Music, one of the most understated and yet omnipresent part of our daily lifestyle. Music calms the mind, soothes the senses and lightens up life. Since ancient times, this form of art has been treated as a reverie, as cogitation, as a passion, no less than a way of life. It has the power to create and give strength in people in the direst of situation. Musicians have been time and again heralded as visionaries, and rightly so.

But again, music has been a form of art that has been most affected by the changing times and conditions. The evolution of the musical art form has been interminable in time. With each passing decade, technology has shaped and altered musical forms, creating new nuances and immortalizing the old.

Technology first started influencing music in the 1940s. Fresh out of World War II, the music of that era greatly depicted the widespread elation due to the end of the war, as well as the deep sorrow and agony at the huge losses to mankind. The advent of rock and roll, which included at that time jazz, country, folk, swing, and other types of music, was influenced greatly by the technology available at that time, both concerning instruments and recording techniques. Musical instruments such as the mandolin and the classic guitar were used by legendary artists and bands like Bill Haley and his comets. The saxophone was greatly utilized in the in-vogue style of Chicago blues. The electric guitar was brought into the mainstream in the late 1940s and early 1950s, then unknown that it was going to change the music industry forever. Since the recordings were done using microphones, tube valve amplifiers and 78-rpm discs cut by simple lathe machines (modern day discs have an rpm of 14,000 to 28,000), the sound quality of the discs available was less than modern day telephone voice quality. Thus, the leading bands and artists concentrated more on live performances and shows than on studio albums, which were recorded and aired on radio.

The music scene in the 1950s and 1960s saw a huge makeover owing to development in technologies. Amplification technologies led to the progress of the electric guitars, and when 19 year old Elvis Presley took up the heavily amplified electric guitar, it became a watershed point in the development of music. The 60s saw new electronics sounds coming in for pianos, guitars and percussions. The synthesizer was much easily available to new artists and this led to experimentation and development of styles such as R&B, blues and of course, the pop!

It was the 1970s which saw mainstream integration of music with technology. In 1970, Charles Wuorinen composed Time's Encomium, the first Pulitzer Prize winner for an entirely electronic composition. The German composers were much more adept at accepting and adopting electronically influenced music into the mainstream than their counterparts in the rest of the world. Extreme use of technology was considered dilation of music by musical purists, the attitude considered rebellious. The opposition to the Vietnam War in America and Asia led to breaking away of artists both on lyrical and instrumentation grounds, thus leading to a new wave of music and social activism, resulting in a new genre called rock. Through the decades of the 70s and 80s, the use of heavy guitars, bass guitars, and electronic drums formed the technologically based genres like metal, progressive and early-on punk rock, with bands like Pink Floyd leading the scene.

The era also saw the immensely popular genre of hip-hop coming up. With the invention of new gadgets like synthesizers, turntables, samplers, and personal computers, improvisation of music became much easier. The intertwining of music and the personal computer opened up a brand new avenue for musicians. Music composition and notation, sequencing, experimenting with and creating new sounds, and managing sound libraries all were accomplished faster and easier with the help of a personal computer. The Apply MIDI interface allowed easy connectivity of computers and electronic instruments. Disc jockeying became a mainstream profession as the ever popular disco carved its way into the minds and hearts of the masses.

Through the last two decades, we have witnessed numerous new genres which are purely technologically based, such as funk, electronic jazz, electro, trance and techno. Producers have become artists, and DJs rule entire genres. But the value of the artists who were on their own without technological help still remains true. Indian maestros like Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia have immortalized their respective instruments. Their sounds can be replicated electronically, but people still want to see their ageless idols showcasing their inimitable talent.

However, the acceptance of computers and technology changing music was slow to come. Bands like Metallica chose to perform for studio albums only after years of live shows and touring, as they believe being live was the ‘real stuff’. Even today, artists like Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, and bands like Bee gees and Dire Straits and so many more hold an irrevocable place in the hearts of all those who hear them, not just for the nostalgic value, but also for the appreciation of the pure talent that these legends possessed. Technological advancements don't turn poor musicians into great players. The distinct techniques and musical interpretations of great performers can't be recreated using technology. But technology can produce new musical effects and enhance the musical capabilities and possibilities of any musician. Millions of people wait years for their favorite musicians to come out with new songs and renditions. Songs which are created using manmade technological techniques, but which still hold some of the innermost parts of the human soul, to be cherished and celebrated in the lyrical form. To become immemorial.

Music has come a long way since Edison invented the phonogram in the 19th century, and the avenue is still expanding. Radio gave way to the television videos. Apple’s iTunes changed the way we acquired our music, ushering in a new era of digital music downloads. Music has changed with time and conditions. Today, technology is an inseparable and cohesive part of music, but music still remains what it always was: an art as integral a part of man as its own heart and soul.

Alienware definitely got heads turning at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2010 with its state of the art gaming netbook, Alienware M11X. The machine sports a 11.6” screen with maximum resolution of 720p, which means there is no Blu-ray here. It provides an option of switching between the integrated graphics card to the Nvidia GT335M on the fly. It can put out a battery life of 6 hours on the integrated card and 2 hours of intense gaming on the dedicated graphics memory. Performance figures provided seems pretty expensive, capable of hitting 6,000 to 7,000 figures in 3DMark and 30fps in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with all the bells and whistles turned on. It also features a Display Port and HDMI and the main component, an Nvidia GT335M, which should give you 9800GT performance.

Photographs courtesy Engadget

Computer and computer-related manufactures Dell Inc. has announced that it will soon enter the massively expanding cellular phone market. Dell plans to enter the Chinese and Brazilian market through its new Mini 3 series of smart phones. It has already signed a partnership deal with China Mobile, which serves over 500 million subscribers in China, and Claro, one of the largest mobile phone networks in Brazil. The move comes as a follow up to Dell’s strategic entry into mobile internet products. In early 2008, Dell was the first mobile PC manufacture to embed 3G technology into its netbooks.

The Mini 3 series will be based on the Android platform and its design reflects the elegant look of Dell’s design innovations.

Being an avid technology enthusiast, I grabbed a copy of Windows 7’s RC (Release Candidate) the day it was released to the MSDN users. I still do not agree with MS’s policies and ideologies (I converted to Linux years back), but that doesn’t prevent me from checking out their products and seeing for myself what they have been up to.

One fine December morning I embarked on the mission to get the new system installed, even though I had the copy of the OS lying around since almost a month. The only way I could figure out to install the OS was using a pen-drive, since my DVD reader was toast. As I soon realized, the difference between absolute brilliance and dumbness is very fine. One wrong step and you end up on the other side. It was the brilliant recipe for a debacle, having never loaded an OS using a pen-drive before. After a few minutes of research I came across this. 20 minutes later I had a bootable pen-drive. Took a deep breath and 20 minutes later I had a Windows 7 installation. Yay! Success at last.

Have been using it for about 20 days as I write this article and it seems like a pretty neat release. I hated XP to the core and am willing to take on anybody who supports it or thinks it was a good release. Vista was never bad for me and I still have no idea why people cribbed so much about it. It was a memory hog and there were a few nagging problems with it but MS has closed most of them with MS. Lets jump to the review part.

THE GOOD

UAC disable:

The user is finally the king when it comes to disabling User Account control. This was the biggest eyesore in Vista for me. It basically felt as if Miscrosoft was questioning my integrity as a PC user by constantly warning I was at risk even when I clearly new I wasn’t. Even after disabling it, a constant X showed up on my notifications bar to ensure I had it in the back of my mind, always! Custom options provided for the same makes life really easy in 7.

Resource friendly: Better boot up, down times

Some benchmarking tests present on the internet argue Windows 7 is at par with XP in resource management if not faster(Vista is obviously the looser here). I never had the guts to install XP on a personal PC after 2007 but I can ensure this is a very fast OS. Load times are very good and at just a tad slower than my Ubuntu install. Even after booting the system it remains very responsive.

All new Taskbar: To most it seemed like a rip off of the MAC OS X’s patented task bar but not to me. MS has maintained its individuality in designing it. It takes a bit of getting used to but there is a lot of space and option once you are done learning it. The control to pull up the Desktop has moved to the right of the taskbar which needs a bit of getting used to. UI (User Interface): Vista was a big step in terms of UI over XP. The scope for improvement therefore lay in the performance tweak which has been improved with Aero performing a lot better than before plus being a lesser memory hog. A number of new themes, wallpapers etc. shall keep users happy.

A new WordPad and Paint:

Ever since Windows 95 came out and to as recently as Vista, these two programs never witnessed any changes. They finally have. WordPad now looks like a scaled down version of MS Word 2007 and not like a up-scaled version of Notepad. Paint finally looks like a image editing software (although it isn’t anywhere even close to Photoshop, Corel or GIMP). Various other accessories like the calculator, sound recorder etcetera have been renovated to go with the refreshing look of 7.

THE BAD

Heavily Priced:

One of the perennial eyesore of Windows products makes its way into this release as well. The pricing is a big pain especially when you have just as good OSs like Ubuntu doing the same thing for free. Maybe a little less candy but can definitely doable considering the superbly high price tag of 7.

Endless flavors:

If you thought Vista with its 4 flavours(Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate) was a toughie to digest, hold on before you see what 7 has in store for you. 7 comes with no less than 6 flavors. Picking up the right flavor is a exhausting job. Plus the division of features points to MS’s intent at forcing you to buy the ultimate version which as the name suggests is the most expensive of them all.

Risk prone:

All Windows users are aware of the elusive term ‘computer virus’. If you think Windows 7 will wipe that off in any way then you couldn’t be more wrong. MS has added 10 odd programs like always to try and fight the problem but its roots like in the very basic architecture their OS are made on which is where the flaw lies. At the same time virus developers have evolved significantly and have acquired stealth capabilities which have been transferred to the programs they code. So get ready for a full on virus attack in case you do not protected well against it.

Steep Learning curve:

A little less significant but a point worth mentioning. Vista users wouldn’t be bothered much but this addresses those users who have held on to their 98, ME and XP systems all this long hoping to make a big jump. At first sight 7 might look very intimidating to them but nothing that cannot be fixed.

Conclusion:

In all as I mentioned earlier Windows 7 looks pretty impressive not just in looks but also usage. The Kernel version 6 has been finally come off age and delivered on most of the promises MS made regarding it a couple of years back. It is not a revolutionary product by any stretch of imagination since Vista did most of what 7 does. Its an evolutionary product. Thankfully MS agrees to this statement of mine as per their press releases and blog posts. It would be interesting to see if XP users finally garner the courage to shift to the bleeding edge of MS software as well how MS recovers from the Vista ‘debacle’. It would also be interesting to see the next generation of MS OS where they predict to move away from their registry system(not confirmed yet) which has served them so well since forever and ensured their hold over the OS market. Time for me to close this review and go some computing on Windows 7.