So alive!!! (Blatant P.O.D. ripoff, lol)

It’s funny – I’ve been gearing up to finally put my Titanium Knights comic project into motion, actually completed a few pages (digitally), and then the gears ground to a halt. At first it was a creative block, which I fixed, and actually wrote a blog entry about. (Read here.) Since then, I have resumed sketching designs and page layouts, writing notes about the story, characters, enemy unit and fortress details, etc.

My plan for the Titanium Knights web comic is for it to be hand drawn, scanned, and digitally colored – with the exception of a few all-digital scenes – like outer space and nature scenery. I dug up the remnants of my old art supplies, and was quite disappointed with what I found. My drawing paper had yellowed, and my favorite (only!) mechanical pencil was missing. Oh well. That’s what happens when you don’t draw seriously for 6 or so years. So, what to do next…

I borrowed my wife’s drawing supplies in the meantime, to give myself an art jumpstart!

I was also encouraged by the gift of a sketchbook by a friend of mine (and fellow artist!).

I used what I had to start officially drawing again. (Read here.) It was cool, and I made more progress in the planning stages, but still no new pages released. Then it hit me: I need to get some new art supplies appropriate for comic authoring – for my comic authoring. So, one morning after work, I went to Pearl Paint’s Canal Street location (Check them out here.) to pick up some bristol pads, mechanical pencils, and lead refills. When I got home, I tried out the new pencils – I felt so excited and energized! It was like in the second Lord of the Rings movie, after Gandalf broke Saruman’s spell on Theodin, and Aragorn gave Theodin his sword, and all of his old strength returned to him! Dramatic, yes, but it is the best comparison I can imagine.

In my excitement, I drew a woman in the foreground of a previous sketch:

This is a preliminary design sketch of one of the Stalfarian fortresses. I used my wife’s art pencil for it. After I obtained the mechanical pencils, I sketched the woman in the foreground. To all of you Naruto fans out there: Yes, I copied her hairstyle from Hinata. I just happen to like her hairstyle! (I am a Naruto fan as well!) I didn’t plan for it to come out as well as it did because I was just messing around, but I surprised myself.

I was also very fortunate to receive an old Wacom ArtPad II drawing tablet for free. It was fun to use, but its age (wear and tear) made it unsuitable for serious artwork. However, that tablet helped me to realize how useful such tablets are, and would be an absolute necessity if I am going to seriously color my comics digitally. I grabbed a new Wacom Intuos2 from EBay for a great price. The difference between the Intuos2 and the ArtPad II was like night and day! The feel is so smooth – it’s amazing.

Something else I recently did to help me with my productivity is to rearrange my home office. It was such a great change, and it has greatly helped me with being organized. I have so much more space to work with, and I was even able set up my old G3 iMac as an extra workstation/music player! (iMacs have great sound.) I now have a neat, organized workspace – something every creative individual needs!

Wow. So much has happened in such a short time. I just wanted to share what’s going on to anyone who would be interested. Titanium Knights forever!!! Hoooooooo!!

(lol!)

I love listening to music in my spare time. For that purpose, I find that an MP3 Player is very useful! My personal favorite MP3 player is the Cowon iAudio 5. However, that is not exactly what I am writing about in this article. I am actually writing about issues with the Sony Network Walkman, particularly model number NW-E002F. My wife decided to pick up this MP3 Player for her listening enjoyment, despite my advice to the contrary. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love Sony products. It’s just that the Sony Network Walkman products require you to install Sony’s “SonicStage” software if you want to load songs to the player – and I detest any device that requires the installation of proprietary software just to operate. (This is also why I won’t touch an iPod.)

After my wife received her new Sony Network Walkman, I set it up for her. I was annoyed by having to install the SonicStage software, but I did so anyway. The SonicStage software was very difficult to tame! As I didn’t want my wife to have any difficulties with her new MP3 player, I decided to do a little research into alternatives to SonicStage. I found some information scattered around the internet in bits and pieces.

As of this writing, there are still no official Sony alternatives to SonicStage for this particular model. (NW-E002F) Sony has released a standalone driver and a basic MP3 File Manager program for models NW-E103 / E105 / E107 / E403 / E405 / E407 / E503 / E505 / E507 – PA_Driver.exe and MP3FMv2_ENG.exe. (Found here and here , respectively.) It will probably work with other Sony Network Walkman models, but I have found that it definitely does NOT work with the NW-E002F – the software installs and transfers files, but the files will not play at all. Probably a different type of file encryption. So now what? I continued my search… apparently there are currently only third party solutions for this model…

The solution I found and am currently using for my wife’s Sony device is NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager, found here. It is a Java based solution for transferring music to the device. Since it is Java based, it will work on any platform with Java support. The only tricky part is installing it properly. First off, it must be installed the device itself! A step by step tutorial follows:

Before plugging the device into your system for this procedure, I usually initialize the device. WARNING! Initializing will delete any data you have on the device! Back up your data if it is important to you.

Delete any folders and/or files on your device using Windows explorer. (Never use the Windows format disk option for your Sony device, by the way!)

Download NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, ffmpeg-win32.zip, and OMGAUDIO.zip from here. Unzip/extract the files from the zips.

Copy NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, ffmpeg.exe, pthreadGC2.dll, and the OMGAUDIO folder to your device. Note: ffmpeg.exe and pthreadGC2.dll are optional, and may be skipped if desired.

Now, double click on NW-E00X_MP3_File_Manager-0.13.jar, and you will be presented with a file manager. Use this to copy your music files to the Sony device. Be sure to click on the button in the lower right corner (with the diskette icon) to write the files to your device when you are finished.

Alternatively, there are two other file managers for the NW-E00xx series that I have discovered:

SWEx_0032.zip is a Windows only MP3 file manager, which I have tested and found fully functional. It is installed in the same manner as NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager. Just copy the files from the zip (id3lib.dll and SWEx.exe) and use the OMGAUDIO directory from NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager. It can be found here. (Free registration required) I will also provide a direct download link to the file from this site soon, for your convenience. Update! File available here.

voidMP3FM from DrVoid.com is another Windows only MP3 file manager, which I have not tested. It appears to work just like the last two file managers, and is installed in the same manner. Get it here.

Well, I hope this article has been helpful to you. The software I mentioned in this article should work with Sony Network Walkman models NW-E002F, NW-E003F, NW-E005F, NW-E002, NW-E003, and NW-E005. I make no guarantees, however, and anything you do with the information I have provided is solely at your own risk. Enjoy your Sony Network Walkman without SonicStage!

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