Command Line Radio

I’m one of those people who love to listen to music while programming. It feels calming and gets me into rhythm. I don’t know about you and your coding rituals and preferences: drinking coffee or tea, listening to music, eating a light snack.

For those who love music, love discovering music and love the black and white, typewriter font command line, here’s an interesting website to go to:

CMD.FM

The website runs on music from SoundCloud, a music sharing website.

It’s fun, creative and free. My experience with it is impressive. I’ve gone from country music and ended the night with a little bit of classical music.

Keep Chewing!

Reviving My Old Gadgets

After summer cleaning my house, I found a few gems that I used to love when I was about as young as a tadpole.

Well, not really.

I found my old Canon PowerShot A400 camera that only had 3.2 megapixels! It’s a dinosaur, The last time I used it was in our 2013 Vacation Bible School, but the last last time I used it was 3 years back, before I had my Nikon CoolPix camera. Anyways, long story short, I found this old bulk of junk (it still works fine, except for the clock battery) and I plan to use it as a backup camera when all else fails.

Also, I found my old iPod 5th Generation (yes, I have one for music purposes only). The only reason I bought that was for the high quality camera and basic music listening. Everything else was a hassle. iTunes is bloated and a crazy source hog and well, it’s Apple. Enough said.

I plan to revive these two gadgets. The iPod Nano is still useful for playing music. Ever since I got my phone, that’s what I’ve been using as an MP3 player. The bad thing about it is that it dies out easily because we use it as an MP3 player for long trips. That will most likely be the use for this: a car ride MP3 player!

Sometimes, the oldest of things can still give out a little juice. Finding ways to reuse them is a great thing, because not only does it help the environment, it also helps us realize that everything is useful, in one way or another.

Keep Chewing!

Programmers and Music

When my Computer Science teacher gave us an assignment or project, it would usually take me a while to figure things out. I want to make sure that I knew every concept and more. I tried to make sure that I was ahead of the class, not only because this is my future  but it’s also because I enjoy the course.

So, while I’m working my butt off either asking people (like tPenguinLTG) for some Java help or just reading information, pages and pages of forum answers and other resources, I need a proper setup. I have a nice router extended from the basement all the way to the 2nd floor of my house. I always have either a can Arizona iced tea or a cup of coffee before or while writing code.

I use Eclipse, which is a free IDE. It’s by far my favourite IDE because of its functionality and ease of us. The user interface is awesome and it actually helps you become a better programmer.

Finally, there’s one thing that I always have to have when writing code. I need music.

This may be weird to some, but I love listening to classical music when writing code. I usually listen to Ludwig van Beethoven, Vivaldi and Mozart. I have a small compilation of music that usually runs approximately five hours is more than enough for me.

These are definitely in my playlist.

Symphony No. 5 – Beethoven

Four Seasons – Vivaldi

The reason why I like listening to some classical music is because it helps me relax. Coding is stressful. You can ask any programmer, veteran or beginner, and they’ll tell you the same thing. Also, listening to musicians such as Mozart helps the brain function better. I guess that’s one of the reasons why we have a small cassette collection of Mozart.

Try listening to some music while coding. Take a pick of any genre that you enjoy, make a playlist and just do it.

Keep Chewing!

The Personal Computer

The personal computer is one of the greatest, most prominent advancements in human history. Great inventions such as the car, airplanes and cup holders are no match to your everyday PC. Almost everyone in the entire North American grid owns a computing device, whether it be a home computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet – the list goes on. It is also the fastest growing technology. Almost everyday, there is something new for the PC. It could be hardware or software – most of which help enhance the use of the PC.

One question that has never been considered answered is why is it a Personal Computer called a Personal Computer?

Personally speaking (pun intended), I think it is because of how we use it. Almost everything we do is on a computer. We talk to people using the video chatting application called Skype, which continues to grow as a service for people who would like to communicate with friends and family all over the world. Social networking has exploded, with the popular use of Facebook and Twitter. Writing became easy to share with the blogging sites like Blogger, WordPress and Weebly. Video sharing has also popularized with YouTube and the new website called Vine. The Internet truly became a community and a hub for people all over the world.

The computer is personal because of our daily needs. Because of the PC and its strengths (back then), we are able to create documents for work (Word), presentations to show off ideas (PowerPoint), spreadsheets to keep important data, numbers and information (Excel) and publish flyers or brochures to further increase sales for your small business (Publisher).

Everyone seems to love video editing. Photo editing too! I’m sure you know someone who would love to make some funny videos, action scenes, edited CGI or animations as a hobby. Or even someone who wants to touch up pictures for a certain online dating site. For video, Windows usually comes with their infamous Windows Movie Maker, which allows PC users to edit videos. The only problem with this was its limitations. It was only a drag and drop program with minimum options for editing. For someone to professionally edit videos, they have to purchase software or find freeware/open source software that can handle all the rendering, file management and high quality videos. Photo editing was a big deal for Microsoft. Instead, Adobe took the stage and created Adobe Photoshop. It is widely used for editing photos. Animations also became popular in the Internet. Blender usually takes the cake for animations. It’s a great freeware!

Music has always played an important role in human history. It defined eras and even created its own history. In the computer, users can create, listen and play music without hassle. It allowed many hidden musicians (excluding Justin Bieber) to shine. With music tools and applications, making and recording music is as easy as pressing a button, literally!

The gaming industry has recently exploded. The gaming community is ten times stronger than ever! PC gamers are proud. They either take pride of their prized possession – their own, personally built PC, or are happy to play some League of Legends with some actual players! No, seriously, the gamer can be a console gamer or a PC gamer. I’d say, in my opinion (although I am a console guy), PC gamers are cooler. Tons of games are free to play, there is more hardware power on a PC right now compared to the upcoming next gen consoles and the PC gaming community is growing in numbers! The PC is truly the core of gaming.

And then, there was development. The computing world would not consistently progress without programmers, software developers and code writers. These are the wizards of the world. They are the ones who should be considered the rock stars of this generation. Without them, the computer would be a throwaway. It is those who know how to write C++, C, C#, Java, JavaScript, HTML, etc that revolutionized our daily lives. As an aspiring programmer (game developer and future CEO of Blizzard or Google), I believe that credit should be given where it is due.

Now, it seems that we still have not answered the question correctly, why is it a Personal Computer called a Personal Computer?

The answer is: it is because we make it personal.

Follow @DR34DNOUGHT!

Keep Chewing!

JVC Xtreme Xplosives

NEW POST TYPE: REV TECH – reviews on awesome gadgets and technology

Hey everyone! I shall be reviewing these awesome headphones: JVC XTreme Xplosives

I’m a big listener of classic style Tagalog rap. I listen to Francis M, Gloc 9 and Andrew E. I also listen to my favourite OPM bands. These guys bring the music!

Before I had these, I had Skull Candy. They were terrific but didn’t last very long. They were cheap and I’m assuming this is the reason why these do not last very long.

After a while of patience, I realize I needed to purchase some new headphones. Long story, short: these bad boys were on sale.

The sound on these are phenomenal. I compared them with my friend’s Beats and it would beat it with no contest (pun intended). I really enjoy these headphones and find them very comfortable. They have a built microphone that I use when on the go and need to make a call. One unfortunate con to this pack is that the microphone button only works as a play/pause button. I was hoping it would be better than that, maybe skip or rewind. Other than that, the sound is crisp and clear, the noise cancellation is awesome and the flow of music is smooth.

Take a good look for these bad boys on Shop Bot. I’m sure they have ’em in Amazon too.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5

Thanks and Keep Chewing!