It was fun:-) But we only had that system for like 3 days, just being prepped for a customer. It was actually very rare for us to have Onyx2s sitting around - I think that one is at the Rose Center Planetarium in NYC's Natural History Museum. I had an Indigo2 and an O2 at my desk, once in a while we would have an Origin2000 4 or 8 CPU system. Of course, when they were in the office, the first thing to do was fire up Quake or bzFlag or something equally insane.
Oh, man the IRIX version was great. When I worked for SGI '98 - '00 it was played nearly every day in our office. Nothing like an 8-CPU 16GB RAM SGI Onyx2 3-Pipe InfiniteReality system for playing bzFlag at 1920x1200 on a 24" Sony Superwide monitor.
I don't see this as a positive development. It's an excuse for crappier signs in a world where signs, schedules, maps, and notices are confusing even if you're fluent in the language. We should focus on standardsand intuitive design.
OK, maybe translating train schedules and restaurant menus is good. But street signs, especially, are supposed to be unambiguous, their meaning readily apparent to anyone, whether literate in their native language or not.
And does this thing work on signs that some redneck has shot holes in with a 12-gauge?
Someone... somewhere... observed that the development of new 'works'* - the creation of whole new genres, real paradigm shifts, progresses in stages:
- The new medium becomes available.
- Artists create works in the new medium that mimic works in the old medium, learning in the process.
- Artists move on to new ideas in the new medium, launching a whole new class of art or fiction.
This can be illustrated by the examples of photography, film, television, etc, for all of history. It kind of disappoints me that people are using the web to imitate television, books, newspapers, etc, instead of doing more with the medium. Maybe we're still just getting there.
A good, if dated, book on the subject of creativity and possibilities on the net (especially concerning non-linear narrative) is Hamlet on the Holodeck by Janey Murray.
* (referring to artistic works, but I think it applies to other types as well. programming?)
"Graphic violence in the media...
Does it glamorize violence?
Sure.
Does it desensitize us to violence?
Of course.
Does it help us tolerate violence?
You bet.
Does it stunt our empathy for our fellow beings?
Heck yes.
Does it *cause* violence?
Well, that's hard to prove.
The trick is to ask the right question."
Point taken for the "real" audiophile;-) The problem I have with the Joe Bob "audiophile" is that he doesn't really know jack about music.
You hit the nail right on the head. Even most record industry types don't seem to know much about music either. And then there's my next big complaint about music: the quality of recording and mastering on most CDs. Virtually every new release of "flavor of the moment" bands is badly compressed (as in dynamic range compressed, not audio format compressed) and so is basically throwing away the compelling reason for CD audio.
I'm not sure that 24/96 is better. Though my DAC can supposedly handle it, I have no source material in 24/96 and haven't really listened to it. I have previewed Sony's SACD system in several high-end retailers and been impressed, but it damn well better be on $5000 speakers and $10k amplifiers.
What am I after? Anything that makes the hair on my neck stand up. Not necessarily pure reproduction of live experiences. I want to hear all that's "there" in the recording - to (hopefully) expose myself to as much as the artist has to offer.
Wow, I had a slashdot story accepted on my 2nd try. I was hoping this would be a "fun" story, and an opposite-side-of-the table from the recent stories about Rio MP3 appliances.
I've done quite a bit of listening and comparing CD source to compressed audio sources. It's quite apparent what's compressed and what's not. And it is more apparent on better equipment, despite what you say. The test rig I have setup is a CD player into a high-end 24/96 DAC and a sound card with digital optical out into that same DAC. Playing uncompressed music is basically indistinguishable from CD; playing compressed ogg at 220Kbps and MP3 at 320Kbps is definitely lower grade. At that bit rate, it's not the artifacts that are evident, but the complete lack of stereo separation. After all, correlations between the left and right channels is one of the means of eliminating "redundant" information and reducing file sizes.
I have also experimented with a bunch of the lossless compression formats. They sound fine, but I have concerns about software support for these formats, namely command-line players and cataloging software.
I am not a fan of vinyl, even on very high-end analog playback systems. Nor am I a fan of tubes. All digital and solide state for me. I agree with you on the dynamic range and S/N issue.
As a real audiophile, who's primary interest is music, not equipment, my advice is always: listen, listen, listen. For $20,000, I probably will be more interested in hiring a local string quartet to play private parties for me.
Re:Not only a full moon tonight...
on
All Hallow's Eve
·
· Score: 1
well, as long as we're being pedantic, it's not quite a Blue Moon everywhere tonight. A very good explanation is available. In the U.S., only points in Chicago (US Central TZ) or west have a blue moon tonight.
Points between US Eastern TZ and Moscow have a blue moon in November.
Both towers have collapsed, entirely it appears... i watched the second collapse from here.
Phones are out, broadcast radio and TV are out...
Horrible. I commute through there every day. Only some gracious turn of luck made me about 20 minutes late, and we were turned away from the subway (PATH) into the city...
Do Lego... and a child... a big favor. Buy that child a Lego set. Buy them many. Son - Daughter - Niece - Nephew - Friend's kids, anyone.
All of the intelligent, thoughtful, and creative people that i've met in my age group grew up with these toys, and they made all the difference in the world.
Run on hardware like Himalaya Non-Stop servers, now part of Compaq, and a hodgepodge of other high-availability and clustered systems. Lots of Data General, too. Not sure what these systems are that were formerly Sun now going to iBEAM.
The exchange needs systems that won't ever be down during the trading day. Not to disparage Linux: it's the hardware that's at issue. NYSE needs systems that you can pull a disk controller or system board out of and not interrupt services. Even if said board is on fire, the system can't go down.
... The "Smart Chip" reader hasn't been available from AmEx for a long while. That chip isn't useful for anything. "Blue" is just a credit card, as opposed to the classic "green" charge card (and gold, and platinum)
However, AmEx has the best dang credit card feature available: Private Payments, which is basically a generate-as-you-need one time use credit card number. It bills back to your card account, but the number can't be reused, and the expiration date is the current month. No worries about stolen cards at e-commerce sites with questionable security or shifty practices.
No, it's certainly not obvious. It's not surprising. The artists have their own representation ( BMI and ASCAP , and these groups have their own agendas and priorities which often clash with the RIAA and the individual labels.
Many artists are famous for their clashes with their labels (Prince, NIN, even The Beatles), and long before napster et al...
This means that the ISP has to pay a fee to the site in order to enable the site's content to the ISP's users.
What do I do when my ISP isn't 'carrying' a particular site? Cable TV networks only carry certain channels, and it's almost impossible to get less than mainstream channels added to the lineup.
Sure, there's more competition in ISPs than in cable TV these days, but no single ISP is likely to carry all the 'networks' i'm interested in.
"I been a private Ricardo for forty years, so I seen some god-dam ugly messes in my sweet life, but nothing like what happened to Dakota Joe - he looked like he'd swallowed a bobcat and then done something to piss it off."
"She was like the driven snow beneath the galoshes of my lust"
"Emily had always like little John, the neighbor's kid, and he was particularly good done this way in a delicate bechamel sauce with simmered mushrooms and just a hint of garlic"
gosh this takes me back... I have some of the books with the best entries; the contest dates back to at least 1985.
from the books, the purpose of the contest:
"The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is an annual competition sponsored by San Jose State University. It challenges entrants to compose the worst possible opening sentence to a hypothetical novel. The contest 'honors' Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, a prolific Victorian novelist who opened his 'Paul Clifford' (1830) with a sentence that has become the standard for potboilers: 'It was a dark and stormy night...'"
here's an example, the 1985 grand prize winner:
"The countdown had stalled at T minus 69 seconds when Desiree, the first female ape to go up in space, winked at me slyly and pouted her thick, rubbery lips unmistakably - the first of many such advances during what would prove to be the longest, and most memorable, space voyage of my career"
must be a single sentence.
super sounding gear that isn't that expensive
on
Insanely Audiophile
·
· Score: 5
There is really a lot of equipment available for reasonable prices that far surpass the average "consumer" components. Some are recognizable names like Sony's ES line or Pioneer's Elite line. Also check out auctions for older gear from these manufacturers - many offer 5, 10, or 20 year warranties on it, and have extensive lifetimes
On a similar note, one of the customer service databases in use at Verizon has a column in their customer table called something like "IRATE_CUSTOMER_IND"
If you're loud and abusive in demanding that your phone service actually work when you're paying for it, you get slapped with a "1" in this field.
Slashdot Mirror
It ran Quake pretty well, too...
As this article points out, we have a lot more to worry about than the English language.
OK, maybe translating train schedules and restaurant menus is good. But street signs, especially, are supposed to be unambiguous, their meaning readily apparent to anyone, whether literate in their native language or not.
And does this thing work on signs that some redneck has shot holes in with a 12-gauge?
- The new medium becomes available.
- Artists create works in the new medium that mimic works in the old medium, learning in the process.
- Artists move on to new ideas in the new medium, launching a whole new class of art or fiction.
This can be illustrated by the examples of photography, film, television, etc, for all of history. It kind of disappoints me that people are using the web to imitate television, books, newspapers, etc, instead of doing more with the medium. Maybe we're still just getting there.
A good, if dated, book on the subject of creativity and possibilities on the net (especially concerning non-linear narrative) is Hamlet on the Holodeck by Janey Murray.
* (referring to artistic works, but I think it applies to other types as well. programming?)
"Graphic violence in the media...
Does it glamorize violence?
Sure.
Does it desensitize us to violence?
Of course.
Does it help us tolerate violence?
You bet.
Does it stunt our empathy for our fellow beings?
Heck yes.
Does it *cause* violence?
Well, that's hard to prove.
The trick is to ask the right question."
Is that a Starbuck's I can see on the high-res JPEG?
See the LucasArts page on it
You hit the nail right on the head. Even most record industry types don't seem to know much about music either. And then there's my next big complaint about music: the quality of recording and mastering on most CDs. Virtually every new release of "flavor of the moment" bands is badly compressed (as in dynamic range compressed, not audio format compressed) and so is basically throwing away the compelling reason for CD audio.
I'm not sure that 24/96 is better. Though my DAC can supposedly handle it, I have no source material in 24/96 and haven't really listened to it. I have previewed Sony's SACD system in several high-end retailers and been impressed, but it damn well better be on $5000 speakers and $10k amplifiers.
What am I after? Anything that makes the hair on my neck stand up. Not necessarily pure reproduction of live experiences. I want to hear all that's "there" in the recording - to (hopefully) expose myself to as much as the artist has to offer.
I've done quite a bit of listening and comparing CD source to compressed audio sources. It's quite apparent what's compressed and what's not. And it is more apparent on better equipment, despite what you say. The test rig I have setup is a CD player into a high-end 24/96 DAC and a sound card with digital optical out into that same DAC. Playing uncompressed music is basically indistinguishable from CD; playing compressed ogg at 220Kbps and MP3 at 320Kbps is definitely lower grade. At that bit rate, it's not the artifacts that are evident, but the complete lack of stereo separation. After all, correlations between the left and right channels is one of the means of eliminating "redundant" information and reducing file sizes.
I have also experimented with a bunch of the lossless compression formats. They sound fine, but I have concerns about software support for these formats, namely command-line players and cataloging software.
I am not a fan of vinyl, even on very high-end analog playback systems. Nor am I a fan of tubes. All digital and solide state for me. I agree with you on the dynamic range and S/N issue.
As a real audiophile, who's primary interest is music, not equipment, my advice is always: listen, listen, listen. For $20,000, I probably will be more interested in hiring a local string quartet to play private parties for me.
Points between US Eastern TZ and Moscow have a blue moon in November.
"Would you trade in some of your personal freedom to be safer from terrorists?"
This question is asked quite a bit. Who says that a sacrifice in personal freedom equals a gain in safety?
Phones are out, broadcast radio and TV are out...
Horrible. I commute through there every day. Only some gracious turn of luck made me about 20 minutes late, and we were turned away from the subway (PATH) into the city...
All of the intelligent, thoughtful, and creative people that i've met in my age group grew up with these toys, and they made all the difference in the world.
The exchange needs systems that won't ever be down during the trading day. Not to disparage Linux: it's the hardware that's at issue. NYSE needs systems that you can pull a disk controller or system board out of and not interrupt services. Even if said board is on fire, the system can't go down.
However, AmEx has the best dang credit card feature available: Private Payments, which is basically a generate-as-you-need one time use credit card number. It bills back to your card account, but the number can't be reused, and the expiration date is the current month. No worries about stolen cards at e-commerce sites with questionable security or shifty practices.
that kiddie pool looks appropriate.
Many artists are famous for their clashes with their labels (Prince, NIN, even The Beatles), and long before napster et al...
This means that the ISP has to pay a fee to the site in order to enable the site's content to the ISP's users.
What do I do when my ISP isn't 'carrying' a particular site? Cable TV networks only carry certain channels, and it's almost impossible to get less than mainstream channels added to the lineup.
Sure, there's more competition in ISPs than in cable TV these days, but no single ISP is likely to carry all the 'networks' i'm interested in.
"She was like the driven snow beneath the galoshes of my lust"
"Emily had always like little John, the neighbor's kid, and he was particularly good done this way in a delicate bechamel sauce with simmered mushrooms and just a hint of garlic"
from the books, the purpose of the contest:
"The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is an annual competition sponsored by San Jose State University. It challenges entrants to compose the worst possible opening sentence to a hypothetical novel. The contest 'honors' Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, a prolific Victorian novelist who opened his 'Paul Clifford' (1830) with a sentence that has become the standard for potboilers: 'It was a dark and stormy night...'"
here's an example, the 1985 grand prize winner:
"The countdown had stalled at T minus 69 seconds when Desiree, the first female ape to go up in space, winked at me slyly and pouted her thick, rubbery lips unmistakably - the first of many such advances during what would prove to be the longest, and most memorable, space voyage of my career"
must be a single sentence.
other names are less recognizable like Arcam , Marantz, Rega , Rotel , NAD, and Nakamichi . But all make superlative gear for less than you'd think.
my habit has recently been Krell and Vandersteen
above all, any audiophile will tell you to listen, make adjustments, and buy and enjoy what sounds the best. all it takes is love of music
Heh, but not just their web developers...
On a similar note, one of the customer service databases in use at Verizon has a column in their customer table called something like "IRATE_CUSTOMER_IND"
If you're loud and abusive in demanding that your phone service actually work when you're paying for it, you get slapped with a "1" in this field.