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Cake day: January 7th, 2024

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  • Ross_audio@lemmy.worldtoMemes@lemmy.mlcurved it is
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    7 days ago

    You’ve proven yourself wrong.

    Mochi Tetsu is mentioned in that article as being a source that produces higher quality products than iron sand. Exactly what you’re arguing against.

    The facts are that due to the limited availability of good quality iron ore the steel produced in Japan often used iron sand and that led to lower quality products.


  • Ross_audio@lemmy.worldtoMemes@lemmy.mlDiscogs users be like
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    11 days ago

    Why? The past lives long in the memory.

    Sony was at the Vanguard of Japan’s post-war recovery. Making any electronics for the home.

    Rice cookers and standard small white goods in the 40s.

    They had a huge success with the transistor radios in the mid 50s.

    Bearing in mind transistors themselves were first created in 1947. Sony is putting them in consumer products 8 years later. Copying a product produced in small numbers but making it better. Using the latest technology.

    I own a 1960s reel to reel machine that still works perfectly. Sound on sound recording, echo and reverb effects. Built using transistors and “solid state” amplifies. Not at the cutting edge but using transistors to mass produce a product more reliably than previous tech.

    All high fi equipment following the same pattern. Can they replace the old style amplifiers in record players. Yep.

    The cassette tape comes along Sony makes it portable. And this is the point they also start hitting the top of the market in quality.

    The portable tape decks Sony produced are considered the best.

    This is while they’re dealing with videotape and producing betamax and the first consumer recorders and cameras.

    Sony is a mark of reliability from the 50s by replacing old tech with transistors and a mark of quality by being better than the mass market competition by the 70s.

    They then look at digital and create their own media. Betamax is a war they eventually lost even though it was better quality than VHS. But they made money on the professionals end of the market because of that quality.

    This moved Sony into that direction. Focusing on the premium product, aiming high and for the mass market, but with the idea that quality will guarantee the high end segment.

    In audio

    Digital cassette DCC, DAT CD SACD Competition for Dolby Surround SPDIF optical audio. LDAC Bluetooth protocol

    All the devices to play and record/transmit these.

    In video: U-matic Betamax MMCD (mothballed to then partnering with DVD) Blu-ray Blu-ray 4K

    The devices to play and produce them. The media to go on them from Sony Music and Sony Pictures.

    Displays they created Trinitron displays to go with their analogue video cameras and formats.

    They produced the first LED backlit LCDs. They produced the first quantum dot displays to go with the professional cinema quality digital cameras.

    In the computing world they produced the first 3.5" floppies then CDs, then flash memory storage.

    They tried to partner with Nintendo on the first CD-Rom gaming system and, when they were kicked out, launched their own console.

    Sony have aimed for the professional market and bring those lessons learned to the masses.

    Always based around a media format.

    1999 Sony produced SACD. R&D in audio finished when that wound up in 2007.

    High end audio equipment before that point is great. After that it’s just badges up stuff made to the lowest price.

    2006 Sony produced Blu-ray. Blu-ray 4K looks to be the last gasp in 2016.

    They were aiming for the top with video, TVs and blu ray players were great.

    They’re still the best quality audio and video products you can buy.

    But no one is buying them. We left quality of CDs for the convenience of mp3. We left Blu-ray for streaming.

    We left high quality physical products for software products and codecs for convenience.

    We left individual electronic devices for smart phones.

    Sony have stopped R&D and quality control on devices as the market for them has dropped.

    You can still buy a great high end TV from Sony.

    Everything else, they’ve let the high end go.

    If the high end isn’t mass market. Then they’re not going to make it high end anymore.

    But as the last mass manufacturer to leave so many segments over the years. The cheapest high end device is still often a second hand Sony.

    When the high end drops out of a segment all the individual components they would mass produce get penny pinched. Before they would produce huge numbers of lasers for CD players and make sure they were all good enough across the whole range.

    When no one wants a high end CD player, no more high quality lasers get made.

    The same with each component. Amplifiers, connectors, buttons, power supplies.

    Sony’s products borrowed from each other’s tech and as the high end went in one area it had knock on effects in others.

    Look at the PS5, the components are not produced in Japan by Sony. They’re outsourcing.

    The 4K Blu-Ray disk drive is optional.

    They say they’re unlikely to ever release their 8K Blu-Ray standard.

    Top quality is no longer a priority and you place 20 years ago about right for audio. Probably 10 years ago for video.

    The playstation 3 was Sony’s last CD player in a console. The last to be backwards compatible. The last of the Sony attitude of trying to be the best and trying to be backwards compatible.

    The best CD players, SACD, players, DVD players etc all come in one Sony 4k UHD Blu Ray box.

    Then you need a decent receiver and speakers to take that digital signal through a DAC, and amplify it. The last vestage of high end Sony audio is there.

    The TVs the last of Sony’s high end lines in general.

    The best portable cd players without breaking the bank, old Sony’s.










  • There’s no point about talking about the physics of the grid without the economics.

    The story of the New York blackouts is not one of groundbreaking physics.

    It’s the story of two lightning strikes, some very basic physics, and a systemic failure.

    Understanding the systemic failure is not a physics question. Electricity is already well understood and that physics isn’t changing.

    A renewable grid is not a physics question either. It’s one of regulation, redundancies and the end goal hasn’t changed.

    Saying “production and consumption on the grid must match” might as well be put in the pile with statements like “wires must be made of conductive material”. They’re just 2 things that haven’t changed.


  • There’s a Russian Pravda and a Ukrainian Pravda.

    Both extremely partisan. Neither what I’d call reliable sources of news but you’ve probably seen propaganda from both.

    Of course the Ukrainian Pravda has literally been able to print facts, unguilded, and they’ve matched what they would say as propaganda anyway so it’s appeared like a reputable news source recently.

    That’s what happens when Russia genuinely does things like use chemical weapons (cs gas) banned by the Geneva convention.

    (For those wondering, even though cs gas is used in riots the convention bans all gas based weapons as they target indiscriminately and could easily be mistaken for nerve agents by either side. Leading to either accidental use of nerve agents or accidental retaliation with something similarly destructive)

    Or when the Russians directly hit a nuclear reactor 3 times.

    Meanwhile the Russian Pravda has to manufacture its propaganda, like claiming an Islamic State attack which Islamic State issued video evidence of and claimed was somehow Ukrainian.


  • That’s wrong and it’s simple to explain why.

    If the grid allows negative prices, grid storage becomes a profitable business opportunity.

    The power consumption will always go up or production will go down if prices go negative.

    We are missing a key piece of the puzzle to decarbonise the grid and that’s storage of the abundant renewable power we could easily create.

    This is a sign the market is ready for investment in storage.



  • There are 20 fl oz. to a pint

    Instead of cups you should use half pints.

    There are 8 pints to the gallon.

    Unless you specify which pint, gallon then you’re probably wrong anywhere outside the US. Even then you could have to deal with vintage Canadian equipment with imperial labeling.

    US Cups are random in measurement and only sometimes half a pint.

    The imperial fluid oz. has one value 28.413 ml

    The US fl. oz used to be 29.573 ml. But now can officially be 30 ml in some settings.

    Metric is the best system, followed by imperial which at least is still a consistent standard.

    Then US customary measures where the written value may or may not have to meet a standard these days.

    The US has been using metric for everything important for a long time now like the rest of the world. Except the Mars probe NASA crashed.




  • It’s a problem I recognise but in my opinion those who have grown up in illegal settlements have to be the ones to move.

    I do blame their parents. Their parents have knowingly broken international law and it is essentially their fault their children are legally homeless.

    This is where I have sympathy for those who will genuinely experience displacement when illegal settlements are handed back, but there was a choice made by those children’s parents to put them in that situation.

    Compare that with the families forcibly removed from the land in the first place with no agency or choice.

    I can see that there are those who are the victim of the oppression and aggression of Zionists because they were forced to leave.

    There are those who may end up facing trauma because they were forced to move there.

    There are victims on both sides, the important thing is not allowing those who have perpetrated harm to continue to do so.

    The illegal settlements must be returned, those who have invaded will have caused harm to their own community and will face the consequences for that.

    I hope for some reciprocity from both sides like in Ireland where there is not a continuous seeking for justice and further consequences. But the initial acts of oppression and theft must be undone.

    There was a war in 1967. The occupation since has been illegal.

    The 1967 war itself was justified because of the actions of guerillas, not state actors. Israel was the aggressor and preemptively struck against other nations.

    Israel defended itself against threats. That was justified.

    But Israel then went on to punish ordinary people and civilians. It’s a pattern of behaviour that has continued since 1967. Highlight the actions of terrorists, take from the civilians. Blockade the civilians, starve the civilians. Limit food, water, medicine, other supplies.

    There have been times where Israel has allowed some normalcy in the 90s. But they’ve maintained a blockade and occupation. They’ve maintained an oppression.

    All justified mostly by the actions of terrorists and external states. Not the people they’ve been persecuting.

    Hamas are just the latest group. Israel cannot continue to punish civilians because of the actions of terrorists.


  • Israel definitely want evacuated Palestinians to give up on returning home and integrate into other countries.

    Forcing Palestinians to do this is one of the definitions of genocide.

    If someone is suggesting that refugees become citizens of other countries of other countries automatically then that’s actually enabling a genocide.

    This is the problem with looking at solutions on the small scale when the problem is large scale.

    Every individual in those refugee camps would likely have a better life if they “integrated” into another country. It’s easy to say those people should get a better life.

    But “integrating” into another country is also the language used to suggest the abandonment of culture and claim to their former home.

    They are refugees because their homes have been under constant blockade or attack for decades. It’s time to give them their homes back.