A few years ago I created an assortement of musical peices which I uploaded to IUMA, which is now defunct.

I can only remember the name of one of the tracks and the name I uploaded them under.

The track was called Human Error and it was uploaded under the name FadeOut. If anyone out there downloaded this track (and any of the others, of which there were about 4) could you let me know please.

I know I should have kept a backup, and I honestly thought I had, but having changed computers at least half a dozen times since then and having also moved house multiple times, my music has got lost in the ether somewhere.

I know that there’s hardly any chance of this coming to anything but its worth a try eh?

The first item of the day was Dr Eyjo’s presentation comparing The economy of the Chinese server, Serenity (SE), with its larger and more estabished counterpart, Tranquility (TQ). He compared alot of statisics and showed us alot of graphs but the basice point of the excercise was to demonstrate that even though the two servers are completely independent of each other, the same patterns are emegring.

For instance, the busiest system in the game, Jita (pronounced Yeetah), developed naturally as a trade hub on TQ without any interference or engineering from CCP. It just happened. Jita is also the main trade hub on SE, though the reason behind that may be Chinese players reading he forums and playing on TQ and assuming that Jita was supposed to be the trade hub. Not realising that it didn’t have to be.

Interestingly, Pilots on SE are more combat focussed than those on TQ. This may be due to the younger demographic (25-30 as opposed to TQ’s 30-35) but is also indicative of the cultural differences between the two servers. Something I found interesting was that players on SE have set up a safe haven in 0.0 space where anyone can go and rat without fear of piracy. Its controlled and patrolled by players so that newer pilots can get a chance to experience 0.0 without fear of being ganked. A good idea and something which we players should look at for TQ if we want to encourage more players into 0.0.

I also went to both the Walking In Stations talks (I like how even the dev’s say it with a smirk or sneer as if they hate the name as much as I do. Its Ambulation for fuck’s sake) but I’ll be writing about that in a different post after I’ve had a shot of the demo.

Whisper trys to control two teams of CCP employees. I'm told its like trying to herd cats.

The last event of the day was the 2nd Annual Dev Quiz presented by Whisper and featuring teams from QA (Quality Assurance) and the GMs (Game Masters). It had a longer title than that but I’m damned if I can remember it all. It mentioned something about whimsy and elephants. Oh god, how I laughed. These CCP employees are all nuts I tell you. The final round was an Audiosurf contest on a track specially written for the competition by CCP’s own resident musician. The track will be available for download from the EVE website so you can compare your scores to those of the two teams, I’ll post a link when one becomes available.

In the evening my wife and I parted ways to go do our own things. I went looking for a decent pub with good music and found The Dubliner. A nice little Irish pub with friendly staff and a good atmosphere. The evening did not start well, with a shouty Irishman thrashing a guitar and yelling into a mic, I was just thinking that I would finish my drink and go on to somewhere else when he removed himself from the stage and another gentleman took his place.

Oh Yeah, The Girl Can Sing...

10 minutes into his set a girl wearing an EVE Fanfest pass strikes up a conversation with the singer and he hands her the mic. I’m thinking ‘oh dear, someone fancies themselves a bit’ when suddenly a wall of sound grabs me by the heart and lifts me to somewhere else. When she finished her set I went for a cigarette and bumped into her outside. She see’s that I too play EVE and we get chatting. As a result I spend the evening in the company of a few pilots from Romanian Renegades and No Joy. Thanks to you all for a great night out, especially the girl with the voice who’s name was Harry or possibly Harí (I apologise for the spelling but its an Icelandic name and that’s the closest approximation I could come up with.)

If your reading this Harí (sp?) drop me a line with your in-game name as I’ve forgotten it (lost in a beery fog I’m afraid). If all else fails I can probably find you through the No Joy lads who I’ll be joining in Syndicate at some point in the future.

Does he have a degree in pshychology? Is he a game designer? Does he play games? does he even associate with those who commit knife crime? I’m willing to bet that the answer to three of these questions is no. Like it or not playing video games is something that pretty much everyone does, and guess what; not everyone who plays games goes out and stabs people. As he would realise if he lived in the real world and spoke to real people and not the fawning sycophants he has no doubt been surrounded with.

He’s perpetuating the same logical fallacy that many who campaign against gaming do, which is this: People who stab people play video games, therefore the games must make them do it.I could apply the same logic to his profession: He is a popular musician, popular music is associated with drug use and rampant promiscuity, therefore he uses drugs and is rampantly promiscuous. Oh, hang on a minute.

One word describes this argument and Mr. Galagher’s involvement with it and that word is: FAIL.

(Note: clicking on the ‘read more’ link will lead you to what looks like a broken page, this is due to the embedded music player, everything still works as it should its just the layout thats screwy. WordPress can’t handle the <object> and <embed> tags. If anyone has any suggestions for fixing this feel free to let me know in the comments)

Trent Reznor has finally left interzone, after describing them as ‘greedy assholes’ and encouraging fans to steal his music during his last tour. The Nine Inch nails have released part of their new instrumental album Ghosts I-IV for free through their website and for a nominal payment of $5 (US Dollars, which is £2.50 in my money) you can download the whole thing DRM free. The popularity of this move was demonstrated when the NIN website went down due to high traffic over the weekend.

Ghosts I-IV is also the first offering from a fairly big name I’ve seen to carry a creative commons license. Released under an Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license, you can basically do whatever you want with it as long as you credit the creator, don’t sell it and do it under the same license. This brings up some interesting possibilities, especially as you can order a version of the album which includes all the tracks in multi-track format encouraging remixes and sampling (its $75 though, or I would have ordered that one). I look forward to hearing some fan remixes in the future, let me know if you’re planning any and I’ll promote them here (if I deem them worthy of course )

This is indicative of a growing trend in the music industry as more artists become disillusioned with the traditional music industry and release their work online. With the recent controversy over the RIAA not passing on money made from suing those who copied music to the artists, whose interests they claim to be representing, I can only see this as being another nail in the coffin of a dying industry. The men in suits have lined their pockets for long enough and the artists are taking control.

Good on you Mr Reznor, I salute you.

Here is a selection of tracks from Ghosts to whet your appetite:

This, apart from the needless Mario Bros themed interlude, is stunning. Nuff Said

Sites so far discovered:

• http://iamtryingtobelieve.com
• http://anotherversionofthetruth.com
• http://bethehammer.net
• http://churchofplano.com
• http://www.opalescenthaze.com
• http://105thairbornecrusaders.com
• http://consolidatedmailsystems.com

Set in a dystopian future (though not a distant one), it seems to be a vision of where the world might be in a few years time.  I’ll be following the clues and will try to keep you posted on developments.

There is a full track listing and further details about the new album available at NIN.com