I have culled some scripting from my WIP site to add database caching support to the current scripts. I've been noticing lately that the database has been having trouble keeping up with the higher demand so that is why I rushed this out the door. Overall things are much faster, however, information is only pulled from the database once an hour so there's going to be a delay between, say, somebody adding a comment and it actually showing up on the page. This bug will not plague the next iteration which is set to roll out within the next two weeks.

This will be my final dealing witht the Rock Band drums on Windows. In the last post I said I was going to make a GlovePIE script, but it seems I have been beaten to the punch. You'll find the script in the description of the linked video and I can confirm that it works with the 360 drum kit.

A wise man once said all good things must come to an end. So it is true for me as my week long Thanksgiving vacation is over effective 8:00AM EST tomorrow morning. However, I will certainly say that it has been a rather interesting week for me.

There is, of course, my obvious return to fame thanks in no small part to idle curiosity and a couple minutes of nifty text editing. And to those who've been messing around with the drums program from the prior post, I have been paying attention to your comments. At this point I've abandoned that program in lieu of a GlovePIE script. More on that as things unfold.

An interesting development that spun off of all that hype was a small little comment left on a completely unrelated topic. It was from a producer at EA who basically said "Hey, want to do some game testing now and maybe come work for us after college?" When I first read that my small appartment was filled with whooping and jumping (this was before I got sick, more on that in a minute). It would be completely awesome if this were to pan out for me. Not only would I get some extra cash on the side while still in school, but I could go straight from graduation right into the industry that I've always dreamed of working in.

This whole thing is a perfect testimony to what I've been told by many people: throw yourself out there, you never know who's looking. I've been slowly working on my online presence since I joined YPN in January of '02. Since then I've dipped into almost every kind of online media there is. From running a message board, to podcasting, to online videos. Basically what I'm trying to say is, if you've got something that you think is good, put up online and do a little bit of shameless advertising. If I can come this far with one little video and a tip suggestion to Engadget and Joystiq there's no reason why anybody else can't. /end soapbox moment

As mentioned previously, I am "sick". I put it in quotes because it's not as bad as my usual form of sickness. Usually I get a sore throat, runny, feel weak, and just downright terrible over all. This, however, is confined mainly to the sore throat combined with a little bit of hoarse voice. Luckily, with the exception of the throat I feel physically fine. I was well enough to bike up to school today to pick up the books for my next wave of classes, namely Design and Art Theory (DAT) and College Mathematics (CMD).

DAT looks to be rather interesting as it is basically a traditional art class (no computers) with a design oriented twist. I've heard from two sources now that we're going to be getting a large amount of art supplies so that'll be cool. CMD is basic math up through intermediate Algebra. I jumped to the middle of my book and was able to figure out what was going on so I'm feeling pretty confident about that. Plus, I got a free Algebric calculator, though I doubt I'll ever use it. I usually do all my problem solving on paper.

Well, I feel I've rambled on enough. Before I go I just want to give a quick shout out to any new readers I may have picked up through the hulla-balloo. Peace out.

Here's a simple little program I whipped up to use the Rock Bad drums as a MIDI controller. I'll have a video up sometime later. NOTE - You'll need the .NET 2.0 Framework.

Note: I'm not providing any support for this program. It's up for those who want a MIDI solution. Download

EDIT: Since it appears my program is complete crap, I now redirect you to somebody who's developed a much better piece of software (and probably spent much longer than fifteen minutes developing it). Enjoy!

Everything I had posted here before is now outdated (and more than likely was when I came up with this). The latest Xinput driver from Microsoft supports the Harmonix controllers out of the box (people who think I'm fake probably already had this). You can get the 32-bit version here and the 64-bit version here.

Be sure to check out Andrew Rudson's Drum Machine

Answers to common questions:

Does this work for PS2 or PS3 controllers? No. This driver is for Xbox 360 compliant controllers. Seeing as I don't have either of those, I don't know their level of support.

Do the Xbox 360 work on the PS3/PS2 version (or vica versa) More than likely not, but once again I don't have anything to test it out with.

You're not a hacker. I plugged mine in and it just worked. Not really a question, but: A) I had old drivers when I did this (Nov '07). The old drivers didn't support anything outside of Microsoft Xbox 360 controllers. The newer drivers have been rewritten to support third party contrllers.

B) Hacker is (or was) a synonym for programmer, so once again, you're wrong.

I have a problem with my computer. Can you fix it? Being a full-time college student I don't have time to attend to every little problem. There's an internet full of willing people who are much smarter than I and have far more time.

No time? But you made this! You obviously have no life! I made this in half an hour (video included). And it was over Thanksgiving break at that. You, my fine sir, troll the internet telling people they have no life when it is in fact you that have no life. Seriously, go and get yourself a girlfriend. Once again, you lose.

Okay, enough poking fun at people. I hope this brings all the confusion and chaos to a close.