music & computer

ASUS P5K-E Intel Socket 775 Desktop ATX Motherboard
For those looking to put together a high performance desktop PC without spending a huge amount just for the motherboard, the ASUS P5K-E is an excellent blend of features and performance.


ASUS P5K-E Intel Socket 775 Desktop ATX Motherboard
For those looking to put together a high performance desktop PC without spending a huge amount just for the motherboard, the ASUS P5K-E is an excellent blend of features and performance.
* Very Strong Performance
* Good Overclocking Ability
* Q-Connectors For Easy Motherboard Header Installation

Cons

* BIOS Somewhat Difficult to Use
* SATA Ports Can Conflict with Long Video Cards
* Limtited CrossFire Support

Description

* Intel LGA775 Socket
* Intel P35 Chipset with ICH9R
* 1333 / 1066 / 800 MHz Frontside Bus
* Four 240-pin DDR2 Memory Slots
* Two PCI-Express x16 (One x16, One x4 or x1) with ATI CrossFire Support
* Two PCI-Express x1, Three PCI Expansion Slots
* Six SATA 2.0 Ports via ICH9R with RAID 0/1/5/10 Support, JMicron Controller for PATA and Two External SATA
* Ten USB 2.0 (Six Rear, Four Interntal), Two FireWire 400 (One Rear, One Internal), Gigabit Ethernet
* ADI AD1988B 8-Channel HDA Codec with Coax and Optical S/PIDF
* SATA Cables, ATA Cables, Molex-to-SATA Power Adapter, Floppy Cable, I/O Shield, Q-Connector Adapters
Guide Review - ASUS P5K-E Intel Socket 775 Desktop ATX Motherboard

5/17/08 - The ASUS P5K-E is a mid-level board using the popular Intel P35 chipset. The LGA775 socket allows it to use almost every version of the Core 2 processor available on the market save for the 1600MHz bus Core 2 Extreme. It can properly handle the new 1333MHz 45nm dual and quad core models.

The number and variety of connectors on the board allows for it to use just about all of the latest technologies. It does use the DDR2 memory standard over DDR3, but this doesn't affect overall performance much and helps keep system costs down dramatically. One really nice feature of the P5K-E is the inclusion of the Q-Connectors that makes connecting case headers to the motherboard headers extremely easy.

Some users might have an issue with the location of the SATA ports. If you happen to have a very long graphics card in the primary PCI-E slot, it will interfere with several of the SATA ports. Since there are six, it is possible to avoid using two of them but it is still an annoyance. Also, the second PCI-Express graphics slot can run at most at x4 transfer rates. This limits the overall performance of an ATI CrossFire setup.

Overclocking the ASUS P5K-E motherboard worked very well. The heatsinks on the various critical components helps keep the motherboard temperatures down. Even though the board only officially supports the 1333MHz bus, the board has no problem reaching 1600MHz speeds without any chipset voltage increases. The only real problem is that the BIOS menus are fairly difficult to navigate and adjust to truly push the board as far as it can go. Of course, the cost of the board is much less expensive then the enthusiast class boards.
form www.compreviews.about.com

Shuttle XPC P2 4800 Deluxe Small Form Factor Desktop PC
Shuttle makes some surprisingly good small form factor kits available to consumers. They are a bit expensive but if you buy a system built entirely by Shuttle, the pricing ends up being ridiculous. The XPC P2 4800 Deluxe has a price tag of around $1800, but if you build the same thing from comparable prices, you can save roughly $700 or more off that cost. While performance is good, there are better options available from other companies or just build it on your own. About the only real benefit here is the Windows XP operating system if you really dislike Vista and can't wait for Windows 7.

Shuttle XPC P2 4800 Deluxe Small Form Factor Desktop PC
Shuttle makes some surprisingly good small form factor kits available to consumers. They are a bit expensive but if you buy a system built entirely by Shuttle, the pricing ends up being ridiculous. The XPC P2 4800 Deluxe has a price tag of around $1800, but if you build the same thing from comparable prices, you can save roughly $700 or more off that cost. While performance is good, there are better options available from other companies or just build it on your own. About the only real benefit here is the Windows XP operating system if you really dislike Vista and can't wait for Windows 7.

Pros

* Windows XP Downgrade
* Fingerprint Scanner Built-In

Cons

* Far More Expensive Then If You Build One Yourself
* Mediocre Parts Selection

Description

* Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 Dual Core Desktop Processor
* 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 Memory
* 250GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
* 22x Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW Burner
* ATI Radeon HD 4650 Graphics With 1GB Memory and Shuttle XP19 19-inch LCD Monitor
* Intel HDA 7.1 Audio
* Dual Gigabit Ethernet
* Eight USB 2.0, Two eSATA, Two DVI-D, Fingerprint Scanner, 23-in-1 Card Reader
* 12.8" x 8.7" x 8.3"
* Windows XP Professional

Guide Review - Shuttle XPC P2 4800 Deluxe Small Form Factor Desktop PC

Sep 28 2009 - Shuttle's XPC P2 4800 Deluxe desktop system is based on their XPC SX48P2-Deluxe barebones kit. Essentially, it is a complete system build that the company offers to consumers who aren't up to putting together their own system from their kit and the various components you must buy to complete it. Unfortunately, Shuttle has decided to charge a very large premium for this service plus a warranty.

The components that Shuttle includes in their $1900 version of the XPC P2 4800 Deluxe are very moderate. The Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 is one of the slower dual core desktop models and the 2GB of memory is half of the typical memory found even in budget desktop PCs. The 250GB hard drive is extremely small considering it uses a standard size 3.5-inch desktop SATA hard drive. And with the space for two graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 4650 offers up moderate performance for those looking to use it for PC gaming.

So, what does one really get that is fairly unique out of the XPC P2 4800 Deluxe? For one, it is possible to get it with the downgraded Windows XP Professional operating system rather than having to use Vista. This may still matter to some, but with Windows 7 soon to be released it is really only a minor bonus. The system also has a built-in fingerprint scanner for security but so does the barebones kit it is based on.

The problem is that if one decided to build a similar system from components including the free 19-inch LCD monitor, it would be possible to build it for around $1200. This makes the price premium for Shuttle to put it together and support it for one year very high. In fact, those looking for performance would be better served going for something like the FragBox 920.

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Myung, John Petrucci, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, before they dropped out to support the band. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remain today along with James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess.

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Myung, John Petrucci, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, before they dropped out to support the band. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remain today along with James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess.

Dream Theater has become a successful progressive metal band. Although the band has had one successful hit (notably "Pull Me Under" in the early 1990s, which received extensive MTV rotation), they have mostly stayed underground for their career.

The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines. Dream Theater's members have collaborated with many other notable musicians. Guitarist John Petrucci has been named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist, following in the footsteps of Eric Johnson and Robert Fripp.

The band's highest selling album is the gold selling Images and Words (1992), which reached #61 on the Billboard 200 charts. Both the 1994 release Awake and their 2002 release Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also entered the charts at #32 and #46 respectively and received mostly positive reviews. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also led to Dream Theater becoming the initial band reviewed in the Music Section of Entertainment Weekly during its opening week of release, despite the magazine generally preferring more mainstream music. In 2007, Systematic Chaos entered US Billboard 200 at #19. Dream Theater has sold over two million albums in the U.S., and over 8 million records worldwide. The band's tenth studio album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings, was released on June 23, 2009. It entered the US Billboard 200 at #6 and Eurochart Hot 100 at #1, marking their highest entry on either chart.
form wikipedia

The 2003 Fifteenth Anniversary Floral Pattern JEM has the same features as the 1988 original, including the actual floral pattern cloth used to make the drapes in Steve Vai's studio, plus the new Edge Pro tremolo. Includes extra back plate signed by Steve Vai.

The 2003 Fifteenth Anniversary Floral Pattern JEM has the same features as the 1988 original, including the actual floral pattern cloth used to make the drapes in Steve Vai's studio, plus the new Edge Pro tremolo. Includes extra back plate signed by Steve Vai.
Features: The original Jem 77 FP, designed with Steve Vai's demanding specifications, features a Ibanez Edge tremolo, Pro humbucker pickups, 5 way position Switch, dual control knobs and standard JEM 'monkeygrip'. All the features are painstakingly reproduced in this fine miniature replica. The Floral Pattern is said to be the actual curtains from Steve's Long Island, NY boyhood home, stretched over the body and finished. The floral pattern on this reproduction is hand painted along with the vine inlay on the fretboard.

- Finish: Floral Pattern (actual cloth finished with poly)
- Body Material: american basswood
- Neck Material: maple
- Neck type/scale: JEM Prestige/25.5"
- 24 large frets
- Rosewood fingerboard
- Green vine inlay
- Edge Pro bridge
- Cosmo Black hardware
- DiMarzio PAF Pro humbucking neck pickup
- JEM single middle pickup
- DiMarzio PAF Pro humbucking bridge pickup
- 1 volune, 1 tone and 5-way Switch controls
- Other special features: clear pickguard, lions claw tremolo cavity, monkey grip. // 10
Sound: Perfect for any music style, but I like metal and shred metal. I am using a Digitech multi-effects pedal with a Fender amp. It is not noisy on any settings. It is rich and full of bright and beautiful sound. This guitar can make any sounds in a sonic territory. I don't dislike it at all.

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar had perfect intonation and was awesome when I got is from the factory. The pickups were adjusted perfectly. Everything was perfect no flaws throught out this guitar.
Reliability & Durability:

Impression: Shred is my style of music and it is like a dream. I have been playing for 22.5 years and this is pretty much my gear. I wish I had asked about why it is so expensive, I got an answer and it is because it sounds like nothing you have heard before. If it were stolen I would hunt the theif down and get it back, that is how good it is. What's not to love? I compared it with every guitar I could. I do wish it had an overdrive Switch like Jason Becker's guitar did.

The GT-10, driven by BOSS' latest custom-made DSP and proprietary sound-modeling COSM® engine, is a floorboard powerhouse that offers natural and musical response as well as a marked improvement in sound quality from previous generations.

The GT-10, driven by BOSS' latest custom-made DSP and proprietary sound-modeling COSM® engine, is a floorboard powerhouse that offers natural and musical response as well as a marked improvement in sound quality from previous generations.
Ease of Use: Usually, a multi-effect pedal is supposed to be an ordeal to learn, in that you have to spend hours finding a good Overdrive or Distortion tone. Not so with the GT-10. It has a feature called the EZ Tone, which lets you graphically shape your tone. Once you do, you can save it as it's own patch, and there you go. I'll break it down into steps, since no one has yet.

01. After clicking Create under the EZ tone category, you'll choose from genres like Blues, Country, Soul Funk, Jazz, 70's Hard Rock, 80's Metal, Modern Metal, Punk, Progressive, Acoustic, and a few others.
02. From there, you Pick a variation (for example, Modern Metal has different variations that will focus on solos, or rhythm).
03. Once you Pick a variation, you use a graph system with the main knobs that feels like you are drawing on an Etch-and-Sketch. The tone is shaped by what area of the graph your cursor is in (in an x, y coordinate graph). The farther right you go, the harder the tone hits. Moving to softer warms up the tone. And then there is the solo or backing axis that modifies the mids and higher ups in the EQ.
04. You can then set delay and reverb in the next graph.

And that's it. Then you can nit-Pick from there, and that could take a little while, depending on how picky you are. Editing patches is easy as well, feels like a normal unit, but it is pretty fast and easy. The manual is a little thick, but the font is also a bit bigger, so it is easy to read. The manual also has a cut-out booklet, basically a 4 page deal (front and back of 2 sheets) that has all of the presets. Very easy to use if you put at least 5 minutes into getting acquainted with the EZ-Tone deal. After that, it depends on what sound you want. I haven't owned a previous iteration of the GT-x series, but I can definitely say, it's probably a huge step up because this thing rocks. // 10
Sound: I have a few number of setups. I've yet to try my main one, which is my guitar into a Crate half-stack. I'm debating about putting my Mesa/Boogie V-Twin pedal in front of the GT-10 or behind it. I'll see how it goes. So far though, I've used it on a small Ibanez practice amp, a Fender 212R combo amp, and the headphone jack. My guitars include an ESP/ltd. Viper-400, Dean Dime Razorback (two-tone), and a Schecter Revenger 7 (7stringer). Another great thing about this pedal is that it has an output selector, which lets you Pick what kind of amp you are coming out of, and then the GT-10 will adjust it's voicing to that. You can Pick between a JC120 (from Roland), a small amp (practice amp), a combo, a stack, and a line/headphones sound (for use with a PA/mixer and/or headphones). Also, you can Pick the return inputs on the combo, stack, or JC120. Most of the presets are pretty decent. There are some that excel, but of course there are a few failures. The sound has been cleaned dramatically (from what I've heard about the GT-8) and almost all of the distortions sound great. Some of the pre-amps this thing models include a JC-120, a Vox, a Mesa/Boogie combo, a Marshall 1959, a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, and a Tube Screamer (the pedal from Ibanez, but voiced to a pre-amp! ), a Peavey 5150, and many others. The Rectifier sounds really good. It is easy to adjust any of the pre-amps, so that shouldn't be a problem. This thing has a good number of pedals modeled too. A few I'll mention are pretty much any of the Boss od/ds pedals, a Tubescreamer, a Proco Rat, the Guv'nor pedal, a Dist+, an Octave Fuzz, and a Muff fuzz. The pedals sound really good, and there are many things you can edit about them (EQ, voicing, etc.). The distortions have a nice bite to them, and aren't very hiss-prone or whiny, like my Boss MT-2 sometimes is. In fact, I think the MT-2 modeling on this pedal might even be further improved on the original MT-2, if not even better than a modded one. it's all in the ears though, so take heed to that. There are a huge number of effects. You can make a single-coil sound like a humbucker and vice-versa. And even make your guitar sound like a hollow-body or an acoustic. I was playing this at Sam Ash with an ESP/Ltd. Eclipse, I think the 600 model with passive pickups. I turned it to an acoustic setting, strummed, and thought I had grabbed an electric/acoustic. The simulators aren't supposed to be this good! Very clean tone. Besides a guitar simulator, there are a number of effects. These are some of them: compressor, equalizer, delay, chorus, reverb, pedal wah/pedal bend, noise suppressor 1, noise suppressor 2, t wah, auto wah, sub wah, adv comp, limiter, graphic eq, parametric eq, tone modify, guitar sim, guitar synth, and many others. There are a few other synth effects. there is even a feed-back effect that simulates getting feedback, even if playing through head-phones. Pretty useful if you need a single-note phrase with some feed-back kicking in. Each effect has many different parameters to work with. Users familiar with the GT-8 will be happy to know there are now 2 control (ctrl) pedals. Basically these Switch channels on the pre-amps, turn effects on/off, and more. You can hold down on of the control pedals with your foot and get a higher Harmony part for as long as your foot is held down. So if you have a higher melody part that you want, but it comes in for 2 measures every other time you repeat the phrase, you are good to go with that, instead of looking like you are trying out for River Dance. I give sound a 9 just because of a few of the effects being a bit too "out there" in that I might never use them. But for a progressive type of player, this could be a gold-mine of effects. // 9

Reliability & Durability: Oh yes, this thing seems rock solid. You can't use it without the power-cord since there is no place for batteries. But this thing is built like a tank otherwise. The only problem is that the bank switching pedals are a little out of reach. But they aren't anywhere near the screen, which is good. I never really feel safe at any gig. I'd depend on this, but I'd carry some back up effects with me, just because that keeps me comfortable. Otherwise, if I only had room for my amp, guitar, and this, I would most definitely gig without backup. // 10

Impression: I play in a band that plays hard rock with a slight hint of metal. This pedal does everything I need it to in the band. As for myself, I write music as a solo project and for fun, and this takes care of everything. And I will go between different genres. If I'm feeling some blues, I kick that on. If I want to do some fun techno stuff or dark synth for industrial, I can flip that on with no problem. This really is a great pedal. It has 2 midi jacks, so you can use the GT-10 to control MIDI objects as well. I don't use MIDI, so I don't have too much to say about it. The USB is one problem though. They don't include a cable with the GT-10, and I can't get my GT-10 to work with my computer. But that's only because I have a 64-bit version of Vista Ultimate. There are drivers for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Apple. So you should be safe. Check Boss's site for more info. on that. I can't really explain that stuff, since I'm not very tech-savvy. Customer Support, after you register for "backstage" or w/e at Boss so you can see the different manuals and stuff, is very helpful. I e-mailed yesterday about the drivers, and I was replied to today. They even sent a request to the main headquarters to see about making a 64-bit driver. No info. on that though, but it's understood. They were helpful as far as they could be, so for that I thank them. I've been playing for almost 5 years, and my multi-effect pedal before this was the Zoom GFX-5. A knob broke on it, and I wasn't too happy with what I was hearing so I decided to upgrade. I was thinking about this and the DigiTech RP-500. But I decided on this after hearing it, because it just seemed to good to pass up. And I wanted something that could create tones, instead of just full-on replicating them. My friend and other guitarist in my band isn't going to be too happy about me getting this instead of the RP-500, since we were thinking about getting the same pedals so we'd have identical sounds and he doesn't want to shell out for this. I don't really care though, because this pedal probably kicks the RP-500's ass many times over. Maybe the replication isn't as great, but this thing has enough tones and effects where I am completely satisfied. I'm going to be learning things about this system for a good amount of time to come, and then the fun will really start. If you are thinking about getting a multi-effect pedal, and have the cash... get it. I believe you won't regret it. If you plan on recording via USB though, make sure you aren't running a 64-bit OS. Otherwise, go for it. If there is anything else you need, feel free to message me. Or better yet, check the Boss site and look at all the effects and stuff they have under the Knowledge Base. I give this a 9, only because of a few of the presets (which really shouldn't be taken into account, but for those that like all presets to be great, then the 9 is for them... otherwise, if you aren't too picky with presets, give it a 10) and the USB driver problem. I'm sure someone will have a fix sometime soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and get back to jamming out with it.
price:$499
form http://www.ultimate-guitar.com

Toshiba's NB205 is a great value, packed with a collection of fantastic features and a marathon-ready battery life.
Toshiba may be new to netbooks, but the company is no stranger to small. Toshiba's NB205-N310 ($400) jumps into the market and claims a top spot in our rankings. This primo portable not only delivers where it counts with the longest battery life to date, it does so with panache and some great design decisions. In short, Toshiba has come a long way since blazing trails with its Libretto subnotebooks in the 1990s.

Toshiba's NB205 is a great value, packed with a collection of fantastic features and a marathon-ready battery life.
Toshiba may be new to netbooks, but the company is no stranger to small. Toshiba's NB205-N310 ($400) jumps into the market and claims a top spot in our rankings. This primo portable not only delivers where it counts with the longest battery life to date, it does so with panache and some great design decisions. In short, Toshiba has come a long way since blazing trails with its Libretto subnotebooks in the 1990s.
I'm going to start this review with the NB205's only real "downer": its pedestrian speed and guts. The guts are a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB 5400-rpm hard drive, which together earned the NB205 a rather standard performance score of 36 in PC WorldBench 6. But that's about the only thing that I'd classify as "average" about the NB205-N310.

Toshiba spokespeople say that the NB205-N310's six-cell battery can last for almost 9 hours. Wrong. In our tests, the NB205 survives a staggering 9 hours, 53 minutes. For a little perspective, that is easily the longest time so far that a netbook has been able to run--and this is with the standard battery on board. That alone catapults this netbook's worth to a top pick on the charts.

A killer keyboard and a touchpad to match are essential for a champion netbook. After all, how useful is a machine if you can't type on it without hurting your hands? Toshiba scores by making the Chiclet-size cutout keys just big enough, and by dropping down a huge touchpad. This is simply the best netbook mouse pad to date. For starters, the surface area of the strike zone is larger than that on many full-size laptops! Next, the beefy mouse buttons camp at the southern edge of the machine--easing hand strain. My physical therapist would approve.

The N310 has good (though occasionally muted) color reproduction and supports a reasonably precise resolution of 1024 by 600 pixels on its glossy 10.1-inch screen. I noticed some dark spots that got washed into a splotch or two--but otherwise, the images looked plenty sharp.

Its configuration looks fairly standard on the surface: three USB ports, an SDHC card reader, a Webcam, one VGA-out, ethernet, and headphone and microphone jacks. But it's put together in a 2.9-pound package and with a sense of style that doesn't look or feel cheap at all.

Toshiba also adds a few extras to the NB205-N310 that are sure to appeal to folks on the go--and even more so to IT departments looking to deploy cheap PCs to a mobile workforce. One notable perk is a pass-through USB port that enables users to charge USB-powered devices while the computer is off. This netbook also provides an internal accelerometer to protect the hard drive in case of falls (much as the HP Mini 2140 does)--and it offers wireless WAN support as an option.

As a quick heads-up, another version of the NB205 is waiting in the wings--the lighter, scrappier NB205-N210. The big differences between these sibling Toshiba netbooks boil down to price (the N210 costs $350, $50 less than the N310), key shape (the N210 has flat, wide keys, as opposed to the N310's cut-out style), and the N310's bluetooth support (the N210 doesn't have it).

But considering all the features packed into the N310--and how well it performs in a pinch--this is an easy-to-recommend netbook that's perfect whether you are a budget-minded businessman or you just need a flexible minimachine for a long day of note-taking. If this netbook ponied up a little more horsepower (a discrete GPU wouldn't hurt), I'd probably use this as my go-to gadget.

--Darren Gladstone
pcworld.com

The innovative video feature of Nikon's D90 digital SLR needs work--but the photo features shine.

Nikon rocked the DSLR world when it announced the D90, the first digital SLR camera to incorporate video recording. That feature needs refinement, but purely as a photographer's tool, the D90 stacks up as a worthy successor to the Nikon D80 on several counts. And it compares favorably to the competition, scoring well in our image-quality tests.

The innovative video feature of Nikon's D90 digital SLR needs work--but the photo features shine.

Nikon rocked the DSLR world when it announced the D90, the first digital SLR camera to incorporate video recording. That feature needs refinement, but purely as a photographer's tool, the D90 stacks up as a worthy successor to the Nikon D80 on several counts. And it compares favorably to the competition, scoring well in our image-quality tests.
The D90, which costs $1250 (as of 11/15/08) with its AF-S ED 18mm-to-105mm kit lens, packs several upgrades: It inherits the excellent, crisp 3-inch LCD from the prosumer-level Nikon D300, it adds a new CMOS sensor, and it pumps up the resolution to 12.3 megapixels (from 10.2 megapixels on the D80). In addition to video, you'll find other features inspired by point-and-shoots, such as live view, face detection, in-camera retouching, and a calendar feature that allows you to view your shots by date.

The D90 weighs slightly more than its predecessor; it's solid and well built, but not too hefty. The camera feels substantial, but its grip is comfortable, and its design is pretty intuitive, with dedicated function buttons and common scene settings on the top dial. It also sports a dense, though easily navigable, menu system with some user-friendly elements borrowed from the D80, such as My Menu, which allows you to save your most frequently used settings. Non-Nikon users should find the interface visually appealing and easy to use; Nikon veterans will find shooting straightforward right out of the box.

The back of the D90 sports a button that activates the live view function, which includes still and video recording (the latter 720p at 24 fps). Once live view is activated, everything slows down as the mirror flips up, the shutter opens, and software takes over the recording process. While shooting stills, I found live view too clunky and its autofocus too slow, so I opted to use the viewfinder instead.

Before recording video, you must set the autofocus on your subject using live view. While recording, the D90 automatically adjusts for exposure, but not focus. You can manually adjust focus while shooting, but I found this too awkward to do without a tripod. Also, because of the way that CMOS records an image, you may see "rolling" (a shake-like impression) in your footage, which detracts from the overall quality and creative potential of the video feature. Clips longer than 5 minutes may cause the camera sensor to grow discernably warm, too.

Audio quality from the camera's built-in microphone was not great, and unfortunately you cannot use the mic to record notes on your still shots. Judging from my hands-on experience, I'd say that the D90's video function, though a welcome innovation, needs further development. In the meantime, I'm happy to use my point-and-shoot for off-the-cuff videos.

The D90 excelled in the PC World Test Center's evaluation: It came in second only to the Canon 50D in our digital camera tests. I was generally pleased with my field test shots. The D90 was quick to autofocus and usually was on the mark. The auto-flash also performed consistently well. I found that the camera tended to blow out the brightest highlights, however, and I saw some minor halos along very high-contrast edges. When I switched to high-quality JPEG from RAW, it produced a slight but noticeable softening in the images.

The image quality at high ISOs was very good compared with that of other models I've tried recently: Although some noise appeared in darker areas at speeds above 400, it was minimal, looking more like film grain than the usual jarring digital noise with accompanying sludgy colors. My RAW files showed a pretty impressive dynamic range; the JPEGs, a little less so but still quite good. A bit of sharpening and sometimes a contrast boost helped the look of JPEGs significantly. (You can make those settings in-camera.)

With its improved LCD, slightly larger frame of view, dust-cleaning sensor, enhanced 3D 11-point autofocus, an optional GPS attachment, and the ability to make a video here and there, the D90 definitely has an array of interesting features. And simply as a camera, the D90 turns out some of the best results you can buy.
pcworld.com

A new search engine, called ImHalal.com, aims to protect the sensibilities of Muslims by filtering out content that is "haram" or forbidden by the faith.

A new search engine, called ImHalal.com, aims to protect the sensibilities of Muslims by filtering out content that is "haram" or forbidden by the faith.
The site will warn people if they are searching for a query that might return explicit content, site-founder Reza Sardeha said in an email on Friday.

Besides developing the search technology, Sardeha and others in his team, based in the Netherlands, have also introduced a two layer filter.

When users get a haram rating of level one or two out of three, they are advised to choose another keyword to search, but they can still continue their search if they believe the results fetched will be clean, Sardeha said.

Words like porn and rape are considered to be at a rating of three, and are blocked, he added. Terms like beer and pork, however, get a haram rating of one because users cannot consume them off the Internet.

The site was launched earlier this month, and has received more than 400,000 unique visitors so far, Sardeha said. The promoters are considering using advertising as a revenue stream for the site, he added.

Muslims have become very active on the Internet in the last few years but there is a lack of tools to assist in safe or responsible online activities.

ImHalal.com aims to create a safe and clean environment for Muslims to search the Web, it said.

Mainstream search engines have comes in for criticism in many parts of the world for displaying content that is offensive to the local culture, and even against local laws. A social activist in India for example has filed a complaint in an Indian court against major search engines for displaying advertising and information on child sex selection techniques. Such advertising is against the law in India.

In some nations, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, some Web sites are actively filtered.
visit this web

Musicman sterling.
style with Musicman sterling

Model:
Sterling
Size:
12-1/2" wide, 1-5/8" thick, 43-7/8" long (31.8 cm wide, 4.1 cm thick, 111.4 cm long)
Weight:
9 lbs (4.08 kg) - varies slightly
Body Wood:
Ash
Body Finish:
High gloss polyester
Bridge:
Standard - Music Man® chrome plated, hardened steel bridge plate with stainless steel saddles; Optional - Piezo bridge with nickel plated brass saddles
Pickguard:
Standard - Black or White; Optional - Shell, White Pearloid, Vintage White Pearloid, Black Pearloid, Blue Pearloid, Moonstone, Abalone, Python, Orange Swirl, Gold Swirl, and Blue Swirl.
Scale Length:
34" (86.4 cm)
Neck Radius:
11" (27.9 cm)
Headstock Size:
Only 7-5/8" (19.4 cm) long
Frets:
22 - High profile, wide
Neck Width:
1-1/2" (38.1 mm) at nut, 2-1/2" (63.5 mm) at last fret
Neck Wood:
Select maple neck
Fingerboard:
Fretted - maple or rosewood; Fretless - Pau Ferro with or without inlaid fretlines
Neck Finish:
Gunstock oil and hand-rubbed special wax blend
Neck Colors:
Standard - Natural; Optional - Matching painted headstock
Tuning Machines:
Schaller BM, with tapered string posts
Truss Rod:
Adjustable - no component or string removal
Neck Attachment:
5 bolts - perfect alignment with no shifting; Sculpted neck joint allows smooth access to higher frets
Electronic Shielding:
Graphite acrylic resin coated body cavity and aluminum lined control cover
Controls:
Single Pickup, 3-band active preamp; vol, treble, mid, bass; Dual Pickup, 3-band active preamp; vol, treble, mid, bass; Piezo 3-band active preamp: vol, mag/piezo pan, treble, mid, bass
Switching:
Single Pickup - 3-way lever pickup selector; Dual Pickup - 5-way lever pickup selector
Pickups:
Standard - Music Man® humbucking with ceramic magnets and hum canceling phantom coil; Optional - Dual Humbucking with ceramic magnets; Optional - Humbucking/Single coil with ceramic magnets
Left Handed:
Yes
Strings:
45w-65w-80w-100w (Super Slinky Bass #2834)

With the iPhone 3GS, Apple solidifies its leadership position in a crowded smartphone landscape.

It would be easy to dismiss the Apple iPhone 3GS as an inconsequential hardware upgrade. But to do so would underestimate how much, collectively, the phone's new features augment the iPhone experience. With the iPhone 3GS, Apple solidifies its leadership position in a crowded smartphone landscape.


With the iPhone 3GS, Apple solidifies its leadership position in a crowded smartphone landscape.

It would be easy to dismiss the Apple iPhone 3GS as an inconsequential hardware upgrade. But to do so would underestimate how much, collectively, the phone's new features augment the iPhone experience. With the iPhone 3GS, Apple solidifies its leadership position in a crowded smartphone landscape.
On the outside, the iPhone 3GS ($299 for 32GB, or $199 for 16GB, with a two-year AT&T contract, as of 6/22/09) looks and feels virtually identical to the existing iPhone 3G (now $99 for 8GB with a two-year AT&T contract). Yes, it's disappointing that Apple made no refinements in the external case (see our review of the iPhone 3G for more detail, but it's simply a minimalist design dominated by its display and the home button beneath that display). And yes, it's curious that the colors remain the same, black or white gloss (this from the company which made sure its audio players came in every color of the spectrum).

But inside, the iPhone 3GS has been fully redesigned, with new core components (CPU, memory, integrated compass, video recorder) in different locations, no less. And together with the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade (which makes many compelling features available to existing iPhone customers), the iPhone 3GS stands tall. After pounding on it, I can say that at the full-subsidy prices, the 3GS is a surprisingly worthy upgrade for heavy users of the phone's Web and gaming capabilities, and for general-use apps--even if you're only jumping from the iPhone 3G. Read on to learn why.
Performance

Apple has played down the upgraded component specs on the iPhone 3GS; instead, the company simply promised noticeably faster performance. And the 3GS, with its CPU boosted (to 600MHz, from the iPhone 3G's 412MHz CPU) and its memory doubled (to 256MB), indeed delivers a noticeably zippier user experience compared with the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G.

Not only do apps open faster, they respond faster, too. These differences were evident in my use over both 3G and Wi-Fi. The annoying lags for accessing data or redrawing a screen are gone; moving around from one complicated Web page to the next feels downright breezy, not onerous.

I wasn't surprised that games--I tried Oregon Trail and Peggle--were snappier, since the graphics has been bumped up, with Open GL ES 2.0 for mobile 3D graphics and, according to teardown reports, Imagination Technologies' PowerVR SGX.

But I was pleasantly surprised to have a noticeably better experience navigating apps like Marco Polo CityGuide London, a largely text-based utility with hooks into the Maps app. And the London Tube Underground map didn't need seconds to redraw as I rapidly scrolled within the map. These small differences add up in a big way (especially if you're standing on a street corner while touring in London, trying to find your way), and made for a much more pleasing experience as I pounded on apps, switching among them at will, my fingers gliding fast to move from one feature to the next.

Call quality and reception remained the usual mixed bag we've come to expect from AT&T. Calls sounded adequate, but sometimes lacked the crisp clarity I've experienced with other handsets, including the T-Mobile G1 and the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G. How much of this is attributable to the AT&T network versus the handset itself is unclear, but moot anyway, given that the phone remains locked to AT&T, and its network is the one iPhone users must contend with.

Apple's claims of longer battery life from the previous generation are true, though not by much. According to the PC World Test Center's battery life tests, the iPhone 3GS had an average talk time 6 hours and 12 minutes--only 34 minutes longer than the iPhone 3G. Still, I couldn't get through a full day of real-world usage without needing a charge (I engaged in talk and data activities, plus checking my location on a map, and shooting off some photos and videos, all with the Wi-Fi connectivity enabled). For data, the company rates the battery at up to 9 hours time over Wi-Fi, and 5 hours over 3G.

One pleasant battery-related addition is a new Battery Status indicator, which you enable In General/Usage. I'd often wondered aloud why earlier iterations of iPhone couldn't do this seemingly basic task--tell me in numbers exactly what percent of the battery life was left. I'm still trying to gauge the accuracy of this battery meter, but I'm glad to finally have it there nonetheless. Now, at least, I don't have to guess what the gauge icon represents; I know that after about 4 hours--with both Wi-Fi and 3G enabled, but no data transfers and 27 minutes of phone conversation--the battery was down from 100 percent to 78 percent.
Imaging

Beyond the performance boost, the iPhone 3GS features a notably improved imaging experience that ranks high among the hardware upgrades built into the iPhone 3GS handset. The camera jumps from 2 to 3 megapixels, a welcome if moderate increase that makes the phone's camera somewhat more viable for on-the-go snaps. And the camera now includes a video mode--finally.

In my hands-on use, I found the iPhone 3GS camera surprised in some situations, and disappointed in others. The camera app opened and was ready to shoot with just a 3-second delay. I was pleased by the autofocus and tap-to-focus features; my images were reasonably sharp, and I found that by selecting different focus points, I could change the image's exposure as well as composition.

In some shots, the focus select had minimal impact on what area of the image appeared sharp. But other shots seemed to benefit greatly, even though when the feature brightened the dark areas, it completely blew out the light areas. The macro mode works invisibly and without intervention. Still, I was annoyed that the autofocus box didn't confirm sharpness for me by turning green, as happens on many point-and-shoot cameras; sharpness was often impossible to tell on the iPhone's screen.

Though Apple boasts of improved low-light handling with the iPhone 3GS camera, I had mixed results with indoor andlow-light shots. A low-light dusk shot ended up being very grainy, with degenerating building details when viewed at full resolution. Some indoor shots looked decent, but others were barely passable and would have clearly benefitted from a flash, had Apple included one. Maybe we'll see Apple catch up to its competition by adding a flash in its next version of the iPhone handset.

Also on the wish list: software-based image stabilization. I have often found that even images shot in daylight were not sharp at full resolution, especially images I tried to shoot one-handed. With its on-screen shutter button, the iPhone's camera just doesn't lend itself to one-handed photography. And while on the topic of what's missing, the Camera Roll app still lacks integration with Web services; sure, Flickr has its own app, but that's not the same as viewing a pic and deciding to post directly from the camera roll.

The bigger news is the inclusion of video capture and editing. The iPhone 3GS camera app has a slider switch to activate the video camera, which records 30 frames per second video at 640-by-480 resolution. In video mode, the camera shutter turns into a red record button you press once to start recording, and again to end recording.

Sending video is very easy: The phone has integrated hooks into YouTube, MobileMe (Apple's $99-a-year service), and e-mail. Just select the service, and proceed from there; for YouTube, the iPhone 3GS will automatically compress the file in preparation for upload to your YouTube account. Want to trim your video before sending? No problem: The in-player iMovie-like frame editor makes snipping the beginning or end of a clip a breeze.

The videos I captured looked better than many typical camera phone images at the same resolution, and I found the inclusion of a video camera handy in a pinch when I was caught off-guard with a video opportunity and had no other camera on hand. But the iPhone 3GS can't replace the video you can capture in 720p high-definition with many digital cameras and compact video recorders like the Flip Mino HD. And like-resolution dedicated camera and camcorder devices generally have a few advantages, such as greater stability for hand-held shots, and a tripod shoe if you want to steady the image.

The video feature has a few other rough spots. You can't easily find the videos you capture: They're lumped in with the rest of the images in your Camera Roll, with the video camera icon and length running along the bottom of the thumbnail. You also can't access your videos from within the iPod music and video player. And, unfortunately, the much-ballyhooed editing feature is rather limited: Once you make an edit, it's done. You can't undo them, and you can't save a copy of the original video--annoying if you want to keep the longer video for yourself and send an excerpt to a friend, for example.

One major gripe about both the images and videos: On a Windows XP-based netbook, Windows' camera import tool brought all 257 pics and vids across to my netbook, but the order of the pics was completely jumbled compared with the order things were captured in my Camera Roll. I'm not sure where the communication failure is between the two devices, but it was very frustrating.
Voice Control

Voice dialing is fairly common, and has been for years. This is a seemingly basic feature on which the iPhone 3GS is playing catch-up. But, at least it goes further by providing a range of voice controls for both dialing and music playback. When it works, I found it a wonderfully handy feature when driving, or even when walking down a street.

Hold the Home button for a count of three (a count of two invariably took me one page to the left), and the Voice Control screen pops up. Your command options scroll across in a rush, prompting your memory of the available commands (some imprecise mutations of the "accepted" options appeared to work): Play album, previous track, play songs by, dial, call, play, what song is playing, yes, no, cancel, shuffle, play more songs like this.

I found this feature worked with varying degrees of success. If I said to dial Rita and didn't specify the number, it asked me which number I wanted. If I said Rita Home, it dialed Rita Home--even when I asked in a noisy restaurant or in a room with the TV on in the background. But Voice Control stumbled on other names, either offering the wrong name or not recognizing anything. And it missed some voice commands when a TV blared nearby. Also odd: If I said Perenson and there were three Perensons in my Contacts, it just accessed the first one in the Contacts list, and didn't ask me which of the Perensons I wanted (even though I've seen reports that say it should). I asked it to play songs by REM and it played ABBA, and sometimes I didn't say a thing and I suddenly noticed it dialing a number I hadn't asked for. Oops.

One detail worth noting: Apple makes the iPhone 3GS more accessible to vision-impaired users through its new Voice Over feature. Once enabled, the phone can talk at you as you navigate among the touchscreen icons.
Display

The iPhone 3GS has the same 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display as its predecessor. The display still looks beautiful, displaying images at 320-by-480-pixel resolution. But these images are a bit "warmer"--they don't have quite the vividness that they do on the iPhone 3G.

As shown by a side-by-side comparison in an earlier article, the iPhone 3G's colors pop more; it has deeper browns at the top of the notepad, and deeper grays in the keyboard. The same screen on an iPhone 3GS has a dullish gray on the keys. In both instances, the auto-brightness setting was off, and the brightness level was identical.

In some images, we detected a slightly greenish cast on the iPhone 3GS. We found the color distinction quite noticeable on screens with white backgrounds, such as the search tab, the calendar, and the photo library. While some of these differences may not have stood out when we looked at the iPhone 3GS on its own, they did when we put the new handset next to the 3G.

When asked, an Apple spokesman said the color temperature and brightness level of the display has not changed from the 3G phone. Apple also says the new oleophobic (oil-resistant) coating had no impact on the screen, as the coating is transparent.

While some aspects of the 3GS's display look dull and washed out in comparison with the 3G and even the original iPhone, I noticed a clearly visible improvement in blacks. An example was when I compared the original iPhone and the 3GS, both in the camera app, with their lenses facing a black table. The black of the table appears more dark gray than black on the original iPhone, so it's clearly washed out and too bright; the table appears to be a more pure black with the iPhone 3GS. However, in this example, the noise level of the 3GS is also abundantly clear: Parts of the image show dramatic and intrusive evidence of reddish artifacts and noise.

The aforementioned smudge-proof coating, at least, is the real deal--it attracted fewer fingerprints than an iPhone 3G did when both cameras were used similarly, and those fingerprints wiped off more easily. Another benefit: The new screen's texture has an ultrasmooth glide to it. In contrast, my fingers would more easily catch on the iPhone 3G (typically as they passed over a fingerprint or three).

Also, text appears slightly sharper on the 3GS compared with the 3G. That's surprising considering that the iPhone 3GS has the same resolution as the iPhone 3G does. Apple says that fonts on the iPhone 3GS are rendered by the phone, as opposed to being bitmaps, and that this approach accounts for the smoother and sharper appearance of text.
Everything Else--Including OS 3.0

A couple of stray features have been crammed into the iPhone 3GS, and while they may seem minor, they're sure to find their fans.

The newly integrated compass is handy for location-based and mapping applications (and if you're communing with Mother Nature). The compass has distinctive, easy-to-read graphics, and it allows applications to orient to your current position. For example, the Maps app will reorient based on your directional heading.

Nike+ support is built-in now, too. Take iPhone 3GS on a workout with you, and it can track your progress together with the $19 Nike+ accessory.

Certainly, the OS 3.0 software update, which makes many cool features available to all iPhone users, could persuade some people to decide they don't need a new handset. Among OS 3.0's features: a landscape keyboard for all core apps; an innovative and useful implementation of cut, copy, and paste, the long-elusive iPhone feature; A2DP stereo Bluetooth; push notifications, an improved call log that shows details like the time and length of a call; spotlight search for searching apps, e-mail (subjects and to/from lines), music, and more; shake to shuffle; voice memos; and support for MMS and tethering, common features bizarrely not available to AT&T until later this summer.

Although the iPhone 3GS offers some compelling improvements for heavy users, I'm disappointed that Apple didn't build more innovations into the handset, to differentiate itself from the pack. Some areas are still lacking, and there's still no true multitasking (you can't log into instant messaging while surfing the Web, for example).

But the performance enhancements do distinguish this otherwise evolutionary step-up phone from its previous iterations. The new features of the 3GS are few but choice. With 32GB of storage and its data and multimedia strengths, Apple's iPhone 3GS is, despite the reservations noted, one of the best smartphones you can buy for the money.
pcworld.com

Lamb of God is an American heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia, formed in 1990. The band was originally known as Burn the Priest, but changed their name shortly after the release of their self-titled debut album in 1998.[7] Lamb of God consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler and is a member of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.[8]

Since its formation, Lamb of God has released six studio albums, one live album, and three DVDs. The band's cumulative sales equal almost two million in the United States. In 2007 the band received a Grammy nomination for their 2006 album Sacrament. Lamb of God has toured with the Ozzfest twice and appeared on Slayer's The Unholy Alliance Tour in 2006. They have also played at many other major festivals around the world including Download Festival in the UK, Soundwave Festival and Gigantour.

Lamb of God is an American heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia, formed in 1990. The band was originally known as Burn the Priest, but changed their name shortly after the release of their self-titled debut album in 1998.[7] Lamb of God consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler and is a member of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.[8]

Since its formation, Lamb of God has released six studio albums, one live album, and three DVDs. The band's cumulative sales equal almost two million in the United States. In 2007 the band received a Grammy nomination for their 2006 album Sacrament. Lamb of God has toured with the Ozzfest twice and appeared on Slayer's The Unholy Alliance Tour in 2006. They have also played at many other major festivals around the world including Download Festival in the UK, Soundwave Festival and Gigantour.
History

[edit] Formation and Burn the Priest (1994–1999)

In 1990, guitarist Mark Morton, drummer Chris Adler and bassist John Campbell started a band named Burn the Priest. The band members knew each other from the college they were all attending, Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia.[9] Morton left the band soon after its inception to receive his master's degree. Adler and Campbell replaced Morton with Abe Spear. For the next five years, the band practiced in Adler's house and around Virginia. In 1995, the band released its self-titled first demo. After the demo, Burn the Priest recorded two split albums with Agents of Satan and ZED respectively.[10] After the band's first three demos, Burn the Priest added vocalist Gian Del Rosario to its line up.[10]

In 1997, Morton returned to the band. Two years later, the band released its first full-length self-titled album, Burn the Priest, through Legion Records. Mikey Bronsnan of Legion Records saved up $2,500 for the recording and then broke them in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania through DIY shows.[11] The album was produced by Today Is the Day guitarist and vocalist Steve Austin. Spear left the band, leaving an open position for a guitarist. Adler's brother, Willie Adler, became the band's second guitarist a year later, and a deal with Prosthetic Records was signed.[10] After being banned from playing in certain places (some venue owners believing the band possessed an "evil" name),[12] Burn the Priest changed their name to Lamb of God.

[edit] New American Gospel and As the Palaces Burn (2000–2003)
Guitarist Mark Morton performing at the With Full Force music festival in 2007.

With a new name and label, the band released its second album, New American Gospel, in September 2000.[13] Patrick Kennedy of Allmusic compared the band to Pantera stating, "The essential signatures of post-Pantera metal are in abundance on Lamb of God's inaugural album. New American Gospel provides a mighty oak upon which gritty American metal's faith is maintained, effectively bridging the '90s' insistence upon drill-sergeant technicality and the old school's determined focus on riff construction."[13] Chris Adler commented: "This is a classic record. We had all the elements come together to make one of the heaviest, yet contagious records of our career. It was difficult to contain us—we didn't even understand at the time what we had created."[14]

Lamb of God toured for two years before releasing its third studio album, As the Palaces Burn, on May 6, 2003. Kirk Miller of Rolling Stone gave the album three out of five stars, writing that "unlike many of their overreaching, Slipknot-influenced contemporaries, Lamb of God deliver a meticulously crafted metal assault."[15] The album was voted the number one album of 2003 by both Revolver Magazine and Metal Hammer. The band toured on the first Headbangers Ball tour, where they recorded a DVD including live performances and a documentary, titled Terror and Hubris. The DVD was a success, debuting at number 31 on the Billboard Top Music Videos chart.[16][17]

[edit] Ashes of the Wake (2004–2005)
Vocalist Randy Blythe performing at Ozzfest 2004.

Lamb of God released Ashes of the Wake in August 2004, which debuted at number 27 on the Billboard 200, and sold over 35,000 copies in its first week.[18][19] The album was distributed through the band's new record label, Epic Records. Johnny Loftus of Allmusic praised the album, saying "With the genre getting clogged by PVC goofs and Alice in Chains impersonators, Lamb of God balances the equation of power, rage, tradition, and craft. It kills the filler."[20] The title track of the album featured Testament and ex–Megadeth guitarists Alex Skolnick and Chris Poland, respectively.[20]

The band supported Ashes of the Wake with extensive touring, including a second stage slot on Ozzfest in 2004,[21] and the 2005 Sounds of the Underground tour.[22] The band was awarded 2nd Best Album of the Year by Revolver Magazine behind Mastodon's Leviathan, and was awarded Best Music Video for "Now You've Got Something to Die For" (2005).[23] While on tour, the band recorded a performance and released it with the name of Killadelphia. The release was made available as a DVD and a CD.[24] The DVD was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2007.[25]

[edit] Sacrament (2005–2007)
Bassist John Campbell performing at 2007's With Full Force.

In August 2006 Lamb of God released its fifth studio album, Sacrament. The album debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200 and sold nearly 65,000 copies in its first week of sales, nearly doubling the first week sales of Ashes of the Wake.[18] The album received generally positive reviews, with Cosmo Lee of Stylus Magazine stating, "Sacrament has the band's most memorable songs to date. Musically, there's no fat. The band plays with laser precision and songs move smoothly through riffs and transitions."[26] Ed Thompson of IGN referred to Sacrament "one of the best metal albums of 2006",[27] and Jon Pareles of Blender called it a "speed rush all the way through".[28]

The band appeared on major tours to support the album, including The Unholy Alliance with Slayer, Mastodon, Children of Bodom, and Thine Eyes Bleed,[29] Gigantour, supporting Megadeth;[30] main stage at Ozzfest;[21] an appearance at the Download Festival, and an exclusive co-headlining tour with Killswitch Engage, Soilwork, and Devil Driver where Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God shared headlining spots alternately each show.[31] Lamb of God was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards for "Redneck", but lost out to Slayer's "Eyes of the Insane".[32]

In December 2007, the band re-released the album as Sacrament: Deluxe Producer Edition. The release contained all of the original songs from Sacrament on the first disc, and the second disc was a CD-ROM featuring all of the vocal, bass, guitar, and drum tracks in 192kbit/s MP3 format, enabling the buyer to produce their own interpretation of the songs. Blythe stated, "you sometimes have to do something special to get kids to even buy an album these days rather than download it."[33] The band is taking a break to write new material throughout 2008 and prepare a new record for release, slated for 2009. The band is negotiating for a new record label to distribute records outside the United States. Chris Adler stated Epic Records in the United States "couldn't be more perfect", but wants a different label for international releases.[34] The band later inked a deal with Roadrunner on 1 May 2008 for distribution outside the United States.[citation needed]

[edit] Walk with Me in Hell and Wrath (2008 onward)
Randy Blythe at 2007's With Full Force.

On May 1, Lamb of God announced via MySpace their new DVD, Walk with Me in Hell, would be released on July 1, 2008. The DVD is a double-disc and has nearly five hours of footage, containing the feature documentary Walk with Me in Hell and multiple live performance extras from the Sacrament World Tour. At the end of the Walk with Me in Hell documentary the members stated that they are excited more than ever to write new material.

In August, 2008, it was announced that the band had commenced work on the follow-up to Sacrament, and that its release was scheduled for February, 2009. Josh Wilbur was also named as the producer for the record.[35] They will also be touring with Metallica as a direct support act starting in December 2008.[36]

The recording process of the new record was made available to view online live through the band's website, with two webcams installed in the studio (specifically in the drum room and mixing room).[37]

Their latest album is named Wrath [38] and was released on February 23, 2009 internationally via Roadrunner Records and on February 24, 2009 in America via Epic Records. The album is dedicated to Mikey Bronsnan, who helped them get started in Philadelphia, PA. In November 2008, Bronsnan was killed by a drunk driver. According to drummer Chris Adler, "Without Mikey, we'd very well might not be a band today."[39] Drummer Chris Adler was quoted saying "This album is going to surprise a lot of people. Typically bands that get to where we are in our career begin to slack off, smell the roses and regurgitate. We chose a different path. No one wants to hear another band member hyping a new record. ‘Wrath’ needs no hype. We have topped ourselves and on February 24 you will feel it." With that said, "Wrath" debuted on the Billboard 200 at number two, selling over 68,000 copies in its first week.[40]

In support of Wrath, the band in spring of 2009 embarked on the first leg of their world tour, No Fear Energy Tour headlined by themselves with main support from As I Lay Dying and Children of Bodom, and rotating opening slots with God Forbid and Municipal Waste.[41] The tour was a massive success for the band with rave reviews and large turnouts at each show. The band played in Europe in the summer to perform with Metallica on the World Magnetic Tour along with Mastodon, while also playing headlining shows of their own and performing at major European festivals. For the final six dates of the tour, Unearth's Buz McGrath filled in for Mark Morton, as he left early to be with his wife and his first child.

Lamb of God has been announced to also serve as Metallica's direct support for the North American leg of their 2009 world tour, as well as finishing the year off by headlining shows in Australia and New Zealand with Shadows Fall and DevilDriver.

Commenting on the dispute over lineup slots at the UK Sonisphere Festival where Limp Bizkit were booked into the slot previously given to Machine Head, Willie Adler said of Limp Bizkit "I wouldn’t wanna open up for Limp Bizkit! They’ve been out of the scene for so long, I mean, who cares? Who cares about Limp Bizkit? [...] Fuck those dudes! Fuck that band, and fuck all the people who work for that fuckin’ band!" [42]

[edit] Musical style

Lamb of God was formed as an instrumental band, Burn the Priest, and included vocals after Randy Blythe joined the band as a vocalist. After they reached the success with the release of 2004's Ashes of the Wake[7][43] the band is often associated with such terms as the "leaders" of the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal".[8]

Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God has been defined as a thrash metal, death metal and hardcore punk[43] or grindcore[44] hybrid with a strong element of power groove, which often connects Lamb of God with the influential metal band Pantera. Another connection between Pantera and Lamb of God is the fact that both were and are highly influential metal bands from the Southern United States, Texas and Virginia, respectively. Along with Mastodon, from Georgia, Lamb of God could currently be helping to strengthen a young tradition of great southern metal that was first pioneered by Pantera.[20][43][13][45][46][47] Burn the Priest and early Lamb of God include growling death metal vocals[43] and sometimes lyrics that are difficult to decipher.[citation needed] The style has been considered to vary between several different genres, including hardcore punk, thrash metal, and even possessing sludge metal influences.[43]
Guitarist Mark Morton performing at 2004's Ozzfest

New American Gospel continues in a similar style as Burn the Priest, with drum-heavy production of double picking and double-kick drumming.[13] Here, the band has been considered by Allmusic to be effectively bridging the 1990s' tendency towards technicality and early metal's focus on riff construction and plays a brand of heavy metal described as not unlike Meshuggah without some of their mathematical components.[13][45]

2003's As the Palaces Burn saw the band's compositions focusing more on what some have called "memorable" riffs.[46] On 2004's Ashes of the Wake, they continued the progression of As the Palaces Burn with more frequent guitar solos.[20]

Sacrament, released in 2006, was described by critics as more technical, especially considering the vocal performance. Again, the band experimented with more melody and guitar solos; however, the band has also been often reproached by the critics for the similarity of the songs within their albums.[47][48]

Due to the variety of influences, stylistic elements and changes throughout the band's career the press has chosen several genres and terms to describe Lamb of God's music. Lamb of God has been labeled as a metalcore[48][49] and groove metal[49] band. Campbell, on the Walk With Me in Hell DVD, says that Lamb of God is "a punk band that plays heavy metal", while Chris Adler refers to Sacrament as a speed metal album.

[edit] Discography
Main article: Lamb of God discography

Studio albums

* Burn the Priest (1999)
* New American Gospel (2000)
* As the Palaces Burn (2003)
* Ashes of the Wake (2004)
* Sacrament (2006)
* Wrath (2009)

DVDs

* Terror And Hubris (2003)
* Killadelphia (2005)
* Walk with Me in Hell (2008)

[edit] Members

* Randy Blythe – vocals (1995 onward)
* Mark Morton – lead guitar (1990, 1997 onward)
* Willie Adler – rhythm guitar (1998 onward)
* John Campbell – bass (1990 onward)
* Chris Adler – drums (1990 onward)

[edit] Former members

* Abe Spear – guitar (1990–1998)

Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California, formed in 1996. Since their formation, the band has sold more than 50 million albums and won two Grammy Awards. It achieved mainstream success with its debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005. Its following studio album, Meteora, continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200’s album charts in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth greatest band of the music video era and the third best of the new millennium behind Oasis and Coldplay.

Having adapted the nu metal and rap rock genres to a radio-friendly yet densely-layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres in their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight. The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third best debut week of any album that year. They have also collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapper Jay-Z in their mashup album Collision Course, and many others on Reanimation.

Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California, formed in 1996. Since their formation, the band has sold more than 50 million albums and won two Grammy Awards. It achieved mainstream success with its debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005. Its following studio album, Meteora, continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200’s album charts in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth greatest band of the music video era and the third best of the new millennium behind Oasis and Coldplay.

Having adapted the nu metal and rap rock genres to a radio-friendly yet densely-layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres in their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight. The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third best debut week of any album that year. They have also collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapper Jay-Z in their mashup album Collision Course, and many others on Reanimation.
Band history

Early years (1996–1999)

Originally consisting of three high school friends, Linkin Park’s foundation was anchored by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Rob Bourdon. After graduating from high school, the California natives began to take their musical interests more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield to perform in their band, Xero. Though limited in resources, the band began recording and producing songs within Shinoda’s make-shift bedroom studio in 1996. Tensions and frustration within the band grew after they failed to land a record deal. The lack of success and stalemate in progress prompted Wakefield, at that time the band's vocalist, to leave the band in search for other projects.Farrell also left to tour with Tasty Snax and other bands.

After spending a considerable time searching for Wakefield's replacement, Xero recruited Arizona vocalist Chester Bennington. Jeff Blue, the vice president of Zomba Music, had referred him to the band in March 1999. Bennington, formerly of Grey Daze, became a standout among applicants because of his unique singing style. The band changed its name from Xero to Hybrid Theory. The newborn vocal chemistry between Shinoda and Bennington helped revive the band, inciting them to work on new material. The band’s renaissance culminated with a change in name; from Hybrid Theory, the band changed its name to Linkin Park, a play on and homage to Santa Monica’s Lincoln Park. However, despite these changes, the band still struggled to sign a record deal. After facing numerous rejections from several major record labels, Linkin Park turned to Jeff Blue for additional help. After failing to catch Warner Bros. Records on three previous reviews, Jeff Blue, now the vice president of Warner Bros. Records, helped the band sign a deal with the company in 1999. The band released its breakthrough album, Hybrid Theory, the following year.
Hybrid Theory (2000–2002)

Linkin Park released Hybrid Theory on October 24, 2000.[19][20] The album, which represented half a decade’s worth of the band’s work, was edited by music producer Don Gilmore.[1] Hybrid Theory was well received by music fans; the band sold more than 4.8 million records during its debut year, earning it the status of best-selling album of 2001, while singles such as "Crawling" and "One Step Closer" established themselves as staples among alternative rock radio play lists during the year.[16] Additionally, other singles from the album were featured in movies such as Dracula 2000, Little Nicky, and Valentine.[16] Hybrid Theory was also nominated for three Grammy Awards, including best new artist, best rock album, and best hard rock performance (for "Crawling").[21] MTV awarded the band their Best Rock Video and Best Direction awards for "In the End".[1] Through the winning of the Grammy for best hard rock performance, Hybrid Theory’s overall success had catapulted the band into the mainstream's attention.

During this time, Linkin Park received many invitations to perform on many high-profile tours and concerts including Ozzfest, Family Values Tour and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas.[16][22] The band also formed its own tour, Projekt Revolution, which featured other notable artists such as, Cypress Hill, Adema, and Snoop Dogg.[18] Within a year’s stretch, Linkin Park had performed at over 320 concerts.[1] The experiences and performances of the precocious band were documented in its first DVD, Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, which debuted in November 2001. Now reunited with former bassist Phoenix, the band began work on a remix album, dubbed Reanimation, which would include works from Hybrid Theory and Hybrid Theory EP.[16] Reanimation debuted on July 30, 2002, featuring the likes of Black Thought, Jonathan Davis, Aaron Lewis, and many others.[23] Reanimation claimed the second spot on the Billboard 200, and sold nearly 270,000 copies during its debut week.[24]

Meteora (2002–2004)

Following the success of Hybrid Theory and Reanimation, Linkin Park spent a significant amount of time touring around the United States. The band members began to work on new material amidst its saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus' studio.[25] The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing its new work was inspired by the rocky region of Meteora in Greece, where numerous monasteries have been built on top of the rocks.[26] Meteora featured a mixture of the band's previous nu metal and rapcore styles with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments.[1] Linkin Park's second album debuted on March 25, 2003 and instantly earned worldwide recognition,[1] going to #1 in the US and UK, and #2 in Australia.[15]

Meteora sold more than 800,000 copies during its first week, and it ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts at the time.[27] Music videos for some of the album's singles, including "Somewhere I Belong", "Breaking the Habit", "Faint", and "Numb", received significant radio attention.[28] By October 2003, Meteora sold nearly three million copies.[29] The album's success allowed Linkin Park to form another Projekt Revolution, which featured other bands and artists including, Mudvayne, Blindside, and Xzibit.[1] Additionally, Metallica invited Linkin Park to play at the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003, which included well-known acts such as Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones.[30] The band released an album and DVD, entitled Live in Texas, which consisted of audio and video tracks of some of the band's performances in Texas during the tour.[1] In early 2004, Linkin Park started a world tour titled the Meteora World Tour, supporting bands on the tour include Hoobastank, P.O.D. and Story of the Year.

Meteora earned the band multiple awards and honors. The band won MTV's awards for Best Rock Video ("Somewhere I Belong") and the Viewer's Choice Award ("Breaking the Habit").[31] Linkin Park also received significant recognition during the 2004 Radio Music Awards, winning the Artist of the Year and Song of the Year ("Numb") awards.[31] Although Meteora was not nearly as successful as Hybrid Theory, it was the third best selling album in America during 2003.[16] The band spent the first few months of 2004 touring around the world, first with the third Projekt Revolution tour, and later several European concerts.[16]

Side projects (2004–2006)
Bennington appears on the band's behalf at MTV Asia Aid

Following Meteora's success, the band postponed working on a new studio album for the next few years. Instead, Linkin Park continued to tour and work on many side projects. Bennington appeared on DJ Lethal’s "State of the Art" and other work with Dead by Sunrise, while Shinoda did work with Depeche Mode.[16] In 2004, the band began to work with Jay-Z to produce another remix album, entitled Collision Course. The album, which featured intermixed lyrics and background tracks from both artists' previous albums, debuted in November 2004. Shinoda also formed a new band, Fort Minor, as a side project. With the aid of Jay-Z, Fort Minor released its debut album, The Rising Tied, to critical acclaim.[32][33] At the same time, the band's relationship with Warner Bros. Records was deteriorating rapidly on account of several trust and financial issues.[34] After months of feuding, the band finally negotiated a deal in December 2005.[35]

Linkin Park also participated in numerous charitable events. Linkin Park helped raise money to benefit victims of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and later hurricane Katrina in 2005.[16] The band donated $75,000 to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in March 2004.[36] They also helped relief efforts for the 2004 tsunami victims by staging several charity concerts and setting up an additional fund called "Music for Relief".[37] Most notably, however, the band participated at Live 8, a series of charitable benefit concerts set up to raise global awareness.[38] Alongside Jay-Z, the band performed on Live 8's stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a global audience.[38] The band would later be reunited with Jay-Z at the Grammy Award Ceremony 2006, during which they performed "Numb/Encore", en route to winning a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.[39] They would later go on to play at the 2006 Summer Sonic music festival, which was hosted by Metallica, in Japan.[40]

Minutes to Midnight (2006–2008)
Linkin Park in Prague, 2007.
Linkin Park performing at 2007's Projekt Revolution Tour in Norton, Massachusetts

Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in 2006 to work on new material. To produce the album, the band chose producer Rick Rubin. Despite initially stating the album would debut sometime in 2006, the album was delayed until 2007.[11] The band had recorded thirty to fifty songs in August 2006, when Shinoda stated the album was halfway completed.[41] Bennington later added that the new album would stray away from its previous nu metal sound.[42] Warner Bros. Records officially announced that the band’s third studio album, entitled Minutes to Midnight, would be released on May 15, 2007 in the United States.[43] After spending fourteen months working on the album, the band members opted to further refine their album by removing five of the original seventeen tracks. The album’s title, a reference to the Doomsday Clock, foreshadowed the band's new lyrical themes.[44] Minutes to Midnight sold over 600,000 copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful debut week albums in recent years. The album also took the top spot on the Billboard Charts.[14]

The album's first single, "What I've Done" was released on April 2, and premiered on MTV and Fuse within the same week.[45] The single was acclaimed by listeners, becoming the top-ranked song on the Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts.[46] The song is also used in soundtrack for the 2007 action film, Transformers. Later in the year, the band won the "Favorite Alternative Artist" in the American Music Awards.[47] The band also saw success with singles such as "Bleed It Out", "Shadow of the Day", "Given Up", and "Leave Out All the Rest", which were released throughout 2007 and early 2008. The band also collaborated with Busta Rhymes on his single "We Made It", which was released on April 29.[48]
Linkin Park at 2007's Novarock Festival.

Linkin Park's touring and live shows have, among other things, included a performance at Live Earth Japan on July 7, 2007.[49] and headlining Download Festival in Donington Park, England and Edgefest in Downsview Park, Toronto, Canada. The band completed touring on its fourth Projekt Revolution tour before taking up an Arena tour around the United Kingdom, visiting Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester, before finishing on a double night at the O2 arena in London. Bennington stated that Linkin Park plans to release a follow-up album to Minutes to Midnight.[50] However, he stated the band will first embark on a United States tour to gather inspiration for the album.[50] In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bennington said that the band had already begun writing new material for the album, and Shinoda too stated that the album could well be released in late 2009. Mike Shinoda also announced a live CD/DVD entitled "Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes", which is a live video recording from the Projekt Revolution gig at the Milton Keynes Bowl the 29th June 2008, which was officially released on the 24th November, 2008.[51]

Future direction (2008 onward)
Bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell performing at 2009's Sonisphere Festival in Kirjurinluoto, Pori, Finland.

In October 2008 Shinoda revealed on his blog that he, Phoenix and Hahn had begun working on two song ideas at Hahn's home, with studio recording to begin in earnest soon.[52] In 2008, Bennington announced that Linkin Park's fourth studio release will be a concept album.[53] The band has not released many specific details about the album.[1] In an interview with MTV in November 2008, Bennington stated, "It sounds a little daunting to me, so, I think my confidence level will drop, but when it was presented to us by this friend of ours, we liked the idea. It was an inspiring idea, and it was something we could relate a lot of the things we like to write about to".[2] He also added that the band planned to begin recording in December for a six-week session. The album was expected in mid 2009, but in late March, Mike Shinoda wrote on his blog saying "We're hoping to have Chester's Dead By Sunrise album out this fall, and the new LP album out early next year."[54]

In December 2008, Digidesign gave the band the opportunity to preview the new Pro Tools 8 software. The experiment resulted in an instrumental song performed by Shinoda and Bourdon.[55]

In April 2009, Mike Shinoda revealed on his blog that Linkin Park will be working on the score for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with successful film composer Hans Zimmer.[56] On May 7, it was further confirmed that the song recorded for the film is titled "New Divide," and was released as a single on May 18.[57][58] A clip from the song can be heard 14 seconds into the new trailer. The music video for "New Divide" was released on June 12, 2009 and was directed by Mr. Hahn. On June 22, 2009, the band played a short set after the premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The concert took play on the street in Westwood Village.

In May 2009, Linkin Park announced that they were working on their fourth album which will be released in 2010, with the aim for it to be "genre-busting".[59] Shinoda also stated recently in an interview with IGN that the new album will have in comparison to Minutes to Midnight a bigger "thread of consistency" and will also be more experimental and "hopefully more cutting-edge".[60] Additionally the band's other vocalist Chester Bennington confirmed in an interview with Taipei Times that Rick Rubin returns as the producer of the new album.[61]

Musical style

Both Hybrid Theory and Meteora combined the alternative metal,[62] nu metal,[16][63][64][65][66] and rap rock[66][67] sound with influences and elements from hip-hop, alternative rock,[68] and electronica, utilizing programming and synthesizers. William Ruhlmann from Allmusic regarded it as "a Johnny-come-lately to an already overdone musical style,"[69] whereas Rolling Stone called "Breaking the Habit" "risky, beautiful art".[70]

In Minutes to Midnight the band experimented with their established sound and drew influences from a wider and more varied range of genres and styles, a process Los Angeles Times compares to a stage in U2's work.[71] In it, only two of the songs feature rapping, and the majority of the album can be considered alternative rock[72][73] rather than nu metal or rap rock. It is also their first studio album to feature guitar solos.

In concert the band has covered songs by artists as varied as The Cure, Deftones, Guns N' Roses, and Nine Inch Nails.[citation needed]

Linkin Park's use of two separate vocalists has become a large part of their music. Chester Bennington is most known for using screaming vocals common in various forms of metal and hardcore, while also using more melodic singing, and was placed 46th in Hit Paraders list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists".[74]

Mike Shinoda is the group's MC and does all of the rapping. Mike has also done all of the backing vocals live, and in their latest album, Minutes to Midnight, he sings lead vocals on "In Between", "Hands Held High", and the B-side "No Roads Left". Shinoda has also been placed in Hit Parader's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" at number 72.[74]

Band members
Chester Bennington performing at Sonisphere Festival in Kirjurinluoto, Pori, Finland.
Main article: List of Linkin Park band members

* Chester Bennington – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
* Rob Bourdon – drums
* Brad Delson – lead guitar
* Dave "Phoenix" Farrell – bass, backing vocals
* Mr. Hahn – turntables, programming, samples
* Mike Shinoda – rapping, vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards

Discography
Main article: Linkin Park discography

* Hybrid Theory (2000)
* Meteora (2003)
* Minutes to Midnight (2007)

Awards
Main article: List of Linkin Park awards

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The second day of the MWC 2009 is now over and we are particularly happy about Nokia's announcements. First of all, it wasn't a secret that there were going to be some introductions into Nokia's Nseries smartphones. So at the end of the day we have the N86 8MP announced for the second quarter with the price under 400 USD. But that is not all. Evenly with devices, Nokia and Skype declared they have arrived at the point, considering each other's success and future potentials, where world's foremost Internet communications experience can and should come together with up-to-date handsets. Which are initially downscaled computers in their view.

The second day of the MWC 2009 is now over and we are particularly happy about Nokia's announcements. First of all, it wasn't a secret that there were going to be some introductions into Nokia's Nseries smartphones. So at the end of the day we have the N86 8MP announced for the second quarter with the price under 400 USD. But that is not all. Evenly with devices, Nokia and Skype declared they have arrived at the point, considering each other's success and future potentials, where world's foremost Internet communications experience can and should come together with up-to-date handsets. Which are initially downscaled computers in their view.Of course, we are not fooling anyone and mobile versions of Skype can easily be downloaded and installed for a long time now. However it didn't stop Skype and Nokia to make some ballyhoo about preinstalled software. In my view the point of it is that Skype is looking forward to raise its funds on this move because required WLAN and 3G are now very common and widely spread. Anyway, the first handset with preinstalled Skype will be Nokia's Nseries flagship N97. This will happen in the third quarter and afterwards all Nseries and other models will come out with it. Policy with preinstalled soft will have few advantages for end users - primarily it means no bugs. Skype will feature address book adoption with contact info, status, chat and Skype-to-Skype calls. All free as usual. Calls to landlines, mobile phones and SMS still have to be paid of course.