How did this get modded insightful? I'm playing it on my Sennheiser PXC300s, I find the soundsets soothing to listen to as well as having the effect of completely masking out any sound in the office.
Now, once I've finished posting this I'll return to my work and will be able to concentrate fully on it until I decide to do another slashdot refresh.;)
Any hope of a slashdot coupon code special to make it slightly more accessible? I found it good but maybe a bit expensive. I'm quite tempted to buy it, this would make the decision making process a lot easier. Thanks.
Also seems to combine very well with di's classic.fm channel; Haydn's #53 blends very well in. Shame the demo only allows for a total of one hours sampling.
Then again most everyone else have just left the office so a bit hard to judge. It really does seem block out any office sound though, even when played at low volume. This program combined with the PXC 300s might be overkill but I'm tempted to buy it nevertheless. http://www.di.fm/ does also work very well with the 300s.
I too find that a noisy work environment is bad for my concentration as a programmer. [Now, what am I doing here on/....;) ]
About to buy my first CD in months..!
on
An Ode To Al
·
· Score: 1
Just listened to DDTS from the link above and it's a cracker. So is white & nerdy. So I am about to purchase my first album in several months!:) I listen to di.fm as a paying customer from work - incidentally my ISP offers all their channels for free. F*ck the MPAA dudes. I used to buy CDs by the dozens before they started all their virus infesting thingies, I actually find it safer to download my music now.
Not that I really care to do do - quality out there is hard to get at. Just look at how the only Australian Idol contestant of any worth (Bobby Flynn; highly interesting) got voted out over an incompetent but cute little schoolgirls.
The really funny thing is that in the past 4 years or so since I added a DVD player to replace my Laserdisk, I've only bought a handful of DVDs knowing HDDVD was in the making.
I've now got a Viera 50" HDTV, and am waiting for HDDVDs to reach Australia. Prices of HDDVD players however are mind boggling. I want 1080p output as the Viera is 1080p processing (1366x768 native res, but higher source signal always helps its sampling magic thing), and the players seem to be well north of A$1000.
So I'm waiting until early next year and my current plan is to set up a Core Duo HTPC with a HDMI PCI Express card to do HDDVD playback but also HDDVD recording (also costs an arm and a leg) and to function as a media centre for my downloaded television shows. I'm thinking MythTv would be good if HDDVD is supported, otherwise I'll bite the Vista bullet.
With that dealt with, to get to the point, I fully intend to _purchase_ all the HDDVDs that I want to keep and am not renting. However should PC playback be denied me, I will return every single one of those HDDVDs for a full refund - and then look for the pirated version instead. I'm thinking of a blacklist system, where I will only buy DVDs from those distributors who have not restricted my viewing possibilities. I will blatantly pirate any movie that I'd otherwise buy but that option has been denied me due to the stupidity of the distributor.
I don't care too much about backup, I take great care with not putting as much as a finger mark on my DVDs - which sadly puts me in a very small minority. However it would certainly be nice if I had the option.
As someone with a scarred cornea in the left eye from a childhood trauma with a blunt object, this is exciting actually. My right eye is 100% dominant and I'm lucky to have retained peripheral vision - however blurred (it's like a badly tuned television picture - no trouble detecting motion and shapes but cannot see anything sharply). I hope that one day technology will have come up to the level where they can repair the damage; I'd love to experience stereoscopic vision again before my time is up. The only bonus to monoscopic vision is that films and computer games are just that tiny bit more realistic for me.
Quick, somebody please post an online racing game strategy guide so that I can win all my races in Live for Speed.
Excuse me for not holding my breath. Real life race strategy books seem to be the best alternative here; I'm so glad to have found a PC title that uses real world skills in such a fashion.
"Strong alloy metal back casing provides excellent durability and scratch resistance".
Now why didn't Apple think of that one with their Nano... If it is of similar quality to Motorola's V3 RAZR (thin model, not the G3 one), it could be really great. My wife's had her phone for much longer than her Nano, and the latter looks like something the cat dragged in when compared.
Well I just splashed out A$5150 for a Panasonic 50PV60A, 1366x768 1080p processing dual HDMI plasma display, 5 years of warranty, a Topfield HT7000S tuner, a surge protector power board, some cables - and I couldn't be happier. Now that I've run it for about 100 hours at 50% contrast/brightness (recommendation for best long term PQ is 50% for the first 1000 hours), the quality is just amazing. Sure I notice that SD broadcasts give a grainy look, but key HDTV programming such as V8 supercar racing is just awesome. With Australia getting a reasonable amount of HD programming with "free to air", I am able to enjoy the benefits of the higher resolution display already. It has an array of 80mm fans on the back, but they are whisper quiet. (Oh, except one of mine has the rattles - this is a warranty issue and I'm getting a service person to my place shortly free of charge.)
What strikes me the most is that the quality of colours in some cases is just outstanding. Contrast between blacks and colours is also great, the picture just has a very solid and almost three dimensional feel to it. This is even for SD shows. As for true HD shows, that's something else - I watched two episodes of The Office (US version) last night and it was the best I've seen so far - the 1080i PQ was simply outstanding, very few compression artefacts (halo effects are noticable in a few cases). I really cannot wait for the 2nd generation HD players to come out; even though DVD playback through component is great (high bitrate ensures rich pictures with few artefacts), I know from the HD shows what I should be getting in my movies.
It is not without annoyances though. For some reason Formula 1 and MotoGP is stuck in 4:3 land, this is greatly annoying as motorsport in particular lends itself extremely well to the 16:9 aspect ratio. I guess we'll just have to wait for the Ecclestones of the world to wake up.:P
As for the LCD vs Plasma debate - well, just get whatever you feel will work for you, after doing some research. Do get HDMI. I know I'd have to spend a lot of money to get an LCD display of similar PQ/display size to mine, and frankly I'm quite happy with plasma. But smaller LCDs can look amazingly sharp. Anyway, I probably wouldn't recommend a SD display, as the advantages from HD are just phenomenal - that's just my way of looking at it. Also be aware that dealers _will_ try to rip you off; I saved $800 by printing pages from plasma purchasing threads and not giving in to the first dealer's arguments that those prints were an absolute joke.
Parents bringing their 4 year olds to the 2.5 hour long Superman Returns. Do I need to paint the picture on that? Not being able to go to the loo midway. Going to Alexander as a Vangelis fan and discovering front right channel is missing ("we're terribly sorry, sir, we blew an amp"). Noisy pop corn eating sms texting teenagers. THX having become purely a marketing spec.
All those fantastic things are soon to be replaced by a 50" HDTV (not native but 1080p processing) plasma by Panasonic. Already have a great Rotel surround sound system where I'll have consistently solid sound. Then just need to add beer and snacks costing a quarter, not having to drive anywhere.
I'll be happy with DVDs to start with, but I'll be buying either HDTV or Bluray (in form of a playstation) within a year. The price of one HDTV DVD is only slightly more than two people going to the movies, and I'm pretty sure rentals will catch on soon enough.
The future is looking good for HT enthusiasts - and bleak for the movies.
Writing is a lot like math. The more you do it the better you are at it. When the vast majority of kids do nothing but IM shorthand all day long their ability to communicate will be hindered. We don't need a study to tell us this. It's common sense.
I'n sorry, but you are contradicting yourself here. Their ability to communicate isn't being hindered, in fact getting practice all the time I would like to think that they are excelling as communicators. What's missing though is their ability to communicate formally.
I loved the first Max Payne for story telling. Dark as hell. Awesome voiceovers. Didn't detract from the shoot them up action in any way, it only inspired more!
- Status: people seem to think it's funny to take a bike, well, outside Holland and China anyway.
My pushbike probably cost more than some of wrecks I see on the roads here down under. If EU car quality laws were introduced as they were in Norway, half the car pool would be gone.
I.e. some of the archaic Holdens here drive around with NO SIDE MIRRORS - probably legally, as they weren't part of the original design. The same cars have no neck supports aka headrests - imagine the safety aspects of being hit from the back. Shocking.
Yep bikes are the way to go. Mine's got a 600cc engine and the words "Suzuki GSXR" stamped on it's yellow 2004 fairing. Beats the traffic every day.
(I also like to pushbike but with all the traffic down Hoddle Street, Melbourne, Victoria there's so much pollution I'm wondering about the health benefits and showering when arriving at work also adds a lot to my travel time. I usually go to the gym in my lunch breaks so not quite your average fat IT bloke...)
When I snipe an item I put in a reserve of how much I'm willing to pay for it [which can often be a fair bit over the current displayed bid] and hit submit about 2 seconds before auction expiry. I synch my PC with a SNTP server, and check the time stamp of an ebay page to estimate my current latency, etc. etc.
Now, if my bid is less than the reserve of the current high bidder, well in that case I wasn't going to get it anyway. If not, the seller gets to enjoy my higher bid.
What I see is that the average sheep^H^H^H^Hbidders just can't make up their mind. They keep increasing their bids. It's as if to say, oh, I'm willing to give $10 more for it now. Does that mean that they've come to the conclusion that since someone else is bidding, the item suddenly increased in value?
You see some bids going to above retail as some people get so worked up with their ever increasing bids, and ny reason for sniping is that I don't want to get entangled in that mess.
Plus I must admit that there's a also a bit of fun to it. Of my snipes, none are worse than 5 second ones and best was a 1 - average is 2 or 3. Never missed one to latency, it's all about timing it - and all my snipes are manual.:)
Slashdot Mirror
How did this get modded insightful? I'm playing it on my Sennheiser PXC300s, I find the soundsets soothing to listen to as well as having the effect of completely masking out any sound in the office.
;)
Now, once I've finished posting this I'll return to my work and will be able to concentrate fully on it until I decide to do another slashdot refresh.
That is an affordable price; I just purchased my copy. I do quite like the program and am looking forward to seeing how this can help my work.
Any hope of a slashdot coupon code special to make it slightly more accessible?
I found it good but maybe a bit expensive. I'm quite tempted to buy it, this would make the decision making process a lot easier.
Thanks.
Also seems to combine very well with di's classic.fm channel; Haydn's #53 blends very well in. Shame the demo only allows for a total of one hours sampling.
Then again most everyone else have just left the office so a bit hard to judge. It really does seem block out any office sound though, even when played at low volume.
/. ... ;) ]
This program combined with the PXC 300s might be overkill but I'm tempted to buy it nevertheless.
http://www.di.fm/ does also work very well with the 300s.
I too find that a noisy work environment is bad for my concentration as a programmer.
[Now, what am I doing here on
Just listened to DDTS from the link above and it's a cracker. So is white & nerdy. :)
So I am about to purchase my first album in several months!
I listen to di.fm as a paying customer from work - incidentally my ISP offers all their channels for free.
F*ck the MPAA dudes. I used to buy CDs by the dozens before they started all their virus infesting thingies, I actually find it safer to download my music now.
Not that I really care to do do - quality out there is hard to get at. Just look at how the only Australian Idol contestant of any worth (Bobby Flynn; highly interesting) got voted out over an incompetent but cute little schoolgirls.
Of course the first poster got the first post. He wouldn't be the first poster if not!
[Sorry, couldn't resist:)]
[Seems like a very insightful AC submission right there.]
The really funny thing is that in the past 4 years or so since I added a DVD player to replace my Laserdisk, I've only bought a handful of DVDs knowing HDDVD was in the making.
I've now got a Viera 50" HDTV, and am waiting for HDDVDs to reach Australia. Prices of HDDVD players however are mind boggling. I want 1080p output as the Viera is 1080p processing (1366x768 native res, but higher source signal always helps its sampling magic thing), and the players seem to be well north of A$1000.
So I'm waiting until early next year and my current plan is to set up a Core Duo HTPC with a HDMI PCI Express card to do HDDVD playback but also HDDVD recording (also costs an arm and a leg) and to function as a media centre for my downloaded television shows. I'm thinking MythTv would be good if HDDVD is supported, otherwise I'll bite the Vista bullet.
With that dealt with, to get to the point, I fully intend to _purchase_ all the HDDVDs that I want to keep and am not renting. However should PC playback be denied me, I will return every single one of those HDDVDs for a full refund - and then look for the pirated version instead. I'm thinking of a blacklist system, where I will only buy DVDs from those distributors who have not restricted my viewing possibilities. I will blatantly pirate any movie that I'd otherwise buy but that option has been denied me due to the stupidity of the distributor.
I don't care too much about backup, I take great care with not putting as much as a finger mark on my DVDs - which sadly puts me in a very small minority. However it would certainly be nice if I had the option.
Mod me down, but I'm seeing a chicken and egg scenario here. :)
Wonderful observation though, I nearly spilt a mouthful of coffee on my Natural Keyboard 4000 and two 22" CRTs.
As someone with a scarred cornea in the left eye from a childhood trauma with a blunt object, this is exciting actually. My right eye is 100% dominant and I'm lucky to have retained peripheral vision - however blurred (it's like a badly tuned television picture - no trouble detecting motion and shapes but cannot see anything sharply). I hope that one day technology will have come up to the level where they can repair the damage; I'd love to experience stereoscopic vision again before my time is up. The only bonus to monoscopic vision is that films and computer games are just that tiny bit more realistic for me.
if you help Micro$oft, you are a terrorist, Bill Gates is a cyborg
Or you could flip that coin and say that if you help Microsoft, you are indirectly funding the B&MGF.
There are worse things you could do with your money.
Quick, somebody please post an online racing game strategy guide so that I can win all my races in Live for Speed.
Excuse me for not holding my breath. Real life race strategy books seem to be the best alternative here; I'm so glad to have found a PC title that uses real world skills in such a fashion.
"Strong alloy metal back casing provides excellent durability and scratch resistance".
Now why didn't Apple think of that one with their Nano... If it is of similar quality to Motorola's V3 RAZR (thin model, not the G3 one), it could be really great. My wife's had her phone for much longer than her Nano, and the latter looks like something the cat dragged in when compared.
Well I just splashed out A$5150 for a Panasonic 50PV60A, 1366x768 1080p processing dual HDMI plasma display, 5 years of warranty, a Topfield HT7000S tuner, a surge protector power board, some cables - and I couldn't be happier. Now that I've run it for about 100 hours at 50% contrast/brightness (recommendation for best long term PQ is 50% for the first 1000 hours), the quality is just amazing. Sure I notice that SD broadcasts give a grainy look, but key HDTV programming such as V8 supercar racing is just awesome. With Australia getting a reasonable amount of HD programming with "free to air", I am able to enjoy the benefits of the higher resolution display already. It has an array of 80mm fans on the back, but they are whisper quiet. (Oh, except one of mine has the rattles - this is a warranty issue and I'm getting a service person to my place shortly free of charge.)
:P
What strikes me the most is that the quality of colours in some cases is just outstanding. Contrast between blacks and colours is also great, the picture just has a very solid and almost three dimensional feel to it. This is even for SD shows. As for true HD shows, that's something else - I watched two episodes of The Office (US version) last night and it was the best I've seen so far - the 1080i PQ was simply outstanding, very few compression artefacts (halo effects are noticable in a few cases). I really cannot wait for the 2nd generation HD players to come out; even though DVD playback through component is great (high bitrate ensures rich pictures with few artefacts), I know from the HD shows what I should be getting in my movies.
It is not without annoyances though. For some reason Formula 1 and MotoGP is stuck in 4:3 land, this is greatly annoying as motorsport in particular lends itself extremely well to the 16:9 aspect ratio. I guess we'll just have to wait for the Ecclestones of the world to wake up.
As for the LCD vs Plasma debate - well, just get whatever you feel will work for you, after doing some research. Do get HDMI. I know I'd have to spend a lot of money to get an LCD display of similar PQ/display size to mine, and frankly I'm quite happy with plasma. But smaller LCDs can look amazingly sharp. Anyway, I probably wouldn't recommend a SD display, as the advantages from HD are just phenomenal - that's just my way of looking at it. Also be aware that dealers _will_ try to rip you off; I saved $800 by printing pages from plasma purchasing threads and not giving in to the first dealer's arguments that those prints were an absolute joke.
Parents bringing their 4 year olds to the 2.5 hour long Superman Returns. Do I need to paint the picture on that?
Not being able to go to the loo midway.
Going to Alexander as a Vangelis fan and discovering front right channel is missing ("we're terribly sorry, sir, we blew an amp").
Noisy pop corn eating sms texting teenagers.
THX having become purely a marketing spec.
All those fantastic things are soon to be replaced by a 50" HDTV (not native but 1080p processing) plasma by Panasonic. Already have a great Rotel surround sound system where I'll have consistently solid sound. Then just need to add beer and snacks costing a quarter, not having to drive anywhere.
I'll be happy with DVDs to start with, but I'll be buying either HDTV or Bluray (in form of a playstation) within a year. The price of one HDTV DVD is only slightly more than two people going to the movies, and I'm pretty sure rentals will catch on soon enough.
The future is looking good for HT enthusiasts - and bleak for the movies.
It should just about do it for this widescreen video display unit (sfw).
Writing is a lot like math. The more you do it the better you are at it. When the vast majority of kids do nothing but IM shorthand all day long their ability to communicate will be hindered. We don't need a study to tell us this. It's common sense.
I'n sorry, but you are contradicting yourself here. Their ability to communicate isn't being hindered, in fact getting practice all the time I would like to think that they are excelling as communicators. What's missing though is their ability to communicate formally.
To most young ones these days IE is ... the Internet!
I loved the first Max Payne for story telling. Dark as hell. Awesome voiceovers. Didn't detract from the shoot them up action in any way, it only inspired more!
- Status: people seem to think it's funny to take a bike, well, outside Holland and China anyway.
My pushbike probably cost more than some of wrecks I see on the roads here down under. If EU car quality laws were introduced as they were in Norway, half the car pool would be gone.
I.e. some of the archaic Holdens here drive around with NO SIDE MIRRORS - probably legally, as they weren't part of the original design. The same cars have no neck supports aka headrests - imagine the safety aspects of being hit from the back. Shocking.
Yep bikes are the way to go. Mine's got a 600cc engine and the words "Suzuki GSXR" stamped on it's yellow 2004 fairing. Beats the traffic every day.
(I also like to pushbike but with all the traffic down Hoddle Street, Melbourne, Victoria there's so much pollution I'm wondering about the health benefits and showering when arriving at work also adds a lot to my travel time. I usually go to the gym in my lunch breaks so not quite your average fat IT bloke...)
I really don't see what the problem is.
:)
When I snipe an item I put in a reserve of how much I'm willing to pay for it [which can often be a fair bit over the current displayed bid] and hit submit about 2 seconds before auction expiry. I synch my PC with a SNTP server, and check the time stamp of an ebay page to estimate my current latency, etc. etc.
Now, if my bid is less than the reserve of the current high bidder, well in that case I wasn't going to get it anyway. If not, the seller gets to enjoy my higher bid.
What I see is that the average sheep^H^H^H^Hbidders just can't make up their mind. They keep increasing their bids. It's as if to say, oh, I'm willing to give $10 more for it now. Does that mean that they've come to the conclusion that since someone else is bidding, the item suddenly increased in value?
You see some bids going to above retail as some people get so worked up with their ever increasing bids, and ny reason for sniping is that I don't want to get entangled in that mess.
Plus I must admit that there's a also a bit of fun to it. Of my snipes, none are worse than 5 second ones and best was a 1 - average is 2 or 3. Never missed one to latency, it's all about timing it - and all my snipes are manual.
Make the third option "I don't answer to Cowboyneal's polls". Oh, wait...
Exactly _what_ US credibility?