* Posts by Derek Williams

10 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Aug 2007

Why modern music sounds rubbish

Derek Williams
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Earplugs

I rarely leave the house without my Musician's earplugs - no distortion, only quieter, but then again I work as both a sound engineer and pyrotechnician so hearing protection is really important

No more books on Ireland's banned book list

Derek Williams

I Found the list

http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/JELR/Register%20of%20Prohibited%20Publications%202009.pdf/Files/Register%20of%20Prohibited%20Publications%202009.pdf it's in PDF though

Crypto snafu grounds 3D Avatar screenings in Germany

Derek Williams

realD 3D vs IMAX 3D

Most cinemas are using a system called RealD 3D, it's cool, it uses a single projector which projects the left and right image alternatly and then a fancy thing called a z-screen which sits in front of the lens which polarises the light so i can only be seen through either the left or right lens on your glasses - they use a more or less standard digital projector and a screen management server to decode the images - so a movie either comes in over the interweb really slowly or it's delivered on a hard disk in a little flight case by a courier - so all the projector monkey has to so is slide the hard disk caddy into the front of the server and press play, in theory

IMAX 3D on the the other hand uses 2 70mm films running sideways in 2 seperate projectors pointing at the same screen with a polarising filter over the front of the lenses - it's a hell of a lot more tricky and costly so set up and distrubuted

Music coalition takes on Microsoft, Google and pals

Derek Williams
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Actually we do pay for it

Every event has to licence the radio mics it uses - on an event by event basis..... A lot of people think this will only affect the theatre and concert industry - however this will affect all radio mics - from the corporate events launching whatever great bit of new technology - right down to the local karaoke - it's going to be painful

Giant solar plants in Negev could power Israel's future

Derek Williams
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@@Storing electricity

For instance a Pump Storage station?

here's one in Ireland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turlough_Hill

Hannah Montana fails to defy laws of physics

Derek Williams
Unhappy

OK...that one was a little obvious but...

As a sound engineer I can tell you that tricks like that are used all the time - usually the lighting guy will help you cover it though!

Oz crematorium menaced by exploding dog

Derek Williams
Dead Vulture

They're frozen because...

The Crematoruim don't collect from every vet surgery every day so unless you want you practise smelling of decomposing animals you keep them in a freezer until they're transported to the crematorium. It takes ages to defrost completely - think how long your Christmas turkey takes and then extrapolate to a 20Kg dog....

(other half is a vetinary surgeon - hence knowing those things - decline ice in your drink at their christmas party - it might have dog hair in it!)

Beeb censors Fairytale of New York

Derek Williams

Anyone remeber the Ronan Keating version

No? Anyone? Not surprised......

but he was too keen to have his sexuality questioned (again) so the lyrics were changed to "you're old and you're haggard".... seiously

Microsoft calls in the builders for Dublin data centre

Derek Williams
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Not Cheap Soil

I live about 1/2 a mile from the industrial estate it's going to be built in and land is far from cheap here - a 800 square foot apartment is going for well over €380,000 so a big DC like that would be pricey enough...

The real reason it's going there....two 110KV lines passing throught the site, a 220KV being built... so lots of power there, dedicated fibre to the main ISPs in Ireland and the UK already on site, fibre to the Irish INEX already on site and it's not a million miles away from an existing fibre connection to Amsterdam, London and accross the atlantic, so lots of bandwidth - perfect location for a DC methinks

And 12% Corporation Tax doesn't hurt either......

Irish firm seeks Trainee Assistant Banana Ripener

Derek Williams

Actually Bananas are big business in Ireland

They're one of our biggest exports (and naturally enough imports too) one company managed to convince the courts that ripening was 'Manifacturing' so they benifit from really low corporation tax as a result!