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The specification describes a process for passivating semiconductor laser structures with severe steps in the surface topography. The technique involves atomic layer deposition to produce the passivating layer which has exceptional coverage and uniformity, even in the case of trench features with trench aspect ratios as large as 5. In addition, the passivation produced by this process has excellent environmental stability, and affords protection against air born contaminant induced degradation.
1. A process for the manufacture of a semiconductor laser comprising the steps of:
a. forming a layered semiconductor laser structure,
b. etching said layered semiconductor structure to form a trench along a portion of the layered structure, said trench having a depth at least three times the width, and
c. coating said etched semiconductor structure with a passivating coating of a passivating compound by the steps of
i. mounting the etched stacked semiconductor structure in a vacuum chamber,
ii. evacuating the chamber to a pressure in the range of 1-50 mbar, heating the stacked structure to a temperature in the range 100� C. to 400� C.,
iii. admitting at least two precursor gases into the chamber in alternate steps, said alternate steps comprising a first step of admitting a flow of a first of said precursor gases, said first of said precursor gases consisting of a source of one part of said passivating compound and a second step of admitting a flow of said second of said precursor gases, said second of said precursor gases comprising a source of an oxidizing agent to form said passivating compound, and continuing to alternate between step one and step two for at least 1000 cycles to produce the desired conformal passivating layer.
2. The process of claim 1 in which the layered semiconductor structure is contained within a semiconductor device package and is coated while contained in the package.
3. A method for the manufacture of an optical device assembly in which the optical device assembly comprises at least one multilayer laser device having a surface topography that includes at least one step feature, said laser device being mounted on a mounting means and additionally including electrical leads for electrically contacting said laser, THE INVENTION CHARACTERIZED BY forming on said optical device assembly a conformal passivating coating by steps comprising:
a. mounting the optical device assembly in a vacuum chamber,
b. evacuating the chamber to a pressure in the range of 1-50 mbar,
c. heating the stacked structure to a temperature in the range 100� C. to 400� C.,
d. admitting at least two precursor gases into the chamber in alternate steps, said alternate steps comprising a first step of admitting a flow of a first of said precursor gases, said first of said precursor gases consisting of a source of the organometallic precursor of said passivating compound and a second step of admitting a flow of said second of said precursor gases, said second of said precursor gases comprising an oxidizing agent, and continuing to alternate between step one and step two for at least 1000 cycles to produce the desired conformal passivating layer.
4. The method of claim 3 including the additional step of packaging the coated laser device in a non-hermetic package.
5. The method of claim 3 in which the passivating compound is selected from the group consisting of Al2 O3, SiO2, Ta2 O5, TiO2 and ZnO.
6. The method of claim 5 in which the passivating compound is Al2 O3.
7. The method of claim 5 in which the precursor gases include trimethyl aluminum.
8. The method of claim 5 in which the passivating compound is Ta2 O5.
9. The method of claim 8 in which the precursor gases include TaCl5.
10. The method of claim 3 in which the deposition temperature is below 300� C.
11. The method of claim 10 in which the pressure is in the range 10-30 mbar.
12. The method of claim 3 in which the multilayer laser device is part of a semiconductor wafer with a plurality of multilayer devices, and all of said multilayer devices are coated simultaneously with said passivating coating.
13. The method of claim 12 in which the passivating coating has a thickness in the range 0.1-0.6 μm.
14. The method of claim 3 in which said step is a part of a trench and the trench has an aspect ration of at least 3.
15. The method of claim 3 in which the said step is a part of a re-entrant feature.
16. The method of claim 3 in which the passivating coating has a thickness which varies by less than 10%.
17. The method of claim 16 in which the passivating coating has a thickness that varies by less than 3%.
This invention relates to techniques for passivating laser devices.
Semiconductor lasers rely on a reflective cavity which is typically formed by mirrors on the ends of a semiconductor crystal. In the usual structure one mirror has high reflectivity (HR), typically >70%, and the other is of lower reflectivity, typically <30%, (LR). For high performance DFB lasers, the low reflectivity mirror has a reflectivity of <1%. In these cases, as well as pump lasers, the performance of the laser is in large part controlled by the reflectivity of each mirror. As such, it is extremely important to control the optical thickness (i.e. refractive index and physical thickness) of the mirror coating. In high performance lasers the mirrors perform the additional function of passivating the surfaces of the semiconductor device. The surfaces of the laser device that are exposed to high light flux, typically >1 MW/cm2, are susceptible to degradation which has become a serious problem in producing devices with the extended lifetimes required in, e.g., many communications applications. Facet degradation includes both catastrophic optical damage (COD) caused by intense optical flux and gradual erosion due to optically accelerated facet oxidation. The main cause of COD is local heating due to optical absorption and non-radiative recombination of optically generated carriers at the facets.
Problems of facet degradation have confronted laser device designers for years. Typically they become more critical as the device complexity and performance demands increase. The semiconductor materials used in advanced lightwave device technology are typically multilayer semiconductor crystals based on compounds of Ga, Al, and In with As and P. The device structures have a variety of forms with both edge emitting and surface emitting configurations. The following description deals primarily with edge emitting structures but it should be evident to those skilled in the art that the principles described apply to other laser structures as well.
High performance edge emitting semiconductor lasers typically have facets (mirrors) that are produced by mechanically cleaving a semiconductor crystal. A typical semiconductor crystal contains thousands of individual lasers. Although mechanical cleaving produces a near perfect facet, the newly exposed semiconductor surface begins to degrade instantly after cleavage, due to contaminants in the cleaving tool and exposure to air. This degradation remains as the primary failure initiator for GaAs based lasers.
Recognition of this degradation mechanism stimulated several reported approaches to overcome facet degradation. Among them are: (i) impurity induced lattice disordering (IILD) at the facet that increases the bandgap and thus reduces the optical absorption and facet heating (see W.X. Zou et al. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett 3,400 (1991); (ii) growth of non-absorbing mirrors (NAM) on the laser facets (see H. Naito et al. J. Appl. Phys. 68, 4420, 1990) and M. Matsumoto et al. Jpn J. Appl. Phys. 32, L665 (1993); (iii) facet treatment by sulfur or sulfur-based compounds (see S. Kamiyame et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 58, 2595 (1991) and H. Kawanishi et al., Proceedings of the SPIE Symposium on Laser Diode Technology and Applications II, Vol. 1219, 309 (1990); and (iv) cleaning or forming laser facets in high vacuum followed in situ by suitable passivation and LR/HR coating (see M. Gasser and E. E. Latta, U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,173 issued Nov. 5, 1991.
For hermetically sealed InP based edge emitting lasers, the interfacial oxidation in normal room ambient is not of much concern for low power devices (<100 mW ). However, it is of concern for such devices when operated in non-hermetic packages. In this case, the laser can be exposed to high humidity and high temperatures during operation. This exposure can lead to laser degradation via oxidation/reduction reactions that ultimately lead to failure. GaAs based lasers could also be susceptible to such oxidation/reduction degradation if operated in moist environments. Thus in virtually all cases the performance of passivating coatings on laser devices is critical.
The passivation facet coating should be nonabsorbing, and should not react with the mirror facets in such a way as to cause degradation. Importantly, it should act as an effective barrier for diffusion of impurities from other materials in the laser package and, for non-hermetic packaged lasers, the environmental ambient in which the device is deployed. A wide variety of coating materials have been tried, with mixed success, for laser facet passivation. Some of these materials, e.g. Si, Ge, and ZnSe, are deposited in an oxygen free environment. Other materials that have been used successfully are Ta2 O5,Al2 O3, ZnSe, and yttrium stabilized zirconia (YSZ).
For non-hermetically packaged lasers, molecular beam deposited SiO has been shown to provide adequate mirror reflectivity while maintaining long term laser reliability (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,575 to N. Chand et al."Article Comprising a Semiconductor Laser With Stable Facet Coating"). To date we know of no other inorganic mirror coatings that have demonstrated reliability in non-hermetic packages.
The coating techniques used are evaporation and sputtering for oxygen free materials, and evaporation, reactive sputtering and CVD for oxides. CVD techniques are generally preferred because of thickness uniformity and conformal coating. The latter attribute is especially important in laser structures that have significant step geometries to cover. While in theory CVD thin film processes can yield good step coverage and thickness uniformity, in practice this is only the case when films are deposited at conditions where sufficient energy is available for redistribution of the depositing species. Such energy is usually supplied by increasing the growth temperature. In addition, some state of the art laser structures have complex device topography, where fluid flow constraints lead to CVD step coverage and film thickness uniformity that is less than desired. In particular, when device features have aspect ratios greater than about 3 (depth to width) or have surface features of any depth that are re-entrant, the step coverage obtainable by CVD, or other thin film processes conventionally used, is not uniform. This problem is further exacerbated due to the temperature limitations and corresponding process limitations placed on the laser at this point in its manufacture.
As used herein the term step coverage refers to the ability of the coating technique to produce a film that covers all portions of a given topological feature. The term thickness non-uniformity is used where some degree of coverage of all of the feature is obtained but the thickness of that coverage is not uniform. For optical devices, such as lasers, not only is the physical thickness and its uniformity important, but also the refractive index and its uniformity is important. As a result, for optical devices we prefer to deal with the optical thickness step coverage. Step coverage is frequently expressed in percent of the maximum, i.e. meaning that the thickness of the subject layer at some location, typically the thinnest portion of the layer, is x percent of the thickness at the thickest portion. Processes that perform well in the context of step coverage, i.e. processes that produce highly conformal films, usually have 70-80% coverage on the surface features.
In many device applications, substantial variations in thickness can be tolerated. For example, in many electrical devices the thickness uniformity of e.g. oxide layers or metallization layers is relatively uncritical as long as it meets a threshold thickness sufficient to result in dielectric or conducting properties. In many optical devices, by contrast, the optical thickness of the coating, and the optical thickness uniformity of the coating, is critical to device performance. This is especially true for high power and DFB lasers where small changes in optical thickness (<10%) can lead to significant changes in device performance. In addition, for laser devices in which the passivating coating must cover the surfaces of the device that are susceptible to ambient induced degradation, like those described above, the passivating films must be resistant to ambient contaminants.
Typically in the prior art such coatings are produced by sputtering, evaporation, CVD, or MBE. The latter two processes are known to produce excellent step coverage when sufficient energy is available for redistribution of deposited species, but are still incapable of covering severe features with the uniformity required for many optical devices. This is especially true for deposition processes that operate at <300� C . It would be desirable to have a coating technique capable of step coverage of severe features with coverage or uniformity near 100%. In addition, it would be desirable to have a coating technique that is sufficiently resistant to ambient contaminants to allow lasers, even high performance lasers, to be packaged in non-hermetic packages.
We have discovered a technique for coating laser devices which results in physical thickness and refractive index control that are not obtainable with thin film techniques conventionally used in this art. It utilizes an atomic layer deposition process to apply laser facet passivation coatings. We use this process to deposit critical optical coatings at relatively low temperatures, thereby reducing the potential for damaging the active portions of the device and for outgassing impurities from the interior parts of the coating apparatus during processing. We have succeeded in producing coatings with nearly 100% uniformity as evidenced by the optical properties of lasers passivated with these films. These coatings provide excellent passivation for laser devices and assemblies that have severe surface topologies as evidenced by the long term stability of lasers passivated with these films in hot, humid ambients (65� C., 65% RH). Finally, because of all the properties discussed above ( i.e. excellent step coverage over extremely severe topologies, low temperature deposition, environmentally stable films), the technique of this invention offers the additional benefit of producing edge emitting lasers, including facet coatings, in a full wafer process. With completed devices still in wafer form, devices can also be tested at the wafer level. Such a wafer scale process has not been achieved to date.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of facet degradation process due to carrier recombination;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of facet degradation due to moisture induced oxidation/reduction reactions in and around the facet;
FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a typical semiconductor multilayer laser structure which is suitable for the passivation process of the invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a laser showing a passivation layer covering severe features of the kind to which the invention is particularly directed;
FIG. 5 is a section through 5--5 of FIG. 4.
FIG. 6 is a side view of an optical device assembly used to demonstrate the principles of the invention;
FIG. 7 is a front view of the assembly of FIG. 6, with a typical processing apparatus schematically represented;
FIG. 8 is a plot of threshold current distribution of lasers schematically shown in FIG. 7 before and after deposition of a passivating film according to the invention;
FIG. 9 is a plot of the slope efficiency distribution of lasers similar to those used for the data of FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a test vehicle used to demonstrate the step coverage capabilities of the technique of the invention; and
FIG. 11 is a plot of operating current vs. time, comparing conventional lasers and lasers processed according to the invention.
Referring to FIG. 1, the degradation process of a typical laser facet is shown schematically. The facet of a laser usually has a large number of surface states due to facet oxidation or contamination when facets are formed in air. These states play a major role in the catastrophic optical damage (COD) mechanism. The maximum output optical power and the long term stability to and reliability can be limited by the COD.
Referring to FIG. 2, the degradation process of a typical laser due to oxidation/reduction reactions is shown schematically. For illustration the laser is shown with three semiconductor layers 12, 13 and 14. Layer 12 represents an n- substrate, layer 13 the active layer, and layer 14 the p+ contact region. The facet coating is shown at 15. The semiconductor near the edge of the facet coating oxidizes, as shown at 16, when exposed to moisture in the use environment. Since the oxidized semiconductor has a larger volume than the non-oxidized semiconductor, this imposes stress on the facet coating. In addition, if the facet coating is not moisture impermeable, it will absorb moisture. This leads to a volume increase in the coating that adds to the stress on the facet coating. When the combined stresses exceed the interfacial bond strength between the facet and the semiconductor layers, the facet coating will delaminate to relax the stress. The semiconductor that was previously protected from oxidation then oxidizes. In FIG. 2 the delamination is shown to have proceeded to the point of separating the facet from the active region 13, at which point severe degradation or failure occurs. This process plays a major role in the degradation of the laser in a moist environment.
Laser devices to which this invention is primarily directed are semiconductor lasers involving Compounds comprising In, Ga, Al, P, As, which are fabricated on GaAs or InP wafers by known techniques. A schematic cross-section of a typical multilayer laser structure is shown in FIG. 3. An n-type InP substrate is shown at 21 with an n-type buffer layer at 22, an InGaAsP/InGaAs quantum well active layer 23, an InP based p-n-p blocking layer 24, an InP p-type contact layer 25, a metallization contact 26, of e.g. TiPtAu, and an SiO2 insulating layer 27.
The laser devices actually used to demonstrate the invention are trench isolated using the structure shown in FIG. 4. As is evident the surface topography in these devices has severe features. The device shown is a single laser but the same isolation approach can be used for laser arrays.
In FIG. 4 the substrate 34 is shown with active laser region 35 and contact window 33. The active region is isolated in this structure by isolation trenches 36. An SiO2 layer 37 covers the top surface of the structure except for the window 33. A metallization layer 38 is deposited over a portion of the SiO2 layer to contact the semiconductor laser at contact window 33. The conformal passivating layer according to the invention is shown at 39. The width of the device shown in FIG. 4 is approximately 300 μm, and the height of the device is approximately 100 μm. The trenches 36 are typically 5-15 μm deep and 15-30 μm wide, and have aspect ratios (depth to width) of 2 or greater. The SiO2 layer is typically 0.2-1.0 μm, and the metallization layer 38 is typically 0.5-10 μm. The conformal layer 39 is advantageously in the range 0.1 to 0.6 μm.
It should be understood that the drawings in this description are not to scale and the layer thicknesses, substrate size, and other features are sized for convenience in illustration.
FIG. 5 shows a cross section through 5--5 of FIG. 4. A quarter wave thick layer 40 of yttrium stabilized zirconia (YSZ), and a quarter wave layer 41 of amorphous silicon are combined to yield the high reflecting (HR) coatings, and a half wave layer 42 of YSZ is the low reflection (LR) coating. The passivating coating according to the invention is shown at 39. The materials described are given by way of example, and many other materials known to those skilled in the art may be used.
According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the laser device is incorporated into a laser package and thereafter the final passivating layer, shown at 39 in the figures, is applied. The laser package comprises the mounting means for the laser, the electrical leads for the laser, and other components e.g. photodiodes, modulators, etc. The entire assembly is then placed in the deposition apparatus and all of the elements of the package are coated with the conformal layer of the invention. Although the preferred aspect of the invention involves a packaged laser those skilled in the art will recognized that this technique can also be used at other stages in the manufacturing process.
A typical low cost laser package is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. 6 is a side view of the package, and shows the laser device at 44 mounted on a Si submount 43 and attached to a copper stud 42. Solder 45 is used to mount these elements. A backface photodiode monitor is shown at 46 on submount 47. The photodiode is positioned to monitor light from the backface of laser 44 when the finished laser is in service. The copper stud 42 and the photodiode submount 47 are attached to a header 49. The laser device is approximately 100 μm thick, 250 μm long and 300 μm wide, the Si submount is approximately 700 μm thick 1000 μm long and 700 μm wide, and the copper stud is approximately 500 μm thick at the mounting end and 1500 μm thick overall. The distance from the top of the copper stud to the photodiode is approximately 3000 μm. The two angles of the solder 45 to the laser and the Si submount are between 30 and 50 degrees. A similar angle is found for the solder joint to the copper stud.
The front view of the laser package of FIG. 6 is shown in FIG. 7. Here the electrical connections can be seen which interconnect the laser diode 44 and the backface monitor photodiode 46. The submount 43 for the laser device is shown wire bonded by wire 51 to a pin 52 on the header 49. The laser 44 is connected with wire 53 to the submount 47 for the photodiode 46, and the photodiode is connected by wire 54 to pin 55 of the header.
In applying the conformal passivating layer according to the invention the entire optical device assembly is placed in the process chamber, here represented schematically as 41. The gas reactants are admitted to the vacuum chamber with a flow direction indicated by arrows 48.
The coating process is carried out in a vacuum chamber at a pressure of the order of 1-50 mbar and at a temperature in the range typically of 100� C.-400� C., and preferably 100�-300� C. The primary feature of the process is the formation of the coating by a multiplicity of process cycles in which each cycle produces essentially an equivalent monolayer of the passivating film. As known in the art, a cycle is considered to be all steps required to produce an equivalent monolayer. The number of cycles used depends on the thickness desired but generally exceeds 1000 cycles. In our demonstration we used 4235 cycles forming a coating approximately 385 nm. A typical process is given by way of example as follows.
A laser assembly is loaded into the process chamber and the chamber is heated to a temperature of approximately 150�-200� C. The chamber is purged with nitrogen for a period of several minutes to an hour. We used 1000 seconds for the initial purge. After the chamber is evacuated the gas reactants are introduced. In the specific example described here the passivating film was Al2 O3 and the reactant gases were trimethyl aluminum, (CH3)3 Al, and water. The reactant gases are introduced alternately during each cycle of the process so that in each process cycle an equivalent atomic layer of the aluminum source is deposited on all of the surfaces in the chamber. The aluminum source is then turned off and the system is purged with N2 to flush all non-absorbed (CH3)3 Al from the reaction chamber. Thereafter the oxidizing agent, in this case water vapor, is introduced to convert the deposited aluminum compound to Al2 O3. This is followed by a N2 purge. For this example, the trimethyl aluminum was introduced at a flow rate of 0.45 cm3 /sec. for 6 sec, followed by a nitrogen purge at 0.75 cm3 /sec. for 30 sec, and then water vapor at a flow rate of 2.65 cm3 /sec. in nitrogen carrier gas for 6 sec, followed by a nitrogen purge at 0.75 cm3 /sec. for 6 sec. This procedure is continued for the desired number of cycles. The pressure used in this example was 19.4 mbar. Typically pressures in the range of 10-30 mbar are suitable for these processes. More details of the process and specific processing parameters for alternative materials are given by T. Suntola in "Materials Science Reports, Vol. 4, Number 7, pp. 261-312, December 1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,430 both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
When conducted in this mode the reaction is complete and precisely stoichiometric. We have found that each part of every surface in every test vehicle is coated at the same time with exactly the same amount of material. Even surfaces that are facing away from the apparent gas flow direction are coated in precisely the same manner as the surfaces exposed directly to the incoming gas stream. Severe features, such as trenches, steps, windows, are covered uniformly. Features with re-entrant angles, such as the sidewalls of the trenches shown in FIG. 4, and the surfaces of the solder joints (45 in FIG. 6), are coated uniformly.
The precise nature of the optical step coverage (thickness and refractive index) is demonstrated in FIGS. 8 and 9. FIG. 8 is a plot of the normal distribution of the threshold current of the laser structure described above before (solid diamonds) and after (open squares) a half wave thick (approximately 385 nm) Al2 O3 conformal coating was deposited. Similarly, FIG. 9 is a plot of the normal distribution of the slope efficiencies of the lasers used to obtain the threshold current data of FIG. 8, before (solid diamond) and after (open square) a half wave thick Al2 O3 conformal coating was deposited. Note that the threshold current and slope efficiency distribution are not affected by the half wave Al2 O3 film. One would expect, theoretically, to see a measurable shift in both threshold Current and slope efficiency if the optical thickness of the Al2 O3 film on either facet of the laser varied by more than 3%. Thus we conclude that even with this severe topology and the extremely low deposition temperature used to deposit the facet coatings step coverage is exceptional, approaching unity. In fact, using scanning electron microscopy, we observe no detectable thickness variation anywhere within the package.
Because of the precise chemical and physical uniformity of these films, film properties such as refractive index reflect similar uniformity. Accordingly, these techniques are ideal for forming reflecting and antireflecting coatings such as quarter wave and half wave coatings on optical devices such as lasers, amplifiers, modulators, filters, etc.
In the specific example given above the coating material was Al2 O3. A wide variety of coating materials can be used according to the teachings of the invention. For example, we have coated devices and structures with Ta2 O5 using essentially the procedure just described but with TaCl5 and water vapor as the gas reactants. The reaction temperature used in this case was somewhat higher, i.e. approximately 300� C., and the pressure lower, of the order of 3 mbar.
Also insulating layers of SiO2, TiO2 and ZnO can be produced with results similar to those reported here. These materials can also be used as passivating compounds. A wide variety of precursor materials can be chosen. In each case one of the precursor gases is a source of one part of the passivating compound, e.g. SiCl4,TiCl4, and another precursor gas is a source of an oxidizing reactant, e.g. O, S, N, to form the desired passivating compound.
Although the trenches 36 in FIG. 4 are regarded as severe topological features in the context of the invention, and represent adequately the process goal, we explored the efficacy of the invention for even more severe topological features. Using the test vehicle shown in FIG. 10, the substrate 61 was processed to have a comb-like structure with ridges 62 approximately 500 μm deep and 10 μn wide, spaced at 50 μm, giving a trench aspect ratio of 10. After deposition according to the invention the coating thickness at the bottom of the trenches was the same as the thickness at the top of the trench within measurement error (<1 nm)
We have also investigated the stability (long term reliability) of laser devices coated with Al2 O3 in hot, humid ambients. The data from one such device is shown in FIG. 11. FIG. 11 is a plot of the current required to maintain a 3 mW output power at 25� C. as a function of time the device is subjected to operation at 85� C./85% RH/30 mA drive. Also shown in the figure is data for a laser device passivated by YSZ using a conventional prior art approach, as well as a curve representing the failure criteria. As shown, the standard YSZ passivated device failed after only 500 hours of operation, whereas the YSZ passivated device coated with an Al2 O3 passivating film according to the invention remains operational even after 8,000 hours. Based on previous data (Osenbach, et al, J. Lightwave Techn., Vol. 15,pg. 1, 1997) a device must survive at least 3000 hours of operation at the conditions of this test to be considered sufficiently reliable for telecommunications applications. We therefore conclude, that the passivation process of this invention provides sufficient protection from moisture so that such lasers can be made reliably, even in non-hermetic packages.
Various additional modifications of this invention will occur to those skilled in the art. All deviations from the specific teachings of this specification that basically rely on the principles and their equivalents through which the art has been advanced are properly considered within the scope of the invention as described and claimed.
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Originally written on Fox Sports | Last updated 5/18/12
Down 2-0 against the San Antonio Spurs, the Los Angeles Clippers face the tough task of needing two victories at home to keep pace with the NBA's hottest team. Making things worse are injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin that have robbed the superstars of their effectiveness. Game 3 on Saturday is particularly crucial for the Clippers because no team in NBA history has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a series. Bolstered by inspired play from their trio of 30-somethings, the Spurs have won 16 straight games, including a 6-0 mark in the playoffs. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have helped them to a 27-2 record in their last 29 games. Paul's turnovers in the playoffs are up significantly since he strained his right hip, while Griffin added a left hip injury in Game 2 to a sprained right knee that was already limiting his elevation to the rim.
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BARRE A Granite City teenager has admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old girl in Barre in 2011.
Dustin Dunkling, 19, pleaded guilty to felony lewd and lascivious conduct with a child in Washington County criminal court Friday. He has agreed to a sentence of three to 15 years, all suspended except one year, pending the completion of a presentence investigation.
According to the police affidavit, the girl told police that Dunkling had raped her and slapped her during the incident in August 2011 after he had pushed her off her bike near Bugbee Avenue.
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|Less Than $25,000, $25,001 to $35,000, $35,001 to $50,000, $50,001 to $75,000, $75,001 to $100,000, $100,001 to $150,000, $150,001+
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text:
Oklahoma football: Sooners give fans what they want in blowout win
"All of our running backs did a great job obviously," said co-offensive coordinator Josh Heupel. "Damien has great numbers, the big one coming out backed up in our end zone. But all of those guys ran hard and have the numbers that they do ... because our guys do a great job up front."
Then there's Millard, the longtime fan favorite who was a frequent subject of preseason interviews with coaches, who assured everyone that he'd get the ball more.
But through the first four games, he received just 15 offensive touches. Saturday, he ran the ball three times for 45 yards, but made his biggest impact in the passing game with five catches, 119 yards and a touchdown.
"You never know what's gonna go well," Bob Stoops said. "You never know how the other team is gonna react to different formations or plays. Then once you get in, and you realize certain formations they don't like or they don't handle very well, you go back to them."
Stoops has often said this season that one of his goals is to increase the number of overall offensive plays in each game, which would lead to more touches for the various players he thinks need them.
Through OU's first four games, the Sooners averaged roughly 70 offensive plays.
Saturday against Texas? OU ran 90 of them.
Bob Stoops reminded reporters — forcefully at times — of the criticism he and his team have received in the early part of this season. But he later defiantly discredited any suggestion that he gets personal satisfaction from blowout wins like Saturday's.
"I don't need your or anyone else's validation on what we do or how I'm doing it," he said when asked about it. "I'm pleased we won, sure, but not because of the criticism. That's just a bunch of people who think they know what they're talking about and most of the time they don't.
"You guys can all throw your perceptions out there because coming into this game they weren't all accurate either."


text:
How poll was conducted
The Evansville Courier & Press-Indiana State University poll was conducted with a "stratified random sample," meaning the percentage of respondents who live in each of the 8th District's 18 counties was proportional to the percentage of registered voters there.
"So, since Vanderburgh County is about 25 percent of the population of the district, 25 percent of (registered voters who participated in the poll) are from Vanderburgh County," said Thomas L. Steiger, professor of sociology and women's studies at the university.
A "sampling" company that maintains a database of residential telephone numbers provided the pool of 8,000 numbers from which Steiger's department found 603 registered voters willing to be polled, he said.
"The sample we used is of a very high quality," he said. "It was proportional by county. No county was disproportional to its contribution to the whole."
The poll poses 20 questions asking how important the candidates' positions on specific issues are to the respondents before it asks for their candidate preference.
Calling between the hours of 3 and 9 p.m. Eastern time, on every day but Friday and Saturday, Steiger's telephone interviewers made about 2,900 calls and spoke to 2,100 people before finding 603 willing to spend five minutes answering questions.
Of that 603, 63.5 percent are women and 36.5 percent are men.
Steiger noted that ISU's Sociology Research Lab, which has conducted several political polls and academic surveys, has none of the motivations to cut costs that commercial polling firms have and no affiliation with any Web site.
"We did two presidential election polls just for Vigo County in 2000 and 2004, and the results ended up being right on the money," he said.
After an Oct. 4 debate between Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., and Democratic challenger Brad Ellsworth in Vincennes, Steiger's department will call another 600 registered voters in the 8th District in six nights.
"It will be a shorter poll, and this time their candidate preference will be the first question asked instead of the 21st question," he said.
"People want to say who they're for. Waiting to answer that question was their incentive to answer 20 issues questions first."
Asking 20 issues questions first also makes it more likely that voters who care about issues will give a more reasoned, thoughtful answer when finally asked which candidate they favor, Steiger said.
"This is a good, solid poll," he said.
Subscribe to the Courier & Press or The Gleaner
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text:
Google's Schmidt: 'Phone is the primary development'
By Arif Durrani, campaignlive.co.uk, Friday, 24 June 2011 08:00AM
CANNES 2011: The mobile phone is set to replace the browser as the next "primary development artefact" in the world, according to Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt.
Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on 22 June, the Google leader underlined where much of the internet giant's focus now lies.
"Phone is the primary development artefact going forward," he said. "Historically people have been primarily focused on mainframes and answering machines, personal computers and then browsers. The next generation of interesting apps will all be phone based."
He added: "Obviously we have our Android platform and the iPhone platform is very good, and other folks as well. All of the really, really clever stuff is going to happen on this platform."
Describing the current climate as a "consumer-led revolution" Schmidt restated his belief in developments of near field communication.
The executive chairman went on to highlight the value of mobile payment systems when used in conjunction with the ability to record transactions in the cloud.
He envisaged a scenario when your phone can understand your brand preference when you are looking to buy a t-shirt down a street. "I want it to say on the left you can get this particular brand, 20% off. On the right you can get this other brand 30% off, it's in euros, it does the calculation for me.
"I choose based on pictures, offers on the phone, or recommendations against my past history, again with my permission."
The t-shirt is then bought by tapping the phone on a tap and go system. He concluded: "How big a market is that? "Many, many, many billions. It's probably a trillion-dollar market over time, because of the scale of retail commerce."
Schmidt believes Google is the first company to move into this space with its Andriod phone, Google wallet and settlement systems with card authorisers.
"We make money on the ads. We don't make money on the transactions, we're in the ad business.
"How valuable is an ad that makes people walk into a store and buy the product right there? This will be very big business for us and for all of you."
Last week, research from Gartner forecast the worldwide market for mobile advertising will double in 2011 to hit $3. 3 billion. The projected global mobile budget is expected to represent more than 4% of total ad spending by 2015.
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
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text:
'Silver Linings Playbook,' 'Lincoln' Lead SAG Awards Nominees
"Silver Linings Playbook" and "Lincoln" lead films with four nominations each; "Breaking Bad," "Homeland," and "Modern Family" dominate television.
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Soon it will be your turn to give an award show acceptance speech. Maybe it will be at the SAG Awards, the Golden Globes, or the Academy Awards. If you're stumped on what kind of speech you should give, try one of these!
'American Hustle,' McConaughey, and Blanchett Top SAG Awards
The SAG Awards honored the casts of AMC's "Breaking Bad," ABC's "Modern Family," and "American Hustle" while singling out the leads of "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Blue Jasmine."
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Casting Director Ronna Kress didn't have an unlimited budget when casting "Saving Mr. Banks," but given the team of talented actors, you'd have had no idea.
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Before the SAG Awards are presented Jan. 27, take another look at the actors and ensembles nominated for their film performances this year.


text:
Cook the ground meat with the diced onions. Add the salt and spices.
Add the fried almonds or pine nuts after the meat is fully cooked
Hollow the Zucchinis
Stuff the Zucchinis with the cooked ground meat
Fry the Zucchinis with hot oil until they turn brownish in color
In a pot, add diced onions to little oil and cook until translucent in color
Add the minced garlic
Add salt, black pepper and the dry mint
Place the fried zucchinis in the pot
Add the water or the meat broth to the zucchinis
boil the contents of the pot on high heat then lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes
Serve with white rice on the side as a main dish


text:
|106 posts found
Novice Member
Joined: 3/23/13
"I just die so fast it's hard to position myself. :)"
Originally posted by strangiato2112
Funny....I have seen something over 33k comments regarding this Kickstarter on the KS backers thread and none of the people posting there seem confused. Not one. They are all quite clear on the fact that they have donated their money and it is not an investment of any kind.
My 11-year-old isn't even confused by this.
Do you have a friend that was confused or something? Because I would be happy to try to explain it. :)
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 1/24/11
OP is 100% right.
I love the oblivious masses that disagree.
Good Lord what has the world come to. No wonder no game ever makes it. We're stupid. Unreasonable. Brutes. It's disgusting. At least be willing to see gain for what it is people.
He's not saying this makes Jacobs a bad guy, HE TYPED WORD FOR WORD THAT IT IS NOT A SCAM, SO STOP WITH THAT, HOLY SHIT, what he's saying is that Jacobs made a smart business move and he's just pointing it out, he's just calling him out like it is. Sharpen the fuck up.
At the end, it even says its a safe kickstarter. I mean come on. Are you guys not reading his post or something? I'm trying not to have a brain aneurysm here. Maybe I already did. Hm.
Originally posted by strangiato2112
I don't think it's getting 'bored'.
Lately (last few years) I think it's that they 'choose to persue other opportunities' because the design is done... and it becomes obvious that it is fundimentally "broken"... and they either have no idea how to fix it... or fixing it would require a fundimental redsign and rebuild from the ground up.
(or if you work for Cryptic... it works exactly as designed... who cares what players say once you have their money? Simply re-skin the thing and offer lifetime subs to a new generation of suckers!... anyway... getting off topic...)
Happened to quite a few game designers recently.
That guy from Pirates of the Burning Sea, didn't some of the Bioware guys go the same way? and that guy from WAR too?
The only game designer I can think of that has actually left and moved on leaving success in his wake is J. Todd Coleman from KingsIsle. There may be more - I hope someone can name a few others?
But the rest of them have created games with major design flaws. Games that simply didn't do what they were supposed to do.
Many of them moved on claiming that they have "learnt their lessons" - but honestly I doubt it.
Game design is an art as much as a science. Have you ever met someone who could walk into a room and straight away judge the mood of everyone in it? Walk up to someone who is outwardly smiling and say "Are you okay?" and have that person collape in tears pouring their heart out?
Because game design is a bit like that. It's understanding the people you are marketing to, how people act, what motivates them, what they value, seeing beyond the first layer and how many different things will work together to produce an end result that works.
Most game designers don't move on because they are bored IMHO - they move on because they failed but their spreadsheets don't offer a solution.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Spotlight Poster
Joined: 9/21/12
Originally posted by Schoeneck93
eh, its probably the title that is getting them. As someone pointed out I was too harsh in the title choice. Its not the whole foundation, but its certainly a significant portion of it.
Originally posted by strangiato2112
Hmmm... "financial benefit"...
Well, you could call it that I suppose.
But really, IMHO you are avoiding the real benefit, which is cheap advertising.
I think that cf-publishing are driving this. Kickstarter is popular right now. It's a buzzword. It's the in thing.
It's a brand name that has achieved world wide recognition (on the internet). So, it's bloody good marketing.
I wonder what an advert on MMORPG.com costs?
Yet CSE has a huge add for Camelot Unchained up on Kickstarter for a whole month and it costs them (assuming it funds):
5% x $2,000,000 = $100,000.
Not to mention all the banner sigs floating around too.
I think for some of those using Kickstarter lately - Kickstarter is actually irrelevent. They don't need it but it is a way to generate 'crowd buzz' (viral marketing in old speak).
"WOW... our project was 500% overfunded!"
"WOW... we funded in less than 24 hours!"
"WOW... we have 20,000 backers!"
But... and here's the kicker... what if it doesn't fund?
THAT would be a serious problem... because if you had intended to proceed with the project anyway (and Kickstarter was just an advertising side show) but it doesn't fund... then your cheap advertising has actually hurt you. It's worse than that actually... it has potentially destroyed you.
You run an advert that no-one reads - you can say it was "badly placed", "didn't reach the correct demographic", or "lacked penetration"... but if a Kickstarter fails... it's because not enough people are interested.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Novice Member
Joined: 6/05/06
I have to agree with some aspect and disagree with others.
First, is kickstarter cheap money? To some extent, yes. However, rather than earn a financial return on their investment, others are willing to earn a "fun" return on their investment. The fun is that a game is made that they will enjoy. In the world of economics, this is called "utility" and describes why people do what they do. Obviously, money has utility, but so do other things. Hence, if it was only money, you couldn't ever figure out why people volunteer their time or donate to charities or purchase the $10,000 tier of the Kickstarter.
Furthermore, many teirs of Kickstarter provide very good returns financially as well. The $250 tier with the game plus life-time sub covers the cost of the game and about 1 year of a $15/month sub.
If you took this to a traditional publisher, they would require that the game have a PvE element, because that's what other games have and that's what is successful in World of Warcraft. Is there any doubt that over the last 5-10 years, we have seen enough WoW clones to know that they don't work, and yet we ponder why so many keep getting published?
Secondly, publishers have deals with various game distributors that they have to abide by. So, let's say a publisher has an agreement with Gamestop. Gamestop isn't interested in taking shelf space for a game that is truly a niche game. They want more broad appeal in order to justify the shelf space. Hence, the publisher is going to pressure the game developer to do things that wont make it a niche game, so that they can get Gamestop to buy the game and put it on the shelf.
The only way around it is to fund it yourself or with a few small investors, which brings you games like Darkfall, which took like 8 or 9 years to develop that by the time it was released it looked like it was 9 years old. Or Shadowbane, which was plagued with technical problems and hacking. Or the game Dark & Light, which was a scam and the company that made it stole the game engine without paying for it. Apparently, funding it yourself has massive problems as well.
Which of course brings us to kickstarter. Certainly one could complain about the process, but nobody is forcing anyone to buy it.
I have proudly purchased the $250 Warrior Forever tier and really want the game to come about. I have always been one of Marc Jacobs harshest critics for stupid stuff like ToA and some of the dumbest end-game mechanics ever conceived in Warhammer; and who could forget his dumbest claim that Warhammer would have advanced class-balancing tools when all it took was playing a Bright Wizard for a few minutes could have figured out it was unbalanced. Maybe going throug those terrible decisions has allowed him to finally see the error of his ways and is bringing about a communication with seasoned PvP players like myself who certainly don't mind telling him when he's jumped the shark. There has never been a harsher critic than myself, and there has never been someone so eager that he gets this game made.
Novice Member
Joined: 11/27/05
I agree with a lot of what you said. I also agree that this project will fund and a game will be created. The line I most agree with is this one "And there is no gaurantee at all he wont pull a Mythic and sell out to a big publisher anyway." I think that is a very good possibility.
As I pointed out in the other thread where he promised to release the code if the game ever shuts down there are no promises that he wont sell. All of these people funding a game to escape those big evil publishers could very likely be paying those same big evil publishers in the future. It happens all of the time to small developers.
Novice Member
Joined: 3/30/13
Well, it looks like Kickstarter is getting its own vocal "anti" crowd. I'm sure that's some sign of "making it".
People aren't pledging for a political ideal. They're pledging because they really like what MJ is trying to make and they want to do their part to make it happen, so that they may get to play it.
MJs philosophies and ideals about the KS model and what it may or may not do for people trying to break free of Publishers is completely separate from the game he's trying to make.
Everyone's aware of what KS is. Everyone's aware of the risks. Everyone's aware that the game could fail miserably and be terrible. They're willing to take that chance because they really like what MJ's put on the table.
I can't quite figure out what the motivation is behind the OP - to plant seeds of doubt or cynicism in people? Trying to "open people's eyes" to some great esoteric truth they feel only themself and a "chosen few" possess? Maybe it's just paranoia? A need to stir up drama? Trying to set some new conspiracy theory in motion? What's the point of even starting the topic?
You'd think simply choosing not to back the project would be enough for anyone who doesn't believe in it, or doubts the motivations behind it. I guess some people can't simply dissent by not participating. It has to have more meaning than that. It's not just a personal choice to not back something. No. It must be a rallying cry!! And so they make a post like the OP's.
It seems to me like the OP just has some issue with MJ and is looking to undermine his efforts, without being "too overt" about it - and unsuccessfully at that. Because I see nothing in their post that woudl dissuade me from wanting to help the man make a game that I'd like to play, whatever his personal philosophies are.
Spotlight Poster
Joined: 5/21/03
"A wise man has something to say, but a fool just has to say something."
Originally posted by Schoeneck93
Finally someone else who actually read the OP post. But if these guys want to drink the kool-aid thinking that MJ is one of them (who just happens to be a multimillionare) fighting the good fight from the goodness of his heart. Or to thumb his nose at the creativity crushing publishers (who he milked for his millions in the first place). Like some mmo philanthropist, so be it. Whether or not CU backers think CU Kickstarter is an investment or not makes no difference. It sure is one to MJ, at least it's one he won't put his own money into unless it looks like one that will payoff.
Novice Member
Joined: 8/30/08
I agree that CU is built on a foundation of dishonesty, but not for the same reasons the OP does.
Mark Jacobs has held back on specifics and given just enough information for fans to let their imaginations run wild. If you took each devote CU fan and sat them down and asked them what will CU be like each would give you an entirely different answer.
Hell, some that don't have the time or patience to comb through all the interviews and foundation principals are expecting a DAOC 2.0 still.
Some think its going to be an old school tab targeting game and others have said that its going to have action combat lol...
Fans have a hard time even getting on the same page as to what PvE is going to be like.
In the end its dishonest because backers are backing their ideal game instead of Mark Jacobs game. So many are going to be let down if and when it launches its not even funny.
If you don't believe me, comb through the CU threads and posts and look at how different the "vision" is for each player.
Novice Member
Joined: 3/03/04
I disagree, they've been pretty open and honest about it all. They mentioned it is going to be an RvR focused game. They said no progression from PvE... no leveling or gear drops from killing NPCs and there will be minimal NPCs. He has also said multiple times he's not making a sequel to DAoC which is why he decided to go w/ the story about post-apocolypse... so the classes/races/landscape would be different but he's always been a fan of the old norse/irish(hibernian)/arthurian legends. People loosely tout it as DAoC2 but thats because they miss the RvR elements of DAoC and want to see that in a new game and not that they're misinformed. They've gone to great lengths to make sure people know it's not DAoC2...if anyone still believes it then they haven't been reading the information about the game.
God did not create from the the foot of man to slave her, he did not create women from the mind of man to control her but he created women from the rib of man because it is closest to his heart.
Novice Member
Joined: 2/01/07
What man is a man that does not make the world better?
A game named Camelot but not it's sequel. Is this game going to be Paris, Texas?
Anyways, a great reason to use KS instead of asking a publishing company is because you get the money and aren't required to do anything with it. A publisher would have tons of contracts. Breaching them would get you sued. Not the case with kickstarter.
Novice Member
Joined: 4/12/13
Originally posted by GrayGhost79
CU is not built on a foundation of dishonesty, that is just riduculous. It is being built upon a foundation of core principles. You act like every single detail should already be decided and explained. I disagree. What you should know is how the developers are going to approach the game and what drives their decision making on designing key elements of the game. That _has_ been given in an upfront manner.
Hard Core Member
Joined: 5/13/10
I am more than some of my parts
If the fanbase pays enough money, that will keep them honest. Once again I would like to mention an improved subscription rate. I think that even as much as $100 each month is acceptable. Thats barely more than a couple cups of coffee each day! It's tried and true that the P2P model is the most honest model right, so why don't we prove it and let the cheaters and scammers go to the F2P titles!
I think that the players need to speak loud and clear on this. The fans are willing to pay much higher premiums for this niche title.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
Novice Member
Joined: 8/30/08
Originally posted by logonmas
lol... I was waiting for the obligatory "It's their own fault for not doing enough research".
If MJ wanted to make anything clear it would be presented up front and center on both his website and kickstarter. How many are going to spend hours combing through that info to get what little actual info is there? Fans have compiled a list that acts as a pretty decent Faq for the game but not many backers are going to see that list.
Sorry, yes there is a lack of information. Yes, there is a lack of easy access to what little is actually out there. Yes, there "vision" differs widely because of these.
It gets worse when take into account that each fan pushing the game is pushing their "vision" of the game lol.
For MJ to go to great lengths to make sure anyone knows anything at all about the game he would need something along the lines of the unofficial faq players have made due to the amount of sifting one must do to get any information out of MJs updates, posts, and such right on the front page of his site and the kickstarter site.
Novice Member
Joined: 2/01/07
What man is a man that does not make the world better?
Originally posted by eyelolled
You think that if Cu gets 800k the game is made? Or that MJ will actually put 2mil in? Or that he has 1mil from investors? Are there any suupporting documents? Is there a contract?
The answer to all of those questions is... maybe.
Novice Member
Joined: 3/03/04
It is the case w/ Kickstarter, they're legally obligated to fulfill the tier promises or refund the money. IE They offer a reward that says you can get a custom house but they aren't able to make that house, they're required to give you and everyone who was promised that a refund. They're also required to deliver the game or have a refund of everyones money. There is legal action that can come as a result from that (which has happened). If the company goes under, then you're SOL though I suppose. They have had projects where the entire balance was refunded or some that donated to specific tiers that were then removed and had to be refunded.
God did not create from the the foot of man to slave her, he did not create women from the mind of man to control her but he created women from the rib of man because it is closest to his heart.
Novice Member
Joined: 11/27/05
Originally posted by eyelolled
I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually believe this. You can not buy and sell honesty. People either are or they are not. If money was a factor than EA, SOE and all of the other "big evil corporations" would be the most honest people around.
Hard Core Member
Joined: 5/13/10
I am more than some of my parts
Originally posted by Smorak
Maybe is good enough for me. I wouldn't be against the loyal fanbase giving more if asked.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
Originally posted by Smorak
No. No and no.
You get the money for a project. If you don't use the money for that project you could (potentially) be sued by the backers.
There are lots of issues there I admit (it would be very difficult for backers to sue successfully).
Also CSE is an LLC - so more issues there to do with collecting money and not using it for it's intended purpose.
And... you can hire a publisher for marketing and distribution without letting them run your project. It has been done. But in that case you pay them.
But, quite rightly, publishers expect that they have to front money to a project to make it work then they get a say. That's simply sensible business.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.


text:
Chicken Breasts With Vermouth
5 Sep 2009
|Chicken breasts
|4 , skinned and boned
|All purpose flour
|4 Tablespoon
|Unsalted butter
|50 Milliliter (1/4 Cup)
|1 , finely chopped
|1⁄2 Pound, thinly sliced (250 Grams)
|Dry white vermouth
|75 Milliliter (1/3 Cup)
|Whipping cream
|250 Milliliter (1 Cup)
Slice chicken breasts in half horizontally to make 8 thin pieces; pat dry.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste; dust lightly with flour.
In large heavy skillet, melt half of the butter over medium heat; cook half of the chicken, turning occasionally, until no longer pink inside.
Repeat with remaining butter and chicken.
Remove to serving platter and keep warm.
Pour off excess fat in skillet; add shallot, mushrooms and vermouth.
Bring to boil, stirring to scrape up browned bits from bottom of pan; cook until reduced to about 1/4 cup (50 mL).
Add cream and return to boil, stirring constantly; cook until thickened slightly.
Taste and adjust seasoning.
Pour over chicken and serve immediately.
Recipe Summary
Difficulty Level:Easy
Course:Side Dish
Rate It
0 Comments
Chicken Breasts With Vermouth Recipe


text:
Established in 1981 by Paul Osborn.
3810 Cavalier Drive – Garland, Texas – 75042 972-276-3896 email: email@example.com
For over 30 years at Audio Dallas, Paul Osborn has recorded and/or mixed Billboard #1 and many top 10 hits, American Music Award winning projects, Grammy nominated projects, and more than 25 RIAA certified Gold and Platinum records. Audio Dallas Recording Studio is located in the Dallas suburb of Garland, Texas. The studio, previously called Autumn Sound, is where Willie Nelson's legionary album Red Headed Stranger including the song "Blue Eyes Cryin In The Rain" were recorded. At Audio Dallas, Paul Osborn continues the tradition recording and mixing hits like The multi-platinum K-Ci & JoJo hit "Crazy" featured in the movie "Save The Last Dance".
At Audio Dallas, we record "live" with all the players in the same studio at one time…through a large console and and on an analog reel to reel tape machine !!!! That's how they did it in "The good ol' days".
From large tracking sessions to budget demos. From major label projects to first time recording artist. From fully staffed sessions to "room rate" facility for free lance engineers. We will assist you every step of the way during your project.
We are not business people… just musicians and engineers who have the same passion for music that you do. So shoot us an email or give us a call with any questions on how we can help with your production needs. Email : firstname.lastname@example.com
or call 972-276-3896
A partial client list of artist include:
K-Ci & JoJo
Rick Ross
Charlie Pride
Reverend Horton Heat
Gerald Levert
Jamey Johnson
We are a full service recording studio that specializes in recording to 2″ ANALOG REEL TO REEL prior going into Pro Tools HD. Combine that with the incredible mixing through a Neve VR60/48 automated console, add some nice vintage outboard gear. Then you have the recipe for a unique, rich, full velvety sound of yesteryear. From full music productions, demos, industrial voice-overs, or freelance engineer / producer room rates. No project is too large or small. Give your project the attention it deserves.
Audio Dallas is where VINTAGE meets State-Of-The-Art.
Located 15 minutes from downtown Dallas.


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Learn more about FM Radio Transmitter - Play Music From Your iPod or MP3 Player In Your Car or Home Stereo:
|The FM-LE01 FM Transmitter by GGI International turns your portable music player into a mobile music station. Simply plug the FM Transmitter into the headphone jack of any audio device, choose an FM radio frequency and tune your radio to the same frequency. Then sit back and enjoy your favorite music with high quality sound and convenience.
This durable transmitter is powered by either 2 AAA batteries (not included) or the included cigarette lighter adapter.
Customer Reviews of FM Radio Transmitter - Play Music From Your iPod or MP3 Player In Your Car or Home Stereo
It looks good but it doesn't work. I tried it in multiple cars in multiple states and all I pick up is the radio and not the trsnasmission from this device. I've had great prducts from Buy.com but this thing is a total waste of money.
Piece. Of. Crap.7/1/2011
Piece. Of. Crap. Does not work, do not buy.
Inferior product5/23/2011
Signal is not transmitted on the marked frequencies, but slightly off of them. Also, having only 4 preset frequencies to choose from does not work well if you are in an area with strong radio signals already on the frequencies. Do not take this product even if it is offered for free! That being said...do you want mine?
Piece of Crapola4/15/2011
Yup, that's what it is, a piece of CRAPola!
Doesn't work in Detroit1/10/2011
Does not work in the Detroit area. Preset stations too close to regular channels. Had to order a different one that is able to get other channels.
Great value1/3/2011
Picked this up with free shipping. It works well and is very convenient to use. Good deal as long as you get it cheap. Worth the $5 since I got a working one and live in a rural area where the channels it uses are available. It was able to capture the car radio's signal even in the back seat of a minivan where the antenna is located on hood of car.
good value12/31/2010
the product works as suggested and good value for the price. sometimes the FM reception is not good but it may depend on the FM strength in the area.
It does not workj12/29/2010
FM Radio Transmitter - Play Music From Your iPod or MP3 Player In Your Car or Home Stereo As I live in DFW, all the frequencies it could use are already being used by commercial radio, so it does not work. YOU SHOULD TEST YOUR PRODUCTS BEFORE TO ADVERTISE THEN FOR GENERAL USE, WHEN IT WOULD MAY BE WORK ONLY ON SMALLER CITIES.
It doesn't work and it doesn't pay to ship it back for the 5 bucks it cost me. Waste of time and hope that it would be something useful.
its not working12/27/2010
unfortunately.....its not working
limited functionality, poor preformance12/27/2010
This FM radio transmitter turned out to be useless to me since it has only 4 selectable channels, all in close proximity, and all four are already in use in my area. Since they have stronger signals than this device, I could not "override" them.
It won't work!12/26/2010
Do not waste your money on this item. It won't wok with my three vehicles and iPod/iPod touch/iPad at all.0 Helpful | 1 Not Helpful
not worth it12/26/2010
it actually doesnt work! You can hear some noise coming through your car audio, but you can barely enjoy any music. DONT BUY IT! waste every penny.
Dont buy, doesn't work12/25/2010
It is a total waste of money. I tried all ways, but it does not work at all. Useless product, please dont buy.
Stay Away12/25/2010
I was wary due to past experiences with similar products, but I thought that time was bound to have helped this technology. I was so wrong! The best it would do was a scratchy signal that reminded me of the old movie transmitters, complete with whistles and pops. My 'free shipping' also included a postage due notice from the post office. Seriously, drive with ear buds. It's annoying, but far better than this. If there were zeros for review numbers, I would have used them here.
works well for a cheap gadget12/22/2010
like any FM transmitter, this device works mainly outside of urban areas where there aren't too many competing broadcast stations. Driving across the desert it was great, although I had to set the car radio to a slightly different frequency than indicated on the transmitter to get a clear signal. In our apartment in Orange County, CA it's not much use because there aren't any open frequencies in the range it transmits. Overall, it's simple to use and worth the $6 I paid.
Dead on Arrival12/22/2010
This item didn't work at all. I tried it on at least 3 radios, but it didn't work on any of them and I sat it 2 inches away from the antenna. I would not recommend it.
Is not strong enough to get a decent signal to the radio even when it is placed within a couple feet of the antenna. Not even worth the couple dollars it sells for!
Did not work.12/22/2010
Wanted to transmit FM signal from computer or TV to stereo system. Instructions say it charges through two AA batteries. Once opened, it is obvious that only AAA batteries fit in compartment. Would not charge with two AAA batteries and therefore was useless for my purpose. Did not try it in car as I had no need for that application.
Cost Little, Get Little12/21/2010
All channels are at least one frequency off. Works OK, very cheap plastic. Frequency is at the 107 end not the 88. Any local station will overpower it. Don't cost much!!
Xmt/Rcvr Frequencies off by one setting12/16/2010
Others have said that you get what you pay for and this is certainly true for this unit. Mine does work, but the signal is weak and often not able to overcome stronger broadcast stations. But the thing that most surprised me was the fact that the 106.7 MHz is only received with the radio is set to 107.1 Mhz and when xmting on 107.1 can only receive on 107.5 and 107.8 is off the radio dial! A low quality gadget indeed. Yet it does work with my Zune. It was simple to set up and is easy to use. Though disappointed that it does not work as marked and that the signal output is so poor, I am not unhappy with this purchase, for it does work.
Great idea but this unit doesn't work.12/16/2010
I thought that for the price that I would try it because I like the idea. Got absolutely no signal on any of the four channels.
Weak signal12/15/2010
The idea for this product is great. The actual function is only fair. The signal is weak, even if the unit is placed on the dashboard, closest to the vehicle antenna. This translates to static in the reception from the MP3 player.
Guess I got What I Paid For - Nothing12/14/2010
I read the reviews before I opened the package. I believed Buy.com wouldn't sell junk, even at a low price. I couldn't even get the power to come on. Yep, it is a piece of junk. Don't even think it is worth sending back but I will. So I guess I'll just use earbuds in the car.
This is a piece of junk, It does not work.12/10/2010
This item does not work. I tried it on 2 different radios and I get nothing from it. Its either defective or just a worthless piece of junk.
You get what you pay for12/3/2010
Very poor performance. some defect in the wiring. It plays only when the wire coming out of the transmitter is in particular position.
Buyer Beware....Does not work12/3/2010
I tried using this to listen to my song stored on my Ipod in the car and it just doesn't work....either I can get the radio to pick up the signal or I got a lemon.....
Seems to work well10/18/2010
This transmitter seems to transmit better than my Griffin plugin transmitter for my old ipod. I think it has a stronger signal because it uses its own power source, instead of borrowing the MP3 player's juice.
Other reviews are full of sh*t9/27/2010
Everything works perfectly. If your antenna is in the rear window make sure that you know this and compensate. I've had mine for over three months and it works very well.
FM Ipod6/21/2010
very poor reception. very poor sound qulity
Great Price, that's about it6/16/2010
I got this same make/model at a big-box store a few years back on special. I was VERY disappointed in how it actually performed. The sound quality in the transmission over the radio was horrible, I get radio stations 100 miles away sounding better than this thing did 6" from the radio itself. Positioning and trying different channels yielded no better results. Fabulous product in concept, extremely poor delivery. I would return it if I could, I do not recommend it for others to buy. Just remember, you get what you pay for.1 Helpful | 0 Not Helpful


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By Dan Di Sciullo
NHL Editor
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Here we go again.
The NHL has yet another chance to address the issue of blows to the head, and while it's never a good thing when a questionable hit brings the topic into the limelight, the latest infraction may been perfectly timed to affect change.
On Sunday, Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke leveled Boston Bruins star Marc Savard with a blind side hit to the head. Like several hits we've seen this year, it was vicious, and it once again brought to the forefront the debate on whether something needs to be done to better protect players.
Cooke's hit came just one day before the NHL's annual general manager meetings, putting even more pressure on the league to fix the problem. The GMs are currently gathered in Boca Raton and although it was already on the docket, the issue of head hits is really the only issue that matters now.
In short, they need to come up with some kind of an answer before the meetings conclude on Wednesday.
Even Cooke's teammate, Sidney Crosby, seemed open to rule changes after Sunday's incident.
The Penguins captain and resident superstar said, "At some point there's got to be a clear indication from the league, because we've seen this so many times now."
And that's the most important thing for the NHL to come up with in Florida, some sort of "clear indication" as to what is illegal.
As of now, the NHL only considers it to be a dirty hit if an elbow is delivered to the head, and not if contact is made with a shoulder. All hits to the head have been banned in international play, and we didn't see anybody trying to cross that line during the Olympics, so maybe it could work in the NHL.
But what Crosby implied in his statement is what the NHL needs to come up with immediately -- a tangible rule change. It doesn't have to be a drastic change like the IIHF's zero tolerance policy on head hits. Not that we have to worry about that really, after all this is the NHL, which should never be confused with an organization receptive to big changes.
But, under the current NHL rules, the Cooke hit did not even draw a penalty, despite the fact that it caught a player from the blind side and was also delivered well after Savard released the puck. The officials apparently didn't think it was late and they saw that it was a shoulder hit so they let Cooke skate by without a penalty.
Yet when you watch the video, and see Savard lying unconscious on the ice, can you really feel that Cooke did nothing wrong? Is it possible that the GMs could watch that replay over and over and think that the rules of the game, as they are now, are sufficient to protect players?
A possible solution that is being kicked around in the blogoshpere is the banning of blind-side hits by the NHL. That would certainly draw a line against at least one type of dangerous hits.
After all, Savard wasn't irresponsibly skating with his head down, he was simply in the act of shooting when he was obliterated by a player he couldn't possibly have seen. Hardly seems fair.
A zero tolerance policy on blind-side hits, if enforced, would be a good starting point and would prove to the NHL Players Association that the league is serious about protecting its players.
The NHLPA has been way ahead of the league in identifying hits to the head as a major problem. Why wouldn't they be...the NHLPA has seen over 200 concussions reported by players over the last two and a half years and they have to answer to their members when it comes to medical coverage.
As far as Cooke's suspension, the penalty of games should reach double-digits, but as usual, the NHL brass will most likely fall short of expectations. Colin Campbell, the NHL director of hockey operations and the man in charge of suspensions, has routinely shown a lack of interest in making examples of players.
The league even failed to give Philadelphia's Mike Richards a single game for his notorious hit on Florida's David Booth earlier this season. That wasn't officially Campbell's decision, since he recused himself from ruling on the incident because his son Gregory plays for the Panthers, but clearly his underlings were just following the precedent the director has set time and time again.
Oh yeah, about the Richards hit, it occurred on October 24 and Booth didn't see action in another game until January 31. Not that the league knew Booth would miss over three months due to his concussion, but looking back, it seems impossible that Richards didn't have to sit out a single game for his head hit.
Missing the boat with Richards is just another reason why the NHL needs to seize their moment in Boca Raton. If they won't stand up for the players now, it seems unlikely that they ever will.


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Buy A Licence; Join Us: The Final Day Of
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History of the Decade: WRs & TEs
HISTORY OF THE DECADE: A look at the Steelers' success and failure at defensive line in the draft and free agency since 2003 ...
4: Number of first round selections at wide receiver by the Detroit Lions since 2003
4: Number of first round selections at wide receiver by the entire AFC North since 2003 (one per team)
Heath Miller, a first-round pick in 2005, is simply put the greatest tight end in Steelers history and among the top in the game today. Santonio Holmes – whom the Steelers traded up for in the first-round in 2006 – literally captured a league-record sixth Super Bowl victory for the Steelers, even if he was jettisoned a year later for bad behavior. Despite Mike Wallace's expected exit, he was an excellent third-round pick in 2009. Antonio Brown's frustrating season notwithstanding, he is the ultimate value pick – a past team MVP chosen in the sixth round in 2010. Emmanuel Sanders shows flashes of being an above average third-round pick from the same draft.
However, highly-touted second-round pick in 2008 Limas Sweed has become the poster boy for modern Steelers draft busts, but that's only because he made people forget about 2006 third-rounder Willie Reid. Multiple tall tight-end targets for Ben Roethlisberger was the plan when Matt Spaeth was selected in the third round in 2007, but he too didn't pan out. Fourth-round WR pick Fred Gibson didn't make it out of training camp in 2005.
A 2012 seventh-rounder, David Paulson gradually saw increased tight end action as the season wore on and could have an increased role while Miller recovers from a major knee injury. Another 2012 seventh-rounder at receiver, Valley High School's Toney Clemons spent the year on the practice squad. The team's last pick of 2009, David Johnson, contributed at tight end before being moved to fullback and sustaining a season-ending injury in training camp this year.
Free agents
Brought over from the Jets in 2011, Jerricho Cotchery is underused at receiver, but his veteran leader status is unquestioned. Plexico Burress arrived late in 2012, but his return is in question. Cedrick Wilson contributed as a no. 3 receiver during the 2005 Steelers Super Bowl season. Others like Arnaz Battle and Sean Morey made their marks on special teams.
Tight end Leonard Pope followed Todd Haley from Arizona and while he caught two touchdowns in 2012, he only had one other reception and totaled nine yards from scrimmage. Earlier last decade, Jay Riemersma had a similarly underwhelming Steelers career after coming over from Buffalo.
An undrafted free agent in 2005, Nate Washington, from tiny Tiffin University, was a pleasant surprise and a the team's no. 3 receiver from 2006-08.