If you want a simple, relatively small and quiet, two channel recording rig, with equivalent sound quality to this, I highly suggest buying a fucking Minidisc or DAT deck, a decent mixer, and a couple good mics. Then you can dump it to a machine with decent editing tools later.
And the best part? It is silent.
What the hell advantage does this system have over a DAT deck and a computer with editing software worth using? None, because its a two-track system using a consumer-level sound card. Any gains you might make in reducing hard drive chatter will be totally overwhelmed by the crap quality of your A/D subsystem.
This thing is barely suitable for use as a two-track tracking machine, and there's no reason to edit on this thing as opposed to a decent PC which won't run into disk space or flash write limitations.
The solution, of course, is to use real audio interfaces, which will have an external breakout box and digital interface back to the computer from that point. At that point, the length of cables back to the computer become a lot less important.
For example, you could use a nice standalone A/D box with a ADAT-compatible output, then string your digital cable the 15 feet into your nicely isolated computer closet, where it enters an ADAT card. Run monitor and keyboard cables the 15 feet, and you have a system that can be as loud as it wants to be without getting anywhere near your recording.
Of course, for real recording, you're going to want to isolate control from recording, so you can have a somewhat noisy computer in control (so long as its noise factor is less than what you can tolerate during mix and edit).
This project is neat for geek factor, kinda like sticking SSH on your cellphone, but there are a lot of easier, more useable ways to minimize recorded noise.
A heavy lift vehicle that costs $500 million per launch is still useless.
Now, if the techniques used in SS1 can be eventually scaled up to do 10t launches, or even 100t launches, at low cost, we'd have a worthwhile commercial booster.
Commercial ventures will *always* be heavily cost focused. Only the government can afford half-billion dollar launches, and while benefits of heavy lift are many, benefits of expensive heavy lift are next to none.
You, uhm, do realize that that's fiction and therefore only a possibility, with no evidence it'll actually happen, right?
As an alternative, think of it this way; technology change begins to happen so fast that its impossible for those entrenched in their current jobs to keep up. Only people newly trained in the latest tech can do meaningful R&D work, and those who are a few years out of date are reduced to maintaining aging systems until they go back to school. Alternately, tertiary school appears, a government-funded 40-50 year training program for youth. If you're going to be young forever, 40 or 50 years more school won't seem like much at all.
The truth is that neither one of us has any idea what a society with no aging would be like.
The whole point of this is that it allows work to be done on cheaper reusable launchers.
100t to LEO would be great, but odds are that if it got built, it still wouldn't see much use outside of government launch contracts at 500 mil per launch. On the other hand, if we can get 1 ton launches to LEO down to $50,000 incremental cost, odds are pretty good that a lot of people would start putting things into space.
It's like computers; we get a lot more done with lots of small PCs than with small numbers of huge mainframes.
Don't know what happened to his mind, though. His 'article' isn't any representation of his fiction, so just try to ignore it and remember that he's an author, not an energy policy expert.
From reading that page, it appears it only prohibits autodialed and prerecorded calls to cost-bearing numbers. This does eliminate *most* opportunity for telemarketers, but they could have humans dialing from a list and not violate the law.
On the other hand, I'd be willing to bet that if the telemarketers need it bad enough, suddenly a star-code will appear that will allow you to accept the other sides' air charges; *44, maybe. If the telemarketer dialed with 'accept air-charges' then they could get around all of this.
2. I don't have voicemail at home. You might, but many people only need one phone line and have chosen to have a portable one.
3. Have you ever designed a cellphone? Do you work with the engineers that design them? Then STFU, because I have worked with some of them, and they aren't intentionally designed to break. If people wanted quality over cost, they'd pay for it, but the market shows they don't, and the phone makers can't afford to make cheap phones that won't break because not breaking costs money.
And of course a 6 month old phone lacks features; it's called progress. Your 6 month old computer probably lacks a feature or two as well; get over it.
4. Who said I keep a cellphone for emergencies? And 2 way text pagers cost as much as a cellphone does these days; one way numerics leave you with the problem of finding a phone.
5. The lab at work. On my porch at home. Waiting for the bus (I refuse to use the things on the bus/train, I find it rude, but I can walk 5 feet away from the bus stop and not annoy anyone). Payphones are less and less common. Also, if I need to make a personal call at work, I can use my cellphone and keep it off my employers lines. Finally (and this is entirely a personal thing) I can telecommute. I have unlimited data on my cellphone. I have a laptop. These three things put together means that once or twice a month, I can go out, sit at a nice cafe or in the park or somewhere else where there's no wifi hotspot, and work.
6. So what else is new?
If you don't want one, that's cool. But calling them evil is flamebait, and unnecessary is very, very arguable.
Actually, I suspect that part of the reason telemarketers don't hit cellphones is because they could be sued on the same theory as the junk faxers were way back when.
Since I pay for calls I receive, anyone making an unsolicited call to me has just cost me money. Shouldn't be too hard to take them to court and win.
Hyundai offers those warranties because their older products got a reputation for awful quality. Their current models, from everything I've read and heard, are fairly good in that department, on a par with American and even some Japanese manufacturers.
Extended support is an attractive option when the product you run is *perceived* as being unreliable.
More likely because the next upgrade is many years away and the customer doesn't feel like going from 98 to XP right now, and if they can't get MS support for 98, they might as well just not pay MS anything and keep running 98.
Linux isn't driving this, as much as you might want to think it is. The fact that a significant number of MS customers are still on platforms that MS was getting ready to obsolete, at which point they cease to be MS customers, is why this happened.
Acoustics is probably the branch of engineering I found most counter-intuitive, and I've hit almost all of them at one point or another (elec, mech, aero, chem, materials, even a bit of nuclear). It doesn't work the way you'd think it would, even once you know what's going on. Weird shit, but very interesting - just recommend some background in fluid mechanics/dynamics and differential equations if you're going to try to treat it mathematically.
The best book I know of, if you want to read up, is Fundamentals of Acoustics by Kinsler. It's very much an engineering oriented text, though; if you want a more practical book, track down a guy named John Bracewell. Ask him for his theater sound design textbook; a lot of it is aimed at doing sound design for theatrical productions, but there's some good basics on acoustics and psychoacoustics.
Personally, I've been mugged a couple times. Both times I gave up my cash, because fuck it, what's 20 or 40 bucks anyway? Then they asked for my wallet and my cellphone.
"No. The second you walk off, I'll cancel my cards and my phone, and the second you try to use them they'll show up stolen and you'll get arrested. And I'll have to go through the hassle of going to DMV, getting new cards, all that shit. Take the cash, walk away now and I won't even bother calling the cops on you."
Of course, the best advice is to just avoid areas where you're likely to get mugged.
MAC filtering does nothing for security. Passive monitoring is no harder on a MAC filtered network than on a non-filtered, and active attacks aren't much harder (associate as a valid MAC).
WEP has flaws, but suggesting MAC filtering instead is a bad, bad idea.
Then I got one for free. And once I had one, I changed my mind. For times when I don't have my good camera (Olympus C-50) with me, its nice to be able to just take that quick shot.
I think most of the people who are so heavily anti cameraphone, simply haven't used one and therefore haven't thought about the uses.
Right, but most unwanted radiators are nowhere near representable as a horn radiator; they are, if not purely omnidirectional, certainly far more omnidirectional than a horn.
You don't happen to have any info on that approach, do you? IEEE paper or something? I'd like to read about it, if you can track down where it was printed.
Slashdot Mirror
If you want a simple, relatively small and quiet, two channel recording rig, with equivalent sound quality to this, I highly suggest buying a fucking Minidisc or DAT deck, a decent mixer, and a couple good mics. Then you can dump it to a machine with decent editing tools later.
And the best part? It is silent.
What the hell advantage does this system have over a DAT deck and a computer with editing software worth using? None, because its a two-track system using a consumer-level sound card. Any gains you might make in reducing hard drive chatter will be totally overwhelmed by the crap quality of your A/D subsystem.
This thing is barely suitable for use as a two-track tracking machine, and there's no reason to edit on this thing as opposed to a decent PC which won't run into disk space or flash write limitations.
The solution, of course, is to use real audio interfaces, which will have an external breakout box and digital interface back to the computer from that point. At that point, the length of cables back to the computer become a lot less important.
For example, you could use a nice standalone A/D box with a ADAT-compatible output, then string your digital cable the 15 feet into your nicely isolated computer closet, where it enters an ADAT card. Run monitor and keyboard cables the 15 feet, and you have a system that can be as loud as it wants to be without getting anywhere near your recording.
Of course, for real recording, you're going to want to isolate control from recording, so you can have a somewhat noisy computer in control (so long as its noise factor is less than what you can tolerate during mix and edit).
This project is neat for geek factor, kinda like sticking SSH on your cellphone, but there are a lot of easier, more useable ways to minimize recorded noise.
A heavy lift vehicle that costs $500 million per launch is still useless.
Now, if the techniques used in SS1 can be eventually scaled up to do 10t launches, or even 100t launches, at low cost, we'd have a worthwhile commercial booster.
Commercial ventures will *always* be heavily cost focused. Only the government can afford half-billion dollar launches, and while benefits of heavy lift are many, benefits of expensive heavy lift are next to none.
Politics and NASA turned a $50 billion Mars mission into a $450 billion Mars mission.
If I can launch at 1/10 the cost, but only in segments, the cost advantage remains with the segmented launch.
Eh, I don't care who pays for it, to tell the truth; if the end result is a cheap reusable launcher, the effect will be the same.
Well, if they figure out how to make me live forever, I might be able to live to see Catholics arrive at a sensible position on *anything*.
You, uhm, do realize that that's fiction and therefore only a possibility, with no evidence it'll actually happen, right?
As an alternative, think of it this way; technology change begins to happen so fast that its impossible for those entrenched in their current jobs to keep up. Only people newly trained in the latest tech can do meaningful R&D work, and those who are a few years out of date are reduced to maintaining aging systems until they go back to school. Alternately, tertiary school appears, a government-funded 40-50 year training program for youth. If you're going to be young forever, 40 or 50 years more school won't seem like much at all.
The truth is that neither one of us has any idea what a society with no aging would be like.
The whole point of this is that it allows work to be done on cheaper reusable launchers.
100t to LEO would be great, but odds are that if it got built, it still wouldn't see much use outside of government launch contracts at 500 mil per launch. On the other hand, if we can get 1 ton launches to LEO down to $50,000 incremental cost, odds are pretty good that a lot of people would start putting things into space.
It's like computers; we get a lot more done with lots of small PCs than with small numbers of huge mainframes.
If you'd noted in your question that you need to wear a headset, you might have gotten less obnoxious responses.
I also forget "SARS Infected Civet Cat", which might have been a more appropriate name for 10.0
(posted from a G3 powerbook running 10.3, before the Apple fanboys get uppity)
I see a new feature for RealDolls. Just make their skin a thermoelectric heating element, and...
Shirts pressed while you wank!
"Ocelot"? "Puma"? "Thundercat"? "Voltron"?
Ooh! Oooh! "Feral Street Cat"!
His books are pretty decent.
Don't know what happened to his mind, though. His 'article' isn't any representation of his fiction, so just try to ignore it and remember that he's an author, not an energy policy expert.
From reading that page, it appears it only prohibits autodialed and prerecorded calls to cost-bearing numbers. This does eliminate *most* opportunity for telemarketers, but they could have humans dialing from a list and not violate the law.
On the other hand, I'd be willing to bet that if the telemarketers need it bad enough, suddenly a star-code will appear that will allow you to accept the other sides' air charges; *44, maybe. If the telemarketer dialed with 'accept air-charges' then they could get around all of this.
And once again, a /.er bravely steps up to the plate to play America's favorite game:
Proving the point.
1. That's just retail. Get over it.
2. I don't have voicemail at home. You might, but many people only need one phone line and have chosen to have a portable one.
3. Have you ever designed a cellphone? Do you work with the engineers that design them? Then STFU, because I have worked with some of them, and they aren't intentionally designed to break. If people wanted quality over cost, they'd pay for it, but the market shows they don't, and the phone makers can't afford to make cheap phones that won't break because not breaking costs money.
And of course a 6 month old phone lacks features; it's called progress. Your 6 month old computer probably lacks a feature or two as well; get over it.
4. Who said I keep a cellphone for emergencies? And 2 way text pagers cost as much as a cellphone does these days; one way numerics leave you with the problem of finding a phone.
5. The lab at work. On my porch at home. Waiting for the bus (I refuse to use the things on the bus/train, I find it rude, but I can walk 5 feet away from the bus stop and not annoy anyone). Payphones are less and less common. Also, if I need to make a personal call at work, I can use my cellphone and keep it off my employers lines. Finally (and this is entirely a personal thing) I can telecommute. I have unlimited data on my cellphone. I have a laptop. These three things put together means that once or twice a month, I can go out, sit at a nice cafe or in the park or somewhere else where there's no wifi hotspot, and work.
6. So what else is new?
If you don't want one, that's cool. But calling them evil is flamebait, and unnecessary is very, very arguable.
Actually, I suspect that part of the reason telemarketers don't hit cellphones is because they could be sued on the same theory as the junk faxers were way back when.
Since I pay for calls I receive, anyone making an unsolicited call to me has just cost me money. Shouldn't be too hard to take them to court and win.
How much do you think I pay for my cellphone?
Less than 60 a month.
It would cost me more to have a landline than it would to have a cellphone. That's called cost-effectiveness.
Hyundai offers those warranties because their older products got a reputation for awful quality. Their current models, from everything I've read and heard, are fairly good in that department, on a par with American and even some Japanese manufacturers.
Extended support is an attractive option when the product you run is *perceived* as being unreliable.
More likely because the next upgrade is many years away and the customer doesn't feel like going from 98 to XP right now, and if they can't get MS support for 98, they might as well just not pay MS anything and keep running 98.
Linux isn't driving this, as much as you might want to think it is. The fact that a significant number of MS customers are still on platforms that MS was getting ready to obsolete, at which point they cease to be MS customers, is why this happened.
Acoustics is probably the branch of engineering I found most counter-intuitive, and I've hit almost all of them at one point or another (elec, mech, aero, chem, materials, even a bit of nuclear). It doesn't work the way you'd think it would, even once you know what's going on. Weird shit, but very interesting - just recommend some background in fluid mechanics/dynamics and differential equations if you're going to try to treat it mathematically.
The best book I know of, if you want to read up, is Fundamentals of Acoustics by Kinsler. It's very much an engineering oriented text, though; if you want a more practical book, track down a guy named John Bracewell. Ask him for his theater sound design textbook; a lot of it is aimed at doing sound design for theatrical productions, but there's some good basics on acoustics and psychoacoustics.
Personally, I've been mugged a couple times. Both times I gave up my cash, because fuck it, what's 20 or 40 bucks anyway? Then they asked for my wallet and my cellphone.
"No. The second you walk off, I'll cancel my cards and my phone, and the second you try to use them they'll show up stolen and you'll get arrested. And I'll have to go through the hassle of going to DMV, getting new cards, all that shit. Take the cash, walk away now and I won't even bother calling the cops on you."
Of course, the best advice is to just avoid areas where you're likely to get mugged.
MAC filtering does nothing for security. Passive monitoring is no harder on a MAC filtered network than on a non-filtered, and active attacks aren't much harder (associate as a valid MAC).
WEP has flaws, but suggesting MAC filtering instead is a bad, bad idea.
I felt like camera phones were useless.
Then I got one for free. And once I had one, I changed my mind. For times when I don't have my good camera (Olympus C-50) with me, its nice to be able to just take that quick shot.
I think most of the people who are so heavily anti cameraphone, simply haven't used one and therefore haven't thought about the uses.
Right, but most unwanted radiators are nowhere near representable as a horn radiator; they are, if not purely omnidirectional, certainly far more omnidirectional than a horn.
You don't happen to have any info on that approach, do you? IEEE paper or something? I'd like to read about it, if you can track down where it was printed.