Remember, NO DQ's in this contest, but those who didn't vote in the previous round DO forfeit 20 points. . .and ANYONE involved in contests may vote even if they can't enter.

Rules for this contest

1.  Any Performance submitted during October/November 2007 is eligible

2. All Entrants must enter by December 7, 2007 at 11:59pm EST

3. Voting will end December 31, 2007 at 11:59pm EST

4. All Entrants must vote and comment on the recordings entered by the above date

5. All SOTM entrants past and present  are eligible to vote whether they enter this contest or not

6. All ABC1,2 or 3 entrants are eligible to vote whether they enter this contest or not

7. Once you enter a recording contest, you are eligible to vote in future comps whether or not you enter

8. Failure to vote by the deadline will result in forfeit of your points

9. All Prior POTM entrants are WELCOME TO VOTE

10. Songs featuring different vocalists are ok, but the entrants will be listed based on their WRITERS

11. Once You've Voted, You can not change your vote UNLESS your vote was invalid

12.  In the event of a tie, the song with the most 1st place wins
       If it is still tied, 2nd place
       If it is still tied, 3rd place
       If it is still tied, a Tie Breaker for one week into the following month will be held
       Only the Top 3 require a tie breaker.

13.  You can't vote for your own song

14. You can't vote for another song more than once in the same contest

15. If there are fewer than six entries, there will be no voting at the end of the month; instead there will be a rollover competition, in which the performances submitted to amiright over a two month period will eligible for entry.  Any parody author who has submitted an entry in the first month may change their entry, but may still only enter a single performance.

Vampire's Theme

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ-qfpKObaI

Comments: http://www.amiright.com/performances/items/performances_1191212000.shtml

Looks like we have another rollover month... I guess I didn't help by not entering (a bit of an oversight, seeing as I rushed the recording just so as to get it submitted on time), but at least it wasn't critical.

Well, you can count me out of recording for a while. My 2nd external hard drive in 6 weeks bit it today, carrying with it almost all of the backing tracks I had.  :\'(

I'll look into Dave's source...

Dave, I won't be able to provide those backing tracks you requested. I'm not sure I had that many of them anyway.

Phil, are Seagate external hard drives known for gypsy moth lifespans?

Ant

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=638397

Hey There MacGyver, parody of 'Hey There Delilah', not up on performance section of AIR yet though.

I'll be in this month, hopefully in the next few days.

Phil, are Seagate external hard drives known for gypsy moth lifespans?

Just checked, and the 60GB external plugged into this laptop's a Seagate... it's been running inside a PC for a few years, and has spent a couple of months as an external drive, so their "smaller" drives seem OK (yeah, I know.. that's only one drive).  However, as we're talking two external HDDs dying, did they both use the same power supply?  Two things that might kill a hard disk are physical shock (like, dropping it - today's disks are remarkably resilient, but shock, especially when a disk is spinning, can be fatal) or a power surge.  I haven't known it happen, but ISTM that a 12v power supply for an external drive is the most likely source of disk termination.

Incidentally, are you sure it's the disk rather than the external caddy?  If you've got a free plug on your PC's internal IDE cable, you could try plugging it in there and see if it works.

Just checked, and the 60GB external plugged into this laptop's a Seagate... it's been running inside a PC for a few years, and has spent a couple of months as an external drive, so their "smaller" drives seem OK (yeah, I know.. that's only one drive).  However, as we're talking two external HDDs dying, did they both use the same power supply?  Two things that might kill a hard disk are physical shock (like, dropping it - today's disks are remarkably resilient, but shock, especially when a disk is spinning, can be fatal) or a power surge.  I haven't known it happen, but ISTM that a 12v power supply for an external drive is the most likely source of disk termination.

Incidentally, are you sure it's the disk rather than the external caddy?  If you've got a free plug on your PC's internal IDE cable, you could try plugging it in there and see if it works.


I've been very careful not to move or touch the hard drive while it is on due to possibly damaging the discs.

They had seperate power supplies, but after I initially posted last night I picked up the transformer to see if perhaps it overheated. It wasn't hot, but I could hear something loose in there. The Seagate still lights up but my computer says all the data on it is corrupted... again.

It's not the cable or USB port: my mouse works fine from the port to which the drive was connected.

Power surges might be it, though I've never lost any data on the computer from them, let alone fried a drive.

Ant

The Seagate still lights up but my computer says all the data on it is corrupted... again.

It's not the cable or USB port: my mouse works fine from the port to which the drive was connected.

Maybe we ought to take this to a different thread, but for the moment...

If the drive is still functioning, but reporting corrupt data - are *all* data corrupt, or are some stored files readable?
(Just offhand, do you know if it's formatted FAT32 or NTFS?  May have a bearing on how it got corrupt/whether the data is recoverable)

Updated diagnosis: I would be surprised if this is a physical disk failure - more likely is a error (e.g. power drop/surge) while writing, or even after writing appears to be finished if write caching is enabled.  This can leave a disk's header corrupted, even though the data is in theory OK.  In XP, write caching is enabled/disabled as "Optimize for Quick Removal"/"Optimize for Performance" option... in the "Properties" for the drive/"Hardware" tab, pick the drive and click on "properties" and from that dialog go to the "Policies" tab...

Have you tried any disk recovery tools?  I haven't used any apart from usual chkdsk since Norton Disk Doctor for DOS, so not sure exactly what to recommend.


Power surges might be it, though I've never lost any data on the computer from them, let alone fried a drive.

Your computer has a much more well-managed power source than the usual transformer that comes with an external drive - the reason I asked about that is if the same problem has repeated, there is likely to be a single cause rather than coincidental bad luck.  If the drives are still spinning and detecting in Windows, it's less likely to be this as a problem.

Okay, I'll likely rerecord by the end of the month, but to make sure it's here:

Homely No More

Band page: http://soundclick.com/jeffreuben

Song page: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=5972179

Here's mine:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=759221&content=music

Comments:

http://www.amiright.com/performances/items/performances_1194955542.shtml

"Hey There Maria"

Phil: It's NTFS, and I have write caching disabled. I haven't tried any recovery tools yet.

Ant

:( no comments on mine

just ot remind people its here

http://www.amiright.com/performances/items/performances_1194588599.shtml

http://www.badave.com/hosting/parody.php?st=56
Dance Dance Revolution

http://www.amiright.com/performances/items/performances_1195108121.shtml
Comments

Looks like we are short one this month, so double roll-over, unless we have any last minute entries. . .

One short, does that really matter?

Yeah, it's a rule that was voted on when there was a three entrant month. . .

By doing that, we have no free potiums . . .the good thing is in a rollover month, and song entered in any month(s) rolled over are eligible, so if no other competitor steps forward to allow us a POTM this month, it just means it becomes October/November/December --which means Hey There MacGayver is still eligible as is any other song submitted as a performance to AmIRight in those three months.

I was kinda under the impression that after two months we'd have a contest regardless of the number of entrants. I know we voted 6 entries and the rollover to make that number, key word being "rollover" (singular).

There is also the chance that we don't have another entry in December - then what, a 4 month rollover?

3 months also handicaps those, like Dave, who have put out a lot of recordings.

Ooh, wait - I see Phil hasn't entered yet. Phil, surely you've recorded a song or two in the past few months and can enter it?

Ant

I've had three goes at replying on this thread over the last couple of days: there's always been something to distract mid-typing (and thank you very much, Windows ****ing update for restarting my PC)

Anyway, sorry I've not got round to this: I've been trying to finish an edited video.. or rather, I *have* finished an edited video, but Windows Movie Maker fails every time I've tried to build the completed article.  I was hoping to have that done before the end of November as a submission for this month.  Other than that, I think I only have one performance, the "Dumbledore's Gay" one.

If people don't mind me entering slightly late, I'll go for that so that we have a quorum.  I'd very much appreciate someone else putting the voting thread together, though if nobody else has time either, I may be able to find a few spare minutes tomorrow.  For now, I'm having enough trouble keeping my eyes open...

G'night all

I've had three goes at replying on this thread over the last couple of days: there's always been something to distract mid-typing (and thank you very much, Windows ****ing update for restarting my PC)

Anyway, sorry I've not got round to this: I've been trying to finish an edited video.. or rather, I *have* finished an edited video, but Windows Movie Maker fails every time I've tried to build the completed article.  I was hoping to have that done before the end of November as a submission for this month.  Other than that, I think I only have one performance, the "Dumbledore's Gay" one.

If people don't mind me entering slightly late, I'll go for that so that we have a quorum.  I'd very much appreciate someone else putting the voting thread together, though if nobody else has time either, I may be able to find a few spare minutes tomorrow.  For now, I'm having enough trouble keeping my eyes open...

G'night all


I'm going to bed myself, I don't think any of us mind the late entry. . .but I've gotta go to sleep--work early early early, . .. but if no one else does it before I get home tomorrow night, I will.

OK, got it done (with a couple of minutes to spare... I've got to be out again shortly).

I think it's very unlikely I'll have time for much next month: I'm starting a new job next week, and I'm not sure how much time I'll be left with.

It's also fairly odd... if I'd got my video finished, we'd have had three "Hey there Delilah" parodies out of six.  (I've got an audio, but it's a bit out of my range, and sounds dreadful... doesn't seem so bad with a video on top, somehow).

Got to go.

Good luck on the video..

Looking forward a bit here, but


Let's say December rolls over to January, for the POTY I think we should count December January as the following year--otherwise it may be really confusing from a historical stand point (as often in the music business awards are awarded such as Song of the Year for songs that came out late the year before)

If we are lucky though, December will either have 6+ entries or none of the less than 6 December entrants will want to keep their song in the rollover because they feel stronger with their January possibilities. . .but I'm kinda hopping for the former more than the later.

I reckon we should have a Hey tHere Delilah comp aswell