2008

After Adobe absorbed Macromedia, Dreamweaver remained the default tool for many small teams building corporate sites, portfolios, and internal portals. Dreamweaver CS4 adds better CSS tooling, Live View powered by WebKit, and closer ties to the Adobe stack — but the hard part is still the same: keeping sites maintainable after launch. What CS4 Improved Live View renders pages with a WebKit engine — closer to Safari and Chrome than the old Design view approximation Stronger CSS panel workflows for designers who do not want to hand-write every rule Better code hinting for PHP and JavaScript Integration hooks for Photoshop comps and Bridge asset management Spry framework widgets for menus and form validation — use sparingly Subversion integration for teams finally moving off shared folders Live View reduces “upload and pray” cycles. You still need to test in IE7 and Firefox 3 — WebKit is not the whole audience. ...

Johnny Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was a Grammy Award-winning American country singer-songwriter. Cash is widely considered to be one of the most influential American musicians of the 20th century. Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice, the “freight train” sound of his Tennessee Three backing band, his demeanor, and his dark clothing, which earned him the nickname “The Man in Black”. He traditionally started his concerts with the introduction “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”. ...

A hacker who posted candid photographs of Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus on the internet was the subject of an FBI raid yesterday. 19-year-old Josh Holly, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, boasted that he had broken into the Disney teen queen’s email account and stolen photos - including, according to media reports, pictures of her baring her midriff in the shower, and “posing provactively” in her underwear and swimsuit. ...

If Sysinternals shows you what is running, OllyDbg shows you what a program is thinking — one x86 instruction at a time. In 2008 it is the standard debugger for 32-bit Windows binaries: unpack a crackme, trace a malware sample in a lab, or understand why an installer behaves oddly when the vendor will not answer support calls. OllyDbg 1.10 is the version most people use. It is freeware, debugger-only (no disassembler license debates), and extensible with plugins. ...

Korn, occasionally typeset as KoЯn or KoRn, is an American rock band from Bakersfield, California, and is often credited with popularizing the nu metal genre. Along with other bands at the time, they have also inspired many nu metal and alternative metal bands throughout the mid 1990s and early 2000s. The band’s catalogue consists of nine consecutive debuts in the top ten of the Billboard 200, including a compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol.1, and their untitled eighth album, released on July 31, 2007. To date, Korn has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, including 16.5 in the U.S., whilst earning six Grammy nominations—two of which they have won. ...

Google Chrome arrived yesterday as a Windows beta with a comic explaining multi-process tabs and a reputation for speed. Another browser is the last thing some people wanted. For web developers and security folks, it is a big signal: the rendering engine wars are back. Mac and Linux versions do not exist yet. This is a Windows-only beta — but the design choices are worth studying regardless of platform. What Is Different Separate processes per tab — one crash does not take down everything Sandboxing ambitions — harder for web content to touch the system V8 JavaScript engine — fast enough to change how web apps feel in the browser Minimal UI — the address bar doubles as search, fitting Google’s habits Incognito mode — private browsing without digging through menus Silent auto-update — patches ship without a user-facing version bump Chrome uses WebKit for rendering — the same engine family as Safari — with Google’s own V8 replacing JavaScriptCore for script execution. ...

Robert James Richie (born January 17, 1971 in Romeo, Michigan), known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American musician and actor. He has sold over 23 million albums since the release of his debut album Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast in 1990. Jive Records released him from his contract in 1991, and in 1992 he signed with Continuum Records. He released 1993’s The Polyfuze Method and the 1994 EP Fire It Up!. Continuum Records didn’t have the resources to push him and eventually went bankrupt. Kid Rock then started his own label in 1994 called Top Dog Records. After releasing demo tapes and working as a janitor to pay for studio fees, he released Early Mornin Stoned Pimp in 1996, which became a local smash hit. He held a special showcase concert, with only Atlantic Records showing up; they signed them to a record contract. ...

Avril Lavigne Whibley (born September 27, 1984), better known by her birth name of Avril Lavigne (pronounced /ˈævrɨl ləˈviːn/), is a Canadian Grammy award-nominated rock singer, musician, fashion designer and actress. In 2006, Canadian Business Magazine ranked her the seventh most powerful Canadian in Hollywood. Lavigne’s debut album, Let Go, was released in 2002. Over 16 million copies were sold worldwide and it was certified six times platinum in the United States. Her second and third albums, Under My Skin (2004) sold 8 million copies and The Best Damn Thing (2007) currently over 5 million copies sold respectively, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Lavigne has scored six number one songs worldwide to date and a total of eleven top ten hits, including “Complicated”, “Sk8er Boi”, “I’m With You”, “My Happy Ending”, and “Girlfriend” which became #1 hits in the ARC Top 40. In December 2007, Lavigne was ranked at #7 in the Forbes “Top 20 Earners Under 25”, with an annual earnings of $12 million. Currently, Avril Lavigne has sold about 30 million albums worldwide. ...

Coldplay are an alternative rock band formed in London, England in 1997. The group comprises vocalist/pianist/guitarist Chris Martin, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Will Champion. Coldplay have sold 32.5 million albums, and are also known for their hit singles, such as “Yellow”, “The Scientist”, “Speed of Sound”, “Fix You”, “Viva la Vida” and the Grammy Award-winning “Clocks”. Coldplay achieved worldwide fame with the release of their single “Yellow”, followed by their debut album, Parachutes (2000), which was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Its follow-up, A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), was named _NME’_s Album of the Year. Their next release, X&Y (2005), received a generally positive reception. The band’s fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), was produced by Brian Eno and released again to largely favourable reviews. All of Coldplay’s albums have enjoyed great commercial success. ...

Stacy Ann Ferguson (born March 27, 1975), better known by her stage name Fergie, is an American pop/R&B singer-songwriter, actress, and rapper. She is a former member of the kids’ television series Kids Incorporated, and the girl group Wild Orchid. Ferguson was also a co-host of the television show Great Pretenders. She is currently a vocalist for the hip hop/pop group the Black Eyed Peas, as well as a solo artist, releasing her debut album, The Dutchess, in 2006. The album has so far spawned three U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number one singles and five Top 5 hits, making The Dutchess the seventh album from a female artist to spawn five Top 5 hits. ...

Peter Heppner (born 1967 in Hamburg) was the lead singer for the German electronica/synth pop band Wolfsheim, and has collaborated with many other electronic music acts, such as Paul van Dyk, Schiller, and Goethes Erben. Although he’s been active in Wolfsheim since 1987, his first commercial success was in 1991 releasing the single “The sparrows and the nightingales”. In 1998 he had a big charts success doing a song with 80’s star Joachim Witt, releasing the single “Die Flut”. In the years following, his notability as a singer increased. Collaborating with the electronic music project Schiller, he reached charts positions in 2004 with the songs “Dream of you” and “Leben… I feel you”. In the same year, he released the song “Wir sind wir” together with Paul van Dyk. Although the song was controversial because of its message (which could be interpreted as nationalist), the artists recorded another version together with the Filmorchester Babelsberg for the Day of German Unity on October 3rd, 2005 in Potsdam. A more recent project with Mila Mar and Kim Sanders from Culture Beat spawned the single “Aus Gold”, intended to support Afghanian poorhouses together with the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz. ...

James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount, February 22, 1974) is a British singer-songwriter whose debut album, Back to Bedlam, and single releases — especially the number one hit “You’re Beautiful” — brought him to fame in 2005. His style is a mix of pop, rock and folk. Along with vocals, James Blunt performs a variety of instruments, including piano and guitar. He is signed to Linda Perry’s independent American label Custard Records. Blunt won two BRIT Awards and two Ivor Novello Awards, and was nominated for five Grammy Awards in 2006. Blunt subsequently released his second album, All The Lost Souls, in 2007; this album was certified gold within its first week of release. The first single from his second album, “1973”, was Blunt’s first Global Number 1 in October 2007, beating “You’re Beautiful” which peaked at Number 2 in the United World Chart. ...

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American Latin rock musician and guitarist. He became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which created a highly successful blend of salsa, rock, blues, and jazz fusion. Their sound featured his melodic, blues based guitar lines set against Latin percussion such as timbales and congas. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades, and experienced a sudden resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Rolling Stone also named Santana number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003. ...

Tiësto (IPA: /tiɛsto/; born Tijs Verwest (IPA: /tɛɪs vɛɹʋɛst/) on January 17, 1969 in Breda, North Brabant, Netherlands) is one of the world’s most famous trance DJs and producers in the electronic dance music scene. Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto. On his latest productions, however, he has dropped the “DJ” label and he is now known simply as “Tiësto”, an alias which is an Italian twist on his childhood nickname. ...

Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. (born October 20, 1972), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, singer, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as an MC in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of producer Dr. Dre’s most notable protégés. His catch phrase is “-izzle,” a style of slang invented by Frankie Smith and The Gap Band in the early eighties, and popularized in part by fellow rapper E-40. ...