Category Archives: Misc

iTunes for Windows, perhaps the strangest solution ever

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Stephen Dawson

iTunes has been getting increasingly creaky on my Windows 8.1 computer. The first symptom was that after Windows had been running for a while it would fail to refresh my podcasts, even when I manually told it to. ‘[F]or a … Continue reading →

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Spam Art

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Stephen Dawson

The motivations of spammers are clear: they’re hoping to worm their way onto a blog or into someone’s consciousness in order to attract business. But why would anyone think that an attempted blog comment consisting of almost nothing but 1 … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Misc | 1 Comment

One minute and fourteen seconds

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Now here’s a useful little thing. Don’t know, as the title puts it, ‘How To Play An Audio CD On A Home Stereo System’? This the video at the link is for you. Seriously. Or so the maker of the … Continue reading →

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Too clever by half

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Systems for achieving very high levels of data compression use amazingly inventive techniques. But when they are deployed, you should remain aware that what you’re getting is not identical to the original. With ‘lossy’ compression techniques such as MP3 and … Continue reading →

Posted in Compression, Misc | Leave a comment

The end of a mini-era

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve been doing a column in The Canberra Times for fifteen years. Today is the last one. The paper is now owned by Fairfax, a company which seems to be trying to tighten its belt, so from now on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Misc | 1 Comment

Cabasse in Sydney

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Well I’ve just landed in Sydney to see what the latest goodies from French firm Cabasse are (see my last experience of La Sphere). I’m at T2 having flown here and they’ve arranged Uber transportation, which is apparently contracted hire … Continue reading →

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What kind of a geek is that?

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

The host puts a question to two people who are represented to us as geeks. “How many different editions are there of Vogue magazine across the world. The closest answer wins.” You would not expect a geek to know the … Continue reading →

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It’s not only audiophiles who fool themselves …

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

The most recent episode of Skeptoid deals with the subject of the superiority of Stradivarius violins. It has been an article of faith for many decades at least, perhaps even centuries, that these violins are the best and possess some … Continue reading →

Posted in Imperfect perception, Misc | 1 Comment

Google and the Bacon Number

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

From a tweet: Joel Golby ?@joelgolby IMPORTANT: if you type “bacon number” + any actor name into Google it will tell you how many degrees of separation they are from Kevin Bacon Damn, it’s true! Simon Phillips’s Bacon number is … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, Misc | Leave a comment

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

If you like learning more about sound and music, and the scientific basis thereof, may I suggest subscribing to the podcast Scopes Monkey Choir. It’s about 40 minutes long each week or two and covers things from (most recently) how … Continue reading →

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