That's interesting about the hardware advances but the game creativity stagnation (i.e. creativity in one arena, but not necessarily in others). I would say that there is perhaps a link to where money is flowing and a LACK of creativity. It pays (obviously) to recreate Call of Duty, and yet some of the most creative stuff is being developed and marketed in new and non-traditional channels - and while successful to a certain degree financially, those indie channels certainly aren't raking it in like Bungie.

It's funny that I can even sound like I might have a clue as to what I'm talking about. I'm not a gamer at all. I had a short fling with Need For Speed 2000 and realistic racing sims do pique my interest, but it's been a long time since I've played and certainly would have a hard time justifying spending time doing it. No, any information I have now comes from observing my son and discussing it with him.

As I watch over his shoulder (he plays on my computer when he's home from school as his box is too slow), I can see some incredible creativity in games that cost almost nothing and the ones that cost a bundle all look alike (albeit complex and compelling, but simply permutations on each other).

It's "formula creativity"...which is not creative at all - skilled perhaps, but not creative. What is sad is that obviously formula creativity sells in our western cultures - or people woudn't be doing it so much.

It's interesting that you make the connection with the lack of creativity in the Church. I hadn't made it so directly, but it makes PERFECT sense. The societies we live in are simply a magnified reflection of the state of the Church. If the Church is stuck in non-creative "religion" instead of literally being NEW CREATION, then our societies will be that as well. It's one reason that I get frustrated with Christians thinking that they are engaging in society and discipling nations simply by voting. Yes, vote, by all means, but that's just a little cherry on top of the cake. The rest is of so much more importance.

So, bring on the narrative and let's write new, exciting and really CREATIVE chapters!

Revelation 17
9. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

There are 7 major mountain ranges in the United States of America:

1 - Rocky Mountains
2 - Appalachian Mountains
3 - Ozark Mountains
4 - Cascade Mountains
5 - Sierra Nevada Mountains
6 - Alaska Range
7 - Brooks Range (White Mountains - Alaska)

10. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

All 7 WTC Buildings were destroyed as a result of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Five WTC Buildings are under construction at this time.
One has been completed. (WTC - 7 in 2006)

There is no clearly defined 6 World Trade Center in the new World Trade Center master plan however it is most likely that one will be eventually included and constructed parallel to the others in the plaza. Five are fallen...one is (WTC 7)...and one is surely to come and must continue a short space. (WTC - 6?)

These kings are also referred to as "mountains". The towers being representative of financial power through world trade, in large part, control the free market economy of the entire world, even affecting countries that are not free. In this respect they are "kingly" as well as being "mountainous" forms of steel and concrete.
Might this possibly mean that time is limited for the new WTC buildings along with the entire city of New York? And why did John the Revelator use the word "space" rather than the word "time" if the intention was to imply a period of time? 'Dis is what I 'tink...he meant just what he said...space would indicate area, not time. Building 6 may break ground and even get partially built, "continuing a short space", before something happens...but what? Whatever it is, I don't think it will be good.

WTC 1 - Opening Dec. 2012
WTC 2 - Opening 2014
WTC 3 - Opening 2014
WTC 4 - Opening 2013
WTC 5 - Opening 2013
WTC 7 - Completed 2006

And.....

"U.S. of America" = 666
"New York" = 666
"New Whore" = 666
"A New Babylon" = 666

where A = 6, B = 12, C = 18, D = 24.....Z = 156

I believe, however, that there are huge sections of Christianity that don't understand the concept of "narrative" at all when it comes to God's activity through out the ages. Certainly they see "history" and many see different futures based on how they interpret Bible prophecy. What I don't see much of, however, is those who see that God is telling a story and that we're caught up in something much bigger and expansive than we could have imagined. The fact that the story is heading somewhere needs to fuel how we live.

If we're just a blip in history, we can learn from the past and hope to leave a better future, but that doesn't engross us deeply in God's story; we're not on the edge of our seats for the next exciting chapter. We're not connecting ourselves in the story either, seeing how we're just like that one guy/girl we read about - either in the Bible or in redemptive history. That's why I think that gamers have some concept of narrative that the Body of Christ needs to recapture. Personally, I'm not satisfied with what they saw in Acts...I want the acts for today - and they can look very different, but I want to be caught up in "His-Story."

I DID find some interesting things that might be good alternatives. "Merge MP3" at http://www.shchuka.com/software/mergemp3/ seems to be fairly full-featured and mp3-aware and I *think* it does the merging without re-encoding.

I also saw on the foobar2000 wiki some more explanation of gaps: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Gapless

As much as I'd love to say I wrote the greatest thing since sliced bread, I know I didn't and I don't have the time to really dive deeply into mp3 header/tag manipulation. If someone offered more of a command-line thing (like some of the linux-based utilities), I might give it a whirl.
Thanks!
David

For Bodo, if you are still around
I found same issue as you, but i told Foobar player to "Fix VBR header". This corrects the length to that of whole file, thus making it play correctly, even one with variable bit rate as mine was. Hope that helps.

So, the program does build from VBR input files.
However, what I found was a slight glitch (not a gap per se) at the join points, when using variable bit rate input files.
My next step was to tell Foobar to "rebuild the mp3 stream", which removes all non-frame (i.e. extra headers) info from the file, but sadly the slight glitches still remain.

Maybe it's possible to use a different tool from DOS copy to do the concatenation part?
Any thoughts on this?
I may try to write my own script, as this is proving a difficult problem to solve

best regards
bee