April 4, 2010
Appreciating The Guitar
Gaining a respect for what musical instruments can bring to life is easy to do once one takes a few minutes to look at what something like a guitar does in somebody’s hands. Not only is something like a guitar shapely and beautiful, but it also produces melodic noise that is possible even from the fingers of someone who’s never really appreciated music before deciding to give playing it a try.
For example, think for a minute about how really popular a dreadnought acoustic guitar is among certain musicians. This is especially the case when it comes to any singer-songwriter, no matter his or her fame or popularity. Because the guitar is portable and can be carried anywhere, most any musician can pull one out and work out a chord progression that may have just popped in his or her head, for example.
This is actually the real beauty of just about any guitar, because that portability means that it is easily carried around in a case or a bag, on one’s back or at one’s side. And it’s generally one of the more portable instruments out there, and certainly more so than a grand piano or drums, though this isn’t a criticism of those two types of musical instruments. However, guitars have brought music to the masses for over a century now.
Nowadays, there are more manufacturers of guitars out there then make most any other kind of musical instrument. A typical Alvarez acoustic guitar, for example, can be found in more music stores then a typical brand-name tuba or other traditional band instrument, as a matter of fact. Keep in mind that guitars are not only fairly easy to learn to play but also fairly portable, and one gets at least one part of their enduring popularity.
And it actually doesn’t really matter what kind of music is going to be played when it comes to a guitar because just about every kind or style, including classical and jazz, can be played fairly easily with a guitar. So, whenever somebody gets the itch to learn to play music, they could do worse than to consider picking up a guitar and learning to play it even just a little.
Always keep in mind that learning to play music is always easier when the instrument that is being learned is well-made. With even department stores carrying guitars these days, it might be better to spend a few extra dollars on something like a Takamine acoustic guitar that will play nicely right out of the box rather than to try to work around a department store guitar that is probably cheap and difficult to play well.
Gaining the respect for what musical instruments can bring, therefore, begins to happen almost as soon as one looks at the instrument and then picks it up. Guitars, because they are relatively easy to learn to play, have been popular among the masses for going on a century now. And well-made ones really make the task of learning to play music much easier than almost any other instrument, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Filed under Computer Hardware & Accessories by artnet
February 2, 2010
What’s In A Name?
Sony, Nike, Gucci, BT, Microsoft, Ford, Armani… and so on, names we tend to come across in lifestyle, these are high “manufacturer brands”, then there are Tesco, Next, M&S, GAP, Burberry, Virgin etc, these are prime “retail brands”. Most of us are very familiar with these brands as we have seen them around for a while and have grown to trust them, we tend to apprehend who they’re and what to expect from their products.
It is also common apply for folks to become brand loyal too, i.e. you are trying and just like the merchandise of a complete and then stick to that whole, or buy a product sort of a Fuji digital camera and use a Fuji memory card to go with it. In fact, the brands actively encourage brand loyalty e.g. if you get an Epson printer, the corporate’s literature can encourage the use of Epson ink cartridges.
Several individuals are then surprised, to find out that their famous brand camera, watch, car, clothing, laptop etc, isn’t really created by the corporate whose name appears on the merchandise, but by another company they maybe have never heard of. This company is known as the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) being the actual manufacturer of the merchandise which is sold below it’s own complete, or the whole of another company, usually using that company’s design, specifications etc.
Some OEM relationships are public knowledge e.g. Tesco do not produce instant low, thus, a second occasional producer makes Tesco instant coffee. Alternative OEM relationships are less obvious e.g. BT fax machines are largely created by Olivetti, early Hewlett Packard digital cameras were created by Pentax and 70% of the notebook computers sold in the world (Dell, Compaq, HP, Apple, IBM, Sony etc.) are made by Quanta Computers in Taiwan and MG Town Rover is created by Tata, the most important automobile manufacturer in India.
Several OEM relationships are well-kept secrets or a minimum of kept discrete and known only to trade insiders e.g. Dell and Lexmark, from 2002 Lexmark manufacture Dell inkjet printers, laser printers and connected print cartridges. Sony and Sandisk jointly develop and produce Memory Stick cards, which are sold below both brands etc.
Thus, is that this a good or unhealthy factor? Well, it’s a good factor for the patron because these joint collaborations drastically reduce new product development and production costs, ultimately this saving interprets into lower prices of merchandise for all of us. However, it is value bearing in mind, {that a} a lot of expensive brand might not necessarily be a better product, or perhaps any different to a lower priced product.
For our half at Mouse2House, we have a tendency to actively provide major complete products also different brands that in our expertise we have a tendency to have found to represent good or higher value.
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Filed under Computer Hardware & Accessories by artnet