The Slip has been released by NIN for free, and this time from what I can tell its much more mainstream and nothing like Ghosts at all. Ghosts was a little too experimental for my taste. I liked it, but its not something I would listen to everyday. Cool thing about The Slip is that they have released it in 4 formats, your normal DRMless MP3s that you can get right off the site, and 3 other lossless formats(FLAC, Apple lossless and WAV) you have to download via torrents.

I guess Trent's made enough money now that he can just give his music away for free huh? Either that or he knows the futility of DRM. Nah, he probably realizes that it is great press, pleases the fans, and that it will probably turn into more merchandise/concert sales.

NIN has made available the first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV album for free. Looks like they will be DRM free high quality 320kbps MP3 files. I had problems with the ordering system taking my Hotmail address(said it wasn't valid), so if you have that problem try a different address.

Update: Looks like the site is down because they got more then 3 times the traffic they anticipated. Woops! I wasn't able to complete the download, so I have yet to actually listen to any of it. However, you can buy the whole thing, thats 36 tracks, over at Amazon.com for $5. Not bad! You can also find those first 9 free tracks over at thepiratebay.org, so fire up your favorite bittorent client and tell me what you think.

Is it bad that when I heard about this, the first thing that popped into mind is this?

Many an old school gamer rejoice! If you have a Xbox 360 at least...

Wonder if the old cheat code will work...

There's just one thing that I need to say
Before I close my eyes and walk away
There's just one thing that I need to feel
Before I walk away against my will

There's just one thing that I need to hear
Before I walk away for the last time
There's just one thing that I need to see
Before I take this chance and set us free

Don't forget me
Don't regret me
Don't suspend me
Don't neglect me

The memory of this still reminds me of you
The memory of this still reminds me
The memory of this still reminds me of you
And that is where you'll find me

Stars in your eyes
Did you take the time to realize?

Can you count the stars in your eyes?
Did you take the time to realize?

There's just one thing that I need to say
Before I close my eyes and walk away
There's just one thing that I need to feel
Before I walk away against my will

Don't forget me
Don't regret me
The memory of this still reminds me of you
Don't suspend me
The memory of this still reminds me
Don't neglect me
The memory of this still reminds me of you
The memory of this still reminds me

Stars in your eyes
Did you take the time to realize?

Someone falls to pieces, sleeping all alone and someone kills the pain
Spinning in the silence, it finally drifts away
Someone gets excited in a chapel yard and catches a bouquet
Another lays a dozen white roses on her grave

And to be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

Someone finds salvation in everyone, another only pain
Someone tries to hide himself, down inside himself he prays
Someone swears its true love until the end of time, another runs away
Separate or united, healthy or insane

And to be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

And even when you've paid enough, been pulled apart or been held up
Because every single memory of the good or bad faces of luck
Don't lose any sleep tonight
I'm sure everything will end up alright

You may win or lose

But to be yourself is all that you can do
To be yourself is all that you can do

Audioslave - Be Yourself

So I really like some of the background music in the POL viewer and wanted to be able to listen to it outside of the game. I found this site, which is a complete FFXI music hacking guide. It mostly covers converting your own .wav files to .bgw files so that you can have your own songs play in the game. And also points out a program you can use to properly convert a wave file so that it will also repeat in game like the normal game music. Cool thing is, the converter program will also convert .bgw files to .wav files! So I used it to convert my favorite songs to .wav files then used the Plus! Digital Media Edition Audio Converter to convert it to a .wma file. Weeeeee!

So in game today I come running back home to Sand'Oria, and run into a mass of dead people in town in front of the south auction house, and much to my surprise, some of my friends are among the dead. So what do I do? I couldn't live without my friends. So I joined them in the afterlife...

So yea, I hear that BT will be here in Seattle on 8/22 doing a live set, which normally I would consider awesome. But I read the details, and he is touring for his new album, Emotional Technology. I went to his website and listened to a few tracks, and well, they are great sonically, but they aren't the old BT. I don't like most of his newer stuff. I want him to return to his old trance/house days. This stuff sucks. So if you were thinking of getting me tickets for my birthday, don't bother. Please! That said, the only two tracks I like so far are Somnambulist and The Great Escape.