Posts (page 2)

The Mainframe: The Dinosaur That Wouldn't Die

http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Serv...

Touting its latest mainframe in a February 2008 press release, IBM asserted that the System z10 incorporates quad-core processors designed to be 50 percent faster than its System z9 predecessor, and is the equivalent of approximately 1,500 x86 servers with an 85 percent smaller footprint and energy costs.

I think mainframes will be around for quite some time.

What's your favorite Beatles song? Bonus points if you share it with us.

Rocky Racoon

The Beatles

Obama speech to students sparks new controversy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090904/a...

"I think it's really unfortunate that politics has been brought into this," White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning serio...

If I was a student, I would be excited to have the President make an address directly to me. It shows that he cares, he's concerned, and he truly wants the best for me.

I don't think there's any political agenda here. He's not trying to brainwash our kids. We do that ourselves with politics. Ask your kid about politics, and you'll likely get back exactly what you've told them. Especially the younger kids, the ones that listen to what you say (when they want to listen).

I hope that my school allows this to happen. I'm going to personally email my superintendent and let him know that I am in favor of this.

Wear Your Music Guitar String Jewelry

http://wearyourmusic.org/catalog/prod...

John Butler is the frontman of the John Butler Trio, a band that has achieved two platinum records in Australia with Three and Living 2001-2002. Their 2004 album Sunrise Over Sea debuted at number one on March 15, 2004 and shipped gold in its first week of release. Please note, all bracelets are custom made and take 2-3 weeks in production before shipping.

This is cool. Too bad there's no Pearl Jam representation. But I'd be okay with John Butler.
Try this link instead.

Pearl Jam cuts out the middleman with "Backspacer"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090901/m...

NEW YORK (Billboard) – "Super poppy." "Just plain fun." "Surprisingly optimistic." "Catchy as hell." These are not phrases often used to describe Pearl Jam, the 30 million-selling purveyor of angst-ridden guitar rock now approaching its 19th year of existence.

But Pearl Jam is also celebrating because it finally made good on a longstanding desire to release its music on its own, without the aid of a major label. "Backspacer" will come out September 20 in the United States through a creative patchwork of deals with physical and digital retailers, the most prominent of which is a one-off, big-box exclusive with Target. Internationally, Universal Music is the label for the release.

The Target partnership threw fans for a loop when the news leaked in June. At first glance the move seems at odds with a band whose DIY, fan-first business ethic has set it against corporate behemoths like Ticketmaster and AT&T. But as details began to emerge, it became clear that Pearl Jam struck a deal that rewards the band and its fans as much as it does the stores that sell its music.

I may just have to buy two copies of this - one from ten club and another from target!

As I witnessed over 14 years ago in Red Rocks, Colorado!

"Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay

Were laid spread out before me as her body once did

All five horizons revolved around her soul

As the earth to the sun

Now the air I tasted and breathed has taken a turn

Ooh, and all I taught her was everything

Ooh, I know she gave me all that she wore

And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds

Of what was everything

Oh, the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything...

I take a walk outside

I'm surrounded by some kids at play

I can feel their laughter, so why do I sear?

Oh, and twisted thoughts that spin round my head

I'm spinning, oh, I'm spinning

How quick the sun can, drop away

And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass

Of what was everything

All the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything

All the love gone bad turned my world to black

Tattooed all I see, all that I am, all I will be, yeah

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star

In somebody else's sky, but why, why, why

Can't it be, can't it be mine?"

This is awesome, directed by Cameron Crowe

The sound quality sucks, but the video is so cool! You can download it for free from iTunes.

Pearl Jam: 'People get that this means something' - GREAT interview/article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/...

Pearl Jam ... 'What's so hard about being in a band?' In the heart of Pearl Jam's Seattle HQ, their singer Eddie Vedder contemplates what it felt like to be one of the two people who were, to the wider public, the faces of grunge. The other was Ku...

This is one of THE best interviews/articles I've seen in some time on my favorite band. It hits on every reason whey I like them so much. And it doesn't just talk about Eddie, it talks about all of them, the whole band. I'm telling you to read every word of it.

A few quotes -

"One of the reasons you're protecting yourself is because you've been forthcoming with your emotions," he says. "So you have to build a wall. And now people are driving into the wall. That's what fucks with your head. I felt like my brain was a whore and I was getting mindfucked."

When I ask Vedder what he'd do if Pearl Jam ended tomorrow his reply is dramatic, pragmatic and defiant.

"I'd take my guitar with me."

"It Might Get Loud" - Jimmy Page, The Edge, Jack White documentary

http://www.salon.com/ent/critics_pick...

Davis Guggenheim's lively and affectionate documentary "It Might Get Loud" doesn't actually get that loud, considering it brings together three distinctive and generally quite noisy rock 'n' roll guitarists, Jimmy Page (the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin), ...

I'll have to look up some of the youtube videos for this when I get home later.
I sure this comes to a theater near me.