08:02 – Well, here it is almost a full day later, and still no Mercedes-Benz. Not so much as a Yugo, nor even a skateboard. I have wasted two candles proving that prayers are not answered, which I knew anyway. Oh, well. I’ll just use the rest of the case in science kits, where they’ll at least do some good.
I did manage to find a source for the food coloring dyes for the AP Chemistry kit. I needed FD&C Blue #1 (Brilliant Blue FCF or E133), FD&C Red #40 (Allura Red or E129), and FD&C Yellow #5 (Tartrazine or E102). I’d found a Canadian supplier who was willing to sell me five kilograms of each for about $500 each, but that would have been enough for something like 100,000 kits. Fortunately, I found a supplier in the UK who packages these dyes in 25 g containers, so I ordered a supply of all three. Of course, the per-gram price was much, much higher than the Canadian supplier’s price, but I can live with that. They’re shipping via slow boat, so the product won’t arrive until early to mid-September, but I can live with that, too.
12:20 – Barbara and I are still watching Dawson’s Creek. We’re in season five now, and the kids are college freshmen taking first-semester final exams. The episodes we watched last night had them pulling all-nighters, desperate to learn what they needed to know before they took the exams. I commented to Barbara that it seemed counterproductive to show up in a zombie state for a final, and not only had I never done that, I’d never even cracked a book to study for a final exam on anything. She said she’d pulled an all-nighter once before a final exam, and the results were catastrophically bad. Her professor was a pretty nice guy. He noticed that she was a zombie, asked if she’d stayed up all night studying, and told her to get some sleep and show up that afternoon to retake it.
I continue to be in awe of this Winamp plugin called Stereo Tool. Actually, it is a professional DSP used throughout Europe in broadcasting, because as a piece of computer hardware, it represents FAR less expense than the American solution of creating a one-purpose piece of rack equipment that is sold for hundreds of times the cost to build. However, because they are used to a separate one-piece solution to each of their needs, few American broadcasters are willing to just insert a computer into the audio chain to do the processing at a fraction of the cost of the American-equivalent one-piece of rack-mounted hardware. I do have an engineering acquaintance who has actually built a rack-mounted computer using Stereo Tool, and it still is less than $1,000, whereas audio processing by US companies begins around $8,000 and goes up to as much as $20,000.
The young guy who has coded this software previously worked in medical imaging before striking out on his hobby — audio processing. As one broadcast technician friend said, ‘You get more out of this software than you put in.’ And he is correct. It super-cleanly enhances detail to an incredible level.
Lots of music in the library I work with, is older analog stuff that — even with careful conversion to digital — has quite noticeable hiss accompanying the music. This was just a fact of equipment used back in the day. I never used the Stereo Tool hiss reduction, because it also shaved some of the high frequencies in the process. In fact, I stayed with the 7.40 version of Stereo Tool because of a couple bugs that the author, Hans Zutphen in The Netherlands admitted to. However, he released 7.50 last month and claimed that the hiss reduction now does not remove any discernible audio other than that hiss.
He is right. I upgraded to 7.50 yesterday and engaged the hiss reduction (“noise gate”) and it stops hiss cold, while not robbing any other frequencies that I can detect.
My approach is quite different than what most US broadcasters are after. They are pursuing LOUD; I am only after clarity and definition. And I am getting it. In fact, based on this DSP, I am predicting that the day will come when it really will be possible to take a picture of a fuzzy distant license plate and zoom in on it like today’s cop shows do, and actually clarify it the same as if it had been taken as a close-up by the camera.
Find my Stereo Tool config file on GitHub at
https://gist.github.com/CWJR/811f1f68cd3c45609090
I am pretty new to GitHub and still do not really understand it, but if you cannot get that file, then make a text file by copying all the stuff in the big window, then name the resulting file whatever you want, as long as it ends with “.sts”. Load that into Stereo Tool.
Depending on your hardware, levels might be a problem. Those settings work on the built-in sound cards on both my computers (Intel sound). Changing input levels within Stereo Tool will change how compression is performed and the resultant processed sound you hear, so best to change only the output, and hopefully, that works.
I put Stereo Tool in the DSP section of Winamp, but run SqrSoft Advanced Crossfading v1.75 in the Output, which then runs “DSP Stacker” with another couple plugins — “RockSteady” and “Bobware Stereo Delay Module 2.0”. RockSteady automatically boosts transitions at the crossover point, like DJ’s did manually back in the day, and Bobware expands the stereo effect in an addictive way for me. Latter cannot be used in broadcast, because the L+R and L-R matrix that are used to create FM stereo, makes the resultant recombination for mono in the radio, sound like listening through a tunnel.
You know, New Jersey sucks for a number of reasons and here is just one more:
http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/articles/2014/8/reciprocity-mix-up-leads-to-felony-charges-for-philadelphia-mom.aspx
If I have a license to carry a gun in one state then that license should honored in all the other states. Just seems fair to me.
Ron Hira confirms what OFD has been experiencing in his job search. Sad; politics:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/07/27/bill-gates-tech-worker-wages-reforms-employment-column/13243305/
Am I the only person who thinks that the USA economy throttle is one notch above dead stop? We may have good sales figures going on in heavy equipment, light trucks and food, but I believe that most of this is either delayed purchases or stimulus (checks) from the government.
Looks like Russia and China are tired of playing the dollar game:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-09/de-dollarization-accelerates-chinarussia-complete-currency-swap-agreement
I am not really sure why currency swaps are done in dollars but that ship is starting to sail. Will a lot of USA dollars start to come home, further flooding our economy?
Also, am I the only one who is surprised that the ISIS dudes are kicking the Kurds butts? Surely the Kurds knew that ISIS was heading their way and had time to prepare a good defense? Or are the Kurds sucking them in to surround them in a killing zone?
ISIS grabbed lots of the gear the Iraqi national army had gotten from the US. The Kurds have the old crap that the Iraqi national government allowed them.
And I guess you must really be one of those fast-paced entrepreneurs, Lynn. Your last comment’s timestamp was four minutes in the future of when I saw it. Or maybe you’re a time traveller. Just promise to use your powers only for good.
[snip] If I have a license to carry a gun in one state then that license should honored in all the other states. [snip]
Full faith and credit, anyone? Or am I just a cranky Libertarian, dreaming of a time when the Constitution was adhered to?
I pulled just one all-nigher in college but it wasn’t exactly for an exam. My last semester I took a class in early medieval history. The final grade was based on 3 papers, each covering one section of the course, plus the final exam. Typically I had let it all slide until the last possible week. One day I read the part of the book covering the first third of the course and wrote the first paper. The next day I read the second third and wrote the second paper. The third day I read the last third… oops, make that the other half, it was at least as large as the first two combined! So the third day and night I read, and then wrote and typed the third paper. Then I had about 30 minutes before (fourth day) I had my 50 minute drive to school where I turned in the papers at the final exam. I was never more ready for a test in my life! Got an A.
That was my fourth and last semester there after transferring. I needed to pass all my classes to graduate, and I needed to pull up my GPA which was dangerously close to 2.0. Fortunately I buckled down after Thanksgiving and pulled off three or four A’s and a B, raising my GPA by over half a point.
I hear Obummer is telling the press “withdrawing troops from Iraq wasn’t my idea.” Blames Bush the II. Only a libturd would try that excuse. Again, weakest leader and CinC ever.
I love it. You can now buy the GOTG mix tapes on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Guardians-Galaxy-Awesome-Mix-Vol-1/dp/B00KLF5J64/
At least capitalism is alive and doing well in the good old USA!
Lynn
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/08/politics/brady-death-homicide/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Why would you rule that someone who died 25 years after an incident occurred is a homicide? That seems totally stupid.
Along the same logic all vets who participated in any foreign conflict and were wounded or suffer from PTSD should have their deaths ruled as war time casualties. That would mean their families would be eligible for combat death benefits from the GI insurance.
“I am pretty new to GitHub and still do not really understand it…”
https://www.udemy.com/github-fundamentals/
Why would you rule that someone who died 25 years after an incident occurred is a homicide? That seems totally stupid.
They want to try John Hinckley for murder is what I have read. Seems to me that double jeopardy will apply here unless they did not try him before for Brady’s injuries. In that case, I say go for it.
Full faith and credit, anyone? Or am I just a cranky Libertarian, dreaming of a time when the Constitution was adhered to?
Nah, full faith and credit was thrown out half a century ago. It is a wonder that you do not have to get a new driver’s license every time you cross a state border in this country now.
Thanks for the GitHub link! It’s that repository concept I do not understand. Plenty of reading there.
As for the Brady homicide — it was a very slow 33 year-long death. Heck of a lot of people die earlier of natural causes, but Brady was destined to die of homicide from the moment he was shot.
Was sitting out in the hot tub earlier, man the moon looks big tonight! Hope that it does not auger in about 3 am.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/08/08/the-real-supermoon-stands-up-this-weekend/
Bob, you’re not using the votive candles correctly. They are there to help you pray, not to substitute for prayer. You’ve got to do these things right.
I’d suggest you get some nice sponge cake, toast it dry, then use it to soak up melted icecream, and re-freeze. Alternatively, grab some cassata. This shall be identified as “bread”. Then get a nice sticky wine – a nice one, I said – a fortified liqueur wine or a dessert wine – muscat, tokay, port, marseille, possibly a Premier Cru Supérieur botrytis-affected Sauternes, or a trockenbeerenauslese or eiswein moselle. Light the candle, put a small fondue pot of honey warming over it, dip your “bread” in the runny honey, let it freeze as a glaze, and then alternate nips and sips until either your prayers are answered, or you don’t damned care. Either is a good result.
In re the Benz prayer.
It wasn’t a blinded experiment, so it’s an opinion. It can hardly be called evidence, let alone proof.
Perhaps the votive candles were defective. More expensive offiicially authorized candles might work. Maybe the answer to your prayer was NO.
I’m tending toward Deism myself. I find it hard to believe the the inevitable result of a large cloud of hydrogen is myself.
I don’t see a way to edit my last post. “the the inevitable” should read “that the inevitable”.
I find it hard to believe that the inevitable result of a large cloud of hydrogen is myself.
Tell that to someone following you after you have consumed a couple of Taco Bell burritos.
I’m no chemist and I don’t play one on tee-vee, but wouldn’t that resulting cloud be closer to methane than hydrogen?
I don’t know. I’ve seen the results of holding a lighter up to it, and it explodes.
I find it hard to believe that the inevitable result of a large cloud of hydrogen is myself.
Tell that to someone following you after you have consumed a couple of Taco Bell burritos.
That is not hydrogen, it is hydrogen sulfide. With a little bit of cocoa thrown in.
That is not hydrogen, it is hydrogen sulfide.
Yeh, I know. But it was the first thought that ran through my mind. I knew someone would point out the difference. For most a gas cloud is a gas cloud regardless of the composition.
Mythbusters did an episode where they collected some flatulant output from Adam and had it analyzed. It was surprisingly complicated mix of chemicals. I don’t remember if there was any significant hydrogen.
Methane has no smell. Hydrogen has no smell. Anything containing sulfur has bad smell, especially mercaptans;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanethiol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatus
In fact, based on this DSP, I am predicting that the day will come when it really will be possible to take a picture of a fuzzy distant license plate and zoom in on it like today’s cop shows do, and actually clarify it the same as if it had been taken as a close-up by the camera.
Perhaps. There is only so much that can be done with images. (I did some work with image processing hardware and software a while back.) If the number of pixels is high enough you can reconstruct a lot. But what you see on TV is never going to be possible from security camera footage. There are some techniques that can use sequences of images where the target area is moving where you can effectively sub-sample and reconstruct a higher resolution image. One application of that is you can take a video sequence of a person that has been pixellated or blurred and reconstruct a pretty good image from it. So if you ever need to be anonymous on TV, do the hat and backlight only, don’t allow them to pixellate you.
Also, am I the only one who is surprised that the ISIS dudes are kicking the Kurds butts?
The Kurds are low on ammo and having to retreat. They were also somewhat overextended, having occupied areas the army left.
In regard to the various hadji and semi-hadji parties in the Sandbox regions:
Choices:
1.) Give them all a good leaving-alone and mind our own biz and watch them slaughter each other, which is clearly their very favorite thing to do.
2.) Go in like the generals, and later emperors, Vespasian and his boy Titus and level the whole area, crucifying tens of thousands, and sowing the lands with salt.
Given those two choices it would be interesting to see it brought to a national referendum here. Assuming a huge majority vote for #2, I’d stipulate that the generals and admirals and politicians be hugely visible participants on the front lines along with any media cheerleaders.
There is a Kurdish crude oil tanker with one million barrels of heavy crude in it sitting off the port of Houston, ready for lightering. The Iraqi government, what is left of it, has filed a claim in the USA court and a federal judge has ordered the oil seized and held until the court case. The tanker is anchored in international water and is probably looking for a new buyer, outside the USA (probably China). Heavy crude is difficult to process and requires a special refinery.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-the-us-got-mixed-up-in-a-fight-over-kurdish-oil–with-a-unified-iraq-at-stake/2014/08/04/4a00a6e2-1900-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html
I am not sure that the idiotic federal judge has any idea how to hold one million barrels of crude oil. Nor that the Kurds spent the money to produce the oil and need the money to buy food and ammo.
Looks like we are going to screw the Kurds once again. One would think that they would have learned not to trust us by now. They may not survive this betrayal by both the incompetent Maliki and the incompetent Obummer. The IS army is growing by the day and appears to be well armed and funded.