No problems here in small town Nebraska. Voted just after 8:00 this morning at the local fire station. There was a very short line, and the 4 workers were running things very efficiently, so there was almost no wait... 2 minutes at most. There were 8 stand-up booths, and 2 wheelchair access booths available for voters, as well as 1 electronic voting machine, which had not been booted up, but they said that it could be turned on if anyone wanted to use it. I used the "fill in the oval" optical-scan paper ballots of course, just like everyone else was doing.
Leaking caps? All the time. Exploding caps? 3 in 25+ years. One on an intel socket-7 mobo in an old Gateway 2000 tower, (dented the side of the case!) and 2 in some cheepo chinese power supplies.
No, no, no... If we grow more beans, people will start eating them... and we all know that eating beans generates more greenhouse gases... increase in global warming... back to square one.
My apologies to/. I didn't intend to inadvertently use this forum as a classified add.... but unitron, I'll contact you soon, or you can email me at the address on this post.
There are two companies still making magnetic audio tape on reels: RMGI and ATR Magnetics. WOW! Thanks for this info. I still think I'll just give up on analog, but I guess it is nice to know that a piece of my radio history is still out there if I ever want to use it again.
Well, the lossless format would be uncompressed WAV files... or AIFF if you own a Mac.
You could record your vinyl at 24 bit 96 KHz or better for storage and playback, then make down sampled copies at 16 bit 44.1 KHz to burn to CD, or save as high-bitrate mp3s for your portable devices.
24/96 really IS better than reel-to-reel tape ever was, and besides... reel-to-reel tape has been discontinued. The last manufacturer of high-end open reel tape (the "400" series) was Quantegy. (formerly known as Ampex) Read all about it. http://www.quantegy.com/
But if you insist, I have an Otari MX-5050 2-track and a stack of Ampex 467 & BASF "Studio Series" 7" & 10" reels I'll sell you. I haven't used them since I got my M-Audio Delta-66 card. (5 years?)
"Speaking of which, there is now a Linux distro called "Vista." Maybe Linux "Vista" will get all kinds of press as well."
I think you must mean MontaVista Linux... http://www.mvista.com/...and it is nothing that new. I have been using MontaVista for several years now on commercial broadcast video servers. They have been around a lot longer than Microsoft Windows Vista... in fact, I believe they have been around longer than Windows 98.
These "loudness wars" were started by the radio industry. It has been going on since at least 1959.
Back when AM radio was king, CBS labs came out with a pair of boxes called "The Max Brothers", that is, the Audimax automatic gain control/compressor, and the Volumax limiter. Every station had to have this setup if they wanted to be as loud as the station down the dial. Louder stations were perceived to be more powerful, or local stations. It was proven that a listener, when turning the dial, would stop on a LOUD signal.
Many advancements in audio precessing have happened since. In the 70s Mike Dorrough made loud audio even louder with the invention of multi-band parallel processing. Every station that wanted to be a "Big Boy" had to have a Dorrough DAP-310 discriminate audio processor. Even the FM stations started using this. In the 80s, Bob Orban took FM processing to the next level with his "Optimod" line of boxes. Orban Optimods are still some of the top selling boxes to this day. There were also many other advancements in the "loudness at all cost" wars. Do a google sometime for "Frank Foti" "Mike Dorrough" "Leonard Kahn" "Glen Clark" "Greg Ogonowski" "Eric Small" and "Robert Orban". These guys are the Gods of broadcast audio processing.
Here is an interesting article writen by Jim Somich, with intro by Frank Foti.:
"Maybe they should release loud versions for radio, but the CD should preserve the dynamics."
Yes, IAABE. (I am a Broadcast engineer)
Those of us in the radio business DON'T WANT loud over compressed CDs. We do our own compression and limiting, so a "clean" CD, and an overly compressed one will be the exact same volume level over the air. The overly compressed one will sound more grungy and distorted, but it won't be a damn bit louder on the radio.
The Alt-Rock station I currently work for uses 5 different AGC/compressor/limiter/clipper boxes to crunch down the audio signal so that it is LOUD on the air, and never goes over the 100% FCC maximum modulation level. Our peak modulation is held right at 100%, and our average modulation bounces around 80%. This represents about 1.5 to 2 dB of dynamic range, regardless of what the source material is. This is very typical for most FMs. Some are worse.
I sometimes think the recording industry is in this loudness war so that their CDs will sound just as loud as the radio on most portable players.
OK, I did check out this site. They don't seem to have all of their facts checked out quite right.
For instance, I checked out the report for the Omaha Nebraska market, since I am familiar with the area. (I live in central NE)
There is white space on the VHF band on channels 5, 11, & 13. You can't just put new signals on those channels in Omaha, because it would cause interference in the next market to the West, Lincoln NE. Lincoln gets channel 5 from Hastings, channel 11 from Grand Island, and Channel 13 from Axtell/Kearney. (Although to be honest, Channel 11 in G.I. is nothing more than a 300KW translator for Channel 10 in Lincoln.)
There is a VALID REASON why there is white space in some markets.
"Why have so many devices standardized on 12v if it is so wasteful?"
Because it's been that way for 50 years. The automobile industry is the reason for the 12 Volt standard. The standard for mobile electric devices; fans, lights, radios; used to be 6 Volts, but almost every car made since 1957 used "The New Improved 12 Volt" system... brighter lights, easier starting, etc.
The main reason 12 volts won't work well in a home is because of the distance to run wiring, and resistance loss. In a car, the longest run of wire you might have from the battery to the trunk is 12 feet, where in a house, you might need to run 60 feet from the battery to that outlet in the front of the place. The longer you have to run a wire, the more resistance it has. The more current you pull through that resistance, the more voltage loss. A 2 or 3 Volt loss at 120 or 240 Volts is no big deal, but a 2 or 3 Volt loss at 12 Volts would not be acceptable.
I do not have flash installed on my computer at work, and even though I DID get to see the cartoon, I also got the message:
"This comic requires the Macromedia Flash Player. In the coming weeks we will stop displaying the comic without the Flash Player. Download Flash today to continue viewing this comic."
"...while part of the ATSC switchover is to move digital stations into the UHF range."
Not true. While most stations might be going to UHF for digital, some are not. I know for a fact that here in central Nebraska, our 2 major NBC affiliates are planning to remain on low-band VHF when they go full digital, and drop their low-power UHFs that they are currently running digital on. Those would be KHAS-TV (5) in Hastings, and KNOP-TV (2) in North Platte.
The problem is that the digital signals are added to the analog AM signal as sidebands that exceed the allocated bandwidth of the 10 KHz channel spacing of AM radio. Even analog AM, being 20 KHz bandwidth overlaps the 10 KHz channels, that is why you can hear a 10 KHz "squeel" on some stations when there is another station 1 channel away.
Digital AM radio uses over 50 KHz of bandwidth, so it is possible for a digital AM station to wipe out weaker stations 2 or even 3 channels away on either side of thier dial position.
Slashdot Mirror
No problems here in small town Nebraska. Voted just after 8:00 this morning at the local fire station. There was a very short line, and the 4 workers were running things very efficiently, so there was almost no wait... 2 minutes at most. There were 8 stand-up booths, and 2 wheelchair access booths available for voters, as well as 1 electronic voting machine, which had not been booted up, but they said that it could be turned on if anyone wanted to use it. I used the "fill in the oval" optical-scan paper ballots of course, just like everyone else was doing.
Great idea...
The FCC consumer hotline toll-free number is 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322)
They have an entire department dedicated to telephone issues.
Tests rigged? That's not what I get from the director of advanced development for Shure Brothers Microphones, Edgar Reihl.
He was there for the tests last month.
See this article in Broadcast Engineering magazine:
http://broadcastengineering.com/hdtv/reihl-sheds-light-wsd-tests20080819/index.html
Leaking caps? All the time.
Exploding caps? 3 in 25+ years. One on an intel socket-7 mobo in an old Gateway 2000 tower, (dented the side of the case!) and 2 in some cheepo chinese power supplies.
"Obviously, we should grow more of these beans."
No, no, no... If we grow more beans, people will start eating them... and we all know that eating beans generates more greenhouse gases... increase in global warming... back to square one.
"I've run out of Eagle's songs now...."
Hey there Desperado, I'm sure you'll think of some more One Of These Nights.
"Somebody hacked a trucker? Holy hell...I hope never to see that one documented"
Well, I don't know if they can be "hacked", but there is a TV show on CMT network dedicated to "tricking them out" in high-fashion style with bling.
http://www.cmt.com/shows/dyn/trick-my-trucker/series.jhtml
My apologies to /. I didn't intend to inadvertently use this forum as a classified add.... but unitron, I'll contact you soon, or you can email me at the address on this post.
Well, the lossless format would be uncompressed WAV files... or AIFF if you own a Mac.
You could record your vinyl at 24 bit 96 KHz or better for storage and playback, then make down sampled copies at 16 bit 44.1 KHz to burn to CD, or save as high-bitrate mp3s for your portable devices.
24/96 really IS better than reel-to-reel tape ever was, and besides... reel-to-reel tape has been discontinued. The last manufacturer of high-end open reel tape (the "400" series) was Quantegy. (formerly known as Ampex) Read all about it. http://www.quantegy.com/
But if you insist, I have an Otari MX-5050 2-track and a stack of Ampex 467 & BASF "Studio Series" 7" & 10" reels I'll sell you. I haven't used them since I got my M-Audio Delta-66 card. (5 years?)
Too bad you'd need a US$10000 player...
Too bad you've got such a cheap record player. For just $40,000 you could have a good one. (pickup cartridge & stylus not included.)
http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_detail.cfm?Title_ID=31917
"Speaking of which, there is now a Linux distro called "Vista." Maybe Linux "Vista" will get all kinds of press as well."
...and it is nothing that new. I have been using MontaVista for several years now on commercial broadcast video servers. They have been around a lot longer than Microsoft Windows Vista... in fact, I believe they have been around longer than Windows 98.
I think you must mean MontaVista Linux... http://www.mvista.com/
My question is: What good is this "Bullguard anti-virus" if it can't even remove a simple virus that is over 10 years old?
"There was nothing like running the command to show memory usage (and its been too long, I don't even remember what this was at this point)..."
mem
still works, as far as I know. It works on this Win2K machine.
These "loudness wars" were started by the radio industry. It has been going on since at least 1959.
Back when AM radio was king, CBS labs came out with a pair of boxes called "The Max Brothers", that is, the Audimax automatic gain control/compressor, and the Volumax limiter. Every station had to have this setup if they wanted to be as loud as the station down the dial. Louder stations were perceived to be more powerful, or local stations. It was proven that a listener, when turning the dial, would stop on a LOUD signal.
Many advancements in audio precessing have happened since. In the 70s Mike Dorrough made loud audio even louder with the invention of multi-band parallel processing. Every station that wanted to be a "Big Boy" had to have a Dorrough DAP-310 discriminate audio processor. Even the FM stations started using this. In the 80s, Bob Orban took FM processing to the next level with his "Optimod" line of boxes. Orban Optimods are still some of the top selling boxes to this day. There were also many other advancements in the "loudness at all cost" wars. Do a google sometime for "Frank Foti" "Mike Dorrough" "Leonard Kahn" "Glen Clark" "Greg Ogonowski" "Eric Small" and "Robert Orban". These guys are the Gods of broadcast audio processing.
Here is an interesting article writen by Jim Somich, with intro by Frank Foti.:
http://www.soundprocessing.nl/hisfrank.html
"Maybe they should release loud versions for radio, but the CD should preserve the dynamics."
Yes, IAABE. (I am a Broadcast engineer)
Those of us in the radio business DON'T WANT loud over compressed CDs. We do our own compression and limiting, so a "clean" CD, and an overly compressed one will be the exact same volume level over the air. The overly compressed one will sound more grungy and distorted, but it won't be a damn bit louder on the radio.
The Alt-Rock station I currently work for uses 5 different AGC/compressor/limiter/clipper boxes to crunch down the audio signal so that it is LOUD on the air, and never goes over the 100% FCC maximum modulation level. Our peak modulation is held right at 100%, and our average modulation bounces around 80%. This represents about 1.5 to 2 dB of dynamic range, regardless of what the source material is. This is very typical for most FMs. Some are worse.
I sometimes think the recording industry is in this loudness war so that their CDs will sound just as loud as the radio on most portable players.
OK, I did check out this site. They don't seem to have all of their facts checked out quite right.
For instance, I checked out the report for the Omaha Nebraska market, since I am familiar with the area. (I live in central NE)
There is white space on the VHF band on channels 5, 11, & 13. You can't just put new signals on those channels in Omaha, because it would cause interference in the next market to the West, Lincoln NE. Lincoln gets channel 5 from Hastings, channel 11 from Grand Island, and Channel 13 from Axtell/Kearney. (Although to be honest, Channel 11 in G.I. is nothing more than a 300KW translator for Channel 10 in Lincoln.)
There is a VALID REASON why there is white space in some markets.
"I'm selling options for indie band A at 35 cents a song."
.35 a track.
GREAT! I love A. I have a CD of their album "Hi-Fi Serious" - it's great! Definitely worth
DRM free vinyl!
? Title_ID=39579&sct=music
http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_detail.cfm
"Why have so many devices standardized on 12v if it is so wasteful?"
Because it's been that way for 50 years. The automobile industry is the reason for the 12 Volt standard. The standard for mobile electric devices; fans, lights, radios; used to be 6 Volts, but almost every car made since 1957 used "The New Improved 12 Volt" system... brighter lights, easier starting, etc.
The main reason 12 volts won't work well in a home is because of the distance to run wiring, and resistance loss. In a car, the longest run of wire you might have from the battery to the trunk is 12 feet, where in a house, you might need to run 60 feet from the battery to that outlet in the front of the place. The longer you have to run a wire, the more resistance it has. The more current you pull through that resistance, the more voltage loss. A 2 or 3 Volt loss at 120 or 240 Volts is no big deal, but a 2 or 3 Volt loss at 12 Volts would not be acceptable.
"Imagine movie trailer voice guy reading this."
...and yes, he would sound awesome reading this...
He has a name, you know. He is Don LaFontaine. http://www.donlafontaine.com/
"In a world, where two powerhouse movie franchises hit store shelves on opposing formats..."
Even THAT will soon be DRMed.
I do not have flash installed on my computer at work, and even though I DID get to see the cartoon, I also got the message:
"This comic requires the Macromedia Flash Player.
In the coming weeks we will stop displaying the comic without the Flash Player.
Download Flash today to continue viewing this comic."
"...while part of the ATSC switchover is to move digital stations into the UHF range."
Not true. While most stations might be going to UHF for digital, some are not. I know for a fact that here in central Nebraska, our 2 major NBC affiliates are planning to remain on low-band VHF when they go full digital, and drop their low-power UHFs that they are currently running digital on. Those would be KHAS-TV (5) in Hastings, and KNOP-TV (2) in North Platte.
."Where the hell can you get a good turntable and decent high end stylus?"
Answer: BSW
Try this: http://www.bswusa.com/proditem.asp?item=TTUSB
This model has a direct USB output.
No, I don't work for BSW, but I have purchaced a LOT of audio stuff from them.
The problem is that the digital signals are added to the analog AM signal as sidebands that exceed the allocated bandwidth of the 10 KHz channel spacing of AM radio. Even analog AM, being 20 KHz bandwidth overlaps the 10 KHz channels, that is why you can hear a 10 KHz "squeel" on some stations when there is another station 1 channel away.
Digital AM radio uses over 50 KHz of bandwidth, so it is possible for a digital AM station to wipe out weaker stations 2 or even 3 channels away on either side of thier dial position.