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Static Line 41
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cRu|________\ | | Issue #41
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November, 2002 || / \ \__/ / / /___// |
295 Subscribers World Wide | /___/ \ / / __/_ / |
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Table Of Contents
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Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
Your View and Response -- Your Favorite Tune
SceneSpot Update -- V.3 details
Reviews:
Music:
In Tune -- Setec's "White"
The Lineup -- The Best of the Month
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- Variform by Kewlers and The S by Suspend
Opinion / Commentary:
Editorial -- Scene Vs. Scene: The OS Debate
Inside My Mind -- My Addiction
Early Dawn Reflections -- Jobs
Link List: Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing: Staff and Contact Information
--=--=--
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Message From the Editor
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Well, we're back with yet another adventure in e-zine publishing. A
lot of you had good things to say about the last issue. I'm hoping
that the quality of the magazine will continue to rise, as well as our
readership. We picked up almost 15 subscribers within the span of a
couple of days. Keep passing the word.
Meanwhile, we got another full issue for you. As I suspected, The
Watcher returned with a named column. The new official name for his
column is called "Early Dawn Reflections", a name which supposidly comes
from the fact that he writes his articles early in the morning. Vill,
on the other hand, seems to like the name that I gave his column last
month. Of course, Seven has his demo reviews ready for you and I have
my music review as well. In addition, Novus returns with his first full
installment of his column, The Lineup. If you don't remember, the focus
of his column is to share with you the best of the tunes that he
downloaded this month. Its a good list if you're looking for new tunes.
The features this month both come from my hand at the keyboard. We
decided to try another attempt at getting some feedback from our
readers. Please offer your feedback, it'll be interesting to see what
you have to write. Read up on that in "Your View and Response". The
other feature article deals with the changes that will be made to our
sister project, SceneSpot. The quick note about it is that we will be
releasing the new version of the site sometime before the next issue.
The article highlights some of the changes that will be made. Get more
information from "SceneSpot Update".
Well, that's all I have to say about this month's issue. Just a
reminder, we're always looking for new articles and conributions. If
you have anything to send, or if you have questions, you can contact me
at coplan@scenespot.org.
Until Next time.
--Coplan
--=--=--
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Letters From Our Readers
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-=- A Message from Ped -=-
I have somewhat hard time in life too (not as much as you, but I had
felt similar things)... and I want to both thank you for showing me,
that you care and love the scene as I do. And I assure you, that I
care about you and about any other creative being, who's willing to
contribute with his ideas/work to the scene, or generally "public"...
I actually somewhat dislike the growing size of static line. Reading
trough the new issue took a serious amount of time, but the content was
really excellent and worth while. May you try to keep SL issues under
200 - 250kB of text in the future? (i.e. not growing more, than twice
from [issue 41's] size). I like the "news" format of SL, reading once in
time few lines to keep me up with the scene thing. If I want to read
MANY rich articles, I may turn to Hugi/other mag. I think this is what
you intented to do, short news with insights, so I'm just giving you my
opinion, that 200kB is limit for me... :)
Once more: thank you for the last issue, really made me feel good. :)
--Ped
-=- Reply From Coplan -=-
Ped,
Your concerns are more common among our readers. But here is
something you might not know: Your concerns are shared with the editor
as well. The truth is that a 200k magazine would be very difficult to
read in this format. It would be difficult for readers to find the
articles they wanted. The magazine would be unwieldy and hard to
navigate. That would not be something we'd want for our readers.
The nature of running a magazine such as this one is that some months,
we'll have more articles than we need, and other months, we don't have
enough. Keeping that in mind, it's often that we hold articles for the
following month. By doing that, we can keep the content in all our
issues at relatively the same quality and quantity.
The goal of Static Line is, and always will be, to bring inspiration and
insight to the reader. Through this publication, we have always hoped
to bring creative thoughts to your mind. A tool, such as Static Line,
is only useful so long as it is easy to use. Worry not, we don't
plan to allow Static Line to grow any larger than it needs to.
--Coplan
--=--=--
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Your View and Response
Your Favorite Tune
By: Coplan
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It wasn't long ago that I met an observer of the scene on #trax: a
guy who goes by alias Invect. Apparently, he's been observing the scene
for a relatively short while. I'm quite surprised about his knowledge
of the scene. He's managed to download all the classic tunes by Jase,
Necros, Skaven, Purple Motion and so on. I find, more often than not,
that newbies to the scene often don't get exposed to such classics.
So Invect had a great idea. Why not share our thoughts about our
favorite tracked tunes of all times? The platform for such a project is
our very own Static Line.
So I have a request to all the readers: Write in and tell us about
your favorite tracked tune of all time, and tell us why you like it so
much.
I'll start:
My favorite scene tune of all time was "Kingdom Skies" by Jase. It
was one of Hornet's Music Competition winners. But nevermind that. I
come from a background of orchestral music, and take to this tune rather
naturally. One of the first scene tunes that I downloaded happened to
be this song. The samples aren't anything special. But the arrangement
is amazing to me. It's a three part epic piece, and it's very
inspirational. I don't really have that many words to describe what I
feel whenever I hear the tune. In a scene filled with trance, dnb and
breakbeat tunes (among other techno styles), orchestral tunes are few
and far between. This tune has always been my inspiration for me to
continue my song writing. So it has always been on my hard drive, or
on a cd, or in my MP3 player so that I can play it whenever I feel the
need. Inspirational tunes such as this need always be remembered.
So now its your turn. Write to me and tell me what your favorite
tune is. Tell me why you like it. You can send your thoughts to
coplan@scenespot.org. You can also reply directly to this issue, and I
will recieve your response -- it will not be posted to the mailing list,
as I have it blocked. But I will still get a copy of the message you
sent.
I look forward to your recommendations.
--Coplan
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SceneSpot Update
V.3 Details
By: Coplan
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SceneSpot, the sister project to Static Line, has been making some
great strides. The last time I came to you, we had begun work on
version 2. For better or for worse, we have completely abandoned that
interface, and we are now almost ready to bring Version 3 to the
public.
Realizing how much work was involved in recreating the wheel, as it
were, we changed our structure a bit. We are no longer coding SceneSpot
from scratch. We have decided, instead, to put an existing content
management syste (CMS) into place as a core for the site. By doing so,
we have been able to focus more of our efforts on the more important
things such as content, modules and support.
So what can you expect of Version 3? Initially, there will be some
trade-offs when it comes to features. The HTML version of Static Line
will not be fully available at first. You can still read each issue
from our ftp server (text only) and from our mail archives (HTML). But
it won't be searchable. Tune Tracker will also temporarily be
unavailable, as the new core doesn't natively support the modules we
created for the original SceneSpot. Fear not, however, as we do plan to
fully re-introduce these features in the futre as modules for the new
core.
Once we go live with the new version of the site, you will
immediately notice a couple of differences. You will now be able to
respond to news briefs that are posted on SceneSpot. We will also have
a complete forum system in place where you can talk about the latest
issues (or, perhaps, nothing in particular) in the forum topic of your
choice. The interactivity of the forum system will help you to learn
more about your hobby and about your fellow sceners. And we will
continue to maintain bookmarks, though in a slightly different manner.
We are pretty sure that you'll like the changes that we've made. The
new site should debut before the next issue of Static Line. If you are
already a member of SceneSpot, your account settings will follow you to
the new site. You can use your old login id and password as if nothing
ever happened. But when you do log in, you'll have the ability to
change much more than you're used to.
So keep an eye out for the new site. And, as always, feel free to
send your feedback as you see necessary to: coplan@scenespot.org.
--Coplan
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In Tune
Setec's "White"
By: Coplan
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-=- Introduction -=-
Because of the very nature of my position, I make a strong effort to
not review tunes from associates or close friends. One could say
without an stating an untruth that I am quite strict on my friends'
music when it comes to public reviews. But every once in a while, one
of my buddies has to go and release a tune that I cannot resist writing
about. This time, it was Setec.
Damn him.
-=- "White" by Setec -=-
"White" is a pretty mellow electronic tune. Setec's own words would
describe it best in one sentence: "[It's] a calm electronic piece to
close your eyes to."
If you aren't familiar with Setec's music, it should be known that he's
often the experimental type. I can imagine this man sitting back and
twiddling with knobs and pressing buttons for hours on end just to see
what kind of cool riff he can whip out. And then he goes and writes a
tune around it. But I digress.
White is definately an experimental piece. I don't think he made any
effort to hold to any form. The tune doesn't really hold to any
particular definition of music styles. But it definately has some
influences from the ambient styles. The chord progression is very
subtle. Unless you're looking, it's probably not likely you'll notice
the progression. Simple is the name of the game. The leads are simple,
the chorus is simple and so on. The complexity of this tune actually
lies within the background: A few quick piano riffs here and there, a
whole bunch of glass/mallet instruments and so on. Some of that stuff
is so subtle that it doesn't even distract you from the rest of the
song. And the baseline riffs are so simple that you get the idea Setec
put it there purely to give depth to the song. But isn't that what a
baseline is for?
I have to point out the percussion work that he has done. Regardless
of whether he admits it or not, percussion is one of Setec's strengths,
and this song is no exception. Let us break it apart. The base drum
is simple in form, only a couple of well-placed hits here and there.
The high-hats and cymbols, some of the first percussion you hear in the
song, is also relatively simple. You will notice that he uses two sizes
of ride cymbols in addition to the high-hat. I point this out not
because he's unique. This should be expected in almost any song. It's
very rare for a professional to use any less than two size rides...why
should you? Anyhow, the snare riffs are something to listen for. Yet
again, nothing truly complicated. But it's not the typical pattern
you'd hear. His riffs, his percussion work in general, sounds as though
it could've been recorded by a real drummer in a real studio. Real
drummers don't do the predictable Snare-Base-Snare-Base loops with the
lull of ride cymbols being overly repetative in the background. Real
drummers get creative with their work.
The song, in general, has a soothing effect on the spirit. I like to
consider this style of music as a mental massage. It pulsates. Some
parts are harder, other parts are much more subtle and subdued. The
higher pitched instruments jump in and out, and not in any sort of
pattern at all. The song isn't predictable; there is always something
changing. You aren't dragged through the song, you get to explore the
song. You feel as though you're discovering things when you listen to
it. Having listened to the whole thing, I feel as though I've
accomplished and learned so much.
This is a must have for any Setec or Ambient fans. If you're looking
for something to help you relax, this song is for you as well.
Song Information:
Title: White
Author: Setec
Release date: 27 October, 2002
Length: 4:50
File Size: 6.65 MB
Source: http://www.scenespot.org/~jesper
--Coplan
"In Tune" is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. Coplan's opinions are not the opinions of the Static
Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend (either your own,
or another person's), We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
The Lineup
By: Novus
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Welcome to the first edition of The Lineup! Every month, I scour
through the hundreds of new releases on the scene's major archive sites
to find the best new music, saving you the trouble of having to
download 20 instant-delete songs to find 1 that's worth keeping.
For now, I'm keeping this as a one-man project just for simplicity,
but in the future I may ask for volunteers to help me cover more
websites and to offer more musical opinions than just my own.
I'm also looking for feedback from you folks on how good a job I'm
doing so far. Are the songs listed in The Lineup as good as you were
hoping they'd be? Do I need stricter standards? Looser standards? More
openness to other genres? E-mail me at vince_young@hotmail.com and
sound off!
In the meantime, you may consider the following 39 tunes to be the
best tracks of October 2002:
"A Moment In Tears" - Norma Segui & J Graham - fantasy
http://www.watson.org/mods2/C/cc_amit.xm.zip
"Airwalking" - Astar - trance
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/trx_airwalking.xm.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/T/trx_airwalking.xm.zip
"Altair" - Vibe - electronica
http://www.watson.org/mods2/V/vibe-alt.it.zip
"Ambidreams" - DJ Distance - fantasy
http://www.watson.org/mods2/C/cc_ambi.xm.zip
"Black Life" - Black F - ambient
http://www.watson.org/mods2/B/bf_p6.it.zip
"Breach In The Wall" - Tripper - electronica
http://www.watson.org/mods2/B/breach.xm.zip
"City Of The Damned" - Pro-Xex - gothic rock
http://www.watson.org/mods2/C/c_o_d.it.zip
"Counterpoint: Dance Mix" - Hyo Chan - dance
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/hyo-co.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/H/hyo-co.it.zip
"Crack" - Energy - electronica
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/a-------.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/A/a-------.it.zip
"Dansze Mucyka" - Reed - disco
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/dansze.xm.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/D/dansze.xm.zip
"Digital Shadows" - Vibe - electronica
http://www.watson.org/mods2/V/vibe-ds.it.zip
"For Honour And Glory" - Cooth - orchestral
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/honour.xm.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/H/honour.xm.zip
"Heavy Metal" - SaxxonPike - breakbeat
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/spk_hvmt.xm.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/S/spk_hvmt.xm.zip
"Insomnia" - Storm - trance
http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1583
"Jacked Up" - Peter Kasting - pop
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/jacked.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/J/jacked.it.zip
"Joy" - Zanoma - dance
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/znm-joy.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/Z/znm-joy.it.zip
"Last Minute" - Maim - pop
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/maim_-_lami.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/M/maim_-_lami.it.zip
"Less Distraction" - Cybelius - pop/rock
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/distract.s3m.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/D/distract.s3m.zip
"Little Dancing Glove Puppet" - Core-Nick - pop/ballad
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/ttk-ldgp.xm.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/T/ttk-ldgp.xm.zip
"London Taxi" - Louigi Verona - progressive pop
http://www.watson.org/mods2/L/londontaxi8bit.it.zip
"Lonely Falcon" - Crusader - demostyle
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/lonefalc.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/L/lonefalc.it.zip
"Mooltrull" - DCE - electronica
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/mooltrull.xm.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/M/mooltrull.xm.zip
"Next In Line" - Cybelius - pop/rock
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/next.s3m.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/N/next.s3m.zip
"Nightvision" - Sandman - demostyle
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/k_vision.s3m.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/K/k_vision.s3m.zip
"No Fate" - Em - metal
http://www.watson.org/mods2/N/no_fate.it.zip
"Oceans Of Eternity" - Hyo Chan - dance
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/hyo-oce.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/H/hyo-oce.it.zip
"Over The Ruby Sky" - Vibe - demostyle
http://www.watson.org/mods2/V/vibe-trs.it.zip
"Restricted Area" - Ivory - electronica
http://www.watson.org/mods2/R/rarea.it.zip
"Scenery" - Cybelius - pop
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/scenery.s3m.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/N/scenery.s3m.zip
"Shilkyrie" - Tommi - fantasy
http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1581
"So, My Heart" - Arenos - ballad
http://www.watson.org/mods2/M/myheart.xm.zip
"Space Phear" - SaxxonPike - techno
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/spk_spac.s3m.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/S/spk_spac.s3m.zip
"Spouser" - Tekido-81 - trance
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/tkd_spou.xm.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/T/tkd_spou.xm.zip
"The Black Hole" - Maim - dance
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/maim_-_black.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/M/maim_-_black.it.zip
"The Grip" - Zond 3 - electronica
http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1562
"The Love Trap" - Anvil - demostyle
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/lovetrp.xm.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/L/lovetrp.xm.zip
"The Real Beginning" - Beyond - fantasy
http://www.watson.org/mods2/B/beyond-t.xm.zip
"Wish On A Star" - DJ Distance - dance
http://www.watson.org/mods2/C/cc_woas.xm.zip
"Zedanotrops" - Bradford - dance
http://www.watson.org/mods2/new/zedanotrops.it.zip
http://www.watson.org/mods2/Z/zedanotrops.it.zip
Take care!
--Novus
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Screen Lit Vertigo
Variform by Kewlers and The S by Suspend
By: Seven
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-=- "Variform" by Kewlers -=-
(party version)
Found at www.scene.org
3th place at the Assembly 2002 democompo
System Requirements:
PII (yes, two) or better, OpenGL 3D card with 16 MB and large texture
support (GeForce2 with 32 mb or better recommended), 32 MB RAM, 9MB HD
Test Machine: PIII 900 640MB, SB1024, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98
The Credits:
Code: Curly Brace
Music: Mel Function, Little Bitchard
2D: Actor Dolban
3D: Curly Brace
The Demo:
Kewlers newest demo is one of the reasons I'm glad I went to
Assembly: It's really great to watch it on the bigscreen. Variform is a
pure effect demo: No story or 3D environments, but almost 20 different
parts in 6 minutes. It has a very solid design with such main
ingredients as grey moir patterns, a color scheme going from green over
electric blue to purple, and more cubes than you can shake a stick at.
The style reminds me of MFX's "super luxus lemmen paketti", especially
the mozaic appearing around and over the abstract objects. Most effects
are quite original, such as the tunnel of pitch black cubes, mirroring
lots of white lights, or the morphing object in front of a big
lightsource. There are a few full-screen images used as a background,
mostly at the start. Maybe they ran out of inspiration as there are too
many black backgrounds towards the end, in my opinion. The pictures show
people and a face, made more angular to fit with the cubist effects. A
cute little flower with polygon-leaves makes a few appearances too. The
techno-font used for the intro, the credits and the greetings is hardly
readable, but that doesn't matter since they're also spoken aloud by a
synthetic voice. It's intonation is very monotone, although that doesn't
bother me much. The music reminds me of Kraftwerk. It's an electronic
tune with a lot of variation. My favourite part is the break after the
greetings; the part showing those purple half-transparent,
half-reflective diamond clusters with bells playing a sweet melody;
after which the drums come back in full force. The synchronizing with
the effects is excellent, although less flashes wouldn't have hurt.
Overall:
Lots of people say Variform should have won the Assembly democompo.
But I think that it's a matter of taste. The top 3 were all very good, but
very different, demos. So, quarrelling about the ranking is useless. If
you haven't watched Variform yet because it placed "only" 3rd, you
should redeem your error ASAP. Even if electronica isn't your style. For
such a demo, the hardware requirements are quite low, and I've heard it
runs even on TNT-class cards. My only peeve is that there are two
"features" (text in the background at the start looks messed up, and an
object with half it's polys being solid grey) that I'm not sure if they
are ATI-driver bugs or if it's supposed to look like that. But it
doesn't really matter, they fit the experimental style anyway :)
-=- "The S" by Suspend -=-
(final version)
Found at ftp://ftp.klosz.art.pl/pub/scene/incoming (still there at 31 Oct)
2nd place in the Symphony 2002 democompo, final released out of compo at
Abstract 2002
System Requirements: 7MB HD, Windows, Geforce or better.
Test Machine: PIII 900 640MB, SB1024, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98
The Credits:
Code: Booncol
Gfx: Insane, Mantra, Mime, Statique
Music: Raiden
The Demo:
The S is a very energetic, brightly colored effect demo, with at
least two effects going on at all times. There are radial-blurred
metaballs on a background of waving cubes, and a sphere of transparant
cubes folding back into itself while a booming speaker sprays square
particles around. The best part is a rotating silver blob with *lots* of
red-hot hairs attached to it while some transparant spheres pulsate in a
matrix-configuration. Besides the "big" effects, there are also little
design touches such as the spinning logo in the corner or the rotating
circle segments. At some places removing effects would IMHO actually
improve the demo: the hard flashes during the stumping cylinders hurt
the eyes, and the horizontal/vertical noise lines don't add anything
(besides having more moving stuff on the screen at the same time).
Another thing that starts to annoy me (it applies to many modern demos,
Variform f.e. too): could you please, pretty please, use something
different than cubes for your mass-movement effects? It's really getting
dull, I know they're easy to do but try some pyramids or octahedrons or
whatever for a change.
Something I haven't seen in demos for ages are full-screen
stand-alone images, and this demo has plenty of them: Some splendid
"Suspend" and "The S" logos, a green loading screen with a giant fly,
and two girl faces which are a bit bland but with very detailed hair.
Behind such, a particle effect emerges and a dark composition with
knife-like fingers resting on a cheek. The music reminds me of the
604/AND demo soundtrack: a very fast-paced techno/goa piece packed with
bass and percussion. There are some radio-like voice samples in there;
but with so much echo, I can't understand them. The music fits the
succession of flashy effects perfectly, but there are so many beats
flowing through each other that the synchronizing sometimes feels wrong,
especially if you're concentrating on a different beat.
Overall:
This little gem of a demo is easy to overlook as it hasn't competed
in a big party. But it's worth giving a shot. It has good effects,
excellent pictures and a nice soundtrack. There are some minor bad
points (no clear design, a few parts repeat or are too long), but
nothing that really stands in the way. Several people have complained on
pouet.net that it is unstable, especially with ATI cards, but I haven't
noticed any problems (using the latest drivers). There's already a
patched exe available at the URL above, though you still need the data
from the original file.
--Seven
--=--=--
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Editorial
Scene Vs. Scene: The OS Debate
By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
It has always been an issue in the scene in some form or another:
Which Operating System (OS) is better? In the beginning, it was Amiga
vs. Commadore and Apple. Then it somehow turned into Amiga vs. PC (When
I say PC, I mean MS based OS's). Now, it's a toss up between PC vs. MAC
or PC vs. Linux. I'm not going to give you a concrete answer to that
solution. In fact, I won't even give you an answer. I will simply
state my views on the issue.
Based on a very brief amount of research, and that only means that
I've asked a couple of people, it would be safe to assume that Microsoft
has the corner on the OS standard, even in the demoscene. Most people
are working in windows with whatever aspect of the scene they specialize
in. Scene coders almost never go to MAC, but it's not uncommon for them
to gravitate towards Linux. Musicians in the scene are most likely to
use MS, but are often tempted by the world of MAC. Notice I said "in
the scene". Professionally, and outside the scene, most musicians are
using MAC (supposing they use a computer in their productions). Anyhow,
when it comes to the OS wars, my age-old addage still rings true: Tell
me what you're doing, and then I'll recommend an OS.
There's one simple fact about each OS relative to the others.
Whether you want to admit it or not, no OS is the jack-of-all trades.
Inevitably, a given OS does at least one thing better than the others.
But this is the demoscene. We need only concern ourselves about a few
things. Yes, contrary to popular belief within the scene, what the
average scener does is only a fraction of what computers can do. We are
purely a multimedia operation. The scene doesn't care about
spreadsheets, we don't care about databases, we don't care about the
internet support (at least not directly associated with our art). We
care about audio, video and things that aren't pulled from a computer:
creativity. Creativity comes from our minds. For that reason, it
doesn't figure into the formula when considering an ideal OS. So, I
will ignore this for now.
So lets take the two important ingredients and look at them from
different angles. The sad fact is that programming, graphicians and
musicians have vastly different requirements when it comes to their
contributions to the scene. Let us look at the angle in which each
contributor will approach an Operating System.
A programmer wants an interface and a basis for which he can
communicate with the OS. The reality is that this is what he does. He
interfaces with the OS. That's his job. To do so, he needs to be able
to understand the way the OS works. He needs to be able to tell the OS
what he wants to do. He needs a programming language. Fortunately,
there are a couple of common programming languages that can be found in
many places. C and C++ are among the most commonly used programming
languages used in the scene. These can be found almost anywhere, but
most commonly found on the Microsoft and Unix Based OS's. But there is
also the whole issue about libraries. Most of the libraries available
for programmers in the Microsoft world are closed, that is to say that
the programmer does not have access to its code. This does cause
problems, and many programmers get frustrated with this fact. That is
the reason that many programmers are starting to stray towards open
sourced OS's like BSD and Linux (both of which come in many flavors).
Linux offers much flexibility when it comes to libraries. Most
libraries available for linux are open sourced, which means that the
source code is available to the public. Suddenly, the programmer has
access to all the tidbits of data and information that he needs from a
library. While he could get that info from a closed library, he now
knows exactly what is happening to his data, because he can much more
easily trace his programs. But nevermind that. The average programmer
based on an open source OS such as Linux has embraced the open source
philosophy, and has also offered their source to the public. It's much
easier to learn from example than it is from theory. The programmer has
a much easier time expanding his abilities in a given language. And
that is something that is very appealing from the mind of a programmer.
Now if you were a musician, you could care less about the source code
behind your programmers. If you're fortunate enough to know a
programming language, you might be able to develop your own tools. But
that's not very common, so you learn to make your music with what you
have. You want options though, and you don't want your music to be
limited by what does or does not exist. While the open source ticket
seems appealing, the reality is that there isn't much support for the
music world, yet. Too many hardware vendors are keeping their drivers
closed, so finding drivers for your $700 sound card in Linux is
sometimes difficult. It is even less likely that the drivers you find
will support every feature of your card. If that's not enough, try
finding some software that will allow you to do everything you want to
do. When it comes to music, you have to consider the market leaders in
audio hardware, and what they support. MOTU, M-Audio, Echo,
ST-Audio/Hoontech, Roland and other high-end audio hardware companies
are supporting MacOS and Windows. Those are really your only options
when it comes to music, especially when you get to the world of MIDI.
And even still, you're more likely to find the support you want in
MacOS than Windows. MAC, as it were, has only one standard for audio
hardware. As limiting as this might sound, it actually prevents a lot
of problems across the board. EMagic, for example, makes some of the
most popular audio software around. But they've recently announced
that they will no longer be writing software for Windows. If you
absolutely don't need your computer for anything else, MacOS is often
the first choice. Throw your stones, if you wish, but this is a world
where MP3 is becoming the music medium, even in the scene. More and
more demos are using MP3 as it's audio format. There is nothing that
says that MP3 can't be created on a Mac. That being said, if you're a
tracker, you still gotta work with Windows. Last I checked, there
still aren't any good trackers for Mac. But when it comes to MIDI,
there's no comparison between MacOS and Windows. The professionals
will tell you the same.
In the graphics world, however, it really comes down to what else you
want to do with your computer. There doesn't really seem to be many
limiting factors for graphic artists in the Linux world. The Mac world
started the whole graphics evolution, and it's still pretty popular.
And Windows can easily compete as well. It really comes down to what
tools you want to use, and ultimately what else you want to do. If you
just like to sketch, nothing is better than free software, and you can
get that with The Gimp, which is available for Linux and other Unix
based OS's. If you're an old veteran of the Adobe world, then you'll
need either a Mac or a Windows machine. Corel users can use almost any
OS. If you want to do oldskool ANSI art using oldskool ANSI Art
Programs created by and for the scene, it's Windows (well, DOS) for
you. But graphic artists have no room to complain about limitations on
any OS. These days, it really doesn't matter. Lucky you.
So once again, I have to lay doubt to your thoughts about the best OS
for the scene. I'm sorry to say that you cannot win that battle yet,
regardless of which OS you support. A scener should learn not to be so
obtuse. So pick an OS that you like, and stop shoving it other people's
faces. Just realize that your opinions might not work for someone else.
This is a debate that won't be settled for many years, if at all.
As a final note, I will tell you, out of fairness, what I use at
home. I have three machines: An 850mhz Laptop running Redhat Linux
8.0, a 1ghz machine running Redhat Linux 7.3 and a 1.4ghz machine
running Windows XP. I'm a musician, web developer and gamer. My
laptop is purely a business and development tool. Having no need for
music creation on it, I have no need to run windows. My 1ghz machine
is the server, the work-horse for my network. I do most of my web
development on it, so I need it for databases and web servers. I play
games and write music on my Windows based machine. I'm a firm believer
that one should use the best tool for the jobs you need done.
--Coplan
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Inside My Mind
My Addiction
By: Vill
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Oh those blissful days. High school... a time when I lived in
complete ignorance. How wonderful! Day after day I would exist without
money. Paying rent, buying food, worrying about bills etc -- all of these
things were taken care of for me. The same paradise existed for my
tracking. At most, I would be pulling in about 50 dollars a week from my
job at Taco Bell, so my most audacious purchase would be a pokey
soundcard or a wee little SIMM. Rock on, the true life of a tracker,
downloading synths, banging on pipes and boxes with a cheap mic for
drums, picking away at my $100 acoustic guitar... My, how tastes change.
I should have never trusted that serpent with that apple.
To use drugs as a comparison, not that I condone substance use (keep
your face straight, Vill), I went from snorting pixie sticks in high
school to pumping my veins full of designer heroine in college. That's
right, the taste of gear, the taste of blood; I am addicted to gear. I
am like the half-vampire Blade. I have the thirst. Only rather than
sucking on necks, I would rather frolic around the music shop, twisting
the knobs on a Nord Lead or rationalizing why I need a $1300 Taylor
Acoustic with cutaway, electronics, and an ebony fretboard, *saliviate*.
Acquiring a more "refined" musical creation preference is wonderful.
But as I sit here looking at my MOTU 828, Roland XP-80, Taylor 310-CE,
Oxygen 8, amps, strings, cutters, microphones, cables, cables, and
monster cables, I fear I have crossed the line from hobbyist to...
whatever. Yeah, the line. Armed with high school ideals, my free copy of
IT, and a myriad of samples from across the 'net, I remained happily on
the hobbyist side of the line. Now, as most of my disposable income (as
well as some necessity income) feeds my gear addiction, I like to
pretend that $150 is a big purchase for something like a soundcard, but
alas, my headphone monitors cost that much.
Mind you, I have the same amount of insane wealth, insurmountable
fame, and armies of fans that I did when I was tracking for free: ZERO.
Instead, since I poured all this money into my "hobby", I now feel
pressured to create music. While I flip all the switches and load Reason
and Logic, I sometimes feel like I'm at work. This horrible realization
leads to white-noise frustration. I find myself mastering a song even
before it's done by tweaking silly reverb settings and cleaning hi-hats
to the point of audiophile status. The groove funky chile, concentrate
of the groove my personal George Clinton voice bop-guns at me. Alas, all
these voices, all these expenses, the fun has been sucked out of
composing. Hell, I don't even have that bouncy high school girlfriend to
write tribute songs to. You know you did it too, so stop laughing.
So I turn to my Guide in horror as he shows me the 808th circle of
hell, the gear circle. Here, walls of rack mounts and hyperactive mixer
boards attack nerdy musicians just like myself. "Begone compressors!
Unnngh!" I witness one poor soul being bound by MIDI cables and ravaged
by angry inspiration stealing demons. How!? Why? What can I do to avoid
this fate? I plead. My guide stares straight ahead at the river of bad
VST instruments as he hands me a coffee can. I find myself in the middle
of my apartment, sitting cross-legged with the can on my lap. I wrap the
top with my thumbs, (bum bum bup) and then I flick the sides (ting
ting). I smile, wail on the can for a good fifteen minutes, and regain
the simplicity and fun that so often inspires and motivates me.
Amidst the gear and complexities, it is lucrative to take a step back
and realize the basic foot-tapping that goes into almost every song.
Unless you're an experimental musician, in which case, light that crack
rock and go nuts. I'm kidding! Really!
As always, with all the screaming, vile thoughts and ear-covering,
head-thrashing goodness; I hope you enjoyed being inside my mind.
--Vill
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Early Dawn Reflections
Jobs
By: The Watcher
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Another early Saturday morning, and once again I find myself bathing
in the soothingly bright light emitting from my monitor... nothing beats
staring at notepad on an empty stomach (do note that anything positive I
might ever say about notepad is me being sarcastic, I've just never
gotten around to installing a decent text-editor here at home). Today I
would like to discuss those most wretched real-life activities of all,
culprit number one in distracting us from hour scene activities: jobs.
While reading the following, please keep in mind that I am one of
those sceners that, even though they consider themselves active, never
seem to produce anything. At all. So if you are one of those hyperactive
sceners that release 20 demos or 50+ tracks a year, submitting multiple
productions for every contest at every demoparty (giving varying fake
group names to avoid suspicion), none of the undermentioned may appeal
to you. Not that I care, because I hate you anyway for making me feel
incredibly inadequate *grin*.
Basically, i think it is possible to divide most jobs out there into
two simple categories: challenging ones and boring ones. Both can be
equally hazardous for your scene-productivity. To illustrate this, I'll
take myself as an example (ego and id always make for easy writing
material).
Once upon a time (I'm talking about a far away past here) I was
working as a data processor, spending all day entering vacancies into an
online job-database. Clearly, this would fit into the 'boring' category.
Note that it was definitely not a _bad_ job. I had lots of fun
socializing with my co-workers during the day, and loads of energy to
spare during the evenings (in other works, I was a hyperactive ball of
nerves by the time I got home, but that could just have been the huge
intake of coffee during the day). But in spite of all this energy, I
never got around to code much, mainly because I had no inspiration
whatsoever. And ever so often it would hit me, especially after an
evening spend gaming, feeling guilty for not spending any time coding...
'What have I achieved today?' And the answer was always the same:
'nothing worthwhile'.
I think lots of sceners will recognize the above, being bored to
death working day after day at some silly nine-to-five job like I did.
Looking back, you realize that you had so much spare time in those days,
wasted away watching TV, playing games, chatting on the internet... to
cut it short, you might as well have been [funny stuff here], because
you sure didn't get any scene-work done. Same goes for a lot of sceners
still 'enjoying' our educational system by the way.
And then I changed jobs. I became a programmer at a small firm
working at a very, very high level. Suddenly I had to push myself to the
edge day in day out, just to keep up with my colleagues. I now face new
challenges every day, constantly feel inspired by the things I get to
do, ideas for at least a thousand demos ready at hand... but now I don't
have any time left, nor the energy, to do any scene-stuff.
So this is what it all comes down to: no matter what job you take,
you won't get any scene-work done. Period.
--The Watcher
P.S.: I had big plans to do a review of the 10 best christmas-themed
demoscene intros ever, but after first spending over 2 hours searching
for material (is it me or has the motivation to do
holiday-fun-productions somehow diminished after say 1996?), then losing
another hour rebooting my PC trying to get these obviously hastily
hacked-together executables to run, only to be disappointed by the sheer
lack of quality and originality, I gave up. Now I am trying to compile a
list of the 10 most boring intros ever, any suggestions anyone?
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Link List
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Portals:
SceneSpot (Home of Static Line).......http://www.scenespot.org
CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
Danish Scene..............................http://demo-scene.dk
Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
Diskmag.de...................................http://diskmag.de
Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com
Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena
ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
Norwegian Scene........................http://www.demoscene.no
Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
Planet Zeus..........................http://www.planetzeus.net
Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org
Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch
Archives:
Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Hornet (1992-1996)........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org
Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
Scene.org Austra........................ftp://ftp.au.scene.org
Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.nl.scene.org
Swiss Scene FTP...........................ftp://ftp.chscene.ch
Demo Groups:
3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
3State...................................http://threestate.com
7 Gods.........................................http://7gods.sk
Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
Addict..................................http://addict.scene.pl
Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
Alien Prophets.....................http://www.alienprophets.dk
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
Broncs..................................http://broncs.scene.cz
Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
Bypass.................................http://bypass.scene.org
Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
Cocoon..............................http://cocoon.planet-d.net
Confine.................................http://www.confine.org
Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
Dc5.........................................http://www.dc5.org
Delirium..............................http://delirium.scene.pl
Eclipse............................http://www.eclipse-game.com
Elitegroup..........................http://elitegroup.demo.org
Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~exceed
Fairlight.............................http://www.fairlight.com
Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
Freestyle............................http://www.freestylas.org
Fresh! Mindworks...................http://kac.poliod.hu/~fresh
Future Crew..........................http://www.futurecrew.org
Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.org
GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
Halcyon...........................http://www.halcyon.scene.org
Haujobb..................................http://www.haujobb.de
Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
Komplex.................................http://www.komplex.org
Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula
Maturefurk...........................http://www.maturefurk.com
Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
MOVSD....................................http://movsd.scene.cz
Nextempire...........................http://www.nextempire.com
Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
Orange.................................http://orange.scene.org
Orion................................http://orion.planet-d.net
Outbreak................................http://www.outbreak.nu
Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
Prone................................http://www.prone.ninja.dk
Purple....................................http://www.purple.dk
Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de
Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
Spinning Kids......................http://www.spinningkids.org
Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
Talent.............................http://talent.eurochart.org
The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
Unik........................................http://www.unik.de
Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
Wipe....................................http://www.wipe-fr.org
Music Labels, Music Sites:
Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
Aural Planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
Azure...................................http://azure-music.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates
Chill..........................http://www.chillproductions.com
Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/~cnd
Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/fabtrax/home.htm
Fairlight Music.....................http://fairlight.scene.org
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Hellven.................................http://www.hellven.org
Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.l7.net
Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
Lackluster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster
Level-D.................................http://www.level-d.com
Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/~mon
MAZ's sound homepage..................http://www.maz-sound.com
Med.......................................http://www.med.fr.fm
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Moods.............................http://www.moodymusic.de.vu/
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
Noerror.......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror
One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
pHluid..................................http://phluid.acid.org
Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
RBi Music.............................http://www.rbi-music.com
Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruff_engine
SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris
Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tokyodawn.org
Triad's C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
Programming:
Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net
Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com
Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com
3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com
Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org
Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com
Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com
NASM (free Assembly compiler)......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm
LCC (free C compiler).........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32
PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.org
3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html
Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys
File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org
Magazines:
Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/di_mag
Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
Eurochart.............................http://www.eurochart.org
Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
Hugi........................................http://www.hugi.de
Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
Jurassic Pack...........................www.jurassicpack.de.vu
Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
Shine...............................http://www.shine.scene.org
Static Line................http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
WildMag..................................http://www.wildmag.de
Parties:
Assembly (Finland).....................http://www.assembly.org
Ambience (The Netherlands)..............http://www.ambience.nl
Dreamhack (Sweden)....................http://www.dreamhack.org
Buenzli (Switzerland)......................http://www.buenz.li
Gravity (Poland)............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity
Mekka-Symposium (Germany)...................http://ms.demo.org
Takeover (The Netherlands).............,http://www.takeover.nl
The Party (Denmark).....................http://www.theparty.dk
Others:
Demo secret parts....http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula/secret.txt
Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
#coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
Freax................................http://freax.scene-hu.com
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
#trax e-mail list.............................................
.............http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/trax
Underground Mine.............http://www.spinningkids.org/umine
IRC Channels:
Scene.........................................ircnet #thescene
Programming.....................................ircnet #coders
Programming....................................efnet #flipcode
Graphics.........................................ircnet #pixel
Music.............................................ircnet #trax
Scene (French)..................................ircnet #demofr
Programming (French)............................ircnet #codefr
Graphics (French)..............................ircnet #pixelfr
Scene (Hungarian)............................ircnet #demoscene
Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu
Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger
--=--=--
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-=- Staff -=-
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Staff Writers: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Dilvie / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Novus / Vince Young / vince_young@hotmail.com
Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@
post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@writeme.com
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz
Vill / Brian Frank / darkvill@yahoo.com
The Watcher / Paul-Jan Pauptit / watcher@tuhb.org
Tech Consultant: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
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http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/static_line
If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
that we will format your article to 76 columns with two columns at the
beginning of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii
characters. Contributions (Plain Text) should be e-mailed to Coplan
(coplan@scenespot.org) by the last Friday of each month. New issues are
released on the first Sunday of every month.
See you next month!
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