Advice Thread

[Metcarfre]

Krav Maga always struck me as the least BS martial art out there. If you just want to know how to punch a guy in the balls, go for that.

[Master Gunner]

I support Krav Maga.

[Kapol]

I'm curious about how others might feel on this. I'm currently saving up for PAX East. Given I'm about 1/3 towards my minimum goal, I've decided to get myself something I want. Problem is I'm torn. The choices are as follows:

-Get Dishonored (can get it for $45 from GMG)
-Get The Whatever Thing and It's Magic DVDs from the LRR store.

And, to make it harder, I've found out that Mike Birbiglia is doing a show not too far away. It'd cost about $40 for tickets and $10-20 for gas.

On top of THAT, I found out that there's a gatecrash pro tour qualifier happening about an hour away that I'd like to go to.

So yea, those are the four that I'm trying to choos between. Depending on a few factors, I might do a couple of them. But it's still a hard choice. *shrug*

[Jamfalcon]

I would say go for the PTQ or show (though I'm not familiar with Mike Birbiglia). Dishonored will probably be on sale for $15 within the next six months, so if money's tight you could wait until then. And while I'm always in favour of people buying LRR's stuff, you can probably pick the DVDs up at PAX East, and then get them signed as well.

But I doubt anyone but you can really judge which of those things you'd like the most, so I don't know how much use my advice will be.

[Kapol]

Yea, that's a good point. It's just hard to decide. I'm leaning towards the PTQ and show if I can swing it. Likely the show and maybe the PTQ if I can swing it.

[Psyclone]

Soooo...

College essays. Those are a thing.

[Metcarfre]

Mike Birbiglia is so awesome though!

[Dutch guy]

Soooo...

College essays. Those are a thing.

For any essay, first make up a chapter "order" and make a short summary of what has to be where.

Planning ahead is everything. If you don't know what you'll be writing in advance, it leads to a lot of going back and forth, adding in bits, moving bits, removing bits, editing bits, etc, etc, etc, ad nauseam.

[Kapol]

Mike Birbiglia is so awesome though!

That he is... but I ended up spending more then I had intended on Desert Bus anyways. So I would have been worse off anyways.

[Cybertrash]

Does anyone have experience with webcasting?

I've been looking to record/stream my mixes, so far I've used the built-in webcam & audio input on my Macbook using iMovie to capture the footage live (which is handy, since it records both line-level audio and video at the same time, I don't really have the ability to sync audio & video in post).

However (as one plainly can see here) the video results are quite awful, granted it could probably be improved by better lighting, but nonetheless the webcam is limited to say the least, if nothing else I'd like a camera which I could mount on a tripod or something similar, as it is I've had my computer balancing precariously on top of a drumpad controller.

Whilst I may know a little bit about stills photography, I'm completely lost when it comes to video, I know some digital stills camera can do video, but I'm fairly certain there is no way to hook those up to a computer for live streaming purposes without some fancy capture box.

A lot of cameras have (or used to have?) firewire which I think you could use for live capture, but I haven't seen a computer with a firewire port in ages, mine certainly doesn't have one.

So basically, do you guys know of any ways to livestream video of decent quality? I dont' mind having to do a little bit of lighting work, but I'd need the flexibility to place the camera where I'd like. Also, manual exposure controls would be pretty rad as well.

[The Jester]

I'm looking for a tablet to request for Christmas. It needs to be less than £200, net capable, able to be used in both the UK and the US, and in colour. Those are the only things I'm looking for.

HD would be a nice bonus, but I can live without it. Access to Android apps would be cool, too, so that I can use the app I'm working on right now.

I've heard good things about the Samsung Galaxy Note and the Nexus 7. From what I've read the Kindle Fire is almost what I'm after, but is region locked.
I remember some discussion about what tablet to go for before... I think it was Met asking that time. I can't remember what the upshot was, though.

What can people tell me about whatever tablet devices they own?

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

How do I stop biting my nails?

Clear nail varnish doesn't work.
What works is wearing gloves. But it's unrealistic to wear them 24/7.

[Metcarfre]

I was looking for a very different thing; eBook, eInk display, inexpensive, non-Kindle (ie able to work with my local library).

[warkface]

I have a Nexus 7 myself, and have been pretty happy with it so far. The nice thing is that, with the exception of Amazon's instant video service, the Nexus 7 has access to all the same Amazon content that the Kindle Fire has. The only thing I'm disappointed with so far is the lack of MicroSD slot, but I knew that was a downside before I bought it.

[The Jester]

I was looking for a very different thing; eBook, eInk display, inexpensive, non-Kindle (ie able to work with my local library).

Ah ok, I recalled something about an electronic book-reading device, and that was all I had. Yeah, very different.

Also, thanks warkface. How easy is it to transfer your own videos to the Nexus 7 to watch? Stuff like films or TV shows. And do you need an app to view PDFs and CBRs, or does it come with something installed already that can do that?

[warkface]

Transferring stuff is pretty simple, it basically just looks like a regular old USB drive when you plug it in, though I seem to recall that you might need special drivers if you're trying to use it with Mac / Linux boxes. I haven't tried any video yet, but Android devices are usually pretty good at playing back most common file types, and there's always the Market if you need something more niche. I'm pretty sure it has a PDF viewer on it, though you may need to download something if you need to view CBR files, not sure.

[The Jester]

I thought transferring would be fine, but it was worthwhile asking.

How does it handle Silverlight, do you know?

[warkface]

With most things in Android, if it's not baked in, and it's a reasonably common format, you can probably find a free viewer/reader for it.

As far as Silverlight working, probably not at all? That would be my guess anyway, since it's a Microsoft product and I doubt they would have ported it to Android. I'm not even sure it's available in their mobile OSes. Also worth mentioning, since Adobe doesn't support Flash on Android anymore, it's no longer in the Market. I'm guessing it wouldn't be too difficult to find an APK somewhere for it, but it's something I thought I'd bring up.

[The Jester]

Allright, cool. Thanks!

Does anybody here own a Samsung Galaxy Tab2? 7 inch, I'm thinking of.

[MotorWaffle]

Maybe a photographer can help on this one:

How do I turn off the feature on my camera that causes all players at the game I'm covering to flee to the farthest area of play possible?

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

How do I stop myself biting my nails?

[Drdiggit42]

How do I stop myself biting my nails?

Wear boxing gloves at all times.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Add 'wearing boxing gloves' to your sig.

[Jamfalcon]

"When you're a pessimist wearing boxing gloves there are only good surprises?"

[Keab42]

"Jamfalcon's a super weird name" - Graham wearing boxing gloves