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This discussion is dumb. "My measurement system can beat up your measurement system!" Also most imperial units have definitions based on SI measurements nowadays so it's really just a matter of what units you're used to. e: Farenheit is probably the only exception. Collateral Damage has a new favorite as of 10:52 on Oct 16, 2015 |
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Oct 16, 2015 10:47
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Guys, I find the discussion fascinating but also severely autistic. Let's stop the derail?
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Oct 16, 2015 12:00
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I think the one thing we can agree on is that decimal time is stupid. Our planet, the sun, the moon and our tilted axis provide our built-in physical base 12 time system. Of course, that relationship only specifically applies to our planet...so feel free to quote me and laugh in a hundred years. "Earth based time system? Isn't that like having a time system based on prebiotic volcanic vent eruptions?"
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Oct 16, 2015 14:22
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Swatch did up a solid by making this the face of decimal time:
Platystemon has a new favorite as of 14:45 on Oct 16, 2015 |
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Oct 16, 2015 14:40
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SLOSifl posted:I think the one thing we can agree on is that decimal time is stupid. Our planet, the sun, the moon and our tilted axis provide our built-in physical base 12 time system. Of course, that relationship only specifically applies to our planet...so feel free to quote me and laugh in a hundred years. It's actually way more fascinating than that. If you're interested buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Discoverers-Daniel-J-Boorstin/dp/0394726251
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Oct 16, 2015 19:03
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Plinkey posted:It's actually way more fascinating than that. If you're interested buy this book:
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Oct 16, 2015 21:00
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Platystemon posted:Swatch did up a solid by making this the face of decimal time: I am honestly surprised that there aren't watches that display UNIX time.
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Oct 16, 2015 22:05
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Platystemon posted:Swatch did up a solid by making this the face of decimal time: I had forgotten they made watches that showed that time — it was called Beat or something, wasn't it? I remember having a little program that displayed it on like, Windows 98 or something. I kinda like it, as an idea: if it's @400, it's @400 everywhere! Of course, that isn't actually useful in any way, since @400 in New York might be midday, but if you want to call someone in Frankfurt, you'd have to pull up some sort of daylight map to see that "oh it's dark there, I guess I'd best not call the office." I suppose the idea was that since the internet's always open, you can find someone up whereever you wanted to talk to. It was probably kinda useful for setting international conference calls or something though — no need to bother with time zone calculations, beyond the obvious "what the gently caress is an at-time?" issue.
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Oct 16, 2015 22:14
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tacodaemon posted:I experienced slide projectors with the built-in cassette player like that in my childhood, but once I saw a before-my-time slide projector that played vinyl Saw one of these at a car show once:  Threw me for a loop
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Oct 16, 2015 22:57
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Six-Of-Hearts posted:Saw one of these at a car show once: In the 50s, you could get one for your VW Beetle.
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Oct 17, 2015 00:10
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Zenostein posted:I had forgotten they made watches that showed that time — it was called Beat or something, wasn't it? I remember having a little program that displayed it on like, Windows 98 or something. I kinda like it, as an idea: if it's @400, it's @400 everywhere! Of course, that isn't actually useful in any way, since @400 in New York might be midday, but if you want to call someone in Frankfurt, you'd have to pull up some sort of daylight map to see that "oh it's dark there, I guess I'd best not call the office." I suppose the idea was that since the internet's always open, you can find someone up whereever you wanted to talk to. It was probably kinda useful for setting international conference calls or something though — no need to bother with time zone calculations, beyond the obvious "what the gently caress is an at-time?" issue. It always struck me as a briliant idea thought up by somebody who has no real work experience with computers. Stuff like Lotus notes bypassed almost all those issues by showing avaliable hours and displaying meeting invites in your own time zone (my company still uses loving lotus notes for some reason, ask me how I know all this). The real problem with it was always going to be when the gently caress is @400 and that's probably why it never went anywhere.
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Oct 17, 2015 00:48
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Beats time rules for setting up parties in MMOs, as PSO showed us.
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Oct 17, 2015 02:18
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Zenostein posted:I had forgotten they made watches that showed that time — it was called Beat or something, wasn't it? .beat, pronounced dot beat. Because, the nineties.
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Oct 17, 2015 02:22
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I just remembered that up until last year the high school I went to used an Apple ][ and a program on a floppy written by the physics teacher for momentum experiments. 
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Oct 17, 2015 07:00
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thetechnoloser posted:Yeah, I'm a DJ and producer for an overseas FM radio station and there's nary a thunderbolt port/cable to be seen. It's USB / XLR / 1/4" all the way dowwwnwwn. Pretty new gear, too. (~3-5 years old) Heck up until a few years ago I used RS232 to control my tape decks for video logging/digitizing. HD-SDI (essentially an RG59 coaxial cable with BNC connectors) still streamed the footage to a MOJO (box of FPGAs) and into my harddrives. Jesus, even the term 'footage' is obsolete.
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Oct 17, 2015 11:03
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I just discovered this thread and it's taking all I have not to spam it with a thousand pictures of vintage hi-fi equipment. I guess it technically qualifies as obsolete? Stuff like: or:  or when electronic equipment incorporates wood:  or dat Marantz font:  I'm too young to have been around for its heyday, but from a design perspective... 
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Oct 17, 2015 18:31
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Antifreeze Head posted:We had them in Canada too, only they looked a bit more modern. By modern I mean to 1980s standards. Some of the top of the line ones would auto-advance as well. Those were in use in the US up until like 2006 at least. Not all the time, but once or twice a year we'd drag out the slide projector or laserdisc player or other old stuff just because someone back in the 60s through 80s had done a really good job explaining something. (Or occasionally in history. IIRC we pulled out a film projector to play an original copy of one of the Cold War propaganda pieces about nuclear attacks, that was pretty cool.) Wooper posted:Yes, exactly. It is way more useful to know the temperature of all things based on if it would have a fever if it was a human. Eh, 0 being 'too drat cold' and 100 being 'too drat hot' for comfortable atmospheric temperature range is nice if your primary use of temperatures is 'what do I need to wear today?'. Sure it's arbitrary, but usefully so. Keiya has a new favorite as of 19:05 on Oct 17, 2015 |
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Oct 17, 2015 18:41
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Six-Of-Hearts posted:Saw one of these at a car show once: It's just a woman (or as nerds like to call them, a female).
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Oct 17, 2015 18:55
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It's like the big brother to my little half-size Yamaha A100   I have a small obsession with half-width stereo components, they're just so neat. drat, that's pretty, and fitting for the Pioneer Exclusive line. I totally want that. KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 22:19 on Oct 17, 2015 |
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Oct 17, 2015 20:55
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axolotl farmer posted:I'm old enough that these were in every classroom when I went to school. Sweden, 1980s-early 90s. Pretty sure my parents' old Tandberg stereo still works, and it has one of these. Indestructible.
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Oct 17, 2015 22:38
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Light Gun Man posted:Beats time rules for setting up parties in MMOs, as PSO showed us.
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Oct 18, 2015 01:23
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Zenostein posted:I had forgotten they made watches that showed that time — it was called Beat or something, wasn't it? I remember having a little program that displayed it on like, Windows 98 or something. I kinda like it, as an idea: if it's @400, it's @400 everywhere! Of course, that isn't actually useful in any way, since @400 in New York might be midday, but if you want to call someone in Frankfurt, you'd have to pull up some sort of daylight map to see that "oh it's dark there, I guess I'd best not call the office." I suppose the idea was that since the internet's always open, you can find someone up whereever you wanted to talk to. It was probably kinda useful for setting international conference calls or something though — no need to bother with time zone calculations, beyond the obvious "what the gently caress is an at-time?" issue. The only time it was every useful was when Phantasy Star Online used it for it's in game time system. I still have a promo watch somewhere in my storage locker that I think I won from like Official Dreamcast Magazine or something that is a PSO branded beat watch.
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Oct 18, 2015 03:12
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Trabant posted:I just discovered this thread and it's taking all I have not to spam it with a thousand pictures of vintage hi-fi equipment. I guess it technically qualifies as obsolete? Stuff like: Those are all beautiful and I don't think that they qualify as obsolete, either (with the possible exception of the 80s-as-gently caress reverb amp, which is badass). Sure, more modern receivers, amps, etc. exist with like 4k passthrough and poo poo, but it's just kinda added fluff.
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Oct 18, 2015 05:30
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All of those are beautiful but god drat that Marantz though
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Oct 18, 2015 05:33
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El Estrago Bonito posted:The only time it was every useful was when Phantasy Star Online used it for it's in game time system. I still have a promo watch somewhere in my storage locker that I think I won from like Official Dreamcast Magazine or something that is a PSO branded beat watch. I want this
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Oct 18, 2015 05:35
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Trabant posted:I'm too young to have been around for its heyday, but from a design perspective...
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Oct 18, 2015 06:17
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Code Jockey posted:All of those are beautiful but god drat that Marantz though All true Marantz gear need the signature 'porthole'  
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Oct 18, 2015 07:39
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Magnus Praeda posted:Those are all beautiful and I don't think that they qualify as obsolete, either (with the possible exception of the 80s-as-gently caress reverb amp, which is badass). Sure, more modern receivers, amps, etc. exist with like 4k passthrough and poo poo, but it's just kinda added fluff. I agree, a decent stereo amp will never be obsolete as long as it has at least one line-level input. At least not until anything not Class D or better is outlawed for being inefficient  But to some people, these old amps truly are obsolete. No remote controls, no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi streaming, way too big, not integrated into the speakers, all kinds of things that a lot of people care more about than vintage aesthetics etc. For instance, I just picked up a mid-80s JVC RX-150 stereo receiver for $7 the other day. It's the base model from JVC's range at the time and it's not a particularly beautiful design. But it does have a solid ~15 watts/channel amplifier, the Digital Synthesizer tuner works great and there is a line-level input for my Chromecast Audio. Combined with a set of $30 second-hand Yamaha speakers, it actually makes for a darn decent little setup, made out of stuff that people just wanted to get rid of and were selling for next to nothing because it was old or didn't fit into their decor or whatever.  But FM radio, on the other hand, that looks to be obsolete soon. It wouldn't surprise me if it was phased out completely within the next 5 years, with only a token station left running for emergency broadcasts, traffic updates for all those cars with analog radios still on the road, that sort of thing. It just a shame that most digital radio has crap for reception and hardly ever goes above 64kbit/s quality. KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 08:14 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 08:07
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KozmoNaut posted:But FM radio, on the other hand, that looks to be obsolete soon. It wouldn't surprise me if it was phased out completely within the next 5 years, with only a token station left running for emergency broadcasts, traffic updates for all those cars with analog radios still on the road, that sort of thing. Really? FM radio seems to still be living well enough here in Vancouver. If my phone had FM radio reception capabilities (my previous one did, this one doesn't  ) I'd be listening to one of the local morning shows on my commute in instead of streaming music. It's fresh content and a good mix of entertaining talk and music.
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Oct 18, 2015 08:18
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Kazinsal posted:Really? FM radio seems to still be living well enough here in Vancouver. If my phone had FM radio reception capabilities (my previous one did, this one doesn't I'm only speaking from a European perspective, to be fair. Nearly every FM station around here is just blatantly mainstream copycat dreck, all of the good jazz, classical, hard rock etc. is digital or streaming only.
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Oct 18, 2015 12:02
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KozmoNaut posted:I'm only speaking from a European perspective, to be fair. Nearly every FM station around here is just blatantly mainstream copycat dreck, all of the good jazz, classical, hard rock etc. is digital or streaming only. We have a lot of that here in the U.S. Lots of formerly-locally-owned stations are being bought up by enormous radio groups and turned into funnels used to divert cash out of the region  Our local stations here in rural Western Illinois all got bought up earlier this year and the first thing the guy did was fire most of the staff. He did let our operations director (the boss, for all intents and purposes) have a position in his newest franchise, though--she's now the receptionist. Next, he hired on a bunch of fresh-faced recent college grads and a pile of unpaid interns and all they do is sell ad time. The stations all pipe in music from elsewhere and there is only one live DJ left, but only because he is also the sports director and local sports is a huge moneymaker. What used to be a lively locally-owned company is now a quiet bank of computers receiving satellite feeds and re-broadcasting them, and a bunch of college kids cold-calling regional businesses to sell ads. Obsolete? Nah. Failing? I think so. I don't think we'll see the downfall of for-profit FM radio in our lifetimes, but there will be a point when someone looks at the next year's profit/loss forecast and decides it's about time to pull the plug because it's not simply not viable anymore. Between the homogenization of music and the fact that anyone can whip out his or her phone nowadays and listen to an endless feed of free, commercial-free music, it's only going to get more difficult to make money with broadcast radio.
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Oct 18, 2015 13:32
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KozmoNaut posted:I'm only speaking from a European perspective, to be fair. Nearly every FM station around here is just blatantly mainstream copycat dreck, all of the good jazz, classical, hard rock etc. is digital or streaming only. FM will live on, at least in the US, until self-driving cars are ubiquitous and mandatory.
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Oct 18, 2015 13:34
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GOTTA STAY FAI posted:We have a lot of that here in the U.S. Lots of formerly-locally-owned stations are being bought up by enormous radio groups and turned into funnels used to divert cash out of the region Oh Jesus you've just made me realise something.  I interned at a local radio station that had just, within the month, been bought out by such a conglomerate. At the time, everyone working there was local and not fresh out of school, but I can't help but notice that ever since I left (I didn't really start paying attention until I worked there  )the quality the content has steadily gone down hill.
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Oct 18, 2015 13:38
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There's still a market for FM, it's just that you're not going to have a local independent radio station play 90% music and stay both local and independent. It's too easy to just replace everything and run it remotely. Our NPR affiliate has been expanding at a nice clip by adding more local news programming. Which the local AM news station has been doing less and less of because they're too busy with talk radio.
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Oct 18, 2015 14:15
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Krispy Kareem posted:Which the local AM news station has been doing less and less of because they're too busy with talk radio. As long as we have brown people and old white people who are scared of them, AM radio will thrive. Anyway! Since my vintage hi-fi obsession does not seem to be entirely out of place, here's a few more: More switches = more better:   I would put VU meters on everything, honestly:   And some "oh, just casually holding up my heavy-rear end stereo equipment" ads:   OK, I'll stop spamming. Here are a few places I found those: https://www.flickr.com/photos/48136705@N05/ http://audioklassiks.tumblr.com/ http://www.audioclassic.org/ http://audioklassiks.de/wordpress/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/pintzul/sets/72157632508048978 http://cassetteplayers.tumblr.com/ I've made a Bluetooth stereo or two, either re-purposing an old housing or making one out of wood, so these are my inspiration bookmarks for when I start using metals. Plus, it's just beautiful and/or wonderfully goofy stuff.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:33
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SLOSifl posted:UTC is the same thing though, but not stupid. It's harder to confuse @000 with 1:00 AM local time than 1:00 AM UTC. Also it fits the magitech setting. Seriously it's dumb but I like it because it fits the awesome magitech setting and I like the awesome magitech setting. El Estrago Bonito posted:The only time it was every useful was when Phantasy Star Online used it for it's in game time system. I still have a promo watch somewhere in my storage locker that I think I won from like Official Dreamcast Magazine or something that is a PSO branded beat watch. If this is half as cool as I'm imagining I would kill for that. I would absolutely appreciate photos. Keiya has a new favorite as of 17:33 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 17:27
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Keiya posted:If this is half as cool as I'm imagining I would kill for that. I would absolutely appreciate photos. I'm trying to find a picture online but I can even find any reference to it existing. It looks basically exactly like the normal digivice looking ones only where the watch connects to the band it has the PSO logo on one side and the SEGA one on the other if I remember correctly.
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Oct 18, 2015 18:25
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KozmoNaut posted:I'm only speaking from a European perspective, to be fair. Nearly every FM station around here is just blatantly mainstream copycat dreck, all of the good jazz, classical, hard rock etc. is digital or streaming only. Europe where? In Italy I can think of a dozen super popular, privately owned FM stations, not counting the four state-owned stations, a Christian station that will probably continue broadcasting until and after the heat death of the universe, and two political stations Is it really declining? I can't imagine FM radio going away. I mean it's free, you can get it anywhere, there are millions of FM receivers around. It's so weird
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Oct 18, 2015 18:58
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Trabant posted:Anyway! Since my vintage hi-fi obsession does not seem to be entirely out of place, here's a few more: I consider myself au fait with old Hi-Fi tech, but I am struggling to work out what half those buttons do.
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Oct 18, 2015 19:02
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hackbunny posted:Europe where? In Italy I can think of a dozen super popular, privately owned FM stations, not counting the four state-owned stations, a Christian station that will probably continue broadcasting until and after the heat death of the universe, and two political stations Denmark, the Copenhagen area in particular, so I get a couple of Swedish stations as well. Sure, I can get a lot of FM stations, but they're all either Danish public radio (content is a bit eh on FM, pretty nice on DAB) or their closest competitors, which are all completely mainstream ad-filled top 40 crap interspersed with unfunny "comedy" bits. There are still some local stations left, but not that many and they're generally using very low power transmitters. They're pretty much all crap, total amateur cringe-worthy stuff. I think most of the small-time stuff has switched to streaming instead, since that's a lot cheaper than running an FM transmitter.
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Oct 18, 2015 19:11
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