How about new singer rules for America's Got Talent?

Last night's AGT was an embarrassment with most of the acts being singing acts, and more than half of the acts advancing to the next round were singers. Taking the variety out real quick. Bello Nock and Just Jerk should've stayed -- hell, I voted for them.

It just seems that if you're a singer, you could either perform decently or do really well (by which I mean show "heart" or "emotion"), and depending on the judge's mood you might even get a golden buzzer. Whereas if you do any other kind of act, you either do your trick or you blow it. They're the acts most fun to see, but they're not closing their eyes or making funny faces because they're not singing some dumb song.

Here are some rules I'm proposing that, while they won't ban singers outright, would give the other acts a chance:

1. Require that singers write and sing their own songs. They don't have to play an instrument. This should keep the acts from being a step away from karaoke night.
2. Only two singing acts can earn a golden buzzer that advances them to the live shows. Once in the initial auditions and once during Judge Cuts.
3. For the Judge Cuts, the next round should have all the singers battle it out in their own round. Call it "Battle of the Voices" or something. Considering there are three weeks of quarterfinals with 12 contestants each, and five advancing to the semifinals, I could definitely tolerate up to two singing acts per week in the quarterfinals. That means 20 singers in one Judge Cuts show, with up to six singers advancing. Seven with the golden buzzer.

Custom soundtracks for (almost) any game on (almost) any system!

EDIT: Probably should just get a Makerhart 5- channel loop mixer instead. Better and more fun!

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Sort of a happy accident I discovered with a cheap audio splitter. I was able to get it to take two inputs and output both of those sources through my speakers at the same time! What you'll need:

1. Any HDfury product that lets you output analog audio from its 3.5mm port. (I'm using an older HDfury3)
2. Cable Matters White 5-Way Headphone Splitter with 5-Pack Audio Cables 
3. Koss VC20 Volume Control (you might want two or three of these)
4. 3 Pack 3.5mm Stereo Jack to 3.5mm Stereo Jack Adaptor Connectors, Female to Female
5. Any two 3.5mm headphone cables, preferably including one M to F cable
6. Any standard M to M VGA cable

With your HDMI consoles, just run it through your HDfury and have it output VGA to your TV or PC monitor. (I suppose at this point you could also use one of those VGA-to-HDMI converters for greater compatibility.) Use your 3.5mm cable to connect the audio output on the HDfury to your headphone splitter, connecting to the only male connector on the headphone splitter. Plug your speakers or headphones into any of the other ports in the splitter. Then connect your audio source (laptop, PSP, iPhone, whatever) to another port in the splitter.

Chances are the audio will probably be unbalanced, and you will probably want one source louder than the other anyway. This is where the Koss Volume Control products come in. Stick them in between the splitter and the cables.

When I say "almost" any game, obviously you'll want one where you can set the music volume all the way down to zero but still keep the sound effects. Like the Tekken games for example.

And when I say "almost" any system, that depends on your setup. For your pre-HD consoles, you should already have them outputting RGB or component and outputting them into an OSSC, then connecting the OSSC to something like a DVDO Edge. Then you connect that to your HDfury.