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Post by ironhold on May 14, 2023 10:39:18 GMT
Tape?, Really? You know a micro-SD card can hold over 500 hours of music. This was 1988. None of that existed yet. For the youth of the era - myself included - a miniature cassette deck that was as fashionable as we imagined ourselves to be was a huge leap forward. Didn't matter that you only got a song or three per cassette. I was showing this video to some younger individuals yesterday, and it was blowing minds.
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Post by the light works on May 14, 2023 13:22:18 GMT
Tape?, Really? You know a micro-SD card can hold over 500 hours of music. This was 1988. None of that existed yet. For the youth of the era - myself included - a miniature cassette deck that was as fashionable as we imagined ourselves to be was a huge leap forward. Didn't matter that you only got a song or three per cassette. I was showing this video to some younger individuals yesterday, and it was blowing minds. that someone would make a fashion targeted music player, or that our tech was so limited?
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Post by GTCGreg on May 14, 2023 13:54:44 GMT
Tape?, Really? You know a micro-SD card can hold over 500 hours of music. This was 1988. None of that existed yet. For the youth of the era - myself included - a miniature cassette deck that was as fashionable as we imagined ourselves to be was a huge leap forward. Didn't matter that you only got a song or three per cassette. I was showing this video to some younger individuals yesterday, and it was blowing minds. oh, I thought this was something new and there’s no accounting for stupidity. After all, some people are still buying vinyl LPs thinking they are superior audio medium.. They’re not. They are as bad as they ever were.
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Post by ironhold on May 14, 2023 14:30:47 GMT
This was 1988. None of that existed yet. For the youth of the era - myself included - a miniature cassette deck that was as fashionable as we imagined ourselves to be was a huge leap forward. Didn't matter that you only got a song or three per cassette. I was showing this video to some younger individuals yesterday, and it was blowing minds. that someone would make a fashion targeted music player, or that our tech was so limited? Both, actually. Most of them were essentially raised with digital media, and so it took them by surprise to learn that audio cassettes lasted so long and were such a regular part of daily life that it would make sense for a toy company to release a product like this, however short-lived the fad.
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Post by ironhold on May 14, 2023 14:37:18 GMT
This was 1988. None of that existed yet. For the youth of the era - myself included - a miniature cassette deck that was as fashionable as we imagined ourselves to be was a huge leap forward. Didn't matter that you only got a song or three per cassette. I was showing this video to some younger individuals yesterday, and it was blowing minds. oh, I thought this was something new and there’s no accounting for stupidity. After all, some people are still buying vinyl LPs thinking they are superior audio medium.. They’re not. They are as bad as they ever were. To the contrary, it's the *inferiority* of the medium that has people interested again - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_warEvery time there's a new innovation in recording, you get a bunch of hotshots in the studio who insist on pushing that new innovation to its limits. This has resulted in both a large slew of new albums, as well as numerous remasters of older albums, being so utterly "brickwalled" that the high-end and low-end audio are slammed against the absolute limits of what the medium can produce. As a result, the audio is often badly distorted and the album can even be something most people can't listen to. Vinyl is so far backwards as far as tech goes that you *can't* brickwall the audio like you can with modern digital systems, or at least it's far harder to do so. This actually came to a head when Depeche Mode released their "Playing The Angel" album - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_the_Angel . It was released simultaneously on CD, vinyl, and digital, with a different mastering process for each one. The CD master heavily relied on compression and other dodgy effects, to the point most people couldn't listen to the entire album, but the vinyl was a far cleaner sound.
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Post by GTCGreg on May 14, 2023 19:30:59 GMT
oh, I thought this was something new and there’s no accounting for stupidity. After all, some people are still buying vinyl LPs thinking they are superior audio medium.. They’re not. They are as bad as they ever were. To the contrary, it's the *inferiority* of the medium that has people interested again - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_warEvery time there's a new innovation in recording, you get a bunch of hotshots in the studio who insist on pushing that new innovation to its limits. This has resulted in both a large slew of new albums, as well as numerous remasters of older albums, being so utterly "brickwalled" that the high-end and low-end audio are slammed against the absolute limits of what the medium can produce. As a result, the audio is often badly distorted and the album can even be something most people can't listen to. Vinyl is so far backwards as far as tech goes that you *can't* brickwall the audio like you can with modern digital systems, or at least it's far harder to do so. This actually came to a head when Depeche Mode released their "Playing The Angel" album - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_the_Angel . It was released simultaneously on CD, vinyl, and digital, with a different mastering process for each one. The CD master heavily relied on compression and other dodgy effects, to the point most people couldn't listen to the entire album, but the vinyl was a far cleaner sound. That has nothing to do with the media involved. It’s who’s sitting behind the mixing desk. A good mix engineer can make music that will sound good on almost any media, but there are far less limitations to digital then there is the vinyl. Vinyl is garbage to start with. You have to bend, staple and mutilate the music before it goes on vinyl and then try to unbend, unstaple and unmutilated when you take it off. It’s called the RIAA equalization curve (Google it) and it is the demise of any vinyl recording. And then there's dynamic range. 16 bit digital audio (CD quality) has a dynamic range of about 90 dB (decibels) This is the range from the softest to loudest volume recordable. Vinyl has a dynamic range of only 70 dB at the very best. While this is adequate for most popular music, it isn't for classical music. So what the mix engineers have to do is boost the lower volume parts of the recording and reduce the loudest parts in order to get it to "fit" into the dynamic range of the vinyl LP. Like RIAA equalization, it's a form of distortion that is inherent to Vinyl recordings.
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Post by the light works on May 14, 2023 20:18:29 GMT
To the contrary, it's the *inferiority* of the medium that has people interested again - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_warEvery time there's a new innovation in recording, you get a bunch of hotshots in the studio who insist on pushing that new innovation to its limits. This has resulted in both a large slew of new albums, as well as numerous remasters of older albums, being so utterly "brickwalled" that the high-end and low-end audio are slammed against the absolute limits of what the medium can produce. As a result, the audio is often badly distorted and the album can even be something most people can't listen to. Vinyl is so far backwards as far as tech goes that you *can't* brickwall the audio like you can with modern digital systems, or at least it's far harder to do so. This actually came to a head when Depeche Mode released their "Playing The Angel" album - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_the_Angel . It was released simultaneously on CD, vinyl, and digital, with a different mastering process for each one. The CD master heavily relied on compression and other dodgy effects, to the point most people couldn't listen to the entire album, but the vinyl was a far cleaner sound. That has nothing to do with the media involved. It’s who’s sitting behind the mixing desk. A good mix engineer can make music that will sound good on almost any media, but there are far less limitations to digital then there is the vinyl. Vinyl is garbage to start with. You have to bend, staple and mutilate the music before it goes on vinyl and then try to unbend, unstaple and unmutilated when you take it off. It’s called the RIAA equalization curve (Google it) and it is the demise of any vinyl recording. And then there's dynamic range. 16 bit digital audio (CD quality) has a dynamic range of about 90 dB (decibels) This is the range from the softest to loudest volume recordable. Vinyl has a dynamic range of only 70 dB at the very best. While this is adequate for most popular music, it isn't for classical music. So what the mix engineers have to do is boost the lower volume parts of the recording and reduce the loudest parts in order to get it to "fit" into the dynamic range of the vinyl LP. Like RIAA equalization, it's a form of distortion that is inherent to Vinyl recordings. I remember, one of the occasions we went to a performance of the Nutcracker, and it was a performace, where they used prerecorded music. the tape hiss was impressive, to say the least. but the other side of the coin is that commercial art is not about perfection. it is about making something that other people want to experience. and if having the dynamic range limited to 70db and a frequency range of only 43 KHZ, makes distortions people find pleasant, they will go for those distortions.
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Post by GTCGreg on May 14, 2023 22:06:51 GMT
That has nothing to do with the media involved. It’s who’s sitting behind the mixing desk. A good mix engineer can make music that will sound good on almost any media, but there are far less limitations to digital then there is the vinyl. Vinyl is garbage to start with. You have to bend, staple and mutilate the music before it goes on vinyl and then try to unbend, unstaple and unmutilated when you take it off. It’s called the RIAA equalization curve (Google it) and it is the demise of any vinyl recording. And then there's dynamic range. 16 bit digital audio (CD quality) has a dynamic range of about 90 dB (decibels) This is the range from the softest to loudest volume recordable. Vinyl has a dynamic range of only 70 dB at the very best. While this is adequate for most popular music, it isn't for classical music. So what the mix engineers have to do is boost the lower volume parts of the recording and reduce the loudest parts in order to get it to "fit" into the dynamic range of the vinyl LP. Like RIAA equalization, it's a form of distortion that is inherent to Vinyl recordings. I remember, one of the occasions we went to a performance of the Nutcracker, and it was a performace, where they used prerecorded music. the tape hiss was impressive, to say the least. but the other side of the coin is that commercial art is not about perfection. it is about making something that other people want to experience. and if having the dynamic range limited to 70db and a frequency range of only 43 KHZ, makes distortions people find pleasant, they will go for those distortions. and then there’s cassette tape. One of the worst recording mediums ever invented. Also, one of the most popular. Just shows people will go for convenience over quality every time.
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Post by the light works on May 15, 2023 14:28:57 GMT
I remember, one of the occasions we went to a performance of the Nutcracker, and it was a performace, where they used prerecorded music. the tape hiss was impressive, to say the least. but the other side of the coin is that commercial art is not about perfection. it is about making something that other people want to experience. and if having the dynamic range limited to 70db and a frequency range of only 43 KHZ, makes distortions people find pleasant, they will go for those distortions. and then there’s cassette tape. One of the worst recording mediums ever invented. Also, one of the most popular. Just shows people will go for convenience over quality every time.
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Post by GTCGreg on Jun 5, 2023 4:52:11 GMT
For those interested, Paramount has released season 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to YouTube for free viewing. I watched the first couple of season 1 episodes and it's pretty good. This is most likely a limited time deal so if you're interested, don't wait too long.
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Post by the light works on Jun 5, 2023 13:27:52 GMT
For those interested, Paramount has released season 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to YouTube for free viewing. I watched the first couple of season 1 episodes and it's pretty good. This is most likely a limited time deal so if you're interested, don't wait too long. yeah, right. like I have time to binge watch a show.
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Post by wvengineer on Jun 6, 2023 23:19:52 GMT
I can only find season 1.
There are various ways to save youtube files to a standard video format. You can download them to your computer to watch later.
I watched episode 1. It's actually enjoyable. Biggest problem is that it feels very rushed. First half is setup and introducing characters. They don't get into the actual main plot line until half way through, so that plot is seriously underdeveloped.
I can do another episode byu episode review if anyone is interested.
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Post by GTCGreg on Jun 6, 2023 23:24:04 GMT
I can only find season 1. There are various ways to save youtube files to a standard video format. You can download them to your computer to watch later. I watched episode 1. It's actually enjoyable. Biggest problem is that it feels very rushed. First half is setup and introducing characters. They don't get into the actual main plot line until half way through, so that plot is seriously underdeveloped. I can do another episode byu episode review if anyone is interested. yeah, episode one was pretty much a pilot episode to give general plot line and introductions. Episode two and three seems to be much better. I haven’t watched four yet. And if you know of some tricks to download YouTube videos, I’d like to hear it. I haven’t found a good way of doing that outside of subscribing to a service.
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Post by wvengineer on Jun 6, 2023 23:39:45 GMT
Episode 1 would have been better as a 2 hour format, that or cut a lot of the intro stuff, or just work it into the main plot like most pilots do. The main plot was interesting, but they didn't give any time to do anything with it.
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Post by wvengineer on Jun 6, 2023 23:58:26 GMT
And if you know of some tricks to download YouTube videos, I’d like to hear it. I haven’t found a good way of doing that outside of subscribing to a service. Google Youtube MP4 converter. There are a number of sites that will do it for you. I have used this one a few times: en2.onlinevideoconverter.pro/44OQ/youtube-downloader-mp4
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Post by GTCGreg on Jun 7, 2023 1:40:48 GMT
And if you know of some tricks to download YouTube videos, I’d like to hear it. I haven’t found a good way of doing that outside of subscribing to a service. Google Youtube MP4 converter. There are a number of sites that will do it for you. I have used this one a few times: en2.onlinevideoconverter.pro/44OQ/youtube-downloader-mp4I was looking for something that would run directly on my computer, but I'll check that out.
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Post by wvengineer on Jun 17, 2023 13:01:06 GMT
For anyone who writes or creates science fiction content, I recommend the Youtube channel "Sacred Cow Shipyards." www.youtube.com/@sacredcowshipyards/playlistsSacred Ciw shipyards looks at various scifi space crafts and other vehicles and looks at how well they are designd to really do their job. Not just from how they follow the laws of physics, but how practical and realistic the design is. For example, in one episode, he talks about the US Navy and how ships have "Aft steering" as redundancy systems to maintain control of a ship despite battle damage or even normal wear and part failures. From there he talks about how scifi would also need such redundancies to deal with the effects of battle or long term space voyages. Another episode he talks about the Mos Eisley Spaceport in Star Wars actually being a good idea that the landing pits are good as a way to defect and contain explosions. Of course, in another he talks about just how insanely impractical for everyday work the Oberth Class in Star Trek is. End of the day, it's a very interesting look at scifi from the view of actually engineering stuff for their purposes and how that effects story telling.
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Post by the light works on Jun 17, 2023 23:06:20 GMT
For anyone who writes or creates science fiction content, I recommend the Youtube channel "Sacred Cow Shipyards." www.youtube.com/@sacredcowshipyards/playlistsSacred Ciw shipyards looks at various scifi space crafts and other vehicles and looks at how well they are designd to really do their job. Not just from how they follow the laws of physics, but how practical and realistic the design is. For example, in one episode, he talks about the US Navy and how ships have "Aft steering" as redundancy systems to maintain control of a ship despite battle damage or even normal wear and part failures. From there he talks about how scifi would also need such redundancies to deal with the effects of battle or long term space voyages. Another episode he talks about the Mos Eisley Spaceport in Star Wars actually being a good idea that the landing pits are good as a way to defect and contain explosions. Of course, in another he talks about just how insanely impractical for everyday work the Oberth Class in Star Trek is. End of the day, it's a very interesting look at scifi from the view of actually engineering stuff for their purposes and how that effects story telling. sounds interesting.
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Post by the light works on Jun 20, 2023 13:54:36 GMT
a summary of the I-95 bridge collapse and the plans to repair it:
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Post by the light works on Jun 23, 2023 13:11:39 GMT
Texas is under energy conservation measures because their grid isn't robust enough to meet summer demand.
surprisingly, texans are reducing their energy use just as they were asked to. no protests, no blaming the libs, no "they are coming for your thermostat" and most importantly, no knee-jerk disobedience that would crash the grid.
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