Understanding Guitar

One Beginners’ Efforts

Check it out…

http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2008/G-L-Introduces-Tribute-Comanche-Electric-Guitar.html

That was my first thought. I have no other insight on this guitar.

A while back, I posted that I wanted a “Epiphone Les Paul Ultra-II Electric Guitar.” You can find that post here: http://www.understandingguitar.org/2008/05/01/i-want-one/

I wanted to share that I’ve stumbled upon some more information about the guitar. It appears that Harmony Central (I tend to follow their news) also has a section of their site dedicated to product reviews…

They have a ton of reviews of everything from guitar, to amps, to who knows what. Obviously, the first thing I wanted to check reviews for was the Les Paul Ultra-II. I found it rather easily within their pages.

The reviews are all positive, but there are only two reviews. I was hoping for a lot more. Still, the two reviews are both positive. Both reviews are not “Perfect 10s” indicating that the authors put some though in to the reviews, but both reviews average about 8.5 (out of 10).

You can find the reviews here: http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Epiphone/Les+Paul+Ultra-II/10/1

I wanted to wish all my readers a very Happy Earth day. I hope everyone ran or bicycled to work today…

I didn’t… But I also drive a hybrid or motorcycle everyday, which means I feel that I’m doing my part.

I also want to mention that I greatly respect what Laguna is doing… They are planting a tree for every guitar they make. That is pretty amazing. You can find more information at: http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2008/Laguna-Guitars-Launches-One-Guitar-One-Tree-Reforestation-Initiative-.html or http://www.playlaguna.com/conservation/index.cfm

I’ve been discussing with my wife whether or not to purchase a Mac Mini. The reason I’d like the computer is for Garage Band. Garage Band is an included application. It functions like a multi-track editor and song composition tool. It is neat, easy to use and just the ticket to help me evolve my Wife’s Song.

Additionally I recently got my hands on to an iPhone (I love the little thing) and Apple released the Software Development Kit (SDK)… I had some ideas on Guitar related applications that I could write for the iPhone. As some might know, professionally I’m a software developer, and I found out the hard way that you need an “Intel Based” Mac to utilize the SDK. I currently have all windows base machines for development or otherwise.

I became a windows developer because that is what I had access to. And let be honest, a majority of businesses use Windows over Mac for whatever reason. I’ve always developed for Windows and it is what I ended up specializing it.

Why do I share this at this time? Well, I recently learned that a Mac was the first computer to be hacked in a Hacker’s contest!

What is a hacker’s contest? A hacker’s contest, a term I just coined (maybe), is a contest that security companies (often) hold to “test” and learn about particular operating systems - mainly security vulnerabilities. Basically they pay prizes to people who can break in to a given system - in this case the prize was $10,000.00 (US).

This contest that I’m referring to used a Windows Vista, Linux (not sure which flavor) and a Mac OS X based computers. They, as always, invited participates to “hack away.” Of course when money is involved there are specific rules on routes that a given hacker can take.

For all the details see: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/03/27/Gone-in-2-minutes-Mac-gets-hacked-first-in-contest_1.html

Long story short, after relaxing the rules a bit on the 2nd day of the competition, the Mac was hacked within two minutes of that day’s contest start!

I just wanted to share this since I’ve been looking at getting a Mac for music production and now software development. I thought it was interesting.

Would this stop me from buying a Mac? No.

As a developer I know the complexity of software and I know companies like Apple and Microsoft are always struggling with themselves to add features without opening security holes. And when they do open a hole they plug it as fast as they reasonability can.

Besides, I wouldn’t be a target to a high-level computer hacker.