BlueWater - Stay Fresh

Tracklisting:

The Stance Brothers - Youth Groove
The Sound Stylistics - Soul Dynamite
Kings Go Forth - You're The One
Lefties Soul Connection - Have Love Will Travel
Judson Moore - Everybody Push And Pull
The Soul Fantastic - Funky Puggin
Art Butler - Soul Brother
York Wilborn - Thank You
Alvin Cash - Stone Thing
Dyke and The Blazers - Black Boy
Eddie & Ernie - Bullets Don't Have Eyes
Ann Robinson - You Did It
The O'Jahs - Roadside 75
The Masai - Across The Tracks
The Vibrettes - Humpty Dump
The Mohawks - Landscape
The Rhine Oaks - Tampin
Cold Grits - Its Your Thing
Ray Bryant - Little Green Apples
Ramsey Lewis - Julia


 


 


 

Download Sound Broker

tracklisting:

Soul Excitement - Stay Together
Lefties Soul Connection - Code 99
Kings Go Forth - Now We’re Gone
Funkshone - Purification Pt. 1
The Polyversal Souls - Sad Nile
The Collegiates - Red Beans And Rice
Toni And The Showmen - Try My Love
Marva Whitney - Unwind Yourself
Eddie Bo & Inez Cheatham - Lover & A Friend
Spanky Wilson - Kissing My Love
The Dirte Four - On The Move
James K Nine - Live It Up
Toby Cooper & Brick Street - The Guru
Byard Lancaster - US
Honey & The Bees - Baby, Do That Thing
El Michels Affair - Musings To Myself
Slim Willis Band - I Say That
Bill Moses & The Celestials - Everything Is Going To Be Alright
Little Beaver - Do Right Man
Sidney Owens - Sputnik
 

so its been roughly seven days - and after much tinkering, imaging,
re-imaging, and general usage altogether, i figured i should write a
bit about my experience with Sony's "don't call it a netbook" netbook
so far. in a nutshell i'm quite pleased with the machine, though it
does have it shortcomings like any piece of tech out there. i don't
think any of us has found the perfect computer that is everything we
want it to be all the time - but what the Vaio P is capable of doing
suits my needs just fine.

i used to scoff at the idea of a netbook to be honest. my brain
couldn't wrap itself around the idea of paying for a machine that
technically is like a watered down version of a full featured laptop.
why not just get the laptop? then it dawned on me. there are always
times (for me at least) when my computing needs do not warrant the use
of a full featured computer.

my current desktop pc, which has been running quite well for the past 6
years (a 2.8 ghz 4gb ram XP machine built with the help from the good
people at cappuccinopc.com) has taken the brunt of my daily computing
with no problem. alas my computing needs have changed as i have gotten

older. i no longer play games on my computers, and web browsing, along
with a bit of light audio and web editing have taken over as my main
tasks on the machine.

i do have a UMPC in my arsenal as well (a Sony Vaio UX180) but the
ultra mobile-ness of that pc becomes useless since the standard battery
lasts less than two hours. originally purchased as a compact solution
to for serato scratch when i play out at dj gigs, the computer still
has a useful purpose once or twice a week.

i have noticed though that some times i have situations where i cant or
dont want to be near my desktop, and taking my UMPC with me when i'm on
the road becomes a moot point since i always have to have it plugged
into a wall socket. there are times when all i want to do is some light
computing tasks, in short bursts of time throughout the day, and a
netbook accomplishes that task quite nicely.

so, after that lengthy rant, here are a some observations, short and sweet about the Vaio P - both likes and dislikes.

Design:

well, it oozes class. its what caught my eye in the first place during
CES. one of the reasons that kept me from buying a netbook in the first
place was that they all had the same boring design. if i'm going to
spend alot of money on a piece of tech, i want it to look good, along
with being functional. sadly though like sony's psp, this computer is a
grease and fingerprint magnet. a matte black finish like on the DSi or
the Pacemaker would have been nice. just keep that microfibre cloth
handy.

Keyboard:

easy to work with, though needs a bit of getting used to. after a few
hours of typing on it though it is very easy to use. probably because i
work off an ultra mini keyboard on my desktop, and the keyboard on my
UMPC is well, minuscule.

screen:

ah, that super wide screen. makes keeping several windows open at the
same time a breeze. also with the super high resolution on it, its very
easy on the eyes.

webcam:

standard fare here. the motion eye webcam is the same one that is on my
Vaio UMPC that i purchased almost 4 years ago. does what it needs to do.

memory cards:

nice feature here, dual memory card slots, one for SD, and one for
memory stick pro. i currently have a 4gb class 6 micro SDHC card in for
ReadyBoost which helps the OS along significantly. the nice thing about
the memory stick slot is that it fully supports the new HG Duo sticks,
which have write times of 30MB/sec. i have a stick on order and cant
wait to see the performance difference in Readyboost.

instant mode:

for me, this is what i use the most. i tend to have random spurts of
web browsing throughout the day that i would rather not do on my smart
phone, or jump onto my pc for. the instant mode satisfies my need
perfectly. the linux based os - based on sony's XMB for the ps3 and psp
is easy to use (only because i own both a ps3 and psp) so its very
familiar. firefox for linux is the default browser, and i can easily
have it booted up and running in roughly 15-20 seconds. love it love it
love it.

OS:

ah the jury is still out on this one. the machine comes with vista -
and ive never used it before because its such a resource hog compared
to XP. but the win 7 beta is also out. the last 7 days ive switched
back and forth between the two to see which runs better, and so far win
7 is in the lead. my hard drive is not constantly crunching away while
i do menial tasks like it does on vista. win 7 boots faster, and comes
out of hibernation faster as well. strangely enough though, my windows
experience scores are higher with vista, and lower on win 7. oh and
instant mode is a little buggy with win 7, but it is a beta.

media playback:

something i rarely do on a netbook since i have a desktop pc, umpc, blu
ray player, and an ipod for such things. but for the nitpicky, standard
def avi/xvid videos run fine on the machine, and higher def mp4s run
fine with a little help from powerdvd's h.264 codec. otherwise use a
healthy combo of GOM and some cccp codecs. audio files are no problem
with the machine, though the speakers are a little bit on the high end
if compared to the UX180. bring some headphones or an external speaker
if you want to hear things properly off of it.

battery:

mileage may vary here with the user. sony states the standard battery
will get you four hours of power. but i honestly do not use a net book
for hours at a time. ill boot it up, do a few quick tasks, put it in
hibernate, then come back to it an hour or 2 later on instant mode for
a few minutes. lather, rinse, repeat. but for the few times i wanted to
test the longevity of the battery i have gotten a good three hours of
straight use out of it before the battery drains and the os kicks me
into hibernation. the real answer though is with my normal usage, i get
a good 6-7 hours out of it before i have to plug in and recharge. im
considering getting the extended battery once i start traveling on the
road again for work though.

wwan:

no way in hell im going to pay for ANOTHER internet service just for a
netbook. thankfully with the use of tetherbot, i am able to use my G1's
3G internet connection to tether my netbook when im away from a wifi
source.

GPS:

takes a minute or two to get a signal but it works well. sucks battery
life and i already have gps on my phone and my garmin nuvi so its
rarely used.

price:

yes its a 900 dollar netbook - but i don't work 60 hour weeks on the road for nothin' you know. ;)

verdict:

Sony's "Lifestyle PC" looks good, and for my needs - gets the job done.

yes another new piece of tech just arrived in my hands today, the new sony vaio p series "netbook but not really a netbook"

pictures here!

photos off facebook.

been playing with it for the last few hours, am impressed so far.  enjoying the instant on XMB access, and just the sheer handiness of it all.  going to  get this machine backed up soon, and reimage it with Windows 7, results to come! :)

BlueWater - Kings and Aces

Kings Go Forth - One Day
DeRobert & The Half Truths - Fallin' In Debt
Groove Merchants - There's Got To Be Someone For Me
James Brown - Shhhhhhhh For A Little While
Slim and The Soulful Saints - Fish Head
Eddie Warner - Brutus Drums
National Soul Review - Get Me Back On Time
Rene Costy - Scrabble
Rabbits & Carrots - Expresate
Lonette - Stop
The Nu Trons - Beat
Mighty Mo and The Winchester Seven - The Next Message
Mighty Dogcatchers - It's Gonna Be A Mess Pt. 2
Gene Faith - Family Man
Ray Bryant - Up Above The Rock
Carol Jones - Don't Destroy Me
Black Bishop - Hard Times
Menahan Street Band - Tired Of Fighting
Count Yates - At The Soul In Pt. 1
Willie & The Mighty Magnificients - Make Me Your Slave

top 3 bitches. hell yea. ;)

this is what i get for letting my body clock go back on "unemployed time."

starting a new contract tomorrow, and need to get up at 5:30am to get to nyc in time. (at least a little early, ill gauge myself during the week to see when i get to work just in time.)

only for 2 months, but its something to keep me occupied, and the checks coming.

but yea, can't sleep - figures.

stupid brain has too many things running in it just when i need it to take a rest.