Posts by John Sykes

Skype to give away wideband audio codec

Are you listening comfortably?

The original bullet from Skype reads

"- improving audio bandwidth going from 8 kHz to 12 kHz" which is lazy-English for "Raising the upper frequency limit from 8kHz to 12kHz", .......... no mention of the lower end.

For any pedants watching, 8Hz lower limit would be a waste of engineering resource: there is an empirical "rule" which works quite nicely and is based loosely on what "sounds right". This states that the product of lower & upper frequency limits (actually more like -3dB points) should be 1E6, i.e.have a geometric mean of 1000 (so, 300 to 3400 is fine, as is 100 to 10kHz etc. etc.) If you flout this guidance big-time, things can sound quite odd, as you can sample by listening to a European AM station on Hi Fi speakers.

So, for the Most Satisfying Listening Experience, we'll settle for 80Hz-12kHz ta very much

David Blaine tw*tdangles into Urban Dictionary

Gitwizard etymology

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Blaine&oldid=240506266

Shame it was deleted

Cream drummer may flash ginger nuts in court

@ Sarah Bee

but at least it still had full sentences, innit?

(Eats Shoots & Leaves)

Congressman quizzes FCC on white space management

Pedants corner

Re: "Sense-and-avoid is complex, as it's perfectly possible for a white space device to interfere with a transmitter it can't see if a third party can see both the transmitter and the offending device. " snip

Yes, it is complex, but to be clear, the interference is suffered by the receiver (i.e. the "third party"), not the Transmitter. That's why a database approach (which presumably tells you where the Tx's are, and possibly their theoretical coverage) needs more processing grunt added to make it workable.

Fish snapped snacking at 4,200 fathoms

SI Units?

OK: Elephants/mini roof is now the layman's "understandable" unit of pressure: I therefore propose the depth is measured in acres/light-year.

Dell files patent office application for 'cloud computing'

Oedipus shmoedipus.....

Hey! You! Get off of my patent?/trademark...

"Hey! You! Get off of m'IP " sounds a bit snappier (and resolves the other issue).

Paris, 'cause she prefers know-how

Japan kicks off electric car format war

@ Simon Pooley

Dear Simon:

My BMW 320d (150HP) told me I was averaging 60.3 mpg whilst in the North of Scotland in June, with 760 miles to home. Tanker driver's strike commences: can you get home on a full tank? The answer is no, 'cause the BMW tripometer is just that: not terribly accurate, more terribly optimistic. Anal measurement of fuel in v. miles out gave 53mpg actual. Still not bad for a medium size powerful car.

eBay pulls Vista laptop pwned in hacking contest

Harmful or just plain banned...

Last year I decided to sell on E-bay a 28" (yes, 710mm) cigar, which had previously lain in state in a tobacconist's window for half a decade. It was pulled: not because it was a tobacco product (banned unless packaging unopened), but because it was a Havana cigar...... so they do have idiotic rules and they do apply them with a charming lack of discretion.