EMO Music

Emo is a genre of music that originated from hardcore punk and later adopted pop punk influences when it became mainstream in the US.It has since come to describe several variations of music with common roots and associated fashion and stereotypes.In the mid-1980s, the term emo described a subgenre of hardcore punk which stemmed from the Washington, D.C. music scene. In later years, the term emocore, short for "emotive hardcore", was also used to describe the emotional performances of bands in the Washington, D.C. scene and some of the offshoot regional scenes such as Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Gray Matter, Fire Party, and later, Moss IconIn the mid-1990s, the term emo began to refer to the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi, which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate, Far and Texas Is the Reason had a more indie rock style of emo, more melodic and less chaotic. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the late 1990s, when many of the bands either disbanded or shifted to mainstream styles. As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the mainstream style.Today popular bands like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic at the Disco, and Paramore are described as emo.

Nike skateboarding

History

shoes share many similarities. Strong grips, durable ankle support, and relative comfort were some of the offerings that attracted skaters to Nike shoes. However, they were not considered the most desirable In the 1980s, skateboard companies started to pop up around the globe. However, skateboarding still had a relatively small community—not enough to attract serious interests from major shoe companies, who were battling it out for precious basketball shoe territory. This gave smaller companies a chance to gain ground in the skateboarding market. Airwalk led the charge, developing an oversized shoe that combined an inflated tongue, a thick sole, and a suede exterior. Although Nike never officially entered the skateboarding market in the 1980s, many of its shoes gained a following in the skateboarding community because skateboarding shoes and basketballskate shoes due to the "underground" nature of skateboarding at that time, and many skateboarders rejected Nike because they believed the brand was too commercial.The 1990s saw the rise of skateboarding into prominence and the vast improvement of skate shoe technology, with DC Shoes making major advances in shoe design. The company added stronger fabrics, multidensity rubber, gel pockets, plastic eyelets that encased exposed shoelaces, and soles with a gumlike grip that improved foot-to-face traction. Airforce One Shoes began to dominate the skate shoes market. In the mid-1990s, skate shoes went mainstream. Their evolution was influenced as strongly by popular culture as by the demands of skateboarding. The loud, blocky skate shoe fell from favor as the hip-hop culture of the 1990s eventually died out. The current trend reflects the punk-rock look of the 1970s. Nike started to experiment with the market by reissuing many of its older models in the late-1990s. In 2007, after failing four times to enter the skateboard market, Nike SB had emerged as a successful skateboarding company by manipulating demand for the shoes by keeping numbers down and signing many well-known skateboarders. By keeping numbers down, skateboard shop owners could sell the shoes for as much as five times the suggested $65 retail price. Critics contend that Nike still has not penetrated the skateboarding market and would point out that most of the demand for Nike SB shoes has come from shoe fetishists self-described as Sneakerheads. Nike executive Sandy Bodecker admitted that 80 percent of the shoes were initially bought by this demographic. Due to the high prices caused by the artificial scarcity of the shoes, it is highly unlikely that a person would actually use the shoes for skateboarding, as such an activity would tear the shoes up rather quickly diminishing their collectible value. 2007 also saw Nike SB release a brand new video entitled 'Nothing But The Truth' which featured the likes of team riders Brian Anderson, Paul Rodriguez Jr, Reese Forbes, Wieger Van Wageningen, Stefan Janoski, Omar Salazar, Lewis Marnell, Daniel Shimizu and Todd Jordan. We are proud to present Eberto Ruiz as part of Nike SB.

ADIDAS

ADIDAS

History

Beginnings

Adolf ("Adi") Dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his mother's wash kitchen after his return from World War I. In 1924, his brother Rudolf (Rudi) Dassler joined the business which became Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) and did well - selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War II.

However the brothers did not get along well, and in 1948 they split up, with Rudi forming Puma, and Adi forming adidas.

The company formally registered as adidas AG (with lower case lettering) on 18 August 1949. The phrase All Day I Dream About Sports is used as a retronym for adidas. However, the name is actually a portmanteau from "Adi" (a nickname for Adolf) and "Das" (from "Dassler").

Products

Football

One of the main focuses of Adidas is football kit and associated equipment. Their football boots, team kits, and warm up suits are widely used by top professional club teams. Adidas also provides apparel and equipment for all teams in Major League Soccer. Adidas remain a major player in the supply of team kits for international football teams. Current examples include France, Germany, Greece, Romania, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Russia and Nigeria. The company has been an innovator in the area of footwear for the sport with notable examples including development of the Copa Mondial moulded boot used for matches on firm dry pitches for almost forty years. The studded equivalent was named World Cup follow in celebration of the 1978 tournament won by Argentina, one of the many nations it supplied at the time. Adidas became renowned for advancing the "Predator" boot design developed by ex-Liverpool and Australian international player Craig Johnston. This groundbreaking design featured a ribbed surface structure for the upper leather of the shoe, used to accent the movement of the ball when struck. Highly skilled players claimed they were able to curve the flight of the ball more easily when wearing this new contoured design. As the development and popularity of Football continued Adidas played a leading role in shaping the style of the play itself. In its pursuit of more exciting games, featuring spectacular shots and goals FIFA, the sports governing body, commissed specially designed footballs for use in its own World Cup tournaments to favour more attacking play. The balls supplied for the 2006 tournament in Germany were particular noteworthy for their ability to travel further than previous types when struck, leading to longer range goal strikes that were intended to increase the number of goals scores and increase spectator enjoyment. Goalkeepers were believed to be less comfortable with the design claiming it would move significantly and unpredictably in flight.

GAMES

PlayStation 3

Manufacturer
Sony, Foxconn and ASUSTeK for SCEI[1]

Product family
PlayStation

Type
Video game console

Generation
Seventh generation era

CPU
3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with 1 PPE & 7 SPEs

GPU
550 MHz NVIDIA/SCEI RSX 'Reality Synthesizer'

Media
Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD (all models)
Super Audio CD (20 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB models)

System storage
2.5" SATA hard drive
(20 GB, 40 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB, or 160 GB included)

Controller input
Up to 7 Sixaxis/DualShock 3 controllers

Connectivity
(details)[show]

Online service
PlayStation Network

Units sold
14.41 million (as of June 30, 2008)[2][3] (details)

Best-selling game
MotorStorm, 3.31 million (as of December 30, 2007)[4]


Backward compatibility
PlayStation (all models)
PlayStation 2 (20,60 and 2007 80GB models)

Predecessor
PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 3 (officially marketed PLAYSTATION 3, commonly abbreviated PS3) is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.
A major feature that distinguishes the PlayStation 3 from its predecessors is its unified online gaming service, the PlayStation Network, which contrasts with Sony's former policy of relying on game developers for online play. Other major features of the console include its robust multimedia capabilities, connectivity with the PlayStation Portable, and its use of a high-definition optical disc format, Blu-ray Disc, as its primary storage medium. The PS3 was also the first Blu-ray 2.0-compliant Blu-ray player on the market.
The PlayStation 3 was first released on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America, and March 23, 2007 in Europe and Oceania. Two SKUs were available at launch: a basic model with a 20 GB hard drive (HDD), and a premium model with a 60 GB hard drive and several additional features (the 20 GB model was not released in Europe or Oceania). Since then, several revisions have been made to the console's available models.

History

Silver PlayStation 3 prototype (E3 2005 specs). Note the two additional USB ports, three gigabit ethernet ports and two HDMI ports.
Sony officially unveiled the PlayStation 3 to the public on May 16, 2005, during the E3 2005 conference. A functional version of the system was not present there, nor at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although demonstrations (such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) were held at both events on devkits and comparable PC hardware. Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 specifications was also shown (e.g. Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire).
The initial prototype shown in May 2005 featured two HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports; however, when the system was shown again a year later at E3 2006, these were reduced to one HDMI port, one ethernet port and four USB ports, presumably to cut costs. Two hardware configurations were also announced for the console: a 20 GB model and a 60 GB model, priced at $499 (€499) and $599 (€599), respectively. The 60 GB model would be the only configuration to feature an HDMI port, Wi-Fi internet, flash card readers and a chrome trim with the logo in silver. Both models were announced for a simultaneous worldwide release: November 11 for Japan, and November 17 for North America and Europe.
On September 6, 2006, Sony announced that the PAL region (Europe and Oceania) PlayStation 3 launch would be delayed until March 2007, due to a shortage of materials used in the Blu-ray Disc drive.
At the Tokyo Game Show on September 22, 2006, Sony announced that it would include an HDMI port on the 20 GB system, but a chrome trim, flash card readers, silver logo, and Wi-Fi would not be included. Also, the launch price of the Japanese 20 GB model was reduced by over 20%, and the 60 GB model was announced for an open pricing scheme in Japan. During the event, Sony showed 27 playable PS3 titles running on final hardware.

Launch

Main article: PlayStation 3 launch
The PlayStation 3 was first released in Japan on November 11, 2006 at 07:00. According to Media Create, 81,639 PS3 systems were sold within 24 hours of its introduction in Japan.
Soon after its release in Japan, the PS3 was released in North America on November 17, 2006. Reports of violence surrounding the release of the PS3 include a customer shot, campers robbed at gunpoint, customers shot in a drive-by shooting with BB guns, and 60 campers fighting over 10 systems.
On January 24, 2007, Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 would go on sale on March 23, 2007 in Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and New Zealand. The system sold about 600,000 units in its first two days. On March 7, 2007, the 60 GB PlayStation 3 launched in Singapore with a price of S$799. The console was launched in South Korea on June 16, 2007 in a single version equipped with an 80 GB hard drive and IPTV.

Hardware and accessories
Hardware

A 60 GB PlayStation 3 unit with a box and controller.
The PlayStation 3 is convex on its left side when vertical (the top side is convex when horizontal), and has a glossy black finish with the Playstation logo on the left side. Playstation designer Teiyu Goto stated that the Spider-Man font-inspired logo "was one of the first elements [SCEI president Ken Kutaragi] decided on and the logo may have been the motivating force behind the shape of PS3." The PlayStation 3 features a slot-loading 2x speed Blu-ray Disc drive for games, Blu-ray movies, DVDs, CDs, and other optical media. It was originally available with hard drives of 20 and 60 GB (only the 60 GB model was available in PAL regions). An 80 GB model has since been introduced in NTSC regions, and a 40 GB model has been introduced in all regions. All PS3 models have user-upgradeable 2.5" SATA hard drives.
The PlayStation 3 uses the IBM-designed Cell microprocessor as its CPU, utilizing seven of the eight "synergistic processing elements" (often shortened to SPE). The eighth SPE is disabled to improve chip yields (i.e. chips do not have to be discarded if one of the SPEs is defective.) Only six of the seven SPEs are accessible to developers as one is reserved by the OS. Graphics processing is handled by the NVIDIA RSX 'Reality Synthesizer', which can output resolutions from 480i/576i SD up to 1080p HD. The PlayStation 3 has 256 MB of XDR main memory and 256 MB of GDDR3 video memory for the RSX.
The system has Bluetooth 2.0, gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 and HDMI 1.3a built in on all currently shipping models. Wi-Fi networking is also built-in on the 40, 60 and 80 GB models while a flash card reader (compatible with Memory Stick, SD/MMC, and CompactFlash/Microdrive media) is built-in on 60 GB and current 80 GB models.
The PS3's hardware has also been used to build supercomputers for high-performance computing. Terra Soft Solutions has a version of Yellow Dog Linux for the PlayStation 3, and sells PS3s with Linux pre-installed, in single units, and 6 and 32 node clusters. In addition, RapidMind is pushing their stream programming package for the PS3. Also, on January 3, 2007, Dr. Frank Mueller, Associate Professor of Computer Science at NCSU, clustered 8 PS3s. Mueller commented that the 512 MB of system RAM is a limitation for this particular application, and is considering attempting to retrofit more RAM. Software includes: Fedora Core 5 Linux ppc64, MPICH2, OpenMP v2.5, GNU Compiler Collection and CellSDK 1.1.
On March 22, 2007, SCE and Stanford University released the Folding@Home project for the PlayStation 3. This program allows PS3 owners to lend the computing power of their consoles to help study the physical process of protein folding.

Accessories

See also: PlayStation 3 accessories and DualShock
Numerous accessories for the console have been developed including the wireless Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers, the BD Remote, the PlayStation Eye camera and the PlayTV DVB-T tuner/digital video recorder accessory.
At its press conference at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced the DualShock 3 (trademarked DUALSHOCK 3), a PlayStation 3 controller with the same function and design as the Sixaxis, but with vibration capability included. Hands-on accounts describe the controller as being noticeably heavier than the standard Sixaxis controller, and capable of vibration forces comparable to the DualShock 2. It was released in Japan on November 11, 2007, in North America on April 15, 2008, in Australia on April 24, 2008, in New Zealand on May 9, 2008, in Europe on July 2, 2008, and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on July 4, 2008.

PS3 GAMES

Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry 4 is the fourth installment of the Devil May Cry series. It was announced in March 2007 that the game would be released simultaneously for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
In the game, the player controls both Nero, and Dante, the game's protagonist and the series' title character respectively and fights enemies in close combat using firearms, swords, and other weapons. The characters Lady and Trish from previous games in the series make appearances, along with new characters Nero, Kyrie, Credo, Gloria, and Agnus. The game is set after Devil May Cry and before Devil May Cry 2.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Devil May Cry 4 is similar to previous games in the series. The player must fight through levels called "missions", occasionally solving puzzles or gathering items. Performance in a mission is graded from D being the bottom grade through C, B, A, and S being the highest grade. Grades are based on items used, Red Orbs gathered, time taken, and the amount of Style Points accumulated. Each Style Point grade has its own tag-word. For example, the SSS grade shows up as "Smokin' Sick Style" on the side of the screen when achieved. Stylish combat is the main focus of the game, which is conveyed through unbroken combos of varied attacks while avoiding damage. The player must avoid attack enemies to continue performing combos, often by memorizing attack patterns.
The Devil Trigger is a super state that enables the player to become more powerful adding a slow but steady health regeneration, with increased damage done. Devil Trigger can be activated by pressing the button to trigger it when the minimum amount on the gauge is filled or when the player is near death during combat, and also through items called Devil Stars.
Dante performing one of his signature moves, the Stinger attack
Some changes introduced into Devil May Cry 4 are the presence of two playable characters, Dante and Nero, and a slight modification to the shop system. A new currency, Proud Souls, is used to buy new abilities while Red Orbs are used to buy items. Proud Souls are rewarded at the end of missions and the amount varies depending on how well the player performs with S rank. Cost of abilities also increase with the purchase of other abilities, though all abilities can be sold back for the original price.
The player plays as Nero throughout most of the game. He starts and ends the game with his Red Queen sword, Blue Rose revolver, and the powers of his Devil Bringer (his demonic right arm). The Red Queen features an Exceed Gauge that can be charged up, allowing for subsequent attacks that are more powerful than regular slashes, until the gauge empties. The Exceed Gauge can also be filled by pressing the rev button at the peak of each slash, which allows for more powerful combos capable of breaking the opponent's guard. Nero also has the powers of his Devil Bringer, and can use it to pull himself towards enemies or vice-versa. The Devil Bringer may also be used for context-sensitive throw attacks, leading to high damage and various effects depending on the enemy. Nero's Devil Bringer also gains new abilities during the course of the game, such as being able to detect secret missions or caches of Red Orbs. Nero eventually gains the ability to use Devil Trigger after getting Yamato, which increases his Devil Bringer's power, thus changing his Devil Bringer attacks into more powerful versions with different animations.
The player plays as Dante through seven missions, taking over halfway through the game. His gameplay is similar to that of Devil May Cry 3, with him having access to multiple melee and ranged weapons which he gains after boss battles, and being able to cycle through them freely in combat, being no longer limited to equipping two weapons of each type as he was in the previous game. Dante also starts with his four styles (Trickster, Royal Guard, Sword Master, Gunslinger), each of which grants him different abilities, but he may now switch them at will with buttons or pads on the PlayStation 3 controller or the Xbox 360 controller, unlike in Devil May Cry 3. He also gains the Dark Slayer style near the end of his appearance, which only has one style level and can be accessed by pressing a direction button twice. Styles do not level up through experience as in the previous game, but must instead be upgraded in the shop screen in between missions or at statues. Dante can also enter Devil Trigger; in his Devil Trigger he gains most of the benefits that Nero's Devil Trigger has, though, as he does not have the Devil Bringer, he gets animation and property changes on some of his normal attacks instead.

Synopsis Characters

On September 6, 2006, Japanese video game magazine Famitsu reported that the series' eponymous character, Dante, will not be the protagonist in Devil May Cry 4. Instead, a new character named Nero, voiced and motion captured by Johnny Yong Bosch, will take the lead. Nero resembles both Dante and his twin brother, Vergil, and is part of the Order of the Sword, a group of warriors who worship Sparda.
Nero, the new main protagonist, and Kyrie look on as Dante makes his entry (in the game's Japanese version).
Nero's attire consists of blue jeans, a long blue coat, and a red vest with a hood. He wields a revolver named Blue Rose, which has a distinctive under-and-over double barrel, and a decorated single-edged sword called the Red Queen. Nero views Dante as the antagonist, after witnessing the devil hunter first killing the Order's leader, Sanctus, and then murdering members of the Order. Gameplay videos and screens reveal Dante to be an enemy boss in the game. Nero's right arm resembles a demon's arm, and glows supernaturally; it is also the source of his "Devil Bringer" power. Nero has his own "Devil Trigger" transformation, consisting of a demonic spirit hovering above him. Capcom promotional videos revealed that the spirit mimics Nero's actions and that the Devil Bringer moves change depending on whether or not the Devil Trigger is active.
Dante, the franchise's protagonist, is also playable, and has been updated with the core animations from his appearance in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, as well as that game's four basic fighting styles of Trickster, Royal Guard, Gunslinger, and Swordmaster, which can be switched at will. Game Informer reported that he was both an unlockable and playable character, playing an integral part of the game's storyline. Capcom promotional videos revealed that, like Nero and the first Devil May Cry, the properties of his moves change if the Devil Trigger is activated. Out of the 20 missions available, Dante is playable in seven of them. Returning weapons in his arsenal include the Rebellion sword, the Ebony and Ivory handguns, and the Coyote-A shotgun, but he will be able to acquire new Devil Arms after defeating enemy bosses.

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