"err, maybe i am wrong, but it looks as if you used Microsoft Word (or was it Outlook?) to type your reply. ie, in "Who are you?" and "open source", the angled quotes look just like those horrible Word-specials."
this is an interesting question - i can imagine a blind man and his dog crossing the road, while the phone translates the barks into simplified versions of "look out, here comes a truck" or "damn, there goes a cute bitch. wish i was not on a leash stuck with this man and his fancy phone!"...
errr... hold on. for a blind user, won't the phone also need some kind of a bark-to-human-voice conversion? also AI good enough to figure out the difference between a wuff wuff and a woof wuff? not to mention, an articulate dog who isn't the canine counterpart of our mumbling slyvester stallone?
wow indeed! brilliant analysis. yes, i too have seen these MBA types - they talk loud, they spew jargon, and then they leave the execution of their "vision" to the not-so-well-endowed regulars. but i think this springs for an overwhelming desire to 'overperform'. i think lot of MBAs are what they are, simply because they believe they have to prove a point to the rest of the mundane mankind. they have to show that their MBA education was indeed worth the fancy salaries they are earning. but yes, i have also met very humble MBAs - self-assured, but certainly not "arrogant pricks". so i guess stereotypes will not serve us here. in fact, i am sure there are lot of coders - and i personally know a few - who think their code is so good, that a new nobel prize category should be introduced just for them!
well, swayed by the hype and the claims, i picked up a pair of isound 5.1 home theatre headphones. the deal sounded like a steal (around $40). well, packaging was sexy enough - the headphones come ensconed in velvet cloth, red ribbons, etc. you also get a mini-amplifier and all kinds of cables.
what you don't get, however, is good sound quality! there is hardly any clarity to the sound, and it is nowhere close to the output of my regular headphones - a mid-priced sennheiser and a reference sony model.
further, the 5.1 effect is hardly to be noticed. there is a cd/dvd switch on the cord, and independent controls for front, rear and center. fiddling around does improve things a bit (not the sound quality, but the 5.1 'feel'). but this pair certainly won't blow you off.
worse, i can't even plug it into by audigy platinum card - it has no optical/ spdif/ din input. and using the line-out inputs on the back of the card leads to horribly distorted sound. plus, it means i have to disconnect my cambridge soundworks setup every time i plug in this pair.
so, as a novelty item, yep, go ahead and buy something like this. but don't expect too much from it.
or how about this: you could get hold of three pairs of good quality headphones and one pair of those huge headphones (used by helicopter pilots, for example). then maybe you could empty out the big one, desolder the small ones, and fit them in the big one's earcups - one towards the rear, one in center, one at front! not sure what the wiring will look like. and maybe u will need some amplification circuit, too.
but hey, if this works, you could start a new business - am sure there will be a lot of slashdot guys willing to buy such a pair - never mind if it looks bulky and gaudy!
have been a big casio fan, and am currently on my 8th casio watch.
among my favs was the databank telememo 300. but those watches had an upper limit of only 8 alphanumeric characters - and you soon realise that it makes more sense to store names and numbers on your mobile, instead of the watch.
the other fav was the touchscreen watch. forgot what the model number was... but it was a cool show-off! you know how it goes - you walk up to a person (preferably a gal), point to your watch, and go "look no buttons!". unfortunately, not many gals seemed to care!
anyway, am currently using casio prg-50 (http://world.casio.com/pacific/wat/collections/pr otrek/lineup/triple_sensor/prg50_1v.html). it is big , bulky and in-your-face. nah, you just can't miss it!! also, when you press the compass button, you get to see a cool-blue circular movement. it also has a barometer, thermometer, altimeter... and of course, it shows the time - in big bold fonts. but, for reasons beyond my comprehension, it lacks a stopwatch, countdown timer, etc. maybe casio did not want to put too many functions in it - why would anyone buy a new casio watch if all functions were available in the previous one?
anyway, happy hunting for your watch! reminds me of the spy kids movie (part 2?) where the watch has all kinds of advanced functions. only prob, it does not tell the time!
hi crypto, here's something i found on mp3licensing.com: "Using advanced psychoacoustics techniques and music structure analysis, mp3PRO creates files that are more compact than original mp3 files, with equal or better sound quality and complete backwards and forwards compatibility... Offering 128 kbps (kilo bits per second) performance at a 64 kbps-encoding rate, mp3PRO doubles the digital music capacity of flash memory and of compact discs. For example, traditional audio CDs hold about 15 songs, and an mp3 CD can hold 150 or more songs encoded at 128 kbps. In the near future, when mp3 CD players incorporate the mp3PRO decoder, consumers will be able to store over 300 songs on an mp3PRO encoded Compact Disc..."
not an expert on this topic, but aren't mp3pro files about half the size of regular mp3s, but with no discernable loss in quality? doesn't this make switching to formats like ogg vorbis sort of... unnecessary? also, do any of these mp3 players play mp3pro, too?
Slashdot Mirror
tried posting this on his site. no luck.
"err, maybe i am wrong, but it looks as if you used Microsoft Word (or was it Outlook?) to type your reply. ie, in "Who are you?" and "open source", the angled quotes look just like those horrible Word-specials."
Is this for blind people?
this is an interesting question - i can imagine a blind man and his dog crossing the road, while the phone translates the barks into simplified versions of "look out, here comes a truck" or "damn, there goes a cute bitch. wish i was not on a leash stuck with this man and his fancy phone!"...
errr... hold on. for a blind user, won't the phone also need some kind of a bark-to-human-voice conversion? also AI good enough to figure out the difference between a wuff wuff and a woof wuff? not to mention, an articulate dog who isn't the canine counterpart of our mumbling slyvester stallone?
wow indeed! brilliant analysis. yes, i too have seen these MBA types - they talk loud, they spew jargon, and then they leave the execution of their "vision" to the not-so-well-endowed regulars.
but i think this springs for an overwhelming desire to 'overperform'. i think lot of MBAs are what they are, simply because they believe they have to prove a point to the rest of the mundane mankind. they have to show that their MBA education was indeed worth the fancy salaries they are earning.
but yes, i have also met very humble MBAs - self-assured, but certainly not "arrogant pricks". so i guess stereotypes will not serve us here.
in fact, i am sure there are lot of coders - and i personally know a few - who think their code is so good, that a new nobel prize category should be introduced just for them!
well, swayed by the hype and the claims, i picked up a pair of isound 5.1 home theatre headphones. the deal sounded like a steal (around $40). well, packaging was sexy enough - the headphones come ensconed in velvet cloth, red ribbons, etc. you also get a mini-amplifier and all kinds of cables.
what you don't get, however, is good sound quality! there is hardly any clarity to the sound, and it is nowhere close to the output of my regular headphones - a mid-priced sennheiser and a reference sony model.
further, the 5.1 effect is hardly to be noticed. there is a cd/dvd switch on the cord, and independent controls for front, rear and center. fiddling around does improve things a bit (not the sound quality, but the 5.1 'feel'). but this pair certainly won't blow you off.
worse, i can't even plug it into by audigy platinum card - it has no optical/ spdif/ din input. and using the line-out inputs on the back of the card leads to horribly distorted sound. plus, it means i have to disconnect my cambridge soundworks setup every time i plug in this pair. so, as a novelty item, yep, go ahead and buy something like this. but don't expect too much from it.
or how about this: you could get hold of three pairs of good quality headphones and one pair of those huge headphones (used by helicopter pilots, for example). then maybe you could empty out the big one, desolder the small ones, and fit them in the big one's earcups - one towards the rear, one in center, one at front! not sure what the wiring will look like. and maybe u will need some amplification circuit, too.
but hey, if this works, you could start a new business - am sure there will be a lot of slashdot guys willing to buy such a pair - never mind if it looks bulky and gaudy!
have been a big casio fan, and am currently on my 8th casio watch. among my favs was the databank telememo 300. but those watches had an upper limit of only 8 alphanumeric characters - and you soon realise that it makes more sense to store names and numbers on your mobile, instead of the watch. the other fav was the touchscreen watch. forgot what the model number was... but it was a cool show-off! you know how it goes - you walk up to a person (preferably a gal), point to your watch, and go "look no buttons!". unfortunately, not many gals seemed to care! anyway, am currently using casio prg-50 (http://world.casio.com/pacific/wat/collections/pr otrek/lineup/triple_sensor/prg50_1v.html). it is big , bulky and in-your-face. nah, you just can't miss it!! also, when you press the compass button, you get to see a cool-blue circular movement. it also has a barometer, thermometer, altimeter... and of course, it shows the time - in big bold fonts. but, for reasons beyond my comprehension, it lacks a stopwatch, countdown timer, etc. maybe casio did not want to put too many functions in it - why would anyone buy a new casio watch if all functions were available in the previous one?
anyway, happy hunting for your watch! reminds me of the spy kids movie (part 2?) where the watch has all kinds of advanced functions. only prob, it does not tell the time!
hi crypto,
here's something i found on mp3licensing.com:
"Using advanced psychoacoustics techniques and music structure analysis, mp3PRO creates files that are more compact than original mp3 files, with equal or better sound quality and complete backwards and forwards compatibility... Offering 128 kbps (kilo bits per second) performance at a 64 kbps-encoding rate, mp3PRO doubles the digital music capacity of flash memory and of compact discs. For example, traditional audio CDs hold about 15 songs, and an mp3 CD can hold 150 or more songs encoded at 128 kbps. In the near future, when mp3 CD players incorporate the mp3PRO decoder, consumers will be able to store over 300 songs on an mp3PRO encoded Compact Disc..."
not an expert on this topic, but aren't mp3pro files about half the size of regular mp3s, but with no discernable loss in quality? doesn't this make switching to formats like ogg vorbis sort of... unnecessary? also, do any of these mp3 players play mp3pro, too?