Biker|Geek

I’m a huge Van Halen fan, specifically Eddie Van Halen. I think this is a step in the right direction and let’s cross our fingers and hope a new tour is forth coming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20070121/tc_macworld/evh20070120_0

NAMM: Eddie Van Halen signs with Fender
Jim Dalrymple – MacCentral Sat Jan 20, 7:36 PM ET

Eddie Van Halen is one of the most influential guitar players to ever pick up the instrument and at a private event at the NAMM music show in Anaheim, Calif. last night, Van Halen took the stage with Fender executives to announce a new line of EVH guitars.

“We totally embraced all of his ideas,” Brian McDonald, Marketing Manager for Jackson Guitars, told Macworld. “He has a very clear idea of what he wants and we gave that to him.”

The new line of guitars is not just any Van Halen designed guitar — it is the legendary Frankenstein red and white stripped guitar that is synonymous with Van Halen. The replicas feature every nick and scratch that the original has, according to Fender.

McDonald explained that the very first replica was made using a photograph of the original — when they showed it to Eddie he was amazed at how good the guitar looked and played. Eddie then gave the original to them so the company could tweak the look a little. On the third model, Van Halen and Fender were finished — Eddie signed the back of that guitar and their relationship began.

The Frankenstein EVH replica will cost $25,000. Only 300 were made and according to McDonald, they were all sold within 15 minutes.

However, there is still a chance to own some Van Halen gear. Eddie also showcased a new line of EVH branded amps at the event last night that Fender will be selling. McDonald also said that more EVH products will be coming over time.

“Fender gets it,” said Van Halen. “This is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg.”

It is truly amazing what they can install Linux on these days. Over at http://www.psp-programming.com they have a post about putting uCLinux on a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). It’s not super pretty yet but I’m sure in no time at all they will have it working with desktop type applications running. A guy named Chris Mulhearn is the hacker that got things done you can find his site at: http://df38.dot5hosting.com/~remember/chris/ for more info.

I found this interesting in proving the fact that DRM is really useless and destined to fail.There is a quote from a TWIT Podcast that says: Trying to stop bits from being copied is like trying to keep water from being wet.

Muslix64, fresh from hammering down the walls of HD-DVD, applies the same technique to partially crack Blu-Ray disks. How long until the inner keep of high-def DRM comes tumbling down?

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With an improved editor, image uploader, security features, and more. Nice polish added to already great blogging software. It’s working great on this site so give it a try. http://wordpress.org/download/index.php

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The new year has brought a new release of the Knoppix Live CD. Along with the usual updates to application software, the most noticeable change in version 5.1.1 is the inclusion of the Beryl 3-D desktop with the Emerald theming engine. For anyone that wants to try Linux without actually having to install it on your PC first, I highly recommend this Linux distribution.

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