Peter Kirn

@elkrisp: You can use either a MIDI keyboard or just draw them in, depending on which you find easier. Reaper is a full-blown DAW and MIDI sequencer, so if the question is "can Reaper..." the answer probably is yes. ;)

I gave a shot and trying to explain what you'll need.
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/08/27/inside-the-rock-band-network-as-harmonix-gives-interactive-music-its-game-changer/

If you're on the Mac, you can still author the songs, which is the bulk of the work. All the tools in Reaper ship as plug-ins, and they work on both Mac and Windows.

You only really need Windows to get the finished track to your Xbox, because the MAGMA tool and networking with the Xbox 360 require Windows. The smart thing to do if you're a Mac user is just to use an emulator or dual-boot into Windows with Boot Camp. And an OEM license is cheap, anyway. I believe that's what Harmonix users who are on the Mac have tested. ;)

You can also calculate the cost. Figure $99 a year for Creators Club, $60 for Reaper (though you can test Reaper free if you're unsure). Everything else is free, so the only additional cost is Windows, an emulator if desired, an Xbox 360, and Rock Band 2, assuming you don't have one or more of those parts.

Cool, and handy to have for portable use, but doesn't appear to be any reason to replace Process Explorer with this.

It's worth noting that this isn't just Apple's "answer" to zeroconf -- it *is* a zeroconf implementation. :) So that means that you could have a Linux box running a different zeroconf implementation and still get this benefit, with your Mac happily hopping on with Bonjour. And it's also very cool that Apple has open sourced bit parts of its zeroconf implementations across all three platforms, so even a Java programmer running Linux could take advantage of Bonjour.

That said, yes, it's not *entirely* zero configuration once you get to a different subnet if the firewall intervenes, though don't be too scared, folks - most household networks won't have any problem.

Fascinating how frog are now the "original" industrial designers for Apple. Jerry Manock, the original designer of the Apple II, ought to have that honor. In fact, it was Manock's idea to reach out to frog and to found the IDG -- and Manock (with Terry Oyama) designed the Mac.

They were the first to use the color white... before they were later fired.

Speaking of history, KarlW, you might recall folks like Susan Kare went on to do design work for Microsoft. Hoeck's a talented guy. UX on a product like Windows isn't an easy thing. Often UX in general with large teams can produce results that aren't perfect. That's the gig.

See, this question actually turns out to be interesting -- and I find it interesting that in retrospect people credit IE and Netscape and forget NCSA Mosaic.

In fact, you can blame Mosaic for starting this by taking the World in WWW literally and making it its icon. And initially, Mosaic was a *very* popular browser, even integrated with things like CompuServe. Microsoft, you'll recall, didn't ship IE in the original release of Windows95, but they did put an Earth logo on the desktop. I think it was actually designers returning to the Mosaic iconography and metaphor that ultimately won out.