$499 iPad Costs Apple About $229 In Direct Manufacturing Costs

In materials and manufacturing charges, the $499 iPad costs Apple about $229.35 to make, according to ISuppli, a market-research firm.

A look inside Apple Inc.'s new iPad points points to some familiar component suppliers. say they also found some new clues about the performance and durability of the long-awaited tablet-style computer.

iFixit Inc. and UBM TechInsights - firms that specialize in disassembling and analyzing electronic hardware - began taking iPads apart shortly after the product went on sale Saturday morning. Their research was aided by the unexpected disclosure on Friday of photographs of the iPad and its components from the Web site of the Federal Communications Commission, which reviews high-tech devices for potential electromagnetic interference with other products.

Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., built on technologies it used in the popular iPhone and iPod Touch in designing the iPad. One of the most prominent is Samsung Electronics Co., a major maker of semiconductors as well as consumer-electronics products. Apple has used the Korean company and Toshiba Corp. of Japan as its main suppliers of flash memory, chips frequently used to store data in portable devices. IFixit and UBM TechInsights said Samsung supplied the flash chips found in the iPad, one of the most costly parts of the system. Apple had used Samsung microprocessors—based on a design popularized by ARM Holdings PLC—to provide the primary calculating engines in the iPhone and iPod Touch.

For the iPad, Apple for the first time designed its own ARM-based chip, dubbed the A4. The A4 chip comes stacked with another variety of memory chips from Samsung—known as DRAM, for dynamic random-access memory—according to iFixit, which said it used X-ray photography of the chips' plastic packaging. The proximity of the chips suggests that Samsung also manufactured the A4 for Apple.

The DRAMs used in the iPad read and write data in 64-bit chunks, one potential reason why reviewers have called the iPad surprisingly fast. That helps it move a lot of data a lot faster. You are getting two to three times as many bits vs. other products.

Like Apple's MacBook Pro, much of the iPad is machined from a solid block of aluminum, which increases weight slightly but makes the device more rigid than many laptops Apple also used more epoxy to glue chips to circuit boards than in most other devices, adding to the iPad's durability. The iPad's battery is another reason for its 1.5- pound weight, which is less than conventional laptops but more than some e-readers like Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle.

Some reviewers have praised the iPad battery for lasting longer on a charge than the 10 hours Apple claims. The device actually uses two batteries wired in parallel, giving the device 5.5 times the capacity of the battery in the iPhone. The battery supplier is Amperex Technology Ltd., a Hong Kong-based company that is a unit of Japan's TDK Corp.

In addition, Broadcom Corp. supplies chips that help manage the machine's touch screen as well as allowing it to communicate using Wi-Fi and BlueTooth technology. Texas Instruments Inc. supplies another chip associated with the touch screen. Cirrus Logic Inc. supplies a chip for managing audio in the device.

wsj, 4/5/10

Prostate Cancer Gene Found

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men in the UK, but the disease has baffled scientists, who know less about it than any of the other major cancers. Now, Liverpool University scientists working in partnership with the Institute of Cancer Research have made a vital discovery. This will enable doctors to predict how aggressive the cancer is likely to be – and tailor treatments accordingly.

By the age of 65 many men will have some cancer cells in the prostate, but most will live out their natural span without the disease having any ill effects. Nonetheless, the disease kills 10,000 men a year in the UK. Prostate cancer can be treated – but the treatments carry a real risk of serious and permanent side effects, including incontinence and impotence. Since there has been no marker to distinguish harmless from aggressive cancer cells, many men prefer to cross their fingers and hope for the best; conversely, many thousands suffer invasive treatments which they may not require.

“A test to distinguish between aggressive tumours, the tigers, and those that are pussycats, has been the holy grail of prostate cancer research”, says Professor Colin Cooper of the Institute of Cancer Research, whose research team has been collaborating with a Liverpool team led by Professor Chris Foster. Together, they discovered that the E2F3 gene is a marker of how aggressive the prostate tumour will be.

“This should enable the development of a test to distinguish between aggressive and non-aggressive prostate cancer cells”, says Colin Cooper, “and we hope to achieve this within the next five years.

Professor Peter Rigby, Chief Executive at The Institute of Cancer Research, comments: “We now find ourselves in the unique and exciting position of being able to test new early markers of prostate cancer progression, which previously had not been possible. A rapid and immediate expansion of our research in this area is required so that our scientific advances can be translated into patient benefit without delay.” The new discovery may also provide scientists with an exciting new drug target.

This research is an excellent example of the main cancer research funders working together to tackle a major disease. It was co-funded by the Department of Health, Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council as part of a NCRI Prostate Cancer Collaborative.

FURTHER INFO: Contact Chris Foster at Christopher.Foster@liverpool.ac.uk.

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins - What Cancer Cells Feed On

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors..

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs...

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications..

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment.. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day.. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc..) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the bo dy into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

1. No plastic containers in micro.

2. No water bottles in freezer.

3. No plastic wrap in microwave..

Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.

Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.

We should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat.

He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body.

Instead, use glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin.

Items such as frozen pizza, TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else.

Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper.

It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc.

Fast food restaurants have moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food.. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

Another Problem Caused by Deforestation

Please click on the picture to enlarge!

...with thanks to Rabea for this funny.

Apple Sells 300,000 iPads in First Day

Apple CEO Steve Jobs added: “It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world—it’s going to be a game changer.”

By comparison, Apple sold 270,000 original iPhones in the first 30 hours or so of its availability. That’s right, the iPad outsold the iPhone on day one—and that’s for a “third” device in an unproven category. You could argue that the ability to pre-order increased the window for people to buy, but I think that washes out with the fact that almost everybody who pre-ordered had never so much as touched the device.

Comparisons to later iPhone models aren’t too shabby either. Apple sold one million of both the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS in each of their first weekends—that’s an average of about 333,333 per day. It took the original iPhone 74 days to reach its millionth sale, so all eyes will be on Apple to see when the iPad hits that milestone.

And make no mistake: both apps and e-books are going to be a big part of the iPad’s success. In addition to the iPad sales number, Apple said that iPad users downloaded more than a million apps from the App Store and more than 250,000 e-books from the iBookstore in the first day alone. Said Jobs: “iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad.”

Meet the iPad

First, the screen: It’s big and bright, with vibrant colors that can really take your breath away. When we launched the third-party Epicurious app, the bright red splash screen was shocking; the colors on the in-beta Marvel Comics app were similarly impressive. The iPad’s screen doesn’t feel like a laptop screen ripped away from its keyboard; it definitely feels more like a big iPhone screen. In a good way.

People who say the iPad is dumb because it’s just a big iPhone are missing the point—that expanded real estate changes everything. Instead of having to go the iPhone route and cram everything into a series of back-and-forth, drill-down-then-pull-back-up screen stacks, iPad apps have room to breathe. Many of them display a split-view in landscape mode, with content on the right and an index of items in a column on the left. The new “popover” interface convention and added items on toolbars increase functionality in a way that wouldn’t have made sense—and wouldn’t have fit—on an iPhone or iPod touch.

The device itself feels really fast. There are no delays when panning and zooming, even though you’re moving around lots more pixels than on the iPhone or iPod touch. Running Safari is a real joy, because you can pan and zoom with ease.

Getting the iPad in the right position for watching a movie or typing is key, and it might mean that having a case for your iPad will be far more critical than having an iPhone case. For example, a case can give your iPad a slight incline in your lap so that it’s a bit easier for you to see and to type on. On a table, too, a little bit of an incline—or a dock!—helps a lot.

Attaching the iPad to Apple’s Keyboard Dock proved that you can type at full speed and the Notes app won’t bat an eye. The Keyboard Dock is surprisingly heavy—presumably because it needs to counterbalance the iPad so it doesn’t fall over!

Apple’s Keyboard Dock is heavier than it looks. But you can use it to type at full speed on the tablet.

Pairing the iPad to a Bluetooth keyboard was also easy. We tried the Apple Wireless Keyboard. as well as a MacAlly Bluetooth keyboard; both paired immediately and were just as responsive as the Keyboard Dock (although they’re missing the iPad-specific special-function keys of the Keyboard Dock; we’ll get into that more in an upcoming article on iPad accessories). Once again, though, you need to make sure your iPad’s on an incline somewhere or you won’t be able to see what you’re typing. iPad cases, mounts, and the like are going to be a

We did notice some strangeness when we tried to plug the iPad into existing iPod or iPhone accessories. Some dock-based external speaker systems didn’t work. Some Macs and AC adapters we tried were able to charge the iPad; others caused the iPad to declare it was “Not Charging” despite it being connected and syncable. It turns out that the iPad has some very specific charging requirements. With the included 10-watt USB power adapter, it charges awake or asleep. On high-powered USB ports such as most recent Macs and the iPhone power adapter, it charges as well, though more slowly, according to Apple. On Macs and PCs without high-powered USB ports, the iPad will charge when it's sleeping, but when it's awake it will display that "Not Charging" message in the status bar at the top of the screen.

Bluetooth headphones played just fine, though on-headphone controls didn’t control the iPad (as is the case with the iPhone). The controls on wired headphones, however, did work as expected. Although there’s no Voice Memos app on the iPad, the iPad can record, using compatible third-party apps, through both the internal microphone (found next to the Headphone jack at the top of the iPad) as well as the microphone on iPhone headsets.

http://www.macworld.com/article/150417/2010/04/ipad_sales.html

http://www.macworld.com/article/150267/2010/04/ipad_dayone.html

iPad Ready - News and Magazine Sites

A partial list of iPad ready newspaper, magazine, and online sites is below:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad/

Is iPad The Tablet That Finally Succeeds As A Laptop Killer?

From Walt Mossberg of WSJ: For the past week or so, I have been testing a sleek, light, silver-and-black tablet computer called an iPad. After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.

Here's Walt's video:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304252704575155982711410678.html?mod=djemWMP_h#articleTabs%3Dvideo

Here's a product slideshow:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304252704575155982711410678.html#articleTabs%3Dslideshow

Here are reader comments about iPad product and operating system vs. competitive offerings:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304252704575155982711410678.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments


But first, it will have to prove that it really can replace the laptop or netbook for enough common tasks, enough of the time, to make it a viable alternative. And that may not be easy, because previous tablet computers have failed to catch on in the mass market, and the iPad lacks some of the features—such as a physical keyboard, a Webcam, USB ports and multitasking—that most laptop or netbook users have come to expect. WSJ's Personal Technology columnist Walt Mossberg reviews Apple's iPad. More than an e-reader and an oversized iPod Touch, he says the tablet computer is a "robust, general-purpose devise" with the potential to change portable computing as we know it. If people see the iPad mainly as an extra device to carry around, it will likely have limited appeal. If, however, they see it as a way to replace heavier, bulkier computers much of the time—for Web surfing, email, social-networking, video- and photo-viewing, gaming, music and even some light content creation—it could be a game changer the way Apple's iPhone has been.

The iPad is much more than an e-book or digital periodical reader, though it does those tasks brilliantly, better in my view than the Amazon Kindle. And it's far more than just a big iPhone, even though it uses the same easy-to-master interface, and Apple says it runs nearly all of the 150,000 apps that work on the iPhone. It's qualitatively different, a whole new type of computer that, through a simple interface, can run more-sophisticated, PC-like software than a phone does, and whose large screen allows much more functionality when compared with a phone's. But, because the iPad is a new type of computer, you have to feel it, to use it, to fully understand it and decide if it is for you, or whether, say, a netbook might do better. So I've been using my test iPad heavily day and night, instead of my trusty laptops most of the time.

As I got deeper into it, I found the iPad a pleasure to use, and had less and less interest in cracking open my heavier ThinkPad or MacBook. I probably used the laptops about 20% as often as normal, reserving them mainly for writing or editing longer documents, or viewing Web videos in Adobe's Flash technology, which the iPad doesn't support, despite its wide popularity online. My verdict is that, while it has compromises and drawbacks, the iPad can indeed replace a laptop for most data communication, content consumption and even limited content creation, a lot of the time. But it all depends on how you use your computer. iPad Apps If you're mainly a Web surfer, note-taker, social-networker and emailer, and a consumer of photos, videos, books, periodicals and music—this could be for you. If you need to create or edit giant spreadsheets or long documents, or you have elaborate systems for organizing email, or need to perform video chats, the iPad isn't going to cut it as your go-to device. The iPad is thinner and lighter than any netbook or laptop I've seen. It weighs just 1.5 pounds, and its aluminum and glass body is a mere half-inch thick. It boasts a big, bright color 9.7-inch screen that occupies most of the front.

As on all Apple portable devices, the battery is sealed in and nonreplaceable. It has a decent speaker, and even a tiny microphone. Memory, also sealed in and nonexpandable, ranges from 16 gigabytes to 64 gigabytes. And you can order one with just a Wi-Fi wireless connection to the Internet, or Wi-Fi plus an AT&T 3G cellular connection. The Wi-Fi models will be available Saturday and the 3G models, which I didn't test, about a month later. Prices start at $499 and go to $829, with the costlier models having more memory and/or 3G. The cellular models don't require a contract or termination fee. You can pay AT&T either $15 a month for 250 megabytes of data use, or $30 a month for unlimited data—a significant reduction from typical prices for laptop cellular connectivity. I was impressed with the iPad's battery life, which I found to be even longer than Apple's ten-hour claim, and far longer than on my laptops or smart phones.

For my battery test, I played movies, TV shows and other videos back-to-back until the iPad died. This stressed the device's most power-hogging feature, its screen. The iPad lasted 11 hours and 28 minutes, about 15% more than Apple claimed. I was able to watch four feature-length movies, four TV episodes and a video of a 90-minute corporate presentation, before the battery died midway through an episode of "The Closer." Walt's mountain-view wallpaper with app icons arranged during his tests. Oh, and all the while during this battery marathon, I kept the Wi-Fi network running and the email downloading constantly in the background.

Your mileage may vary, but with Wi-Fi off and the screen turned down from the fairly bright level I used, you might even do better. Music plays far longer with the screen off. On the other hand, playing games constantly might yield worse battery life. Apple says video playback, Web use and book reading all take about the same amount of juice. When I was doing the latter two tasks for an hour or two at a time, the battery ran down so slowly for me that I stopped thinking about it. I also was impressed with the overall speed of the iPad. Apple's custom processor makes it wicked fast. Screens appear almost instantly, and the Wi-Fi in my home tested as fast as it does on a laptop. I found email easy and productive to use, and had no trouble typing accurately and quickly on the iPad's wide on-screen keyboard. In fact, I found the iPad virtual keyboard more comfortable and accurate to use than the cramped keyboards and touchpads on many netbooks, though some fast touch typists might disagree. Apple's $39 iPad case, which bends to set up a nice angle for typing, helps.

The Web browser also works beautifully, and takes advantage of the big screen to show full pages and cut down on scrolling. It even now has a bookmarks bar at the top. As noted, however, it doesn't support Adobe's Flash technology. I also was able to easily sync the iPad's calendar and contacts apps with Google and Apple's MobileMe. Apple created a touch version of its Pages word processor for the iPad. Watching videos, viewing photos, listening to music, reading books and playing games was satisfying and fun. I used the device heavily for Twitter and Facebook. And I even got some light work done in the optional iPad word processor, called Pages, which is part of a $30 suite that also includes a spreadsheet and presentation program. This is a serious content creation app that should help the iPad compete with laptops and can import Microsoft Office files. However, only the word processor exports to Microsoft's formats, and not always accurately. In one case, the exported Word file had misaligned text. When I then tried exporting the document as a PDF file, it was unreadable.

The iPad can run two types of third-party apps, both available from Apple's app store. It can use nearly all existing iPhone apps. These can either run in a small, iPhone-size window in the middle of the screen, which makes them look tiny, or blown up to double size. The larger size makes them fill the screen, but can make type inside them look blocky. Still, the dozens I tested all worked properly. And it can run a new class of specially designed iPad apps, of which Apple hopes to have 1,000 at launch. I successfully tested the revamped App Store, which features the iPad apps most prominently when you're on an iPad. Based on my very small sample, some app developers may be testing higher prices for iPad apps than the 99 cents or $1.99 typical for paid iPhone apps. The paid iPad apps I saw ranged from $3.99 to $49.99. Others were free.

Apple has rebuilt its own core iPhone apps for the iPad to add sophisticated features that make the programs look and work more like PC or Mac software. For instance, there are "popover" menus that make it easier to make choices without leaving the screen you're on. And, when the iPad is held horizontally, in landscape mode, as I often preferred to use it, many programs now have two panels, making them faster and more useful. For example, in email, a left-hand panel shows your message list, while a larger right-hand panel shows the message itself. The photo app is striking, and much more like the one on the Mac than the one on the iPhone. The device can even be used as a digital picture frame. The iPod app is beautiful, too, as are the calendar and contacts app. Unfortunately, Apple excluded some of the more familiar apps from the iPhone, including Weather, Clock and Stocks.

I tested a small selection of the new third-party iPad apps Apple hopes to have available at launch, and most were also rich and feature-filled, beyond what iPhone apps offer. These included games such as Scrabble and "Touch Hockey," a database app, news services and more. I was able to try a pre-release version of The Wall Street Journal's new iPad app (which I had nothing to do with designing), and found it gorgeous and highly functional—by far the best implementation of the newspaper I have ever seen on a screen.

Unlike the Journal's Web site, or its smart-phone apps, the iPad version blends much more of the look and feel of the print paper into the electronic environment. Other newspapers and magazines have announced plans for their own, dramatically more realistic iPad apps. I also found iBooks, Apple's book reader and store, easy to use, and read a couple of books on it. I consider the larger color screen superior to the Kindle's, and encountered no eye strain.

But the iPad is much heavier than the Kindle and most people will need two hands to use it. The iBooks app also lacks any way to enter notes, and Apple's catalog at launch will only be about 60,000 books versus more than 400,000 for Kindle. I did run into some other annoying limitations. For instance, the email program lacks the ability to create local folders or rules for auto-sorting messages, and it doesn't allow group addressing. The browser lacks tabs. And the Wi-Fi-only version lacks GPS. Also, videophiles may dislike the fact that the iPad's screen lacks wide-screen dimensions, so you either get black bars above or below wide-screen videos, or, if you choose an option to fill the screen, some of the picture may get cut off.

All in all, however, the iPad is an advance in making more-sophisticated computing possible via a simple touch interface on a slender, light device. Only time will tell if it's a real challenger to the laptop and netbook.

—Find Walt Mossberg's columns and videos, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com

Who Put The Funk In MJ's Thriller?

MJ's Thriller was way ahead of it's time, both artistically and technically.

If you listen critically to the title song "Thriller", you'll hear a tightly arranged mix of rhythms and beats.

The driving beats and poly rhythms are result of synth mastery contributed by these artists:

Anthony Marinelli: Synthesizer Programming, Programming
David Paich: Piano, Synthesizer, Rhythm Arrangements, Arranger, Synthesizer Arrangements, Keyboards
Greg Phillinganes: Synthesizer, Programming, Fender Rhodes, Handclapping, Keyboards
Steve Porcaro: Synthesizer Programming, Arranger, Programming, Synthesizer
Greg Smith: Synthesizer, Keyboards
Bruce Swedien: Effects, Sound Effects, Engineer, Mixing
Rod Temperton: Arranger, Synthesizer Arrangements, Vocal Arrangement, Synthesizer, Rhythm.

Many people think that Michael Jackson wrote Thriller, but it was another musical genius who penned the epic song that became the title track of the best selling album of all time, Rod Temperton.

RT was an original member of the Funk / Disco band Heatwave who had hits with: Always And Forever, Boogie Nights, Groove Line and Too Hot To Handle. Born in England in 1947, Rod Temperton worked in a frozen fish factory after leaving school, but had big musical ambitions. He moved to Germany in 1972 and formed a soul covers band called Sundown Carousel. It was here that Temperton met Quincy Jones and began working with him.

In the early 80's Temperton left Germany and moved to California. In 1979, Quincy Jones enlisted the songwriting of Rod Temperton for Michael Jackson's Off The Wall album. He wrote Rock With You, Burn this Disco and the title track, Off The Wall.

In 1982 Temperton wrote the title track of "Thriller" - what would go on to be the best selling album of all time.

How did the team create such haunting rhythms and driving backbeat?

Here's a list of synths used on Michael Jackson "Thriller".

Remember this was the '80's, so his mastery of synth music was indeed extraodinary. The medium was just beginning to evolve musically and technically.

Yamaha CS-80
Roland Jupiter 8 (x3)
NED Synclavier II
DK Synergy
Roland Jupiter 4
Roland MC-4 microcomposer/sequencer
Yamaha GS-1 FM synth
Oberheim Four-Voice
SCI Prophet 5 (x2)
Yamaha CE20 FM preset synth
Yamaha portasound keyboard
Roland VP-330 vocoder/strings
Bode Vocoder
E-mu Emulator I
plus a couple of Minimoogs

http://www.musicnotes.net/teaching_beat_divisions.html

http://pixelives.blogspot.com/2009/06/list-of-synths-used-on-michael-jackson.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/Michael-Jacksons-Thriller---The-Truth-About-The-Music-Genius-Behind-The-Title-Track-Of-The-Best-Selling-Album

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,107885,00.html

Making CD Mixes That Rock

Here's a list of tips on how to make CD mixes that rock !

01. Open iTunes and create a new playlist.

02. Pick a theme - First of all is the playlist for you or someone else? Are you making a CD of your favorite songs by one band or of your favorite love songs? Or are you simply trying to make a playlist with your current favorite songs? Come up with an imaginative name for your CD that expresses its theme and you'll have an easier time determining if the music selections fit under this "thematic umbrella".

03. Limit the length - A good rule of thumb is to burn a CD that lasts 79 minutes, 30 seconds including all silence between tracks. If you are making a simple CD for someone else, don't go over one disc.

04. Pick your main songs - your "tentpole" songs - that are central to the CD's theme. Add these to the playlist first.

05. Add the other songs by finding songs that fit the theme. Use iTunes' search feature to help you find songs you might have overlooked. Usually a CD can hold about 20 songs.

06. Narrow down your final playlist - Trim your playlist down to whichever length you decided on. Revisit and listen to songs to determine which you want to use.

07. Try to use only use one song per artist or at most twice. Avoid overplaying artists, especially having the same artist back to back. Vary it up and use different artists.

08. Pick your opening and closing songs carefully. These are your anchors. For the opening sequence, select several songs that quickly brings the listener into your theme, the more upbeat the better, to establish pacing and convey energy.

09. A CD's pacing can be thought of as like an arc, a wave, or a story with a definite intro, middle, and finish. Your job is to arrange the songs for greatest dramatic effect, so they build to a peak and then recede. Close with a song that feels like it wraps things up in a way that brings the CD to resolution. For example, if your CD's theme involves hope, spirituality and optimism, an excellent choice for the end song is "From A Distance" by Bette Midler. Try not to open with the "big impact" song, as it can make the remainder of the CD feel like a letdown, like your are going downhill.

10. Flow is important - Don't have a fast heavy song stop abruptly and go into a beautiful acoustic song. Think in terms of "sequences", that is, sets of 4 songs, that have a consistent beat, rhythm, flow or message. Don't have too many similar songs next to each other. If your CD is primarily upbeat songs, having 3 slow songs in a row will create boredom.

11. Listen to transitions - Skip to the end of songs and see how it sounds going into the next song. You can edit the song by right-clicking the song and selecting get info. To improve pacing and flow, use a simple music editing program (Roxio, Nero, Audacity, etc) to view the track's waveform and and delete excess silence after the song ends.

12. Volume normalization allows you to set the volume of all songs to be within the same range, so you don't have to keep adjusting the volume for every song. A free program called MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume at http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net. CD burning programs like Roxio and Nero have similar optional tools.

13. Burn your CD and for god housekeeping save the song files or playlist in a new folder so you can return to it to make additional changes or burn fresh copies in the future.

14. In a relaxed setting, audition your first CD copy. Listen critically for any errors, such as noise, spaces, uneven volume, and poor pacing. Often you'll hear how rearranging the tracks can improve the overall flow.

15. Make sure your CD doesn't "cut off" the last track, which happens when you exceed the 80 minute limit, by playing the final track entirely.

16. Do you like the way your CD captures your theme? Does the music build and unfold in a dramatic way? Does it convey energy? Do tracks fit together in a harmonic pattern, without any disjointed show stoppers?

Once you're happy with your master CD, go ahead a make copies for your friends!

from http://www.ehow.com/how_4772039_great-mix-cdplaylist.html

Arlington Cemetary - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

1. How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?

21 steps: It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.

2. How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why?

21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1

3. Why are his gloves wet?

His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle

4. Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time

and, if not, why not?

He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.

5. How often are the guards changed?

Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

6. What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?

For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10' and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30. They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives.. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform or the tomb in any way.

After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin.

The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt. There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform.. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.

The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone nor watch TV All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery . A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe Lewis, the boxer, Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII of Hollywood fame.

Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.

In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC , our US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment.

They respectfully declined the offer, 'No way, Sir!'

Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a serviceperson.

The tomb has been patrolled continuously,24/7, since 1930.

God Bless and keep them in His care

And where did they decide on the number 21? It is the total of the digits in 1776, the year of our freedom from tyrannical rule.

ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

thanks for this BB.

So You Want An iPad?

Over the weekend, The Associated Press reported that customers who buy an iPad at Apple's online store will have to wait until April 12 for shipping. Customers who ordered online before Sunday, though, are expected to get their iPads on Saturday.

Just days before the debut of the iPad, Apple stock hit a new all-time high of $233.87 today before closing at $232.39, up $1.49, or 0.6 percent.

If you want an iPad, and if you want it Saturday, you'll have to try your luck by heading to one of Apple's 221 retail stores — or, in a new development announced today, most Best Buy stores will be selling the new tablet computer. (We won't promise you, though, that there will be enough iPads for everyone who wants one.)

Apple, the Cupertino maker of "I'm A Mac" computers and "i" devices (iPod, iPhone, iPad), today released new details about the iPad launch. The "iPad connects users with their apps and content in a far more intimate and fun way than ever before," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. "We can't wait for users to get their hands and fingers on it this weekend."

Apple's stores will open at 9 a.m.; iPad buyers will be offered free personal setup for their devices. Apple also will host free workshops for customers who want to learn about the iPad.

Models with Wi-Fi only will be available Saturday, starting at $499 for an iPad with 16 gigabytes of memory. Models with both Wi-Fi and 3G wireless connections, starting at $629, will be available in late April, Apple says.

According to AllThingsD, Silicon Alley Insider and many other sites, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty expects Apple to sell 6 million iPads in 2010. Other analysts have forecast a more conservative range of 3 million to 4 million iPads this year.

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14779701

How Many iPads Have Been Ordered?

Two attempts that received widespread attention in the tech blogosphere attempted to decode Apple order numbers. Working off the assumption that these numbers were assigned consecutively to orders from the company’s online store, bloggers used a series of orders to attempt to construct a sales rate.

Andrew Erlichson, chief executive of the photo-sharing site Phanfare, based his estimate on just two sales. Erlichson said his own company assigns order numbers consecutively, which has the advantage of simplicity but may reduce the security of the system.

Another effort came from a group with considerably more experience decoding Apple sales. Members of a private message board about the company, led by Apple investors and watchers Daniel Tello and Victor Castroll, have gathered 500 order numbers and used them to estimate sales, in the iPad’s first week, of 190,000. These are based on several assumptions and exclude in-person orders and corporate sales, so may be too low.

However, Tello does have a strong track record, beating several analysts in estimates of Apple earnings and contributing to a successful effort to count iPhone sales in 2008. Having access to a group of Apple investors and customers “is the most valuable tool in my toolbox,” said Tello, a former bank data analyst who now manages his investments full-time. He added, “In a way I think analyzing a company like Apple shouldn’t be too hard. The most important part, in my opinion, is to be able to create your own assessment of the direction things are going, and somehow avoid all the punditry and biased opinions found all over the tech media coverage of this company.”

Castroll primarily follows Apple as an investor because clues are available to create such an assessment. “If you want to know Apple sales, you can look at order numbers or you can see people walking into a store,” he said. Other companies, by contrast, are “a black box.”

Other industry watchers use different techniques to measure sales. Flurry, which helps makers of mobile applications track users, can use its tools to recognize which phones people are using, through unique signatures for each device. Flurry’s technique led it to produce numbers that were disappointingly low for a new Google phone, the Nexus One. “We’re pleased with our sales volumes and with how well the Nexus One has been received by our customers,” a Google spokeswoman said, while declining to comment on specific Nexus One estimates. “The Nexus One is one of a fast-growing number of Android handsets. … Our partners are shipping more than 60,000 Android handsets each day compared with 30,000 just three months ago.”

Peter Farago, vice president of marketing for Flurry, said that users of applications which incorporate his company’s software probably cover 80% of advanced devices. He called it “a number we’re willing to live with.” He said he isn’t sure whether Flurry will estimate iPad sales, once the device starts being used by the market, because Google, Apple and other rivals in the mobile device industry are partners. “I know it would be a pretty strong scoop,” Farago said. “But when we release news, we don’t want to injure ourselves.”

Yet early sales numbers are far from definitive. Studio executives can tell their technology counterparts all about the dangers of paying such figures too much heed. A year ago, “Watchmen” debuted to an impressive opening-weekend box-office take of $55.2 million, according to Hollywood.com. It didn’t make that much in the rest of its domestic run, finishing with a gross of $107.5 million. Eight months later, its studio, Warner Bros., released “The Blind Side” and raked in a more modest opening-weekend total of $34.1 million. That film’s box-office total is $252.7 million and counting — more than twice the total for “Watchmen.”

Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, recalled taking phone calls from investors who considered the iPhone “dead on arrival” soon after its launch when early numbers from AT&T Wireless missed early sales forecasts. Munster pointed out that word of mouth and strong sustained sales rates rewrote that first impression.

Munster’s own forecast was among those that overstated early iPhone sales, predicting 355,000 purchases in the first two days of availability, compared to an announced total of 270,000 from Apple a month after the iPhone launch. “We did our work and our work was wrong,” Munster said. Learning from that experience, he attempted to predict early sales for the iPhone 3G S when it was released last year — and undershot, predicting a half million sales in the first weekend. It took three days for the handset to sell one million units.

Tanker Truck Pushes Car Along Motorway at 60 MPH

This is an amazing video of the car that was pushed sideways at 60 MPH with truck driver not realizing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr6ugVkUam8&annotation_id=annotation_388219&feature=iv

One moment, Rona Williams was driving along the motorway thinking about her forthcoming day at work.

The next, she was being shunted sideways at 60mph, trapped beneath the front bumper of a tanker whose driver did not even notice she was there.

Her terrifying ordeal was captured on film by a passenger in another car on the A1 near Leeds and has been viewed millions of times since it was posted on YouTube last week.

Mrs Williams had just joined the motorway ten minutes away from her surgery in Garforth when her car was apparently clipped by the lorry and ended up under its bumper. 'I just felt a knock and then I was travelling sideways – twisted 90 degrees clockwise,' she said.

Rona Williams: 'I just felt a knock and then I was travelling sideways'

She yanked on her handbrake, sounded her horn and flashed her hazard lights, but to no avail.

'I kept thinking, "Nobody knows I'm here. Nobody has seen me",' she said. 'I tried everything.

I was watching other cars, thinking, "Help me, just help me" – but they didn't seem to be doing very much.'

Terrified the lorry was going to ram her into the crash barrier, Mrs Williams grabbed her mobile phone from her handbag.

'I wasn't on hands-free, but I figured I wasn't really driving the car,' she said. 'I just screamed at the operator, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die! Can you do something?"

'She tried to calm me down but there wasn't really anything she could do at the end of the phone.'

Mercifully, almost a minute after her ordeal had begun, the lorry driver apparently spotted her.

'Suddenly he was all over the road,' she said. 'Finally he managed to maneuver us safely on to the hard shoulder.'

After she came to a stop she immediately phoned her husband Rob, 32 to tell him: 'You're not going to believe what's just happened.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259610/My-nightmare-oblivious-60mph-tanker-driver-shunted-sideways-A1-minute.html#ixzz0jCGNIDKD

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259610/My-nightmare-oblivious-60mph-tanker-driver-shunted-sideways-A1-minute.html#ixzz0jCFxQHjH

Saving Premature Babies' Eyesight

Dr Arnall Patz, an ophthalmologist who discovered and eliminated a major cause of blindness in premature infants -- passed away from heart disease on March 11. He was 89.

In 1954, Patz proved that treating premature babies with pure oxygen could destroy their eyesight. At the time, this was the most common cause of blindness in premature infants.

As was a young physician at Washington DC's Gallinger Municipal Hospital (now known as DC General Hospital), Patz observed that a new incubator, sealed all around to contain an inner climate, was enabling doctors to save premature babies. "But something was wrong," he told the Baltimore Sun in 2004 profile. Patz noticed that the advance coincided with an epidemic of infant blindness, and that most of the victims were "preemies" who lay for weeks in an atmosphere of near-total oxygen.

"In a question that outraged physicians at the time, but later won their admiration, Dr Patz wondered whether there might be a connection: Was it possible that oxygen was robbing babies of their sight?" the profile read. "It had become standard practice to put babies in incubators and crank up the oxygen," Patz told the Sun. "[I] could hardly blame the doctors who did this because it turned struggling babies from blue to pink."

Unable to secure grant money to prove their hypothesis, Patz and his colleague Leroy Hoeck funded their early tests with money borrowed from Patz's brother Louis, later receiving a small grant after promising to turn on the oxygen at the first sign of troubled breathing.

Their hunch was correct: Almost immediately, doctors stopped automatically giving oxygen to premature infants, ending the epidemic of blindness because of retrolental fibroplasias, now known as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). By the time the practice of providing pure oxygen to premature infants was stopped, more than 10,000 of these babies had had their eyesight destroyed.

To prove their theory, the pair of doctors conducted what is widely believed to be the first randomized controlled trial in ophthalmology. In the early 1950s, they divided 120 premature babies at Gallinger into two groups. In the first group, which received concentrated oxygen constantly, 12 infants went blind. In the second group, babies received oxygen only if they were in respiratory distress, and only one became blind.

Elevated oxygen levels, it turned out, destroyed the arteries of the eye. That in turn caused abnormally wild growth of blood vessels, irreversibly damaging the retina. It was discovered that oxygen caused blood vessels in the back of the eye to constrict. In a doomed attempt to compensate, the eye sprouted twisted vessels that would eventually bleed and destroy the retina.

"Never in the history of ophthalmology has a blinding condition become so quickly widespread and equally rapidly been abolished," wrote Scottish ophthalmologist Sir Stewart Duke-Elder in the 1970s.

The results of a subsequent larger trial led by biochemist Everett Kinsey and involving patients at 18 hospitals substantiated the earlier findings at Gallinger. Although the new understanding came too late for thousands of people who were made blind by oxygen -- including the singer Stevie Wonder.

Patz operated a ham radio from his home on behalf of the Maryland Eye Bank. According to The Wall Street Journal, Patz erected an 80 foot tower at his home and became known to amateurs across the country for putting out the word on the airwaves whenever corneas were needed for transplant.

In 2004, President George W. Bush presented Patz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, calling him "the man who has given to uncounted men, women and children the gift of sight."

- from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun for some information

How to Cool Off - Tips About Anger

Most anger-management programs use techniques borrowed from cognitive-behavioral therapy to help people deal with anger.

Here are some strategies to help keep negative emotions in check.

• Reframe the situation. Instead of seeing every inconvenience or frustration as a personal affront, imagine a benign explanation.

• Find a constructive solution to the issue at hand. "Ask yourself: what do I need to be okay right now?," suggests Rich Pfeiffer, a psychologist and board president of the National Anger Management Association, a group of about 300 practitioners. "That shifts the focus from how the other person needs to be punished to how I need to respond in a healthy way."

• Keep an "anger log" to monitor what makes you angry. Learn to identify and avoid your triggers.

• Be aware that anger tends to rise in increments. Learn to evaluate yours from 1 (frustration) to 10 (rage). If you can catch yourself at 3 or 4, you can think more rationally about the situation.

• If you feel a blowup coming on, give yourself a time-out before acting on it. "Wait 15 minutes before you say something, or an hour before you send an email. Keep your options open," says Pauline Wallin, a psychologist in Camp Hill, Pa., and author of "Taming Your Inner Brat." "If it's not going to be important in an hour, then let it go. It's not worth getting angry about."

• Get a health checkup. Medical problems such as diabetes, chronic pain, low testosterone and low estrogen, can make people very irritable. Anger, either repressed or unleashed, can cause medical problems too. Some 30,000 heart attacks each year are triggered by momentary anger, according to a 2004 Harvard study.

• Be aware of how you talk to yourself. "If you keep saying how awful this is and making yourself feel alike a victim, you will get more angry," says Dr. Wallin.

• Don't ruminate on past affronts or injustices.

• Recognize patterns. "So often, people will say, 'I'm just like my father—my father got angry'," says Dr. Pfeiffer. "You don't have to go back into their childhoods and deal with that. You just have to work on how to respond effectively now."

• Calculate what your anger is costing you. Many people with anger problems think anger gives them an edge, and establishes superiority. "Instead, you just look like an idiot," says Leon Ingram, founder of Chicago-based angermgmt.com.

• Don't use alcohol to "calm" yourself. Alcohol lowers your inhibitions so you are more likely to do or say something you'll regret later.

• Get physical, without fists. When your primitive brain senses a threat, it sets off the "fight or flight" cascade of hormones. Opt for flight instead of fight and burn off the extra adrenaline and cortisol with exercise. Even a brisk walk will help calm you down.

• The ultimate lesson: Pay more attention to the important things in life and recognize that most frustrations, inconveniences and indignities are trivial and temporary.

from WSJ.com

Obsolete Department: 8 Track Tapes Honored in New Museum

Last fall, more than 200 people crammed into one of this city's premier contemporary art galleries for a three-day show.

The show? Eight Track Tapes: The Bucks Burnett Collection. "It was packed," says gallery owner Barry Whistler.

Presiding over the affair was James "Bucks" Burnett, a portly fellow with long gray hair and a white beard. He wore a tailored brown suit covered with images from the album cover of Led Zeppelin's 1973 Houses of the Holy. Strangers showed up offering boxes of eight tracks, which Mr. Burnett happily pawed through, plucking out dusty rarities and putting them on display.

The positive response "led me to think maybe I'm not insane," says Mr. Burnett. But it also helped him realize that a brief gallery show simply can't contain his vision for the hard plastic tapes, one of the clunkiest and most short-lived music formats of all time.

He wants to open an eight-track museum. "There are only two choices. A world with an eight-track museum and a world without an eight-track museum," he says. "I choose with."

Shortly after the show, the planners of a music conference in Denton, a music-loving college town about 40 miles north of Dallas, made Mr. Burnett an offer. They would find him a vacant space and pay $4,000 to build a temporary museum for a one-month run beginning Friday.

Mr. Burnett accepted and is readying his collection for another display, this time in a former lingerie factory in Denton. He plans to showcase and play a few hundred tapes, including a baby-blue copy of The Who's "Tommy," a copy of the "Easy Rider" soundtrack with sun-bleached cover art signed by Peter Fonda and a rare copy of Lou Reed's 1975 avant-garde homage to noise called "Metal Machine Music."

This isn't the first time that Mr. Burnett, a long-time record-store owner, decided to venerate something the world was ready to forget. He edited the now-defunct Mr. Ed Fan Club newsletter for a decade. He managed the ukulele playing vibrato singer Tiny Tim and produced his final album.

At 51, he hopes to find a permanent home for his beloved eight-track collection. He has assembled a board of directors and is preparing to incorporate a nonprofit organization. "There are certainly lesser topics that have museums," Mr. Burnett says.

Peaking in popularity in the mid-1970s, eight-track tapes—about five by four inches—were made to be stuck in a back pocket and carelessly flung onto the vinyl seat of an AMC Pacer. They are the music version of cockroaches, hard to destroy. A 40-year-old tape can still sound rich and full.

Eight tracks were also revolutionary. They were the first truly portable music format, able to be played in a car, and therefore the forerunner of the Walkman, the boom box and even the iPod.

William Lear, better known for his eponymous jet, invented them in the early 1960s in part to provide music in the air. The format never quite took off above the clouds, but it did on the ground. In the 1960s, the eight track was a breakthrough in automobile music. It provided a much fuller sound than the sonically limited AM radio signal.

But the eight track's time atop the music-format food chain was brief. Its downfall was the cassette, which was smaller and ran longer, but was initially dogged by poor sound quality.

Companies poured research into cassettes, developing new coatings and tape material. In 1972, the famous "Is it live or is it Memorex?" advertising campaign began the process of convincing the music-buying public to give up their eight tracks.

When a cassette recording of Ella Fitzgerald, in a famous commercial, smashed a wine glass, the slow decline of the eight track had begun, says Jim Anderson, a professor at New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music.

Of course, the cassette was soon overtaken by the compact disc, which had superior sound quality. And today, the CD is giving way to digital downloading. Last year, Americans purchased 301 million compact discs and downloaded 78 million albums. They also downloaded 1.2 billion songs. Vinyl records sold 2.5 million. Only 34,000 albums were sold on cassette, according to Nielsen SoundScan, down from 105 million a decade ago. Nielson doesn't track eight-track sales.

Some brand new eight tracks are still made and sold. From her house in Arlington, Texas, Kathy Gibson, owner of KTS Productions, can crank out 10 an hour by hand, if the splicing machine isn't acting up and friends don't call on the phone to chat.

Last year, Cheap Trick, an American rock band that still performs but had its heyday in the late 1970s, placed a small order for its new album. It was popular enough that they asked for a second—and third—batch, she says. They are currently on back order, says the band's manager.

Eight tracks still show up on eBay and can command a premium. A quadraphonic eight track tribute album to the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin recently fetched $152. Mr. Burnett says finding some tapes—anything by trumpeter Miles Davis for instance—is really tough.

Mr. Burnett, who got his first job at a now-defunct Dallas record store in 1974 after winning an Alice Cooper-look-alike contest, didn't start collecting eight tracks until 1988, when he found an odd looking copy of the Beatles' White Album at a flea market. He decided to build a complete eight-track collection of the Fab Four, an endeavor that took more than two decades.

Along the way, he started selling eight tracks at his record store—by accident. He displayed a tape of the British punk band the Sex Pistols that he had bought for a dime on the wall near the cash register of his store.

"To ward off potential purchases and because I didn't want to sell it," he put a $100 price tag on it. "Then one day this girl came in and pulled a c-note out of her purse and bought it."

He recently sold off a good chunk of his CD collection to raise money to buy a few hard-to-find eight tracks for the gallery show. He hopes the permanent museum, whenever and wherever that might be, will be self supporting. He plans to charge a $5 admission fee.

Until that day, he continues working part-time jobs as a cashier at a local bakery and record store. His love of music—mostly classic rock—is keeping him going while he tries to turn his dream of a museum into a reality.

by WSJ.com