Pandora Radio is a free internet streaming radio service that allows you to create personalized stations. The stations select music based on similarity using data from The Music Genome Project. You tell it something you like and it will find other songs you probably like. As you listen, you can tell it what you like and dislike so it gets a better idea of your preferences.

I’ve been using Pandora on and off for a few years and it works pretty well. I’ve discovered some great bands I never knew I liked or even heard of. It’s a great way to discover new music. Of course it also plays a lot of your favorites, too.

You can even further customize your stations by mixing them together or manually adding bands for more variety.

The free version has some short ads and a few limits on usage, but it isn’t too bad. I’m actually thinking of getting the paid version that removes the ads and limits, as well as gives higher quality and a desktop application. Right now it’s only $36/year.

Filed under: Misc. Reviews, Reviews by StevoTVR
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In my 2010 post I mentioned the possible reunion of Soundgarden, but now it appears to be confirmed. On April 16, they put on a show in Seattle under the anagram “Nudedragons.” They also released an official live video of them performing “Beyond the Wheel” which is awesome.

The band performed all of their classics as well as a cover of The Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun.” They still sound amazing by the way, especially for their first live performance in about 12 years. Looking for more from this show on YouTube, I found this awesome channel which has audio of the whole set.

Here’s a playlist I put together that has them in order according to the set list. Enjoy:

Filed under: Music Reviews, Reviews by StevoTVR
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Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the latest addition to EA/DICE’s Battlefield franchise, released earlier this month. It is the sequel to Battlefield Bad Company. It features several online modes as well as a short single-player campaign (which I admittedly didn’t finish).

This review will cover the multiplayer modes for the PC version of the game.

The Good

The game features some of the best graphical effects I’ve seen and it really makes me appreciate my recently upgraded system. Something that also stands out about this game is the ability to alter the environment, from cutting down trees to collapsing entire buildings.

There are 4 game modes: Rush (attack/defend), Conquest (territory control), Squad Rush (smaller version of Rush), and Squad Deathmatch. I prefer Rush since is has the most defined objective and focused action. Teams are broken into squads of four to promote teamwork, along with point incentives for helping your squad. You also have the ability to spawn on other squad members which further promotes teamwork. I really like what they have done in this area.

The class breakup is simplified from previous Battlefield games, with only four choices: Assault, Medic, Engineer and Recon. Each class has several categories of customization for weapons, devices, and other perks.

Though they play a smaller role that other Battlefield games, the vehicles are nice. There are the usual tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters, cars, boats, as well a some new additions. These include ATVs, jet skis, and a UAV you can control remotely which is pretty cool.

The ranking system is also more refined with progress and awards shown on loading screens. You get points for everything you do in game that aids the team. These points go towards upgrades and your overall rank. The unlock system is a nice way to ease the learning curve of the game, since you start with the basic loadout and unlock more choices.

The Bad

While the gameplay is awesome, there are a few major flaws that I hope get addressed in future patches. My biggest complaint in the team balance issues. It is very common to see teams become incredibly unbalanced and the game makes it difficult to rectify since team switching is restricted. The games tries to put players on the same team and squad as their friends, which tends to be the source of the unbalances.

Another annoyance is the friends system, which barely works and is very limited. These issues can probably be easily fixed by patches, so I hope they do soon.

Conclusion

This game is awesome. If you like first-person shooters, I highly recommend this game. Also, some may like to know that this game supports dedicated servers.

If you have played this, please comment with your opinions. 🙂

Filed under: Game Reviews, Reviews by StevoTVR
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The Hurt Locker follows an Explosive Ordinance Disposal team in the Iraq war in 2004. They have the extremely dangerous job of disarming bombs in the middle of a war zone. The movie follows the team of three, led by SSG William James, as they go on several missions of investigating and diffusing IEDs.

The Good

This movie seemed to aim at being a realistic depiction of the situation, almost like a documentary, and I think it accomplished that pretty well. This isn’t one of those Hollywood action movies where people survive nearby explosions and just walk away.

There was plenty of suspense where danger could be lurking anywhere. Every civilian is a potential insurgent waiting to remotely detonate the bomb two inches in front of the main character’s face. You really get a feel of just how dangerous his job is.

The Bad

The plot was pretty flat with not much of a climax to speak of. Some viewers may be disappointed by the slow pace and lack of action. If action is what you’re looking for, this movie may not be what you expect.

Conclusion

Overall, this is an excellent war thriller and I’d highly recommend it. There was a perfect balance of suspense and action, and a refreshingly realistic take on events. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

Filed under: Movie Reviews, Reviews by StevoTVR
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I do a lot of programming as a freelancer, mostly PHP and JavaScript for Web based projects. I know these two languages very well, but that’s all I really know. I’ve had a lot of spare time lately, so I decided it would be a good time to learn something new.

First I had to decide what language to go with. Some options I considered were Java, Ruby, C, and C++. I decided to go with C++ since it seemed widely used and different from what I know. So I’m starting with the C++ Language Tutorial.

Now I don’t really know what I’ll be doing with this new knowledge, but I’m sure it will come to some use…

Filed under: General by StevoTVR
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Icons from: Icon Library » Heartquake Prevention icon set

Filed under: General by StevoTVR
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Well it’s been 2010 for five days now, so I think it’s about time for a post. The new decade came with a surprising announcement. So here’s a short post about that and stuff…

If you pay any attention, you know that my favorite band without question is Soundgarden. Unfortunately they have been broken up since ’97, so by the time I discovered the band there was no chance of seeing them live or anything. Whenever asked, the frontman Chris Cornell always said they would never get back together.

So you can imagine my amazement to see this tweet on New Year’s Eve. I just hope that it’s true, and I’m looking forward to more news about this potential reunion.

So Happy New year everyone! I’ll close with this:

Filed under: General, Music Reviews, Reviews by StevoTVR
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Filed under: General by StevoTVR
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Editing videos is kind if a hobby of mine. Sometimes I put together DVDs for my family, but that doesn’t really allow for a lot of creativity. So another thing I do is make videos from game footage.

I, along with several other people, formed a group of video makers for TheVille called Ville Productions. The original intent was to document some of the events that take place, but we also wanted to do some creative stuff.

The biggest projects we created were music videos for each class in Team Fortress 2. So far, we’ve made one for the Medic, Spy, Pyro, Demo, and Scout. Below is a great example using my favorite video, The Spy:

It’s been a while since we have worked on that series, but we have made some smaller projects since. The reason we haven’t continued is that the work proved to be too much for such a small group. Most of the people involved in the group are there to act, while some others help come up with ideas.

None of the other members have volunteered to do the editing of the videos, which is the hard part. It is also impossible to share the load of editing since the raw video footage is too massive to share over the internet. So this meant that I was doing all of the recording and editing, which takes more time than I have to spare.

Anyway, what this all means is that there won’t be any large projects coming out of Ville Productions for the foreseeable future. The good news is that there still may be some smaller projects too look  forward to…

Filed under: General by StevoTVR
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All Half-Life and Source based games include a utility for recording games in a special format called a demo. The recorded footage is only readable by the game itself. Here’s a step by step tutorial to convert these recorded demos into video format.

Recommended Method

This is the method I always use, and is the “safe” method that I recommend.

What You Need

• Demo file(s)
• VirtualDub (download)
• Plenty of hard drive space

To install VirtualDub, just unzip it to the desired location. To use it, run ”’VirtualDub.exe”’ or ”’VeeDub64.exe”’ depending on the version.

Converting

1. Run TF2 and reduce the resolution (I use 720×480 or 1280×720 for HD). You should also restart the game after this or some things may be out of proportion. Also change any other settings for the desired effect (such as disabling the HUD or voice; see below for useful commands).
2. In the console type the following commands (replace ”demoname” with the name of the demo file):

   startmovie moviename
   playdemo demoname

   The demo will now play while the game records the frames to TGA files at 30 fps.

3. When the demo is completed or you have all the footage you want, in the console type:

   endmovie

   You should now have lots of TGA images and a WAV in the mod directory.

4. Run VirtualDub and go to File > Open video file. Browse to your Steam\SteamApps\account\Game Name\mod directory and select the first image in the series (moviename0000.tga). Click Open. It will now import all the images in the sequence.
5. Go to Audio > WAV Audio and select the moviename.wav file. Click Open.
6. If you plan to edit the file in another program, you can leave it uncompressed. Otherwise you can choose compression options in Video > Compression….
7. Go to File > Save as AVI and save the output to the desired location. When the process completes, you will have an AVI file that can be edited or played back with other tools.

Clean-up

The easiest way to remove all the TGA files is to use the following commands in the Command Line:
cd Path-to-mod-folder
del *.tga
del moviename.wav

Alternate Method

I have not tested this very much and there seems to be issues with audio synchronization, but it is a much easier and faster process.

What You Need

• Demo file(s)
• Plenty of HDD space

Converting

1. Run TF2 and reduce the resolution (I use 720×480 or 1280×720 for HD) in windowed mode. You should also restart the game after this or some things may be out of proportion. Also change any other settings for the desired effect (such as disabling the HUD or voice; see below for useful commands).
2. In the console type the following command:

   startmovie moviename avi

   A prompt will ask for compression options (may not work in full-screen). Choose a good balance between size and quality or leave it uncompressed.

3. In the console type the following command (replace demoname with the name of the demo file):

   playdemo demoname

   The demo will now play while the game records to an AVI file.

4. When the demo is completed or you have all the footage you want, in the console type:

   endmovie

You should now have a complete AVI video in the game directory.

Useful Commands

• demoui – Nice GUI for opening and controlling demos
• sv_cheats 1 – Required for some of the below
• voice_enable 1/0 – Enable/disable voice
• cl_drawhud 1/0 – Enable/disable the HUD

Filed under: Tutorials by StevoTVR
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