Feed: Beginning Guitar Lessons 8 - AggScore: 47.7

major_pentatonics_major_fun

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First I"m going to talk about the basic theory so that people will hopefully understand it, and then I"ll tab the patterns for those who just wanna ?play the tabs? and don"t actually care.

A pentatonic a scale pattern with 5 notes (hence the term penta). Ok, well we know an normal major scale (also know as a ionian scale) is made up of 8. For example:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

Ok so how we get a pentatonic scale from a major scale is by using the 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 notes of the scale. What does that mean"" Simple, count up starting from C. So C = 1, D = 2, E = 3, F = 4, G = 5, A = 6, B = 7, and C = octave or 8. Ok so now lets form the pentatonic we have 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 which is C D E G A. Not too hard is it"" Ok lets analyse it a bit further..

In between every note, there is a # or sharp. The only exception to this is E and B. What does this mean" Ok there are 8 notes: A, B, C, D, E, F and G and in between all of them except B and E there are sharps, so we have: A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G. Ok so moving up from an note to a sharp (like an A to an A#, or an A# to a B) is called a semitone. On your guitar it is basically moving up a fret.

Anyways we learn the number of semitones between each note so that we can come up with a general forumla to make pentatonics. Going back to the C D E G A we have between C and D two semitones (C -> C# = 1, C# to D = 2). Ok between D and E is 2 semitones (D -> D# =1, D# -> E = 2). Between E to G is 3 semitones (E -> F =1, F -> F# = 2, F# -> G = 3). And finally between G and A is 2 semitones (G -> G# = 1, G# ->A = 2). All of these give us a general formula:

R (or root note) + 2 semitones + 2 semitones + 3 semitones + 2 semitones = five notes in the pentatonic scale. (or R + 2 + 2 + 3 + 2). Lets use some examples:

R = A -> A + 2 semitones (A -> A# = 1, A# -> B = 2) = B.
B + 2 semitones (B -> C = 1, C -> C# = 2)= C#
C# + 3 semitones (C# -> D = 1, D -> D# = 2, D# -> E = 3) = E.
E + 2 semitones (E -> F = 1, F -> F# = 2).

So we get A B C# E F# for the A Major Pentatonic scale. So the scales are:

A B C# E F#
B C# D# F# G#
C D E G A
D E F# A B
E F# G# B C#
F G A C D
G A B D E

OK now we got through all of that (make sure you remember that, it is very important) we can tab them. What is really cool is that they all descend in a specific pattern down, which is universal (like the formula). This pattern looks like this:

e|| - | - | o | - | R |
b|| - | - | o | - | o |
g|| - | o | - | o | - |
d|| - | o | - | - | R |
a|| - | o | - | - | o |
E|| - | - | R | - | o |
^
Nut

Don't be scared off just yet! I'll explain. Each R or 0 represents where your finger must go on the fretboard. The R's are simply there to show you where the root note is so that you know where to start your improvisation (I'll explain this bit later). Ok this diagram is universal, so each point on the diagram can be anywhere on the fretboard, depending on where you want to start.

Basically it looks like this when you play: Lets say you want to descend in C (which is the 8th fret of the 6th string) it looks like this:

e|| - | - | 8 | - | 10 |
b|| - | - | 8 | - | 10 |
g|| - | 7 | - | 9 | - |
d|| - | 7 | - | - | 10 |
a|| - | 7 | - | - | 10 |
E|| - | - | 8 | - | 10 |

or in Tab form:

e|-------------------------8-10--------
B|--------------------8-10-------------
G|----------------7-9------------------
D|-----------7-10----------------------
A|------7-10---------------------------
E|-8-10--------------------------------

So you band is jamming in those three chords and they nodd and its your time to solo something. Ok so start with C so we can start at like the 10th fret on the 4th string. Descend the scale and play it back up. Then move down to the 12th fret on the 6th string which is an E, desend the scale and ascend it again. All that is just a simple form of improvisation. If you really want it to sound good, then you will be creative and do stuff like string skipping and hammerons, pulloffs, vibrato's.

Here is an example of a simple impro using no fancy techniques just descending the scale. It may not sound amazing but it still fits with the chords C E and G:

C E
e|--------------8-10-11-12-13-14-12------------------
B|---------8-10--------------------14-12-------------
G|-----7-9-------------------------------13-11-------
D|--10----------------------------------------14-11--
A|---------------------------------------------------
E|---------------------------------------------------

E G
e|-------------------------------13-15-15-15---------
B|-------------------------13-15-------------13-15---
G|----------------12-13-14---------------------------
D|-14-11-14-11-14------------------------------------
A|---------------------------------------------------
E|---------------------------------------------------

G
e|---------------------------------------------------
B|---------------------------------------------------
G|-14-12---------------------------------------------
D|-------15-12---------------------------------------
A|-------------15-12---------------------------------
E|-------------------15-12---------------------------

Pentatonic Majors sound good with metal, blues and even punk. Again its all about the way you decide to improvise it, I always end up making it sounds bluesy because that my style, but each for there own.

Ok so thats basically that. I will do a few more lessons based on this on pentatonic minors. It really really similair, and sounds really blues, and lots of metal.


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Guide To Sweep Picking

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Hello everybody. I didn't know what to write about, so I decided, "What the hell, I'll teach the masses about some tips that may help with their songwriting." However, as stated by the name, this isn't for lyric writing, but rather, for original riff writing. What is a riff? Well, simply put, it is either an arpeggio, chord or some other type of progression that is not a "lick." A lick is usually a two to three second lead piece, connected with other licks. Now that I've filled your brain with some guitar lingo, lets begin. The following are some ways to go about writing riffs.

1. Write through inspiration.
What the heck do I mean by this? I mean listen to a song you really like (or maybe just one that everybody else likes) and then grab your thunder - axe (the term I like to use meaning "guitar") and start playing something. Try not to look at the tab for the song though. Now, I want you to just play something, at either the same tempo and timing, start at the same starting note as the song (or something similar), play with the same feel or whatever you want. Just think of something from the song that you really like, and just sort of fool around until you get somewhere. My favorite approach with this method is starting in the same general area of the fretboard as a riff you really like. And yes, doing it this way means you will probably have to look at a tab, but you don't want to copy the song, so just simply glance at the tab, and then begin. Good riffs are something you have to fool around with to get good at. I'll give you some examples of riffs I have made that complement this approach (songs used for inspiration will be named first, then the artist, and then the description):

- Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns N' Roses) - one of my first and in many people's opinions, my best one, came from me starting at the twelfth fret area, and making an arpeggio riff with some distortion. Sounds sort of space-ish. This song was made when I was learning arpeggios.

- Black Dog (Led Zeppelin) - again, another riff where I started in the same area (technically known as "The Key" of a song), and created sort of a blues-ish, jazz-like riff, but still sounds very different from the original song. Not as fast paced as Black Dog, but a great riff none the less.

- Hotel California (The Eagles) - this riff was made from the "feel" of Hotel California, rather than using the same key, which in this song's case uses a capo at the fifth fret (the key of A). Great rock riff, that sounds as though people could dance to it.

Needless to say, this is quite a good approach to use. However, it works better when you are first starting out, or not so good, because:
1) It gives you something to practice to help "you" get better and;
2) You will learn techniques as you learn how to play, and you will practice them, and practice songs with them in it.
Thus you will make a song similar (maybe). Plus, you may not be able to play the song inspiring you anyway, so there will be no need to worry about copying, now will there? You don't have to be a begginer, but I find it easier to use this approach when you are.

2. The "Holes" Method.
I call this method the "Holes" method because it's like this. You make an original riff, or a riff of some kind, try to add to it, but it doesn't go with it, (thus you fall into a hole) but you still think it has potential (you come out of another hole). I have done this many times, although I don't plan to use any of the riffs I can remember. However, this method is powerful, because you are trying to make riffs for one song, and many of your failed attempts become riffs for other songs. One riff I tried to use to complete the "Black Dog" inspired song mentioned above, kind of went with it, but didn't. So now, if I want, I have another riff in my repretoire of original ones. So remember; you may want to keep those riffs that you thought were garbage, and make something of them. One major advantage to this method, is if you want to make an album with similar, but different sounding songs, that you want to define your "unchanging sound." Anyway, thats an idea.

3. "Open" up.
Use open notes in your songs, even when you are at the 15th fret, you may come up with something that can blow people out of the water, just by adding an open note or two. I have a couple good riffs that use open notes in them, and they sound great. Good for making more "evil" sounding songs. Eddie Van Halen uses lots of open notes in his soloing, so why not use them in your riffs?

4. Find your groove and favorite stuff.
Okay, now I'm sure that many people, like me, have a "favorite chord" that they just love. Whether it be the E minor, or the F diminished, you can find chords that you just love so much, and think, "Damn thats good. Lets make some tunes out of it." And thus, a dynasty will begin. Or at least, a whole new outlook on making your riffs. Take me for instance. I just love the a minor chord (preferabally the open one) because it sounds great, has many other places to go that are easily accessible (Asus, AMaj, A7, Am7 etc) and just overall appeals to my ear. I also like suspended chords in general, as they have that great tone that I find just right. Anyway, you can make great riffs, using just one chord letter. I made a very memorable riff, starting with our friend the A minor, and adding sevenths or what not. Not too many songs use a one chord type of riff, so it may be a good thing to check out.

5. Use unorthodox means.
Great riffs are just waiting to be unlocked. however, you may have to do some sneaky things to find them. You can try stretches that you can barely make, and make some good arpeggios out of them, or you can make some odd chords that you don't think exist (which, they do) or play with techniques or styles that you would never use. Experiment.

6. Let your fingers do the walking.
One of the best methods, is improvisinng. You don't even have to be good at improv, you just have to be playing. I have many great riffs made when I was talking to my friends, or watching tv. Just get relax, don't think about it and play. Just play. I can almost guarantee that one day, when you aren't thinking about what you are doing, you will come up with something that sparks your attention.

7. Unleash your emotion.
The most obvious method is to play what you feel. If you are feeling sad, play the guitar, and you will most likely come up with a sad riff. A great one to use (especially if your girlfriend/boyfriend breaks up with you; or better yet dumps you. Not trying to be a jerk, but it's the truth.

8. Conclusion.
To conclude, I just want to say that, these are just ideas that you may never have thought or overlooked. If you already knew about these, then all the power to you. I hope I have sparked your interest and influenced your composition skills at least a little bit. One thing I didn't mention is to try moving open chords to higher frets. You an make numerous original riffs like this. Anyway, don't give up; you'll find at least one good riff.


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Guitar Fitness The Key To Great Tone And Flency

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Have you ever wondered why good musicians can make a simple major scale sound great, yet when you do it yourself it sounds unmusical even though your guitar is in-tune and you're keeping reasonable time? Do you find that your muscles start to ache within no time at all when you adopt a good hand position in order to play a scale using the three-notes-per string method? Do you find yourself abandoning difficult, mentally and physically exhausting technical practice in favour of familiar, easy-come old tunes? If so, then you may need to put music to one side for a while and concentrate solely on fitness, i.e. a daily routine that will get you in shape ready to tackle those awkward scales and arpeggios.

The following exercises use fragmented chromatic and diatonic scale patterns and fingering permutations which are designed to developed the muscles needed for fluent movement around the freeboard. With strength comes flexibility; with flexibility comes relaxed movement. Only when you have acquired strength and agility will your phrases start to sound musical. This is because you will have better control over dynamics and tone production. True musicians can make almost anything sound great because they have a good command of these elements.

Chromatic Permutation Exercise

You"re probably familiar with the chromatic warm-up at the 5th fret. But have you considered playing all the fingering permutations? There are 24 permutations using the first, second, third and fourth fingers playing the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th frets respectively. Remember to maintain the same fingering for ascending and descending. Keep correct hand position throughout.

Perm.1
|------------------------
|------------------------
|------------------------
|----------------5-6-7-8- and so on up to the high E string
|--------5-6-7-8---------
|5-6-7-8-----------------

Descend using the same fingering:

|5-6-7-8---------
|--------5-6-7-8-
|---------------- and so on down to the low E string.
|----------------
|----------------
|----------------

Using the same principle demonstrated for Perm.1, go through all of the following perms.

P1. 5678 P2. 5687 P3. 5768 P4. 5786 P5. 5867 P6. 5876
P7. 6578 P8. 6587 P9. 6758 P10. 6785 P11. 6857 P12. 6875
I"m sure you can work out the remaining 12 perms.

Diatonic Permutation Exercises

Remember that this isn?t about memorizing scales. It?s about developing muscles. So instead of practicing scales in all positions, just practice the basic elements. If you analyze a three-notes-per-string major scale, you?ll find there are only three essential fragments;

1. Tone tone
2. Semitone tone
3. Tone semitone

A Major Scale:
|---------------Tone semitone>--7-9-10-|
|---------Tone semitone>-7-9-10--------|
|---Semitone-tone>-6-7-9---------------|
|------------6-7-9--

This rule applies to ALL major scales in ALL positions (provided it?s three notes at a time).

Tone Permutation Exercise

(use first second and fourth fingers to cover the 5th, 7th and 9th frets)

P.1
|------------------
|------------------
|------------------ and so on up to the high e string.
|------------5-7-9-
|------5-7-9-------
|5-7-9-------------

Use same fingering when descending:

|5-7-9-------------
|------5-7-9-------
|------------5-7-9- and so on down to the low E string.
|------------------
|------------------
|------------------

Now apply the fingering permutation principle.

P1. 579 P2. 597 P3. 759 P4. 795 P5. 957 P6. 975

Semitone Tone Permutation Exercise

(use first, second and fourth finger to cover 5th, 6th and 8th frets respectively)

Do the same as the above exercise with the following permutations.

P1. 568 P2. 586 P3. 658 P4. 685 P5. 856 P6. 865

Tone Semitone Permutation Exercise

(use first, third and fourth fingers to cover 5th, 7th and 8th frets respectively)

P1. 578 P2. 587 P3. 758 P4. 785 P5. 857 P6. 875

The tone semitone exercise can also be played using first, second and third fingers to cover 5th, 7th, and 8th frets respectively. This is a useful stretching exercise.

Arpegiated Exercises

The above chromatic and diatonic scale exercises can be spread across adjacent string to create arpegiated exercises. As with the major scale, most arpeggios contain basic elements which appear in the following examples.

Arpegiated Tone Exercise

(use same fingering as scale exercise)

P1. Ascending
|----------------------------------------9-5-----|
|----------------------------9-5-------7-----7---|
|----------------9-5-------7-----7---5---------9-|
|----9-5-------7-----7---5---------9-------------|
|--7-----7---5---------9-------------------------|
|5---------9-------------------------------------|

P1. Descending
|5---------9-------------------------------------|
|--7-----7---5---------9-------------------------|
|----9-5-------7-----7---5---------9-------------|
|----------------9-5-------7-----7---5---------9-|
|----------------------------9-5-------7-----7---|
|----------------------------------------9-5-----|

Now apply the arpegiated principle to ALL the previously described scale exercises.

Why This Is A Very Useful Exercise

If we arpegiate P6 of the tone semitone scale fragment (note the bracketed section)

|----------------------------------------5-8-----|
|----------------------------5-8-------7-----7---|
|-----------(----5)8-------7-----7---8---------5-|
|----5-8----(--7--)--7---8---------5-------------|
|--7-----7--(8----)----5-------------------------|
|8---------5-------------------------------------|

Now arpegiate P6 of the semitone tone scale fragment (note the bracketed section)

|-------------------------------------(--5-8)----|
|----------------------------5-8------(6----)6---|
|----------------5-8-------6-----6---8---------5-|
|----5-8-------6-----6---8---------5-------------|
|--6-----6---8---------5-------------------------|
|8---------5-------------------------------------|

Now put them together and we get a C shaped major arpeggio (F major triad):

|----------5-8-|
|--------6-----|
|------5-------|
|----7---------|
|--8-----------|
|--------------|

Now let?s take out the bracketed section of the P6 semitone tone arpeggio:

|----------------------------------------5-8-----|
|----------------------------5-8-------6-----6---|
|-----------(----5)8-------6-----6---8---------5-|
|----5-8----(--6--)--6---8---------5-------------|
|--6-----6--(8----)----5-------------------------|
|8---------5-------------------------------------|

And the bracketed section of P6 of the tone tone arpeggio:

|-------------------------------------(--5-9)----|
|----------------------------5-9------(7----)7---|
|----------------5-9-------7-----7---9---------5-|
|----5-9-------7-----7---9---------5-------------|
|--7-----7---9---------5-------------------------|
|9---------5-------------------------------------|

Now put them together and we get the C shaped minor arpeggio (F minor triad):

Note: the second fragment has been moved down a semitone but it?s the same pattern.

|----------4-8-|
|--------6-----|
|------5-------|
|----6---------|
|--8-----------|
|--------------|

There are thousands of arpeggios all over the freeboard but they all use a lot of the same shapes that are found in these exercises. That?s the beauty of boiling everything down into it?s basic elements and then just practicing those elements at the mid-point of the freeboard. It will stand you in great stead when you come to play scales and arpeggios anywhere on the guitar. Again, this is about getting shape! You can of course arpegiate the chromatic fragments using the same system as described for the diatonic scale. But be aware that doing so will create a much longer and more challenging set of exercises.

Rolling Technique

Some arpeggios will contain elements that wont appear in any of the previously described exercises.

Example of E shaped arpeggio at 5th fret (A major triad)
|---------(--5)9-|
|---------(5--)--|
|--------6-------|
|---(--7)--------|
|---(7--)--------|
|5-9-------------|

The bracketed elements are not covered by either the chromatic or diatonic exercises as they have two notes played consecutively on the same fret. To play these sections at speed requires a technique known as "rolling". Justin Sandercoe explains this technique far better than I could on a well-known video site.

After you?ve found out how to "roll", here?s an exercise designed to develop the technique:

Example 1:
|---------------------------------
|-------------------------------- and so on up to high e string.
|------------------------8-7-6-5-
|----------------5-6-7-8---------
|--------8-7-6-5----------------
|5-6-7-8-------------------------

Descending use same fingering:

|8-7-6-5--------------------------
|--------5-6-7-8----------------- and so on down to low E string.
|----------------8-7-6-5---------
|------------------------5-6-7-8-
|-------------------------------
|--------------------------------

Example 2:
|---------------------------------
|-------------------------------- and so on up to high e string.
|------------------------7-8-5-6-
|----------------6-5-8-7---------
|--------7-8-5-6----------------
|6-5-8-7-------------------------

Descending:
|7-8-5-6--------------------------
|--------6-5-8-7----------------- and so on down to low E string.
|----------------7-8-5-6---------
|------------------------6-5-8-7-
|-------------------------------
|--------------------------------

Motivation

Don?t expect too much too soon. Stay focused. Will you still be playing guitar in 10 years time? If so then why not set yourself a goal of 10,000 hours of disciplined technical development. That way if you have done 2 hours a day for a few weeks and you don?t see any notable results you can remind yourself that you have only covered about 50 or so hours out of 10.000! Stick at it. Work real hard to get through that initial pain barrier. Go to bed with a dull ache in your arm. But if you experience any bright, sharp shooting pain then STOP and rest up for a day or two. Use stretching and massaging before during and after exercising. If you don?t feel the benefit of stretching then you?re not pushing yourself hard enough! You should have a day off now and again anyway just to recuperate. If after a month or so you try some old tunes and you haven?t improved at all (in fact you may feel you?ve gone backwards) don"t panic! This is because these old tunes used old weak technique. A technique that you wont have been using for these exercises. Namely playing at an angle with your thumb resting on the top of the neck" comfortable but it wont developed true strength half as well as correct hand position over a prolonged period of time. Create your own exercises. When you find a weakness, analyze it and developed an exercise that homes in on it and turns it into a strength.

Work hard! Work smart!


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JASON BECKER

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"Dewa gitar paling berbakat yang ditimpa musibah"

Click for larger version Nama Lengkap: Jason Becker
Website Resmi: JasonBecker.com
Group Band Sebelumnya: David Lee Roth & Cacophony
Gitar: Hurricane & Carvin.
Tempat/Tgl Lahir: 22 July
Pengaruh: W.A. Mozart, Marty Friedman, Eddie Van Halen, Bob Dylan, Andreas Segovia dan Niccolo Paganini.
Keahlian: Classical, Sweep Arpeggio, Japanese Scale, Blues, Whammy Bar, dll.

Jason Becker adalah seorang anak ajaib yang mampu menguasai permainan gitar dengan sangat baik dalam waktu yang pendek (4 tahun) dan pada umur yang muda sekali: 16 tahun (1987). Jika Anda mendengar hasil karya besar Jason, Anda akan merasakan seolah-olah Mozart dan Bach hidup kembali dengan usia muda tersebut. Jason dapat dengan mudah menciptakan komposisi klasik yang sangat rumit (lebih rumit daripada karya Yngwie atau gitaris lainnya) dan memainkannya dengan sangat cepat dan bersih baik di electric guitar maupun gitar klasik (gitar bolong). Dari sekian banyak gitaris shredder, Jason Becker-lah yang terbaik dalam komposisi klasiknya.

Sayang sekali Tuhan tidak mengizinkan Jason bermain gitar lebih lama lagi, Jason harus kehilangan seluruh kemampuannya pada usia 19 tahun (1990) berhubung terjangkit penyakit ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis atau Lou Gehrig) yang menyebabkan Jason lumpuh total. Organ tubuh Jason mati tahun demi tahun, sampai kini Jason hanya sanggup menggerakkan matanya. Padahal beberapa tahun sebelumnya Jason masih mampu mengerakkan jari kirinya dan menulis lagu melalui komputer dan menghasilkan album "Perspective".

Rencananya Jason akan menulis lagu lagi dengan menggunakan teknologi komputer Macintosh, di mana Jason dapat menggerakkan mouse komputer dengan gerakan matanya. Mungkin inilah sejarahnya di mana seorang gitaris dapat menulis lagu dengan gerakan matanya. Dapat Anda bayangkan betapa berbakatnya Jason dan betapa tingginya semangat Jason dalam menulis karya musiknya!

Dari awal karirnya sampai saat ini keluarga Jason bukanlah dari keluarga yang mampu, sehingga sang ayah harus melukis dan menjual karya lukisannya untuk menanggung biaya perawatan Jason. Bagi Anda yang gemar akan permainan Jason, dapat menyumbangkan dana di JasonBecker.com.

Sejak Jason kecil, ayahnya adalah seorang penggemar Bob Dylan yang sangat mempengaruhi musik Jason. Ayah Jason dan paman Jason juga seorang pemain gitar klasik yang baik, sehingga Jason menguasai permainan klasik Segovia. Jason selalu bermain musik klasik, Jason memiliki buku 24 Caprice Niccolo Paganini dan selalu menggunakannya sebagai latihan.

Jason menerima acoustic/electric guitar Takamine pertama dari ayahnya pada usia 12 tahun, tampil untuk sekolah dia dan sekolah lainnya. Pada usia 13 tahun, guru sekolah Jason sangat kagum dengan permainan dan bakat Jason, kemudian memintanya untuk mempimpin sebuah Jazz Ensemble.

Tepat pada usia 14 tahun Jason menghabis semua waktunya untuk berlatih dan meramu komposisi musik dia sendiri. Waktu itu Jason juga sempat belajar teknik arpeggio yang dalam dengan Dave Creamer.

Pada usia 16 tahun, permainan dan teknik Jason telah mencapai tingkat yang sangat tinggi. Akhirnya Jason mencoba mengirim demo rekaman 45 menitnya ke produser Mike Varney (bos Shrapnel Records. Jason memainkan 2 karya Niccolo Paganini (klasik) dan 2 lagu blues. Sebagian besar dari rekaman tersebut hanyalah improvisasi di chord yang sederhana, tetapi Jason memainkan teknik counterpoint dengan menggunakan volume gitarnya. Menurut Jason teknik ini adalah ide yang konyol, tetapi justru Mike Varney menganggap itu adalah ide yang cemerlang.

Tidak lama setelah Mike Varney menemukan Marty Friedman di bar, Jason disuruh menghubungi Marty. Akhirnya Jason datang ke rumah Marty di San Fransisco dan bermain (nge-jam) setiap harinya. Mereka sangat banyak memainkan blues dan selalu memainkan harmoni yang manyatukan musik mereka berdua. Marty & Jason saling belajar satu sama lainnya.

Pada tahun itu juga Marty Friedman dan Jason Becker membentuk group band pertama mereka: "Cacophony" yang mengegerkan dunia gitaris shredder. Album pertama mereka adalah ?Speed Metal Symphony? dan album keduanya adalah ?Go Off!?. Anda dapat melihat betapa hebat kemampuan mereka memadukan kedua warna musik yang mereka miliki, Marty & Jason masih dapat saling mengiringi dan menjaga harmoni permainannya dalam kecepatan yang tinggi. Cacophony sendiri banyak membuat konser terutama di negara Jepang, Jason bahkan sempat mendemonstrasikan permainan dalam lagu "Eruption" (Van Halen) yang cukup sulit dengan menggunakan 1 tangan kiri dan tangan lainnya sambil memainkan yoyo!

Marty & Jason memang kompak, sebelum album ?Go Off!? diluncurkan, mereka juga merelease sepasang album solo: Jason Becker dengan solo album ?Perpetual Burn? dan Marty dengan solo album "Dragon"s Kiss?. Setelah menyelesaikan tour ?Go Off!?, Marty & Jason memutuskan untuk solo karir dan mencari band yang mangangkat nama mereka. Ketika ?David Lee Roth? (ex-Van Halen) memilih gitaris barunya, Jason memainkan sekian banyak lagu Van Halen dengan gaya dia sendiri seperti Hot For Teacher, Yankee Rose dan Skycraper (rekaman dapat didenger di website resmi JasonBacker.com).

Akhirnya Marty berhasil terpilih sebagai gitaris group band thrash yang bergengsi: "Megadeth" dan Jason sendiri berhasil terpilih sebagai gitaris ?David Lee Roth? (ex-Van Halen) menggantikan posisi gitaris besar: Steve Vai dan Eddie Van Halen. Mulai sejak itu nama Marty & Jason menjadi besar, berbagai majalah gitar terkemuka di USA seperti Guitar World, Guitar Practising Musician, Guitar Player dan lainnya memuji kemampuan bermain mereka.

Bersama David Lee Roth, Jason mengisi seluruh gitar utama di album ?A Little Ain?t Enough?. Jason semakin menjadi sorotan di dunia gitar dan mulai tour bersama group bandnya David Lee Roth. Pada saat berusia 19 tahun, Jason merekam lagu blues Bob Dylan ?Meet Me In The Morning?, tiba-tiba Jason merasakan tangan kanannya semakin melemah dan nyaris tidak dapat digerakkan. Akhirnya lagu blues ini dimainkan dengan whammy barnya tanpa menggunakan vibrato bending sama sekali.

Lemahnya tangan kanan Jason bahkan menyebabkan dia tidak dapat meneruskan tour bersama group bandnya David Lee Roth. Tidak disangkanya setelah dicheck, Jason terkena penyakit lumpuh ALS yang menyebabkan semua urat syaraf Jason berhenti berfungsi. Selama 6 tahun lebih Jason lumpuh sehingga tidak dapat memainkan gitarnya lagi, hanya jari kirinya yang dapat digerakkan. Jason tidak dapat berjalan, makan maupun berbicara.

Ternyata keajaiban Tuhan hadir, Jason yang sudah hampir lumpuh total tersebut berhasil menulis lagu berkat tangan kirinya yang masih dapat menggerakkan mouse komputer. Itu berarti Jason menulis lagu dengan pikirannya tanpa menyentuh gitar kesayangannya! Tak lama kemudian Jason mengeluarkan album solonya yang kedua berjudul "Perspective". Berhubung Jason sendiri tidak dapat memainkan gitarnya di album "Perspective" ini, maka permainan gitar Jason diganti oleh gitaris country rock yang cukup terkenal bernama ?Michael Lee Firkins? dibantu oleh teman-teman lainnya.

Walaupun pada album ini Jason hanya menulis dengan pikirannya bukan berarti hasil karyanya tidak berkualitas lagi. Anda bisa simak sendiri karya Jason yang sangat rumit di album ini dengan judul "Seranna" dan ?End Of The Beginning?. Setiap lagunya mencerminkan semangat (innerfire) Jason Becker untuk hidup/sembuh kembali. Dengan tegasnya Jason menuliskan di cover album keduanya "Perspective", bahwa penyakit ALS hanya dapat melumpuhkan organ tubuh dan suaranya tetapi tidak dapat melumpuhkan pikiran dan musiknya.

Tahun demi tahun telah berlalu, penyakit Jason semakin parah dan kini Jason hanya dapat menggerakkan bola matanya. Jason masih belum putus asa, ayah Jason memutuskan untuk menggunakan teknologi komputer Macintosh yang didesign khusus untuk orang cacat. Dengan menggunakan perangkat Macintosh ini, Jason dapat menggerakkan mouse komputer dengan gerakan matanya! Direncanakan album ketiganya akan ditulis dengan gerakan mata Jason.

Dapat Anda bayangkan betapa tingginya semangat Jason memperjuangkan musiknya. Banyak sekali gitaris terkenal seperti Eddie Van Halen, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, dll yang salut terhadap perjuangan Jason dan mengunjungi rumahnya. Akhirnya salah fans Jason mengajukan ide kepada Amy Becker (kakak ipar Jason) untuk membuat sebuah album tribute untuk Jason Becker. Ide ini ternyata berjalan dengan baik, keluarga Jason menghubungi perusahaan-perusahaan rekaman yang bersedia men-sponsorin rekaman ini dan gitaris-gitaris yang bersedia membantu project album tribute ini.

Dalam waktu 3 bulan, perusahaan rekaman ""Lion Music" menyetujuinya. Marty Friedman sebagai sahabat dan pasangan Jason dalam group band Cacophony menjadi gitaris pertama yang menyetujui ide album tribute ini.

Ternyata hasilnya di luar dugaan, artis-artis terkenal berikut ini bersedia membantu rekaman tribute ini secara sukarela: Eddie Van Halen, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert (ex-Mr.Big), Vinnie Moore, Kee Marcello (ex-Europe), Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Deep Purple), Neil Zaza, Anders Johansson (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen), Chris Poland (ex-Megadeth), Jeff Watson (ex-Night Ranger), Stephen Ross, James Byrd, Matt Bissonette, Mark Boals, Ron Thal, Joy Basu, Alex Masi, Lars Eric Mattsson, James Kottak, Ron Keel, Ted Poley, Stevie Salas, Jeff Pilson, ,Phantom Blue, dll.

Album tribute ini telah selesai dan akan diluncurkan pada hari ulang tahun Jason tgl 22 July 2001 ini. Album ini dapat diorder di website: ""Lion Music" dan video pembuatan album ini dapat ditonton di http://www.angelfire.com/hi4/overandover/Jason.html

Semua keuntungan yang diperoleh dari album tribute ini akan disumbangkan kepada keluarga Jason untuk biaya pengobatannya. Jason Becker memang sebuah legenda gitaris dan inspirasi murni untuk semua gitaris!


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The importance of practicing guitar with a metronome

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The importance of practicing guitar with a metronome by Tennyson Williams
Eventually there comes a time in a guitarist's life when he or she decides that it is necessary to clean things up a bit. I have seen so many guitar players work with sloppy riffs, and unsynchronized timings, until one day they make the "decision of precision".
1. The decision of precision and why it is important
You should understand that no matter how far you want to take your playing on the guitar, there is always room for cleanliness and finesse. If you are going to spend a lifetime playing the guitar, you might as well do it to the best of your capabilities.
The great invention that bestows perfect playing is none other than the metronome, and I strongly believe that a guitarist who does not work with one, at least every now and then, is wasting talent. We all have the ability to play at a phenomenal level, no matter the choice of music.
A metronome facilitates all speeds of guitar playing or music in general. If you plan on playing something slow - use a metronome. If you plan to work on something fast - use a metronome.
The biggest reason for this is simply the fact that when we practice, our hands tend to move a little faster than they are capable of. I can go a little further in that statement, by explaining that our hands tend to move faster than our minds.
Remember this, control over timing, speed, and fluid movement is determined by the brain. This is also why a lot of guitar players never move forward with their speed goals. They don't understand that its a 50/50. Fifty percent of precision and speed comes from the physical properties of the hands, like muscle memory, and the other fifty percent comes about by the mind's strength and focus. These two factors must always be working in unison, in order to make the best of your playing.
2. Training with a metronome
Working with a metronome is not hard, but at first it can seem a little boring. If you can stick with it consistently for a few days, you will start to notice a large amount of progress in your playing, and then the progress itself becomes a lot of fun.
A metronome is your best friend, because it tells you what's really going on. It works with you to clean up your playing and make great progress, as long as you are willing to work with it and not against it.
It reminds me of this program Quicken, which is used to manage your finances. Its amazing, because everyone who starts using it always comes back with the same response. "I had no idea that I was wasting so much money on useless things, and now that I see where my money is going - I can correct this for a better financial status!".
Though its and odd comparison, Quicken and a metronome both have something in common. They both can help you determine bad habits. In other words, they contain a lot of strange wisdom and help you to see the light.
No one can possibly progress in anything in life until they see what is holding them back.
If you really want to make great progress with a metronome, then here are some tips, and these tips can be applied to working with chords, or simply notes and other techniques.
a) Always start something new at an insanely slow amount of speed.
b) When you are working at this slow rate of speed, your objective is to establish perfect clarity with notes, chords, or other techniques.
c) Building a good foundation with a chord, chords, lick, riff, note, notes techniques, is the key to true progression. Speed should be in the back of your mind, as it will come naturally if you can play smoothly at increasing tempos.
d) Practice all things on the guitar with a different variation. If you can play one lick with strictly alternate picking, then work on that same lick with strictly legato. Play an exercise backwards, forwards, east and west.
e) Work with exercises in 4ths, 8ths, and 16ths, and do this at varying tempos. Remember, the more notes or pick strokes, the more you should decrease the tempo of the metronome.
f) Try practicing complete rhythms and chord structures with a metronome.
Conclusion and final advice
I have talked about for years the importance of keeping a practice journal. This is obvious, as you simply jot down your daily progress, in as much detail as you can muster.
However, there is something that needs to be said for this. I don't care how well you were doing the day before, when you get ready to start the next day's practice routine - you must slow things down.
Spend a good half hour going through all of your exercises at mind exasperatingly slow rates of speed. When you are doing this, be aware of the feelings inside your hands, especially the picking hand.
The best way that I can explain this to you is to have you imagine yourself getting into your car, on a cold winter's day. Let's pretend that you didn't take the time to let the car warm up first, and you instantly get started on down the highway.
Under these conditions, it is common for a car to have trouble getting past a speed of 50 miles per hour. The accelerator is stiff and stubborn, and you can literally feel and hear the engine's response. The motor simply is not ready to go beyond 50 mph. It hasn't woken up yet, but once it does, the accelerator loosens up considerably and the car smoothly moves ahead.
This is exactly how the hands function when you first start practicing. Keep this analogy in mind, because when your hands are ready to actually start practicing, you'll know it. On some days it takes a little longer for them to get warmed up, so be patient! don't push them when they are not ready to go. When they finally kick in - you'll know it, and you can actually start practicing for real and strive for progress.
If you can discipline yourself enough to always incorporate these factors into your training, then the world is yours!

About the Author
Tennyson Williams has been studying guitar for eight years, sixteen hours a day, and has studied many styles of music. He has recently written a guitar instructional book called The Essential Guide To Guitar Virtuosity that can be found at
http://www.guitarspeedsecret.com/
Thanks Tennyson Williams and Goarticles.com
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Learning Classical Guitar the Right Way

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Learning Classical Guitar the Right Way by Ben Dressen
Beginners can sometimes feel overwhelmed when they start learning classical guitar. The technique, sight reading, interpretation and the whole complexity of the experience can make one feel a bit anxious about what proper steps should be taken to gain visible results. It doesn't help that classical music as a whole conjures up images of snobbish people that aren't very interested in letting someone in their private circles.
Well, it's not like that at all. Learning classical guitar can be fun and rewarding if you keep in mind the things we will be discussing in this article. and no, it's not mandatory to wear your tuxedo, pull out a monocle and start speaking in a "highbrow" tone.
Jumping straight into complicated material is one of the biggest mistakes that beginners make and it leads only to frustration. Imagine for a second that you are trying to work on your car's engine with the blueprint in front of you. Now, if you have never taken an auto mechanic course and don't know much about how engines work you won't get very far. You might be able to figure out where certain parts are by looking at the blueprint but you'll have no idea what exactly they do and how you should fix them.
If your car engine would be your guitar playing, then your blueprints would be the sheet music. But there is another component that must be brought into the mix for things to work. Either take classical guitar lessons or teach yourself using a classical guitar method such as the one by Mateo Carcassi or Sagreras.
These books have been written in such a way as to gradually give you tangible results. Because they are method books, they teach the student in a progressive and correct way, and as a result you may find yourself tackling your favorite piece easily and with great results. They use exercises as well as "studies" (musical pieces devoted to teaching you a certain technique) to build your technical as well as interpretative skills. Besides teaching technique, methods also facilitate intimate knowledge of your instrument, which is just a fancy way of saying that you will know your guitar inside and out. But can you really teach yourself classical guitar? Yes, you can. Two of the greatest classical guitar players ever, Tarrega and Segovia, where self taught.
In the beginning it is a good idea to spend at least half of your practice time doing exercises. This will help you become more limber on the guitar and you will also see great progress in the pieces you're working on.
After you get a classical guitar method and you start working it, the next step is getting some material so you can build your repertoire. Pick carefully so that you balance your own personal taste with the level of the piece. In other words, the piece you choose should be one that you like and at the level that you can handle technically.
You may go to a gym wanting to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, however trying to weight lift 250 pounds when you can barely get 70 pounds off the ground isn't the way to do it. If you do attempt it, instead of bigger muscles you will probably end up in the hospital. It's the same thing that's happening when you attempt to play pieces that are way above your current level. Having said that, it should be noted that it's good to get pieces that challenge you a little bit. This makes you grow. You will have to use your good judgment as to what constitutes challenging. Just like getting a hernia isn't a muscle building technique, playing way above your level will only lead to failure and frustration.
Because of the nature of baroque music and of his compositions, Bach's works are extremely conducive towards gaining great balance and technique on the instrument. Therefore, any student would benefit immensely by learning from the master's material. Bach's pieces are also great for developing great tone and they are fun to play. For example: Prelude BWV999 (originally for lute), while incredibly beautiful in its sound is also great for working with the fretboard hand because it is based on a series of chord progressions combined with a loosely melodic bass line.
If you don't own a metronome, GET ONE! Learn to play slow and in time with it. This way you will form all the right reflexes and once you move the material up to speed the difference will be clear. Arguably, mastering rhythm with a metronome is an essential quality that will separate the amateur from the pro. To the people that may scoff at this and not understand the true importance of working with a metronome, think of it this way: imagine something as simple as a person walking across a hallway. If I ask you to describe them you would probably tell me what they looked like, what they had on and so forth. Now imagine another person walking across the hallway, but this guy is very shaky on his feet, he sometimes double steps, stumbles and flails his hands about trying to keep balance while walking. If I asked you to describe this guy, you'd probably tell me that he had a crazy walk, and he couldn't walk straight etc.. That would be the impression that would stick with you. Same with your rhythm skills. If you don't master them, people won't be able to remember or appreciate your playing because their attention will constantly be distracted by the tempo stumbling and bumbling about.
If you follow the steps noted above you will see great improvement in your overall classical guitar playing. Not only will this affect your playing but also your enjoyment of the instrument. As you follow this route you will see results and feel satisfaction. Like a veil being lifted, you will be able to see the path you must follow and pretty soon you will be tackling with great ease and elegance the piece that seemed so hard a while back. As always, if you need some advice as to the material you should be pursuing, or what book you should get, feel free to drop me a line.

About the Author
Ben Dressen has studied classical guitar>>http://www.rezzonator.com/, performed and taught in both Europe and the United States. He brings a wealth of information that is based both on classical principles that have stood the test of time and modern real-world techniques that give results. For an example of the Bach's Prelude
> http://www.rezzonator.com/ba.html Thanks Ben Dressen and http://www.goarticles.com/
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What happens after Blu-Ray

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Hello pals, and...hmm..(can't figure out the female counterpart...how about palette"),
We all the know about the blu-ray disc that's out now with its astounding storage capactity(n price :P) But this isn't all. There are still a few things round the corner that are expected to get bigger than your HDD(the present ones). Of course, I can't guarranty you about their prices, but these storage devices are making it large!
I've been around Wikipedia for a while looking for the future of these 'disc-storage' devices. And here's what I've found.I'm not writing the whole thing here, but an oveview sort of, mostly from wikipedia. You can go to the link I give at the bottom.
HVD
The Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) is an optical disc technology that may one day hold up to 3.9 terabytes (TB) of information, although the current maximum is 250GB. It employs a technique known as collinear holography, whereby two lasers, one red and one green, are collimated in a single beam. The green laser reads data encoded as laser interference fringes from a holographic layer near the top of the disc while the red laser is used as the reference beam and to read servo information from a regular CD-style aluminum layer near the bottom. Servo information is used to monitor the position of the read head over the disc, similar to the head, track, and sector information on a conventional hard disk drive. On a CD or DVD this servo information is interspersed amongst the data.
A dichroic mirror layer between the holographic data and the servo data reflects the green laser while letting the red laser pass through. This prevents interference from refraction of the green laser off the servo data pits and is an advance over past holographic storage media, which either experienced too much interference, or lacked the servo data entirely, making them incompatible with current CD and DVD drive technology. These discs have the capacity to hold up to 3.9 terabytes (TB) of information. The HVD also has a transfer rate of 1 Gbit/s (125 MB/s). Optware planned to release a 200 GB disc in early June 2006, and Maxell planned one for September 2006 with a capacity of 300 GB and transfer rate of 20 MB/s -- although HVD standards were approved and published on June 28, 2007, neither company has released an HVD as of January, 2009.
HVD is not the only technology in high-capacity, optical storage media. InPhase Technologies is developing a rival holographic format called Tapestry Media, which they claim will eventually store 1.6 TB with a data transfer rate of 120 MB/s, and several companies are developing TB-level discs based on 3D optical data storage technology. Such large optical storage capacities compete favorably with the Blu-ray Disc format. However, holographic drives are projected to initially cost around US$15,000, and a single disc around US$120"180, although prices are expected to fall steadily. The market for this format is not initially the common consumer, but enterprises with very large storage needs. 
More Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc
Protein Coated Disc
Protein-Coated Disc (PCD) is a theoretical optical disc technology currently being developed by Professor Venkatesan Renugopalakrishnan, formerly of Harvard Medical School and Florida International University. PCD would greatly increase storage over Holographic Versatile Disc optical disc systems. It involves coating a normal DVD with a special light-sensitive protein made from a genetically altered microbe, which would in principle allow storage of up to 50 Terabytes on one disc. Working with the Japanese NEC Corporation, Renugopalakrishnan's team created a prototype device and estimated in July, 2006 that a USB disk would be commercialised in 12 months and a DVD in 18 to 24 months. However, no further information has been forthcoming since that time.The technology uses the photosynthetic pigment bacteriorhodopsin created from bacteria.
So be careful, in a few years, your computer can catch some real virus!
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein-coated_disc

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Oh, well. It's high time I spoke about my 'Best of 2008'. It's almost a month since the new year has arrived, and already a number of events have occured, new lives entered the earth, some gone to the unknown worlds...
Well, here's my disclaimer: Not all that I shall speak about have released in 2008, but I've come across them in 2008.Starting with...
Books:Three Mistakes Of My Life-Chetan BhagatBrisingr-Christopher PaoliniAmulet of Samarkand-Jonathon StroudBourne Identity-Robert LudlumArtemis Fowl-Eoin Colfer
Runner Up: Bourne Identity :)Well, I wanted to read the books ever since I had since I had watched the movies. Robert Ludlum has done a real good job, keeping the reader at the edge as much as possible. Its tough to write even a chapter full of action, and one full trilogy of it is honestly good enough!
And the Best: Amulet of Samarkand..!!This is the best book I've read this year, undoubtedly. I've written the review, and you can check it out in my Blog-Archive. I suppose I don't have to link you guys there.
Movies:Dark NightLake HouseQuantum of SolaceRock On(hindi)Rab Ne...(Hindi)Race(Hindi)
Runner: Rock OnRock On is a really freaking offbeat movie, the best last year in terms of the change I wished to watch in Hindi films for a while. Also the best offbeat movie after Taare Zameen Par. There've been quite a few offbeat movies, but none to this extent.
Winner: Dark NightThis is the best movie I've watched in years, in fact! One of the movies that moved me and made me think, and enjoy every frame. 
Music:I've listened to many bands this year, mostly recommended by my friend, Klaus, and here are the nominees:Viva La Vida-ColdplayAmerican Idiot-Green DayMaster of Puppets-MetallicaOK Computer-Radiohead
Runner: Master of Puppets. As you'd have seen, I have been praising Master of Puppets for quite some time in my past blogs, but in the last few days of 2008, my charts underwent a change :)
Winner: Viva La Vida. This was an album that my friend suggested a few days before the new year, and the one which completely changed my outlook towards music. I started like this kind of music, the alternate rock after this. I tried OK Computer soon after, but probably I hadn't listened enough to like it. Well, my guitar lessons have taken a halt since my college timings have changed. I've bought three new books which I shall read after my present goals are reached. So review will come. As for my score, they were a big time lull, reaching 184 out of 450! Yeah, it's sad of course, but no student is stronger than one with no more marks to lose :P. I'm serious!
So let me carry on,till my next blog,
Cya,Templar AKA Sumanth

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Hot New Technology that will change Everything!

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Hello dudes and dudettes,
First and foremost, I wish all of you a very Happy New Year, since this my First-blog-of-the-year!Thinks are okay here, nothing much deserves to be spoken about. During my journeys across the web, there's lot much I've found, and here are of them. As the heading implies, these would be some of the greatest breakthroughs in the computing experiences. They're just round the corner...*coming soon*...
Memristor: A Groundbreaking New Circuit

Since the dawn of electronics, we've had only three types of circuit components--resistors, inductors, and capacitors. But in 1971, UC Berkeley researcher Leon Chua theorized the possibility of a fourth type of component, one that would be able to measure the flow of electric current: the memristor. Now, just 37 years later, Hewlett-Packard has built one.

What is it" As its name implies, the memristor can "remember" how much current has passed through it. And by alternating the amount of current that passes through it, a memristor can also become a one-element circuit component with unique properties. Most notably, it can save its electronic state even when the current is turned off, making it a great candidate to replace today's flash memory.

Memristors will theoretically be cheaper and far faster than flash memory, and allow far greater memory densities. They could also replace RAM chips as we know them, so that, after you turn off your computer, it will remember exactly what it was doing when you turn it back on, and return to work instantly. This lowering of cost and consolidating of components may lead to affordable, solid-state computers that fit in your pocket and run many times faster than today's PCs.

Someday the memristor could spawn a whole new type of computer, thanks to its ability to remember a range of electrical states rather than the simplistic "on" and "off" states that today's digital processors recognize. By working with a dynamic range of data states in an analog mode, memristor-based computers could be capable of far more complex tasks than just shuttling ones and zeroes around.

When is it coming" Researchers say that no real barrier prevents implementing the memristor in circuitry immediately. But it's up to the business side to push products through to commercial reality. Memristors made to replace flash memory (at a lower cost and lower power consumption) will likely appear first; HP's goal is to offer them by 2012. Beyond that, memristors will likely replace both DRAM and hard disks in the 2014-to-2016 time frame. As for memristor-based analog computers, that step may take 20-plus years. 

32-Core CPUs From Intel and AMD

8-core Intel and AMD CPUs are about to make their way onto desktop PCs everywhere. Next stop: 16 cores. Courtesy of Intel

If your CPU has only a single core, it's officially a dinosaur. In fact, quad-core computing is now commonplace; you can even get laptop computers with four cores today. But we're really just at the beginning of the core wars: Leadership in the CPU market will soon be decided by who has the most cores, not who has the fastest clock speed.

What is it? With the gigahertz race largely abandoned, both AMD and Intel are trying to pack more cores onto a die in order to continue to improve processing power and aid with multitasking operations. Miniaturizing chips further will be key to fitting these cores and other components into a limited space. Intel will roll out 32-nanometer processors (down from today's 45nm chips) in 2009.

When is it coming? Intel has been very good about sticking to its road map. A six-core CPU based on the Itanium design should be out imminently, when Intel then shifts focus to a brand-new architecture called Nehalem, to be marketed as Core i7. Core i7 will feature up to eight cores, with eight-core systems available in 2009 or 2010. (And an eight-core AMD project called Montreal is reportedly on tap for 2009.)

After that, the timeline gets fuzzy. Intel reportedly canceled a 32-core project called Keifer, slated for 2010, possibly because of its complexity (the company won't confirm this, though). That many cores requires a new way of dealing with memory; apparently you can't have 32 brains pulling out of one central pool of RAM. But we still expect cores to proliferate when the kinks are ironed out: 16 cores by 2011 or 2012 is plausible (when transistors are predicted to drop again in size to 22nm), with 32 cores by 2013 or 2014 easily within reach. Intel says "hundreds" of cores may come even farther down the line. 

USB 3.0 Speeds Up Performance on External Devices

The USB connector has been one of the greatest success stories in the history of computing, with more than 2 billion USB-connected devices sold to date. But in an age of terabyte hard drives, the once-cool throughput of 480 megabits per second that a USB 2.0 device can realistically provide just doesn't cut it any longer.

What is it? USB 3.0 (aka "SuperSpeed USB") promises to increase performance by a factor of 10, pushing the theoretical maximum throughput of the connector all the way up to 4.8 gigabits per second, or processing roughly the equivalent of an entire CD-R disc every second. USB 3.0 devices will use a slightly different connector, but USB 3.0 ports are expected to be backward-compatible with current USB plugs, and vice versa. USB 3.0 should also greatly enhance the power efficiency of USB devices, while increasing the juice (nearly one full amp, up from 0.1 amps) available to them. That means faster charging times for your iPod--and probably even more bizarre USB-connected gear like the toy rocket launchers and beverage coolers that have been festooning people's desks.

When is it coming? The USB 3.0 spec is nearly finished, with consumer gear now predicted to come in 2010. Meanwhile, a host of competing high-speed plugs--DisplayPort, eSATA, and HDMI--will soon become commonplace on PCs, driven largely by the onset of high-def video. Even FireWire is looking at an imminent upgrade of up to 3.2 gbps performance. The port proliferation may make for a baffling landscape on the back of a new PC, but you will at least have plenty of high-performance options for hooking up peripherals. 

Google's Desktop OS

The independently created gOS Linux is built around Google Web apps. Is this a model for a future Google PC OS?

In case you haven't noticed, Google now has its well-funded mitts on just about every aspect of computing. From Web browsers to cell phones, soon you'll be able to spend all day in the Googleverse and never have to leave. Will Google make the jump to building its own PC operating system next?

What is it" It's everything, or so it seems. Google Checkout provides an alternative to PayPal. Street View is well on its way to taking a picture of every house on every street in the United States. And the fun is just starting: Google's early-beta Chrome browser earned a 1 percent market share in the first 24 hours of its existence. Android, Google's cell phone operating system, is hitting handsets as you read this, becoming the first credible challenger to the iPhone among sophisticated customers.

When is it coming" Though Google seems to have covered everything, many observers believe that logically it will next attempt to attack one very big part of the software market: the operating system.

The Chrome browser is the first toe Google has dipped into these waters. While a browser is how users interact with most of Google's products, making the underlying operating system somewhat irrelevant, Chrome nevertheless needs an OS to operate.

To make Microsoft irrelevant, though, Google would have to work its way through a minefield of device drivers, and even then the result wouldn't be a good solution for people who have specialized application needs, particularly most business users. But a simple Google OS--perhaps one that's basically a customized Linux distribution--combined with cheap hardware could be something that changes the PC landscape in ways that smaller players who have toyed with open-source OSs so far haven't been quite able to do.

Check back in 2011, and take a look at the not-affiliated-with-Google gOS, thinkgos in the meantime. 

And now, looking back....really back, far behind...

25 Years of our Predictions:

Our Greatest Hits

Predicting the future isn't easy. Sometimes PC World has been right on the money. At other times, we've missed it by a mile. Here are three predictions we made that were eerily prescient--and three where we may have been a bit too optimistic.

1983 What we said: "The mouse will bask in the computer world limelight... Like the joystick before it, though, the mouse will fade someday into familiarity."

We hit that one out of the park. Mice are so commonplace that they're practically disposable.

1984 What we said: "Microsoft Windows should have a lasting effect on the entire personal computer industry."

"Lasting" was an understatement. Windows has now amassed for Microsoft total revenues in the tens of billions of dollars and is so ubiquitous and influential that it has been almost perpetually embroiled in one lawsuit or another, usually involving charges of monopoly or of trademark and patent infringements.

1988 What we said:"In the future you'll have this little box containing all your files and programs... It's very likely that eventually people will always carry their data with them."

For most people, that little box is now also their MP3 player or cell phone.

And Biggest Misses

1987 What we said: "When you walk into an office in 1998, the PC will sense your presence, switch itself on, and promptly deliver your overnight e-mail, sorted in order of importance."

When we arrive in our office, the computer ignores us, slowly delivers the overnight e-mail, and puts all the spam on top.

1994 What we said: "Within five years... batteries that last a year, like watch batteries today, will power [PDAs]."

Perhaps our biggest whiff of all time. Not only do these superbatteries not exist (nor are they even remotely in sight), but PDAs are pretty much dead too.

2000 What we said: We wrote about future "computers that pay attention to you, sensing where you are, what you're doing, and even what your vital signs are... Products incorporating this kind of technology...could hit the market within a year."

While many devices now feature -sensing hardware, such a PC has yet to come to pass. And frankly, we'd be glad to be wrong about this one. 

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That's it then!

I'm presently reading Golem's Eye, as I've mentioned in the reply-comment of my previous blog...and also listening to Viva La Vida, by Coldplay, which was a New Year's gift from my pal, Klaus. The guitar lessons are going on smoothly, only giving blisters on my fingertips...but its all in the game..!

Keep your comments pouring in, 

Till my next post,

Cya

Templar AKA Sumanth

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Review Blog: Two pentacles drawn, and a nice story enclosed in between!

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Hello dudes and dudettes,Time's not so good here, but tolerable. Had an eventful fortnight. Had gone to watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi on christmas, which I just didn't like. Otherwise I had caught a really annoying cold which hung over for a few days. I also wrote the FIITJEE TALENT REWARD EXAM on this twenty-eighth, where I totally flunked, the questions from outside our completed syllabus, thus brains.Apart from that, we've been having seven-working-day weeks here at our college and things are kind of driving me insane, when a book showed up. A friend of mine recommended it and it did help me a lot, apart from my guitar lessons and regular SMSes...The books good, the story's even better...and I liked it the most!

REVIEW: THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND


Name: The Amulet of Samarkand, Book 1 Bartimaeus TrilogyGenre: Fantasy, FictionAuthor: Jonathon Stroud
**This novel is basically the first book of The Bartimaeus Trilogy.The book is an excellent piece of imagination with everything that one would look for in a fantasy novel, also sync-ing it with the present day scenario smoothly. The book starts with the summoning of a djinni(pronounced as jinni) by a twelve year old boy, Nathaniel. The purpose: To Steal the Amulet the Samarkand from Simon Lovelace.It's a little abrupt beginning, but the subsequent few chapters answer every question as of why such an event took place at all. Thus giving a proper shape to the story, in a nice fashion that I haven't seen in other books. The story on the whole involves two storylines: Nathaniel's and Bartimaeus's. Nathaniel is described in third person view, while Barmiaeus himself tells the story for his part. For most part of the book Bartimaeus draws your attention toward him by his really funny, witty and sarcastic footnotes. These footnotes are the very essence of the book. They have many definitions, comments on a few events and a few jovial disclaimers regarding what Bartimaeus is doing.Then there is Aurthur Underwood and his wife Martha who bring up Nathaniel in a master-apprentice relationship, since Nathaniel's parents sold him to the ministry during his childhood, much to his discomfort.The "villain" of the book is Simon Lovelace. Nathaniel striked him with the simple virtue of taking a revenge for Simon had once insulted, and humiliated Nathaniel in the public. But the story takes an amazing twist and things take a bigger prespective,finally in the end, Nathaniel wins, and also saves the Government in the process.
My Rating
Story-4/5Well, the story of the book is spread across actually just one week, but the flash-backs and other nostalgic events take about the first hundred pages of the book, which is interesting, but gets you impatient, since nothing happens subsequent to the first chapter! Otherwise, I also noticed few really good twists, and a nice end. The story begins with Nathaniel summoning Bartimaeus, and ends with him dismissing it(him).
Characters-4/5Not many characters are much described in this book. The main ones for most of the book are Nathaniel, Bartimaeus and Lovelace. Underwood has some role, but not much significant. While Lovelace and Nathaniel are portrayed as highly ambitious and determined people, not bothering about breaking(forget about bending) a few rules. But, on a contrary, Bartimaeus is a really genial character who seems to have opinions on almost everything, and puts in the most humorous way I've ever seen, which adds a lot of individuality to him, though he is just a djinni, a demon summoned for a purpose, and then later dismissed. As my friend pointed out, Saphira has comparitively less of an individuality, but her presence is completely different. She has a different role, though.
Setting-3/5Well, all this takes place in present day London, where magicians have cars, live in houses, work in the Parliament, go for vacations...everything is normal. It's just like if the Harry Potter World gets filled with muggle-born people, you can say. But the author gives the whole place a different look. Alomost every street is guarded by 'search spheres' just like cameras, and there are magic-policemen who go about patroling day and night. It makes the story interesting, and the reader more curious. This is one really innovative approach of this book, because most novels of the fantasy genre tend to be old fashioned, including Harry Potter. But too much of these things also get a little boring in between...but not much of this boring stuff exists in the book.
Plot-3.5/5The plot is really good, but its a little movie-like, where the protagonist seeks to satisfy his personal vengence or the like, and later ending up in a bigger conspiracy. It's how many movies are made, and books too. But the end of the book, and the way Jonathon put together different threads to make one single and a little complex plot was really good...where one could not think of alternatives for what the characters would have to do, thus giving a proper path to the whole story.
Description -4.5/5Amulet of Samarkand is excellently described. Especially the end, where the actual action takes place. The description of the Heldham Hall, where the confrontation takes place is very well described, along with the humorous footnotes from Bartimaeus! But at some places, the description gets boring, whre Jonathon tells how ornately a place is decorated, or how good or bad someone's feeling. 'Someone' excludes Bartimaeus of course! Bartimaeus is fun, really!
Concept-5/5For the first time, I've read a fantasy book, where the parents of the protagonist are NOT dead! They actually sell him off to his new master. The master himself is very obstinate and self-made, but his wife, Martha acquires a soft corner in Nathaniel's heart. Otherwise, there are fewer spells, but more of demons and there is actually a kind of technology behind even the demon and their related stuff. For example, one has to draw a meticulously accurate pentacle, with the constraints he wants to set upon, while summoning his demon. Nathaniel is mentioned practicing these drawings. The concept of things like summoning horn, the Amulet itself and other magical objects and things are really good, especially when Bartimaeus talkes about it.
End Note:


At the bottomline, Jonathon has created an excellent piece, along with its sequels, The Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate. The entire trilogy revolves around ancient British Emperor, Gladstone, and his staff. The book clearly portrays all emotions, in the right way, at the right time. Unlike Brisingr, where the characters were stoic to some extent, the guys are full of life here and Jonathon has made them do their best. It also emphasizes the point that nothing should be done impulsively, but with a second thought of its very purpose. This is one of the most important lessons for life that one can derive, and it's what will help us during our time of real freedom, which comes all of a sudden, when we get independent.


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On Gaming, and Review:Philips GoGear

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Hello dudes and dudettes,
This is literally an unexpected blog post for me as I had some extra free time due to a lst minute announcement of a holiday. This holiday was declared due to a 'bandh' - an informal, unofficial curfew declared by political parties in protest of something. The something may range from highly trivial to an astounding cause - and thus I got some time to say a 'hello' to my computer after a couple of days!
Well, the past days were uneventful except for my major step in my guitar lessons. I have nearly learnt all the basic chords, and if I get perfect with it, my teacher/coach has promised me that he would start with 'Hotel California' by Eagles next week. I'm kind of excited about this since I really love that song!
Seeing nothing more important to talk of, this time I stick to the true name of my blog and shall talk about a few interesting pages. I actually gain nothing by linking to them, but for spreading information to people who are ignorant of the existance of such pages. 
So, here we go,
The first one is gonna' interest some of you 'cause it's all about gaming. For guys still at the high school, or college: Now, would you like an XBox or a PS3 which a HDTV all set for gaming, installed in your office, available anytime? Well, that's what blokes out there intend to do. Here is a page regarding the pros and cons,(most are the pros, fortunately) on gaming in office, and how it seemingly increases the productivity of the employees.
Here's the link, http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/155284/does_gaming_at_work_improve_productivity.html
There is space for comments there, but w.r.t spreading the awareness, you guys owe me a comment! :P
The next one is a little bit serious(than the previous one.)Well, I just can't seem to find anything to write without putting up the whole matter here. So to avoid the gross deed of plagiarism, I'll just quote the first intorductive paragraph, which may probably explain a little. Anyways, its about the future about The Earth, and, indirectly, humanity.
"First there is the case put forward in 2003 by astrophysicist Donald Brownlee and palaeontologist Peter Ward in their absorbing book The Life and Death of Planet Earth, that biological existence here has only another 500 million years left - at an optimistic best. The processes which over the next 7 billion years will incrementally scorch the Earth, dry up the oceans, and finally engulf the planet within the immense advancing orb of the dying sun, will long before that have extinguished all living things..."

More here:http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026866.400-commentary-insights-we-must-never-forget.html

Do read and keep comments pouring in!

REVIEW: PHILIPS GoGear
Well, I've been using a Philips GoGear since quite sometime, people who reguarly read about my music interests would know about it. Now, since I've got some extra time, I feel like reviewing it. My brother's got an iPod Nano, which is actually worth not is cost, and I got a chance to use my cousin's Creative ZEN, a few things I shall use for comparison.
Design : 
The Philips GoGear looks great. It is nice and slim, not of course as slim as the nano, but sufficiently slim to fit into any pocket you care to name. The front is made of a piano black finish black which is not as scratch-prone as you may think. It doesn't even attract nearly as many fingerprints as say, the PSP, but you will need to keep wiping it if you hate fingerprints. The back, is irritatingly made of the same chrome-y material of the current ipod nanos. This has surprised me as it is one of the most scratch prone surfaces ever made. But one screen guard and one back-guard [?] later, you are good to go. The buttons, to be honest feel kind of cheap. There is a 4-way pad with a centre click button, a "menu" button [that according to me should have been named the "back" button] to the left, and a handy [but rarely used playlist button that adds the currently playing song to a playlist] which is located to the right. Nice to see a dedicated +/- volume rocker which is on the right of the player. To the left you will find the hold switch as well as a mic for recording. The bottom sports a reset switch, 3.5mm jack and the mini-USB port. I found the placement of the hold switch rather uncomfortable. It would have been much better on the right of the player.
The face buttons are nowhere near as responsive as i would like them to be. But there is a nice satisfying click. 
The screen is a nice bright 1.8" screen that does 65k colors at 320x240. While it is nowhere near as bright as say, the nano's screen, it is sufficiently sharp and clear for most. 

Features :
The player has quite a bit of features to boast of. It supports photos. They look great on the screen. Again only very basic functionality. Moving on to videos, the player leaves you sorely disappointed here. It only supports videos upto 20fps! And at a max bitrate of 384 kbps....That makes all videos boringly slow to watch. All but the shortest of videos are completely unwatchable. Forget about even watching a 15 minute cartoon. It is un-doable. 
The Radio, on the other hand was really good. The reception was stellar, better than anything I have ever used. Again, very basic usage here too. All you can do is auto tune and set presets. 
The Voice recorder did it's job really well. The recording was very audible. But i wouldn't recommend it for recording soft or far-off voices. I used it a few times to record my tries on Master of Puppets, and Battery riffs, to see what they sound like. I got an acoustic though..duh!
Even format support is very disappointing. It only supports MP3 and WMA..... nope, no AAC.

Audio:
During the past one year, the time I've spent with this little PMP, I've listened to a variety of songs ranging from Pop, Bollywood, Rock, Thrash, nu Metal, Ballads and Electronic and Rap...no Im not bragginn'!
So this is what I'd like to say,Overall, the Player offers just middle of the road quality. It was really lacking in Bass and Treble, leading to what i will describe as flat sound. It really takes the spark out of a lot of songs. But clarity was nice and surprisingly, detail loss was minimum.
Thus, if you are even slightly a Bass Freak, or consider yourself a music lover, then stay away. If you are a strictly casual listener, then it should satisfy you. 
On the whole:Philips GoGear SA-3115 is a decent player, true in its features considering its price and good for casual listeners. Im casual to some extent, at least now(I got to study!)...otherwise, you wouldn't really find something great in it. Anyway, the best sound quality comes from an iPod, and otherwise, I'd recommend you to visit concerts when they take place in your city. They are the best. (I visited the Boney M concert recently, my first and really good one!)
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Okay then, it's time I Disappear to my bed 'cause this lovely day is nearly over here, and I got to gear up for the next week. A couple of really fat books await at my table, to be solved. 
So until my next blog,CyaTemplar AKA Sumanth


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On Thermo, Gumbo, Chrome, and others...

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Hello all,The last blog went unnoticed to some extent, probably due to its sheer size. I appologize for that!The week went with a mix of good and bad...until this monday, I had been seriously preparing for my  IITJEE mock test, and despite the prep, I fell to a disappointing 300 on 534! Apart from that, I had visited my old school to attend the annual day, where I was awarded Certificate of Excellence and also met my old friends there, which cheered me up. Also, I met someone whom...ahem...that's it!
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Well, recently I was browsing through a few tech sites and here's something interesting from yet another corner of the WIDE WIDE WORLD WIDE WEB!
Adobe Systems, facing greater competition from Microsoft, is updating its Flash platform with new tools for building user interfaces for Web and enterprise applications.
At its AdobeMax conference in San Francisco on Monday, Adobe will hand out a technical preview of Flash Catalyst, a new tool that aims to be a workflow system for designers and software developers creating user interfaces. Announced earlier this year under the code name Thermo, Catalyst will be released in beta early in 2009, Adobe said on Monday. It still isn't saying when the final product will ship, however.
Adobe will also give out a preview of the next major release of Flex Builder, its toolset for creating rich Internet applications (RIAs). One goal of the release, code named Gumbo, is to attract server-side developers who are more familiar with languages like PHP and Cold Fusion. The final product is due in the second half of 2009.
Flex applications run in a browser using Adobe's Flash Player, or on the desktop in its Air runtime environment. Rivals include Microsoft's Silverlight, VisualStudio and Windows Presentation Foundation, and Sun Microsystems' JavaFX.
Most Flex development so far has been for the Web, but Adobe is making a push for more enterprise applications that run on the desktop in Air. On Monday it released Air 1.5, an updated runtime that includes an encrypted database for securing data on the client. SAP will be at the show to announce that developers can use Flash and Flex with SAP's Web Dynpro environment to build better interfaces for SAP applications.
Bridging the gap between developers and designers is a big theme in the new products. With Catalyst, developers will be able to import user interface (UI) elements created by designers in Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks, then convert them into UI components that maintain their original "skin," or look and feel, said David Wadhwani, general manager of Adobe's platform business unit.
Designers will still do most of their work in Adobe's creative products, he said, but will use Catalyst to define how the UI components interact as a users move through an application. The idea is to create an environment where developers and designers can collaborate more easily, instead of having to exchange files via email or sitting together in front of a computer.
Catalyst could be useful addition to the Flash platform, said David Wolf, a vice president with Cynergy Systems, which develops UIs for businesses and ISVs. Getting creative types and software developers together is "like putting a humidifier and a dehumidifier in the same room," he said. "They just don't get along."
The workflow aspect is one of the few areas where Adobe's RIA tools lag behind those of Microsoft, which has done a good job with its design tool Expression Blend, according to Wolf, whose company builds applications with both vendors' products. Microsoft's RIA tools are less mature than Adobe's, he said, but Microsoft was able to learn from Adobe when it created its products, he said.
"Like any first mover, Adobe has a few weaknesses that Microsoft, in their chasing-the-tail-lights approach, was able to jump on," he said.
Still, Adobe Flex, around for about five years, is more "mature and predictable" than Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation, Wolf said. Flex is "the defacto choice" for most of Cynergy's clients unless they are already committed Microsoft shops. But he expects Microsoft to catch up.
"Judging from the way our Microsoft practice has been growing, and the innovation Microsoft has been doing, we think they're going to end up being a pretty even duopoly over the next 18 months," he said.
The new version of Flex Builder will be more data-centric to make it more familiar to server-side developers, Adobe's Wadhwani said. "They'll be able to drag a data source out there -- from a BI tool or a database -- and Flex Builder will predict what they want it to look and feel like and then give them the ability to tweak that look and feel, rather than having to implement it from scratch," he said.
Flex could be used instead of Adobe's PDF format to create data-entry forms like those used by hospitals and governments, he said. With PDFs "you're just sticking a paper-based metaphor up on the screen." Flash and Flex can create more user-friendly forms that reduce input errors, and PDF can be used just for the final document output, he said.
The updates also include performance and productivity enhancements. Air 1.5, for example, can boost application performance with WebKit's new SquirrelFish Java interpreter, Wadhwani said. Free to download, Air 1.5 is available today for Windows and the Mac and is due for Linux by the end of the year.
Adobe said in September that Air was installed on about 25 million PCs, making it far less ubiquitous than its Flash Player. But Adobe expects to reach 100 million PCs by February, a year after its initial release, Wadhwani said.
Wolf said he's happy with Adobe's direction but hopes to hear more this week about its long term strategy.
"I don't know what Adobe's larger vision is, which is always a concern for people. What's next for Flex? Is it just a tools play, is it a platform play, is it going to be fronting document management? That's the one outlier we have -- we don't really know where they are going with it."
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Apart from that, 
Google patches Chrome
I am extremely sorry for this, but I could neither find a smaller article, nor make one of my own, since it was quite difficult to cover the whole thing up. Hence, I take this article from a site which you can google later and find out.
Google Inc. has patched Chrome to prevent attackers from stealing files from PCs running the open-source browser.
The update, however, has not been pushed out to most users yet.
Google quashed the bug in a developer-only version of Chrome that has not been sent to all users via the browser's update mechanism. Chrome users, however, can reset the browser to receive all updates, including the developer editions, with the Channel Chooser plug-in.
Chrome 0.4.154.18, which was released Tuesday, fixes a vulnerability that could be used by hackers to read files on a user's machine, then transfer them to their own malicious servers. "We now prevent local files from connecting to the network with XMLHttpRequest() and also prompt you to confirm a download if it is an HTML file," Mark Larson, Chrome's program manager, said in an entry to the browser's developer blog.
Google also enhanced Chrome by adding several new features to the 0.4.154.18 build, including a bookmark manager, more granular control over the browser's built-in privacy mode and a revamped pop-up blocker.
Chrome 0.4.154.18 also includes a newer version of V8, the name for Google's JavaScript interpreter.
The current "official" beta build of Chrome is 0.3.154.9.
Google's browser accounted for only 0.74% of the browser usage share last month, according to data from Web metrics company Net Applications Inc.
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Coming to a few Cool Websites,
This is one interesting, and funny conversation, which, to some extent makes sense, that I found in a server, which is I know not where. Do visit it, its really good.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa74/harrowlawl/sciencevsreligion.jpg

Creedopedia:What do you get if you cross a search engine with a religious encyclopedia? 
Creedopedia - a new way to search the web. Other search engines spew out meaningless site-names and mangled phrases.
http://www.creedopedia.com/

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Well, I guess, my time's up. I got to go and get some sleep before starting my routine at dawn![Yeah, aiming at IIT is a tough commitment to honour, and surprisingly I'm doing better nowadays! ;)  ]
Cya,Templar AKA Sumanth

P.S. I got a new guitar and have enrolled myself for weekly guitar lessons. Its going great, actually! 

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Technorati Tags : adobe said flex browser developers chrome google applications flash data designers beginning guitar lessons

Look out through your Window, think beyond the Vista...look for the 7 colours...

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Hello dudes and dudettes,
The week might have gone well for most of you with Bond having risen on Friday. But mine wasn't really great. I had an aweful 7-day working week, with classes even on Sunday! With the phase test(its a termly exam in the IITJEE format) closing in on next monday, all the teachers, and the students of course, are gearing up to make it to success there. This is because, the nest phase test shall be a reshuffling one, and shall include all the lessons we've done so far!
Well, now let's get back to the core theme of this blog. Technology. I've been blogging on a few general things for a while, and I suppose it shall continue, thogh, keeping in mind what things really belong to this place. It's really been a while since I have blogged on whats going on around...
So, here we go:
*Let me tell you that I have quoted a few lines, which wer best left untouched, from various sources(apart from wikipedia). And I heartily credit them, though I do not wish to mention them here. But with proper googling skills, you can find them out yourselves.
Windows 7
What if Microsoft waved a magic wand and everything people hated about Windows Vista went away? You might have an operating system that you liked--and that's what Microsoft appears to be striving for with Windows 7.
Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is the next version of Microsoft Windows and the successor to Windows Vista. Microsoft stated in 2007 that it is "scoping Windows 7 development to a three-year timeframe", and that "the specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar."
Microsoft has said all along that Windows 7 would refine (but not rewrite) the Vista kernel. However, some of the anticipated changes depend on support that Microsoft may not be able to control. For example, a number of cool network features will work only if your employer installs Windows Server 2008 R2 (also handed out to reviewers). Other new features require cooperation by hardware vendors, though this time their contribution won't extend to rewriting drivers. Still other changes involve slimming down the code by offloading applications (such as e-mail and photo management) that were once bundled with the code. With Windows 7 you'll get them either as downloadable apps or as Web services.
Interface
Windows Vista's interface makeover emphasized style over substance: Among its most-hyped new features were the Aero user interface's translucent window frames (woo-hoo!) and the Flip 3D window switcher (flashy, but not particularly useful). It didn't do much to repair Windows' reputation for being annoying; in fact, the in-your-face tactics of the new User Account Control security feature made Vista more aggravating. And much of what was new in Vista, such as its desktop search, amounted to Microsoft playing catch-up with Apple's OS X.
Windows 7 takes a strikingly different approach. Its interface contains plenty of tweaks, but they're relatively subdued and they emphasize everyday efficiency rather than sizzle. Several of the changes aim specifically to get the OS out of your way so you can work without distractions. And virtually none of what's new feels like warmed-over OS X.
The changes start with the Windows Taskbar, a core component of the Windows experience that has changed very little since it debuted in Windows 95. With Windows 7, it undergoes its biggest remodeling job ever: The familiar bars containing the name of a running application and a tiny icon are gone, and in their place are unlabeled, jumbo icons that represent running applications. The icons look like gargantuan versions of the tiny icons in the old Taskbar's Quick Launch toolbar--as well they should, since they supplant Quick Launch in W7. (The new Taskbar also looks a bit like OS X's Dock, though it doesn't behave like the Dock.)

Vista's Taskbar introduced thumbnail-size previews of windows that would appear when you hovered the mouse over an app in the Taskbar. They were fairly handy, but if you had multiple windows of an application open--say, several browser windows or several word-processing documents--you could see only one of them at a time. In Windows 7, thumbnails for multiple windows appear onscreen simultaneously, in a ribbonlike horizontal strip. Hover over a thumbnail, and you get a full-size preview of the window; you can also close windows from the thumbnails.


Click on an icon in the Taskbar--or on a program in the Start menu--and you get a "jump list," a new Windows feature that's a twist on the context-sensitive menus that the OS has had for years. Jump lists provide one-click access to various tasks associated with an application--Play All Music for Windows Media Player, for instance, or a list of recently opened files in Word or Excel.
Not every jumbo icon in the Taskbar represents a running application, however. In Windows 7, the Taskbar can include icons for devices you've attached to your PC, too. Hook up a digital camera, for example, and an icon for it will appear in the Taskbar; click its icon, and you'll move to the Device Stage, a new control center for activities involving peripheral devices.
Unfortunately, most of what makes the new Taskbar intriguing isn't yet ready for beta--let alone prime time. The preview version of Windows 7 distributed to reviewers and PDC attendees this week has the old-style Taskbar. Still, judging from our brief hands-on time with the new Taskbar, it could make life in Windows more pleasant in meaningful ways that Vista's splashy effects never did.
Farewell to Icons!
Windows 7's Taskbar still contains the Notification Area, also known as the System Tray--a feature that has traditionally packed more aggravation per square inch than any other area of Windows, since it tends to bulge at the seams with icons for applications that you don't remember installing and that often pester you with balloons alerting you to things you don't care about. In Windows 7, Microsoft finally supplies tools you can use to tame the mess. For each app, you can choose to display or hide its icon, and to show or suppress its notifications. The overflow area--where icons that don't fit in the Notification area live--remains, but it's far less unwieldy: It now pops up, rather than shoving applications in the Taskbar to the left, and you can move icons between it and the Notification area by dragging them from one place to the other.


At the far right of the new Taskbar you'll see a little rectangle of what looks like unused real estate. Click it, and all open windows will minimize so you can see the desktop. This feature duplicates an icon in the now-defunct Quick Launch toolbar, but if you're a fan of the desktop applets known as Windows Gadgets, you may use it more often. That's because the Sidebar, which formerly housed Gadgets, is gone, and they sit right on the desktop. (Microsoft says that users complained that the Sidebar ate up too much precious on-screen real estate, especially on laptops with no pixels to spare.)
Microsoft has also introduced a couple of easy-to-use window management features that users may find helpful: If you want to work in two windows side-by-side, dragging the second window to either side of the screen snaps them both into place so that each takes up half the screen. If you drag a window to the top of your display, it snaps to the top, taking up the width of the screen.
The Magic Touch
One major area of change in Windows 7's interface won't mean much to most PC users at first blush: Only a handful of current machines, such as HP's TouchSmart PC and Dell's Latitude XT laptop, support multitouch input; but in theory this feature would let you operate a touch-screen-equipped Windows 7 computer as if it were a massive iPhone, using your fingertips to launch applications, shuffle windows around, and enlarge and shrink photos by grabbing them with both hands. Not surprisingly, Microsoft hasn't yet enabled all of this functionality. Using a TouchSmart PC at the Windows 7 workshop, we could fingerpaint with two fingers in Paint, but we couldn't perform two-fingered photo manipulations that would be a lot more useful in real life.
Microsoft promises that Windows 7 will ship with more touch features. The company is also working to make the OS smart enough to figure out whether you're using a mouse or your fingers so it can adjust itself accordingly. For example, if you tap the Start button with your fingertip rather than with the mouse pointer, you'll get a slightly larger Start menu that requires less finesse to navigate. And you don't get a mouse pointer when you touch the screen with your finger--which makes perfect sense, since your finger servers as its own pointer. Instead, you get a momentary puddling effect to indicate that you've made contact with the screen.that
Will the touch interface that makes the iPhone cool work on a notebook or desktop system? I'm skeptical after finding out things, but Windows 7 lays the software groundwork that will allow PC manufacturers to give it a try, at least.
Regarding Performance 
Some of the biggest criticisms of Vista relate to performance, and Microsoft appears to have made addressing these a priority. In our brief experience with the early-beta code, boot time seemed fast. Of course, we won't be able to make a fair comparison until we can test identical machines with the same bare-bones installations in Vista and W7, but Microsoft did identify a couple of steps it has taken to speed things up. First, Windows 7 initializes many services in parallel; and second, it has fewer services to initialize.
Microsoft engineers are working on several areas to improve general PC performance. One focus is to change the way the OS allocates memory to new windows. In Vista, the amount of memory allocated per window goes up as you add windows, to the point where the system often shuts down Aero because application windows are soaking up too much system memory. In Windows 7, each new window will be allocated the same amount of memory, and as a result adding new windows won't impose a prohibitive burden on system resources.
Other changes are designed to make the OS less crash-prone. Fault-tolerant heaps, for example, are designed to address memory management problems without crashing the problem application; at the same time, process reflection reduces crashes by allowing Windows to diagnose and (maybe) repair process problems without crashing the application involved. Microsoft says that its new OS "sandboxes" printer drivers so that problems stemming from poorly written drivers won't create problems for other drivers or for the system as a whole.
Microsoft is also working on ways to prolong notebook battery life by reducing power consumption. Examples of this endeavor include enabling notebooks to cut back on background activities, to perform intelligent display dimming (similar to technologies used with cell phone displays), and to play back DVDs more efficiently.
Devices and Hardware
Since Windows 7 is more of a major refresh than a departure from Vista, it doesn't require new drivers for peripherals: If something works with Vista, it should work with Windows 7. Nevertheless, Microsoft has instituted some changes to help people use connected devices such as cameras, cell phones, media players, and printers with their PCs.
Instead of the Auto-play window that appears in Vista and XP when you hook up one of these peripherals, you'll now get--if vendors play along--a more useful Device Stage window that shows not only a photorealistic rendering of the device but also a list of associated services and tasks. For example, with a multifunction printer you might see an icon for launching the scanning software--and you'll almost certainly see a link to the vendor's site for toner or ink supplies.


Other options might include a link to a PDF of the manual (which would save you the trouble of having to track it down on the Web) or, in the case of a cell phone, software for syncing Outlook contacts (even with a non-Windows Mobile handset).
To make these services readily accessible once you've installed a device or peripheral, Windows 7 lets you create a device icon that acts much as taskbar application icons do: The image of the peripheral appears on a taskbar button; and when you hover over it, the services in Device Stage appear as a jump list.
The Device Stage for a peripheral exists only if the vendor creates an XML document based on a Microsoft template; in order for this to happen, the vendor would have to get Microsoft to sign off on the document (Microsoft says that this prerequisite is necessary to ensure quality control). It's not clear at this point whether the overhead involved will discourage vendors from participating, but Microsoft says that the OS will download such documents whenever they're available (using the same Windows Metadata Services technology that transparently downloads cover art for albums in Windows Media Player).
Device Stage has the potential to help vendors integrate their hardware with Windows more successfully and save money on tech support (since, if you have the manual handy, you may not need to call in). The technology also gives vendors a marketing opportunity: They can prominently display their logo next to the rendering of the device on the upper half of the Device Stage window.
Another hardware-related innovation is the ability to go beyond adjusting the font size on a high-DPI (dots-per-inch) display, which you can already do in Windows Vista, and use a new Magnifier feature to enlarge a part of the display--for example, if you need to read a small block of tiny type.
Windows 7 will also pack some easy-to-use tools for adjusting external displays--specifically, to help people connect a notebook to a projector.
Ease of Networking
Networking features in Windows 7 address a number of problems that arise from the use of corporate PCs on noncorporate networks, particularly by workers who take their laptops home after work and on weekends. If you've ever spent hours trying to print on a networked home printer from a laptop tied to a corporate domain, you'll appreciate the W7-given ability to associate your notebook with a HomeGroup for easy access to printers and files on other PCs--without any tinkering with your IT department's carefully applied domain configuration settings. We haven't tested this capability yet, but Microsoft says that HomeGroup will also prevent other PCs on your home network from accessing any of the (potentially sensitive) corporate data on your laptop.
But wait: There's more. Microsoft says that Windows 7 will be smart enough to recognize when you're at home and when you're at your office. As a result, if you print a document, the OS will choose the appropriate printer to use. And a new federated search capability will let you sift through files on PCs across the network, and apply filters to your results. This means that you can do a keyword search and then refine it by specifying a specific file type.


"Windows 7 promises easier Wi-Fi network and Bluetooth peripheral setup, too, though we weren't able to test either on the early beta software. Hovering over the Taskbar icon for these network adapters produces a jump list of available networks (or devices, in the case of Bluetooth); then you merely click the one you want to connect to (or pair with, in the case of a Bluetooth peripheral)."
Another improvement is wake-on-wireless-LAN, the ability to bring a Wi-Fi-connected PC out of sleep mode remotely (just as you've long been able to do with ethernet-connected systems).
Back at the office, other networking improvements only apply if your company installs Windows Server 2008 R2 and your IT department allows them. For example, you might be able to click a link in a corporate e-mail message to launch an application behind the firewall--without having to make a VPN connection first (Windows 7 will transparently handle the security arrangements).
Searching and Organizing


One interesting new feature in Windows 7's Explorer is called "libraries." Essentially it's a way of making like content scattered in various folders easily accessible. The OS ships with several predefined libraries--for documents, music, pictures, and video--but you can create your own based on whatever criteria you choose--file type, date created, or other metadata such as music genre.
Libraries figure actively in Windows 7's improved search: Results are organized based on libraries rather than on file s. Windows 7 also allows you to perform so-called federated searches--searches across multiple PCs on your network. So, for example, you might search for photos across the photo libraries of all the PCs in your HomeGroup.
More Multimedia
Once upon a time, Microsoft's approach to audio and video seemed to hinge on Windows Media Player and its file formats coming to dominate digital entertainment the way Windows dominates the PC. Instead, we live in a world where multiple approaches to media flourish, and where iTunes and the iPod, not Microsoft-based products, are everywhere. Windows 7's new multimedia capabilities acknowledge this reality by emphasizing features that help the OS play well with others--including with products that hail from a certain company named after a piece of fruit.
Windows 7 aims to streamline playback, too--so much so that it offers two different lightweight ways to consume media without employing full-strength Windows Media Player. You can listen to music and watch video by using the preview pane in Windows Explorer, without launching Windows Media Player at all. Or you can load up WMP but work with a simple view that hides you media library and fits comfortably into a small floating window on your desktop leaving the rest of your display visible (and usable).

No matter how you play your files, Windows 7 handles a bunch of non-Microsoft formats that Vista and Windows XP don't, including AAC audio and H.264 video--the standards favored by Apple--as well as DiVX video and AVHDC, a format used by many high-definition camcorders. That ecumenical approach lets the media player tap into entertainment libraries that you've created using iTunes. Not surprisingly, it can't play iTunes music and movies shielded by Apple's FairPlay copy protection; but rather than showing them and then choking when you try to enjoy them, it doesn't show them at all. In our tests, the updated WMP handled unprotected AAC music without a hitch; an H.264 video podcast that we downloaded from iTunes played, but it looked much blockier than it did when we watched it in iTunes on the same Windows 7 PC.
The new OS aims to play traffic cop for an array of media types and devices that may live on your home network. It can find media stored on multiple PCs on the Internet (including ones in HomeGroups), and it can route media files from them to media-streaming devices that support the Digital Living Room Network Alliance (DLNA) standard, such as the Sonos Multi-Room Music System. If a particular piece of media is saved in a format that a specific streaming device doesn't support, Microsoft says, W7 will convert it on the fly. That sounds very slick, but the proof is in the playing: We haven't tested these networked features yet, but we'll report back when we do.
Windows Media Center, the ber-application that does everything from record live TV to distribute Windows' media features to networked Xbox 360 consoles. is back in Windows 7. (Microsoft hasn't announced details regarding the versions of W7 that will be available, but Media Center will presumably be included in one or more high-end consumer editions of the OS.) Microsoft says that Media Center includes new Internet TV features that give users a single guide and playback interface for video content from all over the Web. Again, that sounds intriguing--but if the feature is available in the Windows 7 preview edition we examined, it's so well-hidden that we couldn't track it down. Media Center also works with HomeGroup networking to let you find recorded video and other media files no matter where they're hiding on your network.
On Applications
As previously reported, Microsoft won't be shipping Windows 7 with all of the bundled applications that the company has historically installed by default with the OS. Instead, it will deliver e-mail, photo gallery features, and video-editing capabilities as downloadable applications, collectively called Windows Live Essentials. Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Windows Live Movie Maker have been available in beta form for some time.
There you can also find beta versions of Windows Live Writer (a blogging tool), Windows Family Safety (parental control tools), Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (software for using Outlook 2003/2007 as a front end to Hotmail) and Windows Live Toolbar (to make other live apps easily accessible from Internet Explorer).
Windows Live Essentials should not be (but probably will be) confused with Windows Live services, which may be associated with desktop apps but require nothing more than a browser to run. For example, Windows Live Hotmail is an e-mail client accessible only in a browser, whereas Windows Live Mail runs on the desktop.
In discussing Windows Live, Microsoft's Brian Hall noted that Microsoft has yet to offer applications that relate to social networking and user-generated content (with ratings), but he hinted that such apps may be coming. Other Microsoft officials said that new Windows Live services will be announced November 12.
Not all traditional accessories have been eliminated; some old standbys remain, with face lifts. Windows Paint's basic image-editing features are now exposed via a Scenic Ribbon la Office 2007. The ribbon also appears in Windows 7's WordPad, and the OS's APIs will make the ribbon available to third-party developers who believe that it will benefit their applications. Though some users didn't appreciate having to learn new s for many features in complicated Office apps, the ribbon works well for the relatively few and simple tools in Paint and WordPad.
Also in the future OS: a refresh of Calculator, and a Sticky Notes feature that supports ink (as well as text) and permits resizing of notes.
**
Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested that the next version of Windows would "be more user-centric."When asked to clarify what he meant, Gates said:
?That means that right now when you move from one PC to another, you've got to install apps on each one, do upgrades on each one. Moving information between them is very painful. We can use Live Services to know what you're interested in. So even if you drop by a [public] kiosk or somebody else's PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things. So that's kind of the user-centric thing that Live Services can enable. [Also,] in Vista, things got a lot better with [digital] ink and speech, but by the next release there will be a much bigger bet. Students won't need textbooks; they can just use these tablet devices. Parallel computing is pretty important for the next release. We'll make it so that a lot of the high-level graphics will be just built into the operating system. So we've got a pretty good outline."
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Phew! Well, that was kind of exhaustive, ain't it. Yeah, actually,  I have been drafting this, and also collecting from my sources since last month. It was a tough journey across the web, and time consuming to make it right! 
As ever, every hard worker deserves some rest. And that's what Iam going for. So till then,
CyaTemplar AKA Sumanth


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Review Blog: The fire wasn't that hot.

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Hello all, its been a while since my last blog. I had been held up with series of tests at college, and my coaching classes. I also had to devote time for things that I hate most: Studying Organice Chemistry, Completing assignments of Circular Motion(Physics) and Working out problems of Trigonometry. But all the same, they did yield results ;-)
About a month back, the day before my birthday, on the twentieth of September, released a popular novel, Brisingr. I had finished reading the novel within a week after I got it, but had other things in my head to blog about.
Particulars:Novel: BrisingrAuthor: Christopher PaoliniPublisher: Random House/ Double Day
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To people who do wonder what Brisingr is about, let me tell you a little about its prequels, Eragon and Eldest. Those who know about it may skip this part and go to the review.
*Start story*Eragon is a farm boy who is baffled when a polished blue stone appears before him. Since he is from a poor family, he takes it, hoping to sell it for a good price. Eragon's mother is Selena, who has not been since Eragon's birth. She had left him to be raised by his uncle, Garrow and his late wife Marian to raise them as their own. Garrow's son, Eragon's cousin, Roran also lives with them at the secluded village called Carvahall.Enter Saphira: The stone that Eragon takes cracks, and a dragon comes out. Eragon touches, and thence, the dragon, whom he names as Saphira, and he have an irrevocable bond fromed between them. And he becomes one of the legendary dragon riders.The story of dragon riders starts when the elves bond with dragons eons ago, pooling their powers to form great peacekepers, and what we can call, 'an Ideal duo', who have very few limitations compared to any other race mentioned in the book(Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Urgals, Ra'zac, etc). Among the riders rises a evil king Galbatorix, who kills every last of those riders, and declares himself the king of the land Alagaesia. Eragon, is the only free rider outsied Galbatorix's crutches.Once this message reaches the king's ear, he sends his grotesque servants, the Ra'zac, to bring Eragon and Saphira to him. They both however escape, but Garrow, Eragon's uncle dies.To seek revenge, Eragon sets out to trace Ra'zac with the help of Brom. In the process, learns that Riders are magicians, etc etc. Near the Ra'Zac's lair, Brom dies in an ambush.Enter Murtagh: Murtagh, a young guy who exiled the king's fortress, claims himself to be the son of on of the King's Foresworn(Foresworn are like Death Eaters of HP), but who defies the king. The trio later rescue an elf during their travels and reach Varden, a rebel against the King, with whom they decide to join. Here, Eragon finds himself starting to like the elf, Arya.The climax of the story has a war where Eragon fiercely duels with a shade(man possessed by spirits), and kills him, but ends up suffering chronic injuries on his back. Also an old man appears in Eragon's reverie, who offers to explain everything that happened to Eragon since the whole plot began.*End Eragon**Start Eldest*Eldest begins soon after Eragon. This story contains 3 storylines mainly, Eragon's, Eragon's cousin, Roran's and that of Nasuada, who is the next leader of Varden, after her father Ajihad Dies in the war.Eragon's storyline: Eragon and Saphira set out to the place of elves, along with a dwarf Orik, and Arya, the elf whom he rescued on his way to Varden. Murtagh goes missing, and is presumed dead. On reaching Du Weldenvarden, the place of elves, Eragon discovers that Arya is the daughter of Elven Queen Islanzadi, and another rider, the eldest of all that Eragon had known exists. He is the man who brushed across Eragon's ming in the war that had occured. His name is Oromis, and his dragon is Glaedr.  Oromis and Glaedr teach a lot of things to Eragon and Saphira regarding the world of Riders, their history, magic summoning energy, communication through mind and also a little information about Brom. Brom was a rider, coincidentally his dragon, Saphira's namesake died in a duel with Morzan. Morzan is Murtagh's dad, Galbatorix's most favoured servant. Brom then kills Morzan and his dragon, and then takes his sword, which now is with Eragon. Also, a once-in-100-years ceremony called the Blood-Oath ceremony takes place, and there some of the elves magically cure all the injuries of Eragon, and make him substantially more powerful than what he was, apt to be called an Elf-Human crossbreed. Realizing that his life now nearly parallels to that of an elf, he takes it to confess to Arya about his love for her. However, she rejects telling him that there is a very big difference in their ages, and that she does not regard him more than a good friend.Soon news comes about a war in Surda by Varden against the King, and Eragon leaves for it.There he faces another rider - Murtagh, who tells him that Morzan was Eragon's father too, and that both of them were brothers. The war ends leaving bitter thoughts in Eragon's mind, and Murtagh claims Morzan's sword as his Eldest son, and spares Eragon. Roran's Storyline: Roran is completely distressed after his father's murder, and blames Eragon for all that occured, and curses him for his absence. The king's men return again, to kidnap Roran and use him against Eragon. But in what occurs as a retaliation, a lots of people of Carvahall die, and Katrina, Roran's betrothed, is abducted by the Ra'zac. Roran vows to traverse through the Spine, across the land along the sea, and seek refuge in Surda, along with the rest of the people in Carvahall. With a lot of effort, he mobilizes the people and takes them. He finally reaches Surda during the war, contributes to the war and there, meets Eragon, the dragon rider. Nasuada's Storyline: This lady's storyline is somewhat dry and boring to some extent. It mainly refers to her migration of  Varden from one part of the land to other, and the challenges faced in managing. Also some politics regarding the administration of Varden is mentioned.*End Eldest*
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BRISINGR: REVIEW
*Disclaimer: You may find me mentioning many incidents from the story, hence spoiling the book for those who haven't read it. Beware.
This book can be aptly compared to deathly hallows, since both are very much eventful, but lack a proper story. It is mentioned that there were only three dragon eggs left in alagaesia, under Galbatorix's crutches. One of them was smuggled out by Brom, and out of it came Saphira. The second one hatched for Murtagh, the dragon's name, if I haven't mentioned, is Thorn. The third one was very much expected, but there is no information regarding this in this book, which is one main drawback of the story.The full name of the book is actually:Brisingr: The seven promises of Eragon Shadeslayer and Saphira Bjartskular.And the title, to some extent is apt. The story mainly describes the different promises that Eragon and his dragon saphira have made to many people.Here they are:

• Eragon and Saphira promise Roran to join on his mission to save Katrina from the Ra'zac, and avenge the death of Garrow.
• The duo swear fealty Nasuada as a political stunt to earn trust.
• They also promise Oromis that they shall mention about their existance to no one.
• They join the Durdrimst Igneitum clan of the dwarves, allowing their king to adopt him into the dwarf race, thuse gaining all the rights reserved to the dwarves.
• They promise to assist Elven Queen Islanzadi during the times of need.
• He promises to cure a human girl of his untentional curse which becomes a great fiasco in Eldest, though I didn't mention that.
• Saphira promises to rebuild Isidar Mithrim, a sort of monument of the dwarves.

Eragon keeps up most of his promises throughout the book. But the book does not attract us as much as the others did. Also, there's a lot of spicy girlish stuff regarding the love story of Roran and Katrina since she is rescued. They get married and expect a child at the end of the book.Also a lot of Dwarf politics is described in the process of electing a new king of the dwarves, since the old king is killed by Murtagh during the last war.Few of the new elements mentioned in this book are:>> The Nomad Language: It is the language of the tribe Nasuada is actually native of. Though there is only one word mentioned from their language, they are mentioned in one of the chapters, where a politically sensitive incident takes place.>>Art of swordmaking: Eragon has lost his only blade to Murtagh and seriously needs a weapon to guard himself. He eventually gets a new blade, which he names 'Brisingr' and the process takes place in a very unusual and complicated way. But this is described and explained excellently. Paolini reveals his sources for information regarding this process.
As we proceed through the story, many facts, which were actually predictable from the information in the previous books, are revealed, like, Brom being Eragon's father and not Morzan, Arya's first love and existence of Sloan, a psycho butcher of Carvahall, who is Katrina's father.IN a nutshell, the book is an excellent piece of fantasy and imagination, worth reading, but not as good as the previous ones. But since most of the things were predictable, and some of the expectations, which the book did not live up to, I would rate the book a little lower than its prequels.
My Rating:Characters: 2.5/5The characters in this book were too mechanical and not much of emotions was seen in them, save for Roran, who lives on his emotions. Moreover, throughout the series, as my friend pointed out, "Arya's perfection is her flaw," she is too perfect to be realistic. Also, Eragon does not think about his feelings for Arya in this book, also others seem stoic.
Description: 5/5 Paolini's description is perfect for a fantasy story, neither too long like Tolkien's, nor two consise, or jovial like Rowling's. It gives a richness to the story and he makes even the most uneventful and boring places of the story worth reading. You'll never feel  like skipping any part of the story. 
Concept: 4.5/5The whole concept of the Inheritance Cycle(Eragon-Eldest-Brisingr-4th Book) is excellent and not any less in this one. But it did disappoint me at times where I found many similarities with other fantasy novels...names, setting of lairs of different characters and others. Also I had some difficulty in scaling the map of Alagaesia, since it different durations to travel the same distance at different occasions in the book. It may be due to the gradual increase in Eragon's power, but yet it, at times, confuses me.
Sense: 5/5Usually, a fantasy story is at its best when you can put yourself into it and imagine what you'd feel like, and you can actually do that here. Most of the concepts regarding magic and other fantastic things that are usually exaggerated in other novels of the fantasy genre, is presented here excellently, showing that everything in this world has its own limitations, and his work makes very good sense, and some of it has been apparently been experienced by people on real-earth(I read similar things in a few spiritual books).
Plot: 3/5The plot is interesting, but has a few standard things that one tends to encounter in most of the books, making it look like a story format, just like one for an Indian commercial film. For example, the protagonist is the 'chosen one' and that he is an orphan...well, its there in many more books, not just HP. But a good aspect of the plot is that Christopher Paolini has not yet revealed Galbatorix so far in the three books. Only his voice is heard partially in Brisingr. This gives a tempo to the series regarding what Galbatorix would be like. Another good part is that, Unlike Sauron, or Voldemort, Galbatorix is not someone people fear to name, which does not raise the expectations of the reader regarding how tough it would be to kill the king at the end. It was a major flaw in Harry Potter series, and to an extent, disappointing in the LOTR series.
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End Word:On the whole, I enjoyed the book, but always had a feeling that something was amiss, and thus lost the excitement as I reached the end of the book. Also, I don't really feel like reading the book again, as I did, when I had read Eragon and Eldest.Anyway, all is not to be blamed on Christopher Paolini, because I know how boring it is to complete a series, or even a novel, when thoughts flood your mind. I experienced such a thing when I tried my hand at writing. In fact I'm still stuck at page number 192 of my story. Moreover, Paolini is quite young, and is debuting into the world of novels with this series, thus lowering our expectations a little is a better idea.But above all, Brisingr, and its prequels, has a number of lessons of life to learn, and a wonderful set of books to read, especially for people coming of age, as it contains things that one should know when he is being kicked out from the comforst of home, into the big-wide outside world, a place where everything is deceptive, a place where the actual story of one's life begins.
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