Society and Technology

Mitsubishi A6M Zero

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was one of the notorious fighter aircraft of the Japanese Imperial Navy Air Service.  The Zero was imployed in almost every battle of the Pacific from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to the Battle of Midway.   When it first came out, the Zero gained a reputation as one of the best fighter planes.  It had a long range and excellent maneuverability.  It could outclass all the Allied fighter aircrafts that it first encountered such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat.

As the war progessed, the Zero became less and less effective.  One of the biggest advantages that Allies had over the Axis was production and resources.  Japan itself has little resources, so before the war brokeout they were able to produce quaity aircraft and military weapons due to land that they had captured such as Korea and Manchuria.  When the war broke out, Japan started off strong because they had stocked so many resources.  As the war progressed and the Allies invaded more land, the resources of Japan became more and more limited.  It is because of this, that the Zero had to then be produced using less powerful engines, meanwhile the Allies were producing newer aircraft that could outclass the Zero.  The Zero finally met its match when it went up against the Grumman F6F Hellcat.  Although Japan lost the war,  the A6M Zero is seen as one the most significant aircraft of WWII.  

Posted at 09:33PM Dec 06, 2008 by Robert Earle in General  |  Comments[0]

Audacity

Audacity is one of the most popular audio editing software.  Audacity was created by Dominic Mazzoni, who now works for Google.   Audacity was initially released in May 2000 and it is free to the general public under the GNU General Public License.  The current version of Audacity is version 1.2.6.  One can download Audacity from several different websites on the internet, but one of the most reliable websites is download.com.    

What makes Audacity so popular is that it is free and it has many features that are standards on high-end audio editing software like Adobe Audition.  A lot of the audio editing software that are free to the general public are really limited in performance and features causing users to have below quality production, but Audacity is different.  Although it is limited in its a capabilities, Audacity still holds many features that can allow user to produce quality projects.  Audacity is also a great way to start to learn how to do audio production.  Of course, if one wants to become serious about their work then they should invest in a high end audio editing software, but for those who just want to mess around and start learning audio production then Audacity is a great tool for that.

Posted at 08:54PM Dec 06, 2008 by Robert Earle in General  |  Comments[0]