Granted, this is a Rogers unboxing (I’m on AT&T), but it still confirms that the new BlackBerry Bold is a beautiful device. It also confirms that I’m getting a Bold and not an iPhone 3G. Sorry, Uncle Steve.
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Archive for August, 2008
Praise be to Gibson! Gibson has pulled off yet another awesome hybrid of a classic. Their Custom Shop engineers got the bridge right too; they routed out a recess for the FR vibrato. Now if Fender could get it right on the FR Strat.
As everyone from Jeff Beck to Jimmy Page to Joe Bonamassa to Slash already knows, the Gibson Les Paul Standard has been one of the most playable electric guitars in rock for more than 50 years. Now, with the release of the new Les Paul Axcess Standard from the Gibson Custom Shop, the “ultimate player’s guitar” just got more playable.
Carrying all the elegant styling, fluid body lines, and rocking attitude of a classic Les Paul Standard from the golden era of 1958 to ‘60, the Les Paul Axcess reveals a handful of upgrades upon closer examination—all modifications made in the name of maximum playability and versatility. The most noticeable addition is the Floyd Rose tailpiece, a unit optimized for anything from subtle vibrato wobbles to dramatic, rumbling divebombs. Adding a Floyd Rose to a Les Paul in the past was always a major headache, and could seriously damage the stability of the instrument if not done right. On the Les Paul Axcess the vibrato is installed right at the Gibson Custom Shop as part of the manufacturing process, so this potent piece of high-performance hardware interacts seamlessly with the design of the guitar. Partnered with an R4 locking nut, it also guarantees outstanding tuning stability and return-to-pitch accuracy.
Continue reading ‘Les Paul Axcess Standard: The Ultimate Player’s “Player’s Guitar”’
I’ve been using OpenDNS at home and at work since the service was first offered. At home, I was just using OpenDNS for DNS lookups, that’s all. At work, I setup our M$ Domain Controllers to forward DNS requests to OpenDNS, again for DNS lookups only.
In May 2007, OpenDNS announced their filtering controls, I immediately went to their site, created an account, and setup my external IP networks (currently five of them at work, soon to be six). Granted at the time, it was implicit domain blocking only, but it was something. Prior to May ‘07, I was using a Linux server and BIND with a huge list of domains that I blocked by pointing to 127.0.0.1. It was a dirty solution, but it worked. Most of the domains I had in BIND were Adware sites I pulled from the hosts file changes that Spybot S&D added to the Windows hosts file. The OpenDNS domain blocking was a solution to my dirty fix. While I like having Linux on my network, the OpenDNS domain blocking sort of did away with my daily workarounds trying to block/unblock domains.
In June/August 2007, OpenDNS added category blocking with domain whitelisting. Oh, sweet day! I was able to block entire categories of internet content, for free! Again, for free!
Now back to the point of this post… Some people would like this kind of filtering for their children to keep them from viewing pornographic content or to avoid internet predators. I had never really thought about using OpenDNS as a parental filter before because I do not have children. NetNanny and other parental filtering software charges per computer. Now that homes have more than one computer, that could get expensive; paying for filtering year after year. If you have more than one computer in your home, you would need to setup the OpenDNS servers on your cable/DSL router (Apple AirPort, Linksys, D-Link, etc.), but you only need to setup the OpenDNS client software on one computer (preferably one the parents use).
Check out the Howtogeek article about how to set up parental filtering for free using OpenDNS.
Howtogeek via Lifehacker
Even if you don’t have children, you could still take advantage of OpenDNS’s Phishing and Adware blocking. It’s the setup I’m using at home.
I just thought this was a bit ironic that MacDailyNews reports about “Netflix suffers biggest outage ever” and there is a big honkin’ ad in the center of the article for Apple TV and iTunes Store rentals.
My only question is, “Why a Kahler vibrato?” Why not stick with a tune-o-matic tailpiece or a Floyd Rose vibrato?
Gibson USA’s new Shred-V Flying V—the Guitar of the Month for August 2008—takes the style and attitude of the fearsome Flying V a step further. Two EMG 85 pickups deliver high-ouput, screaming tone, perfect for aggressive hard rock and metal, and a new Kahler 2215K tremolo system allows stable tuning and dive bombs. The Shred-V is outfitted with black chrome hardware, and an Ebony finish that captures every detail and sharp style of the classic Flying V. The neck is one-piece mahogany with Gibson’s traditional Flying V profile—a hybrid between the standard ’50s rounded contour and the ’60s slim-taper profile—and an ebony fingerboard with black acrylic dot inlays unique only to the Shred-V. Locking Grover tuners keep the guitar in tune when pushing the Kahler tremolo system to its limits. Gibson’s new Shred-V Flying V—offered with a custom Guitar of the Month case—combines classic Flying V style with sonic intensity and a sleek look. Production is limited to just 1,000 guitars.
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I received an email today with the release date for Metallica’s upcoming new album Death Magnetic. It’s September 12. I can’t wait!
