What's up anyway?

You might wonder why nothing ever happens on my YouTube channel (or this blog for that matter) these days. I've said it before. No time. I barely even have the time to tweet, and that's supposed to be fast stuff. This post is just to let you know that I might be changing the direction of the multi8it project. What's to come?

• More Linux related stuff.
• Maybe some coding.
• Probably some politic/hacktivist topics.

I'm really not sure where to take this, I just know that in order to put something out at all, it has to fit my way of life, and the points above are where most of my "computerly" interests are anyway, so sharing those interests will probably not feel like a chore.

Buh-bye!

What is an hour worth?

The title of this post is a question that has a different ring to it these days. If you didn't know, my wife and I were blessed with a child in January this year (2011). Since then, time is more and more becoming a highly valuable asset. Now, don't get me wrong, I do love spending time with my son, but my sort of new found hobby - YouTube - has taken quite a blow. It's been more than a month since my last video upload, and time is ticking.
I feel I have found an interesting subject for my videos, and the response I've gotten proves this. The really sad part is that my MilkyTracker tutorials are just starting to get somewhere, and I really hate leaving the viewers hanging in the middle of a series. Although it might look as though the multi8it project is no more, this couldn't be further from the truth. I have registered the domain multi8it.com, and I have some plans for it. At the moment I plan on sticking with blogger as blog engine, simply because I like it. I will probably mainly use the domain and the hosting as a portal for the project, and a place to host audio files as well as project files. Initially I will not put the MilkyTracker tutorials there, as they somewhat depend on the annotation system. However, I want you to have your say. If you want the tutorials, rendered with annotations in mind, but without them, I will put them up.
This was just a tiny update to let you know that things are moving, albeit slowly. Now I'll sit down and record the audio for the next MilkyTracker tutorial.

Peace!

New computer celebration.

Today is not the happy day that the title of this blog post suggests. Rather, this last Saturday was. My parents and one of my brothers came to visit us. Since my brother and I both recently had our birthdays, an attempt was made at celebrating us. Boy, did that attempt succeed. Up until now I've been using a netbook for all production involved in the multi8it project. No more I say. I got a new laptop!

It's a Toshiba one, pretty cheap, so it's still true to the mission of the multi8it project, which is to show that you don't need expensive stuff to do fun stuff. As I had unpacked the computer I felt sorry for it. Forcibly infected with Microsoft Windows. My netbook runs Ubuntu, simply because of the immense software library that's available. I thought I would take this impending act of liberation as an opportunity to try out a new Linux distro. I chose between Linux Mint and Fedora, and finally decided to go with the latter.

Now, I'm used to sitting on a netbook, but boy it's snappy. Everything is working out of the box. The main obstacle to this point is that Fedora by default uses another package manager, namely yum. I'm used to apt on Ubuntu, but I'm up for the challenge. It's not like it's difficult, it's just different, and the answer is never further away than "man yum".

So why did I choose Fedora? Linux Mint does indeed have a lot preinstalled, both aplication and codec wise. That is part of the problem for me. I don't want a cluttered system. I believe Linux Mint would have a lot of stuff that I'll never use anyway. The mission of the multi8it project is doubly freedom focused, we're looking for both free as in beer and free as in freedom solutions for music production. Since Fedora contains free software only (as far as I know), it's a good place to start.

Now I must admit I'm a total Google junkie. I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google+, YouTube, Blogger, well... pretty much everything Google. It comes naturally that I also use Google Chrome which is not free software. I hope you'll forgive me for that.

Until next time,
peace!

To tweet or not to tweet...

...that is the question. As usual, I wanna apologize for not putting up videos as often as I would like. Now, the matter at hand. I recently signed up for Google+, and I've loved it ever since. My issue is that I'm not the best social media socializer in the world, and keeping more that one account running at the same time is quite a lot to ask from someone like me.

There's no way I'm leaving Google+, I think it really has the future ahead of it. Face book is no option, since I'm rarely there anymore. I'm actually considering deactivating my account there altogether. Identi.ca is not an option either, since I want the "on the go" ability. There simple aren't any Identi.ca apps for Android that I feel comfortable using (the Google+ one kicks ass). This brings me to twitter. I do have an account there (@multi8it), and I've used it to some extent. Still, with the advent of Google+, there really is no reason to keep multiple "public social media" services going at the same time. I might reach a few more people, but since the multi8it project is so niched anyway, people who want to follow me will probably do it anyway.

So, if you're a twitter user, and better yet, if you're following me on twitter, I'm so sorry to announce that I probably will be even less active on twitter than I've been up to this point. I really urge you to check Google+ out. If you want to sign up, feel free to follow me there (http://gplus.to/simonwessel). The nice thing about Google+ is that you don't have to sign up to follow anyone there, so it's up to you.

Anyway, see ya around! Peace!

Cutting the crap

Just a short notice tonight. I'm deactivating AdSense, since it's not doing me any good anyway :) Up until now it's just been cluttering the blog. My intention with this blog will never be to profit. All the money earned will in one way or another be put back into the multi8it project.

With that said, I'm going to bed. I've been feeling kinda crappy the last few days. My son has been sleeping so-so, and that takes it's toll even on former nocturnal being like me. Also I think I'm coming down with a cold. Enough ranting!

I do have the audio for the next MilkyTracker tutorial (I record audio and video separately) recorded already, and I'll do my best to get it out ASAP. Hopefully study pressure will lighten a bit after Monday or Tuesday.

S.

Workflow evolution

I just wanted to give you an update on my workflow. To give you necessary background info; my wife and I were blessed with a child in January. He's now 8 months old. Sleep is important, especially in that age, when you're establishing your routines. That is the reason I've kept my recording to daytime. I simply don't want to disturb his sleep. Yesterday I tried doing some recording in the evening, and guess what - it worked just fine!

Now that I know I'm not risking waking him up I feel I'm sort of standing in front of a personal workflow evolution. This means that I probably will be able to put more time into my YouTube video making.
I know I still have a lot of MilkyTracker tutorials ahead of me and they are on the horizon. However, I want this project to be sort of a dialogue.

My question; what do you want to see once the MilkyTracker series is wrapped up? You can comment here. You can comment or PM me on YouTube (simonwessel). You can tweet me (@multi8it). You can send me and email (multi8it@gmail.com). The choice is yours.

Peace.

Video update 2011-09-13

Update

Hey!
Time for and update! I'm back at home, and everyday life is finally making itself reminded. It has taken longer than I expected to get the next episode of the MilkyTracker tutorials out. My eight months old son needs a lot of attention, and in the two weeks I was away, he has grown tremendously. I needed some time to get back into the whole parenting. Finally I feel that I'm getting back on my feet. Now I can resume the video production.


The main factor holding me back in the production rate is time. Time is scarce. The second factor is hardware. I'm doing all of this on a netbook. It has one and a half years under its belt, so it's quite old. Still, I find that being part of the challenge. I don't want hardware to be an issue. I want to show people that you can do multimedia production on limited hardware.


While you wait for the next episode, which I'll get done as fast as I can, I want to remind you that you can get the project files for my MilkyTracker songs. I just uploaded the project file for the latest song "No You" here.


Keep on chippin'!