Category Archives: How Things Work

What’s all this about 1080p?

Posted on March 31, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

I had a chat with one of my editors yesterday about a piece I’d done on high definition video, in which I hadn’t mentioned 1080p. In Australia, the legislated high definition TV standards are 576p, 720p and 1080i. The ‘p’ … Continue reading →

Posted in How Things Work, Interlacing, Scaling, Video | Leave a comment

More technical discussion of ‘RMS Watts’

Posted on December 13, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

David Brigden has written to tell me about an article on his Web site that discussed the concept of ‘RMS Watts’. I’ve previously dealt with this on this site, but the article he publishes gives a much more mathematically rigorous … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Equipment, How Things Work | Leave a comment

The flexible eye

Posted on August 15, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

The eye/brain mechanism for seeing is remarkable. We rely intensely on its ‘defects’ for home theatre. Consider a projector. It is casting an image onto a white screen. Yet with a good projector in a dark room, the black areas … Continue reading →

Posted in How Things Work, Imperfect perception, Testing, Video | Leave a comment

The power of selection

Posted on August 12, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Darwinism is often the subject of disbelief because one of its two important components is overlooked. The essence of Darwinism is evolution through natural selection. This requires variation between organisms, and a method of selecting the most suitable variants from … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, How Things Work, Rant | Leave a comment

Mythbusting Killer CDs

Posted on February 5, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Since it started up on SBS here in Australia a few weeks ago, I’ve been keenly watching MythBusters. Scientists the guys aren’t, but I do like the way they just whip up a test rig from whatever they have laying … Continue reading →

Posted in How Things Work, Testing | Leave a comment

The History of the Internet according to, ahem, me

Posted on August 30, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

For some years I’ve been writing for the magazine Geare, usually just reviews of the assorted bits and pieces that I review. I was always a bit ambivalent about it because Geare is one of those ‘guys’ magazines, in which … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, How Things Work | Leave a comment

Amplifiers and Speakers in The Herald Sun

Posted on August 18, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve switched over from ‘Livewire’ in the Thursday edition of Melbourne’s The Age newspaper, to ‘Connect’ in the Wednesday edition of the Herald Sun. Today’s ‘Connect’ cover story is mine: how to get lots of volume from your speakers without … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Equipment, How Things Work | Leave a comment

Accurate timing of videos

Posted on August 17, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Rod, who runs the excellent The Chopping List, has asked me: I was talking to a friend who has also adopted a censorship watchdog role about VHS running times for movies. To get a duration for a film on tape … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, How Things Work, Video, Video tape | Leave a comment

What does that subwoofer ‘phase’ switch do?

Posted on August 16, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Most subwoofers have a switch on the back that’s labelled ‘Phase’, and has positions of 0 and 180 degrees. What this switch does, electrically, is the second easist thing to understand on a subwoofer’s wiring (the easiest is the ‘on/off’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Equipment, How Things Work | 3 Comments

Radical Technology – but is it for a niche only?

Posted on April 18, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

This article from MIT’s Technology Review discusses directional sound devices, based on using ultrasonic (above 20,000 hertz) emitters. The two separate developers are talking the usual junk about how they could replace loudspeakers. This is junk for several reasons. One … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, How Things Work, Rant | Leave a comment