A while back I saw news of Google’s acquisition of @Last software (makers of the very cool SketchUp 3D software) and was amazed at how incredible and simple the product was (I was unaware of it prior to the acquisition story). Now, Google’s released a free version of it that’s pretty incredible (there’s also a ‘Pro’ version with more features / capabilities for $$ available).
It’s definitely worth a download.
Pretty amazing….. 1/4″ plug at one end and USB at the other. Plug one end into the guitar (or electronic keyboard ,etc..), the other into your computer, and you’re good to go - “..a ’smart’ USB cable that transmits audio via USB without a sound card.”
No mention of prices and the product docs mention some latency (sound lag) issues, but this may be worth a try.
[via Gizmodo]
Update: per Gizmodo, “It retails for 70 bones and will be available next month.”
http://www.soundtech.com/lightsnake/index.asp
My distant cousin, Pedro Tokarski from Brasilia, Brazil was kind enough to fill me in on how ‘Fenato’ (a gathering of some Tokarski’s in Brazil) went and gave me a pointer to a picture of the event (see above….also linked to Pedro’s Flickr photo).
Pedro:”Hi Tom! It’s Pedro Tokarski here! I saw your last post, and let me say where i live. I live in Brasilia. The FENATO was a sucess, we got more than one hundred of tokarski in Brasilia. That’s a low number because it’s a far city from where the most tokarski’s live. On previous editions of the festival, we got more than four hundred of tokarski in the same party! Great number right?…”
I received another message from Pedro this morning mentioning that another Fenato is going to happen in about two years time…..maybe this would be a great opportunity for a trip to meet in person?
Highlight: it was great to watch the multi-lap sparring match between Schumacher and Alonso - it was a reversal of last year’s race when Schumacher was dogging Alonso for lap after lap. Just like Alonso held him off last year for the win, Schumacher maintained composure and maintained his lead to the end of the race.Race Result:
1. M. Schumacher (Ferrari)
2. Alonso (Renault)
3. Montoya (McLaren Mercedes)
Next up: Grand Prix of Europe (Nurburgring) on 7-May… live on SpeedTV, pre-race @ 6:30 AM Central.
I heard a great piece on this morning’s ‘Morning Edition’ on NPR titled ‘Timeless’ Takes Hip-Hop Star to Brazil: “Brazilian Bossa Nova legend Sergio Mendes teams up with Black Eyed Peas front man Will.i.am to make hip-hop with a Brazilian flavor.”
One of my favorite lines was at the end of the interview when they recalled a time in the studio during which Mendes wanted to try another take even though Will.i.am thought the first shot was “perfect.” Mendes responded that he wanted to play the next take “more lazy”…. more effortless.
After years of sometimes being too tightly wound or wanting everything to be perfect, I’m going to work hard at playing things a bit “more lazy.”
CNN reports this morning that ‘Star Trek’ is set for an ‘08 revival. I’ve loved all of the installments (some more than others) and after Enterprise (the last TV series on UPN) was cancelled, I was disappointed that it may have signaled the end of the franchise.
The article states that the project (a new feature movie) will be directed by J.J. Abrams - who produced ‘Alias’ and ‘Lost’ - so I’m pretty excited about the quality potential of this new installment.
Hello to our Brazilian cousins! (sorry if the free internet translation above is not very good).
I’m still amazed at the occasional comments and messages we get via this site. In the last month, we received two comments from other Tokarski’s - both from Brazil: Simone Tokarski from Curitiba and Pedro Tokarski (he didn’t specify a town).
Simone: “Hello, my name is Simone and I’m Tokarski too… =) I’m 27 years old and live in Curitiba (Parana, Brazil). Kisses for you family =) =)”
Pedro:”Hello! I’m a Tokarski too, from brazil! My grandfather’s dad came to brazil after some kind of war or something like that! On 21 of april, we will have what we call FENATO, that is like Tokarski’s National Festival. That will group tokarski’s from all the country, a pretty beautiful party! :D”
Simone, Pedro, or any other of our ‘cousins’ out there - feel free to drop us a note at familia @ tokarski.com - and, if any of you are attending FENATO ….I’d love to see some pictures.
There’s nothing like being awakened early on a Sunday morning by a persistent woodpecker drumming on the furnace vent stack on our roof - a rapid-fire rat-a-tat-tat reverberating through the house via the furnace ducts.
I realize this little guy was probably using the unique acoustic characteristics of the roof vent stack to “attract mates or to establish and/or defend a territory,” but he’s lucky to be protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. I was quite eager to employ some “lethal control methods” this morning.
After two weeks of not going on my typical Sunday morning drive, I took advantage of the incredible weather this morning and got back into the routine.I followed my usual Barrington area drive course and the picture above is one of my favorite spots along the way…the red barn and blue silos (I had a little Photoshop fun with the pic above to make it more interesting and bring the file size down a bit …. “Filter>Stylize>Diffuse>Anisotropic Mode” ….. the original is here and another cooler shot of the red barn and blue silos is here).
This Sunny Spring Sunday was especially soothing since I took a bit of a break from my typical ‘long hair music’ driving sountrack and put on 98.7, WFMT, a Chicago-area classical station.
After a couple of failed, recent attempts at the local Blockbuster (movies that we wanted were all checked out), I got lucky and stumbled across Peter Jackson’s King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Allison and Emily loved Narnia (but it was a bit intense for Annie, our youngest) - Lupita and I thoroughly enjoyed Kong…. the nearly three hours didn’t seem like three.
Prior to watching it, I thought the girls could also watch Kong as well since it had a PG-13 rating. I’m glad I didn’t - especially after watching the nasty ‘insect’ scenes (Lupita’s still squirming over that).
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