Audio/Records Engineering Tools

Pro Tools is a Digital Audio Workstation platform for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows operating systems, developed and manufactured by Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, television and post production. Pro Tools has three levels of software; HD, LE, and M-powered. HD is the premier package and is an integration of hardware and software. The hardware includes an external A/D converter and internal PCI or PCIe audio cards with onboard DSP.

Pro Tools LE 7.3 screenshot on Mac OS X
(screenshot)

Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Tools
Official website:
http://www.digidesign.com/

 

Sony ACID Pro is a professional Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software program, originally published by Sonic Foundry, now owned and run by Sony. When it was first launched in 1998 as a loop-based music sequencer, Acid Pro was the first-ever automatic audio loop-based music software of its kind, where someone could simply drag-and-drop an Acid loop file (for example a Drum or Bass loop) onto a track in Acid, and that loop would automatically adjust itself to the tempo and key of the song, with virtually no sonic degradation.

ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID_Pro
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/acidfamily.asp

Cubase is a computer program for music production. The program offers recording, producing and mixing of sounds in order to make music production for distribution on CD`s or the internet. Most of the facilities in recording studios are now available for computer owners using Cubase or other similar products.

In order to illustrate this: If you have say guitar, piano, bass and vocal all played by the same person, Cubase can record a track with each instrument and mix the different instruments and sounds into a coherent production. This technique is known as overdubbing. The sound quality is pretty close to what a professional recording studio can offer.

Cubase is a series of MIDI, music sequencer and digital audio editing computer applications (commonly known as a DAW – Digital Audio Workstation), created by the German firm Steinberg. Its first version, which ran on the Atari ST computer, was released in 1989.

Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubase
Official website:
http://www.steinberg.net/27_1.html

NASA’s Phoenix Spacecraft Lands at Martian Arctic Site

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars today to begin three months of examining a site chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander’s robotic arm.

Radio signals received at 4:53:44 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53:44 p.m. Eastern Time) confirmed the Phoenix Mars Lander had survived its difficult final descent and touchdown 15 minutes earlier. The signals took that long to travel from Mars to Earth at the speed of light.

Mission team members at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; and the University of Arizona, Tucson, cheered confirmation of the landing and eagerly awaited further information from Phoenix later tonight.

Among those in the JPL control room was NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who noted this was the first successful Mars landing without airbags since Viking 2 in 1976.

“For the first time in 32 years, and only the third time in history, a JPL team has carried out a soft landing on Mars,” Griffin said. “I couldn’t be happier to be here to witness this incredible achievement.”

 

Team members celebrate Phoenix landing on Mars.
Larger view During its 422-million-mile flight from Earth to Mars after launching on Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix relied on electricity from solar panels during the spacecraft’s cruise stage. The cruise stage was jettisoned seven minutes before the lander, encased in a protective shell, entered the Martian atmosphere. Batteries provide electricity until the lander’s own pair of solar arrays spread open.

“We’ve passed the hardest part and we’re breathing again, but we still need to see that Phoenix has opened its solar arrays and begun generating power,” said JPL’s Barry Goldstein, the Phoenix project manager. If all goes well, engineers will learn the status of the solar arrays between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time (10 and 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time) from a Phoenix transmission relayed via NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.

The team will also be watching for the Sunday night transmission to confirm that masts for the stereo camera and the weather station have swung to their vertical positions.

“What a thrilling landing! But the team is waiting impatiently for the next set of signals that will verify a healthy spacecraft,” said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, principal investigator for the Phoenix mission. “I can hardly contain my enthusiasm. The first landed images of the Martian polar terrain will set the stage for our mission.”

Another critical deployment will be the first use of the 7.7-foot-long robotic arm on Phoenix, which will not be attempted for at least two days. Researchers will use the arm during future weeks to get samples of soil and ice into laboratory instruments on the lander deck.

The signal confirming that Phoenix had survived touchdown was relayed via Mars Odyssey and received on Earth at the Goldstone, Calif., antenna station of NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Phoenix uses hardware from a spacecraft built for a 2001 launch that was canceled in response to the loss of a similar Mars spacecraft during a 1999 landing attempt. Researchers who proposed the Phoenix mission in 2002 saw the unused spacecraft as a resource for pursuing a new science opportunity. Earlier in 2002, Mars Odyssey discovered that plentiful water ice lies just beneath the surface throughout much of high-latitude Mars. NASA chose the Phoenix proposal over 24 other proposals to become the first endeavor in the Mars Scout program of competitively selected missions.

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix .

 

 

Media contacts: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond@lpl.arizona.edu

2008-81

Ref:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080525b.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/05/25/mars.lander/index.html

Nokia N95 2007 Flagship

Specification sheet

Feature	Specification
Form factor	Two-way slider
Operating System	Symbian OS v9.2, S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1
Screen	QVGA Matrix, diagonal 2.6″, 16 million colours, 240×320 pixels (0.08 Megapixels)
CPU	2 x Texas Instruments OMAP 2420 (ARMv6 architecture 11 based) – 332 MHz, PowerVR features (2D/3D accelerator) and High Speed Peripheral Interconnect.
Internal Dynamic Memory (RAM)	64 MB
Internal Flash Memory	160 MB
Camera	Frontal CIF video call & Main rear 5 Megapixel camera with auto-focus, Carl Zeiss optics
Video recording	Yes, MPEG-4 VGA (640×480) video capture of up to 30 fps
Graphics	Fully HW accelerated 3D (OpenGL ES 1.1, HW accelerated Java 3D)
Memory card slot	Yes, microSD/microSDHC
Bluetooth	Yes, 2.0 + EDR
Wi-Fi	Yes, with wireless LAN (802.11 b/g) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
Infrared	Yes
Data cable support	Yes, USB 2.0 Full Speed via mini USB port
Email	Yes (ActiveSync, POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP, with SSL/TLS)
Music player	Yes, Stereo speakers with 3D audio
Radio	Yes, Stereo FM Radio and Visual Radio – headphones or hands-free required for aerial
Video Player	Yes
Polyphonic tones	Yes, 72 chords
Ringtones	Yes, MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA/M4A, RealAudio
HF speakerphone	Yes, with 3.5 mm audio jack and A2DP wireless stereo headphone support
Offline mode	Yes
Battery	BL-5F (950 mAh)
Talk time	up to 160 min (WCDMA), up to 240 min (GSM)
Standby time	up to 215 hours

Careers with Associate Degree

A No-Fail Career in just Two Years

by Chloë Dowley

If your goal is to move from the classroom into the workforce as quickly as possible, choose a degree that will prepare you for a profession that is expected to experience rapid growth. The following careers are expected to boom over the next eight years and require only an associate degree.

• Registered Nurse (RN) – Spend two years earning your Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) and you’re practically guaranteed a job upon graduation, since 587,000 new RNs will be needed through 2016. Earnings of RNs are close to $60,000, and when you’re ready for a promotion you can take advantage of tuition reimbursement programs to help finance your Bachelor of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).
• Massage Therapist – The healing powers of massage are widely recognized, which means there will be a demand for 24,000 massage therapists over the next eight years. An associate degree in massage therapy offers courses in anatomy, massage techniques, and business practices. Over half of all massage therapists were self-employed in 2006, and most earned between $35,000 and $50,000.
• Dental Hygienist – The flexibility, bright employment prospects, and hourly earnings of around $30 for this career will keep you smiling as you polish your patients’ pearly whites. Most of the accredited dental hygiene programs grant associate degrees to prepare graduates for one of the 50,000 anticipated new positions opening through 2016.
• Preschool Teacher – You may already have mastered the art of play, but to be a successful preschool teacher you’ll need to understand child psychology and development. In two years you could be one of the 115,000 new teachers of our youngest students.
• Computer Support Specialist – In just a couple of years you could learn the skills necessary to make an office full of computer-users eternally appreciative of your existence. Employment of computer support specialists is expected to grow 18 percent, and many of these jobs will pay upwards of $40,000 annually.
• Paralegal – An associate degree in paralegal studies can help prepare you to research cases, prepare reports, and draft contracts. Law firms and corporate law offices are expected to hire some of the anticipated 53,000 new paralegals needed over the next eight years. Median earnings for these professionals were over $43,000 in 2006.
• Radiologic Technologist – A two-year degree can prepare you to work as a radiologic technologist, allowing you to administer X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans in hospitals or imaging laboratories. Thirty thousand radiologic technologists will be needed over the next eight years, and yearly earnings can often top $50,000.
• Automotive Technician – Your tinkering under the hood could become more than a hobby when coupled with an associate degree in automotive technology. Choose a program that emphasizes hands-on practice to prepare you to work for a car dealership, repair shop, or even for yourself. In 2006 the median earnings of automotive technicians were over $16 an hour.

Where Will You Be in 2010?

It’s not that far off. If you have aspirations to make more money, advance in your current job, or try something new, imagine how amazing it could feel if, only two years from now, you could have a degree and great career options.

ref:
http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_a_no_fail_career_in_just_two_years.html

Tech’s 10 worst entry-level jobs (USA)

• Tech’s ten worst entry-level jobs
• Online sales and operations account manager, Google
• Support engineer, Washington-Seattle, Amazon.com
• Content Acquisition Intern, IODA
• Customer support specialist, Fox Interactive, MySpace division
• Database administrator (temporary), Google, contracted through WorkforceLogic
• Support professional, product: Windows, Microsoft
• Executive admin to Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore
• Analyst, user operations, Facebook
• Operations finance, analyst intern, Yahoo
• Part-time guide, Mahalo

  Soon America’s most bright-eyed graduates will enter the workforce and make their workaday homes in cubes at Google, MySpace, or Amazon.com. And they will suffer not just the indignity of having to work for a living, but also the dispiriting realization that a job at a cool company isn’t always that hot. These employers, and the others hiring for tech’s 10 worst entry-level jobs, listed below, will look spiffy on a resume someday, but for now the only good these jobs promise the world is the pleasant feeling you and I can share knowing we’re not the ones stuck in them.In the spirit of full disclosure, I should note that I wouldn’t have been able to get any of these jobs out of college. I didn’t finish with a 3.8, do a year of service in Nicaragua or file any patents during my sophomore year. But the worst part of this list is the fact that the people taking these jobs did. To paraphrase Dan Lyons, there’s something distinctly evil about the way Google and the other companies listed below hoard the world’s best and brightest and put them to work on creating more efficient text ads or, worse, tasking them with taking phone calls from angry customers.

  Follow the link for each job to see a picture of their locations, a list of key responsibilities, first hand accounts of why each job is so bad and how much they pay.

  ref:
  http://valleywag.com/389746/techs-10-worst-entry+level-jobs

Globe Prepaid Mobile Services

Everybody TXT
send ETXT to 2868 free

Send UNLITXT to a Globe Prepaid
text UNLITXT<amount> <share a load PIN> send to 2+10digit mobile number

Disable share a load PIN
txt OFF<pin> send to 2916

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text GET<mother’s maiden name> send to 2916

Php 1/txt

Lamier-Soberano Family

Hello, Welcome! Today will likely be interesting beyond words, reminiscing our roots.  First let me introduce myself for the benefits of those who don’t know me.  I am Nilda, one of the daughters of Antonio Soberano and Consuelo Vinco.  I am married to Dr. Floro Resurrection, a native of Sta. Cruz, Laguna.  We have 4 children, 3 are married, and 8 beautiful grandchildren.  We are retired and travel between Kenneth Square, PA and Bacolod.

It is difficult and interesting but to be a historian is no easy job.  No written records to refer to most of what I am to relate is verbal recollection and testimony from 3rd generation Soberanos.  This may not be all in order so kindly bear with me.

Let me start with Lolo Bero, whose full name is SEVERO MILITAR SOBERANO. He originally came from Manduriao, Iloilo.  He was a peddler by trade, selling blankets, mosquito nets, mats, etc. He must be an adventurous fellow to travel so far away and end up in Valladolid, Negros Occidental.  His choice of Villadolid was considerably a good one for this is where he met our Lola Teding.  His honorable intentions were strongly opposed by Lola Teding’s mother so though he was heartbroken, he married a Lazarte lady, the mother of Tioy Ponso. Soon after  she died from complications of pregnancy.  Still with the love and strong desire for Lola Teding our young widower Lolo Bero, pursued and this time won her over.  Theirs is a lifetime union rearing a BIG family of 8 more boys and a girl.  There was no family planning and contraception was a figment of the imagination in those days.

Lola Teding played a key role in making Tioy Ponso feel like he was one of her sons.  Everyone addressed him as NONG PONSO.  A little about Lolo Bero.  He was a man of few words.  He was noted for being a hard core disciplinarian to his children and to some extent to this grand children.  His imposing presence was ende by his death in 1944 near the end of WW2.  He died in his sleep following a massive heart attack at the age of 74.

MATHILDE LAMIER

She is fondly known to all her APOS as LOLA TEDING.  She is a true native of Villadolid and some of her family background showed her to be the daughter of Mercedes Gualingo and Mr. Lamier.  She had a brother named Esteban who was a Civil Engineer and married to Lola Sinta.  There was a half brother by the name of Crispin.  Lola Tedings family was well off compared to the family of Lolo Bero.  My recollection of Lola Teding is that she was some lady, very frugal and simple in her ways; hard working and with a fantastic business sense.  How she juggled her family responsibilities and attend to her business is simple beyond me.  we can give credit to Lola Isid, Lola Tedings mother in helping raise her children.

It was  clear to see that Lola Teding and Lolo Bero were money oriented people.  It is hard work to wake up every day at 3:00 in the morning, on the road by 4:00 A.M to catch up market days in every neighboring town.  Through perseverance their hard work paid off.  Rice business became so profitable, enabling  them to build their own rice mill, acquire  a cargo truck, build a mansion like house and own a Ford automobile.  Their investments included hectares and hectares of landholdings or haciendas.  Money talked in their particular case.  Local folks in Valladolid held very good impression on the SOBERANOS.  Both also had a good heart for education.  Take tioy Ponso and Tioy Ditong, who got their medical degrees from the US. Tioy Ponso got his from the University of Chicago and Tioy Ditong from the University of Nebraska. 3rd son, Jose finished Law but did not live long enough to see the accomplishments of his children, 4th Raymundo who was a full-fledged lawyer. 5th is Amando who was a succesfull Civil Engineering. 6th is Antonio.  He was uninterested to further his studies but helped his parents a great deal with their business.  Lola Teding always said that he was the most handsome among her boys because he sure had a way with women. 7th Dolores who was the one and only daughter.  She became a Home Economics teacher. 8th is Silverio.  He is the one with Agriculture know-how. 9th is Severo Jr.  he was a Commerce Student.  10th is Leopoldo was a medical legacy to all of us.  She was 91 yrs old when she died in 1961.

-NILDA SOBERANO RESURECCION

ref:
http://www.bacolodcity.net/history.htm

Degrees That Gets You Sure-Fire Hires

8 Sure-Fire Hires: Degrees that Could Make Your Career Search a Snap

By Chloë Dowley

Do you really want to commit to a 4-year degree? While it can be intimidating to consider investing the time and money required to get a bachelor’s degree, choosing the right degree could make it well worth your effort. Information on the following 8 careers is based on current projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), whose data indicate that these occupations will experience more growth than any others through 2016. Spend the next four years preparing for one of the following professions, and your job search could be a breeze.

Computer Software Engineer

- Interested in math and computers? Embrace the nerd within while you learn to design, develop, test, and evaluate computer software and systems.Get the Degree: A program in software engineering or computer science can help you learn the networking and programming basics to hold your own in this high-tech career.
Happily Ever After: BLS expects a whopping 325,000 new jobs for computer software engineers through 2016. Better still, the 2006 median wages for these IT gurus ranged between $79,780 and $85,370, depending on field of specialization.

Accountant

- Tax season may be over, but the demand for number-crunching geniuses in this field should last for years.

Get the Degree: Study accounting or business to prepare for a career as an accountant.

Happily Ever After: Employment of accountants and auditors is expected to grow to the tune of 226,000 new jobs, and median annual earnings in this field were $54,630 in 2006.

Elementary Teacher

- Consider the potential perks of a career in teaching: a pet gerbil in your ‘office,’ mandatory recess every day, and at least twenty children who think you’re cool.

Get the Degree: Get your bachelor’s degree from an accredited teacher education program, in which you learn how to plan a curriculum and manage a classroom.

Happily Ever After: Between 2006 and 2016, the need for elementary teachers will increase by 209,000. You probably won’t get rich as a teacher but the summer vacations may be worth more than a six-figure salary.

Personal Financial Advisor

- Learn the ins and outs of tax laws, insurance, and investments to help your clients plan for retirement and finance their children’s educations.

Get the Degree: Because this profession requires skills in a range of subject matters, choose from degree programs in accounting, finance, economics, business, mathematics, or law to help prepare you for a job.

Happily Ever After: The BLS expects a need for 72,000 new personal financial advisors through 2016; median earnings were $66,120 in 2006.

Market Research Analyst

- Get inside the brains of consumers to help companies market their products using tools such as Internet and telephone surveys.

Get the Degree: Whether you get your degree in business, marketing, or psychology, make sure to follow a well-rounded course of study that includes mathematics, statistics, and economics.

Happily Ever After: Nearly 50,000 new market research analyst positions should become available between 2006 and 2016, with 2006 median annual wages of $58,820.

Computer Systems Analyst

- Keeping current with the ever-changing world of information technology, computer systems analysts help businesses and organizations find the right technologies to meet their needs.

Get the Degree: Analysts aspiring to work in the business world should get a degree in management information systems.

Happily Ever After: A growing dependence on eCommerce and Internet technologies is expected to lead to almost 150,000 new jobs for computer systems analysts. Starting offers for graduates in this field were close to $50,000 in 2006.

Securities, Commodities, Financial Services Sales Agents

- Watch out Wall Street! A career as a stock broker or investment banker can offer a fast-paced, intense work environment with the potential for financial rewards.

Get the Degree: A degree in finance, economics, business, or accounting provides the best preparation for a job in this field.

Happily Ever After: Nearly 80,000 new jobs are expected through 2016. Play your cards right and you could be earning six figures within a few years of graduation.

Financial Analyst

- Put your math skills to the test in this profession, working for banks, insurance companies, or securities firms to improve their bottom line.

Get the Degree: Choose from a bachelor’s degree in finance, business administration, accounting, statistics, or economics to prepare for the rigors of this career.

Happily Ever After: According to BLS data, 75,000 new financial analysts will be hired between 2006 and 2016, and the median salary in 2006 was $66,590.

Where Will You Be in 4 Years?

Four years may sound like a long time to devote to your education, but it’s really just a drop in the bucket compared to the lifetime you could spend in a financially and personally rewarding career. Make the investment in your future now with a mind-broadening and career-enhancing degree. You could be reaping the rewards for years to come.

ref:
http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_8_sure_fire_hires.html

Enabling Remote Desktop in XP Home

(This is a rather technical post so feel free to skip this if the title means nothing to you)

I had a dilemma last night. I was linked to this great article by someone in ArsTechnica’s #linux on setting up SeamlessRDP to my VMWare Windows XP installation to achieve an effect similar to VMware Fusion’s Unity on Mac OS X. The problem is that I soon found out that Remote Desktop is disabled in XP Home Edition, only to be enabled in XP Professional.

It took a lot of digging around but I was eventually able to figure out how to get this enabled. So here is my guide on how to enable Remote Desktop in Windows XP Home Edition. Just a heads up that this was important to me because of RDP’s ability to launch specific applications for seamless integration into my Linux desktop, if you don’t need this and just want a full desktop window, one of the free VNC solutions might be better for you (TightVNC seems popular).

The first thing is to trick the installation into thinking that it’s actually XP Pro. I found this information here. Before doing this it might be best to make sure your install is already set up with Service Pack 2, etc.

1. Navigate the Windows registry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet00X/Control/ProductOptions (where ControlSet00X is the one with the highest number) and delete the “ProductSuite” key.
2. Create a new DWORD key in this same folder called “Brand” and set it’s value to 0.
3. Reboot Windows. At startup mash F8 to bring up the boot options and choose “Last Known Good Configuration”.

After some hard disk churning you will be back to your welcome screen or desktop. You can then go to the System control panel and see that you now have a Professional Edition setup. This is great so far but unfortunately doesn’t actually install all those professional features.

Now I needed to get Remote Desktop to accept incoming connections.

I found this batch file on a forum post. It’s easy to follow; it basically creates a .reg file with the required keys, merges it, and does a reinstall of terminal services. After a reboot you should now see Terminal Services alive and well in the Services Administrative Tool. A “netstat -a” in the Command Prompt should show port 3389 as listening. At this point I was able to connect to my server but was getting disconnected immediately. After some more digging I found a replacement termsrv.dll that was actually from a Service Pack 2 beta but did the trick for me. Follow the instructions there or here (it must be replaced in safe mode). You might be interested in the registry edits mentioned in those posts as well for concurrent users.

I don’t know how much of this was necessary but after all this tinkering last night I am now able to Remote Desktop with success to my XP Home installation. Yay! One more thing… make sure you have a password associated with your Windows user!

ref:
http://www.geekport.com/2007/08/15/enabling-remote-desktop-in-xp-home/