Random Thoughts Part 4 - Split Thread

[WWGD]

0 minutes until "Christmas Story". They have been showing it uninterruptedly for around 12 hours now, same exact movie back to back. I don't get the point of doing this. It is OK, but not that great to see it repeatedly like this.

 

[zoobyshoe]

And in the end, the little Masterpiece Mystery skeleton winks at the audience.

 

[DiracPool]

And in the end, the little Masterpiece Mystery skeleton winks at the audience.

Is that a "Sherlock" spoiler? I cut the cord and only have antenna TV. Do you need cable to get "Sherlock?"

 

[Silicon Waffle]

And in the end, the little Masterpiece Mystery skeleton winks at the audience.

I like it very much. No problem!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Is that a "Sherlock" spoiler? I cut the cord and only have antenna TV. Do you need cable to get "Sherlock?"

"Sherlock" can be seen on any television system that gets PBS. I'm pretty sure you can also watch earlier episodes on the internet for a fee. The new episode that aired tonight would probably be inexplicable to anyone who wasn't familiar with the characters and premises that have been laid out in previous seasons.

"Sherlock" is basically the Conan-Doyle character(s) imagined in modern day setting with modern day attitudes embroidered in. For example, in the first episode, "A Study in Pink," we have their new landlady, Mrs. Hudson, offering her understanding that Holmes and Watson are a gay couple, and that they needn't hide it from her. (Two single younger men sharing a flat, what is she supposed to think? But it's unthinkable such an idea would have been voiced in the original stories.) Additionally, Holmes is often assessed as being a sociopath in this series. Not a mean, killer sociopath, but simply someone with no remorse about hurting peoples feelings and a person too unhesitatingly confident in himself, and too intent on winning. The mental acuity of this modern Sherlock is bolstered by internet, mobile phone, transportation by jet, etc., but it is mostly the difference in attitude between the two eras that allows for this modern Sherlock to have developed in ways the old one could not have.

Anyway, we've had that going on for four seasons: Sherlock Holmes if he'd been created from scratch in modern times. Now, tonight's special holiday episode takes all that and turns it around, and we find all the modern day characters inexplicably transported back to the late 1800's. So, if this were the first episode of Sherlock someone happened to catch, they would have no idea what they were looking at.

 

[DiracPool]

Two single younger men sharing a flat, what is she supposed to think?

Back in the day, I always shared the lease on the rented properties with "younger men." I was young myself, but they knew we were not gay because of the hunreds of girls we escorted in and out the door. And we never drugged any of them, unlike Bill Cosby. The furthest we went was to sneak a shot of tequila in the beer bong

 

[Ibix]

That would be one of the parameters: the video would have to be 3 minutes or less.

I can't contribute 4'43" of silence, then? I promise it's better than anything else musical I might post.

Also, I expect the compression ratio to be quite good. Would there be compression artifacts? They would genuinely ruin it.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I can't contribute 4'43" of silence, then? I promise it's better than anything else musical I might post.

Also, I expect the compression ratio to be quite good. Would there be compression artifacts? They would genuinely ruin it.

Good quetion, and it inspires another parameter: No John Cage allowed.

 

[Ibix]

I can't contribute 4'43" of silence, then? I promise it's better than anything else musical I might post.

Also, I expect the compression ratio to be quite good. Would there be compression artifacts? They would genuinely ruin it.

Intriguingly, this last paragraph appears to be entirely incorrect. I knew very little about John Cage, and only made the post as a throw away line. I skimmed his Wikipedia article and it appears that in 4'33" of silence the "music" is the ambient environmental noise that you can hear when everyone (including the orchestra) is quiet. This is likely very random, so will compress very badly. Furthermore, one could at least make the case that compression artifacts were in fact a critical part of the performance. I think I now understand Zoobyshoe's proposed "No John Cage" rule.

 

[HomogenousCow]

How is it 2016 already?

 

[WWGD]

How is it 2016 already?

? How is it not 2016? I think the second it becomes Jan 2 somewhere, it must be at least January 1 elsewhere. During Jan 1 alone, some other countries may still be on 12/31, but after Jan 2 in , say, Japan, it must be at least Jan 1 everywhere else.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Intriguingly, this last paragraph appears to be entirely incorrect. I knew very little about John Cage, and only made the post as a throw away line. I skimmed his Wikipedia article and it appears that in 4'33" of silence the "music" is the ambient environmental noise that you can hear when everyone (including the orchestra) is quiet. This is likely very random, so will compress very badly. Furthermore, one could at least make the case that compression artifacts were in fact a critical part of the performance. I think I now understand Zoobyshoe's proposed "No John Cage" rule.

It didn't even occur to me, but you're right that, John Cage, at least, would almost certainly consider things like compression artifacts "critical." I'd be so much happier if you just posted a performance of "Chopsticks."

 

[zoobyshoe]

How is it 2016 already?

I have the opposite reaction: 2015 passed for me at a very nice walking pace. Last January actually seems like a whole year ago.

 

[Ibix]

It didn't even occur to me, but you're right that, John Cage, at least, would almost certainly consider things like compression artifacts "critical." I'd be so much happier if you just posted a performance of "Chopsticks."

I think I'll just contribute likes. My greatest musical endeavour recently was playing "Oh When The Saints" on an octopus, each of whose tentacles honked a different tone when squeezed.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I think I'll just contribute likes. My greatest musical endeavour recently was playing "Oh When The Saints" on an octopus, each of whose tentacles honked a different tone when squeezed.

You are certainly underestimating the number of people who would want to see you recreate that performance. Sounds like an instant classic to me.

 

[lisab]

Can you record your performance and post it? I'm fearing that LisaB renounced her "mentorship" simply to get the extra 150 bonus points you get when Greg puts you out to pasture as an emeritus. I'm lobbying to get LisaB back as a full Mentor!

I second the motion. PF is actually riddled with people who can play one instrument or another, and it might be fun to start a thread of PF performers. (There'd have to be parameters set, but that's no problem.)

Alas, I was attempting a joke so lame I feared it would not qualify for our esteemed Lame Jokes thread. And damned if I wasn't right about that.

 

[WWGD]

Kind of embarrassing, my toe nail grew so large it tore my tennis shoe open. On the plus side, as a sort of edward scissorfoot, I can mow a lawn in 10 minutes by just walking through it.

 

[JorisL]

Kind of embarrassing, my toe nail grew so large it tore my tennis shoe open. On the plus side, as a sort of edward scissorfoot, I can mow a lawn in 10 minutes by just walking through it.

I know a man (who might be my father) that experiences this with every sock he gets (1 a month would be a good guesstimate).
Every time we notify him, he gets angry. Might be because he can barely reach them, a source of laughter.

 

[WWGD]

I know a man (who might be my father) that experiences this with every sock he gets (1 a month would be a good guesstimate).
Every time we notify him, he gets angry. Might be because he can barely reach them, a source of laughter.

I can reach them, I am just too lazy and not too fastidious about these things, though maybe I should be more so. Still, I may have to register my nail as a potentially deadly weapon -- people should not come close to me when I am shoeless, or risk getting a serious cut.

 

[WWGD]

Another embarrassment, I was almost unable to solve the "train and fly" problem during a tutoring session : two trains driving towards each other , while a fly goes back-and-forth between the trains until the trains hit each other (of course, speed of trains and distance are given). What is the total distance traveled by the fly? Pulled myself out of it quickly and solved it. I was just trying to use a fancy way and got stuck. I ended up offering 20 free extra minutes.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Another embarrassment, I was almost unable to solve the "train and fly" problem during a tutoring session : two trains driving towards each other , while a fly goes back-and-forth between the trains until the trains hit each other (of course, speed of trains and distance are given). What is the total distance traveled by the fly? Pulled myself out of it quickly and solved it. I was just trying to use a fancy way and got stuck. I ended up offering 20 free extra minutes.

Fly? I thought it was a bird.

 

[WWGD]

Fly? I thought it was a bird.

Maybe the idea for using a fly instead of a bird is that a fly is almost like a point, dimensionless, to avoid issues of the space it may occupy while traveling back-and-forth -- or to avoid sharp toes that a bird may have (without sneaker protection) ;).

 

[zoobyshoe]

Alas, I was attempting a joke so lame I feared it would not qualify for our esteemed Lame Jokes thread. And damned if I wasn't right about that.

I care nothing for jokes! You are booked to play the mandolin! We're all waiting!

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Everlasting PF on jokes and conspiracy theories
I would like to buy 2 speakers of size as small as my fists to listen to my local traditional operas at midnight. I visit some retail websites and they charge me $4.5 for a pair of Microlab. Is this good enough ?

 

[Ibix]

You are certainly underestimating the number of people who would want to see you recreate that performance. Sounds like an instant classic to me.

Sadly, my son has outgrown the toddler group where I found the octopus. I only picked it up because a child had dropped it in a silly place. My thought process went something like

1. Oh, the tentacle makes a honking sound.

2. I wonder what the other tentacles do?

3. That sounds like a whole tone.

4. 8 tentacles - 8 tones. Hypothesis...forming...

5. If I rotate the octopus I can test the hypothesis and find the ends of the scale.

6. Success! Do I know any tunes that can be played on whole tones?

7. Play "Oh When the Saints".

It all seemed perfectly logical inside my head. From the expressions of the other parents, though, the sight of a grown man being nerd sniped by a toy for children aged 0-3 must have been quite amusing.

 

[jim hardy]

I would like to buy 2 speakers of size as small as my fists to listen to my local traditional operas at midnight. I visit some retail websites and they charge me $4.5 for a pair of Microlab. Is this good enough ?

i personally prefer over the ear headphones , they can do a better lob of the low notes from periphery of orchestra because they don't have to fill a whole room with sound just the volume of air surrounding your ear.

If you can solder , you might find repairable ones in thrift shops. I got two pretty nice sets for a dollar apiece, one needed fix at plug end and the other just inside right earpiece where wire attaches to volume control.

But to your questions
$4.50 US sounds inexpensive for amplified speakers.
Good enough? That's in the ear of the observer - did you try them out and compare several?

 

[Silicon Waffle]

i personally prefer over the ear headphones , they can do a better lob of the low notes from periphery of orchestra because they don't have to fill a whole room with sound just the volume of air surrounding your ear.

If you can solder , you might find repairable ones in thrift shops. I got two pretty nice sets for a dollar apiece, one needed fix at plug end and the other just inside right earpiece where wire attaches to volume control.

But to your questions
$4.50 US sounds inexpensive for amplified speakers.
Good enough? That's in the ear of the observer - did you try them out and compare several?

I can't solder! You are right! Thank you for your advice, I just bought them anyway (~$4.5 USD)

 

[rbelli1]

Yeah for the new capitalism. A product doesn't have to actually work well or even work at all. It just need to be cheap enough that returning it is more trouble than just throwing it away.

BoB

 

[WWGD]

There is a series of " In Depth" interviews in C-Span. Would like to see someone interviewed " In Width" , or " In Height" for a change.

 

[Ibix]

There is a series of " In Depth" interviews in C-Span. Would like to see someone interviewed " In Width" , or " In Height" for a change.

Just a broad overview, perhaps?

 

[WWGD]

Just a broad overview, perhaps?

Doesn't have to be a broad, could be a man too *. But good point, had not thought about it like that.

* Broad is a slang term for a woman in parts of the U.S, not sure if also in the U.K.

 

[Ibix]

Thanks to Hollywood (Bogart style hardboiled detectives in this case), pretty much everyone in the entire world is familiar with many dialects of US slang...

 

[jim hardy]

Yeah for the new capitalism. A product doesn't have to actually work well or even work at all. It just need to be cheap enough that returning it is more trouble than just throwing it away.

There's a lot written about our "Throwaway Society"
and my feelings are mixed
part of me says "Waste not want not"
and another part says "sure it's cheap but everybody can afford one" .

Those with an inclination might get interested enough to dig in and learn a great deal about something seemingly ordinary which i suppose enriches their life. What if SiliconWaffle got interested in high performance loudspeaker enclosures ? It's a booming hobby.

I have learned to fix stuff
and that enables one to have fine things he couldn't otherwise afford
when somebody else throws them away.
This neat old Czechoslovakian "Copy of Jacobus Stainer" needed strings, a bridge , the back glued back in place and sound post reset . Seven bucks in the thrift shop.
A friend showed me how...
twenty more bucks and a couple afternoons later

Now i need a bow and a lesson.

old jim

 

[rbelli1]

sure it's cheap but everybody can afford one

In the case of Silicon Waffle's speakers he is buying something that is cheap enough that if it is entirely worthless as a product it will just go to the landfill unused. That is totally different from providing everyone the opportunity to own otherwise unattainable items. Those speakers are designed to work once. The fact that they often work longer is irrelevant to the manufacturer. If they could shave a few cents off the cost of manufacturer and make them certainly only work once they would. I have stopped buying that kind of junk because they always fail so soon and the warranty replacement cost will be more than getting a new one (that will break just as quickly). [/rant]

Then you have something like this:
http://www.myce.com/news/fake-and-counterfeit-usb-flash-drives-spreading-on-amazon-72165/

It is engineered specifically to not work but trick one into purchasing it. Seems more honest in an ironic sort of way.

BoB

 

[jim hardy]

I've opened up some plain awful sounding cheap computer speakers
the electronics is decent and would last a long time
but the speaker element itself way too small to make decent sound with the power available.

So you're right
most of them do go straight to landfill when user's sophistication improves and he starts paying attention to sound quality
or a flimsy wire breaks..

I fundamentally agree with your rant, though,
but at the other end of the cost continuum.
How many people remain in perpetual debt to automobile loans?
When cars got so expensive they had to come up with seven year financing
they had to be built to last ten years so a second owner could get a loan.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150729/RETAIL/150729861/average-age-of-u.s.-fleet-hits-record-11.5-years-ihs-says][/PLAIN] The average age of light vehicles on the road in the U.S. reached a new all-time high of 11.5 years at the end of 2014,

I drive $2000 cars because they last me half as long as $30,000 cars.

credit: http://www.cartoonmovement.com/cartoon/924

old jim

 

[zoobyshoe]

Yeah for the new capitalism. A product doesn't have to actually work well or even work at all. It just need to be cheap enough that returning it is more trouble than just throwing it away.

It's a brilliant strategy, really, and I think the originators of it should be rewarded with some jail time.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I have learned to fix stuff
and that enables one to have fine things he couldn't otherwise afford
when somebody else throws them away.

As a matter of fact, though, aren't you old enough to have been raised in the time when repair was the norm rather than the exception? High schools used to have all kinds of shop courses back in the day: machine shop, wood shop, auto shop. People darned socks, and patched clothes. They fixed broken furniture. When your shoe soles wore through, you took them to a cobbler to be re-soled. The concept of disposable goods is actually pretty recent. Everything used to be considered repairable.

 

[JorisL]

As a matter of fact, though, aren't you old enough to have been raised in the time when repair was the norm rather than the exception? High schools used to have all kinds of shop courses back in the day: machine shop, wood shop, auto shop. People darned socks, and patched clothes. They fixed broken furniture. When your shoe soles wore through, you took them to a cobbler to be re-soled. The concept of disposable goods is actually pretty recent. Everything used to be considered repairable.

It is coming back in a limited sense. My uncle recently started a shoemaker business.
And if I'm not mistaken people take clothes to a tailor to repair them more often as well (over here at least).

In fact I should bring him another pair of shoes with loose stitching and cracked leather.
You can invest once in a decent pair and use them for years to come if you treat them well (didn't with that pair).

 

[zoobyshoe]

It is coming back in a limited sense. My uncle recently started a shoemaker business.
And if I'm not mistaken people take clothes to a tailor to repair them more often as well (over here at least).

In fact I should bring him another pair of shoes with loose stitching and cracked leather.
You can invest once in a decent pair and use them for years to come if you treat them well (didn't with that pair).

Good to hear. However, I'm betting your uncle's clients are probably well off people whose shoes are very expensive to begin with. Back in the day, just about all shoes were resoled and reheeled, cheaper ones included.

 

[WWGD]

Good to hear. However, I'm betting your uncle's clients are probably well off people whose shoes are very expensive to begin with. Back in the day, just about all shoes were resoled and reheeled, cheaper ones included.

Sometimes it is a matter of basic cost. My $250 PC conked out a while back, after two years of use. Repair estimates were $100-$150. No point in repairing, I can get a better product ( tehcnological improvements over 2 years) for another $200-$250. .With technology, production costs have sunk, making the choice of replacing a product version 1.0 with a version 3.0 of the same product a reasonable idea/strategy Plus, technology changes so quickly that it may be hard to update one's repair skills. Then there is, of course, planned obsolescence too.

 

[WWGD]

Thanks to Hollywood (Bogart style hardboiled detectives in this case), pretty much everyone in the entire world is familiar with many dialects of US slang...

Massive marketing machinery puts out a lot of crap, unfortunately.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Sometimes it is a matter of basic cost. My $250 PC conked out a while back, after two years of use. Repair estimates were $100-$150. No point in repairing, I can get a better product ( tehcnological improvements over 2 years) for another $200-$250. .With technology, production costs have sunk, making the choice of replacing a product version 1.0 with a version 3.0 of the same product a reasonable idea/strategy Plus, technology changes so quickly that it may be hard to update one's repair skills. Then there is, of course, planned obsolescence too.

Yes, it's a whole different paradigm now: produce a product that is so cheap, and which changes so quickly, that when it fails (according to design) it will be in your best interest to buy a whole new one and throw the old one away, as per Jim's cartoon. Everything is disposable now in order that manufacturers have a constant large income. But, as BoB pointed out, now they're experimenting with selling products so cheaply made they don't work at all, but they're too inexpensive to bother returning and complaining about.

 

[WWGD]

Interesting to read about study on social anxiety. Seems problem stemmed from (anxious) people focusing on potentially problematic outcomes, to the extent that they scared themselves from trying. Therapy consisted in training them to shift focus from problematic outcomes to more neutral ones: they were repeatedly shown a series of pictures in which colors flashed next to neutral stimuli (neutral facial expressions), to which they were trained to react and thus pay attention, which made them shift their (automatic ) attention away from the potential pitfalls.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Interesting to read about study on social anxiety. Seems problem stemmed from (anxious) people focusing on potentially problematic outcomes, to the extent that they scared themselves from trying. Therapy consisted in training them to shift focus from problematic outcomes to more neutral ones: they were repeatedly shown a series of pictures in which colors flashed next to neutral stimuli (neutral facial expressions), to which they were trained to react and thus pay attention, which made them shift their (automatic ) attention away from the potential pitfalls.

That sounds very much like Cognitive Therapy, whose mechanism consists of shifting from distorted thinking to realistic thinking. From, "If I try this, something bad will surely result!," to, "If I try this, most likely nothing particularly good or bad will happen."

 

[WWGD]

That sounds very much like Cognitive Therapy, whose mechanism consists of shifting from distorted thinking to realistic thinking. From, "If I try this, something bad will surely result!," to, "If I try this, most likely nothing particularly good or bad will happen."

But what seems strange to me is that a problem that at first sight seems intractable can be dealt with in a relatively straightforward way. No need for years of therapy, for accounts of one's childhood, etc., just 4-5 therapy sessions seems to do it.

 

[zoobyshoe]

But what seems strange to me is that a problem that at first sight seems intractable can be dealt with in a relatively straightforward way. No need for years of therapy, for accounts of one's childhood, etc., just 4-5 therapy sessions seems to do it.

I guess what seems strange to me is that you haven't heard that all those dig-into-your-past schools of therapy died at least 30 years ago. It's all pretty much dig-into-your-present now. In the sense that, it's what's going through your mind in the present that's bothering you. Finding out where the problematic thinking pattern started, it has been realized, doesn't actually change or cure it at all.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

... Finding out where the problematic thinking pattern started, it has been realized, doesn't actually change or cure it at all.

Exactly!

 

[WWGD]

I guess what seems strange to me is that you haven't heard that all those dig-into-your-past schools of therapy died at least 30 years ago. It's all pretty much dig-into-your-present now. In the sense that, it's what's going through your mind in the present that's bothering you. Finding out where the problematic thinking pattern started, it has been realized, doesn't actually change or cure it at all.

Simple, my exposure to literature on therapy is a casual one; I have not delved much into it. This case I was referring to comes from a book on attention from a cognitive, not therapeutic perspective. My exposure to therapy itself is also casual, though I may be throwing a softball to many who know me by saying it.

 

[WWGD]

I guess I should have taken the ski mask of before going into the bank. But it was too cold.
Still, it was the bank people who decided to give me the money, I did not ask for it, so it only
seems fair that I get to keep it.

 

[WWGD]

Simple, my exposure to literature on therapy is a casual one; I have not delved much into it. This case I was referring to comes from a book on attention from a cognitive, not therapeutic perspective. My exposure to therapy itself is also casual, though I may be throwing a softball to many who know me by saying it.

Another interesting idea about therapy I casually picked up ( by a book author being interviewed in CSpan's BookTV) is the claim that one can overcome a difficult issue by "walking it away". One must not be carrying anything that impedes the natural movement. Then, the claim is, that when one thinks about the issue during the walk, the alternating movement of the left and right arms will allow the issue to be processed by both the right- and left- sides of the brain. True that this left- , right- brain is somewhat simplified, but there may be something to it.