Okay, so a little backstory: I got myself a shiny new pc (it’s quite fabulous, really), but for the time being had to suffice with a crappy wireless Microsoft mouse and keyboard (which we all know are terrible for gaming). So of course I was gonna play the most beast games I could find to stress test the mofo. So, of course, with Burnout Paradise being both sexy and one of my favorite games EVER, I just had to try it.

While I did find my pc quite sufficient for handling the game on the highest settings, I found the keyboard quite unacceptable. Why?

1. Couldn’t change music in-game since Microsoft neglected to add next/previous buttons to their MEDIA keyboard
2. The connection for it sucked, causing some inputs to either go undetected, or simply act as a stuck key since the kill signal wouldn’t go through (which is more annoying than you think. Ever get stuck going left at top speed in Burnout? It’s not a pretty sight).

So, I had absolutely no choice but to go to best buy and pick up a Razer Lycosa for $79 (I might have died otherwise). Unfortunately that means I missed a payment to my friend for my PC (oops! forgive me Travis). It was nice, sleek, and look perfectly geared toward what I wanted to do: play games and control my playlist at the SAME TIME (let that be a lesson, Microsoft!)

Sexy beast is sexy!

So I immediately hooked the bad boy up and installed the drivers. Great! Now what? Oh right, try out configuring the keyboard (maybe play around with the WASD lighting for shits and giigles). Lets take a look; uh-oh. The software only allows you to configure the media keys for four media players: WMP, iTunes, Real Player, and Winamp. It’s all good though, I suppose, the only other media player I use is Zune, and only for syncing my music to…well, my zune.

Alright, lets play some games. Great, this keyboard is nice and responsive! I could get used to this! Let’s go to the next song now *pushes “button”*….

AHEM, I said next song *pushes “button” again*…

YOU FUCKER, NEXT SONG *practically smashes the “button”*

*Media player changes song*. About time you asshole. Hopefully this shit is temporary and I only need to break the keyboard in a bit or something.

*3 hours later* Ugh, I need a break from trying to break in this keyboard. Time to put my music on hold. *Presses the pause “button”*

*Media player goes back to the beginning of the song*. The fuck? This is the play/pause button, not the restart song button! *mashes the “button” some more*

*Song restarts some more before finally stopping*. The fuck was that all about? You know what, I’ve had it with this shit, lets see what happens when I uninstall the software.

So, I uninstall the little shit and guess what? My media keys start functioning normally, and now I’m allowed to use them with whatever media player I want! What the fuck Razer? Why would you cripple your own keyboard to function INCORRECTLY with media players? Why not leave the media shit *UNTOUCHED*? Wouldn’t that make more sense?

So, to all those who plan on getting a Lycosa and don’t have a big need to control their keyboard lighting or macro/profile ability, do NOT install their shit drivers.

So, it looks like Bing is pushing its way back into Cable airtime, running yet another campaign of their fucking annoying “Search Overload” advertisements. Frankly, I’m tired of seeing these annoying ads, because they deliver no real content or reason to *bing* and decide. Let me pick it apart for you:

Google does not give as irrelevant as results as the commercial would like you to think. In fact, I’m willing to bet the results were turned up using Bing itself, as every time I’ve tried to use it, I’ve got nothing but random bullshit. It’s as if they have it take the page 56 results from a matching Google search, and handing that to you.

What the FUCK is this “SEARCH OVERLOAD” bullshit they keep trying to push on me? I mean, if I’m using search engines way too much, why the fuck would I need another search engine? If I’m ill with “SEARCH OVERLOAD”, searching more but on a different site isn’t going to “cure” the problem dumbasses. That’d be like trying to cure herpes with sex with people who are having a fucking outbreak.

Bing and DECIDE? What the hell does the fucking piece of shit decide? What color socks I’m going to wear today? Can I type in “Should I go to Hawaii or California?” and it’ll give me a short survey to help me decide? If not, it’s doing no more good toward decisions than Google or Yahoo! answers or any general forum already does! Seriously, don’t label your shit as “revolutionary with this feature” if its not doing anything new! People are going to figure that out as soon as they type in “Should I tell my child unicorns are real?” and they don’t get a fucking decision.

Seriously Microsoft, give it up. You’re becoming really fucking annoying.

If you’re a music junkie (like I’m striving to be), chances are you’re the type who wants to share his music collection with the world. Just let everybody around the world hear how awesome your taste in music is, right? However, the cost of sharing the music with the world as a live DJ can be a pain in the ass, with a decent shoutcast server costing up to $30 a month, and licensing an extra $10 or so.

If you’re like me, you’ve got to take what you can for free, none of this monthly charge shit (because our dads got sick of us using their paypal without their consent and cancelled their credit cards, right?). So, what is an aspiring DJ such as yourself going to do? You’ve got nowhere to go. No server, no license no luck.

Well, lucky for you, I have a few resources that will allow you to broadcast your own web-radio-show thing for absolutely no cost to you.

BUT FIRST, you’ll want to acquaint and equip yourself with some way to broadcast a shoutcast stream. For free, all I can suggest is using Winamp with the Shoutcast DSP plugin. (If you’re on Mac or Linux, you’re on your own unless you go through the trouble of using an emulator).

As for learning how to use that…well, thats for a later time (unless you get off your lazy bum and do some google searches yourself).

So here are the resources I was talking about:

1. Freecast - A UK based shoutcast which allows DJ’s to sign up and book their own 1hour increment slots. It’s great for people who wish to broadcast to their friends (and fans) on their free time. The only limiting factor is that you only get 4 credits per week for booking 1 hour slots.
2. 1Radio.org - A similar concept to above, but it essentially has a larger fanbase and more features. It also has a credit awards feature, where you can EARN credits by things such has hosting a popular broadcast, broadcasting at unpopular times, and referring your friends.

So, if you’d like to dabble in the magical world of sharing music live and having your own little fanbase, try starting out with those.

(If you’re more interested in listening to streams, I recommend VLC since that shit plays anything)