vandaag werd de tram bevolkt door heel erg vreemde personages.  Een groepje  mensen met een blauwe huidskleur zaten vooraan.  Even liet ik me door hen afleiden, maar het bleek om een studentendoop te gaan.  Mijn aandacht ging al snel naar de vreemde man tegenover mij.  Ik ben meestal niet iemand die zich stoort aan mensen die er wat anders uitzien, maar deze man zag er zo anders uit dat ik er bijna zeker van was dat hij contact heeft met een andere planeet.

Zijn lange haar had hij samengebonden in een soort knol bovenop zijn hoofd.  Onder zijn lange groene mantel droeg hij heel gekke schoenen in rood en wit en grijs.  De brede witte boord deed me denken aan een ruimteschip.  Rond zijn nek droeg hij een soort sjakos, waaruit hij plotseling een discman opdiepte.  Dit deed me vermoeden dat hij misschien een tijdreiziger was.  Hij haalde een kaftje met cd’s uit en koos er eentje uit.  Ik kon het niet goed zien, maar ben bijna zeker dat het buitenaardse muziek was.  Hij begon stilletjes wat te neuriën.  Dat weet ik omdat ik heel dichtbij zat.  Net toen ik dacht dat ik nu wel zeker wist dat er iets niet klopte haalde hij een boek uit. Nietzsche. Also Sprach Zarathustra. Dit deed me vermoeden dat hij op deze manier de mensheid probeerde te verstaan.

Ik begon wat medelijden met deze man te krijgen.  Het moet niet gemakkelijk zijn om je te integreren in een wereld waar je niet geboren bent.  Hij deed natuurlijk hard zijn best, om op een mens te lijken, maar had de kneepjes van het vak nog niet helemaal te pakken.  Ik overwoog even hem te helpen, en hem een lessenreeks aan te bieden.  Maar gelukkig dacht ik daar tweemaal over na.  Hij was natuurlijk niet zomaar met zijn spaceshuttle op onze planeet geland. Hij was hier natuurlijk op missie!  Wat zijn missie dan wel was leek mij een zeer intrigerend mysterie.  In science-fiction-films zie je altijd dat aliens hier moeten komen uitzoeken hoe wij bepaalde problemen aanpakken.  Daar geloof ik niet in.  Als hij zich hier zomaar op de tram  kon voortbewegen, zonder argwaan te wekken van argeloze passanten – want mijn kritische blik bleek een uitzondering – dan moeten ze op zijn planeet wel veel verder staan in de evolutie, waardoor ze onze aardse kennis zeker niet nodig zullen hebben.

Daarom rees bij mij het vermoeden dat hij een soort van Laïka was.  Laïka was de eerste hond in de ruimte, moest u dat vergeten zijn.  De mens stuurde een hond, omdat ze zijn overlevingskansen niet helemaal konden garanderen, en het die wetenschappers minder erg leek een hond de dood in te jagen, dan een mens.  Een hele geruststelling voor krijgsgevangenen in die tijd.

Op de planeet van onze vriend-tramreiziger was er mogelijks een soortgelijk experiment aan de gang.  Hun technologie staat kennelijk al ver genoeg om van een galaxy far far away een wezen naar hier te kunnen sturen, dat zich dan ook nog eens kan aanpassen aan het leven op aarde.  Toegegeven, niet voor de volle honderd procent, maar zijn poging was wel verdienstelijk.  Dit komt natuurlijk omdat hij een bèta-wezen was, een hond, om het zo te noemen.  Als dat het niveau is van hun honden, mogen we blij zijn dat hij er niet echt vijandig uitzag!  De alfa-wezens op zijn planeet zijn tot veel in staat, dat staat vast!

Author: Roberto Sedycias
Source: articlemarketer.com

One of the a lot of aboriginal articles in the agreeable apple is the Sony Walkman. Walkman fabricated its admission in 1979 in Japan. It aswell came to be termed as the Soundabout, Freestyle and Stowaway. The Walkman was the abstraction of Nobutoshi Kihara of Sony.

The co-chairman of Sony, Morita was actual addicted of operas and capital to apprehend these while on his common all-embracing trips, amtrak promotion code, . Sony still uses the cast name of Walkman for carriageable audio gadgets.

The plural anatomy is not `walkmen` or `walkmans`, amtrak promotion code, but Walkman claimed stereos. In March 2007 Sony launched the aboriginal agenda video Walkman – NW-A800.

The aboriginal blue-silver Walkman was up for auction in Japan on 1st July 1979. It allows two bodies accompanying to accept to, amtrak promotion code, it. Anon models came in that could aswell do recording. In 1984 the best superior – Walkman Professional WM-D6C fabricated its actualization with superb audio quality.

It became, amtrak promotion code, accepted with journalists and hi-fi fans. It is arresting that because the ever-changing attributes of cyberbanking goods, this archetypal has remained the aforementioned and continues to administration over others.

Stiff antagonism came from Toshiba with its Walky, CassetteBoy from Aiwa and Panasonic. But Sony kept up the clip and created the playback alone – the alone one of its affectionate in 1989. It became a angelic collector`s account for Walkman admirers.

The aggregation acclimated different methods to advance the addition of the device. Humans using the Walkman were apparent cycling or roller-skating in the accessible and this had an appulse on the accessory journalists. Upon accession they were anniversary handed a Walkman and had to accept to instructions over the stereo. A adolescent brace alert to it while on a bike aeon completed the show. All complex in the ablution programmed sported Walkman T shirts.

The journalists accomplished how one can accept to music of best wherever and whenever desired.

For accidental assemblage it was a abstruse accident after any accessible announcements. To added advance the artefact a part of the humans the associates of the publicity aggregation went about buses and trains during aiguille hours antic a Walkman. Sony fabricated a concerted accomplishment to abate the adverse impressions of headphones.

Celebrities were presented with sets and magazines glossed over it. Within a ages of the barrage, amtrak promotion code, alone 3,000 units had been awash but thereafter sales best up and Sony had to attempt to accumulate clip with demand.

Initially it was those in mid 20`s that showed absorption but anon the fan abject widened to cover a cantankerous area of society.

During the 1970`s the home stereo bazaar had become accepted and the carriageable radio transistor had created a boom. Boom-boxes that were jumpsuit stereo systems powered by array were authoritative after-effects with the complete appearing from two or added speakers. Thus one could accept to music after getting bedfast to one place.

Micro and mini-cassette players that could fit into a abridged were acceptable hot favourites.

This was the accomplishments of the arena if the Sony Walkman appeared with a bang. The basal abstraction was to abode a radio central an audiocassette anatomy and dispense it to forward the audio into its cassette home player. Anon a accessory bazaar developed annular the Walkman – headphones and added accessories like the charge to install speakers on the board at home. Special biking accoutrements came into faddy with speakers central it. Trendy vests sported speakers on the shoulders.

The Walkman era drew to a abutting in 1986 with Sony introducing the Discman ushering in the agenda age.

Today there are disposable claimed stereo cassette players priced at $20 address little affinity to their ancestors.

This article can be accessed in portuguese from the Article section of page http://www.polomercantil.com.br/mp3-player.php

Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for http://www.polomercantil.com.br

Hoy iba sentada en el metro y me dio por mirar a mi alrededor. De pronto reparé en unos chicos que iban con sus auriculares escuchando música. ¿Qué tiene esto de especial? Os estareis preguntando. Pues bien cuando sacaron sus iPod me di cuenta de todo lo que habían evolucionado las tecnologías en relación a la reproducción de música. Desde el tocadiscos hasta el nuevisimo iPod.

Recordé que mi primer aparato de reproducción fue un bastisimo walkman que me regalaron el día de mi comunión y aquellas cintas que abultaban un montón si querías llevartelo fuera. A mi generación nos parecía lo más y lo veíamos insustituible. Pero como todo en esta vida acabé relegandolo al segundo cajón de mi mesilla cuando llegó un aparato nuevo que nos dejó a todos onnubilados.

Y ese aparato era … el discman. Este nuevo método ya no implicaba llevarnos las aparatosas cintas o cassettes, pero no nos librariamos de llevarnos algo a cuestas y ese algo eran los famosos CD. Tenian como ventaja su ligereza y su capacidad. Y como siempre creíamos que nada iba a cambiar y que nos quedaríamos eternamente con nuestro “ligero” trasto a cuestas. Pero no, otro aparato más que pasaría a ocupar otro cajón.

El MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 o como lo denominamos los mortales el Mp3. Pequeñito, con un diseño atractivo pero lo más importante era su capacidad. Podías meter en los mejores casos más de 300 canciones, además de utilizarlo como pendrive para otro tipo de documentos (de texto en su mayoría). Y a éste le sucedió el Mp4 que ya nos permitía llegar un poco más lejos. Reproducia vídeos. ¡Wow!

¿Creías haberlo visto todo? Pues llegó el día en el que Apple nos presentaba su iPod. Funciona a través del iTunes un software que nos permite transferir desde fotos hasta correos electrónicos. Alucinante nos permite conectarnos a la red. Junto al iPod me gustaría vincular al Spotify.

Os preguntareís que es el Spotify, pues bien se trata de una aplicación que nos permite escuchar música directamente de una web sin necesidad de efectuar una descarga. La versión gratuita nos permite escucharla pero con intervalos de publicidad. Si en cambio adquieres la versión premium la publicidad desaparece y puedes además abrir la lista de reproducción, guardada en la aplicación, desde el iPod.

Me bajé del metro y volví a la realidad. Pero no pude evitar cuestionarme que si en 20 años de vida había vivido tantos cambios de tecnología en el mundo de la música (los nombrados aquí y los que me he dejado en el camino) ¿qué ocurrira en el futuro? ¿Seremos capaces de escuchar música con un reproductor del tamaño de un botón que nos permita interactuar en la red? Puede que sí pero de momento dejemos que nuestro cuerpo termine de acostumbrarse a lo que tenemos.

Y ahí dejo un vídeo para recordar uno de los primeros modelos de walkman que tanto nos acompañaron.

In 1961 two programmers taught the IBM 7094 how to sing.

Kennedy was president, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” was a hit, the Germans were building a wall, and in a laboratory at IBM a room-sized 7094 Data Processing System, built for large-scale scientific computing, was haltingly half-crazy over the love of you.

In this photo from the IBM archives, the operator in the foreground is using the IBM 7151 Console Control Unit to monitor the system's performance, while the one in the background is checking on the 1301 Disk Storage Unit.

Later today, while you’re taking new music suggestions from Pandora or your personal iTunes Genius, give a think to how downright cool it is to be able to do so. We get so used to the technology that suffuses every facet of our daily lives, that it’s easy to lose perspective on the rapid evolution that’s taken place over the last four decades or so. Remember, not so long ago Sony’s Discman was cutting edge.

I was watching my friend look up something on his iPhone the other day. And I’m thinking, holy shit, it’s this flat little thing in the palm of your hand, and you can use it to talk to anyone anywhere in the world and you can just poke the screen to look up information on and photos of anything you want whenever you feel like it. (If you have signal, naturally.) It’s about 10,000 times radder than the communicators on Star Trek, and those were fictional. If the original Kirk were here right now, it’d blow his freaking mind.

Forty years from now people are going to look back at us and our cell phones and netbooks and think it’s all terribly quaint.

We lit the hill on fire with gasoline and sat on a cement bench across the football field to watch it burn. This particular hill had been direly dear to us — in the prime force of enduring the years of high school. It was this hill where we dragged large aluminum coated dining tables and long wooden benches from the canteen to furnish the dirt platform that we had flattened — either with our bare hands or spades and sickles that either one of us had stolen from the garage. Carefully hidden in the midst of tall large tropical trees  and condensed bushy plants. 

Ideal to our prerequisites so none of the teachers or shit mouthed students could rat us out to the abusive authorities. Disciplinary enforcers who abused us with rattan canes or primordially with (and again) their bare hands — the ultimate tool for plowing ground and smacking the shit across our faces. Fucking high school.

So what did we do here? Once it had been carefully plotted out and furnished — landscaped to chill out suitability. Each of us had brought in our collection of fine bongs. Some glass, some plastic — depending on our tastes and style and how seriously we took our pot smoking. Which was a pretty serious deal in high school next to skateboarding or either playing in a hardcore – punk band. Some went straight edge and vegan but nonetheless hung out with us there when they skipped classes — listening to Earth Crisis CD’s in their Discman. 

And of course, I was thirteen years old, in fine fashion for the first time in my life — I took the hit of the bong — Coughed a little, choked a little and possibly farted a little but nothing had happened. I wondered why and voiced out my curiosity. All the older kids said was come back tomorrow and do it again. So I did. And again in fine fashion for the first time in my life — I experienced my first high the next morning, possibly during the two periods of Geography in which I was supposed to be attending. But I remember distinctly being wondrously paranoid and felt the teacher (a large hideous Chinese bitch) coiling around the branches of trees like a large blubber of fat morphing into snakes. But snakes added to the delight of being afraid, so maybe I was going to be swallowed by a dragon fly. The football field just below rung in a deadly silence. I heard the voices of prefects and teaches that threatened to show and eventually just dissipated with the wind. Then it started to come down — the intensity waving and I actually began to enjoy it. Just being high. Being content as a motherfucker. Sitting on a wooden bench within the security of a school system and within a security of our own. Totally invigorating. We had names. I mean look at us sitting here, in our school uniforms, fucking badge over our shirt pockets. Not belonging to nobody.

And yes we did. Now we walked around the school with a new found freedom. Brimming with a brotherly secret. With the days that followed, there was a constant supply and we had chilled. Lounging. Those who didn’t want to smoke had brought the good old Jack the Devil. Some did both. It was a great plan. Conceptualized by a bunch of high school outcasts. Those who were elevated from the rest. We lived a different consciousness. The gangs couldn’t figure us out. The teachers hated us. Those who walked around with cannes always pinned something on us — knowing something was up but not knowing where to pin point that shit.

We had even built a tunnel through the bushes. With a trap door leading to a second tunnel that took us there. You had to remove a bush door and crawl all the way in. The best part was, nobody even knew that shit was there. It was rather exclusive. No one needed a membership. It was just there. Either you knew it or you didn’t. 

Well, and so we got discovered 4 years later. It sure was a blast for what it was. They finally legitimized this as an official problem. And then they brought the cops in. And the decoy was and investigation for kids skipping classes. But it sure enough was for us. And we had years of collected fine evidence of homemade bongs that were stashed around. Maybe little samples of stale cannabis here and there. 

One day, me and a friend decided to torch it. We got some gasoline. Rigged the place up with enough dried leaves and smoked it. So here we sat. Watching it all go up in flames. History. A sort of communion in peace. The fire seemed to be a driving force behind an intellectual elite. We refused the system. We refused the pop culture. We had created what that had belonged to us and set it free into the world.

Then we grew up. And some of us had lived. And some died.

For close to 4 years now, I’ve been an Apple convert.  The time has passed by quickly, and I don’t regret making the switch one bit.  My first Apple product was technically my 40GB iPod photo which now looks like a giant brick! I can’t believe I used to carry that around with me! But then, I can’t believe I used to carry my walkman and 5 or 6 cassette tapes to school each day, nor that I used to have a little bag with my discman and a few CDs in it that I used to wear around me.  Something I forgot until my iPod had to be sent away for repair during my second year of university was that CDs JUMP.  How we’ve come to expect perfection!  Or I have, anyway – I have no patience for songs skipping, I have little patience for my iPod taking a while to get its head round a song I want it to play.

However, I never considered getting an iPod as becoming an Apple convert.  Once I saw how easily my iPod worked and how straightforward the menus were, I became interested in getting an Apple laptop, especially as my current laptop was slower than a dinosaur.  During my first year of university, I had lots of problems with anti-virus software and protecting my computer.  It became ridiculously slow, and in addition to that, the laptop I had had a poor attempt at imitating Microsoft Office.  In the end, I had enough, and just before Christmas 2005 I ordered my first Apple laptop, an iBook G4.  It took me a month to get used to the fact that there was no right-click button, that the tabs and x’s and everything were in different places.  Also to get used to the fact that as a Mac, my computer was practically already virus-immune without constant annoying updates from AVG and Spybot and Norton Anti-Virus.  The resolution and picture quality was far superior than what I had been used to, and although there were several software compatibility issues, they were a lot easier to overcome than I had feared.  The aforementioned Microsoft Office was no longer needed, as I didn’t require any spreadsheets, and I could open and create word documents in TextEdit.  So it was all good!

Of course, it’s not all been problem-free.  I’m now on my third iPod (which is just over a year old), a 120GB silver iPod classic.  I’ve had it just over a year, and apart from the fact that the click wheel only clicks in the headphones, it is behaving quite well. For a while it was working extremely slowly, but the iPod software update on Snow Leopard fixed it and it’s back to normal.  I have had a lot of iPod issues in the past, having to send back my iPod time and again and getting replacement ones.  Particularly in the case of my first iPod (the photo one), I got into a rhythm of hitting it and knocking it in order to get it to behave and function, which in retrospect was quite ridiculous.  My second iPod, a 5th-generation iPod classic with video, still works, though it went through a period of deleting itself of all my music which was why I got a new one.  Because I have such a huge amount of music (though 120GB is more than enough space, and I haven’t come close to filling this iPod yet, with 35GB still free!), having to reload it onto my iPod is a MASSIVE pain, and now I use a handy program called iLinkPod to back up my iPod every month or so.  It’s a great security blanket, and ensures that I never lose my songs (something which is a much more real concern with digital music – it’s far easier to lose a file than to lose a CD), nor my formatting – I am a little bit anal about how I categorise my songs and make sure that everything has the correct artwork.  So with my new iPod, I bought AppleCare to keep it under guarantee for a lot longer, and I feel a lot more secure now.  And everything is working fine!

The introduction of an Apple Store to Bristol has also been a great advantage.  Up until the opening of Cabot Circus last September, there was an Apple retailer in Temple Meads which was more or less hopeless when it came to fixing any issues that I had.  Problems with my first laptop and its CD drive went unrepaired because they were so pathetic in their service that I just preferred to persist with the problem than get it fixed by them. (When my CD or DVD would skip upon putting it in the drive, I would just beat the base of the computer and it would work.  Again, I am glad to say those days are long gone!)  When my hard drive finally corrupted (I think to be fair, that was my fault because in Spain, I would leave my computer on my bed and it would overheat lying on the thick blanket that I had bought), it was easier just to buy another laptop than get it fixed by them and face their judgement.  Also, their costs would probably have been close to the cost of another laptop anyways.  I bought my second laptop in Easter 2007, and I still have it today!  The one time that I had a problem with it, last Christmas when it would only work with the power adapter plugged in, I took it to the Apple Store in Cabot Circus, who repaired it and although they had said that providing a new logic board would cost £400 (a price I decided I was prepared to pay), they fixed it for no charge.  It was a lovely Christmas Eve present, and to this day I’m not sure if that was a mistake… I just got out of the store clutching my laptop before they could change their mind!

Updating my operating system to Leopard and recently Snow Leopard has kept my laptop current, and although it is 2 and a half years old now, I don’t feel that it’s been left behind or is lacking anything. I have got a Microsoft Office replacement now called NeoOffice, so that I can plot my anti-snacking spreadsheet and make a beautiful printable CV.  Using the real Microsoft at work has made me appreciate Apple all the more.  My Dell laptop starts up and shuts down so slowly; it installs updates at a snail’s pace; Microsoft Office is actually not that user friendly, with certain apparently-advanced functions being a rigmarole to discover.  And don’t rely on the help section – it only helps you with incredibly obvious things, and anything more technical is a struggle to even find according to their index system.  I conclude that their help sections must have been written by morons, and this week at work, I have solved my queries by using Google, seeing that the Microsoft help section had failed me so.  In short, I can’t see myself going back to Microsoft.

However, there is one area of my life where I’m not willing to let Apple in.  The iPhone, while I appreciate is a marvellous piece of kit and has so many useful (and useless! ) apps as well as a slim touchscreen, iPod capabilities and Safari web browser, is just far too common.  I see it everywhere. In addition, it’s expensive and I’m not really into buying phones on contract (I get easily confused), so I prefer to buy them SIM-free and then just keep my standard O2 Simplicity contract, which gives me unlimited web browsing, and enough free texts and minutes for £20 to keep me satisfied. I see iPhones everywhere, and while they are pretty and fantastic devices, I prefer to be a little bit different.  I have the LG Prada II, which is a beautiful sleek black touchscreen phone.  However, it also has a pull-out QWERTY keyboard (one of the main selling features for me) so after a little bit of teething, I can text pretty damn quick. I also have the internet and a camera and all the other important things I wanted in a smart phone.  But for me, it is more beautiful than an iPhone, it has the designer name which makes it a little more special to me, and I have never seen another one being used in public.  I am confident that the iPhone is probably a superior piece of kit, but not by much – I am happy without all the extra apps, as long as I have my QWERTY keyboard, free internet browsing, emails, beautiful phone and unique phone.  The LG Prada II has taken me a few months to get my head around (the instruction manual is not very clear, and it does randomly do crazy things such as restart when I receive more than one email), but I have grown to love it and appreciate its quirks as much as its beauty and functions.  As I’ve only had it for 5 months, I’m not really looking into what phone I might get next (iPhone or otherwise), as technology these days (particularly with smart phones) evolves so quickly that I won’t even think about it until my current phone starts getting tired and a new one will be necessary.  However, I know that Dior have got a beautiful phone on their website…

Na época dos meus pais, pra se gravar uma coletânea com as músicas preferidas, era preciso ficar esperando por horas, até tocar na rádio, com a fita cassete prontinha à mão, só aguardando pra apertar o rec. E ainda assim, a fita podia acabar no meio, ou o locutor da rádio interromper a música.

Graças a Deus, eu nasci e uma nova era na música começou.

Nada mais de fitas, nada mais de walkman. Saíram os discos, entraram os CDs e o discman. Cresci mais um pouquinho, antigi o auge de minha paixão musical, e o mundo se tornou um lugar melhor. Bom, ele teria se tornado melhor nos meus olhos de qualquer maneira, mas tenho que dar o braço a torcer e agradecer à tecnologia, em especial à internet, por me possibilitar um acesso tão rápido e simples à todas as minhas músicas e bandas preferidas. Veio a internet, vieram os MP3/MP4/MP5/(…)MP1.000 e uma nova epidemia se alastrou pelas ruas: a dos fones de ouvido. Os predecessores deste avançado porta-músicas já tinham tentado fazer essa moda pegar, mas não tinham conseguido tanto sucesso assim.

É impossível andar pela rua sem notar. Experimente. Praticamente todo mundo estará usando um par desses, que tranca o mundo pra fora e só permite você mesmo, seus pensamentos e as emoções, relacionadas à combinação de sons ecoando no seu ouvido, na sua mente e coração. É interessante. Sabe quando você se perde dentro de um livro, por causa da história envolvente? Pois então. Essa epidemia dos fones faz com que andemos fisicamente pela rua, enquanto estamos perdidos em outras avenidas, carregadas de emoção e sonoridade, dentro de nós mesmos.

E é um mistério. Quero dizer, é intrigante olhar pra uma pessoa que você não conhece, cuja história você não faz a menor idéia, e tentar adivinhar o que é que ela está ouvindo. Será que esse gosta mais de Rock? Não, aquela ali tem cara de Pop. Country, talvez? Não, não. Aposto que é do tipo que escuta qualquer coisa que estiver nas mais tocadas do momento. Mas se bem que poderia apenas estar com os fones, sem nem sequer estar ouvindo alguma música – ou porque a bateria acabou ou só porque quer ficar quieto no seu mundo por um pouquinho de tempo, sem nenhuma interrupção. Como eu disse, interessante.

A curiosidade se agrava quando a pessoa começa a demonstrar as emoções em seu rosto. Ou, às vezes, quando apenas balança a cabeça no ritmo da música, envolvido na sonoridade sem nem se dar conta. Ah, o que eu não daria pra saber o que é que essa pessoa está escutando e a história por trás de suas preferências musicais!

E já que eu não posso simplesmente parar cada pessoa que passa por mim com um fone de ouvido, me digam: o que é que vocês estão ouvindo ultimamente? E qual é a importância dessas canções na vida de vocês? Ajudem-me, assim, a desvendar o mistério dos fones de ouvido… Bom, pelo menos dos seus fones.

Brenda Nepomuceno

Não sei que idade teria quando ouvi pela primeira vez Zero 7. Roubados uns cds aos meus irmãos, como costume, (emprestados sempre seria mais delicado), sei que foi no meu saudoso discman cinzento-metálico que ouvi, com ouvidos de quem descobre  e desvenda, Distractions. Do álbum Simple Things. Não sei que idade teria, sei que foi a primeira música que experimentei destes britânicos. Fiquei viciada e apaixonada. Naquela altura, andava sempre com o discman atrás. Não era o fácil ipod que se aloja no bolso mas queria ouvir repetidamente a minha música. E hoje ouvia-a com ouvidos de primeira vez. É que para além de ouvir, escutei.

É pena que o concerto, no Sudoeste, tenha ficado tão aquém das expectativas.

Aí fica a tal.

The bike ride back from the record store in the summer of 1998 was quite possibly one of the most invigorating and influential of my life. Middle school was full of musical discovery in the form of the “Compilation” section of Music Box, your typical privately owned record store with the bare minimum of obscure selections. On this fateful day in July, I would slip a CD into my well used and slightly damaged Discman, throw on my backpack and jump on my bike. The CD spooled up and my headphones filled with a strummed bass line followed by the booming reverb of the drums. The song skipped, stuttered and exploded into a fast paced ballad about an aging Punk-Rock band longing for the days of basement shows, friends, cheap meals and beds disguised as hard-wood floors. I was 14 and knew I could experience what they longed to re-live, and with that knowledge I rode my bike home, sat down at my father’s drum set and began my suburban punk-rock adventure.

This music was new and fresh to me, a surefire way to rebel against my parents by using a weapon they couldn’t understand. This music was fast, equally serious and satirical while toeing the line between harmony and hollering. I had spent years previously listening to music my father had played with his band, listened to in his car and in the house on his stereo. This new music was obscure, something I would have to painstakingly explain to my father, something he might never understand…so I thought.

Summer passed and 8th grade started. I came home after a long after school bike ride spent loitering downtown searching for benches to grind and friends who might have a better idea on how to occupy idle time. I walked in to the familiar sight of my father sitting on the couch in his postal uniform after a long day at work. In a bag next to his foot rested two records against the leg of the coffee table. Through the thin plastic I could see the familiar image of Paul Simonon smashing his bass guitar in front of a stack of amplifiers. My father proceeded to pull out both records. One was London Calling by The Clash and the other was Elvis Presley’s first LP. Both layouts were exactly the same, pink and green letters lining the left and bottom of the frame with an image of the artist in the center. My father used this to explain the term “influence” Basically, music is just a fast paced evolution which is influenced heavily, if not entirely on ideas which have already been previously conceived. I still spent my high school years heavily into Punk and Hardcore, but my father made sure I knew there were only two kinds of music, good music and bad music.

Alternately, here is a little fun fact. One of my father’s favorite musicians was the drummer for The Clash. He also thought “Topper Headon” was a badass name.

…a 400-hundred word response to why I would like a wooden pencil. Overkill.

At heart, I’m not the most modern person. I have been using the same handphone for three years now, a hand-me-up from my brother. I couldn’t be bothered to buy a new one when my Motorola Razr turned stinky on me. I only like clam shell phones. And the reason why I’m not buying a new phone is because there doesn’t seem to be any beautiful clam shells around anymore. Nothing like the first-generation Razr which made me open my wallet and splurged on it. To think I was worried about looking ostentatious after that. The Razr wasn’t exactly the cheapest phone in town. A year after, Motorola released the second-generation Razr and the third and the fourth. Primary school kids started carry Razrs and my phone gradually lost its allure, physically and mentally.

I use a Panasonic Discman instead of some MP3 player. My Discman is already falling to bits – it’s not exactly new, having been with me for more than six years. The metal cover – I remember it was fashionable then – is covered with scratches and a faded Gakuto sticker, a reminder of my younger days when I spend hundreds of dollars on CDs from HMV. I would have to preorder those CDs, those limited edition, first-press Japanese CDs that cost me many lunches. I love the sensation of inserting a disc into that round player, hearing that satisfying click, feeling the physical labours of the bands I love. I’m probably deluding myself, but hey, what the heck. It’s an emotional response.

How do you rationalise an emotion?

Sometimes when I get tired of typing on laptops – as my job often requires – I go back to scratching on notepads. I insist on only using Pilot’s V5 – either black or blue. And proper paper that does not allow the ink to bleed through. More often than not, the notepads my office provides are too thin. I then end up using only one side because the other side would be unusable as the ink tears through it. But because I crave the physicality of writing, I continue my task.

For that same physicality, I sometimes pocket the pencils they have at Ikea. Those pencils with their insides exposed, turned inside out. Naked to the world except for a layer of lacquer. No hard mechanics there. The wood grain feels good against my fingers, cooling. I ought to know better but it just feels natural…no MP3s, no iPhones, no laptops, no Internet. Low-tech, the way I like it.

Which makes me kinda stuck in a conundrum.

I have to wear headphones all the time at work. A lot of times I just need to have some music to listen to, and more often than not I end up on youtube or pandora or some similar place, but the problem I have is that all these music videos and music sites are all broadcasting at different volumes and sometimes I lose track of the fact that I had to jack my computer audio up to hear a soft song when heavy metal comes on and blows my eardrums out for hald an hour.

I remember when sony release the original discman, a portable CD player. It had AVLS, which made it impossible for your eardrums to get blown out because no matter how loud the signal was that was coming out of the disc, the player would automatically cap it at a certain level. I loved it, and I miss it.

So what do you think programmers? Is this possible to do via an app or is hardware necessary? I would think a program like this would be immensely popular.

me acabo de acordar que era bien fan de soundgarden… cuando existían todavía los discmans me llevaba el A-Sides para todos lados.

Heute morgen hat meine Cousine mich angerufen weil sie in einer Buchhandlung total viele Stifte gesehen hat xD
Sie hat uns dann erstmal zur Buchhandlung / Nha Sach SAIGON bestellt.
Dort angekommen stellte es sich mal wieder heraus, dass keine Copics vorhanden waren …

Auf dem Rückweg haben wir einen kleinen Stopp bei der Buchhandlung MINH KHAI gemacht, die bei uns in der Straße liegt.

Im Erdgeschoss gibt es Bücher (was sonst ?) und auch Stifte und Einladungskarten. Im ersten Stock kann man sich dann Taschen und Geschenkartikel sowie auch kleinere Elektronik-Geräte kaufen, wie z.B. Discman, Mp3-Player und I-Pods. Außerdem gibt es dort Sticker und kleine Deko-Sachen.

Momentan total beliebt : Handy“halter“-Plüschies x3 Gibt’s in vielen Formen und Größe

Natürlich hab ich mir gleich einen geschnappt xD das Bärchen gehört mir und der Tiger meinem Bro
Da gab’s auch noch ein Häschen und ne Kuh uvm. Am liebsten mochte ich aber die Schildkröte, nur gab es die wiederum nicht im Minh Khai.

Im zweiten Stock hab ich dann wieder DIE ENTDECKUNG gemacht ! xD
Ich hab hier NOHOHONS gefunden ! x3

NOHOHONS – die kleinen Launemacher aus Japan ~

Es gab sie sogar als Stitch aus Lilo und Stitch und als süße Hello Kitty :3

$$ Der Preis lag zwischen 198.00 VND bei einem normalen und bei 220.000 VND bei einem mit extra Schlüsselanhänger. $$

Die Nguyen-Thi-Minh-Khai-Street ist eine der größten Straßen in Vietnam, dort liegen neben dem größten Krankenhaus Saigons Benh Vien Tu Du auch noch sämtliche Buchhandlungen und weiter Richtung dem Park Tao Doan, Holz- und Möbelverkaufsgeschäfte.

Nächstes mal geht’s um Instrumente :3

LG Cherrymint ~~

As noted in Avrin’s earlier post today, this is the 30th anniversary of the release of the first portable cassette player, the iconic Walkman. We have come to look back fondly on the founding gadget of portable technology – not only did it pave the way for the mp3, but it got us used to carrying technology with us. No longer would we have to be shackled to our stereo if we wanted to hear some sweet tunes. We’re now at the point where we can get basically all of our mod-cons on the go, what with the computers we carry in our pockets, but the Walkman was the device that got us ready for the Game Boy, the cellphone, and portable video devices. It deserves to be lauded for all this, in the same way that we couldn’t have had The Dark Knight without the pioneering effects of Star Wars. But what of the Independence Day of portable media? 2009 is also the 25th anniversary of the Discman, but no-one seems quite as impressed. Perhaps it’s because CDs have become obsolete too recently – like an ex-girlfriend who we still think of too often, even though we’re now married – or, because for those of us who used them, we remember how damn annoying they really were.  More after the jump.

The first generations of the Discman were portable in the same way that your stereo was, except that they ran on hundreds of AA batteries, and cost only half as much as a stereo component version. They were about the size of four jewel cases stacked on top of each other, so they weren’t exactly compact, either. As they got smaller and cheaper, they still didn’t get much better. The last Discman I bought, in about 2000, was still difficult to jam in to my pocket, and I still needed to walk like I either had a dead leg, or holding the CD player horizontally in my hand, as they skipped more than a young girl hopscotching on speed. While most of us look back on our adolescent years as troubling and/or awkward, they were a necessary step in our development, and that’s exactly why I want to praise the lowly Discman. I never learned how to drive, so the Discman was how I got my music on the go for all of the 90s and 2000s, from my first Billy Joel album, until I unwisely invested all of my saved-up allowance into this MiniDisc player, and then an iPod the size of a brick and with the capacity of Johnny Mnemonic. Ignoring the Discman is like ignoring all of the mistakes we’ve learnt from in our lives, from trying to make it as a musician, learning to skateboard, and playing with POGs. We owe it to ourselves to not be so quick to forget.

you will be missed

otro de esos aniversarios que sólo le suman más años a mis recuerdos, qué miedo. 

hace 15 años mientras veía -si mal no recuerdo- a Ruth en MTV, un flash informativo interrumpió la programación para decir que habían encontrado a kurt cobain muerto. shocking. cómo moría gente por aquellos años. 

sí me acuerdo, tenía 10 años y mtv ya era mi niñera. headbangers me ponía a dormir y pues lo típico: beavies & butthead y ren & stimpy.

conocía a Nirvana por los videos. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Heart Shaped Box (que recuerdo lo pasaban bastante seguido) o Lithium. 

random fact: mi primer CD comprado a conciencia fue el From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah en 1996. me lo compraron en el Salinas y Rocha de Perinorte. Ese disco es quizás el que más he escuchado en mi vida en un estéreo a todo volúmen. 

es raro, pero qué chido que ese fue el primer disco que me compré por voluntad propia. 17 canciones en vivo con la rasposa voz de kurt. a veces creo que mi afición/obsesión por las tocadas y los conciertos es gracias a este disco: las versiones en vivo siempre suenan mejor, más potentes.

un día mi familia utilizaría el jardín de la casa para hacer la fiesta de un bautizo (creo). el día anterior, gente llegó a poner una enorme lona, sillas por todos lados, manteles y lo más importante, el sonido. el estéreo de la casa conectado a unas bocinas enormes. este es quiza uno de los recuerdos más vívidos que tengo de escuchar un disco en un estéreo. el eco de nirvana retumbó por lo largo del jardín (era un rectángulo de 4 paredes muy altas). 

por si fuera poco, había un micrófono. a mis 12 años y mi pseudo inglés frustrado de Colegio y Spelling Bee, me puse a gritonear Drain You, Aneurysm, Scentless Apprentice, Milk It, etcétera.

otro recuerdo random: con este disco inauguré mi manía por tocar la guitarra imaginaria mientras canto y escucho a todo volúmen un disco. obvio no lo hacía con la izquierda, como kurt. 

después me compré In Utero, uno de los discos mejor cuidados que tengo. Y ya en los dosmiles, me compré Nirvana (el negro donde sale You Know You’re Right)

en Prepa, con todo y dicos de Deftones y Radiohead, estrené mi flamante discman con el From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, que me acompañó en muchas tardes fastidiosas de taller artístico. 

es más, creo que entre Deftones, Soundgarden y Nirvana, me inspiré en hacer la porquería de cuadro que terminé haciendo como proyecto final de ese taller: una especie de ramificación sangrienta. 

otro random fact: para afinar la guitarra toco Heart Shaped Box y/o Come as You Are. 

random introspectivo: creo que a la actitud cobainesca influyó mi vida preparatoriana, bien cabrón. 

pero bueno. nunca tuve el Nevermind, no sé por qué hasta la fecha. y de hecho nunca lo he bajado completo. 

Nirvana se mantiene como uno de los pocos grupos que todavía sigo escuchando post mi cambió radical de gustos. aunque hace mucho que no escucho canciones en mi iTunes de Nirvana… y otro random fact: producto de mi ignorancia musical, falta de internet y corta edad, yo pensaba que The Man Who Sold the World era original de Nirvana.

15 años desde que vi por tele que murió kurt cobain. 13 años después de que compré mi primer CD. aquí estoy echado en mi cama a las 3.37am hablando de como gritaba a mis 12 años coros nirvanescos. y la neta, creo que si me salían chido los gritillos. 

creo que la que mejor me salía era Milk It:

i’m all about moodswings these days. i think it’s the stop-start nature of spring that keeps bumping my mood back and forth between elated and lackadaisical. to be honest, i’m sick of it. am hoping this weekend i can finally get rid of the winter blues and move into spring time… is there a colour for happiness? hmm… i’m hoping to be orange for spring. i would say green but i think i’ve overdone green a little, and also it makes me think of queasiness, which would not help my mood in any way, shape or form. so, orange for spring.

i actually think not having an ipod is also having an adverse effect on my mood these days. that sounds kind of weird but having to listen to music that is not brand new is sort of driving me crazy. i think music might be my zoloft – really need to get that sorted out. was listening to siobhan donaghy thismorning on repeat and have just put in the sugababes change album. pretty fantastic in general – especially the former – but new music really perks me up. must acquire a new ipod asap. also, people continue to stare when i break out the discman. i kind of want to get a big sticker on it that says: ‘IT’S A FUCKING DISCMAN.’ would quite enjoy that. except might get told off by mothers of small children. whatever, those kids would be getting an education. in both useful swear words and technology history.

We live in an age of too much new technology .. too many choices … take iPods for example .. the world has never seen such an effective tool for carrying around more music and videos than you will ever listen to in one life time … There are too many choices … and yours is better than your mates one because , yep you guessed it , yours has more capacity … so while he can only carry 10 000 songs at a time, you can carry 20 000 …

Some of you may have never carried the Sony Walkman or even the Discman … but for those of us who did they were cool pieces of kit … freedom, battery life and a great music selection (or about 10 tapes or discs) and you were mobile .. from commuting to traveling to diving trips to ski runs … music was everywhere and it was cool … now one iPod carries as much music as an entire ski village had during those days, including all night clubs, all skiers on the slopes, all the cars and all the bars … that be a lot of tunes !

So it’s about choices .. are we happier or more content with all that choice on tap at any time should we find the need or desire ? …My contention is actually not… I have recently relegated my 80GB iPod to my safe to act as a backup disk for my iMac data …

I travel now with my 8GB Nano (1st Generation, which interestingly enough is the design that Apple has returned to for the Nano) … it is not filled to the brim with music, but has a travel backup of all my work files (about 2-3GB worth), also my contacts and calendar, should my phone go missing … and then the balance in music … I would say a good 5 GB worth … this is plenty for any trip of a month or less …

My theory is that if you are sitting around all day listening to music you don’t have enough action in your life !

The other benefit of loading an iPod up for a particular trip is that it forces you to go through your collection and find music that you really want to listen to … it avoids invariably invoking of the shuffle button in the larger iPods as you run out of patience with continuous song finding…

Or have I missed the point of carrying around all this choice? … as an avid techno early adopter I find myself pulling back from the technological arms race as we are getting less and less incremental bang for our upgrade bucks … the old Nano still works a treat, has a few travel scars but has never let me down … the new one is cheap enough for me to buy one with no big deal, but will it give me a better experience … I doubt it … enlighten us with your views … till next time …

so i was walking along with my discman today imagining everyone looking at me with shame in their eyes and whispering quietly to one another: ‘is that a discman? how 1995.’ but then i remembered that i’d seen the cover of vogue india the other day (the one with frieda pinto, click to view) and one of the titles was ‘how to be a recessionista.’ i’m now loving this word and i’ve decided that my discman carrying is recessionista chic, rather than being sad and dated.

brava vogue india, brava.

I was recently navigating the web for all kinds of old tech stuff that I once wanted.

1. I didn’t really think that many people shared this passion with me, but as I watch the bids on eBay, I realize that I’m not alone.

1. I had thought about starting a blog, but hadn’t really found a “cause” to dedicate myself to.

Well, 1+1 is 2.  Here I go, I’ll start posting about things that I find cool and we’ll see where it goes.  I’ll kick off with the Sony Discman D-88.  This is by far one of the most interesting portable CD player that I have ever come accross.

jasonsewell's D-88 image on Flickr

As you can see this player was designed to hold a CD single and normal size CDs come out of the corner.  Last I saw one on the market was the US eBay and it went for about 50 USD.

“What? Why are you talking about Asif Ali Zardari during sex?”

“I had absolutely no time during the day today, honey.. a lot happened today, I must blog about it, it is very important for my career, I want that promotion or that job in NDTV! I’m sick and tired of being just a news anchor! I want to be a news editor!”

“But can’t that wait until after sex? Must you be voicing to text about some stupid Pakistani during intercourse?”

“Oh honey! Don’t mind me! You keep going strong, do me, I’m here with you in bed, but I have a lot to do tonight. I must publish this blog post, finish my article on foreplay for this women’s magazine and email my sister!”

“Foreplay! Oh boy! There was a time we used to do a lot of it! Seems like decades ago! Do you even remember what it feels like? What the hell are you writing about it?”

“Oh honey! Of course I do! Its just that Sheela, the editor of this magazine says that I can write erotica very well and has suggested that I pursue it. Her husband got totally aroused reading my article on blowjobs!”

“You haven’t given me a blow job in three years! What the hell did you write?”

“Honey, chill! Let me finish this post and the article. Then let me write to my sister. And if you’re still awake, I’ll give you one!”

“My wife! The Enid Blyton of the world of erotica!”

“Its good money! If you be a good boy, maybe I’ll buy you that fancy iPod!”

“But I already bought it!”

“What? When? Why do you spend so much money on stupid gizmos? What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you just use that discman that my brother gave you?”

“Oh screw you, bitch! Good Night, love!”

“Good Night.”

“Would you give up sex for two weeks or the internet?”

“Sex, honey!”

“I wish I had married a sex addict!”

San Francisco – A new survey sponsored by computer chip giant Intel has found that about half of US women would prefer to go without sex for two weeks than manage without the internet for the same period of time.

Titled Internet Reliance in Today’s Economy, the poll found that 49 per cent of women aged 18 to 34 would opt to forgo sex for two weeks rather than do without the internet, while 52 percent of women ages 35 to 44 made the same choice.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/tech/news/article_1449026.php/Intel_study_Half_of_US_women_prefer_internet_to_sex_

]]> http://joshlos.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/music-for-exercise-and-a-headphone-question/ Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:23:43 +0000 joshlos http://joshlos.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/music-for-exercise-and-a-headphone-question/

Two questions, and they’re sorta semi-related:

[1] Am I the only one who prefers big honkin’ headphones to earbuds?

Throughout my childhood and early teen years, I listened to my walkman with those ol’ skool, regular portable headphones that just sat atop your head and ears. Think Marty McFly’s headphones in Back to the Future. There was a little curved metal strip at the top to rest on your head and plastic sliders the speakers were attached to. I didn’t even have long hair, but I remember a strand of hair every now and again getting caught between the slider and the metal, which sucked big time.

Perhaps my favorite headphones ever

Anyway, shortly after I turned 18, I found this pair of Koss TD-65 stereo headphones with a gigantic cord and soft cushioning for around the ear. It enclosed the sound, sounded great, and had bass like a motherlover. I ended up eventually sending them back to Koss in exchange for an identical pair a few years ago after the wire to one of the speakers started coming loose from where it inputted into the speaker base.

I know they’re not the best portable headphones — and I know they’re an older model stereophone – but still, to this day, if I’m going on a trip and bringing my discman or whatever (I think I’m the only person in the world without an iPod… this year it’s finally on my birthday/Christmas list [my birthday and Christmas are close enough that traditionally I end up getting something from my Christmas list for my birthday]), I’m rockin’ the big honkin’ headphones.

I’ve tried those earbud headphones before, and honestly, I haven’t been impressed. Too much other sound gets in and they just feel funny in my ears. Are earbuds an acquired taste, so to speak? Or is it simply a matter of convenience? That brings me to my second question…

[2] Am I the only one who prefers NOT to listen to music while working out?

I know a lot of people rock their iPods and the earbuds while they go running, hit the gym, or do whatever other types of exercises they do. Some people just exercise where there’s background music, like some gyms, YMCA classes, or wherever else.

Obviously, big honkin’ headphones wouldn’t really work for working out, but is music that essential for working out?

Some people say it motivates them. Others say focusing on the music makes the workout go more quickly.

I’ve exercised with music before. A time or two I felt amped up more than usual, but typically I prefer quietness when I work out. I like focusing on what I’m doing and taking the time to think about other things. I generally find that music gets in the way of that — it gets in my head and I just want to pay attention to and enjoy the music rather than focus on the workout.

Also, I’ve found myself exercising to the pace of the music’s beat, rather than the pace I need to be exercising at. On occasion, I’ve also found myself starting to sing along, which totally screws up my counts for various exercises.

Don’t get me wrong — I love music. As in: I’d marry music if I could. Dear music, will you marry me? Awesome. But I don’t have a ring for you. Sorry. I hope that’s okay.

But when it comes to exercising, I just prefer to keep music out of it. What say you? Do you need it to work out? Do you just prefer it?