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Britain scales backBritain scales backBritain scales back 09/20/2004 10:42 AM Its main combat force in Iraq is to be reduced by about a third during a routine troop rotation in October. This is a GrokNews Entry: (what is grok?)Britain scales backGrok Headline matches for Britain scales backTellabs scales back AFC buyTellabs scales back AFC buy 09/07/2004 07:41 PM The communications equipment maker scales back the size of its purchase of Advanced Fibre Communications. Microsoft scales back Longhorn for 2006
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David Rosenblum
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Rohit Khare
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I was in the audience at BrainShare '95 when Bob Frankenburg -- then president and CEO of Novell -- conjured up a vision of billions of connected devices. My refrigerator magnets still don't receive weather reports, but when they do, we'll need something like PreCache to make them work. At the same time, I keep recalling Rohit Khare's joke at last year's Emerging Technology Conference. The real integration challenge, he said, is in Layers 8 and 9 of the OSI stack: economic and political. That scale's in a different key, and we'll have to learn to play that one, too. Ful l story at InfoWorld.com]...
If
you play guitar, get ready to drool over the slickest electronics
you'll ever handle with your shoes. Guitar effects boxes are nothing
new, but the sound is usually decidedly low-fi. Not so with TC
Electronic's G-System, which packs TC's high-end
effects, analog looping, amp switching, floor control, and other
extras into a gorgeous case. One major innovation is the slick metal
"switch-encoders" for editing: think knobs for your toes. If you can't
afford the G-System's EUR 1395 price tag, TC also has a real-analog
drive pedal for getting a vintage, gutsy sound, at EUR 275.
createdigitalmusic's Peter Kirn reports this week on hot new gear from Germany's Musikmesse conference; Europe's major music technology show.
Is the future
of digital DJing iPods or vinyl?
Yes, says Numark. Aside from apparently working on a concept for a DJ mixer that would integrate iPods, allowing you to scratch right from your portable player (as reported earlier today), Numark continues to beef up its options for hard-core vinyl DJs. Witness the analog-digital hybrid Numark 5000FX (also via scratchworx): this monster can connect three turntables, 6-9 line inputs from devices like laptops, 2 microphones, and output to headphones and multiple line outs. (Beck might have to update the lyrics of the song.) With the $895 5000FX, you can mix, flip, reverse, chop, sample, scratch, beat-match, [rub it down, onoes! -ed.] and add rhythmic echo and other effects. That's not to say that iPod DJing has to be any less musical—real DJ features for the iPod could challenge DJs to get their chops up.
createdigitalmusic's Peter Kirn regularly reports on digital music trends for Gizmodo.
M-Audio's new iControl (info in German at M-
Audio; English analysis at createdigitalmusic) is hardware for
controlling Apple's GarageBand music software.
It's designed just for GarageBand, down to the fake wood-paneled sides
of Apple's interface. Buttons let you set up playback and recording, a
big jog wheel and transport controls lets you move around your song
with ease, and physical knobs control track volume. Best of all, you
can adjust individual track parameters like effects via custom
buttons. It's all plug-and-play: connect via USB and GarageBand
recognizes the device, no drivers required (thanks to USB
class-compliance). Control surfaces have been tightly integrated with
applications like this before, but usually on high-end boxes: M-Audio
scores a first for an entry-level music interface. Expect a US price
under $200.
What does this mean for the leaked Asteroid information that launched legal action by Apple? Not much: the Asteroid was an audio interface, whereas this box is just for control, not audio. That said, check the uncanny similarity to a user-created mockup of a GarageBand control surface posted here on Gizmodo during the flurry of Asteroid activity in November.
While
record labels and publishers are locked in lawsuits and legal
hair-pulling, independent artists are using Creative Commons (CC)
licenses as a new publicity tool: keep your copyright, but let
consumers copy or even sample your song. Your next Flash Drive might
even have albums on it (or is that the other way around?): indie
online label Magnatune and
manufacturer Hana Micro have loaded up the TunePlug
USB drive with ten albums under a CC license. The first 'volume'
starts at $19.99; the $69.99 512MB model has all ten albums on it
pre-loaded. More details on CDM.
Peter Kirn, editor of createdigitalmusic,
checks in regularly with gear too cool for only musicians to be in the
know.
Hip-hop,
rap, and electronic music changed forever in 1988. That was the year
Akai introduced its legendary MPC-60
sampler/groovebox. Computers have looked enviously at music
hardware ever since -- and no, clicking a 4x4 grid of drum pads on a
screen with your mouse is not the same as doing it physically. But
computers are about to strike back: M-Audio's upcoming USB-powered
Trigger Finger (see CDM for details) costs just US$199,
works with Mac and PC, and doesn't even need drivers. (via GearJunkie) If your
fingers are itching to groove, this could be for you. Just start
thinking about what your new DJ / hip-hop moniker will be. I'm opting
for DJ Procrastinate, so that's taken.
Peter Kirn, editor of createdigitalmusic,
checks in regularly with gear too cool for only musicians to be in the
know.
createdigitalmusic's
Peter Kirn has been out musical cool-hunting again. Here's his latest
report: Who says you can't fill your home with lots of music gear
and look good doing it? If you've got two turntables and a very large
wad of dough, you can dock your decks in style with one of two
space-age turntable tables. DUAL
Furniture's floating coffins are suspended to avoid rumble, though
you're more likely to put them in your home because they look cool.
You should be able to mount it properly for stability, but if you want
your decks more grounded, the alien-pod DJ Kreemy Table (street
just under $3000) was good enough for a Queer Eye episode. Both of these are designed for
vinyl turntables, of course—leave the iPods at home
[Or at least on a different table! -Ed.]. Thanks to Max and
Wally for the tips.
A picture of the super-slick DJ Kreemy table after the jump.
createdigitalmusic's
Peter Kirn goes retro to celebrate the 50th anniversary of either the
first music synthesizer or the first failed automatic lounge music
generator.
Before the likes of Bob Moog made electronic music accessible even to non-geeky rock-and-rollers, there was the RCA synthesizer. RCA's Mark I was a three-ton behemoth the record honchos at RCA Victor hoped would automatically churn out lounge music. It didn't, so Columbia and Princeton grabbed a successor and profs like Milton Babbit used it for electronic serial music. (No big record hits; sorry, RCA.) Significantly, it also fired up Otto Luening, one of Moog's first customers.
Forget
turntables, CDs, or even iPods: many DJs and laptop musicians now hook
into computers for more power over beat mangling. That's why we've
eagerly awaited the Ecler NUO4 DJ Mixer, announced
today. Using included software, you can assign the knobs, cross-fader,
or anything else to control your computer software, via MIDI or USB
connections. Ecler even includes magnetic labels so you can remember
what controls what. Now you'll just have to work on your computer
chops to keep everybody dancing [or flailing while the try to keep
the intern off of married women -Ed].
Peter Kirn regularly checks in with the latest in tech for music.
Once a week, createdigitalmusic's
Peter Kirn checks in with favorite music equipment picks. This week
brings a new keyboard from pioneer Dave Smith; it's not even out yet,
but blinking blue lights, lots of knobs, and the combination of two
generations of synthesis technology with both analog and digital
circuitry might make even a non-musician salivate.
Music has
gone vintage-chic. Fat, bleep-y 60s- and 70s-era synthesis sounds are
hot, and it's no fad—classic electronic sounds are here to stay.
Audio electronics inventor Bob Moog is now a virtual God, with a movie and soundtrack out. But
maybe you can't afford shelling out a few grand for the original, or
$2000+ for a new Moog synth.
And you don't want to have to boot your computer just to make music
with a software instrument. Take heart: new hardware rivals software
for sound quality and even price.
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
iPod is
great for playback, but it's not much use when it comes to recording.
Try