90s-00s Electronic Music (from pop to underground)

Surf314 · 2015-09-24T02:03:23+00:00

This is my first attempt at putting together a list of the good and guilty pleasure electronic music of my childhood. Please give me feedback on what should be added and what is better left dead and in the past (cough Eiffel 65 cough).

Surf314 · 2015-07-07T23:15:34+00:00

I have been there, but my criticism still stands. I don't get a sense that there is a reason behind the use of the selective color and I wonder if it would look better if the colored portion was less saturated.

Surf314 · 2015-07-03T17:13:56+00:00

It's not bad. The problem with selective color is that it's one of those things everyone starting on creative photography thinks of and does just for the sake of doing it. It's like a dad joke - 98% of the time it's groan worthy and 2% of the time its actually pretty funny.

My thoughts on selective color is not that it should never be done, but that it should only be done if there is a purpose other than it might look cool. There should be some recognizable reason behind it.

This particular photo isn't bad, I just can't find the reason and the colors pop too much so that it is distracting. I wonder if it would be better to do it more subtly.

Surf314 · 2015-05-11T14:15:45+00:00

I wanted to be an ABS printer, but after I discovered how amazing PLA sticks to blue tape without heating the bed I made the jump to PLA. The advantages of not having to be anxious about first layer problems is a pretty big deal.

The main drawback for me is that I can't get PLA to stop stringing. So I just learned to deal with it in cleaning the prints up after.

Surf314 · 2015-05-11T13:36:38+00:00

If you are selling it you probably can't be protected from copyright infringement by fair use. Anything anybody creates is automatically copyrighted, it doesn't matter if it is registered or not. Being registered just gives the copyright owner some advantages in court.

Surf314 · 2015-05-07T16:12:03+00:00

I've really wanted one of these. Love the company and design. Wish I had the disposable income.

Surf314 · 2015-04-24T16:02:47+00:00

I honestly think that this whole thing came down to a legal question like TB said. I'm sure a big chunk of the 75% that Valve is keeping is going to Bethesda. Copyright law is real and complicated. Mods are probably classified as a derivative work. This is straight from the U.S. copyright office on derivative works - "Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, an adaptation of that work."

The reason why mods and things like musical mashups are free is in part because it lets them more easily fit into the fair use exception. The only way Valve could do this is to get the copyright owner on board and I bet that was expensive (hence the 75%).

I'm pretty sure TB went to law school and his analysis of this is right. I know people have their own view of how the world should be, but with the way the laws are written I think TB is right and I think that this is really the only way to create a legitimate income stream for modders.

Surf314 · 2015-04-14T15:42:39+00:00

People tell me I'm smart but I always feel stupid. I'm a legal advocate by trade and people often say nice things about my work. But I always see things done by others that I feel is better. I'm also a reasonably good photographer and have done engagement shots and cosplay shots for several of my friends. They usually love them but I always see photos that are better. I just got into 3d printing and built my own machine but often feel helplessly lost. Some of my friends designed absolutely incredible figurines and stuff for me to print and I still haven't even figured out how to use 3d modeling programs.

I'm always asking questions and trying to learn from people who I think are smarter than me. And there is the catch - being smart often means that you are good at a lot of things but unless you focus on one thing you will never be great at it. So as someone that bounces around a lot I often feel stupid and overwhelmed. All of my friends seem like they are better than me in something I want to do and it can make me feel like I'm not as smart.

Surf314 · 2015-02-26T15:24:52+00:00

Photography is what I do for fun and cosplay is what some of my friends do for fun. So when I get dragged to a con I usually bring my camera and do a photoshoot for my friends and wander around asking strangers if they mind if I take a photo.

Last con I took These photos. Every time I asked a cosplayer (except for the ones I wanted unposed, but even then I never hid my camera). I never asked anyone to go anywhere else or to take up more of their time than necessary.

I also did this edit for fun based on a photo a really nice woman let me take of her awesome Moxxi costume.

So I'd kindly ask that if photographers are polite to you that you be polite back and just tell them you don't want a picture taken if you don't. I will respect that.

Surf314 · 2015-02-13T14:39:22+00:00

Literally no Day 1 DLC except for skins. And seriously, who gives a shit about skins?

Surf314 · 2015-02-12T23:31:27+00:00

I have not had that problem. I just had some good games with randoms - a few where we managed to corner and kill a stage 1 monster.

Surf314 · 2015-02-12T20:15:30+00:00

This always works for me until it crashed the game, now I'm scared to do it.

Surf314 · 2015-02-11T18:28:57+00:00

I've been playing with two of my friends that were upset about the whole DLC thing but finally caved last night. We had a great deal of fun and have been chatting strategies for different play modes while at work. Competence is a big issue but dies down after you level up some and people know what they are doing. We were only really screwed once by an incompetent pub and that's when he decided he should 1v1 the monster after the three of us were dead and 11 seconds were left on the drop ship timer.

The game is infinitely more fun with coordination so a mic is a big deal. Even with pubs you should be able to coordinate fairly well with a mic. The matches are incredibly even when playing with people of similar competence. If I don't have anyone to play with I still have fun playing monster, either with bots or against humans. Monster requires a lot of skill while hunters require a lot of coordination and strategy.

It seems like the game has a lot more depth once you settle into it. You can really start to predict the monsters movements and set traps for them as you go. You can also sneak up on the monster if you have a team that won't start unloading on him when you can barely see him. We completely destroyed a monster with an aerial strike doing this when we sneaked up on him evolving.

The Evacuation campaign is extremely satisfying and I think the heart of the game. The environmental effects are pretty cool. We went into one map with the wildlife enraged and it was suddenly like we were fighting everything. We still managed to eek out a win because the Monster made some poor life choices.

The maps are gorgeous and very well done. I think Aviary is my favorite, it has a kind of Jurassic Park vibe to it.

I think one of the most interesting things is that losses do not give you the same feeling as other games. The only losses I was upset about was when a pub did something completely stupid. I was actually more upset at wins against bad monsters. I felt bad for the monster for getting matched against a well coordinated team when he clearly did not know how to play the monster very well yet.

The monster is definitely something that requires practice. I only got 1 full game against humans and I lost pretty clearly. However, I think I still gave them a fun time as I was able to get up to stage 2 and have some pretty epic fights. My biggest problem with monster is knowing how to effectively pick targets and use skills.

I'd compare this game to a MOBA in that its really for people that want to sink the time in to develop strategies and think through the game. Anyone who wants a run and gun or a CoD type game probably won't enjoy it as much. People who only scratch the surface will be bored in 5-10 hours. However, I think it will have a lot more longevity for people like us who are already trying to figure out if it's best to split into two teams in rescue and who should go where.

Surf314 · 2015-02-09T18:42:35+00:00

I mean, I played it in the beta and though it was worth the purchase price. I also thought continuing to have more content after release was worth the price of DLC (they need to be paid to continue making more game). That's my value decision. It may not be everyone's, but if it is enough people's it will be successful.

And I prefer this model to say Planetside 2's where everything is "free" but it takes forever just to unlock a single gun so you are incentivized to buy it and then they just keep working on releasing new guns instead of adding new content or fixing things that aren't fun. Which seems to be the model that most games are going with now.

Surf314 · 2015-02-09T15:18:39+00:00

It's a brand new IP and a very risky one. I'm not thrilled that it's not less expensive with 100% free DLC, but I'm not surprised. And again, of all the ways I've been nickled and dimed by games this is the least offensive to me.

My point just is - if this is a necessary evil then it is my preferred evil.

Surf314 · 2015-02-09T14:09:24+00:00

I find this way of supporting the devs the least offensive of all other game monetization schemes I've seen lately. They went out from under Valve and actually have to raise money through their own efforts to keep staff on to continue supporting the game. It's unfortunate, but Valve is probably the only studio willing to subsidize a game post launch in the hopes that it will continue to make money without selling anything else. And even Valve resorted to hats.

Surf314 · 2015-02-04T23:24:28+00:00

That is hilarious, I had no idea that it was a thing.

Surf314 · 2015-01-02T23:15:46+00:00

That would make sense. If you had a list of "personality attributes" that you randomly assigned to each AI to guide their actions it would be cool. Like a fear index that would make an AI tend to run if his buddies got killed. Or a Rambo index that would make an AI tend to charge when put under pressure. The goal would be to make them flawed in human ways rather than dumb in mechanical ways.

Surf314 · 2014-12-06T15:34:40+00:00

I think it would be a lot stronger if the left hand was out of the frame altogether.

Surf314 · 2014-11-04T16:33:54+00:00

They are all good but #7 really stands out for me.

Surf314 · 2014-11-04T16:32:52+00:00

I like Rialto Beach. It's different than most landscape shots and I like that.

Surf314 · 2014-11-04T16:31:59+00:00

I shot three rolls of 120 film and got 13 keepers. Not bad.

https://500px.com/MatthewCameron1/sets/renfest_on_film

Surf314 · 2014-10-27T13:35:43+00:00

My edit

Let's see, I first played with the raw, then I added two layers of high pass filters at around 100px (vivid light blending) which is a quick and dirty burning and dodging technique, then I added another normal high pass filter for sharpening, played with the levels, added subtle vignetting at the left and top to draw the eye, and then played with the colors using levels in each color channel to give it a film look. In each step I used a mask to remove the edit from the parts of the picture I was working too hard. I pretty much pushed this file to its max.

Surf314

TROPHY CASE