Torley Lives

Drum 'n' bass is great action movie music — fitting for just about any adventurous encounter, for that matter. When you really look — hear it, it's almost a metagenre, in that through sampling, interpolation, and electronic emulation, it draws a lot out of other styles and assembles them into one full-on breakbeat stew. Perhaps that's why, at some character development level (viewing myself as a "composite alloy"), I can relate.

EVE Online has had a trailer titled "No Other Destiny" out for awhile. You can watch it on YouTube, or download the much higher-quality version. The way the beats kick in is in stark contrast to the void of space, yet amidst a pulse-pounding flurry of cosmic combat. (Those ship propulsion effects and editing jumpcuts are awesome!)

"No Other Destiny"'s soundtrack is "Arrakis" by Black Sun Empire, which sounds like it's simultaneously tipping hands to Dune and Star Wars. (Kewl interview where they're toting a MacBook Pro!) It takes the familiar foundation of the Amen Break and throttles it into hyperspace, the same way an Iron Chef works a Ginsu knife. Judging by the comments I've observed while googling for this, the drum 'n' bass tune has gotten quite a white-hot reception.

I can't wait until a trailer in the same spirit emerges for Second Life. Some great machinimakers out there are going to drop the subs and let it roll. It's even better with a broad international audience, since DnB continues to be better-known in Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia.

Some of my fave drum 'n' bass music videos:

• Halcali - "Twinkle Star"
  Unquestionably one of my perennial favorites. I have a feeling this is totally normal where Halcali come from, but outside of their world, it's prone to generating reactions of, "WHAT ARE YOU ON!??"
   
• Lia - "Light in the Air"
  Beautiful scenes of nature contrasted and a soft-looking Japanese girlin a white dress vs. a forceful, flexible rhythm arrangement. Greatlandscape flythroughs.
   
• Roni Size - "Brown Paper Bag"
  When my bro and I did back-and-forth evasive motions in Spectre VR, we called it "doing a Roni Size". Watch and find out why.
   
• Olive - "You're Not Alone"
  Stunning remix of, yeah, that soap opera theme. Masterful DnB can sound fast and slow at the same time, and this is a paragon example.
   
• DJ Fresh - "Nervous"
  THIS VIDEO CONTAINS PSYCHOLOGICAL IMAGERY.
   
• Roni Size - "Dirty Beats"
  Brill melodic string sample, the rapping is brusque and sublime.
   
• Frou Frou "Must Be Dreaming"
  Today's the first time I've actually seen the vid, but I've adored this tune for a long time. Like the Olive track, a well-crafted slice of poppy DnB, complete with choruses.
   
• Aphex Twin - "Girl/Boy Song"
  Not an official vid, but it's a lot of fun. From the same guy who brought you Salad Fingers. There's never been a track like this since.
   
• Boymerang - "Soul Beat Runna"
  Something about the atmosphere of this vid makes me think of Philip K. Dick. Also important to note this was made before The Matrix.
   
• Photek - "Ni Ten Ichi Ryu"
  When the heck is his new album coming out? This is such a stark, calming-yet-abrasive video. The drums take some serious trashcan playing" virtuosity.
   
• Goldie - "Inner City Life"
  Classic.
   
• Squarepusher - "Come On My Selector"
  Chris Cunningham's prowess makes this microedited experience undoubtedly worth it. (By now there are 4 Japanese-themed videos on this list.)
   
• Pendulum - "Slam"
  I'm actually not that big a fan of this video but the ch00n is soooo catchy. The hip-hop opening is powerful, and the horn swells only wetten anticipation for when the mutant hoover bass sucks out all the air. And that narration could be well-adapted for SL.
   
• Sub Focus - "Airplane"
  I'd love to see someone make a "flight across SL" video with this. The looped speech sample is so hypnotic, and the video is so uncharacteristic and atypical of "usual" DnB imagery.

Okay, all those are going on a new YouTube playlist.

One other reason why I'm so much for this: DnB's high tempos are a perfect accompaniment for higher, smoother framerates. Which is something I'd certainly like to see in Second Life.

Running in Second Life is unnaturally complicated. If I really want to run, I break into a trot — I don't ask for permission like a pet of some sort. Currently, you can run either by: (1) selecting World menu > Always Run, or (2) the equivalent shortcut, Ctrl-R.

By itself, this might not seem like a big deal, but after going through the motions a few dozen times, it gets very irksome. Specific example: say you want to get from here *points* to there *points again* and sprint in between. It's several meters and you don't want to fly (that would entail even more complexity). So you either use the Always Run menu or shortcut, and do that. While it doesn't sound convincing as words, it feels stilted. It's kind of like you're a windup toy, and activating run is like twisting the crank a few rotations — and not only that — but having to unwind it after.

And you can't run using one hand, yet you can do all other basic avatar movement (including sitting with the mouse). Odd duck out!

Something I've enjoyed from a lot of video games: tapping the forward direction key/button twice in quick succession will slide you into a run, then after you let go of the key, you stop. Want to walk again? Just push forward once. Want to run again? Push forward twice. This is sometimes referred to as a "double-dash" and I previously noted the makers of Combat: Samurai Island pioneered a similar maneuver in Second Life, as far as I'm aware.

There is double-dash compliant.

(The longer-term thing is to make analog joystick dreams come true and have a greater variety of velocities for avatars in motion. This would, speculatively and presumably, go hand-in-hand with better "morphing" between animation states, and the footstep sounds I've been dreaming long about too.)

In hindsight, I changed keyboards because my hands were hurting. Typing a lot means I need a good keyboard. It reminds me of when I used a mouse to play an onscreen set of piano keys in HyperCard, but found it ludicrously slow compared to an actual piano — and no chords! Better still were those classic apps that let me use the QWERTY keys like the ol' trusty ivories, but further up is an actual synth controller with the same familiar layout that's been in usage for hundreds of years. And even among those, you have different grades: unweighted, semi-weighted, weighted, and one word doesn't mean a lot when it comes to performing and capturing the feel under your fingertips. Purists will of course compare the feel to an actual concert grand — where again, preference comes into play.

Coming from a musical background, I'm very sensitive to keyboard touch. Since things often connect and come together for me, after I typed on my MacBook Pro keyboard for awhile, I realized how comfortable it is: a big difference is the low-profile keys with lessened travel time. Across thousands upon thousands of keystrokes, all that distance adds up on wearing down your fingers.

I'm pleased that I've been typing away on the Comfort Curve 2000 for several weeks now, and save for a very noisy spacebar, most of the keys are clacky but not annoyingly so. The standout feature here is if you look straight at the layout, it appears almost like the keyboard was warped or is melting under heat. That's because true to its name, there's a gentle bend to conform better to your touches. (It's not a full-out split ergo.) Even a two-finger typist like me can attest to how much better it feels — I tried an instore demo and was puzzled at first why the "N" key is proportionally so big, but in the context of flowing through words and entering data into a computer, it makes much more sense. Especially as I write this.

It's intriguing to note how arrangements differ between the all-Roman and Japanese editions. There's a white variant too.

To be fair, I also ran my fingertips across every other keyboard in the store, and I'm surprised even the Logitech G15 had a lousy, indecisive feel. It's a tragedy, almost like typing is secondary and whiz-bang gadgets come first. Well, in the spirit of Gabriel & Dresden, that means a back-to-basics approach for me. While I'm not suggesting a reversion to Apple's Extended Keyboard II, I want to make sure I get quality keying action!

The CC2000 is short on fancies: along the top are some multimedia buttons you can reconfigure to do other things with IntelliType drivers, and there's usual Calculator key, but the bevel around the edge is relatively slim and there's no wrist rest. I find I still need added padding in that area, so I've got my wrists laying on a cloth right now. If you close your eyes and run them along the keys, you'll be struck by how short — yet responsive — they get towards the top rows. The deformation doesn't interfere with the need for quick movements, as I found using the arrow keys in Second Life. (The Up arrow is indented and sloped towards the back of the keybed but feels great when your pointing and ring fingers are on the Left and Right arrows.)

Also of mention is that the CC2000 is billed as being "spill-resistant", which is good because I totally messed up a previous keyboard by dumping water on it — actually, dumber than that, I tried to give it a bath to get the crud out from between the keys. It did not end well. While I won't be doing my own impromptu spillage tests, it's good to keep in mind.

One downside is that the CC2000 doesn't have its own additional USB ports (which means you still have to plug peripherals into your system's tower or equivalent), and it doesn't support PS/2 either. Which is an old and tired standard, and maybe a bit refreshing, future-looking to be exempt from. Only prob I ran into with that was when I first plugged the keyboard in, and it failed to respond until Windows's plug-and-play took attention after some long moments later. But following that, things are good.

My feelings about the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard come through continued usage, but from where I sit — with a straight back, good posture is very ergonomically important! — I'll award it a personal 9 out of 10 (that's 90%!) and emphasize it's so dang cheap that if I ever get on the wireless bandwagon, I'm tempted to seek out its extremely, much-higher-priced relative, the Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000. It might be overkill, but I'm always searching for possibilities.

If this review helps you save some strain and stress on your fingertips, it's all worth it. Good health is priceless.