Sorry Uncle - I'm typing this right now on a win2k box. I guess that makes me a 'luser'
Does it matter to you that my desktop is windows because it supports my games, my usb peripherals, and my video editting software?
I also have a linux server in the same room, which I admin and use via ssh on my network. No desktop, and no office suite. It's a server.
You're the luser if you can't tell when to use the right tool for the job
802.11b is effective in Europe, but the emission regulations mean that we can't use boosters to get the sort of range that hackers do in the US and Australia. We can't even use very high-gain antennae. So this is pretty cool. Remember also that this is only the 2nd model he has build - this could get a lot better with some time, and it is adding to the further congestion of the 2.4Ghz spectrum.
I might have believed in this a couple of years back. I started out "DJ'ing" with VTT (Virtual Turn Tables) running 2 soundcards in a PC through a mixer and MP3's running on each soundcard.
It sucked.
Then I bought Pioneer Pro CD players and a better mixer. They rock. Very cool.
Recently I bought Technics 1210, and my life has changed.
I came into this with an open mind, and in fact I started out trying very hard to go all digital, but the fact is, for DJ'ing, nothing beats good old analog vinyl. There is something about having your hand on the vinyl itself when you cue it up that can't be replaced by digital tech (although the newest pioneer players come damn close)
It's a tactile thing.
My thought about this - a DJ does so much more than seamlessly mix the music on the night - a HUGE part of the job is getting hold of the right music.
It's about not only reacting to the crowd but pushing them too. And about doing the unexpected, not just what the crowd thinks is next.
A good dj knows when to keep the tempo in check so as not to tire out the dancers too early. Or when to really wind it up. Or what to play to an empty dancefloor to hook people back in. Or how to interact with a performer or platform dancers at a party.
I went to an outdoor party once where the dancefloor got buzzed by a microlight - the DJ, Tsuyoshi Suzuki, cut all the sound except the bass, and the whole dancefloor just throbbed as the plane almost landed on us.
Could a computer react to that?
I should have posted this under the gripes about the Deskstars - I have had incredible support from Big Blue in the past.
I used to own a PS/1 back in the day - all 33 screaming mhz of it.
It developed a fault with the monitor.
I took it back to them, 9 months into my 12 month warranty period.
Without asking any questions, and without even bothering to switch it on, they handed me a new monitor of the same type.
There was obviously a problem with these monitors, because about 6 months later, the same thing happened and the new monitor died on me.
So I took it back to them, and braced myself for a fight - I was now technically a few months out of warranty for my system.
I explained this to them, and they didn't hesitate - they simply handed me a new monitor that went on working forever.
Now, instead of saying - "IBM junk died on me" I say "IBM looked after me when I had a problem"
YMMV
true - it is about 5:1
The compression is called 'ATRAC' and it is up to about version 4 or 5 now.
This is not a very scientific explanation of how it works -
The encoding removes 'redundant' audio information.
The audiophiles will say that there is no such thing, but the Sony engineers found that the ear can only hear so much, and there is a lot of information that can be removed without altering what the ear hears.
So it is 'lossy' in the sense that there is a lot of information that is squeezed out.
Also, recompression will introduce artifacts, though you can't really hear this until 5-10 generations of digital copies.
MD got a bad rep in the early days because the first ATRAC versions were pretty poor, and they set themselves up in blind listening tests against CD. And lost badly.
Since then, the ATRAC compression has improved dramatically, and in blind tests few people can hear the difference between CD and MD (except for specially generated tones designed to show up the MD) For normal music listening, in the sort of environments that portable users will be using them in (traffic, trains, cars etc) MD sounds as good as CD. MD sound quality is good enough to be used in major radio stations for jingles, ads and inserts, and in small sound studios all over.
Trying to pitch them against CD is about as fair as trying to pitch CD against DAT - in the quality stakes DAT wins hands-down every time, but when it comes to issues like price, convenience, portability, ruggedness, availability etc, DAT is your last choice.
As has been said before, horses for courses
Re:Not true about MD not taking off...
on
Quarter-sized CD's?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
...is much more rugged than tapes or CD, cheap, records 80 mins per disk at a higher audio quality then 128kbps MP3's, can be re-recorded thousands of times, allows you to make edits on the fly, holds track titles on the disk, can do 'long play' mode for 4x the length, has a player (and recorder) that can be dropped into a shirt pocket, can make digital copies through toslink fibre-optic cables, doesn't skip even when jogging or snow-boarding - gee.... I can see why they are so inferior to CD's
MD was never supposed to compete with CD - they are intended to be replacements for our old cassette tapes, and they do a really good job of that.
Huh? what do you mean not sell licenses?
Sony learnt their lesson from the Betamax debacle - I can buy a MD player from any number of audio equipment manufacturers including Kenwood, Pioneer, JVC, Denon, Sony, Sharp and a bunch of others, and MD recordable disks from TDK, Victor, Maxell or a bunch of others.
How would they do this if the tech was not licensed?
Sony is NOT the only company making MD machines and recordables...
Not true about MD not taking off...
on
Quarter-sized CD's?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
For some reason, MD didn't take off in a big way in the US, but in Japan and Europe, they are a huge success. In the UK you can buy pre-recorded minidiscs in the music stores, like CD's or vinyl.
Almost every 2nd person on the public transport in London is listening to a MD player. They have totally replaced tapes and the walkman over here.
Just because the US seems to have ignored them for the last 5 years does not make them a failure...
This is really good news - more bandwidth over existing fibre is great.
But I question the assertion that our backbone is 'cronically overloaded'
Take a look at this, pulled off ft.com on 2001-09-06
> The enduring legacy of all this money is a glut of "bandwidth" - the
> capacity to transmit volumes of data and the basic raw material of all
> communications networks. This glut is so great that if the world's 6bn
> people were to talk solidly on the telephone for the next year, their words
> could be transmitted over the potential capacity within a few hours.
> Analysts estimate that only 1 or 2 per cent of the fibre optic cable buried
> under Europe and North America has even been turned on, or "lit". Some
> people point out that the remaining "dark" fibre needs additional investment
> to activate it and that it therefore does not represent a surplus. But that
> is of little comfort to the beleaguered telecoms industry. There are enough
> new ways of squeezing extra capacity out of existing, lit fibre to have
> caused a collapse in bandwidth prices.
> With new techniques to send multiple wavelengths of light down a single
> fibre, up to 160 separate "colours" of light can now be used to transmit
> data down a single strand of glass. Most modern networks use just a tenth of
> this potential today - or less than a thousandth if dark fibre is included.
> A similar overcapacity exists in undersea links, where each new Atlantic
> cable adds as much bandwidth as all the previous infrastructure put
> together. And mobile phone companies have committed more than $200bn in
> Europe alone to boost the bandwidth of their wireless internet services
> without any proof that consumers will use it or that the technology will
> work.
This really works - and you don't rent the disk
on
Rent-a-Game
·
· Score: 1
Some of the comments make me think that the concept is not understood - this is not like going down to your video store and 'renting' the title for the night and taking home a disk to install - the application is encapsulated in a broadband delivery software environment that manages access, and delivers the software to the user very quickly. And the games are modern, not old 8-bit arcade classics.
Sure, someone out there is going to find a way to crack the encapsulation mechanism, save the game, and distribute it to all his luser mates, but then again, isn't this more secure than simply ripping off the CD-Rom that most games come on now? And when the cost of trying out the game is not much more than the price of a blank disk, you have to be really cheap to still want to rip off the games studios.
I personally thing it is a great idea - in London a new game costs £40, and it's so easy to get stuck with a lemon. This way works out cheaper for people who want to play a lot of different games a few times.
Also, it might not be top of your agenda, but don't forget the environmental angle - digital delivery means less plastic, paper and aluminium ever getting processed for the games.
There is a well-known book out called 'For God, Country, and Coca Cola' which published the formula years ago.
No one went to jail, the sun came up the next day, and the sky did not fall on our heads.
To compare something as far-fetched as the possible imprisonment of someone publishing a formula which is already out there to the real imprisonment of Dmitry is irresponsible.
How can you somehow justify the fact that he is locked away as some sort of reward for his behaviour by contructing this 'equivalent' scenario which is not even vaguely related?
I have said for years that Microsoft should just give up the software game and stick to what they do best - make computer input hardware.
I never buy anything but Microsoft natural keyboards and the MS Intellimouse.
I've had one of their Sidewinder joysticks too and it was great. I've got big hands, and most mice just don't fit right - the intellimouse feels like it has been made just for me.
Pity they made the latest natural keyboards smaller and bunched up the arrow keys - if you can lay your hands on old stock of the first generation MS split-key sprawlers, buy it.
I'll back that one up - hit once, hard and fast
on
Sean In The Middle
·
· Score: 1
I was picked on at school - once, during singing practice, the bully behind me continuously flicked the back of my ears. In full view of the teacher in charge and anyone close enough to see what was happening, I turned around, punched the kid in the mouth as hard as I could, and then sat back down again in my seat with my back turned to him and my glowing red ears exposed.
Nothing happened - the punch in the back didn't come, the teacher didn't interfere, and the kid didn't flick me anymore. The shock of the retaliation was enough of a deterant to keep him quiet in his seat with a busted lip.
ok, I didn't know that. But I still don't think it will help because there is lots of clicking you need to do to connect the streaming server to a particular stream on the encoder.
I'm no expert, so feel free to flame away, but I would imagine that this is not aimed at being a bullet-proof, hot-swap drive, redundant power-supply dual processing bad-boy - at this price the whole box would probably get swapped out if there was a problem.
Use them as web or application servers, and keep your database on something a little more chunky.
Most MP3 players use an optical digital line-in to record audio directly from a digital device. Many soundcards now have this output. Some have only coax digital out, but you can get converters. Admittedly it is a chore to take the stuff out to MD from MP3 in realtime, but this only has to be done once, not every time you load up your player, like an MP3 player. I usually carry my player plus about 5 disks with me (they are tiny) and I get to take my pick from the 70+ disks I own. That is over 80 hours worth of music I have access to without having to dock or download anything, and I also have the option to record from CD or live if I want to. The sound quality is also better than MP3.
The minidiscs used in sony's new camera are not the same as the audio disks. The audio disks are able to store ~140 MB of data. The camera disks do a lot more, even tho the physical format looks the same
Slashdot Mirror
you've made it onto Wired news0 0. html
t ml
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,50428,
and the Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/24072.h
Is it possible for Slashdot to get Slashdotted?
t
Sorry Uncle - I'm typing this right now on a win2k box. I guess that makes me a 'luser'
Does it matter to you that my desktop is windows because it supports my games, my usb peripherals, and my video editting software?
I also have a linux server in the same room, which I admin and use via ssh on my network. No desktop, and no office suite. It's a server.
You're the luser if you can't tell when to use the right tool for the job
802.11b is effective in Europe, but the emission regulations mean that we can't use boosters to get the sort of range that hackers do in the US and Australia. We can't even use very high-gain antennae. So this is pretty cool. Remember also that this is only the 2nd model he has build - this could get a lot better with some time, and it is adding to the further congestion of the 2.4Ghz spectrum.
I might have believed in this a couple of years back. I started out "DJ'ing" with VTT (Virtual Turn Tables) running 2 soundcards in a PC through a mixer and MP3's running on each soundcard.
It sucked.
Then I bought Pioneer Pro CD players and a better mixer. They rock. Very cool.
Recently I bought Technics 1210, and my life has changed.
I came into this with an open mind, and in fact I started out trying very hard to go all digital, but the fact is, for DJ'ing, nothing beats good old analog vinyl. There is something about having your hand on the vinyl itself when you cue it up that can't be replaced by digital tech (although the newest pioneer players come damn close)
It's a tactile thing.
My thought about this - a DJ does so much more than seamlessly mix the music on the night - a HUGE part of the job is getting hold of the right music.
It's about not only reacting to the crowd but pushing them too. And about doing the unexpected, not just what the crowd thinks is next.
A good dj knows when to keep the tempo in check so as not to tire out the dancers too early. Or when to really wind it up. Or what to play to an empty dancefloor to hook people back in. Or how to interact with a performer or platform dancers at a party.
I went to an outdoor party once where the dancefloor got buzzed by a microlight - the DJ, Tsuyoshi Suzuki, cut all the sound except the bass, and the whole dancefloor just throbbed as the plane almost landed on us.
Could a computer react to that?
I should have posted this under the gripes about the Deskstars - I have had incredible support from Big Blue in the past.
I used to own a PS/1 back in the day - all 33 screaming mhz of it.
It developed a fault with the monitor.
I took it back to them, 9 months into my 12 month warranty period.
Without asking any questions, and without even bothering to switch it on, they handed me a new monitor of the same type.
There was obviously a problem with these monitors, because about 6 months later, the same thing happened and the new monitor died on me.
So I took it back to them, and braced myself for a fight - I was now technically a few months out of warranty for my system.
I explained this to them, and they didn't hesitate - they simply handed me a new monitor that went on working forever.
Now, instead of saying - "IBM junk died on me" I say "IBM looked after me when I had a problem"
YMMV
true - it is about 5:1
The compression is called 'ATRAC' and it is up to about version 4 or 5 now.
This is not a very scientific explanation of how it works -
The encoding removes 'redundant' audio information.
The audiophiles will say that there is no such thing, but the Sony engineers found that the ear can only hear so much, and there is a lot of information that can be removed without altering what the ear hears.
So it is 'lossy' in the sense that there is a lot of information that is squeezed out.
Also, recompression will introduce artifacts, though you can't really hear this until 5-10 generations of digital copies.
MD got a bad rep in the early days because the first ATRAC versions were pretty poor, and they set themselves up in blind listening tests against CD. And lost badly.
Since then, the ATRAC compression has improved dramatically, and in blind tests few people can hear the difference between CD and MD (except for specially generated tones designed to show up the MD) For normal music listening, in the sort of environments that portable users will be using them in (traffic, trains, cars etc) MD sounds as good as CD. MD sound quality is good enough to be used in major radio stations for jingles, ads and inserts, and in small sound studios all over.
Trying to pitch them against CD is about as fair as trying to pitch CD against DAT - in the quality stakes DAT wins hands-down every time, but when it comes to issues like price, convenience, portability, ruggedness, availability etc, DAT is your last choice.
As has been said before, horses for courses
...is much more rugged than tapes or CD, cheap, records 80 mins per disk at a higher audio quality then 128kbps MP3's, can be re-recorded thousands of times, allows you to make edits on the fly, holds track titles on the disk, can do 'long play' mode for 4x the length, has a player (and recorder) that can be dropped into a shirt pocket, can make digital copies through toslink fibre-optic cables, doesn't skip even when jogging or snow-boarding - gee.... I can see why they are so inferior to CD's
MD was never supposed to compete with CD - they are intended to be replacements for our old cassette tapes, and they do a really good job of that.
Huh? what do you mean not sell licenses?
Sony learnt their lesson from the Betamax debacle - I can buy a MD player from any number of audio equipment manufacturers including Kenwood, Pioneer, JVC, Denon, Sony, Sharp and a bunch of others, and MD recordable disks from TDK, Victor, Maxell or a bunch of others.
How would they do this if the tech was not licensed?
Sony is NOT the only company making MD machines and recordables...
For some reason, MD didn't take off in a big way in the US, but in Japan and Europe, they are a huge success. In the UK you can buy pre-recorded minidiscs in the music stores, like CD's or vinyl.
Almost every 2nd person on the public transport in London is listening to a MD player. They have totally replaced tapes and the walkman over here.
Just because the US seems to have ignored them for the last 5 years does not make them a failure...
This is really good news - more bandwidth over existing fibre is great.
But I question the assertion that our backbone is 'cronically overloaded'
Take a look at this, pulled off ft.com on 2001-09-06
> The enduring legacy of all this money is a glut of "bandwidth" - the
> capacity to transmit volumes of data and the basic raw material of all
> communications networks. This glut is so great that if the world's 6bn
> people were to talk solidly on the telephone for the next year, their words
> could be transmitted over the potential capacity within a few hours.
> Analysts estimate that only 1 or 2 per cent of the fibre optic cable buried
> under Europe and North America has even been turned on, or "lit". Some
> people point out that the remaining "dark" fibre needs additional investment
> to activate it and that it therefore does not represent a surplus. But that
> is of little comfort to the beleaguered telecoms industry. There are enough
> new ways of squeezing extra capacity out of existing, lit fibre to have
> caused a collapse in bandwidth prices.
> With new techniques to send multiple wavelengths of light down a single
> fibre, up to 160 separate "colours" of light can now be used to transmit
> data down a single strand of glass. Most modern networks use just a tenth of
> this potential today - or less than a thousandth if dark fibre is included.
> A similar overcapacity exists in undersea links, where each new Atlantic
> cable adds as much bandwidth as all the previous infrastructure put
> together. And mobile phone companies have committed more than $200bn in
> Europe alone to boost the bandwidth of their wireless internet services
> without any proof that consumers will use it or that the technology will
> work.
Some of the comments make me think that the concept is not understood - this is not like going down to your video store and 'renting' the title for the night and taking home a disk to install - the application is encapsulated in a broadband delivery software environment that manages access, and delivers the software to the user very quickly. And the games are modern, not old 8-bit arcade classics.
Sure, someone out there is going to find a way to crack the encapsulation mechanism, save the game, and distribute it to all his luser mates, but then again, isn't this more secure than simply ripping off the CD-Rom that most games come on now? And when the cost of trying out the game is not much more than the price of a blank disk, you have to be really cheap to still want to rip off the games studios.
I personally thing it is a great idea - in London a new game costs £40, and it's so easy to get stuck with a lemon. This way works out cheaper for people who want to play a lot of different games a few times.
Also, it might not be top of your agenda, but don't forget the environmental angle - digital delivery means less plastic, paper and aluminium ever getting processed for the games.
There is a well-known book out called 'For God, Country, and Coca Cola' which published the formula years ago.
No one went to jail, the sun came up the next day, and the sky did not fall on our heads.
To compare something as far-fetched as the possible imprisonment of someone publishing a formula which is already out there to the real imprisonment of Dmitry is irresponsible.
How can you somehow justify the fact that he is locked away as some sort of reward for his behaviour by contructing this 'equivalent' scenario which is not even vaguely related?
This is definately one with a decent longevity - deals with the principle, not with specific software
I have said for years that Microsoft should just give up the software game and stick to what they do best - make computer input hardware.
I never buy anything but Microsoft natural keyboards and the MS Intellimouse.
I've had one of their Sidewinder joysticks too and it was great. I've got big hands, and most mice just don't fit right - the intellimouse feels like it has been made just for me.
Pity they made the latest natural keyboards smaller and bunched up the arrow keys - if you can lay your hands on old stock of the first generation MS split-key sprawlers, buy it.
I was picked on at school - once, during singing practice, the bully behind me continuously flicked the back of my ears. In full view of the teacher in charge and anyone close enough to see what was happening, I turned around, punched the kid in the mouth as hard as I could, and then sat back down again in my seat with my back turned to him and my glowing red ears exposed.
Nothing happened - the punch in the back didn't come, the teacher didn't interfere, and the kid didn't flick me anymore. The shock of the retaliation was enough of a deterant to keep him quiet in his seat with a busted lip.
I work for BT Openworld, and I have alerted some of the technical types about the possibility of a problem.
come on - the free Real server is hardly worth deploying unless you're doing this as a hobby.
ok, I didn't know that. But I still don't think it will help because there is lots of clicking you need to do to connect the streaming server to a particular stream on the encoder.
Use the tools - you'll see what I mean
Tim
I'm no expert, so feel free to flame away, but I would imagine that this is not aimed at being a bullet-proof, hot-swap drive, redundant power-supply dual processing bad-boy - at this price the whole box would probably get swapped out if there was a problem. Use them as web or application servers, and keep your database on something a little more chunky.
Most MP3 players use an optical digital line-in to record audio directly from a digital device.
Many soundcards now have this output. Some have only coax digital out, but you can get converters.
Admittedly it is a chore to take the stuff out to MD from MP3 in realtime, but this only has to be done once, not every time you load up your player, like an MP3 player.
I usually carry my player plus about 5 disks with me (they are tiny) and I get to take my pick from the 70+ disks I own. That is over 80 hours worth of music I have access to without having to dock or download anything, and I also have the option to record from CD or live if I want to.
The sound quality is also better than MP3.
The minidiscs used in sony's new camera are not the same as the audio disks. The audio disks are able to store ~140 MB of data. The camera disks do a lot more, even tho the physical format looks the same