Posts Tagged ‘guitar’

This week for TVazine, we go through a review that I thought was all but lost. A couple months ago, a hard drive crashed and with it – a few of the video reviews I did early on that were not published yet. However, I do back up systems, and found that this video was saved in a backup I did the month before.

It was a copy that I already edited down, so I couldn’t put it into 720 format, but I was able to do a little tweaking on it. I also am playing with some new title intros, so let me know if you like the new intro.

In the meantime, we review the Fretlight guitar – a special guitar that connects to the PC via USB, then lights up the fretboard to direct you on how to play certain songs. This guitar is great for learning and comes with software to help out.

We look at the guitar and where it stands as a musical instrument and a teaching tool.

Day Off - Sort of
A late Ramblings this week as I decided to stay offline last week. It was a long week and I was playing all weekend. It has been a while since I last took more than 24 hours off a computer, so that is a big feat for me.

HP Tech Forum

I had a fun time talking and working with Andy McCaskey and Kara Karsten with SDRNews. We had such a blast. We also put forward the mobile interview booth rig. We call it the “MacGyver” rig. Nonetheless, it was connected to uStream and we were able to conduct a few interviews for the event. Check out all the info on the Twitter log at #HPTF.

Great to meet some new bloggers: Shane Pitman of Neowin, John Obeto of AbsoluteWindows. We had a great week along with Halley, Tom, Calvin and Rebecca from HP and Buzzcorps.

Fryes at Vegas

Also got to go to Vegas again. While we didn’t run around town as much as with CES (everything was contained in Mandalay Bay), we did venture out to go to Fryes. It’s actually my first time at Fryes and I was pretty impressed. Of course, it was Vegas, so the store has a big slot machine up in it’s store front and stacks of coins as barrier posts. The inside was very big and complete. Andy had to get a new scratch drive since the one he brought died. We got what we needed and headed back to the safe Mandalay Bay

Mandalay Bay

Wow. This is a city contained in a building. That is, if you have the money for it. My room – which I call the “Bob Newhart” room – was decked with all the amenities. TV in the bedroom and the bathroom. You can connect an external device easily and be watching a movie while soaking in the tub.

The casino area was always hoppin. There were bands both on the “Sushi Pop” and “House of Blues” stages. Restaurants all over the building. A small walk and you are at “theHotel”. They even have their own beach – where we watched the Beach Boys play a set. Well, it was a short set for me, since I had a flight to catch.

Podcast on the show floor

I had the unique opportunity to record the show from the HPTF Expo floor. It was great because I didn’t have to set up a rig, do a show, rip it down and go to another area to post. I would also like to thank Simon Calder for helping out with the show notes so I could focus on other things.

What I got out of the show

Of course, there were a lot of things I have learned from this event. I have run server rooms before, but I was a little out of touch with the current technologies. FCoE was the big one I learned about. Also building a server is a lot different than before. Greener, more powerful and reliability were the best parts.

The Keynotes were just amazing. Learning about how these big companies are working on green technologies is amazing. Dr. Michio Kaku and his views for the future were amazing. A “Smart toilet” is definitely something to get excited about.

The Weekend

I got back to Madison at 8 AM on Friday. It was a long trip (5 hours, turned into 7 due to timezone changes). What was worse was on the trip back, I was not really impressed with the airline I flew. The one thing I noticed is they were not really friendly.

An example: We flew through a couple storm fronts during the trip. Most airlines would say “This is the Captain. We are seeing some turbulance, so please remain in your seats and buckle your belts. Thank you.”

The airline I was on? Well: “Please buckle your seatbelts”.

The airline also had screens drop from above. While I would normally invite this, I was in a evening flight. I had difficulties sleeping when something like a video monitor is playing. Of course, I didn’t pack my sleeping mask. Therefore, I was stuck watching “Confessions of a Shopoholic”. While other people loved this movie, I didn’t find it as interesting.

I got home around 9 AM, in which I proceeded to collapse on the bed for a couple hours. Woke up, caught up on some work I missed during the week, then headed off to play a show. Since it was out of town, I had to pack for another night away from home.

Band Gigs

Saturday was a day of playing. We played a friends graduation, then it was up to the Dells for our regular show at the Baja bar. There were 4 different Bachelorette parties that night and they were not in the Baja at the same time. As one party left, the next one showed up. Crazy.

New Guitar

While we were in transit to the Graduation party, we stopped at a local music store. There, I found a used Acoustic / Electric guitar. I picked it up as a spare for future shows. It needs some work to it, but not much to make it ready to play out.

Lazy Sunday? Not.

Of course, the day started out with this post. A quick breakfast, then it’s getting things ready for the week. Have to work on “Week in Tech History”, then I have to figure out how to put together the new video studio. Lots of soundproofing to do.

I suppose I should get to it. Thanks again to everyone for a great week. How do you top that?

Halloween is fast approaching. The office has moved around. Dan Tynan and Technology and Politics. Parts for Dell D600 – Win iTunes GC.

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iTunes Finally Cleaning House? – Interviews with Jamie Miller and Bryce Whitty: Win $25 Gift certificate – Paythefan – Sponsor for CES – Aunt Passing

At the end of the Podcast, we play a special song called “Legend on the Internet”, a song produced by local musicans and friends and written by @Sunspot_Mike of the Local Band: SunSpot

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It’s the Podcasts’ 1 YEAR Anniversary -GeekKon – CES – Interview with Walt Ribeiro – Future Segment – Paythefan – TechPodcast Roundtable

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Here is an alternative look at a program called “Frets on Fire”. It’s all open source, so you can download it at http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/

In this demo we will show you the program, and will also show you how you can create your own songs.

Show is now on Zencast. OpenDNS is now active. Assessment tests are a pain. Ubuntu on Virtual PC and a lot more news.

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Band Sues Guitar Hero Over Likeness – USA Today
Does EeePC Violate Linux GPL? – iTWire
Leopard a Perfect 10?… – Yahoo
Maybe not… – Cnet
Hidden Terminal Commands in Leopard – Mac OSX Tips

On the Geek:

• Internet Cut off for P2P users
• Live Documents
• Facebook Sharing Info
• Opera Mini hits 1Million Downloads

SPAM is Worse than Ever – USA Today
XP benchmarks better than Vista – Cnet
Verizon Says Bring your Own – New York Times
Brookstone Virtual Store – ZDNet
Macbook Pro Drive Defect – Engadget
Python Updates in 2008 – CIO
Playing Desert Bus for Charity – Kotaku
Hollywood Sues Chinese Internet Site – News.com
Torvalds on Linux in 2008 – Information Week
It’s a  brick…. Mac…. – Slashdot
Geek puts Laptop in Guitar – Techeblog
Pay-as-you-drive – Cnet
The First Digital Accordian – Techeblog

Caught My Eye:
teXbox – CVG
Classical Music = Fan is Failing – Microsoft
How to Draw a Monkey – Wikihow
iYule.tv

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