I love Fire Fight! I got the demo on a PC Gamer disc when I was a kid and played it forever. And couple of years ago when I built a retro PC, it was one of the first games I loaded up :)
If you’re curious about synths, I’d actually say it’s better to start with an instrument that’s standalone (that is, doesn’t need a MIDI controller). The HiChord is a good choice. I’ve personally had lots of fun with Orchid by Telepathic Instruments. And anything with a keyboard by KORG (including the VERY affordable volca line) is also a great starting point.
Once your first synth starts making sense, you’ll get the itch to buy a second, and it’ll be time to delve into MIDI :)
Totally, and I think the need for MIDI Guide - the fact that MIDI CC/NRPN is pretty much a free-for-all - is also why the spec has such staying power. It's so unopinionated that it imposes essentially zero constraints beyond message size. I love it.
That's an interesting idea. We've had a couple of requests to expand the format to include a mapping function between the CC/NRPN values and the 'display' values, e.g. [0, 127] -> [-10, 10], for cases where the relationship is nonlinear. This wouldn't guarantee normalization of meaning (it wouldn't encode the difference between the SH-101's attack and the Bass Station 2's attack), but it would make it easier to pull everything together in an app.
This is my pet feature :) There are so many cool sequencers and controllers, all with their own idiosyncratic plaintext instrument definition formats. Making little exporters for each of them is fun.
Hey thanks. I love the MIDI standard for exactly this reason too. Blows my mind that you can hook a forty year old synth up to a computer or iPad without drivers.
Thanks! My daughter loved it too. I tried to design the sharing workflow so that kids could send their designs to friends with printers (that's why I stuffed all the state into the query string). I struggled with the name, WordCAD sounds so stodgy to me, but the kids I talked to thought it was cool and serious haha
I have the same problem with my “blinds” - I started calling them “shades” instead (not the usual term, in my vernacular at least) and have had much better luck. YMMV!
I'd add hosting on top of that - like Apple, Google, etc., they don't charge you for distributing your app (which could be hefty, per paid transaction, if you have a low-converting trial or freemium app).
I think that's part of it. It's also a more open platform, so they have to compete with, say, Stripe or Digital River etc. on their commission percentages to get the big Windows software titles on board.
If they click your link (that includes the `?cid` parameter) while they're on your website, I believe the `cid` value is cookied/stored with their Microsoft Store profile, and will be respected even if they buy later directly from the Store.
If they visit your website but don't click the link, then there's no way for the Store to attribute the sale to your website, so you'll probably be charged full freight (15%).
That sounds about right, although 5% (or 15%) is a pretty good deal IMO for worldwide payment processing, installer and update distribution, DRM, and their built-in tools like crash reporting, push notifications, analytics, affiliation, and attribution.
I thought the same – I actually liked the illustration so much I bought a print of it. This is the artist's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harriorrihar/
That’s smart - businesses don’t expect as much for free, whereas consumer app pricing is cutthroat. Do you face more issues with gatekeepers in B2B stores?
Can't speak to AI for dogs and buyer's remorse insurance, but the AR collector really spoke to me - I would hand over 5-10% of invoices to have someone else deal with getting my enterprise clients to pay on time (and getting them to pay interest when they don't). It might not provide much social benefit, but I wish it existed anyway.
Hey, glad you think so. I’ve definitely been lured into a niche where the incumbents are only succeeding because of some external traffic source. Sometimes it’s subtle - big paid app install campaigns can be hard to spot from the sidelines.
I've been using this for a few years now, mainly with FastMail and Gmail. I can't live without it, especially for sending emails with documentation, technical instructions, usernames, etc. to customers.