The air needs to pass over this resonating piece at a particular speed to start it resonating (flapping). Is there some sort of way to adjust the tension of the band during use to account for faster / slower winds or is it only good at 7.9563 mph winds?
Since the summary mentioned it first, I've always been curious as to the logistics behind having OS X released as a desktop environment.
*shrug* who knows, might be interesting.
My thought is (and this may have been said before, I only skimmed the comments) is that this, like most Microsoft tactics regarding piracy are sadly only aimed at naive users. Poor folks who can be easily goaded into coughing up a credit card number on the "are you genuine" website, people who actually believe the big green shield in Windows update is the right choice.
Saavy users have the WGA problem kicked in a matter of minutes, which interestingly is the group least likely to actually succumb to being bullied into buying a new license for Windows.
Are they really trying to change consumer purchases tax law to take the burden from the seller and place it on the buyer? It would seem that it would be painful if NY's attitude became the norm. Could you imagine this being the last thing you see while waiting for your credit card to process at an online retailer:
"Using the provided Address and zip code, it was determined that the tax agency responsible for collecting taxes on this purchase is (county, state). A copy of this transaction has been forwarded to (county, state). Have a nice day."
At least for me, it would become convenient to start shopping at brick and mortar stores again.
I would gladly show you how to assemble a vinyl playback system for less than $1000 USD that would trounce a comparably priced CD playback system.
The only people who argue, violently in some cases (just as some people do in this discussion) seem as though audiophiles have insulted their mother by putting forth the idea that digitizing an audio source and then playing it back through a Chinese microchip represents a loss of fidelity.
Again, all those who do not want to have anything to do with audiophiles and what equipment we prefer should do just that.
An I'll buy your $250/foot cables, provided you demonstrate, using a white paper, that your cables exhibit less electrical coloration than the competition's cable.
We don't buy snake oil. We buy science. If you don't understand our passion, you do not have to participate.
Let me prefix this by saying first, I've prided myself in being an avid audio enthusiast. I own my fair share of high end audio gear, and am quite adept at building my own speakers (and speakers for others) and I have the benefit of being friends with some people that have been audiophiles for 30 plus years, one in fact, owns a small audio shop near where I live.
Now one day, during a small gathering while he was packing up the store for a move, which he did several times over the years, some of the select few of us were invited into the store for a small party of sorts. We all brought something to the mix, be it recordings or audio gear of some kind, or even a case of grape soda.
One of the guys that was invited, brought along his Kuzma Stabi Reference turntable. He had it fitted with a Van Den Hul cartridge, which ran through a Michael Yee Audio phono preamplifier. All said, I think the turntable and electronics he had set up totaled around $5000 USD, however I'm not sure about what the price would be in today's market. Probably pretty close.
After setting up, we did some comparative listening. We had the benefit of having several recordings that were pressed on vinyl as well as released on CD. Now, the system used for CD playback was by no means a slouch, I believe we were using the shop's Acurus ACD-11 at the time.
We played the releases on CD first. We were treated to the normal feats that CD provides, the details of which I won't go into here. We were very familiar with most of these recordings as the shop owner had been using them in the store, some of them for many years to demonstrate Hi-Fi gear. After we had listened to them, we switched over to the turntable to hear the vinyl versions.
Folks, if you have not had the chance to do anything like this for yourselves, I suggest that you try it. The difference is staggering. The image opens up to triple it's original size. The depth of space pushes back, and opens upwards. The sound that was once sitting patiently inside the speakers stands up as tall as the ceiling, looming over your head and wrapping it's arms around you. It's nearly impossible to describe to anyone who has not experienced it.
People like to compare digital audio and analog audio to the difference between digital and analog tv, but that really isn't a fair comparison. That would be like comparing analog radio to digital radio. I prefer to think of it more like, analog audio is like film. Either in a movie theater or a real photograph from a camera. Digital audio is like a DVD or a photograph from a digital camera. The only problem is, we're stuck at 2 mega pixels. Sure, there have been advancements in digital audio, but it's still nothing near what you get with the right gear and a good analog recording.
Set up your own test and try it. Don't quote numbers and theories. Just go down to a good audio shop that sells turntables and try it. Chances are if they sell turntables, they are already prepared to do the vinyl comparison.
As someone else has asked, "Will it work in Linux?" I'd also like to know. If they are indeed in MP3 format, then they aren't going to play be default in Ubuntu without doing the "unsupported" thing and getting the dirty codecs. Which brings my second point, if they are releasing them in MP3 format, doesn't that open them up to some kind of lawsuit from Linux users? Should they have some kind of disclaimer on the front of the package warning Linux users of the need to install a taboo codec?
If these are anything like the drives I priced from BitMicro about a year ago (you have to e-mail for price) then they are probably many (many) thousands of dollars. AFAIK, BitMicro has catered more to the industrial (hard drives for aerospace) realm.
I'm hoping that if bad feelings between movie studios and Microsoft are the result, that perhaps Vista SP2 will loosen up on all the DRM crap. I'm sure that at least some of the deals they made with the MPAA to include system-slowing device polls in Vista might be lifted if they don't have as many people to keep happy.
Right? Interesting point. Most of the market where these HD playback devices would be popular are the same market that is partially alienated by the encumbrance of DRM.
Too bad these things aren't like VCR's were in the day, then they would really have something to complain about, I.E 1080P HDMI in/out right on the back of the unit. I guess they took our rights to use technology away slowly so nobody noticed how much more restrictive the end-user's choices are.
Can't say that I have. Closest I've been is a GTO, at around 400 hp. Used to own a 5.0 Mustang too. Not quite the same, but fun, nonetheless.
What I meant by the analogy really, was more of a "Don't knock it till you've tried it." type thing. Most folks commenting, some on/., have never done themselves the pleasure of spending a few hours in a dark room enjoying a nicely recorded arrangement, recorded with care and skill, using decades of experience, played back on high quality equipment. What I mean to say is, once you actually hear the musicians move around on stage, once you've heard a classical guitarist slap the body of the guitar and have that sound bounce off the back of the inside of your skull, (Don Ross, This Dragon Won't Sleep) then you really can't make a judgment on what sounds better.
I'm also willing to bet that a good number of current top recording studios responsible for the swill currently on the shelves haven't either, or if they have, are more interested in making money than producing a product of good quality. Hell, most studios are still using Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors. The speakers in my girlfriend's Nintendo DS sound better than those, and those are what they use to set levels and adjust recordings with! I know it's been said before, but save for a few select labels (Chesky Records, Sheffield Lab) it's all been downhill since the 70's.
I felt that would give a fair comparison of what the typical audiophile hears when he/she/it plays a song, versus what the record industry is assuming we are all listening to. Remember, we're not comparing what sounds better, but rather "Jesus Christ, WTF is wrong with the recording industry?"
Agreed, 256 kbps is usually good enough. However, to say that it "would cost way more than people can afford" is a bit misleading, you could probably e-bay a good amp, pre-amp, d/a converter and cd-transport for less than a grand, and madisound can supply you with the parts to build a $5000 set of speakers for a couple of hundred bucks, if you know how to wield a soldering iron and have a basic knowledge of electricity.
I've billed myself as an audiophile for many years, and I'm glad to hear that there are some folks around here that share the interest. I also have the benefit of being a computer enthusiast for the last 15 years. Interestingly enough, I just completed my latest set of speakers last night using parts that I asked for for Christmas from my SO;). Anyway, onto the statement that I came here to make.
Mp3's generally sound bad. Well, rather than make a broad sweeping claim, I'd more say they have an "mp3 sound" about them. Dynamics are limited (by dynamic range compression, NOT file compression) frequency response is sometimes questionable, although at higher bit-rates is acceptable (320 kbps, and not that sliding crap either, I don't want software telling me what part of the song is important enough to hear properly.) and, as a result, imaging, depth and general palpability are mostly compromised, and I'm sure anyone who has listened to an MP3 on a decent system notices the digital noise in the upper midrange (younguns will call upper midrange "the highs" because they don't know what anything over 8500 hz sounds like).
All that said, I do have a rather extensive collection of MP3's, which I listen to casually. Sometimes I have a lack of sanity, and I flip my D/A converter in the living room over to the toslink cable coming from my PC in the bedroom and listen to an MP3 on my main audio system, the result of which is as un-moving as FM radio.
Those of you who continue to insist that audiophiles hear things that don't exist and MP3's sound just fine, and it's impossible to tell...blah blah blah... to my ears, it sounds like someone saying "Driving a Ferrari Enzo couldn't be that much fun, I mean, it's just a car.." You'll never know how much fun 600 HP pinning you into the seat can be until you experience it. Sadly, we are in a generation of younger people now who have probably never heard a truly decent audio system, so these arguments will continue to fall on deaf ears. Pun very much intended.
Chesky Records "Ultimate Demonstration Disc" is available from the ITMS. Go on, buy it, stick it on your iPod, get a Y cable. Then, buy the real disk from Chesky. Take both of these down to a real audio shop with you (you know, one that deals Krell, Mark Levinson (not that plastic shit in Lexus cars either) Wilson Audio, Classe, Boulder, Bryston.. you know, where the crazy audiophiles shop.. and do a little comparative listen. Hell you can even cheat and add a little quality (or subtract a little fail, depends on how you look at it.) to your iPod first from here.
If you can't hear the difference, I'm sure you'll at least get a chuckle out of the shopkeep.
Am I wrong in thinking, with laptops that can play DVD's without booting, and now, with hard drives that are accessible without booting, that we are just a short fusion of technology away from having a machine where booting into an operating system is optional for most trivial tasks? I mean, how many functions do we have to breed into a PC before the OS (being a layer for hardware / software communication) becomes obsolete?
Personally, I'd love to see the full range of interesting ideas that can come out of the hardware industry along these lines that promote use of hardware in ways that don't depend on an operating system.
I think he was trying to insinuate that, due to the fact that there is lead in hard drives, that their importation should already be under scrutiny, before the issue of a patent is even explored, and also playing a little bit with the current mess of products China is already in hot water over for lead complaints.
"According to the European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), lead had to be eliminated from electronic systems by July 1, 2006, leading to much interest in lead-free solders. These contain tin, copper, silver, and sometimes bismuth, indium, zinc, antimony, and other metals in varying amounts. The lead-free replacements for conventional Sn60/Pb40 solder have higher melting points, requiring re-engineering of most components and materials used in electronic assemblies."
Fortunately, however, hard drives should not contain any large amounts of lead anymore, even in solder (follow the link if you are curious to know what is exactly in it.) and unless they begin to be marketed as something that children might want to play with, and have occasion to put in their mouthes, they should be safe from any "contains lead" arguments.
I'm not sure if anyone has made this point yet, so I'll try. It seems to me, at least, that the vast majority of people who might use Linux are the same people who build their own machines. Or vice versa, folks that typically order a PC from a big box vendor typically won't be Linux users. Sure, some of the Linux users out there will go to Dell or HP to order their next PC, but only out of sheer curiosity and amazement that they are now able to do so, or out of some type of desire to help the proliferation of Linux.
Personally, whenever a new PC materializes in my house (through any means) it does so with a blank hard drive, and that's the way it will always be. I have no real interest in what Dell or HP or anyone installs on their PC's when they ship them, and I also have a sneaking suspicion that the only reason any Slashdotters might is due to the opening up of yet another discussion on Microsoft's evil grip on the technology sales world.
Technology is just like food. Those who just need a quick meal buy one in the supermarket, out of the freezer in a plastic bag that you can heat. Those of us that really take enjoyment out of it, cook our own meals, most of the time from scratch, just like a chef.
My question is, why the hell are so many of us Slashdot reading chef's so damn concerned with the ingredients in the pre-fab GARBAGE you can buy from Dell or HP?
Slashdot Mirror
Since when has a manufacturer said "Yes, over-volt the shit out of our part, it will be fine."
The air needs to pass over this resonating piece at a particular speed to start it resonating (flapping). Is there some sort of way to adjust the tension of the band during use to account for faster / slower winds or is it only good at 7.9563 mph winds?
Yep, I know :) It wasn't an argument.
Maybe you should point people here when making that statement.
Since the summary mentioned it first, I've always been curious as to the logistics behind having OS X released as a desktop environment. *shrug* who knows, might be interesting.
My thought is (and this may have been said before, I only skimmed the comments) is that this, like most Microsoft tactics regarding piracy are sadly only aimed at naive users. Poor folks who can be easily goaded into coughing up a credit card number on the "are you genuine" website, people who actually believe the big green shield in Windows update is the right choice.
Saavy users have the WGA problem kicked in a matter of minutes, which interestingly is the group least likely to actually succumb to being bullied into buying a new license for Windows.
Are they really trying to change consumer purchases tax law to take the burden from the seller and place it on the buyer? It would seem that it would be painful if NY's attitude became the norm. Could you imagine this being the last thing you see while waiting for your credit card to process at an online retailer:
"Using the provided Address and zip code, it was determined that the tax agency responsible for collecting taxes on this purchase is (county, state). A copy of this transaction has been forwarded to (county, state). Have a nice day."
At least for me, it would become convenient to start shopping at brick and mortar stores again.
Was a Linux version of Crysis released that I didn't hear about?
I would gladly show you how to assemble a vinyl playback system for less than $1000 USD that would trounce a comparably priced CD playback system.
The only people who argue, violently in some cases (just as some people do in this discussion) seem as though audiophiles have insulted their mother by putting forth the idea that digitizing an audio source and then playing it back through a Chinese microchip represents a loss of fidelity.
Again, all those who do not want to have anything to do with audiophiles and what equipment we prefer should do just that.
An I'll buy your $250/foot cables, provided you demonstrate, using a white paper, that your cables exhibit less electrical coloration than the competition's cable.
We don't buy snake oil. We buy science. If you don't understand our passion, you do not have to participate.
Let me prefix this by saying first, I've prided myself in being an avid audio enthusiast. I own my fair share of high end audio gear, and am quite adept at building my own speakers (and speakers for others) and I have the benefit of being friends with some people that have been audiophiles for 30 plus years, one in fact, owns a small audio shop near where I live.
Now one day, during a small gathering while he was packing up the store for a move, which he did several times over the years, some of the select few of us were invited into the store for a small party of sorts. We all brought something to the mix, be it recordings or audio gear of some kind, or even a case of grape soda.
One of the guys that was invited, brought along his Kuzma Stabi Reference turntable. He had it fitted with a Van Den Hul cartridge, which ran through a Michael Yee Audio phono preamplifier. All said, I think the turntable and electronics he had set up totaled around $5000 USD, however I'm not sure about what the price would be in today's market. Probably pretty close.
After setting up, we did some comparative listening. We had the benefit of having several recordings that were pressed on vinyl as well as released on CD. Now, the system used for CD playback was by no means a slouch, I believe we were using the shop's Acurus ACD-11 at the time.
We played the releases on CD first. We were treated to the normal feats that CD provides, the details of which I won't go into here. We were very familiar with most of these recordings as the shop owner had been using them in the store, some of them for many years to demonstrate Hi-Fi gear. After we had listened to them, we switched over to the turntable to hear the vinyl versions.
Folks, if you have not had the chance to do anything like this for yourselves, I suggest that you try it. The difference is staggering. The image opens up to triple it's original size. The depth of space pushes back, and opens upwards. The sound that was once sitting patiently inside the speakers stands up as tall as the ceiling, looming over your head and wrapping it's arms around you. It's nearly impossible to describe to anyone who has not experienced it.
People like to compare digital audio and analog audio to the difference between digital and analog tv, but that really isn't a fair comparison. That would be like comparing analog radio to digital radio. I prefer to think of it more like, analog audio is like film. Either in a movie theater or a real photograph from a camera. Digital audio is like a DVD or a photograph from a digital camera. The only problem is, we're stuck at 2 mega pixels. Sure, there have been advancements in digital audio, but it's still nothing near what you get with the right gear and a good analog recording.
Set up your own test and try it. Don't quote numbers and theories. Just go down to a good audio shop that sells turntables and try it. Chances are if they sell turntables, they are already prepared to do the vinyl comparison.
As someone else has asked, "Will it work in Linux?" I'd also like to know. If they are indeed in MP3 format, then they aren't going to play be default in Ubuntu without doing the "unsupported" thing and getting the dirty codecs. Which brings my second point, if they are releasing them in MP3 format, doesn't that open them up to some kind of lawsuit from Linux users? Should they have some kind of disclaimer on the front of the package warning Linux users of the need to install a taboo codec?
If these are anything like the drives I priced from BitMicro about a year ago (you have to e-mail for price) then they are probably many (many) thousands of dollars. AFAIK, BitMicro has catered more to the industrial (hard drives for aerospace) realm.
I'm not sure that any drives they may be making now aren't in the same class, a [price] class that would make consumers shit a purple Twinkie, considering in 2005 their U320 155gb drive was supposed to cost north of $75,000 US.
And, what about this? Why are we dancing around this drive when they already make a 1.6 TB model?
Shh, I told you not to talk about that yet!
I'm hoping that if bad feelings between movie studios and Microsoft are the result, that perhaps Vista SP2 will loosen up on all the DRM crap. I'm sure that at least some of the deals they made with the MPAA to include system-slowing device polls in Vista might be lifted if they don't have as many people to keep happy.
Right? Interesting point. Most of the market where these HD playback devices would be popular are the same market that is partially alienated by the encumbrance of DRM. Too bad these things aren't like VCR's were in the day, then they would really have something to complain about, I.E 1080P HDMI in/out right on the back of the unit. I guess they took our rights to use technology away slowly so nobody noticed how much more restrictive the end-user's choices are.
Can't say that I have. Closest I've been is a GTO, at around 400 hp. Used to own a 5.0 Mustang too. Not quite the same, but fun, nonetheless.
/., have never done themselves the pleasure of spending a few hours in a dark room enjoying a nicely recorded arrangement, recorded with care and skill, using decades of experience, played back on high quality equipment. What I mean to say is, once you actually hear the musicians move around on stage, once you've heard a classical guitarist slap the body of the guitar and have that sound bounce off the back of the inside of your skull, (Don Ross, This Dragon Won't Sleep) then you really can't make a judgment on what sounds better.
What I meant by the analogy really, was more of a "Don't knock it till you've tried it." type thing. Most folks commenting, some on
I'm also willing to bet that a good number of current top recording studios responsible for the swill currently on the shelves haven't either, or if they have, are more interested in making money than producing a product of good quality. Hell, most studios are still using Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors. The speakers in my girlfriend's Nintendo DS sound better than those, and those are what they use to set levels and adjust recordings with! I know it's been said before, but save for a few select labels (Chesky Records, Sheffield Lab) it's all been downhill since the 70's.
I felt that would give a fair comparison of what the typical audiophile hears when he/she/it plays a song, versus what the record industry is assuming we are all listening to. Remember, we're not comparing what sounds better, but rather "Jesus Christ, WTF is wrong with the recording industry?"
Agreed, 256 kbps is usually good enough. However, to say that it "would cost way more than people can afford" is a bit misleading, you could probably e-bay a good amp, pre-amp, d/a converter and cd-transport for less than a grand, and madisound can supply you with the parts to build a $5000 set of speakers for a couple of hundred bucks, if you know how to wield a soldering iron and have a basic knowledge of electricity.
I've billed myself as an audiophile for many years, and I'm glad to hear that there are some folks around here that share the interest. I also have the benefit of being a computer enthusiast for the last 15 years. Interestingly enough, I just completed my latest set of speakers last night using parts that I asked for for Christmas from my SO ;). Anyway, onto the statement that I came here to make.
/rant
Mp3's generally sound bad. Well, rather than make a broad sweeping claim, I'd more say they have an "mp3 sound" about them. Dynamics are limited (by dynamic range compression, NOT file compression) frequency response is sometimes questionable, although at higher bit-rates is acceptable (320 kbps, and not that sliding crap either, I don't want software telling me what part of the song is important enough to hear properly.) and, as a result, imaging, depth and general palpability are mostly compromised, and I'm sure anyone who has listened to an MP3 on a decent system notices the digital noise in the upper midrange (younguns will call upper midrange "the highs" because they don't know what anything over 8500 hz sounds like).
All that said, I do have a rather extensive collection of MP3's, which I listen to casually. Sometimes I have a lack of sanity, and I flip my D/A converter in the living room over to the toslink cable coming from my PC in the bedroom and listen to an MP3 on my main audio system, the result of which is as un-moving as FM radio.
Those of you who continue to insist that audiophiles hear things that don't exist and MP3's sound just fine, and it's impossible to tell...blah blah blah... to my ears, it sounds like someone saying "Driving a Ferrari Enzo couldn't be that much fun, I mean, it's just a car.." You'll never know how much fun 600 HP pinning you into the seat can be until you experience it. Sadly, we are in a generation of younger people now who have probably never heard a truly decent audio system, so these arguments will continue to fall on deaf ears. Pun very much intended.
Chesky Records "Ultimate Demonstration Disc" is available from the ITMS. Go on, buy it, stick it on your iPod, get a Y cable. Then, buy the real disk from Chesky. Take both of these down to a real audio shop with you (you know, one that deals Krell, Mark Levinson (not that plastic shit in Lexus cars either) Wilson Audio, Classe, Boulder, Bryston.. you know, where the crazy audiophiles shop.. and do a little comparative listen. Hell you can even cheat and add a little quality (or subtract a little fail, depends on how you look at it.) to your iPod first from here.
If you can't hear the difference, I'm sure you'll at least get a chuckle out of the shopkeep.
I have a Logitech MX1000, and it's got 10 buttons.
I stand adjusted. ;)
Am I wrong in thinking, with laptops that can play DVD's without booting, and now, with hard drives that are accessible without booting, that we are just a short fusion of technology away from having a machine where booting into an operating system is optional for most trivial tasks? I mean, how many functions do we have to breed into a PC before the OS (being a layer for hardware / software communication) becomes obsolete?
Personally, I'd love to see the full range of interesting ideas that can come out of the hardware industry along these lines that promote use of hardware in ways that don't depend on an operating system.
I think he was trying to insinuate that, due to the fact that there is lead in hard drives, that their importation should already be under scrutiny, before the issue of a patent is even explored, and also playing a little bit with the current mess of products China is already in hot water over for lead complaints.
I'll paste a little bit from Wikipedia's entry on the matter.
"According to the European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), lead had to be eliminated from electronic systems by July 1, 2006, leading to much interest in lead-free solders. These contain tin, copper, silver, and sometimes bismuth, indium, zinc, antimony, and other metals in varying amounts. The lead-free replacements for conventional Sn60/Pb40 solder have higher melting points, requiring re-engineering of most components and materials used in electronic assemblies."
Fortunately, however, hard drives should not contain any large amounts of lead anymore, even in solder (follow the link if you are curious to know what is exactly in it.) and unless they begin to be marketed as something that children might want to play with, and have occasion to put in their mouthes, they should be safe from any "contains lead" arguments.
I'm not sure if anyone has made this point yet, so I'll try. It seems to me, at least, that the vast majority of people who might use Linux are the same people who build their own machines. Or vice versa, folks that typically order a PC from a big box vendor typically won't be Linux users. Sure, some of the Linux users out there will go to Dell or HP to order their next PC, but only out of sheer curiosity and amazement that they are now able to do so, or out of some type of desire to help the proliferation of Linux.
Personally, whenever a new PC materializes in my house (through any means) it does so with a blank hard drive, and that's the way it will always be. I have no real interest in what Dell or HP or anyone installs on their PC's when they ship them, and I also have a sneaking suspicion that the only reason any Slashdotters might is due to the opening up of yet another discussion on Microsoft's evil grip on the technology sales world.
Technology is just like food. Those who just need a quick meal buy one in the supermarket, out of the freezer in a plastic bag that you can heat. Those of us that really take enjoyment out of it, cook our own meals, most of the time from scratch, just like a chef.
My question is, why the hell are so many of us Slashdot reading chef's so damn concerned with the ingredients in the pre-fab GARBAGE you can buy from Dell or HP?