A Piano with a Tech Boost

The piano or pianoforte is one of the most versatile musical instruments available, capable of making beautiful music. From the classics to rock and roll, it has made great contributions to music throughout history.

The beginnings of the Piano dates back to the early 1700s’, where a man called Bartolomeo Crsitofori from Padua, Italy is credited with its invention. Later during the period from 1790 – 1860, it went through a lot of changes, which led to its modern form. Well you can read more about the piano here if you are interested :)

In this day and age where everything has gone hi tech, it’s quite appropriate that the humble piano to get a facelift as well. The latest such instrument is the Yamaha Disklavier Mark IV version 3.0 upgrade, which is billed as the world’s most advanced piano.

One of it’s main features is its audio recording capabilities in .WAV format, not just in MIDI, so people can use it as a recording studio to capture not just the instrument, but external sound like vocals and other musical instruments as well. All recordings are stored in the piano’s hard drive (he he who would’ve thought that we’d ever use the words ‘piano’ and ‘hard drive’ in the same sentence) and can be easily transferred to a PC via USB.

Other cool features include:

- Can be controlled by Pocket Remote Controller along with PC’s and Mac computers

- Video outputs can be viewed by connecting monitors. Piano Soft Plus Graphic files combine MIDI, audio, text and graphics to offer true multimedia experiences

- Easier search function to quickly find songs

- Improved timer play controls

- Improved support for DisklavierRadio and DisklavierMusicStore. DisklavierRadio is a streaming radio which includes a MIDI feed in each channel, which enables the instrument to play live. DisklavierMusicStore offers songs with both piano and MIDI accompaniment tracks, which users can purchase and download.

- An open-ended software-based architecture built on Linux operating system. Updates can be downloaded directly from the net. Comes with a 80GB hard drive.

All in all, this is one cool piano. Imagine if Mozart was alive today what kind of music he could create with this baby.

Now the important question is how much would all this gadgetry set you back? Well the Disklavier Mark IV, version 2.0 starts around $35,000.00. Well frankly, I’d rather spend that on getting a customized Harley and stick to playing an old fashioned traditional piano, but then again that’s just me :D

Press Release by Yamaha

Gizmodo Article

නව තාක්ශනයේ පියානෝවක්

දැන් කාලයේ හැම දේම දියුනු වෙද්දි, පාරම්පරික සංගීත භාන්ඩත් අලුත් වෙන්න එපැයි. මේක ඒවගෙ අලුත් වෙච්ච පියනෝවක්. යමහා ආයතනයෙ සංගීත අංශය විසින් නිශ්පදිත මෙය නම්වේ.

මේ අපූරු සංගීත භාන්ඩය පරිගනකයක් සමග සදා තියෙන්නෙ. එහි සමහර විෂේෂාංග නම්:

- ශබ්ද පටිගත කිරීමේ පහසුකම්
- පරිගනක තිරයක් සවි කිරීමේ හකියාව සහ එමගින් රූප මාද්ය නැරබිම
- පට්ගත කරපු සින්දු පහසුවෙන් සොයාගැනීම
- මේ සදහාම සැකසූ විෂේශ සින්දු අන්තර්ජලයෙන් ලබගෙන එවා වාදනය කිරීමේ හැකියාව
- 80 GB දෘඩුකාංග තැටියක් (Hard Drive)

දැන් අපිට වෙදගත් වෙන්නෙ මොනවත් නෙමේ, මෙම අපූරු භන්ඩයේ මිලයි. දල වශයෙන් මේක ඇමරිකනු $35,000 ක්



Pic source Yamaha

A Study in Miniature

Since of late, have this urge to buy toys, especially these model cars. I seriously think my brain is doing some funny stuff.

When I was a kid, had this fascination with recreating accidents so naturally my toys never had a long life span. It bothered me if they didn’t have any kind of damage in them, and I’d find inventive ways to cause them damage too. Luckily lost interest in toys early in life, and moved on to books… er reading them, not burning them.

Oh what the heck, what’s life without these little oddities he he :D

Cheers y’all

Southern Gems

Went down to Galle with the gang during the Vesak hols for a bit of sun, sand and sea. It's been a long time since we went down south, since we usually head for the hills during holidays, so this was a nice break.

Not many people were vacationing down south so Unawatuna beach was not very crowded, which was ideal.



Statue of Lord Buddha erected in remembrance of the Tsunami in 2004, Can't remember the exact place, but closer to Seeningama :)


Peace and Serenity


Roarrrr - Lion Carving at the entrance way to the statue.


Cut off from Man - Seeningama Devalaya


Beacon of Hope - Lighthouse inside Galle Fort


In praise of Allah - The mosque inside Galle Fort


Standing Tall - Roomassala Temple


Come and Pray - The Old Dutch Church inside the Galle Fort



Along the Ramparts - View of the Lighthouse and the Mosque


Tis the time when the Lycans stroll the lands - The Vesak full moon in all it's glory

Greetings for Vesak | ෙවසක් ආසිරි

I should say the most important day of the Buddhist calendar, and for Buddhists all over the world, celebrating the birth, the enlightenment and the passing away of Lord Buddha.

Even though I’m not a Buddhist, I greatly admire the teachings of Buddhism. If lived according to its teachings, it is the ideal way to live. I personally believe that no matter what religions there are, the most basic truth of them is “to be nice to your fellow man”. Ok maybe not in the same words, but it’s do. If we can follow that, then this world would be a much better place.

Unfortunately not all humans think alike. For some people it is “as long as I survive, damned be the rest”. Fortunately a majority of the people are good by nature, it’s just a few bad apples that upset the whole cart. These bad apples can cause a major damage even though their numbers are few.

It doesn’t matter what religion or faith you follow, as long as you think a bit about your fellow man. That can make a very big difference in the world.

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වෙසක් පුර පසලොස්වක පොහෝ දින අථි වැදගත්කම ගැන ඉථින් අමුතුවෙන් කියන්න දෙයක් නැහැනේ. ගෞතම බුදුරජනන්ගේ ඉපදීම, බුදු බව ලබීම සහ පිරිනිවන් පෑම සිහිපත් කරන මෙ දින ලොවපුරා බෞද්දයන්ට ඉතා වැදගත් දිනයක්.

මම බෞද්දයෙක් නොවොනත්, මම ඒ උගැන්වු දර්ශනය ඉතා අගය කරන කෙනෙක්. හරියට පිලිපදිනවානම් එය ඉතා සාර්ථක ජිවිතයක් ගත කරන්න හොද මාර්ගයක්. කොහොමවුනත් මම විශ්වාස කරනව හැම ආගමකම ඉතා සරලම උපදේශය අනිත් මිනිසුන් සමග හොදින් ජීවත් වීමයි. අවාසනවකට සෑම මිනිසෙක්ම මේ විදිහට හිතන්නෙ නැති එකයි මේ ඔක්කොම ප්රශ්න වලට මුල.

ඔබ මොන ආගම දහමක් ඇදැහෙව්වත් වැඩක් නෑ, ඔබ ඔබගෙ සහෝදර මිනිසුන් ගැන සිත්තන්නෙ නැත්තම්.

ඔබ සැමට වෙසක් ආසිරි !!!

10 Random things that maketh Azrael high

I’ve been tagged by several folks to write this up, so here goes. Who am I to deny my fans?
This is not in any particular order :)

1. Reading books – well that’s no secret, I’m a readaholic.
2. Music – Both listening and playing. Erm…no singing…
3. Travelling – Basically anywhere, either with friends or by myself.
4. Visiting new places and seeing them for the first time.
5. Hanging out with my friends – I’m solitary animal by nature, but there are my small groups of very good friends that I like to hang out with. They know who they are.
6. A lazy evening at the beach – with maybe a couple of drinks and a BBQ
7. Riding my bike – I don’t mean daily traveling, but riding the open roads just for the pure fun of it.
8. Solving a problem – When you get stuck and finally coming up with a solution after torturing the brain. It’s basically along the lines of succeeding at something after hard work.
9. Cooking – Not the everyday kind but planning and making something special once in awhile.
10. Cartoons – Yep still love them, and will do so till the day I kick the bucket.

Well there it is.

Cheers y'all

Ride Free…

Hmm… not a lot of work today so was browsing the net to fend off boredom, and came across these.

Ok ok I was drooling over them. *sigh*.

Check out the links for more…

Enjoy

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අද වැඩ අඩු දවසක් නිසා කම්මැලිකම යන්නත් එක්ක අන්තර්ජාලයෙ පොඩ්ඩක් සැරිසරන කොට මේ ටික හම්බවුනෙ.

ආතල් යතුරුපැදි ටික. අනේ ලන්කවෙත් මෙවා තිබ්බනම්


Harley Davidson – All hail the kings…

MGS Custom Bikes

Custom Bikes of Lauderdale

Thunderstuck Custom Bikes







Images from MGS Custom Bikes and Harley Davidson

සින්හලෙන් බිදක්

දිනෙන් දිනම සින්හල භෂාව බ්ලොග් ලෝකය ජයගන්නව, එනිසා මටත් හිතුනා සින්හලෙන් බ්ලොග් ලිපියක් ලියන්න ඔනෙ කියල මේක ටික දවසක ඉදන් තිබ්බ අදහසක්, හබැයි වැඩෙ කල් ගියේ, සින්හල යතුරුලියනය කරන්න තිබ්බ කම්මැලිකමයි. හැබැයි දැන් ඉතින් වැඩ ලේසි කරන මෘදුකාන්ග තියන නිසා හොදයි

අපේ සමහර අයගෙ මතයක් තියනවනේ ඉන්ග්‍රිසි විතරයි, සින්හල ඔනෙ නැහැ කියලා. ඒ අදහස හොද අදහසක් නෙමේ, මොකද සින්හල කියන්නෙ අපේ මවු භෂාවනෙ. ඒකහින්දා අපි ඒක රැකගන්න ඔනෙ මුලු ලෝකෙම සින්හල කථා පමන. ඒකියන්නෙ මුලු ලොක ජනගහනයෙන් ඉතා සුලු ප්‍රමනයක්. හැබැයි ඉන්ග්‍රිසි කතා කරන අය නම් ගොඩක් ඉන්නවනේ. ඉතින් අපි අපේ භෂාව රැකගත්තෙ නැත්තම්, ටික කලයක් යද්දි සින්හල කියල භාෂාවක් නතිවෙලා යයි.

ඒ අතරම තවත් කට්ටියක් ඉන්නව ඉන්ග්‍රිසි ඔනෙ නෑ සින්හල විතරයි කියාගෙන. ඒකත් හොද වැඩක් නෙමේ. තමාගේ මවු භාෂාවට වඩා තව භාෂාවන් දැනගෙන ඉන්න එක ඇගට ගුනයි , විෂෙශයෙන්ම ඉන්ග්‍රිසි. මීට හෙතුව, මේ ගොලීකරනයවූ ලොකයේ, ඉන්ග්‍රිසි තමයි වියාපාරයේ භෂාව වෙලා තියෙන්නෙ. ඉන්ග්‍රිසි නොදැන හිටිය කියල දියුනු වෙන්න බැරි කමක් නැ, හබැයි දන්නවනම් වැඩෙ ලේසි වෙනවා.

සින්හලෙන් යතුරුලියනය කරන එක තාම හුරු නෑ, එනිසා අදට මේ අති.

ඔබ සැමට ජයවේවා!!!

If you are seeing gibberish on your screen, don’t worry, this post is in Sinhala and requires Sinhala fonts. Thought I’d also join the bandwagon to promote Sinhala blogging :D

I do apologize for all mistakes, still getting the hang of typing in Sinhala :(

Coincidently, this is also my 100th post so it’s a good thing to mark a milestone he he…

Odd Stories for the day

It’s no secret that there are many individuals in this wonderful world of ours, who does not possess a full set of marbles in their upstairs region. Fortunately, they provide a bit of comic relief to us, the depressed and stressed out lot, to bring a smile and give hope to get on with our miserable lives.

A man in Zion Illinois, wants to legally change his name to “In God We Trust”. The future Mr. I G W Trust says that this will be a symbol of the help that god gave him during tough times.

Link

Another man in South Chicago Heights Illinois loved his beer so much that he made a custom made casket resembling a beer can. He hasn’t kicked the bucket yet, so he’s using it as a giant keg.

Link

A politician in Germany is thinking about donating his beard for charity.

Link

In Virginia, a woman taking her driving test, crashed into the DMV building instead of parking next to it, as instructed. Guess she was in a bit of a hurry to get that license.

The Manitoba Bar Association had to forego filing a brief because it lacked necessary funds to hire a lawyer. If the lawyers won’t take their own association pro bono, would they even bother to take other people’s cases?

A 15 year old student in Connecticut is preparing to sue his school officials for an ear injury. Apparently his teacher had rapped on the desk too hard to wake him while he was sleeping in class.

Some people in Hawaii have built a self sufficient community on burnt out lava rock just a mile away from Mount Kilauea, a still active volcano. One of the residents says that he’s more afraid of people than the volcano, which is unfortunately true these days.

A would be criminal with loose nerves had spent a little too much time trying to build up the courage, but when he finally got the guts to do it, he couldn’t go in. The bank had closed for the day.

Another smart criminal decided to call ahead at the store which he planned to rob to tell them to keep a lot of money in hand. Of course when he went to rob the place, he found himself wearing a nice pair of handcuffs.

On similar theme, a man gave his number to a store employee, and told the employee to call him when the manger, who has access to the safe, comes. And another pair was arrested after they gave detailed description of how they were going to rob a man, to that man. I just can’t understand what was going through their minds. That the victim will nicely wait for them to rob them and give all the money up?

A guy already serving 8 years for fraud has filed over 1000 lawsuits amounting to several trillion dollars against a list of people President Bush, Martha Stewart, Steve Jobs, Britney Spears, Tiger Woods (luggage theft), Barry Bonds (illegal moonshine production).

Ok that’s enough for the day.

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