In the top menu I added a link to my jQuery tutorial, written a number of years ago. While use of jQuery is declining the site has some info on making your own drop-down menus and AJAX examples.
Check it out at:
MTG Story is Pretty Good; and Lord of the Rings set coming
I’ve been reading Magic: the Gathering’s stories on their website. Some are less than stellar but the Innistrad series is pretty good. The last Innistrad story was definitely intriguing.
Also, they’re releasing a Lord of the Rings set – very cool.
D’Addario NYXL strings – incredible!
I recently tried out NYXL strings and the bright tone was both rich and long-lasting. They’re a bit more expensive but the tone has great harmonic overtones – sold in a few different gauges.
F1 TV
As a huge fan of Formula 1 racing (go team Ferrari!), I was thrilled to discover F1 TV. If you’re willing to wait a couple days after the race to watch it, it’s just $3/month to watch any race going back decades, all the way up to the current season.
Tool’s “Fear Inoculum”
After well over a decade, Tool has released a great new album. It’s definitely a great experience to listen to in its entirety, but it somewhat lacks any great singles like Aenima and 10,000 Days had. What it does have is great asymmetrical time signatures (5/4, 7/8, etc), providing some awesome rhythmic grooves.
If you like Tool it’s worth checking out. The “deluxe” sort of CD offering is long gone/sold out, and now the price to get one is even more absurd than the $37 that they were offered for brand-new… but the mp3 album is great and goes for $12.
Green Rooibos
I drink a lot of tea, and while I’ve enjoyed regular Rooibos tea (or “red tea”) as a caffeine-free plant to drink, it has an extremely mild flavor.
On the Tealyra website I came across green rooibos, which is the same plant but processed much like regular green tea. The flavor is stronger, with a spicy peppery note and grassy flavors.
I definitely recommend it for a flavorful herbal tea.
Learning the Language “Rust”
I’ve just delved into the official book describing the systems language “Rust”; so far I love the syntax, a nice hybrid of C++ and F#/OCaml etc.
Eclipse has tools for developing, which I haven’t really tested much yet.
I read somewhere or another that Rust was the #1 language surveyed developers wanted to learn… and I can see why!
You can check out the Rust homepage here.
BBE Sonic Maximizer
Late last year I purchased a BBE Sonic Maximizer, for both recording music and enhancing music I listen to from my PC into my stereo. While I haven’t recorded all that much music lately, the difference with the Maximizer on or off is astounding.
The bass is boosted without becoming boomy, the stereo separation is dramatically enhanced, and there is a treble and/or presence level EQ enhancement that really clears the sound of music.
It sounds particularly amazing with techno and electronica. My device version is the 882i.
Music Like a Sega Genesis Game
I re-listened to Joe Satriani’s “Engines of Creation” album from just after the turn of the millennium… and while I love his guitar work, it basically sounded like Sonic the Hedgehog background music. Nonetheless, a great album using probably the most elements of electronica of any Satriani album.
Finally Beat “Abzu” on PS4
It didn’t take long to beat Abzu out of difficulty, but rather losing interest for quite a while. The visuals are beautiful, and it’s a fun experience, but there’s basically zero difficulty and no way to lose.
Overall I’d say it’s a mediocre game, and far less interesting than “Journey”, made by the same developer. And while I’d like to play Journey again, I don’t think I’ll be playing Abzu a second time.
Nonetheless, having found a deal on the PlayStation store to buy it for $5, I’d say it was well worth the money.