Well my physics undergrad course was PASCAL...and an additional numerical methods course. Served me quite well....then in grad school (physics) I picked up C and a tiny amount of Fortran.
My classes and advisers didn't care that I did some homework with a combination of C and Mathematica. I had one adviser get huffy that I didn't use C (actually Fortran I think) to do some numerical potential modelling for my thesis, but my main adviser was happy to let me use Mathematica....
A language (visual basic is surprisingly powerful) is definitely a necessity for a physics undergrad course...but it has to be a complete language..not just a scripting thing like running a macro in Excel. The systematic thinking makes other languages a piece of cake to learn...and obviously helps with problem-solving skills.
For graduation from college I received a pair of Bose 901 Series 7 (I think???) that were and still are Bose's top of the line speaker...I thought I had "awesome" speakers (that cost around $1500).
Years later I got a surround sound system and due to some problems with hooking up the active equalizer for the Bose I had to get some new speakers. My dealer set me down in front of a pair of $750 speakers (NHT SuperTwo's) and my jaw dropped. I bought them... I finally heard what real speakers sound like compared to Bose. Bose is marketing genius. Sell overpriced crap to people too lazy to find out for themselves that spending far less can actually get you far far more.
Go forth and get some good headphones.... They make apple's earbuds sound like the $.25 pile of crap that they are. Now granted I went overboard and have Shure E4c's ($300 list), but I've also had $200 list Shure E3c's and Grado SR60s ($60) and they make mp3's pleasurable to listen to. An added benefit with the Shures is that they are sound isolating headphones, which allows you to listen at much lower volumes....
For home listening on my real stereo at night I have Grado SR125s and they are damn fine sounding headphones with my full resolution CDs and turntable. My 192bit AAC Ipod files definitely sound inferior to both of these on my big system.
..you forgot...audiophiles. They have absolutely never given up on vinyl..... They like pointing out quite often that now...there are far more good turntable models (in absolute numbers) made than even in the heyday before CDs came out. Technics and Numark need not apply.
I've never heard good digital come close to good vinyl. It takes more effort to extract the best sound, but damn is it worth it. I listen to digital and enjoy it, but it definitely doesn't sound as good to me. I do admit that I have not sat down with SACD or DVD-Audio (due to lack of both music and equipment for me to play with), but I don't really see a need at the moment.
Well in my company we use VBA fairly regularly... Lets say we need to make maybe 30 or more slightly similar charts in Excel....(not uncommon here) we can write VBA that spits out these charts for us automatically..including text placement and the like.... When we bill hundreds an hour this saves our client a lot of money.
We also have used VBA to do calculations for last in, first out trading of various securities. Its a pain manually and we get the added bonuse of having the data appear nicely in various spreadsheets.
Granted I work in a windows-specific office, (I use a powerbook AND a windows desktop), but telling me I'll be crippled going forward makes me want to stick a glass-coated boot up the butt of some redmond executive committee...
I can say that where I work (economic legal consulting) we OFTEN get data that comes in too big for Excel, but we have many many people that use Excel as their main data analysis tool... Usually we have to get somebody (such as me) who programs in SAS who can import the raw comma-delimited data to Access..so anybody can do anything with it...usually still breaking it down to an Excel level...
Or we need people to program to break out chunks for people to work with in Excel.
All this HOURLY billing occurs because of the rather pathetic limit of 65K rows that Excel has had for far too long.
Uhhh....I guess you could say it is like watching a game through a clean window versus a dirty window. The improved resolution just makes the game jump out at you......
An SDTV game in letterboxed format...if you zoom it out to fit your screen (I'm guessing you are implying that) doesn't have the same native information that the HD signal does so the picture plain and simply looks smeared and fuzzy in comparison.
Well "high fidelity" is usually a term used by audiophiles not people using mathematics to prove the superiority of CDs (dictionary definitions aside)...which if they are SO freakin' perfect, why do different players sound SO different. Actually that has amazed me since the early days of digital when I was a complete sucker for the marketing of "a perfect sound forever"...and I was like 16.
I agree that mathematics does not mean you have to like something better despite the "proof" that it sounds better. Face it...Humans don't hear mathematically perfectly...and if they do maybe it doesn't sound good that way to them....
I won't go into the voodoo of tube amps. I am friends with a guy who owns a professional studio...is a fan of digital and yet swears by tube amps in his home system...and I seriously doubt he is an anomaly with people involved in the "industry."
I'm sick of pretentious dweebs who only spout numbers. Have you LISTENED to a good turntable playing a good copy of an album...and then listened to a GOOD cd player playing a cd of the same album? I have...many times....and in the MAJORITY of instances I have preferred the sound coming from vinyl. I have seen other people I know simply have their jaw drop when I do the same thing.
Basically technical specs don't always make the music sound better to the human ear. To an oscilloscope...yes..
And don't get me wrong. I buy CDs as well and enjoy music from them quite regularly.
Slashdot Mirror
Well my physics undergrad course was PASCAL...and an additional numerical methods course. Served me quite well....then in grad school (physics) I picked up C and a tiny amount of Fortran. My classes and advisers didn't care that I did some homework with a combination of C and Mathematica. I had one adviser get huffy that I didn't use C (actually Fortran I think) to do some numerical potential modelling for my thesis, but my main adviser was happy to let me use Mathematica.... A language (visual basic is surprisingly powerful) is definitely a necessity for a physics undergrad course...but it has to be a complete language..not just a scripting thing like running a macro in Excel. The systematic thinking makes other languages a piece of cake to learn...and obviously helps with problem-solving skills.
For graduation from college I received a pair of Bose 901 Series 7 (I think???) that were and still are Bose's top of the line speaker...I thought I had "awesome" speakers (that cost around $1500).
Years later I got a surround sound system and due to some problems with hooking up the active equalizer for the Bose I had to get some new speakers. My dealer set me down in front of a pair of $750 speakers (NHT SuperTwo's) and my jaw dropped. I bought them... I finally heard what real speakers sound like compared to Bose. Bose is marketing genius. Sell overpriced crap to people too lazy to find out for themselves that spending far less can actually get you far far more.
Go forth and get some good headphones.... They make apple's earbuds sound like the $.25 pile of crap that they are. Now granted I went overboard and have Shure E4c's ($300 list), but I've also had $200 list Shure E3c's and Grado SR60s ($60) and they make mp3's pleasurable to listen to. An added benefit with the Shures is that they are sound isolating headphones, which allows you to listen at much lower volumes.... For home listening on my real stereo at night I have Grado SR125s and they are damn fine sounding headphones with my full resolution CDs and turntable. My 192bit AAC Ipod files definitely sound inferior to both of these on my big system.
..you forgot...audiophiles. They have absolutely never given up on vinyl..... They like pointing out quite often that now...there are far more good turntable models (in absolute numbers) made than even in the heyday before CDs came out. Technics and Numark need not apply.
I've never heard good digital come close to good vinyl. It takes more effort to extract the best sound, but damn is it worth it. I listen to digital and enjoy it, but it definitely doesn't sound as good to me. I do admit that I have not sat down with SACD or DVD-Audio (due to lack of both music and equipment for me to play with), but I don't really see a need at the moment.
Well in my company we use VBA fairly regularly... Lets say we need to make maybe 30 or more slightly similar charts in Excel....(not uncommon here) we can write VBA that spits out these charts for us automatically..including text placement and the like.... When we bill hundreds an hour this saves our client a lot of money. We also have used VBA to do calculations for last in, first out trading of various securities. Its a pain manually and we get the added bonuse of having the data appear nicely in various spreadsheets. Granted I work in a windows-specific office, (I use a powerbook AND a windows desktop), but telling me I'll be crippled going forward makes me want to stick a glass-coated boot up the butt of some redmond executive committee...
I can say that where I work (economic legal consulting) we OFTEN get data that comes in too big for Excel, but we have many many people that use Excel as their main data analysis tool... Usually we have to get somebody (such as me) who programs in SAS who can import the raw comma-delimited data to Access..so anybody can do anything with it...usually still breaking it down to an Excel level... Or we need people to program to break out chunks for people to work with in Excel. All this HOURLY billing occurs because of the rather pathetic limit of 65K rows that Excel has had for far too long.
Uhhh....I guess you could say it is like watching a game through a clean window versus a dirty window. The improved resolution just makes the game jump out at you...... An SDTV game in letterboxed format...if you zoom it out to fit your screen (I'm guessing you are implying that) doesn't have the same native information that the HD signal does so the picture plain and simply looks smeared and fuzzy in comparison.
Well "high fidelity" is usually a term used by audiophiles not people using mathematics to prove the superiority of CDs (dictionary definitions aside)...which if they are SO freakin' perfect, why do different players sound SO different. Actually that has amazed me since the early days of digital when I was a complete sucker for the marketing of "a perfect sound forever"...and I was like 16. I agree that mathematics does not mean you have to like something better despite the "proof" that it sounds better. Face it...Humans don't hear mathematically perfectly...and if they do maybe it doesn't sound good that way to them.... I won't go into the voodoo of tube amps. I am friends with a guy who owns a professional studio...is a fan of digital and yet swears by tube amps in his home system...and I seriously doubt he is an anomaly with people involved in the "industry."
I'm sick of pretentious dweebs who only spout numbers. Have you LISTENED to a good turntable playing a good copy of an album...and then listened to a GOOD cd player playing a cd of the same album? I have...many times....and in the MAJORITY of instances I have preferred the sound coming from vinyl. I have seen other people I know simply have their jaw drop when I do the same thing.
Basically technical specs don't always make the music sound better to the human ear. To an oscilloscope...yes..
And don't get me wrong. I buy CDs as well and enjoy music from them quite regularly.