Posts by defiler

Holy hell, what did you make me read? And what have you started??

Also, be sure to plug the Chord network cables in the right way - they're directional, don't you know?

Honestly, golden-eared bastards... At least I have a rationale for my lossless encoding! Oh, and once you've necked a bottle of Buckie (£7.50 or so), you can't hear the difference, and still have £4492.50 to blow on CDs and cheap NASs!

Re: Generational losses

Let's be honest here, I bought CDs and copied them to MD for portable use. I never copied them onwards. I'm going by what I read about at the time, and it makes sense that the same details would be targetted for loss each time, so the signal would degrade gradually.

Since DCC and Minidisc used different encoding systems, though, they were throwing out different details each time, and introducing new artefacts each time. So it didn't matter a whole lot if the copy was made in the digital domain or converted back to analogue and back - it wasn't a simple file copy between the two (it would be converted to PCM each time), and with the differing encoding methods the deterioration was greatly accelerated.

I think I only saw a half-dozen or so DCC players in the flesh, and they were in shops or shows! I only met two other people with Minidiscs - one flash git had a MD-HD player. It was nice!

Whilst I agree for the most part, I'll argue the point on MP3. I keep my music as FLAC, because whatever I need to play it on I can convert it easily. Having a lossless master means that I don't have the compounded losses of different encoding systems.

(Back in the day, copying CD->Minidisc->Minidisc->Minidisc was fine, but CD->Minidisc->DCC->Minidisc sounded pretty ropey really fast. But in fairness, who the hell ever had DCC and Minidisc?)

Re: So...

Yeah - I've got other stuff on the machine. Almost bought Crazy Taxi and DOA2 when I was at Play Expo the other week. To be honest, I'm happy with something slow. It's a nice comedown from the rest of the day. That's why I have >1000 hours on Kerbal Space Program. Name a stock part and a celestial body, and I've put it on it! :)

Re: So...

Absolutely, 100%. But they weren't ready to manufacture in volume, so instead of exploding into the market, it stumbled. They just couldn't get the parts in volume. A real shame.

I was all PC gaming when it came out, but I'm glad I managed to pick one up a few years ago before the price started to spike. Once I put some other stuff to be I'll be sitting down to Shenmue.

Re: So...

Ever heard of the Sega Dreamcast?

Or the Saturn?

Or (at a pinch) the 32X?

I'm suddenly realising that this company might be Sega!

Re: I'm not sure I see how they get to profitability

One thing you seem to be missing in your figures is that when individuals drive their own cars for Uber, they voluntarily choose what they feel is the smallest slice of the pie they will tolerate. If pickings are too slim, they hang up for the day/night. There will normally be an excess of cars available before this point, and there will typically be a car nearby.

If Uber are taking all of the profit, and not having to share it with the meatsack in the driver's seat, they can change that threshold. Put fewer cars on the road. So first of all you've saved in capital investment there. Then, because there are fewer cars, the price can be a bit higher, increasing the pool of money. Finally, they're not just taking that 20%. They're grabbing the whole pie and paying off their energy / maintenance before keeping the rest.

I'm not saying that you're wrong. I simply don't know. All I'm saying is that these factors will sway the result quite hard.

Re: I'm not sure I see how they get to profitability

The article on The Register is here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/05/09/uber_and_lyft_rides/

Re: Software

Yeah, personally I prefer the system that doesn't have 1000 critical, dynamic components which are completely outwith my control. Laughed my arse off at the Yale "smart locks" keeping people stuck outside. I know - that was mean of me.

Previous installments of this story revealed that some of the residents are quite elderly. One man in particular was basically housebound because he didn't have a smartphone - I think he was in his 80s.

I think by that age I'd be quite reticent about using the stairs.

Re: Software

First and foremost, I don't support "smart" locks, alarms and all that other crap, but with that said, you realise that locks can generally be "hacked" too, right?

The difference I guess is that one is a skill that takes a professional to do well and without being noticeable, whilst the other ends up being a script you can download...

Re: Surely...

Bridgestone BT045 on my old Yam Divvie. For some reason the cross-ply (which I'd normally avoid) worked really well on that machine. Once handed a CBR600RR pilot his arse on a plate, whilst I had the wife on the back.

Brilliant tyres, and pretty cheap too! (Not the cheapest, though, I'll concede.)

Re: does this affect more aircraft than the ill fated 737 max?

You're correct, but between the Artificial Horizon and the Vertical Speed Indicator you can infer enough about the AoA to confirm what your bum is telling you. At least enough to satisfy commercial passenger flights.

Re: Or in the words of older Scottish Farmers

Got my own kilt, thanks, in my clan tartan that won't make me look like a fat wasp. That's a bit garish, isn't it? Could do with muting the yellow a bit!

Re: Personal account

That's good community spirit - it's nice to hear about things like that.

Reminds me of the time Joey Dunlop's motorbikes sank in the Irish Sea on the way to the Isle of Man TT. They managed to salvage them off the sunken boat, but they were ruined. Every other team in the paddock lent them mechanics, parts, tools, anything they needed to get the bikes running again, and then Joey beat them all in the races...

Re: Really good?

My 10-year-old Peugeot has suspension that may as well be made of breadsticks. Been through so many parts...

On the other hand, my >20-year-old Honda motorbike has a wiring diagram you can draw pretty-much from memory, and everything can be fixed with a big enough hammer.

Guess which one I'm happier with?...

Re: Aussie solution

But, but... I saw a documentary where they used a racing car to resurface a street.

Cars - that was it!

Torque schmorque...

Re: Or in the words of older Scottish Farmers

Mary Anne MacLeod Trump

Do I get a prize?

In my experience it's not been slow CPUs that have crippled cheaper laptops - none of them are really *that* slow. It's when they put in a piss-poor HDD...

Re: GPUs?

That was the original Celeron. It was basically a PIII on slot1 with the cache chips removed, and since the cache was the most speed-sensitive part of the whole package you could drop it into a 440BX board instead of LX, and get your 100MHz FSB instead of 66MHz.

Mine was 266MHz boosted to 400.

I also went to overclockers.co.uk and bought one of their "specially binned" Coppermine PIIIs. 650MHz, I think, running at 850MHz. Needed a beast of a cooler on air, though. And I wonder why my ears are buggered now...

Re: Isle of Man moon mission stamps

Yet at the same time, I understand that they're the 5th-biggest advanced aerospace manufacturing region in the world.

You've got guys (and ladies, of course) with incredibly well-equipped sheds who spend a dozen weeks of the year making two- and three-wheeled things go incredibly quickly, and the rest of the time doing high-tech stuff to pay for it all.

Re: "You're folding it incorrectly."

Cue massive breakages in the second-hand market.

Maybe it'll need to be like tear-off strips on racing visors. Lots of them on top of each other, with the pull-tab on alternate corners.

Re: "You're folding it incorrectly."

then again the sort of person who can afford a £2000 mobile phone probably doens't have pocket lint in their designer label clothes I suppose!

Don't be so bloody silly - I have a man to remove that for me!

/me wanders off, muttering about the proles...