Black amp decker

Andy's Adventures Underground IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT... It was dark. Well, no, that's not exactly true. There was light, cast by a flashlight I was clutching in my hand. What it revealed -- dirt, cobwebs, jutting pipes and hanging wires -- wasn't anything I was interested in looking at, trapped on my belly, face down in a carpet of fine brown crud. I was in the crawl space under our 25-year-old California tract house, pulling a Cat-5 Ethernet cable, an orange heavy-duty power cord and my trusty Black and Decker electric drill (complete with drill bit case) behind me. And as I lay there, breathing dirt like it was the perfume of Nefertiti and dragging myself along like a snake, I wondered, "How exactly did I get here?" How indeed. The road to my current predicament was a long, twisted one, a story that has yet to fully play itself out. It started off innocently enough, at a sign that said, "The Way to Home Networking Starts Here." What was that old saw about what … [Read more...] about Andy’s Adventures Underground

Recommendations for what to buy friends and family will be plentiful in the days leading up to the holidays as everyone gives their opinion on what would make the perfect gift. Macworld ’s Gear Guide debuted on the site a couple weeks ago, and Playlist launched a week-long look at iPod-themed gift ideas earlier today. I thought I’d try a different tack, chiming in with recommendations on gifts for musicians. When I’m not filing stories about the Mac, I play the guitar, so these are all products I’ve used over the past few months. Guitar Rig 2 : My first must-have guitar Christmas present is Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig 2 ($579). Guitar Rig sparked a lot of interest in the computer for many guitar players, including me, when it was introduced during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference two years ago. With the recent release of Guitar Rig 2 , Native Instruments will take the hardware-software combination to new audiences with the addition of several new amps … [Read more...] about Musical gifts

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will face a tough crowd at Friday’s shareholders meeting, but the expected tongue-lashing is likely the least of his worries as he stares at the towering list of promises he has made and must fulfill. Since replacing former CEO Terry Semel in mid-2007, Yang has been assuring employees, partners, external developers, publishers, advertisers and online-service consumers that he has a foolproof plan to get Yahoo back on track financially and technologically. For shareholders, the problem with Yang’s rhetoric is that when he took over from Semel, Yahoo’s stock price was in the $27 to $28 range. On Thursday, it closed at $19.89, far from the $33 per share Microsoft offered before negotiations collapsed in early May , and very close to the $19.18 price on Jan. 31, the day prior to the bid’s announcement. “There is a lot of anger and discontent among shareholders. It will be lively [Friday],” said IDC analyst Karsten Weide in a phone interview. Activist … [Read more...] about After facing shareholders, Yang must fulfill promises

It’s time for another featured Mac setup! This week we’ve got an amazing studio to share from a professional audio mixing engineer and startup founder, let’s get right to it… Tell us a bit about your studio, and what you use the setup for? My name is Eros Marcello, I’m in Pro Audio / Music on both sides of the spectrum. On the production end, I’m an active recording & mix engineer. On the manufacturing side, I founded a new startup called Infernal Love, designing cutting edge DSP plug-ins that virtually emulate analog hardware and then some. I’ve been on the new Mac Pro for several weeks and due the sheer gravity of the machine itself, I assembled a home office/studio accordingly. The studio itself is located in the W Hotel right in the heart of Hollywood, California, directly above the hotel’s Living Room Bar where everything from Jazz Nights to Grammy after-parties are hosted. This makes for a high end yet comfortable vibe for the workspace. The assorted items to … [Read more...] about Mac Setup: Audio Mixing Engineer’s Hollywood Studio with a New Mac Pro

It was no surprise that our first look at Apple’s new iMac G5 was the November 2004 issue’s top letter getter. We received plenty of missives from readers who were just thinking about buying one, as well as a bunch from those who already had. The verdict of the latter? Well, let’s just say that you folks are a tough crowd. iMac G5, Your Take Mark St. John My initial impression of the iMac G5 ( “iMac G5,” November 2004 ) is that it could be the affordable, full-power Apple portable for those of us who need to take our computers along for the occasional week at Grandma’s or the beach. Twenty-five pounds is a bit heavy but not that bad. Why endure the expense and limitations of a laptop (assuming, of course, that the iMac could survive being stuck in a suitcase and tossed in the trunk)? Gini McKellar Though the new iMacs are very elegant, they’re also dangerously top-heavy. My two-year-old son pushed the bottom of the monitor in, and it almost toppled on top of him. Good … [Read more...] about G5? Gee Whiz!