This controls this

I knew for a long time that this is something I'd be able to do, to an extent. I just wasn't sure about being able to use the PS3 controller to do it.

What you see above is my setup for playing SNES emulators on my 42" TV from across the room with my PS3 controller. Here's how it works:

• My PS3 controller is connected to my MacBook Pro, using the driver I downloaded here.

• Since I use Macs, it's very easy for me to screen share from my MacBook Pro (sitting in bed across the room) to my iMac (which outputs video to my 42" LCD as a secondary display).

• I screen share to my iMac and run the emulator in full-screen mode on the secondary display (my TV).

• Since the PS3 controller driver won't work across screen sharing, I use Gamepad Companion to re-map the button presses on the controller to keyboard inputs, which I then map accordingly in the emulator's preferences on my iMac.

• So, when I press buttons on my PS3 controller, they get sent to my MacBook Pro and are recognized by the driver mentioned above. Gamepad Companion remaps those button presses into keyboard strokes which are sent to my iMac wirelessly via screen sharing, and the iMac feeds those keyboard strokes into the emulator, whose keyboard preferences are mapped to match the button presses the iMac is telling it (which are, in turn, coming from my PS3 controller on my MacBook Pro). The emulator runs on my TV (as a second display for the iMac) and the button presses on my PS3 controller control the game displayed on my TV.

• In short, I sit in bed with my PS3 controller, and play Super Nintendo games on my TV across the room.

I'm not sure I can explain it any more in-detail than that, but I hope I made it simple enough for everyone to understand. The only issues I ran into involved the PS3 controller driver and Gamepad Companion (I had to restart the computer and turn off / on Gamepad Companion).

I've been having a blast playing A Link to the Past on my big-ass TV, and using the PS3 controller is pretty close to a SNES controller. It's bringing back a lot of memories. Once I get through LttP, I'm going to tackle Earthbound, since I never did finish that game way back when.

If anyone has questions regarding my setup, or has suggestions for simplifying it, let me know!

Special Others

I've probably told some of you about Special Others. They're a Japanese band with a kind of jazzy, indy rock feel to them. I'm no music critic so I have a harder time than that describing their genre.

Either way, I listen to them a lot, and their music cheers me up when I'm in a bad mood. That's usually a sign of good music. Since telling you to check them out will likely result in you thinking about it for two seconds then deciding it's too much work to find their music (which is hard as balls to find anyway), I've uploaded one of the tracks from their "IDOL" album. The song is called Quinto, it's eight-and-a-half minutes long, and it makes for great driving / chilling out / working music. You can find it here. This link is only good for the duration of March.

If you like this song, you can get more of their music from the iTunes Store, where they have their album "Ben" for sale. It's one of their best CD's, if not the best, and I can't recommend it enough. If you want to check out more of their stuff, get in touch with me and I'll help you find it.

Enjoy.