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Small interface recommendations

Mac Forums - iPod touch

- 15 hours and 38 minutes ago

I'm the bass player in a blues band. We're currently recording a whole bunch of demos at home, the most professional way we can(qe don't have the money to go to a proper studio). We used a Phonic Firewire mixer to get 8-10 simultaneous tracks in Cubase (4 mics for drums, plus bass, 2 guitars, keyboard and a guide vocal, all in a Powerbook G4 15", Tiger 10.4.11, 1.5 GHz, 1.5 Gb RAM hooked up to a 500 Gb WD 7200 HDD in a FW800 LaCie Enclosure) and now we're overdubbing guitars, vocals and adding more keyboards and some effects. After several months of work, we're almost finished.

So, now I'm thinking of getting some equipment to mix the record at home. I'm the more computer-savvy of the band, so I will be doing pretty much everything. I just bough an old copy of Cubase Studio 4 in eBay to upgrade our software (Cubase 5 was too much for my powerbook) and it is now in the mail.

So, I want to buy a pair of small monitors and an audio interface. I have a boss drum machine and a keyboard at home, both with midi, so I need an interface that works with them. Also, I'm in Chile so there are not a lot of options in the market. EBay may be the answer to that, but it would only be justified from a price perspective in the more expensive equipment.

I have narrowed down my choices to the following: 1) PreSonus Firebox (US$400); 2) PreSonus Audiobox (US$200); 3) Fast Track Pro (US$300); 4) MBox 2 (US$500); 5) Firewire Audiophile (US$320) I also looked up the Apogee Duet (but no midi), Motu Ultralite (but here, it is US$1,000), and MBox Pro (but it is US$1,200). I also have Sennheiser HD595 headphones.

Monitors, I think I'm going to buy a pair of KRK VXT4 that I found used for US$500. I also checked up KRK RP5 (US$400 the pair). Remember, these are chilean prices so don't be surprised if you found them too high.

I have looked up reviews in the internet, but I have read so much and so different opiniones that I'm kind of confused. Any help deciding would be greatly appreciated.

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1,2,money,thinks,moneys

Gadget Deals Of The Day [Dealzmodo]

MacNN: iPhone dominates Japanese smartphone market

im making a fortune

iPhone dominates Japanese smartphone market

This is by far the most awesome thing I've ever heard.

CRASH DE L'A310 DE YEMENIA - Cérémonie à Marseille en mémoire des victimes

Apple iPhone dominates Japan smartphone market

CatGenie Litter Box: The Clean Fresh Smell of Civilization's Discontents [Review]

Gizmodo

- 18 hours and 5 minutes ago

Ever since the Egyptians invented zero, curmudgeons have argued that technology creates as many problems as it solves, but I've never encountered a product that does exactlythat, until now. I'm talking about a litter box.

We all know there are plenty of products that cause more problems than they solve. As a professional technologian, my job is to sift through innovations to see which ones make for an improved life, and which ones are too troublesome for their own good.

CatGenie—pardon the pun—gives me pause.

After spending a month with it, I declare that it is the perfect zero-sum innovation. Every single advancement comes with drawbacks. While my wife and I no longer suffer from any of the problems associated with a traditional litter box, we are beset with an abundance of unanticipated others.

CatGenie is one of these SkyMall-type gadgets that bills itself as the "World's Only Self-Flushing, Self-Washing Cat Box," tossing in, for good measure, a weighty promise: "Never touch, smell, or buy cat litter again." You install it easily by splicing the cold water line from underneath your toilet, running a waste tube up around the lip of the same toilet, and plugging the contraption into the wall. You pour in beads that resemble litter enough that cats get the idea, and you click in a replaceable cartridge of cleaning agent.

When the automatic cleaning cycle is engaged, a mechanical scooper removes the poo, and detergent-infused water floods the box and then drains, taking any trace of funk with it. The moistened beads are then blown dry, like Ron Burgundy's hair, as a sweet floral scent fills the bathroom and any adjacent living quarters. The crap in the toilet is easily flushed away, as long as you remember to do it.

Compared to the alternative of sifting out chunks from a litter box and tying them off in environmentally uncool plastic bags, this is a beautiful promise. Because of the automatic setup, there's no chance of getting punished by your cat for forgetting to clean a box frequently enough. Everything I described above happens exactly as billed. And even our dumb neurotic brother-and-sister act somehow figured out how to use it very early on. They weren't even intimidated by the swirling Sarlacc pit that it becomes during cleaning. My key initial fear turned out to be totally baseless.

So why does the thing make me yearn for the days of the scoopable Arm & Hammer, even though PetNovations Ltd says there are 82,940 households already enjoying this contraption?

When I first watched the cleaning cycle, with my gadget-lover's grin, I marveled at the swirling and churning and slooshing and clacking. I kept marveling for about 15 minutes, by which time my grin had soured, and I was looking at my watch. By minute 25 I stormed out of the bathroom in annoyance, came back at minute 35, shocked that the thing was still doing its business, and then returned again, sometime after it had stopped, roughly 40 minutes after it had begun. CatGenie recommends that for two cats, the process should run two to three times a day. That's two solid hours of cleaning cycle.

The installation is stupid simple, but you need to be within 8 feet of both a power jack and a toilet (or laundry water line and drain). If you think that's easy, stick your head in the bathroom—very few have power jacks anywhere near toilets, and I had to run my power cord up along the back of a sink. It's not a hazard, but it looks like Wilson's Amateur Home Improvement Show down there.

CatGenie is also massive. Its basin has about half the volume our cats are used to, but because of its wide surrounding lip and the tower of machinery, the system is probably 25% larger than a good-sized plastic litter box.

After a few days, we discovered an interesting characteristic of the non-toxic litter beads: They do not absorb odors. Right around 8:30 every morning, our big male cat, Wade, comes trotting up the stairs with a combination guilty/relieved look on his face, and soon after, we are engulfed in a sickening stink. Mind you, the cats' depository is an entire floor away down the stairs in the guest bathroom. Scooping the offending dung into the toilet would defeat the purpose of owning a robotic litter box. ("Never touch litter again," they promised.) My sole move is to, yep, run the damn machine.

Only the problem doesn't go away instantly. In fact, it gets worse before it gets better.

As the detergent floods the basin containing Wade's leavings, the whole thing becomes a savory poop stew. Even when we run the fan in the bathroom, the smell is unbearable for about 10 minutes, after which it disappears instantly, replaced by the machine's pleasant perfume.

I kept telling myself that these problems are just growing pains, things to get accustomed to. CatGenie is not as messy as a litter box. There's none of that residual ammonia smell that you can't get rid of permanently, and for the most part, none of the crusty extras that come from overzealous (or just misguided) burying. The plastic beads manage to find their way all over the house, and I am embarrassed to confess, our 1.5-year-old kid manages to stick one in her mouth about every two weeks, but they are non-toxic plastic beads after all, and nothing that can't be vacuumed up.

At least, I once told myself, there are no more plastic bags full of poop and urea headed out to some landfill. I read somewhere once that San Francisco had solved something like 90% of its trash problems, and that the remaining 10% was cat and dog poop in plastic bags. (Not the actual stats, btw.) At least by switching to a bagless litter system like this, I'm being environmentally kosher, right?

Not in the least.

During every cleaning cycle, CatGenie runs a built-in hair dryer over all the beads for about 20 minutes. I plugged in my Kill-a-Watt meter and discovered this demanded a constant and alarming 1160 watts of electricity. For up to an hour per day, I am running the equivalent of four large plasma TVs, just so I don't have to touch litter.

The costs start to mount. Besides the up-front $300 and the daily running of water and electricity, the $15 cartridge needs to be replaced every 60 cycles—that is, every 20 to 30 days. And the scatter-prone beads need to be replenished every three to six months, at $24 per carton. Like an inkjet printer, the maintenance costs continue forever, making the notion of buying a $7 box of Arm & Hammer every two weeks seem all the more reasonable.

Despite all these negatives, a great debate rages in my household: I would like to return to the olden ways of scoop and bag, and my wife says, "No." Her argument, a good one, is that the bathroom has never stayed cleaner. Guests have to step around an awfully large contraption, but at least "it doesn't feel like you're walking into a barn."

As Sigmund Freud once explained, moving from the wilderness to the towns didn't solve humankind's problems, it just swapped out the rustic difficulties for more urbane ones. His conclusion, though, was that while life still sucks, there's a reason we don't move back to caves. After experiencing a more civilized litter box, I can't revert to scooping poop, but I impatiently await the next evolutionary leap in cat sanitation. [Product Page]

In brief:
After cleaning it's amazingly fresh

Cats took to it almost from the start

Sounds like the TARDIS when it runs (could be a minus for some but not me)

Easy installation

Can run automatically up to four times per day

Empties into toilet that must be flushed

Non-toxic clean beads get all over house

Beads don't kill odor

It's huge and must be stationed near toilet and power plug

Self-cleaning cycle runs over 40 minutes, smelly at the start and hot at the end

Hot-air bead dryer demands 1160 watts of electricity for about 20 minutes

No way to stop cycle once it has started

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how tos,1,product,products,beings

Après Paris, Marseille rend hommage aux victimes de l'A310

Crash de Yemenia: cérémonie à Marseille en mémoire des victimes

A310: «Marseille est en deuil»

Beautiful, le nouveau Eminem.

SilverFast Ai Epson Scan 6.6.1r1 - Scanner and digital camera software. (Demo)

MacUpdate - Mac OS X

- 19 hours and 47 minutes ago

SilverFast Ai Epson Scan 6.6.1r1

SilverFast Ai Epson Scan award-winning scanner software sets a new standard for ease of control and sophistication for desktop scanners (film and flatbed). SilverFast Ai is high-end scanning and image optimization software from LaserSoft Imaging, a pioneer in desktop high-end imaging. SilverFast is now available for more than 300 scanners and digital cameras running under Mac (also OS-X) and Windows. SilverFast Ai is individually adapted to each supported scanner and therefore can get the very best out of each scanner. SilverFast Ai combines a very intuitive user interface with sophisticated and professional scanner and image controls. Beginners and professionals will appreciate the unique real-time controls and the intelligent automatic functions as well as the ability to manually adjust the image at any point.

Predictable color from the SilverFast Ai preview gives imaging and color reproduction a new dimension securing the correct workflow with the ScanPilot. The professional user can adjust any operation via numerical input and can precisely monitor the results using the integrated densitometer. SilverFast Ai enables any level of user to achieve brilliant results quickly !

SilverFast comes in three different flavors: as Stand-Alone Software with the SilverFast Launcher; as native Adobe Photoshop Plug-in or as universal TWAIN Module.

SilverFast 6 also has the Job Manager, a productivity function, so far only available as an option!

SilverFast Ai and SilverFast HDR are working in full 16 (48) bit mode and besides delivering uncorrected output into 48 bit HDR-format, also allows full 48 bit color-corrected output. Thus enabling the optimum throughput while securing maximum dynamic range!

SilverFast Ai Studio includes all of the well-known functions of Silverfast AI plus a many new, innovative tools. SilverFast Ai users can download the new SilverFast Ai Studio features as an upgrade for a reasonable price.
WHAT'S NEWVersion 6.6.1r1

Epson Perfection V 750 Pro: Added full support for the EPSON X970

Version 6.6r6:

Various NegaFix profiles optimized for better quaility

REQUIREMENTSMac OS X 10.3 or later, Supported Scanner.
DEVELOPERLaserSoft Imaging AG
DOWNLOADS9616
DOWNLOAD NOW (33.2 MB)
More information

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images,job,2,threes,6

SATA 150 vs 300 : activation et consommation

Lesenswert: Gründertipps, Web-Vorurteile, New Venture Capital Firm, Gründer-Weisheiten

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PSG / Rothen sifflé à la reprise

Emtec GBox : nettop sous Nvidia ION

Football : Le PSG reprend dans le calme sauf pour Rothen

L'Abominable Vérité avec Katherine Heigl de Grey's Anatomy

B.A. N°2 L'Abominable vérité (VF)

Union protest angers Tesco chief

Guardian Unlimited

- 23 hours and 40 minutes ago

Unions attack supermarket over treatment of agency workers in UK meat factories and labour relations at US Fresh & Easy chain

Tesco came under fire from union leaders on both sides of the Atlantic today in bad-tempered exchanges at its annual general meeting in Glasgow.

Unite, Britain's biggest union, and the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) of America used the meeting to attack the retailer over labour standards within its supply chain and stores. The UFCW went as far as to accuse Tesco of union-busting tactics, a charge the company hotly denied.

Unite's deputy general secretary, Jack Dromey, urged shareholders to support a resolution demanding better conditions for agency workers in meat factories that supply Tesco. Dromey said there was disturbing evidence of discrimination within the meat processing industry, and said Tesco was the "biggest and slowest" in addressing it.

As market leader, they had a duty to lead on this issue to avoid creating a division within society that could fuel racism, Dromey said.

Unite had claimed that the temporary workers, often from overseas, were paid less and treated worse than permanent staff, who were typically indigenous. But the union's resolution was voted down, with just 11% of votes in favour, after Britain's biggest supermarket argued that this is an industry issue not a Tesco one.

"It is important to reiterate this is not a question of labour relations within Tesco," said the chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy. "You have to accept that when we're talking about workers in other privately owned companies we've crossed a boundary."

UFCW director Michael Bride attacked Tesco over the way it entered the US market with its Fresh & Easy chain.

"Fresh & Easy has refused to engage with our team," said Bride, claiming that attempts to unionise staff at the stores had been blocked.

But Leahy hit back at this charge, saying: "Your union accused us of bad labour practices and tried to destroy our business before we'd even opened a shop or taken a dollar."

Referring to the company's relationship with the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers in the UK, he said: "We do work with unions."

Leahy told the UFCW: "Your deeds do not match your words. Your words are conciliatory, but your deeds are aggressive and seek to undermine our business."

Up to 50 Unite members protested outside the meeting at the SECC, calling for better conditions in UK meat supply chains. But 300 shareholders who attended the meeting were far more concerned about Tesco's attempt to change its share options scheme. Only 57% of shareholders supported a resolution to give some Tesco executives a three-year window to cash in their share options if they leave the company. Although the protest vote was not big enough to block the plan, it was a significant rebuke from major City institutions.

Riskmetrics, the investor advisory service, had asked shareholders to block the changes to Tesco's share options plan under which executives who leave because of injury, illness, disability, redundancy, retirement or a sale of the business have a year to exercise their options. The company argued that loyal workers were losing out because of stockmarket volatility, but Riskmetrics said creating such a long time-gap was "not in line with best practice recommendations".

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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company,michaels,sayings,threes,exercise

Il Land Rover S1 testato da un elefante: è davvero il telefono più resistente

La Suite De 300 Ressuscite Les Morts ?

Quand le VAIO P se fait cloner...

American economy destroyed 467,000 jobs in June

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