repercussions for the publishing industry and reveals how ordinary people – some not even writers in the traditional sense of the word – can propel themselves into a new world of prosperity. And I will show you how one person used this to create six figure incomes from publishing, (believe it or not), a nine-page document.

A survey published by Readers Digest some five years ago revealed that 72% of people felt they ‘had a book inside them’, and the massive success of J. K. Rowling (real name, Joanne Murray) has prompted many to try their hand at writing for profit.

In many ways, this is mirrored by the music industry. Every day thousands, if not millions of young hopefuls write and perform songs they hope will one day be a big hit, and thanks to a quiet but spectacular revolution in the music industry, more of these new songs are successful than ever before in history.

To see how the Internet Publishing Revolution will affect you, let me show you how its equivalent has already affected the music industry.

For over a hundred years, the Producers dominated the music industry. These companies were household names – EMI, Columbia Records, HMV, Decca, Virgin, CBS, BMG to name but a few, and the only chance of success any aspiring songwriter had lay in getting noticed by a record producer who would accept and promote their work.

And for most of that hundred years, music production was mechanical – vinyl records followed by cassettes and CDs. Then the force of an Internet revolution hit the music industry full in the face.

First, the MP3 file was invented by the German company Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. In 1997, Tomislav Uzelac of AMP was the first to integrate player software into Windows and in 1999 a company calledSubPopbecame the first to distribute music tracks in MP3 format. (Info courtesy of About.com – inventors.)

Music had suddenly gone digital.

The real breakthrough came in October 2001 when Apple released the iPod, a refined DAP (Digital Audio Player). DAPs were invented by the British inventor Kane Kramer. Other DAPs had preceded the iPod but Apple has long been associated with design excellence, not to mention that indefinable quality is known as ‘cool’. The iPod took off.

What did these developments do to the traditional music industry, particularly music shops? It decimated it almost overnight. Sales of traditional CDs have collapsed worldwide and what’s left are sold on internet sites. The traditional local music store has either gone completely or diversified into gaming and accessories. On 7th January 2011, the Guardian newspaper wrote:

“In many US cities, it’s difficult to find a record store. The last US HMV closed five years ago, Tower Records stopped trading soon after, and the last Virgin Megastore finally closed its doors 18 months ago. You may find a CD section in consumer electronic stores such as Best Buy or at Walmart, but the selection doesn’t stray far beyond the top 40.”

And yet, this massive sea change, whilst hammering producers and retailers, released an avalanche of new talent who could now record and produce their own music in their own bedrooms using little more than a good microphone and a laptop. The massive power of social networking on the Internet using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can now propel new talent (or the lack of it!) into the public eye without the need to go near a producer. At the height of the industry’s crisis, well-known rock bands and individuals simply forced labels to renegotiate their contracts.

“Musicians can self-publish if they like, selling their own tunes off their own websites. This has meant that top performers make unbelievable sums – far more than their counterparts in 1969. The Carpenters used to have to beg for money for a new car, while their albums sold millions. Now, because they can guarantee the big audiences, all that money the label used to take, the musicians get. So tens of millions flow their way. If you have any doubt, look at the private jets and helicopters owned and flown by the lead drummer for Pink Floyd. Or about any rapper on late night MTV. It would make a corporate CEO envious.” (Adam Hartung – thephoenixprinciple.com)

This is what the Internet music revolution did: It moved most of the income away from a small number of record producers directly into the hands of musicians.

Now let’s look at publishing because what happened to the music industry is being repeated there. Let’s start with the technology first – the written equivalent of the MP3 file and DAP player.

In 1473 Thomas Caxton printed the first book produced in the English language using the revolutionary new printing press. With regard to the production of books, newspapers, and magazines, very little has changed. It’s a hugely un-green industry. Lip service is paid to using sustainable forestry but even if that were entirely true, the process is extremely invasive, akin to ripping the heart out of mother earth and waiting for it to re-grow. Many of the chemicals and bleaches used are less than pleasant and until recently, the carbon powder used for the production of inks was regarded as a toxic carcinogen. Something has got to change.

Ironically, readers of books are often people with conscience and have an intellectual leaning to being kind to the environment. I say ironically because a few of them are less than impressed with the idea of getting rid of traditional books in favor of the publishing version of the iPod – the eBook Reader.

When the iPod first came out, its slogan was, ‘1000 tunes in your pocket.’ I cannot imagine how many CDs it would take to replace the songs on the average iPod but I am prepared to wager that the total cost to the environment of creating those physical CDs is vastly more than one iPod.

The eBook reader (eReader) is the book lover’s equivalent of the music lover’s iPod. ‘1000 books in your pocket.’ The equivalent of the MP3 file is undoubtedly Adobe’s PDF (Portable Document File). Every computer has Adobe’s PDF Reader installed because nearly every computer program now has its manual reproduced in this format. Why? Because it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to stick a 200-page manual onto a CD than it is to rip down and process half a forest.

To be fair to those who still prefer paper books, there are a number of things about eReaders that are not as good as printed material.

First, the technology behind eReaders is still being developed. E-Ink screens still lack contrast and, like the first Ford automobile, you can have any color you like as long as it’s black. Colour screens are still in development unless you pick on an iPad which doubles as an eBook reader although it is still a computer at heart. And yet, the day of an eBook reader that is just as good as the printed version is not far off. It may yet be that the iPad becomes the new eReader of popular choice or that Amazon’s Kindle will take the flag. We shall see.

Another annoyance is DRM or Digital Rights Management. Quite understandably, this is to prevent people file sharing and breaching copyright. It is still a major problem with music downloads and DVDs. The problem is that it seems every eReader producer has their own system, involving downloading software to your computer and endless messing about with their limited book titles and not being able to download someone else’s. Forests will fall until someone makes it simple to just buy an eBook online.

Nevertheless, the writing is on the wall for paper publishing. Newspapers like The Times are going on-line and require subscriptions to see today’s news. More and more books have digital versions. And to be perfectly frank, if it wasn’t for the sheer size of the whole printing industry, any half-green government would put an immediate quote, and tax, on anything so destructive to the environment. If fact the opposite holds true for eBooks, which are seriously green and yet are all taxed at the full rate of Vat.

Although the eReader equivalent of the iPod is still in the making, the day of the digital book is firmly here and will only increase while traditional bookshops are closing down at a rate of two a week.

The power of information publishing

While this sounds ominous from the point of view of conventional booksellers and publishers, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to authors, or what I prefer to call, ‘creators of written digital products.’ Like the musicians in the iPod revolution, the power (and the money) has moved away from the big publication houses into the ranks of the writers. And in the same way that one, fairly short pop single can change the fortunes of a new musician almost overnight, so can a small written equivalent change the fortune of even the most elementary of writers, if they know what to do.

In the days of Beethoven and Wagner, composers didn’t write two-minute hit singles; they wrote symphonies – the musical equivalent of a large novel. Today, very few musicians compose long works. They compose singles. Singles are quick to create and are popular. They may go on to produce an album but this will invariably be a compilation of singles. Gone are the great symphony composers of old. Modern music is short, often short-lived but also very profitable.

This distinction is not so clear in publishing. Today, if I say I am a writer, the assumption is that I write novels. Not so. I am an information publisher, and that is about as far from novel writing as Wagner’s Die Walküre is from Turn My Swag On by Alexa Goddard.

It must also be said that the commercial mindset of the modern musician is far more advanced than that of the modern writer. Most writers would rival Thomas Caxton for still being in the dark ages.

The modern songwriter is very commercially minded, very savvy about the fact that music makes money, and takes pains to write music that is in demand. By contrast, the average aspiring writer hasn’t a clue about what is selling. They write the book they want to write and then spend years trying to find someone to publish it. Sometimes they strike lucky. Most times not. A writer with a bit of commercial nous would at least look at the New York Times Best Seller list and create something in the same genre. But that would still be wrong unless you want to lock yourself away for three years. Terrestrial book writing is still about writing modern symphonies, not pop songs. To make money publishing on the Internet we need to look at the written equivalent of pop.

The modern and soon to be successful songwriter no longer sends a private recording of his new hit single to a music producer in the hope of catching his ear. There is a new process and it is this:

First, he or she will have the commercial sense to look at the kind of music that is most popular and put together all the synthesizers and gizmos necessary to create a sound that is modern. The days of three guys with acoustic guitars and a drum set trying to copy The Shadows are long gone.

Next, they will create their song. It will be short, sweet and as highly polished as they can make it.

Next, they will have their own website. It will look smart and also contain lots of free ‘songlets’ with a video of them singing their latest creation. Their video, also home made, can still look professional using modern, inexpensive video editing software.

Next, they will use the power of the Internet to promote their work. To do this they will do a combination of two things – viral marketing and joint ventures. No longer do they need to kowtow to music producers. In the old days getting publicity was hugely expensive. Today anyone can have their 15 minutes of fame simply by doing something dumb on YouTube. Viral marketing (one person telling two others who each tell two others and so on) does the rest. Today, modern songwriters have become self-publishers, which is arguably the only area where publishing is ahead of the music game.

Self-publishers are people who write and publish their own work. It’s not new. Mark Twain self-published some of his own works. So did William Blake, Stephen King, Rudyard Kipling, Lord Byron, E.E. Cummings, Alexander Dumas, T.S. Eliot, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, Edgar Allen Poe, Alexander Pope, Beatrix Potter, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust, George Bernard Shaw, Shelley, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thoreau, Leo Tolstoi, Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf. So if you decide to self-publish you’ll be in good company. The question is what should you write?

The fact is that the Internet publishing revolution is about to become a new phenomenon for self-publishers. It actually has little to do with eReaders and the like. It’s a far bigger game that most websites haven’t quite grasped, traditional writers haven’t grasped at all, and the average person thinks they cannot do because they don’t think they’re writers. But that’s exactly the point. Writers do not succeed on the Internet. It’s the average person who makes money because they’re not loaded down with all the baggage that writers have about their art. It’s not writers who make money on the Internet, it’s product developers, in particular – ‘creators of written digital products’ otherwise known as eBook/eReport writers.

Let me show you how to make money on the Internet, almost overnight, and then give you an example. Please read this carefully because it’s pure gold.

Most people have no idea how big some websites are on the Internet. It’s difficult to tell unless they tell you. In 2003 I spotted a website called eDiets.com and on its pages, it mentioned it had nearly 14 million subscribers to its bi-weekly on-line newsletter. That meant that twice a week, this website sent an email to 14 million people.

Now suppose the proprietor of this mega-site phoned me up and said, “Hey, Phil baby. How’s it hangin'”, or something like that and asked me to prepare a ‘special’ report, not much longer than this one, about dieting – say – Top Ten Dieting Secrets. He suggested I put it together with a one-page website. But he wasn’t going to pay me for this, at least not directly. What he would do is endorse and publicize my report to 14 million people in his next newsletter. I could charge what I liked for the report and he would take 60% of sales. Is this a good deal?

Let’s work it out. Suppose I charged only ten dollars and he’s going to recommend it to 14 million people who already listen to what he writes so I don’t need to do any advertising. Let’s assume only 1% (140,000) buy the book. That’s total sales of 1,400,000 dollars of which I keep 40% which is just over half a million dollars.

Half a million dollars for a 12 page eBook? Does this sound like a good deal? I think so.

Of course, I did say that Hiram E. Cattle rustler Jnr. phoned me up to make this offer and that’s not going to happen. But what we can do is prepare the project and put the deal to him, after all, it’s worth 840,000 dollars to him alone and all he has to do is send out an email that he was going to send out anyway. It’s a no-brainer and not bad for a day’s work.

Okay, this is a top of the range example and the potential is actually higher than this. I would personally consider a 1% response to be very poor. My average is 20% but on smaller sites. It’s still good money though. And the number of websites is unlimited.

The Internet publishing revolution is this new power to act as an information provider to millions of people at virtually no cost using existing websites as bookshops. It’s easier than writing music and requires very little investment. There is no stock, no printing, no risk and a complete win-win situation for everyone concerned.

To give people a clue about the potential I often cite this story. Several years ago I got a kidney stone. A quick search on Dr. Internet revealed a guy offering a homegrown solution to certain types of kidney stones. Basically, he was selling a simple report giving his plan with a full refund guarantee. I examined the site very carefully and made inquiries with several knowledgeable American friends who are ‘in the know’. Estimates of income vary, but my personal view, having had some success myself, is that Kidney Stone Man made himself at least one hundred grand.

When I downloaded his book it was only nine pages long. Did this matter? No. His solution was sound and I have no complaints.

My first book was launched in 2004 at a price of nearly $20. It’s not a good example of a simple first attempt because it was a real book, and therefore quite detailed. Nevertheless, I used exactly the same marketing techniques used by new musicians and the result to date is at least 100,000 downloads despite that fact I have hardly done any promotion beyond the first week of launch. I still receive cheques every week.

A friend of mine in Manchester recently made himself over £30,000 in less than seven weeks doing this.

The new power of Internet publishing – the fact that millions of websites can now act as bookstores – is probably one of the powerful entrepreneurial movements since the World Wide Web was invented. The digital music revolution has to lead the way, but the potential of digital books is staggering. I believe that never before in history has it become easier for the average person to achieve incomes on a par with major executives of large corporations. Never before has fame and riches been so simple to achieve.

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sheminecrafts · 6 years ago

Text

The 9 biggest questions about Google’s Stadia game streaming service

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

3. What about iOS devices?

4. What about games you already own?

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Damn.

7. Will people really game on the go?

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

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mccarranhandymanservices-blog · 6 years ago

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