404'd in Icelandic

Too funny. Check this link to a non-existent page I found when trying to find a ferry up to the westfjords area:

http://www.seatours.is/404error.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/ferrybaldur.php

Back to Iceland!

So yeah, I'm going back. June 29th through July 13th I'll be rockin' the Ring Road again, doing a full two weeks of exploring and speaking Icelandic, however poorly.

This will be my view out the window of the plane just before landing in Keflavik.

YEAAAAAHHHHH ICELAND!!!! HERE I COME!!!

Magnus' Gift of LOLCAT Keeps On Giving

moar funny pictures

Magnus' Wish

My friend Magnus was my saving grace in Vienna last year, and he has a rather unique wish. To build the ultimate bartending robot! If that's not a selfless desire, I don't know what is. Please read below from Magnus of www.roboexotica.org and www.shifz.org :

I wish for...

...the world domination of robots to be started by the perfect
cocktailrobot who will make all lowly humans into his addicted slaves!
Help me help create the ultimate cocktail mixing and serving robot by
granting me the financial means!"

Friday night when I did some late-nite browsing of the interwebs, instead
of ending up buying something from Amazon, i followed a link from
Boingboing and made a wish at Robinhoodfund - and asked for 10.000,- US$.

In case the wish is granted I'll split it up 50:50 to a) sponsor some
promising bots coming to ROBOEXOTICA 2007 and b) for the first time
provide prize-money to the winners of the Annual Cocktail Robot Awards.

So you can help make this happen clicking this link -
http://www.robinhoodfund.com/cast-your-votes/wish/id/1168 (and/or make
your own wish!).

... From the Robinhoodfund-page (if I had come across this on a less
trustworthy site than Boingboing i would never have given it a second
thought) ..

How it Works

Step 1 - Make a Wish
For the price of a free catalogue, the Robinhood Fund community
might
make your wish come true. Submit your naughty or nice wish for the chance
to share in the specified period's pot. Your wish goes up for voting at
the beginning of the new week, and competes with fellow wishers for the
entirety of that week.

Remember, your wish has the best chance if it's in the right place.
There are two categories, meaning two wishes are granted per week. Here's
more:

Naughty
Not every wish is about saving the world, saving a life, or saving
a
soul.
Be a little selfish. If your wish is about something you just want,
this is the category for you.

Nice
Sometimes people need a helping hand. If you are an innocent victim
of
cruel fate, failing health, dire circumstance, or know of a worthwhile
cause who is, post your wish to "Nice." You will be grouped with other
noble, deserving wishes for a little help from the Robinhood Fund.

Step 2 - The Community Decides
No elite board of directors - you and your peers decide whose
wishes
to grant. View wishes in each category to promote the worthiest wish of
every type.

Step 3 - Wishes are Granted
Each week, the coffers are emptied and the funds are distributed
between the winners in each category, granting as many wishes as the
amounts allow. It's just that simple.

Native Instruments Komplete 4

Native Instruments is a company located in Berlin, Germany that makes some incredible-sounding virtual instruments for Mac and PC. I've been on board with them for several years now, since I found a steal of a deal to get Reaktor 3 with a free upgrade to Reaktor 4 for $200 (the software retailed for about $400-$500 at the time). After that, they offered Komplete, a collection of virtually every instrument in their arsenal, for a few hundred dollars more for registered users of one or more of their products, so I bit on that as well.

Then came along Komplete Care 2005, a subscription service for the instruments. 2005 would be the greatest year for Native Instruments products, a press release stated. So for another couple hundred bucks, I was in for a pound, as they say.

2005 turned out to be a great year indeed. We were treated to such wonderful products as Absynth 3 and Battery 2. . Then came along Reaktor 5 and Kontakt 2, the flagship synthesizer construction kit and sampler, respectively. Either one of these two would have been worth the investment.

Komplete Care 2006 came along, and I managed to find it for about $150, which was about $75 cheaper than anywhere else. I think it was a database error over Thanksgiving weekend last year that wasn't corrected in time, but I took advantage of it while it lasted. I looked forward to any products that NI might put out in the 2006 calendar year, but I knew all along that it would be impossible to top 2005.

It turned out I was right. As the year went on, customers started to become agitated. The company's Kore system, their first foray into the hardware market, was met with mixed reviews. No new products had been announced that fell under the Komplete Care umbrella, and the natives were getting restless.

To quell the troops, NI sent out a free update to Komplete 3, which included the B4 organ, Guitar Rig II (software only) and Elektrik Piano, all excellent pieces of software. A few more months passed, and they sent out copies of the Absynth 3 and Kontakt 2 Tutorial DVDs. This was a nice gesture, and as I already had the Absynth 3 DVD, I decided to make a few bucks selling it on eBay. It went almost instantly.

After a few more months of nothing, NI upped the ante by offering an upgrade to Komplete 4. This was substantial, because it included Akoustik Piano, the one piece of software I'd been seriously considering buying. They also threw in a gift certificate for $180 to be used in their online store before the end of the year. Nice.

Then when they started sending stuff out to people, their registration center went belly-up. People were pissed off all over again. So the company's brand-new synthesizer, Massive, was offered as a free download. Good move on NI's part.

NI posted a forum entry for users to write when they'd received the software, and the reports started flooding in. From Germany. It turned out that they'd had a serious issue with their American distributors.

Well, if you're still reading this, here's my post on the NI forums in response to all of this.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi All,

I got mine (Komplete 4 Upgrade DVD set) on Wednesday here in San Diego, CA. There were a few issues with installation (mostly related to my DAW's DVD player and the fact that I had to clear out several gigs of data to get the Akoustik Piano library to fit!), but I did manage to get everything up and running by last night.

A few things:

1. The service center update FAILED all night on Wednesday. AARGH!!! There's nothing like getting a brand new toy and being told you can't play with it because the company's having technical difficulties. I accept that NI can't be up 24/7, but come on people, can't you give us ONE DAY of slack before you forbid us from using these fantastic pieces of software?

2. I was messing with some registry settings and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it, but Kore complained about some dlls not being available on startup, and then proceeded to scan a TON of dlls. This took over 10 minutes and it still hadn't loaded, so I forced quit. The error message suggested that reinstalling could solve the problem. So I uninstalled, reinstalled, re-registered, everything went fine from there.

Why was I playing with registry settings? For some reason, on a previous install of Komplete 2 or 3, I accidentally told my VSTs to live in C:\VSTPlugins\VSTPlugins. So I searched the registry for that string and replaced it with simply C:\VSTPlugins. I'm not recommending this, but it seems to have worked for me.


3. Nuendo 2 froze after installing Komplete 4. It was hanging when it was trying to load the Absynth 4 Surround VST. CPU spiked at 98-99% and it never recovered from that.

I fixed it by moving all four Absynth 4 VSTs out of my VSTs folder and onto my desktop temporarily. I started up Nuendo 2 without incident. Exited Nuendo 2, put the VST dll files back into the VSTPlugins directory, started Nuendo 2, haven't had a problem since.

I haven't had much chance to play with the new stuff yet, but I will say that Akoustik Piano sounds absolutely AMAZING. I'm just stunned at how great it sounds. And I really like the potential of the arpeggiator in FM8. Massive's got some nice sounds in it, and I'm happy to try that out as well. Anything that sparks inspiration.

For all my complaining, I have to say this: I told myself that if NI managed to get me my update by Thanksgiving, I'd be pretty impressed despite everything else they've done this year. Actually, I think they've done some very nice things for the Komplete Care class of '06. Sure we complained, but when I purchased KC06 I knew nothing might come of it, but I liked the idea of "software insurance." I'd still purchase it for '07 if it's offered, and I'm sure many others would as well.

My one overall grievance with the company is that they refuse to send US customers product updates from the US. Why? I have friends who work for NI in Los Angeles, which is just over 100 miles from here. I could have been playing with my new products over a month ago.

Just my $0.02.

Cheers,

-ix

Iceland - Vik - A View from the Hotel

This is what I saw when I woke up in Vik, this is what I saw. You're looking at the beach down yonder. The motel is on a high hill off the ring road.

Farewell, Vienna, I'll Be Back

Thank you Berenice.

Thank you Magnus, for letting me tag around with you and for showing me Roboexotica.

Thank you Sylvia, for translating everything during Metalab and the closing party.

Thank you Johannes, for Taugshow.

Thank you, Andres, Jorg and Stefan for Coordinated Sewing Machine for Mapping, Analyzing and Transforming social Groupings of interactive Systems.

Thank you Lorenz, for documenting this important occasion.

Thank you everyone at WerkzeugH, for the food and the hospitality.

Thank you, everyone at Paraflows and Monochrom who I forgot.

I'll see you soon.