Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Friday Music: Apple and the Analog Hole

Moz

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 15:33:34 +1200

I had a waterproof phone last year

I had one once. For about a month, until it fell in the water. So much for that idea. It kind of annoys me that I can wash a camera and lens under the tap to get salt water off it, but I…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 13:53:31 +1200

The other thing that occurs to me around USB-C is that it appears to have (at least on my Nexus-5X) to have fairly weak retention, possibly on purpose. Some legacy stacks (OSX/Novation/Ableton for one) don't recover when a USB connection is interrupted – I'd be wary of USB-C on something…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 09:15:54 +1200

You didn't make the Snapper USB stick did you? They were heinous....

To me the attraction of simple connectors for prototyping is that you can solder them in easily. The USB-C is probably some horrendous BGA-like arrangement or similar that's fine if you're on a precision automated process and not…

BenWilson

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 23:55:37 +1200

I had a waterproof phone last year, the Sony Xperia. Of course when it comes to actually putting it in the water, at $800 for the phone that says water damage voids the warranty, I was never going to risk it, and kept it in a waterproof bag anyway. Under…

Sacha

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 18:31:17 +1200

the new Albert Park site will be a treat in its own right

yep. glorious minimising of brutal tarmac

Sacha

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 18:28:17 +1200

fresh water

wadeable :)

andin

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 15:22:08 +1200

it puts an end to the shitty little Digital to Analog Convertor
While that has to be a good thing, I dont buy that thinner is a good thing. And waterproof? the real danger is salt water, fresh water wil dry out and not leave a residue.and the odd raindrop…

Mike O'Connell

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 12:58:08 +1200

Music aside , I think the new Albert Park site will be a treat in its own right. Lots of lovely shady trees, etc. Worth the hike up from the S Island. Oh, and I'd be there to see Fazerdaze!

BenWilson

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 10:30:11 +1200

Like I said, there are advantages to the inductive hob, and there are some disadvantages. Some will find that in the balance the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and switch across. But others won't because it's not a giant quantum leap the way getting rid of floppies was. For many, using…

Russell Brown

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 16:52:46 +1200

I might go to Laneway just for Tame Impala and Car Seat Headrest and the odd kid electro surprise.

Get onto Bob Moses. Loving that record: indietronica with twang and reverb.

Moz

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 12:58:49 +1200

like the inductive hob revolution. Yes, they're clearly superior in many ways to an ordinary electric hob. So long as you replace every single piece of stovetop cookware...

What? My copper bottom stainless steel pots all work flawlessly. The one trashy teflon-and-aluminium frypan that doesn't is something I wouldn't eat…

andrew r

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 12:23:17 +1200

I might go to Laneway just for Tame Impala and Car Seat Headrest and the odd kid electro surprise. Haven't been for a few years. Lonerism is a great record. A drug record nearly. T.I for sure have their own Aussie interesting nod to '67 thing going on.

BenWilson

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 11:58:01 +1200

Yes, I was meaning on a PC. I haven't had an Apple since about 1995. Nowhere I've worked used them so it just fell by the wayside and I certainly wasn't going to pay the tax just to have yet another incompatibility in my life. But I'll give that they've…

Ian Dalziel

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 07:01:57 +1200

It was a lunatic design decision!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHZ8ek-6ccc

Joe Wylie

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 05:30:36 +1200

Sure, but there were burnable CDs that stored 650 times as much as a floppy and cost a few dollars, and there were hard drives. On those odd occasions where you wanted to give someone some files that were too big for an email (which also made them too big…

BenWilson

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 02:46:52 +1200

There wasn’t any other good rewritable medium in 1998 when the iMac debuted – just Zip drives and a bunch of also-rans

Sure, but there were burnable CDs that stored 650 times as much as a floppy and cost a few dollars, and there were hard drives. On those odd…

Jim Cathcart

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 02:34:14 +1200

Yes, your Onkyo receiver does have very good DACs, most likely Burr Brown. In a previous life, I worked for Onkyo HQ in Osaka and one salt-in-the-earth engineer lectured me occasionally on why his team considered the DACs more carefully with the design and output stages than the competing manufacturers.

Russell Brown

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 23:52:34 +1200

Comparing to floppy drives is a little unfair, since something many orders of magnitude better was available instead

There wasn’t any other good rewritable medium in 1998 when the iMac debuted – just Zip drives and a bunch of also-rans, There wasn’t even USB storage initially and the first flash…

Russell Brown

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 23:33:37 +1200

There’s been a certain old skool beauty to being able to hand riders an aux cable and having it work 9.5 times out of 10. Bluetooth experiences have been more like 5 out of 10, and invariably involve a lot more stuffing around each time.

Gawd, that’s a pain. First-time…

BenWilson

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 21:03:49 +1200

If this spawns and popularizes wireless sound technology that isn't flakey as shit, the way bluetooth is, I'll be in favor and might adopt it in, say, 5 years.

There's been a certain old skool beauty to being able to hand riders an aux cable and having it work 9.5…

Sacha

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:36:58 +1200

Or are Apple trying to create a new platform/interface – wireless eargear plus Siri. Headphones you never take off.

Sacha

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:32:03 +1200

How do Bluetooth headphones sound these days?

With the AptX codec, pretty good.

llew40

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:28:46 +1200

I don’t ever really get the point of Tame Impala,

Wash your mouth out! :) – Currents definitely one of the albums of last year, and a quantum leap on his earlier work

Paul Campbell

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:10:22 +1200

As someone who has implemented a USB dongle with "a piece of PCB", and abandoned it, I have to say it's a horrible solution (you have to be able to get an exact thickness and be able to get your PCB just so), sure it works 95% of the time,…

Rich of Observationz

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 14:11:02 +1200

How do Bluetooth headphones sound these days? I've always considered the best connector is no connector.

(and while modern connectors are amazing triumphs of miniaturisation, they're also of questionable longevity and increasing difficult to hack with – compare the USB-A (4 pins, can be implemented as a piece of PCB)…

Vivid

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 13:51:03 +1200

"And the audio jack is a century-old technology."

Shouldn't we do away with Wheels and Fire then?

Public Address

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 13:51:03 +1200

Discussion from blog post.