A blog where the Savage nonsense that So-cals Snowman regurgitates & makes it on the web. As an aspiring hip-hop artist, things from dope new music, crap music & strange things that have to do with music may appear. You may also see posts from the MMORPG Perfect World which rocks! Its 100% FREE! Been playin since Oct09. Besides music & games you will get my once in a while random rants,crazy drug news & funny shit I find on the web.
Under a new system set up by Sprint, law enforcement agencies have gotten GPS data from the company about its wireless customers 8 million times in about a year, raising a host of questions about consumer privacy, transparency, and oversight of how police obtain location data.
What this means -- and what many wireless customers no doubt do not realize -- is that with a few keystrokes, police can determine in real time the location of a cell phone user through automated systems set up by the phone companies.
And while a Sprint spokesman told us customers can shield themselves from surveillance by simply switching off the GPS function of their phones, one expert told TPM that the company and other carriers almost certainly have the power to remotely switch the function back on.
To be clear, you can think of there being two types of GPS (global positioning system). One is the handy software on your mobile device that tells you where you are and helps give driving directions. But there's also GPS capability in all cell phones sold today, required by a federal regulation so if you dial 911 from an unknown location, authorities can find you.
Sprint says the 8 million requests represent "thousands" of individual customers -- it won't say how many exactly -- and that the company follows the law. It's not clear, however, if warrants are always needed, or whether they have been obtained by police for all the cases.
We know the 8 million number thanks to an Indiana University graduate student named Christopher Soghoian, who has made headlines before for investigations of privacy and tech issues.
At a recent professional security conference attended -- and taped -- by Soghoian, Sprint Manager of Electronic Surveillance Paul Taylor revealed the 8 million figure. "[T]he tool has just really caught on fire with law enforcement," he said:
We turned it on the web interface for law enforcement about one year ago last month, and we just passed 8 million requests. So there is no way on earth my team could have handled 8 million requests from law enforcement, just for GPS alone. So the tool has just really caught on fire with law enforcement. They also love that it is extremely inexpensive to operate and easy
It's useful to keep in mind that, as Sprint spokesman Matt Sullivan tells TPM, "every wireless carrier has a team and a system" through which police can access GPS data. Sprint is the company unlucky enough to find itself the focus of scrutiny, but it reportedly controls just 18% of the U.S. wireless market, making it the third largest carrier.
Sprint says the 8 million figure "should not be shocking given that Sprint has more than 47 million customers and requests from law enforcement and public safety agencies" include missing person cases, criminal investigations, or cases with the consent of the customer. (Read the company's full statement here.)
Privacy advocates, though, are alarmed. "How many innocent Americans have had their cell phone data handed over to law enforcement?" asked Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a lengthy response to the revelation. He goes on:
How can the government justify obtaining so much information on so many people, and how can the telcos justify handing it over? ...
What legal process was used to obtain this information? ...
What exactly has the government done with all of that information? Is it all sitting in an FBI database somewhere?
Bankston calls on Congress "to pull the curtain back on the vast, shadowy world of law enforcement surveillance and shine a light on these abuses."
Sullivan, the Sprint spokesman, tells TPM that for certain requests the police pay a fee to Sprint to cover costs. But it's not just a question of paying an entry fee to access the system; Sullivan says there's a legal process. "Before [law enforcement] can access any customer data, they have to show proper legal demand," and "the parameters of the information they can receive is extremely specific, including the duration they can look at it and the specific data."
It's not clear, according to EFF, that "proper legal demand" always means a search warrant.
Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute has chimed in with a look at the current state of the relevant law, including the 2005 reauthorization of the PATRIOT act. He concludes that it's "quite likely that it's become legally easier to transform a cell phone into a tracking device even as providers are making it point-and-click simple to log into their servers and submit automated location queries."
Another key question: can customers disable the GPS on their wireless devices? Sprint's Sullivan says its his "understanding" that privacy settings on phones can be set to turn off GPS, in which case, he says, police trying to conduct surveillance would not be able to track a phone.
But Jeff Fischbach, a California-based forensic technologist who has been a technical consultant on many criminal cases over the years, tells TPM he's seen empirical evidence that the privacy settings are essentially meaningless. Again and again, he says, "I've seen GPS data from defendants who told me [the function] was switched off."
Saying there's nothing technically sophisticated about switching on GPS capability remotely, Fischbach observes that if it's really possible to switch off GPS on a phone, "it would almost be like saying license plates are optional."
We may be getting more answers soon. With buzz growing around Soghoian's report, first posted on his blog, Sprint has been forced to respond publicly. Fischbach believes it's only a matter of time before the company is forced to make more disclosures to the public.
"Sprint's going to have to calm people down," he says.
1. (00:05:08) DJ LIL M - Donnell Jones - Where I Wanna Be
2. (00:04:24) DJ LIL M - Chris Brown - Glow In The Dark
3. (00:04:29) DJ LIL M - Jaheim - Closer
4. (00:04:38) DJ LIL M - Melanie Fiona - It Kill Me
5. (00:04:27) DJ LIL M - Alicia Keys - Wait Till You See
6. (00:05:02) DJ LIL M - Breez E. - Im Sorry
7. (00:07:13) DJ LIL M - R-Kelly - Pregnant
8. (00:05:30) DJ LIL M - Robin Thicke - Sex Therapy
9. (00:04:49) DJ LIL M - Rihanna - Fire Bomb
10. (00:05:00) DJ LIL M - Omarion - Speedin
11. (00:02:51) DJ LIL M - Monica - Everything
12. (00:04:31) DJ LIL M - Tydis - Make Me Say
13. (00:04:49) DJ LIL M - Alicia Keys - Un-Thinkable
14. (00:04:44) DJ LIL M - Ne Yo - Im Feelin So Fine
15. (00:04:47) DJ LIL M - Keelyn Ellis - Wet
Basically you are lookin at a chopped and screwed mixtape of baby makin music(weird i know haha) by some of the best like R kelly' Ne-yo, Robin Tkicke, Rhianna and luv em or hate em Chris Brown.
The FUNNY THING about this shit being chopped and screwed is it works real fuckin well. im serious too! i mean chris brown sounds like a baratone old school singer. that deep kind of sexy voice that made ppl make babies back in the 70s from songs by marvin gaye and Barry White. they dont chop it up all crazy so it works very nicely. this mixtape is a HUGE surprise to me since i rrely check out these r&b mixtapes but this is worth the listen people. 5 stars for sure yo!
it makes u think barry whites alive and covering new releases haha download below
Okay this is the new Canibus record the newest solo album since For Whom The Beat Tolls. (Im not counting the undergods album with keith murray)
Now I love Canibus, I think hes one of the greatest lyrical MCs to ever grace the microphone. hes one of those super lyrical demons like big pun or eminem or umm o ya black thought and the such. MCs in a league of their own really and at a level above all other rappers in the game. Even though i a natural fan im not reviewing this record with a biased view. I love hip hop and know what good hip hop is.
Okay first here is the track listing of the album
1. Melatonin Magik Intro
2. Melatonin Magik - (featuring DJ Immortal/Professor Griff)
3. Kriminal Kindness - (featuring Professor Griff)
4. Hip-Hop Black Ops - (featuring Professor Griff)
5. Dragon Of Judah, The - (featuring Professor Griff)
6. Post Traumatic Warlab Stress - (featuring DZK/Warbux)
7. Air Strike [Pop Killer] - (featuring D12/DZK/DJ Immortal)
8. Fraternity of The Impoverished - (featuring Professor Griff)
9. Dead By Design - (featuring Professor Griff)
10. Only Slaves D.R.E.A.M. - (featuring DJ Immortal)
11. Ripperland - (featuring The Goddess Psalm One/Johanna Blackstone)
12. Stomp On Ya Brain - (featuring Journalist)
13. Beat Butcha Get Em' - (featuring Son One/Jaecyn Bayne/DJ Immortal/Chopp Devize/Rock "Heltah Skeltah")
14. Do It Live! - (featuring Skarlit Rose/Blaq Poet)
15. Sharpshootaz Blastin' Caps - (featuring Born Sun/Willie Dynamite/K-Solo/Maintain)
As a whole the album was a big surprise. For Whom the Beat Tolls(FWTBT from now on) was great but it was more on the side of the Canibus style that is more scientific and didnt contain real hip hop kind of beats. The lyrics were amazing but it wouldnt appeal to anyone but the Canibus loyals. Melatonin Magik is nothing like FWTBT, the lyrics are amazing really shows Canibus still has it 10+ years later. Anyone who listened to most of his work since 200 BC know his luyrics kinda fell off for a couple years and weren't jaw dropping like his early albums but Melaton Magik in this fans opinion shows Canibus is in great lyrical fitness and is back and ready to kill. The entire album is full of amazing and intelligent lyrics and great beats. There really is not one bad track on the album, Canibus fan or not any hip hop fan will love this album.
The introduction is like a lot of Canibus albums and starts with some sientist and people talking about the chemical melatonin and goes into a cool lil beat. just chill and pretty cool.
It's just blabber and goes into track 2 called Melatonin Magik starting with a army horn and opening verse "This is Melatonin Magik! Humarian, Chinese Egyptian, Latin, nobody can match Canibus when I'm rappin" which is fucking savage to start a track with. The beat is great. with a real interesting sound you would never hear from artists like lil wayne or 50cent. it feels like a canibus rhyme but its fucking bangin! not weird like some of his older beats where the lyrics were the only good thing about the song. tthis is a perfect start to a great album. 4 1/2 stars
Track 3 Kriminal Kindness starts with a piano and i looove piano beats. this again has a real good beat and Canibus kills it talking about how he killed mixtapes and says "I don't give a fuck if i sell one unit, that's not the reason i do it!" the beat though is fucking savagery yo, im dying to find the instrumental. the piano in the beat is beautiful and theres not one bad verse in the song. 5 stars
Track 4Hip Hop Black Ops has an average but cool dark beat and Canibus kills it spittin rhymes about hip with a military spec ops kind of theme which isnt a surprise since Canibus was a spec ops soldier for like 4 years and got honorably discharged for a dirty urine test(for ganja lol) but the lyrics are killer. 3 stars
Track 5The Dragon of Judah is an AMAAAAZING track really a canibus masterpiece. Just check out the youtube video below and read the lyrics for yourself. I was lovin it when i first heard it. 5 stars +1 lol
Track 6 Post Traumatic Warlab Stress (Feat. DZK & Warbux) is an average beat with savage lyrics, its still a dope track but not one of the best on the album. The beat is just nothing special. DZK and Warbux do a great job on the track though as well. Theres not much to say about the track besides its a dope track but I believe the beat to be dope but not savage. 3 stars
Track 7 Air Strike (Pop Killer) (Feat. D12 & DZK) Now THIS IS A FUCKIN DISS TRACK! I am an Eminem fan do not get me wrong everyone but they smash on Em in this track. I had no idea D12 was not on good terms and i don't think they are I just now found this on some forum it may be tru or not who knows. Regardless 4 1/2 stars
***D12's own Swifty McVay explains how the Eminem diss, included verses from D12. "That was us but the guy set us up," Swift said of DZK (who is also featured on the song). "He asked us to do a track with him when he already was teamed up with Canibus without us knowin. They dissed Em, took our verses an added them to the song so they can bring traffic and make it seem like we turning on em...***
Track 8 Fraternity of The Impoverished - (featuring Professor Griff) has a cool beat and semmes to be Canibus rappin about his lyrical fitness and opinions on the industry and wack MCs. shit about how the government lies andkeeps secrets and about prophecy and the usual savage crazy Canibus stuff. "This is the season of Hip Hop, I aligned it with the Planets equinox" this is a great hip hop track with ill lyrics. I love it. I give it 4 stars
Track 9 Dead By Design has a beautiful beat with a pino in the background and as is aid im a sucker for piano beats. The lyrics are dope with great metaphors describing how ill he is and how he says fuck the industry he will always do what the fuck he wants and continue doing it no matter what. Which in this fan and artists opinion is what everyone calling themselves an MC should believe. Just like IMmortal Technique not accepting rcord deals because they told him to change what he wrote. Never give away freedom of speech for any price. The entire track Canibus spits on these kind of subjects and how he is over the LL bullshit and ppl still ask about it 12yrs later and how he doesn't have the props he really does deserve. I wish I could write this one verse that was insane ill just google it and here it is: So if you don't care, fine then, I dont care eitherBut I aint spineless like you, I'm a true believerIn the metaphysical ether, you listening to the lyrical reaperThe spiritual teacher, empirical speakerAfter this album they gonna call me a leader Now that is what i call fucking savage lyrical fitness. i want wayne to spit something close to that. The day that happens God will appear and kick Arsenio hall in the balls.
Track 10 Only Slaves D.R.E.A.M. is his first single to come out and even has a music video that you can see down below. this is a great song for a single. great lyrics with a dope message. Has a very very nice beat. dope shit about how hip hops coming back and shit like this is above the level of the average block hustla as Canibus says in the song. man this is the song caqnibus fan or not you will enjoy. This is proof Hip Hop never died and is coming back with a fury. soon these faggot rappers are gonna get K.O.ed by real MCs like Canibus and Slaughterhouse and the like. 5 STARS +1
Track 11 Ripperland(featuring The Goddess Psalm One/Johanna Blackstone) is a story type of track and Canibus raps a little slower. When i saw the title I was thinking it would be a track of Canibus in his Rip the Jacker persona. its a cool song, cool beat just nothing special. 2 stars
Track 12 Stomp On Ya Brain (featuring Journalist) Starts off with a dope djscratching into a cool beat with what sounds like some type of horn intrument in the back. Canibus natural is lyrically sick with it but Journalist is someone i never heard before and does not do a bad job. He is not even close to the super lyricist level like Bis or Big Pun but does not dissapoint. this is a dope track and i think people will like it and love the lyrics Canibus spits. Great hip hop track but not one of the albums Heavy hitters like the earlier 4 and 5 star tracks. 3 stars
Track 13 Beat Butcha Get Em' (featuring Son One/Jaecyn Bayne/DJ Immortal/Chopp Devize/Rock "Heltah Skeltah") Now this is a dope hip hop track. the beats savage and has this quick sound i cant describe but it gives the beat a great sound. Everyone featured on the track does not dissapoint and a few do a damn good job with Canibus, usually rappers don't match up with Bis when they are on a track with him. Even Common said himself on the song he did with Canibus, when he heard the verse Canibus spit he was like "damn it made me you know feel like going back and rewriting my rhymes" and Canibus is the king of the hill on this track but the featured artists arent far below. 5 stars
Track 15 Do It Live! (featuring Skarlit Rose/Blaq Poet) This is a good track with an average beat but Blaq Poet is savage spitting one verse "Like Kanye i snatch ya mic for thinkin that you so swift" very clever i loved it haha. Skarlit Rose is lame in my opinion, bottom line. Canibus murders the track though 4 stars
Track 16 Gold & Bronze Magik (featuring Copywrite/Bronze Nazareth) FINLALLy we hit the end. This tracks got a simple old school hip ho beat, something you could freestyle to real easy and the featured artist do a damn good job and the chorus sample is sick, im wondering what it is and will find it. Canibus spits the truth. I LOVE his lyrics here perfect end to a great album spittin how he ill rap forever and always spit what he wants to spit. 5 stars
BOTTOM LINE you love hip hop? i mean really love real hip hop. buy the album. or hell download it ill even give a link and if you enjoy my review and the album do the right thing and buy the album for $8 on amazon.com. This is the best Canibus album since 2000 BC, Canibus came back with better beats which is one thing that stopped him back in the day because he had the words but not the beats to match his skill. well this is all changes and Canibus still raps like a lyrical Demon.
Former lingerie model Angie Sanselmente Valencia is wanted by police on suspicion of running an all-female drug gang that smuggles cocaine into Britain.
She is said to have split up with Mexican drug baron The Monster, and now has a rival empire that uses models she describes as ‘auspicious, beautiful angels’ to deliver drugs to Europe and North America.
The 30-year-old, from Colombia, is thought to be on the run from police in Mexico or Argentina.
Detectives tried to trace Valencia via her Pomeranian lapdog, but discovered that it was registered to an abandoned warehouse.
According to The Sun, her drug runners – believed to be other lingerie and glamour models who compete in international beauty pageants - were paid £1300 to board flights from Colombia to Cancun, Mexico, with bags of class A drug cocaine every 24 hours.
From there the drugs were shipped around the globe, including to the UK. It’s hardly model behavior.
Valencia – who was crowned Colombia’s ‘Queen of Coffee’ in 2000 – was rumbled by one of her couriers after she caught with 55kg of cocaine by cops at Buenos Aires airport on December 13 2009.
What happened to Eric Anderson and Melanie Sloan in their Capitol Hill townhouse Monday night occurs quite often in the city. So to D.C. police, it was fairly routine.
As for Anderson and Sloan, though . . . well, imagine their surprise.
"I was making dinner," Sloan said. "And the doorbell rang."
It was a little after 6 o'clock, she said. When she opened the door, she saw a FedEx truck pulling away. On the doorstep was a roughly 2-by-2-foot box. She lugged it inside -- it was very heavy -- and left it on the floor. Then, thinking nothing of the package, she went back to the stove and stirred her risotto.
"We have an 11-month-old," said Anderson, her husband. "Sometimes somebody will send us a present, and we don't know what it is."
About 8 p.m., Anderson said, he opened the package, which proved to be no easy task.
Inside the box was another cardboard box, heavily taped. He said he cut open that box and found yet another, this one made of Styrofoam, also bound with clear plastic tape. "You start to think, 'Did someone send us something refrigerated?' "
Anderson, 47, a former Air Force intelligence officer who served in Baghdad and other dangerous locales, is on the faculty of the National Intelligence University. Sloan, 44, director of the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was a prosecutor for five years with the U.S. attorney's office in the District. So the two have radar for the suspicious.
And this was turning out to be a very suspicious package indeed.
"My curiosity got the better of me," Anderson said. "Melanie will tell you, I'm very risk-acceptant. Something about 10 years on active duty. And I ride a Harley most days of the week. I don't get worried about a lot of things."
As he likes to say, many a man's famous last words have been: "Watch this!"
With a pocketknife, he began hacking at the tape around the Styrofoam, although his wife urged him not to.
"I thought maybe it was going to be explosive," Sloan said. "I have a job where people don't necessarily like me very much."
She told Anderson to stop. "I said we shouldn't open it anymore. But he wanted to open it anyway -- that's him. So I made him take it outside. I said, 'Go out on the back porch!' I said, 'If you're going to blow up, do it without me and the baby!' "
On the porch, Anderson kept hacking. "I cut through the Styrofoam, and now I discover they've blown all this foam insulation into the inside of it." The insulation hadn't hardened; it was still gummy. So he clawed through it.
"And I see that whatever's in there has been wrapped in Saran Wrap about a thousand times, as best I could tell. I cut through that layer, and I get down to a big ball of duct tape. And then you get down to the next layer, and it's more plastic wrap."
Mixed with the final layer of plastic was something brown. In the house, nervously watching her husband through a glass door, Sloan thought it was dirt. But Anderson told her it was coffee grounds.
Right away, the ex-prosecutor knew what they were dealing with.
Drug traffickers sometimes pack coffee grounds with their product, hoping to throw narcotics-sniffing dogs off the scent. "I cut about a three-inch-wide gap in the top," Anderson said. "And under the coffee grounds, you could really clearly see it. I said, 'Oh, yeah, it's pot.' "
Specifically, 33 pounds of marijuana with a street value of close to $120,000, police said.
Inspector Brian Bray of the D.C. police Narcotics and Special Investigations Division said he wasn't at all surprised by the couple's discovery.
Suppose you're a marijuana dealer in the District. You buy, say, 165 pounds of pot from a distant wholesaler, and you want it shipped to the city. You stake out a bunch of addresses at random and choose five houses whose occupants normally aren't home during the day. Then you arrange for five 33-pound FedEx boxes to be delivered to those addresses, with no signatures required.
With the tracking numbers, you can follow the shipments on a computer and be waiting outside when each arrives.
Except sometimes -- for instance, on a Monday not long after a city has been snowbound -- traffic is horrendous, and FedEx drivers get caught in it. A shipment you're waiting for doesn't arrive until evening, after the residents have returned from work.
For a dealer, Bray said, a lost shipment is just part of the cost of doing business. He said the couple needn't worry about some nefarious character showing up at their door, looking for his merchandise.
Bray explained the economics:
When undercover officers make wholesale buys, usually they pay about $1,000 a pound for medium-grade marijuana. So the 33 pounds that Anderson and Sloan received probably cost the local importer about $33,000. As a rule of thumb, a pound can be stretched into 360 $10 bags, meaning the shipment's retail value was nearly $120,000.
That's a profit of $87,000 or so. Multiply that by, say, five shipments, and the overall profit is north of $400,000. If you lose one of the five packages, so what? You're still roughly $300,000 in the black.
"Therein lies the reason why it continues to occur on a frequent basis," Bray said, adding that D.C. police recover 30 to 40 such shipments a year. "And it's very difficult to trace these packages to the people who sent them," he said. The box shipped to Anderson and Sloan had a return address in Anaheim, Calif., that apparently is fictitious.
Perhaps the most memorable recovery in the Washington area occurred July 29, 2008, when heavily armed police officers who had been tracking a marijuana shipment to Prince George's County raided the home of the unwitting recipients, Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic. In the chaos, officers shot and killed the couple's two black Labrador retrievers.
Sloan and Anderson have a German shepherd named Cheyenne. Sloan said the Berwyn Heights fiasco sprang to her mind the instant her husband told her about the coffee grounds.
"Before he even looked in to see what kind of drugs they were, I called 911," she said. "I told them exactly what was going on. I'm like, I don't want them coming through my door with guns drawn, because I love my dog."
By Paul Duggan Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 26, 2010
ALERT: Health officials fear contaminated heroin following the anthrax death.
A WOMAN who injected heroin was being treated for the effects of anthrax today following the death of another drug user.
Health officials in Glasgow believe the two patients who tested positive for anthrax may have taken contaminated heroin.
A man died at the city’s Victoria Infirmary on Wednesday, where the woman is now being treated.
Doctors are waiting for test results of a third drug user at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, although they are not yet linking the cases.
Anthrax is a bacterial infection and occurs mostly in animals in Asia and Africa, with humans rarely infected.
An outbreak control team set up by the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board was due to meet today.
Public health consultant Dr Syed Ahmed said all health agencies working with people who inject themselves have been advised.
He said the anthrax risk to the general public was “negligible” but all drug-injecting heroin users should seek urgent medical advice if they experience an infection.
“It is extremely rare for anthrax to be spread from person to person and there is no significant risk of airborne transmission from one person to another,” he said.
The health board is working with the Procurator Fiscal and Strathclyde Police to identify the source of the anthrax.
One possibility being investigated is that contaminated heroin, or a contaminated agent used to cut the heroin, may be to blame.
Heroin is often sourced from countries where anthrax is more prevalent in animals.
By Joshua Topolsky posted Jan 4th 2010 11:33PMReview Breaking News
The Nexus One. In the modern climate of hyped (and over-hyped) smartphone launches, Google's official entry into the phone-sales game has excelled in a department where many find difficulty: generating legitimate excitement. Of course, long before the name Nexus One or the recent bounty of pictures and details existed, the very concept of a "Google Phone" had been ingrained in the public conscience, predating even the Open Handset Alliance and Android itself; the company dabbled in the concept of direct sales through its offering of the Android Dev Phones 1 and 2 (alias Ion), but this time, it's a public retail ordeal, not a couple of one-off developer specials. The genuine-article Google Phone is finally here -- for better or worse.
The device, a Snapdragon-powered, HTC-built phone looks -- on paper, at least -- like the ultimate Android handset, combining a newly tweaked and tightened user interface with killer industrial design. A sleek, streamlined phone that can easily go toe-to-toe with the iPhone 3GSs, Pres, and Droids of the world, powered by the latest version of Android (2.1 "Flan," if you're counting), and hand-retooled by Google. But is it all it's cracked up to be? Can the Nexus One possibly live up to the hype ascribed to it? And more importantly, is the appearance of the phone the death knell for the OHA and a sign of the coming Android autocracy? In our exclusive review of the Nexus One, we'll answer all those pressing questions and more... so read on for the full scoop!
Google Nexus One unboxing and hands-on
Note: The unit we have in hand is -- by all appearances -- a production model, save for the QR code imprint on the back, which is likely an employee-only Easter egg. However, Google is making its official announcement tomorrow, and there could always be differences. If anything changes with the device, or there are revelations about the marketing or sale of the phone, we'll be sure to update the review with new info.
Hardware
As we said in the intro -- and our previous hands-on write up -- the Nexus One is nothing if not handsome. From its ultra-thin body to sleek, curved edges, the phone is absolutely lustworthy. While it's unmistakably HTC, there are plenty of design cues that feel authentically Google as well -- and it's that balance which makes the phone such an intriguing piece of hardware.
Industrial design
When you first lay eyes on the Nexus One, you can almost hear someone at Google say something like, "Make us something as sexy as the iPhone, but let's not forget what got us here" -- "what got us here" being the G1, which Google worked tightly with HTC to create. Whether you love or hate the iPhone, it's hard to deny its obvious physical attractiveness, and it's clear that Google and HTC made strides to bring an Android handset into the same realm of base desirability that Apple's halo device occupies. For the most part, they've succeeded. The phone shape finds itself somewhere between the iPhone and Palm Pre -- taking the Pre's curved, stone-like shape and stretching it into something resembling a more standard touchscreen device (a la the Hero or Instinct). The body of the handset is comprised of what appears to the eye as two interlocking pieces, a main, dark gray housing (coated in a soft-touch treatment) which is intersected and wrapped by a lighter gray, smooth, almost metallic band. The overall effect is fluid, though we're not crazy about the choice of coloring -- we would have liked to see something a little more consistent as opposed to the two-tone, particularly when the choice of hues is this drab and familiar. Still, the shape and size of the phone is absolutely fantastic; even though the surface of the device houses a 3.7-inch display, the handset generally feels trimmer and more svelte than an iPhone, Hero, and certainly the Droid.
HTC has managed to get the thickness of the phone down to just 11.5mm, and it measures just 59.8mm and 119mm across and up and down -- kind of a feat when you consider the guts of this thing. In the hand it's a bit lighter than you expect -- though it's not straight-up light -- and the curved edges and slightly tapered top and bottom make for a truly comfortable phone to hold. On the glass-covered front of the device there are four "hardware" buttons (just touch-sensitive spots on the display) laid out exactly as the Droid's four hard keys: back, menu, home, and search. Clearly this is going to be something of a trend with Google-approved devices.
Unlike the Droid, the Nexus One has a trackball just below those buttons that should feel very familiar to Hero users -- the placement feels a bit awkward here, and there's literally nothing in the OS that requires it. Along the left side you've got a volume rocker, up top there's a sleep / wake / power button on one end, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the other, and along the bottom there's a micro-USB port, a mic hole, and three gold dots that look destined for some kind of dock (which would jibe with what we've seen and heard). Around back you'll find the strangely pronounced 5 megapixel camera and accompanying LED flash, along with Google's Android mascot holding up a QR code -- a decidedly geeky Google touch that we expect won't make it to the final retail version. The layout of the phone is solid, though we would have liked a physical camera key (no biggie), and we actually had some real trouble with those four dedicated buttons. Hopefully it was just our review unit, but the target areas seemed to be too high on the row, and we found ourselves consistently accidentally tapping them while composing an email or text message, or missing them when we tapped a little too low. It wasn't a deal breaker, but it was definitely maddening -- especially considering that we don't have similar issues on the Droid.
Despite the minor niggles, HTC and Google have put together pretty damn good looking and feeling phone; it's not without faults, but they're pretty few and far between.
Internals
As you've heard, the Nexus One runs atop the much-hyped, rarely seen 1GHz Snapdragon CPU from Qualcomm (the same processor powering the HD2) -- really the highlight of this show. The phone also has 512MB of both RAM and ROM, but those hoping for new application storage options will find themselves out of luck yet again -- you're still limited to that small partition for app use. The display is an AMOLED, 480 x 800 capacitive touchscreen, and the handset also contains a light sensor, proximity sensor, and accelerometer, along with an HSPA-capable GSM radio (AWS and euro 2100MHz bands only for 3G -- sorry AT&T users), WiFi, the prerequisite AGPS chip, and a microSD slot (which comes loaded with a 4GB card, but is expandable to 32GB). By late-2009 / early-2010 standards, there's really nothing notable about the guts of this phone beyond the presence of a Snapdragon processor, and even that left something to be desired. The phone is fast, assuredly, but not so much of a leap up from the Droid that we felt it kept pace with the boost we were expecting. Scrolling lists and opening apps seemed speedy, but put simply, it's not a whole new Android experience (we'll talk more about this in the software section).
Display
The 3.7-inch display should be stunning -- and is for the most part -- but we did have some issues with it (at least on the unit we have). In terms of touch sensitivity, the display is as good or better than any Android phone we've used. While the resolution is high (480 x 800), it's missing 54 pixels that we expected given the size of the Droid's screen. It didn't bother us that much, but it's noticeable in certain apps -- Gmail for instance, where you have to scroll further in some menus than you do on the Droid. The big issue with the screen, though, is actually the color balance. We found colors on the Nexus One, particularly in the reds and oranges, to be severely blown-out and oversaturated -- a common effect with AMOLED displays like the Nexus One's. At first we thought Google had tweaked some of the Market settings because the highlight orange was so bright, but comparing images on the web across different displays, the Nexus One consistently looked brighter then it should have. Oh, and using this thing in daylight? Forget about it. Like most screens of this type, the Nexus One is a nightmare to see with any kind of bright light around, and snapping photos with it on a sunny day was like taking shots with your eyes closed. Google Nexus One outdoor shots Camera
Me and the lovely Patricia after dinner at my favorite Sushi place in Downtown Palm Springs (Picture was taken with a Motorla CLIQ bu the Nexus has a 5MP camera as well)
One place where the Nexus One seems to be improving things is in the camera department. Not only has Google bumped up the speed of the camera app (which we're still not that stoked about in general), but the 5 megapixel lens and flash took sharp, detailed images with none of the HTC-related issues we've seen on other models. The focus of the lens was super speedy, and images came out looking more or less as we'd hoped. The flash felt a bit stark at times, but given its size, we didn't lose too much sleep over it. One place where Google has really made some smart decisions is within the Gallery application. Instead of the drab, flat iterations of Android past, the new version is extremely attractive and user friendly, giving you far more options than before (like a nice pan and scan slideshow) and making browsing photos a much more enjoyable experience.
Telephony / data / earpiece and speaker
As a phone, the Nexus One isn't dramatically different than most GSM devices you've probably used. In terms of earpiece quality and volume, it's certainly on par with its contemporaries, providing a loud, reasonably clean talking experience, though it doesn't touch the Droid in terms of call clarity and evenness. The loudspeaker, on the other hand, seemed extremely tinny to our ears, making for a pretty unpleasant companion for conference calls, with the midrange cutting through in a way that could be painful at times. We'd be inclined to blame that issue on the extremely thin housing here, but it's hard to say what the real culprit is. As far as connections and 3G pickup, the Nexus fared as well as our iPhone did when traveling, but -- surprise, surprise -- neither of these could touch Verizon. For instance, at JFK airport, we had no trouble placing calls on the Droid, but both the Nexus One and iPhone were completely incommunicado. When we hit the ground in Las Vegas however (you know, for a little event called CES 2010), 3G seemed to function as we might have hoped. In a few cases, T-Mobile did seem to be hanging onto a signal a bit better than AT&T was, and in a browser test between the two, even though the iPhone ended up with a slightly faster load time, the Nexus One pulled down initial content considerably quicker. In all, we averaged download speeds of around 559Kbps on the phone -- about where we expected things to be.
Software
Now, the big story with the Nexus One (besides how it's being sold -- we'll get to that in a minute) has been the rumored alterations or updates Google has made with Android 2.1. There's been talk that this is somehow the "real Android," a suggestion that other, earlier versions weren't true to Google's mold. There's been talk that the Nexus One is worth the hype, and will blow people away when they see what this version of Android can do. Mostly, there's been a lot of talk. So, what's really the story here?
Well the real story is that Android 2.1 is in no way dramatically different than the iteration of the OS which is currently running on the Motorola Droid (2.0.1). In fact, there is so little that's different in the software here, we were actually surprised. Of the notable changes, many are cosmetic -- if there are major underlying differences between this OS and the one on the Droid, we can't see what they are. Still, there ARE changes, so here's a peek at just what Google has cooked up for the new phone.
Firstly, the place where Google really seems to have put a lot of its energies has been in the look and feel of homescreen navigation. Obviously the feedback the company has gotten is shaping the next steps on Android's path, and as anyone who has used Android will tell you, the homescreen situation was kind of a mess. In 2.1, Google has jettisoned key chunks of the established Android paradigm for how to get around its device. Most noticeably, the company has killed the sliding drawer which used to house all of your application icons -- the tab is replaced with a handy "home" icon which zooms in your icons over top of whatever homescreen you're on. You can scroll up and down through those icons, which is now accompanied by a cute 3D animation where the items slide over the top and bottom edge, like wrapping a piece of paper around the side of a table. It's nice, but not necessarily functional in any way. Google has also added a little bounce to the menu, in keeping with its contemporaries' love of physics.
Additionally Google has expanded the number of home screens accessible from three to five (following a precedent set by skins like Sense and BLUR), adding a combo of webOS and iPhone style dots to help you keep track of where you're situated. If you long press on those dots, you get a kind of "card" view of all your homescreens which you can use for quick jumps. All of the homescreen improvements are just that -- improvements -- and it's nice to see Google thinking about a user's first impression of this device. Not only do these additions bolster the look and feel of the UI, but they're actually sensible and helpful solutions to problems which Google had heretofore approached in an obtuse way.
Elsewhere, there are nips and tucks that are welcome, such as the improved Gallery application we mentioned previously, which seems to be one of the few areas actually tapping into the Snapdragon's horsepower. But Google stumbles as well; the dated and always-underwhelming music player has undergone almost zero change, and the soft keyboard -- while better than previous models -- can still be inaccurate. Of course, Google wants to provide another option for text input that we haven't seen before the Nexus One. Now included when the keyboard pops up is an option to use the company's speech-to-text engine, which will (attempt) to translate your words into onscreen text. Our experiments with the technology were marginally successful, but we don't see this being a big part of our communications game until the audio recognition gets a little more robust. It might work for an occasional SMS where use of the Queen's English isn't a priority.
One other thing. As we mentioned in our impressions post, there's no multitouch on the Nexus One. Now, we can live with a browser or Google Maps with no pinch-to-zoom, but not having a hardware keyboard hamstrings this device in other ways. For instance, gaming on the phone is pretty much abysmal save for a few accelerometer-based titles. And some of our favorite software, such as Nesoid (an NES emulator) is a total dead. For a phone which uses touch input as its main vehicle for navigation, relegating that experience to a single digit is really kind of bogus. There were plenty of times when using the Nexus One (and this does happen with other Android devices as well, but it's pronounced here) where we felt not just bummed that you could only use one point of contact, but actually a little angry. Why won't Google open this up? Why have they kept what has become a normal and quite useful manner of interaction away from their devices? Only Eric Schmidt knows for sure. What it made us realize, however, is that an Android phone is really better off with a keyboard, and we were longing to get back to the Droid a number of times while using this device.
Battery life
We haven't had a lot of time to spend with the phone just yet (you may have heard, it's been a bit hard to get ahold of), but from what we've seen, the battery performs admirably. Thus far we haven't had any major shockers when it came to power drain, and that AMOLED screen seems to go easy on things even when cranked up to a pretty stark setting. That said, we did see a dip when taking long calls, which indicates that this might not be a charge-free device day to day if you've got some serious gossip to dish. We're going to be running some more tests this week to see how the phone performs over a lengthier stretch of time, and we'll let you guys know how it fares.
Pricing and availability
As of this writing, all we have on the Nexus One in terms of pricing and sales plans comes to us in the form of leaked documents and tipster screenshots. That said, if everything falls into line the way we think it should, the sale of the phone won't be the kind of barnstorming industry shakeup that many predicted -- rather, it's business as usual, with one small difference. While the phone is manufactured by HTC and destined for use on T-Mobile's network, Google will be the one doing the selling of the device. By all appearances, the company will have a new phone portal where buyers can pick between an unsubsidized, unlocked Nexus One for $529.99, or sign up for a two-year agreement with T-Mobile and purchase the phone for $179.99. This shouldn't seem strange or exciting to anyone who's recently bought a smartphone -- it's pretty much the lay of the land right now. Previous to the documents we'd seen, the hope was that Google had found some ingenious ad-supported way to get this phone into consumer's hands for a low, seemingly subsidized price but without the shackles of a contract or specific carrier -- but those plans seem have been either invented, or somehow dashed.
Wrap-up
Never mind the Nexus One itself for a moment -- there's a bigger picture here, and it might spell a fundamental change for the direction of Android as a platform. Whereas Google had originally positioned itself as a sort of patron saint for Android -- sending it off into the cold world to be nourished and advanced in a totally transparent way by the widely-supported Open Handset Alliance -- it has instead taken a deeply active role and has elected to maintain some semblance of secrecy as it moves from pastry-themed version to version. In general, that approach isn't necessarily a bad thing for device variety, functionality, and availability, but the way Android's evolution in particular has gone down certainly seems like a bait-and-switch from an outsider's view. Take Motorola and Verizon, for example: what had seemed like a deep, tight partnership literally just weeks ago with the announcement of Eclair and the selection of the Droid / Milestone as 2.0's launch platform has taken a distant back seat just as quickly as it rose to the top. In a word, Google is plunging head-first into the dangerous game Microsoft has adamantly sought to avoid all these years on WinMo: competing head-to-head with its valued (well, supposedly valued) partners. Whether Android risks losing support over manufacturers and carriers being treated like pieces of meat remains to be seen, but realistically, Motorola (which has very publicly gone all-in with Mountain View over the past year) and others are likely to grin and bear it as long as the platform pays the bills -- no matter how awkward competing with the company that writes your kernel and huge swaths of your shell might be.
Industry politics aside, though, the Nexus One is at its core just another Android smartphone. It's a particularly good one, don't get us wrong -- certainly up there with the best of its breed -- but it's not in any way the Earth-shattering, paradigm-skewing device the media and community cheerleaders have built it up to be. It's a good Android phone, but not the last word -- in fact, if we had to choose between this phone or the Droid right now, we would lean towards the latter. Of course, if Google's goal is to spread Android more wide than deep, maybe this is precisely the right phone at the right time: class-leading processor, vibrant display, sexy shell, and just a sprinkling of geekiness that only Google could pull off this effortlessly.
Then again, we suspect Motorola, Samsung, Verizon, and countless other partners might disagree.
There has been a debate on the exact percentage of the world opium supply that comes from Afghanistan but the different articles your favorite child of the frozen water from the sky has seen goes roughly from 70% to 90%. This raw Opium is then purchased by representatives of the people who truly control the world and the underworld. This Raw Opium is then turned into top of the line pure Heroin or "White China" which is sent from countries/islands off the Atlantic to places like and mostly New York and Miami and then "stepped on" aka "cut" meaning an additional substance of the distributors choosing is added to lower the quality and raise the profit margin. White China even when cut can hit the 90% purity range which is remarkable. This type of heroin is only found on the eastern part of the USA and they know how to use it being that's all they get if they choose to use.
Now here in California the pure opium is sent to islands off the pacific and places in Asia where a small amount of Opium is still produced although I would thing the power that the Afghan Drug Lords have most likely stopped them from producing much. Regardless this Pure Heroin is then sent to Mexico and turned into either a Brown powder or what we all know and have seen Black Tar or as I used to call it and now many do "BLEEZY"
This is what we Californians see and is brought to us from Mexico so the more south you go the more pure the black tar you will find. From what I have read though black tar heroin reaches a peak pure percentage of 10% maybe 20% but I HIGHLY doubt it. and if the dealer themselves knows how to cut it we are talking like 5% of real heroin in that lil blob you buy from your local street pharmacist.
Now to the whole point of this blog. EVERY TIME...and i mean EVERY! TIME You purchase Heroin you are helping AL-QAEDA ya the terrorist organization that is over there KILLING US troops, people defend OUR country and way of life not to mention some FRIENDS OF MINE! when i found this out i was disgusted and and I make sure every person i know that still uses the subtance that they are supporting the enemy and let them know if Friend Mr. X who is in the military might die because of the money they are getting from their opium/heroin sales.
I have gotten the same response over and over again , "I'm not the one giving them money it is the people up top giving them the money which buys them more weapons and better weapons" which is a bullshit answer because either they are ignorant or just in denial of the trickle down effect explained a lot in politics recently which explains when those with large amounts of $$$ spend money it "trickles down" to the lower classes by different ways and means.
Those BIG SPENDERS would not be dropping those big dollars unless they had the people to buy that they have to sell. its nothing more than simple "SUPPLY & DEMAND" and its basic fundamentals, the higher the demand the more supply will be produced to meet that demand. when the supply is more than the demand for the product the price will drop dramatically in order to entice new customers.
FOR EXAMPLE: Let us take heroin in the Coachella Valley. Let us be even MORE PRECISE and talk Palm Springs. Less than 2 years ago a gram of black tar heroin in the city of Palm Springs cost you no less than $100 USD and if I were to make a phone call to the same street pharmacy technician (if he didn't get his life on track & leave this bs lifestyle behind which I am SO PROUD of him got doing so) the price of the same amount 1 gram 1/0g on your average scale is going for the average price of $60 USD hell sometimes $50 USD. now in less than 2 years, IF you know the dynamics of supply and demand put the pieces of the puzzle together. The supply has either A) not changed or B) risen to meet the new demand which if AGAIN if you haven't noticed is up from 2 years ago by 200%-300% causing an almost 50% drop in price. This is to me unfuckinbelievable., I know FOR A FACT there are heroin users under the age f 18 as young as 16 EVEN 15. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! of course ZERO drug users would be a dream but this is a dream that will never happen but 16 years old using one of the most hardcore drugs in existence is just not right. IMO if someone is going to make the decision to use heroin be at minimum 18 years old where atleast you should know a lil bit about WTF you are getting yourself into.
Palm Springs has a heroin EPIDEMIC on its hand and if they do not crack down on it quick.... i mean I have already said it. A 200% increase in users in less than 2 years...wtf will be the increase in another 2 years or 5 years? Not only is the rate of drug use and overdose increase but the crime rate, murder rate and EVERYTHING connected to drug use and the Drug Game. this ex-user has been in the game on both sides and is happy to have been out of active addiction for 6 months and counting.
DO NOT SUPPORT AL-QAEDA AND INCREASE THE TERRORISTS $$$ STACK WHICH INCREASES THEIR ABILITY TO PURCHASE FIREARMS AND ETC.
1. (00:04:19) Big Tymers - Big Ballin' 2. (00:04:25) Big Tymers - #1 Stunna 3. (00:04:47) Lil Wayne - Shine 4. (00:03:45) Big Tymers - Get Yo Roll On 5. (00:05:18) Big Tymers - Still Fly 6. (00:05:27) BG - Get Your Shine On 7. (00:03:29) BG - Cash Money Is Army 8. (00:03:54) Hot Boys - We On Fire 9. (00:04:41) Juvenile - Rich Niggaz 10. (00:04:52) BG - Bling Bling 11. (00:04:33) Cash Money Millionaires Ft. E-40 - Baller Blockin' 12. (00:03:55) Lil Wayne - The Block Is Hot 13. (00:03:56) Juvenile - Set It Off 14. (00:03:47) Lil Wayne - Lights Off 15. (00:04:20) Cash Money Millionaires - Project Bi?tch 16. (00:04:31) Hot Boys - I Need A Hot Girl 17. (00:03:59) Juvenile - Back That Ass Up
Now this is my shit right here. I remember when Back ThaT Ass Up was released and lil wayne was more savage an MC than now. This is collection that shows CAsh Money has put their feet in the dirt of hip hop/rap and someone dropped some cement and that shit has dried...if you're fuckin retarded i mean they have shown they are here to stay. The Carter 3 sucks I will say it a milli a milli a million times, but Wayne before The Carter 3 like the drought 3 and The Carter 2 and before...is unbelievable, the man was an MC now he is nothing but an industry rapper.
Fuck the Carter 3 and FUCK REBIRTH! I haven't even heard the album but the commercial itself pissed me off showing a bunch of dudes acting like chix at a Beatles concert. This makes sense since most post carter 2 fans are either women or fags. the commercial is just disrespectful to hip hop fans saying we are all like screaming females for his album when the reality of the matter is id make a homemade bomb and place it on his album display at your local store. I really think lil wayne is sippin on too much sizzurp.
01 Soulja Boy - Black On Black 02 Soulja Boy - Make Em Dance 03 Soulja Boy - Swag Flu (Remix) 04 Soulja Boy - Cold World 05 Soulja Boy - I Do 06 Soulja Boy - Outer Space 07 Soulja Boy - Goin Ham 08 Soulja Boy - Im Ballin 09 Soulja Boy - Yo Girl 10 Soulja Boy - Patriotic 11 Soulja Boy - Anything I Want 12 Soulja Boy - Im So High 13 Soulja Boy - She's A Dancer 14 Soulja Boy - So Cocky Wit It 15 Soulja Boy - Play Ball 16 Soulja Boy - Love & Hate 17 Soulja Boy - Bump This In My Lambo 18 Soulja Boy - Soldier 19 Soulja Boy - 2 Milli 20 Soulja Boy - Gucci Wings 21 Soulja Boy - All The Way Turnt Up 22 Soulja Boy - Stack Money
dO i EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN HOW MUCH OF A PEICE OF DOG HIT THIS MIXTAPE IS? It seems like they are giving away these special "official white label" mixtapes to any faggot making the record companies their $$$ and swallowing after sucking them off. its probably the swallowing that gets soulja boy what he wants. I bet the record execs like that there is no clean up they dont have to "soulja boy tell-e," he just gulps with a big ole smile. I FUCKING HATE THIS LIL FAGMEISTER! If Soulja boy ever saw this I openly challenge him to a freestyle match and a fuckin match of written material and song! Give me 2 fucking weeks and i guarantee I can produce not only a much more savage track that would be real hip-hop but a better hit too! click here for piece of shit mixtape
BOTTOM LINE SOULJA BOY SUCKS! DOWNLOAD AT YOUR OWN RISK!
To think i moved here almost 8 years ago and it took that long to finally realize what i should be doing with my life and in my life. let us not forget those who should and should not be a part of my life.
Battling a previous and recent addiction to opiates the likes of heroin and Oxycontin is an everyday struggle and i fight the fight everyday. THANK GOD FOR MY PRESCRIPTION TO 30mg Adderall which I receive 60 a month and my wonderful slim and sexy 2mg Xanax bars which i happily receive 90 monthly. a good set up for a 21yo borderline schizo? I think so and it seems to keep me om order and happy about life and shit in general. I have been told I am everything from schizophrenic to manic bipolar to manic depressive to Tom Cruise Disorder.
My psychiatrist at the moment is a very intelligent and caring fellow although my parents call him "Dr. Feelgood" I call him a doctor who rather than tell you what is good for you and what medication you will be taking, someone who will sit with you and have an intelligent conversation(if you the patient can do so) about what YOU the patient feels might be the best course of action be it cognitive behavioral therapy or some form of medication.
After the first Doc's RX cocktail of Celexa (a younger cuzn of Lexapro) and Risperdal (a anti-psychotic usually given to schizophrenics and in 2009 was discovered to cause breast enlargement in men because of heightened levels of estrogen) it took 3-4 more doctors that besides the FACT that an SSRI and an anti-psychotic medication caused a massive seizure at the age of i believe 17 or 18 which never occurred previously...obviously this is not good...umm....DURRRRRRRR. Not only this but I also would come prepared for every suggestion these prescribing whores. I call these medical professionals whores cuz u know damn well the reason the same medications, from the same companies who invented it, PAY THESE SO CALLED DOCTORS EVERY GOD DAMN TIME THEY PRESCRIBE THEIR MEDS! OVER ALL OTHERS even if another medication is a safer and/or better choice! Even if another medication has much less side effects or less chance you will end up MORE depressed and end up killing yourself.
ALL I KNOW as my local drug community's proclaimed street pharmacist I have done my homework for a very long time and brought paperwork, lab reports, and user reviews to doctors and took psychiatrist #5 to respect my intelligence and understand I may know just a teeny bit what might be good for me. I of course do not want to be on medication forever but as of now I am young and my combo of 30mg Adderall 2x daily and 2mg Xanax(Alprazolam) bars 2x daily and 1 for sleep keeps me functioning without causing a fuss or annoyance to my family or community. fuck what my family and their friends want to say, I will take care of the business coming my way and after that let my paper stack and just picture me rollin ;)
http://twitter.com/ScSilence
I love hip hop to my heart's core. I consider myself an artist with a gift with words.I have multiple personalities, It all depends on my day and when you catch me. I am very intelligent but do some dumb shit at times. I'm a total anime/PC geek and a born andbred hu$tler.
I started free-styling at 14 and haven't quit since. The name is Young Powder, a man he himself will never truely know...
