I still have my second CFL, bought for $20 in 1994, and it still works and is still in regular use. The first one would still work had it not suffered a percussive failure (i.e. the floor lamp it was in fell over and it smashed on the floor). It has graced five different addresses.
I will grant, however, that toward the end of the 90's and the start of the 00's, that the bulb manufacturers got a little lazy, especially the big names. Oddly, the ones I have had the best luck with have been store brands that sell for < $2 each.
CFLs used to sell at $20/each without too much trouble, because the savings were there and there wasn't a suitable competing technology. LEDs are going to have a little bit of a harder time, because, for the moment, CFLs are in the same league savings-wise and much, much cheaper.
Where I see LEDs serving in the short-term is in fixtures with dimmers (dimmable CFLs are more expensive than non-dimmable ones and aren't that good), and in other fixtures where a CFL is a bad fit, either functionally or physically.
One last note: While Philips is making $60 LED bulbs that produce 800 lumens (~60W incandescent equivalent), I saw a store-brand LED bulb in Lowe's just two days ago that was 800 lumens, 12W and $20. You can do better on price.
I agree. I don't think Obama qualifies even remotely as thin-skinned.
The example that immediately comes to mind would be when, while addressing a joint Congress, Joe Wilson yelled out, "You lie!" The President's response was, without raising his tone, to state simply, "that's not true." That was a truly even-handed response.
No, I am not a fan of Obama, but his competitors scare the shit out of me.
Granted, Verizon Wireless doesn't want to cannibalize the customer base for Verizon DSL or Verizon FiOS, but Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T don't have a horse in this race in my area, so . . . short of collusion, they have no competitive reason to cap, only engineering reasons.
What's missing, though, is the the idea that additional capacity comes from adding cells, and you can only do so much of that from the existing towers before you have to find new sites. That costs. There has to be a point (not suer when that point is) where the cost of adding cells just isn't worth it to the business.
Per Wikipedia (usual disclaimers go here), Eisenhower's years of service in the Army were continuous up to the year of his inauguration, and resumed when he left office.
Here's another thought: Think about Vikings specifically. Most often, they are portrayed with either English or Scottish accents (usually the more brutish characters get Scottish) and occasionally Californian (particularly children or teens). Why?
Please take a moment, and imagine Mighty Thor making his presence known in a bouncing, Swedish lilt. Not one that necessarily does the Swedes justice (many speak English in a very near British accent), but something more like the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show.
Now pick yourself up off the floor where you were just ROFLing and consider the question answered:)
Years ago, I had a reputation for being able to wring the most out of the modems in the data centre where I worked at the time. A lot of it had to do with understanding how the protocols worked, and just . . . listening . . . to the phone lines.
The prize-winner was when I established a stable 21.6 kb/s on a dialup modem between Troy, NY and Manila, Philippines (using V.34+). That was just shy of an order of magnitude faster than what anyone else was able to wring out.
Turns out, the phones lines in Manila are actually pretty good, but that there was a level mismatch between there and here, which resulted in some clipping. I couldn't eliminate all of the clipping, but I could get a lot of it out by attenuating the signal coming in to our modem (which, fortunately, was a configurable on this modem).
Sounds like fun, actually! I'm guessing there was a spring in there that was gradually getting tensed up as the head moved, and each move would set it to vibrating.
Also, if the sound was on tape, chances are very good that the ping would flutter widely, either because the tape was worn or the player was in sad shape.
That has to be at least 56k. I remember they distinctively had that double fading ping while the modems were calibrating the line level, because the server-side modem would send 5-7 bits per sample by simply encoding the sample to the bit sequence. The receiving modem had to have a valid map of the bits to the line voltages, and that double ping was caused by levels being tested, starting at the outermost and working inward.
I had three Amigas. I really enjoyed using those machines. I loved the fact that it was a true plug N play platform while my PC-using friends were still fucking around with interrupts, DMA channels, shared memory slots and jumpers. I loved the fact that they had not only video acceleration but also audio acceleration. I loved the fact that colour video and stereo audio were in all models. I still think HAM was a pretty cool compression algorithm, especially in that it was implemented in the hardware and could be decompressed as the monitor scanned, reducing the amount of video RAM (or, chip RAM as it was called in the Amiga paradigm) needed for a full-colour picture (remember, RAM was expensive in those days)
Ultimately, though, it is necessary to face a few facts. Commodore was run by a bunch of asshats. They effectively killed off this beloved platform. The platform is dead. Slapping the name on a LInux computer will never bring back what the Amiga was, and it will certainly not make the so-named computer what the Amiga could have and should have been. As much as I love Linux, I am not interested. It is like one of those modern radios that has a plastic enclosure designed to look like a classic cathedral radio. It isn't, it can't be, and it won't be what was lost to time. Enjoy the nostalgia, but eschew the exploitation.
Interesting. When I'd tried that approach before for more common characters (usually vowels with diacritics) they would just disappear like what you are describing with thorn. I didn't know if you had used some HTML entity code to make it happen . . . I was hoping you had some trick up your sleeve that would make them not disappear. Ah well. Thanks for the info.
My physical machines are named after the goddesses in A Megami Sama. General purpose server: Belldandy. Slower workstation: Skuld. Faster workstation: Urd. Netbook: Peorth.
My Amazon EC2 machines are named after cloud formations: Cumulus (East coast) and Nimbus (West coast).
I was also playing with some Chobits and Kyo Kara Maoh! naming schemes, but they're not in play right now.
The last time this came up, someone here suggested a demo that changed my mind about choosing only based on Nyquist + human hearing limits.
Consider an 8kHz sine wave and an 8kHz square wave. Both of these waves have audible fundamentals. The sine wave has no overtones (harmonics), but the square wave has odd harmonic. The first overtone would be 24kHz, which, theoretically, is inaudible.
Generate these two tones in 96kHz and normalize them to the same RMS (I suggest -3dBFS just as a starting point). Listen to them. You will hear the difference, even though you should theoretically not.
Run both through a low-pass filter at 20kHz. Tweak the gain again so that they both have the same RMS value, and listen again. They should now sound pretty much the same.
The upper limit of human hearing is not as cut and dried as it would seem.
Granted, this is a corner case, and I won't be one to argue that CDs sound anything other than really good. I'm just saying that there is more here than is theoretically obvious.
Now, with all that said, let me tell you the real reason why you should make 192/24 available: Somebody will buy it and even pay extra for it. Whether the ultimate truth is that this person has a golden ear or is gullible is not the point. They want it, they're willing to pay for it, so the market should deliver it.
Having read how it works, I can tell you that being focused is enough to overcome this. It doesn't drown you out; it doesn't mute you. What it does is return your words to you about 200ms later so that you are dealing with a terribly strong reverse echo. This has a psychological effect on the speaker.
By focusing, you can overcome it. I know this for a fact, because, as an A/V tech and DJ, I have spoken into a PA system that had a compressor on it, which compressor introduced about the same amount of delay. Even as I watched other people struggle with it when it was their turn to speak, I had no problems taking the mic and speaking, as long as I focused on what I was saying and ignored the feedback. (For the record, I used that compressor exactly once. It wasn't intended for PA use, but for broadcast, where the latency wouldn't have mattered.)
If you can keep yourself focused on what it is you have to say, you can overcome this quite easily.
Walkie-talkies are pure gold, too. They have to be the good ones, though, not the inexpensive ones you find in department stores and sporting goods places. I'm talking about the ones that are about 3" wide, 1"-2" thick and about 6-8" tall with either a 6" stinger antenna or a 6-8" rubber duck antenna. They should be completely black except for the display and the labels on the controls. In short, they should look like the ones carried by cops and firefighters; ones that are "obviously" professional and not consumer grade.
They should not be obviously ancient (no chrome or grey in the colour scheme, for instance, no HF or VHF low-band antennas, which are excessively long, no telescopic antennas) and if you can get someone to generate some radio chatter for you, even better. Add a speaker-mic for your lapel, and the setup is complete.
They don't pair well with a lab coat, but like the lab coat, they do pair very well with a clipboard.
I have four of these as a ham radio operator and a MURS user.
Nah, I just used my UserAgent string to tell them they are a bunch of fucking wankers.
I know they're just trying to strike fear into the hearts of pirates everywhere, but the truth is that I, along with probably every Slashdotter, know these tricks and may have even implemented the same ourselves at one point or another. I suggest that we just give them so much garbage traffic that they can't use their logs.
The frequency you hear is the horizontal refresh. This frequency is going to be around 15.5 kHz, give or take a little (the exact frequency depends on whether the TV is PAL/SECAM or NTSC) and it is just flat-out beyond the hearing range of many people.
You should not hear mine, though. It is an early-model HDTV (yes, it is a CRT), and only runs 480p or 1080i (if you give it 480i, it upscales it to 480p; 720p is not supported). The equivalent frequency for 480p is 31 kHz and for 1080i is also something ultrasonic; I don't know what. I can't hear it, but I sure can hear the older NTSC tubes. This is the same deal as with older CRT computer monitors -- VGA started at 31 kHz and went up from there.
Slashdot Mirror
I still have my second CFL, bought for $20 in 1994, and it still works and is still in regular use. The first one would still work had it not suffered a percussive failure (i.e. the floor lamp it was in fell over and it smashed on the floor). It has graced five different addresses.
I will grant, however, that toward the end of the 90's and the start of the 00's, that the bulb manufacturers got a little lazy, especially the big names. Oddly, the ones I have had the best luck with have been store brands that sell for < $2 each.
CFLs used to sell at $20/each without too much trouble, because the savings were there and there wasn't a suitable competing technology. LEDs are going to have a little bit of a harder time, because, for the moment, CFLs are in the same league savings-wise and much, much cheaper.
Where I see LEDs serving in the short-term is in fixtures with dimmers (dimmable CFLs are more expensive than non-dimmable ones and aren't that good), and in other fixtures where a CFL is a bad fit, either functionally or physically.
One last note: While Philips is making $60 LED bulbs that produce 800 lumens (~60W incandescent equivalent), I saw a store-brand LED bulb in Lowe's just two days ago that was 800 lumens, 12W and $20. You can do better on price.
I agree. I don't think Obama qualifies even remotely as thin-skinned.
The example that immediately comes to mind would be when, while addressing a joint Congress, Joe Wilson yelled out, "You lie!" The President's response was, without raising his tone, to state simply, "that's not true." That was a truly even-handed response.
No, I am not a fan of Obama, but his competitors scare the shit out of me.
Don't clench!
Yes, this is what I was thinking.
Granted, Verizon Wireless doesn't want to cannibalize the customer base for Verizon DSL or Verizon FiOS, but Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T don't have a horse in this race in my area, so . . . short of collusion, they have no competitive reason to cap, only engineering reasons.
What's missing, though, is the the idea that additional capacity comes from adding cells, and you can only do so much of that from the existing towers before you have to find new sites. That costs. There has to be a point (not suer when that point is) where the cost of adding cells just isn't worth it to the business.
Not likely.
I think most of us here stateside have had our fill of it, too.
Per Wikipedia (usual disclaimers go here), Eisenhower's years of service in the Army were continuous up to the year of his inauguration, and resumed when he left office.
Anybody know different?
Thank you. I'm glad someone gets it.
Interesting though this branch of the thread is, I'm pretty sure I heard a mighty "whoosh".
Here's another thought: Think about Vikings specifically. Most often, they are portrayed with either English or Scottish accents (usually the more brutish characters get Scottish) and occasionally Californian (particularly children or teens). Why?
Please take a moment, and imagine Mighty Thor making his presence known in a bouncing, Swedish lilt. Not one that necessarily does the Swedes justice (many speak English in a very near British accent), but something more like the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show.
Now pick yourself up off the floor where you were just ROFLing and consider the question answered :)
Already did, an told them I was doing so.
Years ago, I had a reputation for being able to wring the most out of the modems in the data centre where I worked at the time. A lot of it had to do with understanding how the protocols worked, and just . . . listening . . . to the phone lines.
The prize-winner was when I established a stable 21.6 kb/s on a dialup modem between Troy, NY and Manila, Philippines (using V.34+). That was just shy of an order of magnitude faster than what anyone else was able to wring out.
Turns out, the phones lines in Manila are actually pretty good, but that there was a level mismatch between there and here, which resulted in some clipping. I couldn't eliminate all of the clipping, but I could get a lot of it out by attenuating the signal coming in to our modem (which, fortunately, was a configurable on this modem).
Sounds like fun, actually! I'm guessing there was a spring in there that was gradually getting tensed up as the head moved, and each move would set it to vibrating.
Also, if the sound was on tape, chances are very good that the ping would flutter widely, either because the tape was worn or the player was in sad shape.
That has to be at least 56k. I remember they distinctively had that double fading ping while the modems were calibrating the line level, because the server-side modem would send 5-7 bits per sample by simply encoding the sample to the bit sequence. The receiving modem had to have a valid map of the bits to the line voltages, and that double ping was caused by levels being tested, starting at the outermost and working inward.
I had three Amigas. I really enjoyed using those machines. I loved the fact that it was a true plug N play platform while my PC-using friends were still fucking around with interrupts, DMA channels, shared memory slots and jumpers. I loved the fact that they had not only video acceleration but also audio acceleration. I loved the fact that colour video and stereo audio were in all models. I still think HAM was a pretty cool compression algorithm, especially in that it was implemented in the hardware and could be decompressed as the monitor scanned, reducing the amount of video RAM (or, chip RAM as it was called in the Amiga paradigm) needed for a full-colour picture (remember, RAM was expensive in those days)
Ultimately, though, it is necessary to face a few facts. Commodore was run by a bunch of asshats. They effectively killed off this beloved platform. The platform is dead. Slapping the name on a LInux computer will never bring back what the Amiga was, and it will certainly not make the so-named computer what the Amiga could have and should have been. As much as I love Linux, I am not interested. It is like one of those modern radios that has a plastic enclosure designed to look like a classic cathedral radio. It isn't, it can't be, and it won't be what was lost to time. Enjoy the nostalgia, but eschew the exploitation.
Amiga is dead like Elvis. Mourn and move on.
Interesting. When I'd tried that approach before for more common characters (usually vowels with diacritics) they would just disappear like what you are describing with thorn. I didn't know if you had used some HTML entity code to make it happen . . . I was hoping you had some trick up your sleeve that would make them not disappear. Ah well. Thanks for the info.
Yep, I did actually know that. Mostly I mention it as coming from the anime because it came to me via the anime.
Unrelated, how on earth did you get Slashdot to render an edh properly?
My physical machines are named after the goddesses in A Megami Sama . General purpose server: Belldandy. Slower workstation: Skuld. Faster workstation: Urd. Netbook: Peorth.
My Amazon EC2 machines are named after cloud formations: Cumulus (East coast) and Nimbus (West coast).
I was also playing with some Chobits and Kyo Kara Maoh! naming schemes, but they're not in play right now.
The last time this came up, someone here suggested a demo that changed my mind about choosing only based on Nyquist + human hearing limits.
Consider an 8kHz sine wave and an 8kHz square wave. Both of these waves have audible fundamentals. The sine wave has no overtones (harmonics), but the square wave has odd harmonic. The first overtone would be 24kHz, which, theoretically, is inaudible.
Generate these two tones in 96kHz and normalize them to the same RMS (I suggest -3dBFS just as a starting point). Listen to them. You will hear the difference, even though you should theoretically not.
Run both through a low-pass filter at 20kHz. Tweak the gain again so that they both have the same RMS value, and listen again. They should now sound pretty much the same.
The upper limit of human hearing is not as cut and dried as it would seem.
Granted, this is a corner case, and I won't be one to argue that CDs sound anything other than really good. I'm just saying that there is more here than is theoretically obvious.
Now, with all that said, let me tell you the real reason why you should make 192/24 available: Somebody will buy it and even pay extra for it. Whether the ultimate truth is that this person has a golden ear or is gullible is not the point. They want it, they're willing to pay for it, so the market should deliver it.
Having read how it works, I can tell you that being focused is enough to overcome this. It doesn't drown you out; it doesn't mute you. What it does is return your words to you about 200ms later so that you are dealing with a terribly strong reverse echo. This has a psychological effect on the speaker.
By focusing, you can overcome it. I know this for a fact, because, as an A/V tech and DJ, I have spoken into a PA system that had a compressor on it, which compressor introduced about the same amount of delay. Even as I watched other people struggle with it when it was their turn to speak, I had no problems taking the mic and speaking, as long as I focused on what I was saying and ignored the feedback. (For the record, I used that compressor exactly once. It wasn't intended for PA use, but for broadcast, where the latency wouldn't have mattered.)
If you can keep yourself focused on what it is you have to say, you can overcome this quite easily.
Walkie-talkies are pure gold, too. They have to be the good ones, though, not the inexpensive ones you find in department stores and sporting goods places. I'm talking about the ones that are about 3" wide, 1"-2" thick and about 6-8" tall with either a 6" stinger antenna or a 6-8" rubber duck antenna. They should be completely black except for the display and the labels on the controls. In short, they should look like the ones carried by cops and firefighters; ones that are "obviously" professional and not consumer grade.
They should not be obviously ancient (no chrome or grey in the colour scheme, for instance, no HF or VHF low-band antennas, which are excessively long, no telescopic antennas) and if you can get someone to generate some radio chatter for you, even better. Add a speaker-mic for your lapel, and the setup is complete.
They don't pair well with a lab coat, but like the lab coat, they do pair very well with a clipboard.
I have four of these as a ham radio operator and a MURS user.
On the other hand, there was printing on *NIX before there was CUPS. There can still be printing in a post-CUPS era.
Nah, I just used my UserAgent string to tell them they are a bunch of fucking wankers.
I know they're just trying to strike fear into the hearts of pirates everywhere, but the truth is that I, along with probably every Slashdotter, know these tricks and may have even implemented the same ourselves at one point or another. I suggest that we just give them so much garbage traffic that they can't use their logs.
The frequency you hear is the horizontal refresh. This frequency is going to be around 15.5 kHz, give or take a little (the exact frequency depends on whether the TV is PAL/SECAM or NTSC) and it is just flat-out beyond the hearing range of many people.
You should not hear mine, though. It is an early-model HDTV (yes, it is a CRT), and only runs 480p or 1080i (if you give it 480i, it upscales it to 480p; 720p is not supported). The equivalent frequency for 480p is 31 kHz and for 1080i is also something ultrasonic; I don't know what. I can't hear it, but I sure can hear the older NTSC tubes. This is the same deal as with older CRT computer monitors -- VGA started at 31 kHz and went up from there.
That would have been funnier if you posted AC.