I agree with your general points here, specifically the parts about the "canalphones" being better. I think the article was saying basically what I think you're trying to say: the more noise that your headphones/earphones let in, the louder you will listen to the music to compensate.
If you want to hear your music at +60db over your ambient noise then at 40db ambient you'll be listening at 100db. If you use canalphones that block 30db of noise, you'll be at 70db. I'm fuzzy on the exact nature of decibel math - but the point is the same regardless of the numbers. Using my Shure E3c canalphones I have an almost silent background for my music, even on a plane.
You are exactly right - canalphones (or other noise blocking ear phones) are the best way to preserve your hearing.
However I think the article is right too - because ear buds block absolutly no outside noise you are forced to turn up the volume to compensate. Combined with the lack of frequency response (particularly bass) you turn it up even louder to get good sound.
So earbuds are bad for two reasons: 1) They do not block any outside noise causing music to be turned up louder to compensate 2) Poor frequency response causes the music to be turned up louder to get a more "full" sound.
Do these companies just forget they have a patent on some technology/feature and then 8 years later when their patent is included in a standard and a huge part of the community they say "Hey, didn't we patent that 8 years ago?"
There really needs to be some reform that states a company has 90 days, 1 year, or some short fixed period of time to bring a suit against a product, starting from the time it hits the market and is available to the public, the industry, or something.
The idea that you can silently sit on patents waiting for the world to embrace an obvious idea is an abuse of the system.
You are assuming that Sony and the HD-DVD people will actually allow dual format players to be built. What if they don't? Hopefully they will, but you never know.
That is part of your problem - you only listen to a song once. I know I definetly listen to songs I like more than once. Doing that would probably even meet your requirements to make music purchases a "net positive".
I'm far from a political/constitutional know-it-all, but isn't this the kind of thing that states are allowed to decide? If it was the federal government I would see this being a huge deal. Since it's confined to just MI, this is just a big deal.
It does set precedent for other states to follow, which could be a bad thing.
While I'm not a fan of Bose, I am a fan of Shures E3c earphones. They provide a great level of isolation from the outside. I even use them while travelling as ear plugs on plane rides ( no music playing).
When I choose to play music it is much quieter as the low background noise and high quality make a great, quiet, and quality listening environment.
Funny, I always thought parents were there to raise their kids, teach them what is right and wrong (including legal and illegal), and correct them when they do something wrong/illegal.
Any parent who lets their kids continue doing illegal, wrong, or hurtful things is not parenting. So the government encouraging parents to actually be involved with their kids lives is a Good Thing.
Wouldn't this put a slight damper on the abilty for a PC to act as a recording studio? If you wanted to add a new track to a previously recorded track, you'd have to playback while using the input.
The DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D is an example of a board that is not SLI capable, but has dual x16 PCI-E video slots.
So that would be a good canidate for a quad head system, without the extra expense of a SLI capable board. Street price is around 150ish. You would get the improved PCI-E bus, plus the ability to use two x16 cards.
Well in South Korea Matsushita is not loved, since they just brought down some of their patent portfolio weight on a competitor (LG). S Korea responded with banning Matsushita products from being sold after LG complained that Matsushita's product infringed on their S Korean Patents. A brief news article
Just goes to show you that even the best companies are still competitors, and will use their patents to their advantadge.
Based on Sony's stance with SACD vs. DVD-Audio, I doubt we'll see any hybrid players from Sony. Sony doesn't produce any DVD-A players (to my knowledge). Only when their high end digital cameras started getting some semi-professional usage did they include a CF slot. And only on their high end cameras.
They don't work as well as sound isolating headphones such as those that Shure and Etymotic make. Noise cancelling headphones also don't sound as nice as the noise isolating ones, are larger, heavier, take more (battery) power to drive, and have external power requirements.
But you do pay for good portable audio that is usuable in any loud environment. Prices start at 100 and go up to 500+.
DVD-A and SACD have their target markets. I will buy a SACD or DVD-A disc over a CD if I have a choice. I think they sound better than CD and I am the market they are going after. The inablility to copy the format in the end really doesn't matter, for this market. I have to use analog cables out of my player*. Oh well, life goes on. I cannot copy it and give it to my friend. Oh well, they couldn't hear the difference on their system anyway.
* Yes, I know some offerings from Pioneer, Denon, et. al, let you use a digital out from their player to their receiver.
I find I prefer SACD releases over DVD-A (based on available artists). The Hybrid SACD idea is much cooler than a "hybrid" DVD-A disc: I can play a Hybrid SACD in my car. Can't do that with DVD-A.
SACD is also supposed to be better quality than DVD-A.
I'd also like to see universal high def DVD players (HD-DVD + Blu-Ray).
This comment only makes me enjoy my local station even more.
They play a nice wide variety of music (most I've never heard listening Clear Channel's crap), they are independent, and they have DJs that are not as annoying as hell.
And they actually play music. A lot of it.
Any bike racing ending with the wheel spinning at 60rpm is a pretty slow race. Most cyclists average around 90rpm, with the sprints getting up around 130+ rpm. Much higher for track races, where it is around 170rpm.
The Tour de France uses a system similar to the cameras for the 100m dash. Example image
I believe the transponders for the Tour were yellow and on the rear of the bikes (non-drive side chainstay). So what guard952 was saying sounds right on. Bottom of the page talks briefly about the transponders.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah? Where is the Lite-On burner? I guess they didn't pay enough to get the review...
I agree with your general points here, specifically the parts about the "canalphones" being better. I think the article was saying basically what I think you're trying to say: the more noise that your headphones/earphones let in, the louder you will listen to the music to compensate.
If you want to hear your music at +60db over your ambient noise then at 40db ambient you'll be listening at 100db. If you use canalphones that block 30db of noise, you'll be at 70db. I'm fuzzy on the exact nature of decibel math - but the point is the same regardless of the numbers. Using my Shure E3c canalphones I have an almost silent background for my music, even on a plane.
You are exactly right - canalphones (or other noise blocking ear phones) are the best way to preserve your hearing.
However I think the article is right too - because ear buds block absolutly no outside noise you are forced to turn up the volume to compensate. Combined with the lack of frequency response (particularly bass) you turn it up even louder to get good sound.
So earbuds are bad for two reasons:
1) They do not block any outside noise causing music to be turned up louder to compensate
2) Poor frequency response causes the music to be turned up louder to get a more "full" sound.
"Yes it takes *seriious* time and effort to do this but it is well worth it."
In other words, parenting is hard work. Way too many people miss that and raise whiny, bratty kids.
"If these guys have the single IP in their logs, perhaps they be looking to see who it is and sue them instead of google."
Because Google has money.
Same thing you do now - read and post to Slashdot!
Do these companies just forget they have a patent on some technology/feature and then 8 years later when their patent is included in a standard and a huge part of the community they say "Hey, didn't we patent that 8 years ago?"
There really needs to be some reform that states a company has 90 days, 1 year, or some short fixed period of time to bring a suit against a product, starting from the time it hits the market and is available to the public, the industry, or something.
The idea that you can silently sit on patents waiting for the world to embrace an obvious idea is an abuse of the system.
You are assuming that Sony and the HD-DVD people will actually allow dual format players to be built. What if they don't? Hopefully they will, but you never know.
That is part of your problem - you only listen to a song once. I know I definetly listen to songs I like more than once. Doing that would probably even meet your requirements to make music purchases a "net positive".
I'm far from a political/constitutional know-it-all, but isn't this the kind of thing that states are allowed to decide? If it was the federal government I would see this being a huge deal. Since it's confined to just MI, this is just a big deal.
It does set precedent for other states to follow, which could be a bad thing.
Or maybe I'm just dumb.
While I'm not a fan of Bose, I am a fan of Shures E3c earphones. They provide a great level of isolation from the outside. I even use them while travelling as ear plugs on plane rides ( no music playing).
When I choose to play music it is much quieter as the low background noise and high quality make a great, quiet, and quality listening environment.
Funny, I always thought parents were there to raise their kids, teach them what is right and wrong (including legal and illegal), and correct them when they do something wrong/illegal.
Any parent who lets their kids continue doing illegal, wrong, or hurtful things is not parenting. So the government encouraging parents to actually be involved with their kids lives is a Good Thing.
Wouldn't this put a slight damper on the abilty for a PC to act as a recording studio? If you wanted to add a new track to a previously recorded track, you'd have to playback while using the input.
The DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D is an example of a board that is not SLI capable, but has dual x16 PCI-E video slots.
So that would be a good canidate for a quad head system, without the extra expense of a SLI capable board. Street price is around 150ish. You would get the improved PCI-E bus, plus the ability to use two x16 cards.
Well in South Korea Matsushita is not loved, since they just brought down some of their patent portfolio weight on a competitor (LG). S Korea responded with banning Matsushita products from being sold after LG complained that Matsushita's product infringed on their S Korean Patents. A brief news article
Just goes to show you that even the best companies are still competitors, and will use their patents to their advantadge.
Based on Sony's stance with SACD vs. DVD-Audio, I doubt we'll see any hybrid players from Sony. Sony doesn't produce any DVD-A players (to my knowledge). Only when their high end digital cameras started getting some semi-professional usage did they include a CF slot. And only on their high end cameras.
Sony likes their (propietary) formats.
They don't work as well as sound isolating headphones such as those that Shure and Etymotic make. Noise cancelling headphones also don't sound as nice as the noise isolating ones, are larger, heavier, take more (battery) power to drive, and have external power requirements.
But you do pay for good portable audio that is usuable in any loud environment. Prices start at 100 and go up to 500+.
DVD-A and SACD have their target markets. I will buy a SACD or DVD-A disc over a CD if I have a choice. I think they sound better than CD and I am the market they are going after. The inablility to copy the format in the end really doesn't matter, for this market. I have to use analog cables out of my player*. Oh well, life goes on. I cannot copy it and give it to my friend. Oh well, they couldn't hear the difference on their system anyway.
* Yes, I know some offerings from Pioneer, Denon, et. al, let you use a digital out from their player to their receiver.
Sony does have SACD in it's favor.
I find I prefer SACD releases over DVD-A (based on available artists). The Hybrid SACD idea is much cooler than a "hybrid" DVD-A disc: I can play a Hybrid SACD in my car. Can't do that with DVD-A.
SACD is also supposed to be better quality than DVD-A.
I'd also like to see universal high def DVD players (HD-DVD + Blu-Ray).
This comment only makes me enjoy my local station even more. They play a nice wide variety of music (most I've never heard listening Clear Channel's crap), they are independent, and they have DJs that are not as annoying as hell. And they actually play music. A lot of it.
Yep. I'm a moron. But my point of that being a slow spinning wheel was still right. Thanks for the correction :)
Any bike racing ending with the wheel spinning at 60rpm is a pretty slow race. Most cyclists average around 90rpm, with the sprints getting up around 130+ rpm. Much higher for track races, where it is around 170rpm.
The Tour de France uses a system similar to the cameras for the 100m dash. Example image
I believe the transponders for the Tour were yellow and on the rear of the bikes (non-drive side chainstay). So what guard952 was saying sounds right on. Bottom of the page talks briefly about the transponders.
I consider myself liberal, but really, isn't it going a bit far to expect your government to buy you your damn broadband connection?
No.
Home Theater Spot gave the unit a favorable review here . Based on their reveiw, the unit looks pretty nice.
"first CD's that came onto the market at what.....$15-20? Did the price on those ever come down? No."
Yeah, but wouldn't inflation make the prices lower, when compared to today's dollars?
So in a sense, by not raising the dollar ammount, they have lowered prices.