For Nonvolatile Electronics, Inc.'s site, go to http://www.nve.com. They have some white papers on Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM). Unlike that "alien technology" we've seen posted before, this looks to promise truly massive nonvolatile storage.
Sony's reportedly leaving the dual-focusing laser out of the PSX2 so as to avoid setting it up to compete directly with their home theater components. This means that the PSX2 will not play dual-layered discs. So just don't get too excited to play your new Titanic, The Mummy, The Matrix, Terminator 2, the future Star Wars, or any other DVD that has two layers (aka RSDL).
It won't replace your DVD player, but it will allow game designers to add some interesting storyline components. And Mark Hammill will be able to find work again (Wing Commander IV, anyone:)
Because of it's speed, I use Xing's command line encoder to encode. I use VBR HQ, and the resulting mp3's average around 200kbps for newer music. Some of my older music turns out around 112, and are still indistinguishable from the original. Not bad, considering that for difficult parts of the music it jumps up to 256 or 320kbps. For not-so-demanding portions, it will drop down to 96kbps. I also figure that drive space is so cheap that I shouldn't skimp on quality.
For ripping, I use cd-paranoia III on my linux box. That sucker can rip from dirty discs, even with a few scratches. It's slow, but yields a very stable wave file. I built a perl front end that looks the cd up at cddb.com. After it rips, it sends the wav file over to my PPro w/ WinNT, which encodes, tags and renames the file. Am I the only one that uses a cluster for creating mp3s?:)
I like fraunhofer's codec, but v3.1 doesn't run on WinNT (documented bug...) and it takes an eternity to encode files. Besides, they seem to be concentrating on 128kbps and below, mainly for streaming music over the internet. On top of that, there's no possibility of VBR.
My perception of BladeEnc is that it plainly sucks. Maybe that's because I've heard horrid-sounding samples of music encoded with this encoder. I just recently read that there are bad versions floating around. It seems that if Blade is compiled with code optimizations, the mp3 output turns out *different* from what it should.
I can't be sure, but there are two artifacts I hear most often in mp3s in a.b.sounds.mp3. The first is a distinct background, garbled digital wooshing sound, accentuated most when treble is turned up. The other artifact I hear I call "spoons". That's where you hear a really high-pitched "ping", like two spoons being whacked together, on cymbals and other high-toned instruments. I attribute these to Blade, probably unfairly, but there seems to be a lot of crappy mp3s out there... and someone doesn't know s/he's making them.
The most promising encoder I have seen is LAME (LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder) (LAME). They just put in VBR support, and they have a much improved psycho-acoustic model over the ISO code. And it's all open source. Neat-oh!
MP3 encoders are just another religious debate in computer land. What really matters is which one sounds best to *YOU*. Do some experimenting, make sure you're using headphones. Try a few different encoders on the same wav file, and do A-B comparisons. Try different kinds of music (I found picking-guitar and audience applause are difficult for some encoders). You're correct: you only want to encode your collection once, so you want to make sure it's done right!
The last thing I want to mention is Joint Stereo. Personally, I like it, as it gives the left and right a little more room to store data, but I have noticed a *very* slight reduction in channel separation. The left and right aren't as separated as the original. It's extremely hard to notice, and in my opionion, very much worth the increase in quality.
This isn't a big sale... X10.com seems to always have one of their intro kits on sale for next to nothing. And once you order, they spam you daily with their new offers. Check out Smarthome for some similarly great deals, a better interface, less spam, and more honest promotions. Another good place is Worthington.
Check out this thread at AnandTech for some more opinions! Some people said that the Firecracker is not really home automation, but rather like a remote control... You need ActiveHome or something to get real automation (timers, etc.).
Of course, you may want to buy from Smarthome after you get the intro kit from X10.
I believe this may be the most ignorant piece Katz has ever published.
Katz, I'm willing to give you a personal tour of Littleton: the memorials, the gravesites... we'll make the pilgrimmage to the bluff that overlooks the school, observe the sorrow still heavy in the air. We'll see then if you can even mention the name "Eric Harris", much less feel as if you identify with him.
Slashdot Mirror
For Nonvolatile Electronics, Inc.'s site, go to http://www.nve.com. They have some white papers on Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM). Unlike that "alien technology" we've seen posted before, this looks to promise truly massive nonvolatile storage.
It only plays single-layered discs, which rules out most of the cool DVDs that are on the market today. So in effect, it's hardly a DVD player at all.
-dodja
Sony's reportedly leaving the dual-focusing laser out of the PSX2 so as to avoid setting it up to compete directly with their home theater components. This means that the PSX2 will not play dual-layered discs. So just don't get too excited to play your new Titanic, The Mummy, The Matrix, Terminator 2, the future Star Wars, or any other DVD that has two layers (aka RSDL).
:)
It won't replace your DVD player, but it will allow game designers to add some interesting storyline components. And Mark Hammill will be able to find work again (Wing Commander IV, anyone
-Dodja
Because of it's speed, I use Xing's command line encoder to encode. I use VBR HQ, and the resulting mp3's average around 200kbps for newer music. Some of my older music turns out around 112, and are still indistinguishable from the original. Not bad, considering that for difficult parts of the music it jumps up to 256 or 320kbps. For not-so-demanding portions, it will drop down to 96kbps. I also figure that drive space is so cheap that I shouldn't skimp on quality.
:)
For ripping, I use cd-paranoia III on my linux box. That sucker can rip from dirty discs, even with a few scratches. It's slow, but yields a very stable wave file. I built a perl front end that looks the cd up at cddb.com. After it rips, it sends the wav file over to my PPro w/ WinNT, which encodes, tags and renames the file. Am I the only one that uses a cluster for creating mp3s?
I like fraunhofer's codec, but v3.1 doesn't run on WinNT (documented bug...) and it takes an eternity to encode files. Besides, they seem to be concentrating on 128kbps and below, mainly for streaming music over the internet. On top of that, there's no possibility of VBR.
My perception of BladeEnc is that it plainly sucks. Maybe that's because I've heard horrid-sounding samples of music encoded with this encoder. I just recently read that there are bad versions floating around. It seems that if Blade is compiled with code optimizations, the mp3 output turns out *different* from what it should.
I can't be sure, but there are two artifacts I hear most often in mp3s in a.b.sounds.mp3. The first is a distinct background, garbled digital wooshing sound, accentuated most when treble is turned up. The other artifact I hear I call "spoons". That's where you hear a really high-pitched "ping", like two spoons being whacked together, on cymbals and other high-toned instruments. I attribute these to Blade, probably unfairly, but there seems to be a lot of crappy mp3s out there... and someone doesn't know s/he's making them.
The most promising encoder I have seen is LAME (LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder) (LAME). They just put in VBR support, and they have a much improved psycho-acoustic model over the ISO code. And it's all open source. Neat-oh!
MP3 encoders are just another religious debate in computer land. What really matters is which one sounds best to *YOU*. Do some experimenting, make sure you're using headphones. Try a few different encoders on the same wav file, and do A-B comparisons. Try different kinds of music (I found picking-guitar and audience applause are difficult for some encoders). You're correct: you only want to encode your collection once, so you want to make sure it's done right!
The last thing I want to mention is Joint Stereo. Personally, I like it, as it gives the left and right a little more room to store data, but I have noticed a *very* slight reduction in channel separation. The left and right aren't as separated as the original. It's extremely hard to notice, and in my opionion, very much worth the increase in quality.
-dodja
This isn't a big sale... X10.com seems to always have one of their intro kits on sale for next to nothing. And once you order, they spam you daily with their new offers. Check out Smarthome for some similarly great deals, a better interface, less spam, and more honest promotions. Another good place is Worthington.
Check out this thread at AnandTech for some more opinions! Some people said that the Firecracker is not really home automation, but rather like a remote control... You need ActiveHome or something to get real automation (timers, etc.).
Of course, you may want to buy from Smarthome after you get the intro kit from X10.
-Dodja
I believe this may be the most ignorant piece Katz has ever published.
Katz, I'm willing to give you a personal tour of Littleton: the memorials, the gravesites... we'll make the pilgrimmage to the bluff that overlooks the school, observe the sorrow still heavy in the air. We'll see then if you can even mention the name "Eric Harris", much less feel as if you identify with him.
Dodja