Posts by John Sykes

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

Gitwizard etymology

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

Shame it was deleted

@ Sarah Bee

but at least it still had full sentences, innit?

(Eats Shoots & Leaves)

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.

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.

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

@ 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.

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.