FAQ v2.1
1.1 what is projecstation.org?
Project Station was founded in 1997 simply as the entity that housed Simbarashe's recorded works (the Lift Projects).
1.2 history
In the beginning, Project Station was merely a small lockbox that served the purpose of holding materials until they could be rightfully copywrighted. in 1998 he bought his first set of recording equipment which consisted of a Fostex analog four track machine and musical amplifiers. He decided to name this recording space after the small vault, and soon Project Station became the Project Station Studio.
When Simbarashe released his first demo record Moroccans Don't Wear Sunscreen in 1999, he founded Injektilo Records. The name 'Injektilo' was taken from the sleeve of Ok Computer (meaning sirenge). Since he created, pressed, and then distributed all of the records out of his residence, he decided that the Lift Project needed a record label name. It wasn't much, but the name eventually stuck and became official.
That same year, Simbarashe decided to take his small production unit to the internet. Unfortunately though, at the time, projectstation.com was already taken. Lift.com was taken but he didn't want to use Injektilo Records for the internet since he had bigger plans for Project Station. projectstation.org was available and thus spawned the nifty abbreviation that most people know it by today, PSO.
projectstation.org (or PSO) is now the production entity of the Lift Label - (the Lift Label has two distinct seperate parts: the music aspect [PSO] and the literature aspect [the Lift Pages] - coming soon). The Lift Pages will also have its own seperate entity within this domain.
The idea and ultimate goal of PSO is to have a place where we can promote, share, and sell our works freely and directly to the general public by cutting out the larger conglomerate and reaching the group of people who care about us the most. (Most may be bought as full, tangible CDs or internet per song downloads). We will be promoting not only our own material, but also the material of our closest colleagues and peers. We thank you for your dedication and support to us.
1.3 who maintains projectstation.org?
You can contact Echo for general inquiries and technical issues.
The contents of PSO have been brought to you by Hiroko (Ai), Simbarashe, and Jess.
1.4 how is the site coded?
All of the .html and .php pages have been coded by hand from scratch on notepad, without the assistance of html editors. The databases have all been indexed by the same method, without any automation outside normal copy and paste functions provided by Windows. The layout itself is more of an inspirational thing, conceived more or less by looking at what's out there. The platform is XP. The hQ database and dolphonic are the exception to automation, as the posts are powered by blogger, and comments in dolphonic are indexed by haloscan. the layouts on both dolphonic and hQ were done by hand in notepad.
Photoshop 6 and 7 are used for all graphics editing. The photo taken in dolphonic was taken by Martijn ten Napel and used by permission. All other photos are property of The Lift Label.
The site is currently hosted by Tripod.
1.5 what's the best way to view the site?
Safari Internet Explorer both work equally well. Firefox (the browser of choice on Windows) and Netscape provide full functionality, those the layouts are without all the bells whistles, and borers. The site has been designed to be viewable in both 1024x768 and 1152x864 pixels, but best on the former. Those of you that run smaller resolutions on your PCs (especially MAC users), you are sick and twisted individuals. Cheers to you. Flash enabled browsers are also helpful. There are some backgrounds and graphics that may not readily load for some dial-up users. But you're not missing anything essential. All of the content should be readily available regardless of your connection.
1.6 what are the site's statistics?
In the spirit of doing proper business, PSO will begin to release periodical data regarding specs and performance.
• Currently sits at approx 100 MB or less as of 3/05
• Performance Data as of 3/05
1. Most active day of the week Thursday 5,279 19.32%
2. Most requested file type .php [PHP] 5,629 20.60%
3. Most common status code 200 OK 22,838 83.59%
4. Most requested file size range 1kb- 10kb 12,379 45.30%
5. Most active organization 198.74 9,840 36.1%
6. Most active hour of the day 19:00 - 19:59 2,174 7.96%
7. Most requested directory /psolabel/ 27,323 100%
8. Most requested search word simbarashe 55 0.20%
9. Most popular operating system Windows 22,037 80.66%
Macintosh 216 req.
Unix 581 req.
• Most popular singular page (php): dolphonic
• Most popular audio: Jane
2.1 what is hQ?
hQ is the page that carries all of the business news for the site. There, you will find information on current projects, as well as site maintainance queries. It is is generally maintained by Hiroko, though posts will appear from the others from time to time.
3.1 what is dolphonic?
Dolphonic serves as the online diary of Simbarashe. You will find information on whatever he feels like talking about there.
3.2 history behind dolphonic?
Dolphonic is Simbarashe's signature on guitar. The sound is achieved by running small devices that transmit signals (remote controls, cell phones, etc.) through the pickups. Since devices give off different singal patterns, and pickups' magnets have varied strength in their polarity, the sound can sound entirely different given the combination of the guitar/device. The Dolphonic however is achieved through a specific device played through a Stratocaster that Simbarashe specically modified. The device is a Sony. The pickup type was not disclosed. The Dolphonic sounds like a dolphin communicating. It's a technique that several guitarists know about, but few know how to use it for practical purposes.
4.1 what types of multimedia are available?
Currently, you can find audio in wma (appears as 'asx'), mp3, and Real Audio on the site.
4.2 I have real audio. why won't your music play on my computer?
There may be a conflict with your operating system or browser. Try ctrl-alt-del and close your 'realplayer' application (you may have to do this more than once to make sure it's gone). If this still doesn't work, contact
Echo for further assistance.
• If you don't have realaudio, then go here.
5.1 what are the Lift Pages?
Lift Pages is the part of the site that will shelve Simbarashe's commercial novels. That portion of the site has not been open yet, as there has not been adequate research, development, and planning put into it yet. It will be put up when it's correct.
5.2 when will the Lift Pages be available on the site?
Toward the end of the year, at the earliest.
6.1 what's the myspace section about?
Simbarashe owns a myspace account. You can view it here. Since about 35-40% of all incoming traffic comes from there these days, the myspace section on PSO was created to keep them entertained. Each week contains a smuggled Michael Jackson trial tape that gets posted for the duration of the trial itself. Otherwise it's complete bullocks.
7.1 what's torino 3?
The name of Simbarashe's production outfit, ala N.E.R.D.