Future's Past
Helloes! Right, what happened... well we've not made successful contact with Tony or Darius lately, but we did go and meet the new client, Cyrus, on Monday. Mixed initial reactions to that one, but good overall. We'd been told the site was to promote the music of this man's son, who'd produced an album of music that was apparently similar to Pink Floyd. We naturally assumed he would have composed it himself, and so had quite high expectations.
These met with quite a letdown, when we were told that he'd not actually composed it at all, but only arranged it out of pre-recorded samples, using one of the myriad such programs out there. Then they played us some of the album, and there was no denying that it was dance music. No way could you possible call it rock of any kind... it's just not. It's electronic, synthesised, dance music.
It wasn't bad though; he's done a perfectly decent job of arranging a selection of different style tracks, it was just disappointing that it wasn't what we'd been expecting. Have played with such programs myself in the past, I know that there's not really a lot of skill involved, however I also know that despite the low competence requirements, most people just produce crap. They'll throw in all kinds of samples that clearly don't go well together, with absoutely no consideration for timing, progression, or anything else. It sounds bad. At least this, whilst perhaps not actually impressive, is still good.
Anyway, in the end my opinion of the music is quite irrelevant, because what we're there for is to design him a site. We discussed everything he wanted at length, and said we'd go away and come back with a few design ideas. His long-term plans for the site feature a lot of different components, but rather than build it fully now, he wants to get a basic design online that just enables visitors to sample and purchase the music, and add extra features one by one at a later time. This is actually good for us, as it's a lot easier for us to charge per-component than it is when we try and come up with package prices. It makes everything simpler and leaves no room for dispute about the pricing.
The meeting was much more interesting though, in discussion of things not related to this particular project. We knew already that Cyrus was a friend of Darius, and the fact that Darius had referred us was good news, but we didn't know quite how far that went. It seems the two of them are much more involved with each other's business than expected, and that the music will be used in Darius' new restaurant, in his radio commercials, and possibly on his site in future. Then he told us about even longer-term plans for a new business venture. I probably shouldn't just go writing them all (hardly risky, but never know), but if we're very careful there could be benefit for us. Although it wasn't formal, we were basically offered a contract to be referred all website-related work from this new company. This sounds like great news, but I was reminded when once used the words 'work for us' that we should enter it with caution. If they're offing to pass work our way, great, but we need to be very careful what we're agreeing to, and make sure we keep control of our business. Still, I know Darius has a long line of work planned for us after this contract is finished, and we'll probably be working with Cyrus for quite a while (he said so himself), so whatever happens, it looks like a good source of work for the time being, and that's always welcome.
On a short amusing note, whilst we were in Winton for the meeting we saw Bill and Ted, having an Excellent Public Transport Adventure! Graham pointed them out when the got on the bus shortly before we got of, which I'll call the 'B' end of Winton. The meeting lasted an hour or so, and when we got out, we walked on foot up to what I'll call the 'A' end of Winton. There we were waiting for a bus to take us back through Kinson, and when we saw Bill and Ted getting off a bus that was coming from B to A. Strange to see them twice, but nothing that unusual. They go into a shop, and eventually come out and walk down the road opposite, presumably home. Assuming they started there, that means they must have walked all the way from A to B to get a bus somewhere, but got one back all the way up to A again, at the same timing as us. Oh well, probably a perfectly normal reason for it.
The great tidying of the files goes ever onwards, and I'm uncovering older and older stuff. Farthest I've gone back so far is a version of Amethyst, written in QuickBASIC, and dated early 1999. I'm actually impressed by how good it is, lol. It's nice to know I could still write good code back then... six years ago! Of course my talent isn't impressive anymore, there's probably lots of people my age now that can do what I can. If only I'd done something with it back then, it would have been worth noticing. Shame. On the same lines, I've come across DJGIP things. Now that's something I'd like to see finished. It's been untouched for three years now, but there was nothing wrong with it. It's a good idea, with a good story, and even the code we got as far as writing was decent stuff... but things came up, and it got less and less attention.
I'm tempted to have another go at writing the story. The plot for the game developed so much it was better suited to a film or book than to the game it was written for. I attempted to start once, but after only producing about a paragraph, gave it up for the time being. Ashley says I should try writing a children's book... but Tux, I wouldn't know where to begin. Give me a story and sure, I'll have fun writing it, but I really don't have the imagination to come up anything exciting myself.
Liking what I heard from my first sample, I've got much more Vertical Horizon. All good stuff - some of it fairly normal, but the odd few that are exceptional, and none that I don't like, so no complaints. Also, Kim recommended I try Tesla, and they're pretty good too.
I'll leave you with one humourous episode from my neighbours: I heard arguing outside one evening, well after sunset, and being curious (and nosy) I listened. They were playing snooker, outside, in the dark, with no lights, and they were fighting... over which ball was yellow. lol.
These met with quite a letdown, when we were told that he'd not actually composed it at all, but only arranged it out of pre-recorded samples, using one of the myriad such programs out there. Then they played us some of the album, and there was no denying that it was dance music. No way could you possible call it rock of any kind... it's just not. It's electronic, synthesised, dance music.
It wasn't bad though; he's done a perfectly decent job of arranging a selection of different style tracks, it was just disappointing that it wasn't what we'd been expecting. Have played with such programs myself in the past, I know that there's not really a lot of skill involved, however I also know that despite the low competence requirements, most people just produce crap. They'll throw in all kinds of samples that clearly don't go well together, with absoutely no consideration for timing, progression, or anything else. It sounds bad. At least this, whilst perhaps not actually impressive, is still good.
Anyway, in the end my opinion of the music is quite irrelevant, because what we're there for is to design him a site. We discussed everything he wanted at length, and said we'd go away and come back with a few design ideas. His long-term plans for the site feature a lot of different components, but rather than build it fully now, he wants to get a basic design online that just enables visitors to sample and purchase the music, and add extra features one by one at a later time. This is actually good for us, as it's a lot easier for us to charge per-component than it is when we try and come up with package prices. It makes everything simpler and leaves no room for dispute about the pricing.
The meeting was much more interesting though, in discussion of things not related to this particular project. We knew already that Cyrus was a friend of Darius, and the fact that Darius had referred us was good news, but we didn't know quite how far that went. It seems the two of them are much more involved with each other's business than expected, and that the music will be used in Darius' new restaurant, in his radio commercials, and possibly on his site in future. Then he told us about even longer-term plans for a new business venture. I probably shouldn't just go writing them all (hardly risky, but never know), but if we're very careful there could be benefit for us. Although it wasn't formal, we were basically offered a contract to be referred all website-related work from this new company. This sounds like great news, but I was reminded when once used the words 'work for us' that we should enter it with caution. If they're offing to pass work our way, great, but we need to be very careful what we're agreeing to, and make sure we keep control of our business. Still, I know Darius has a long line of work planned for us after this contract is finished, and we'll probably be working with Cyrus for quite a while (he said so himself), so whatever happens, it looks like a good source of work for the time being, and that's always welcome.
On a short amusing note, whilst we were in Winton for the meeting we saw Bill and Ted, having an Excellent Public Transport Adventure! Graham pointed them out when the got on the bus shortly before we got of, which I'll call the 'B' end of Winton. The meeting lasted an hour or so, and when we got out, we walked on foot up to what I'll call the 'A' end of Winton. There we were waiting for a bus to take us back through Kinson, and when we saw Bill and Ted getting off a bus that was coming from B to A. Strange to see them twice, but nothing that unusual. They go into a shop, and eventually come out and walk down the road opposite, presumably home. Assuming they started there, that means they must have walked all the way from A to B to get a bus somewhere, but got one back all the way up to A again, at the same timing as us. Oh well, probably a perfectly normal reason for it.
The great tidying of the files goes ever onwards, and I'm uncovering older and older stuff. Farthest I've gone back so far is a version of Amethyst, written in QuickBASIC, and dated early 1999. I'm actually impressed by how good it is, lol. It's nice to know I could still write good code back then... six years ago! Of course my talent isn't impressive anymore, there's probably lots of people my age now that can do what I can. If only I'd done something with it back then, it would have been worth noticing. Shame. On the same lines, I've come across DJGIP things. Now that's something I'd like to see finished. It's been untouched for three years now, but there was nothing wrong with it. It's a good idea, with a good story, and even the code we got as far as writing was decent stuff... but things came up, and it got less and less attention.
I'm tempted to have another go at writing the story. The plot for the game developed so much it was better suited to a film or book than to the game it was written for. I attempted to start once, but after only producing about a paragraph, gave it up for the time being. Ashley says I should try writing a children's book... but Tux, I wouldn't know where to begin. Give me a story and sure, I'll have fun writing it, but I really don't have the imagination to come up anything exciting myself.
Liking what I heard from my first sample, I've got much more Vertical Horizon. All good stuff - some of it fairly normal, but the odd few that are exceptional, and none that I don't like, so no complaints. Also, Kim recommended I try Tesla, and they're pretty good too.
I'll leave you with one humourous episode from my neighbours: I heard arguing outside one evening, well after sunset, and being curious (and nosy) I listened. They were playing snooker, outside, in the dark, with no lights, and they were fighting... over which ball was yellow. lol.