Hattogate: The End of the Story?
William Barrington-Coupe comes clean.
Wes Phillips
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Deutsch's Musical Illusions
Here's where we separate the musically inclined geeks from the musically inclined geeks with decent computer sound systems. Jeff Wong sent along the URL to <I>Deutsch's Musical Illusions</I>, so I checked out the examples on my laptop. I got nuttin'. Typical male-type guy that I am, <I>then</I> I read the technical note:
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" In listening to these illusions, it is best to use equipment with a flat frequency response so as to avoid spectral distortion. For example, enhanced high frequency transients tend to degrade the effects. And features that alter the signal in any way, such as spatialization features, should be turned off. Also make sure that the playback amplitude is not too high. With many sound systems, this amplitude needs to be set at a different level depending on whether you are listening through headphones or loudspeakers, and you might want to determine the appropriate settings before you begin. When you are listening to the stereo illusions through loudspeakers, it is best to be positioned equidistant between the speakers, with one to your left and the other to your right."
Radio Row
John Atkinson sends this link to the real scoop on what happened to NYC's famous, lamented radio row. Hint: 9/11 wasn't the first tragedy at ground zero.
Under the Hood of a Wright Flyer
<I>Air and Space</I> has a fascinating article about the mechanical naughty bits of the Wright Brothers aircraft. You can all but smell the hot oil.
AMG: Full of Surprises
It's funny how things sometimes have to hit you in the head before you actually notice them. When Jon Iverson and I were cruising CES 2007 in January, we were stopped in our tracks by <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2007/107soolooscdslot/">Sooloos</A>'s media server technology. Sooloos <I>got</I> the whole no-compromise audiophile approach, but what really knocked us out was how thoroughly it utilized the metadata from AMG (All Media Guide): Feed the the Sooloos server a disc and it would access AMG's database and collect artist name, album title, track names, cover art, genre, <I>mood</I>, side-man information, and even "associated concepts."
Wisdom Hires Herron
Carson City, NV loudspeaker company Wisdom Audio has been aggressively reorganizing itself lately. The first part of the program was re-uniting founder Tom Bohlender with erstwhile partner David Graebner to refine and perfect the magnetic planar speaker technology used by Wisdom's hybrid planar/dynamic loudspeakers. Then, in October 2006, the company appointed industry veteran Mark Glazier <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/100906glazier/">president</A>. On February 8, Glazier announced that Jon Herron would join the company as vice president of sales.
Fractal Small-World Networks
They're all in your head and they "reverberate in an electrical limbo state that almost, but not quite, comes unglued." That explains so much.
The Only Way to Look Upon People
At least, according to Bagheera, is <I>down</I>. Preferably from a height.
Tabby Love
Huckleberry uses the monitor to skritch that chin. Who needs humans?
Sarging Britney Spears
Neal Strauss, author of <I>The Game</I>, a book chronicling his development as a pick-up artist, has written a great essay about interviewing Ms. Spears using the power seduction techniques he learned.