CodeBeater

Real life version of Minecraft lava casts?

Actually, just under two days. That phone is still in service, pulse dialing away on the rare occasions I gotta make a call through a landline.

This article pops up as I have a rotary phone disassembled right on my desk (rewinding the clock spring). Neat coincidence!

Most FM receivers nowadays rely on creating a signal of a specific frequency that interferes with the desired on-dial frequency, this is called an intermediate frequency. Then the actual audio signal is analogous to the changes on that IF.

This technique is known as superheterodyne, and Technology Connections has a wonderful video explaining it better than I can.

I have a genuine question, what's to gain from this? I could half-understand it if they were going to re-allocate the 88-108 MHz block, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I could also understand why such an action would be taken if that meant that they could pack more stations in the same spectrum, but considering that Switzerland is a relatively small country, so is there really a market? Even if considering multiple languages per niche.

I guess a case could be made for power savings by virtue of (assuming local topography allows) lower power transmitters or by multiplexing various stations on the same transmitter.

On a personal level, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about all forms of analog broadcasting being slowly phased out. The tinkerer in me likes the idea of being capable of constructing an information receiving device in an almost "survivalist" manner, but if this trend continues and analog FM really goes the way of the dodo, then I surmise that DAB (or whichever local flavor is chosen) will become easily and cheaply available, which makes my gut feeling a moot point anyway.

I don't know, I just don't like the idea of needing a processor to receive broadcast audio, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

Either way, sounds classy, I like it!

Well don't get me wrong, this is Hacker News, you'd be hard pressed to find people who don't love tech here. I agree with your main idea, but the lack of informed consent just bothers me. The mere fact that most people don't realize their cars could (not saying that is the norm, at least not just yet), track their every move by default, sending their data to an unknown server to do unknown things and you have to opt out of that is just frightening. GM can't even do a simple entertainment center that doesn't lag out like a $20 tablet, so what are they making with my live location and how well are they taking care of it?

Frank's transition from script doctor to top screenwriter mirrors a classic dev story: a shift from fixing bugs to building entire systems. His journey underscores the universal truth in creative fields: mastering the basics leads to groundbreaking work.

Oh wow! Definitely appreciate this new (to me) resource, as I've been in quite a radio kick recently.

If you don't mind me asking, what things did it help you with?

They might be trying to target that specific high-dollar demographic.

For a split second I thought that an application to convert Brazilian Reais to Canadian Dollars was making the rounds for some reason.

Doesn't Australia have "follow the traffic" rules?

I'm not a parent.

Kids are prone to learning languages and fast, so try to keep them surrounded with content of a foreign language that you deem interesting for their future.

This is super enjoyable and actually makes me realize how culturally aware DALL-E-MINI really is.

It depends on your expected use case. AI? Gaming? Rendering? The priorities change between these different scenarios.

In my opinion, thermal pads are better suited for components that need just that little extra bit of heat dissipation to perform adequately, i.e components that are < 10° C from being able to be passively cooled. Voltage regulators come to mind.

So in that instance, if the thermal pads are reasonably well installed, the components should be just fine, since we're working with much looser tolerances.

When you need active cooling, the manufacturing complexity increases to the point where the convenience doesn't really make sense, since you have to get it right, so thermal paste is the way to go.

I heard that it was the plan from its inception.

I can only imagine how desperate he must have been. Truly debilitating levels of allergy.

Personal interest does not necessarily equal marginal utility.

That's so simple that it could actually become a product.

Asian cinema still produces movies with deep philosophical twists like that. Check out some YouTube recaps for any movie that seems out-there and you'll find out that more often than not it was made in Asia.

The article leads me to believe that the biggest attack surface of IE is actually the usage it its rendering engine by Office. So doesn't it make more sense to update office instead?

This is probably the primary use case. Although modified FM radio receivers could easily receive analog TV audio it just would be a harder sell.

Also, sometimes companies do things just to show off their capabilities to the market, especially Japanese companies. Sony were the kings of this tactics back in the day.

As a side note, in the typical western FM band allocation (88 - 108MHz), the analog TV audio carrier for channel 6 would be located just under that (at 87.7MHz), and since most radio receivers could go a little under and over that range, most people could listen to channel 6 audio on the go.

This generated an entire market of "TV" stations who's main purpose was to broadcast audio, in the United States they were nicknamed "Franken-FMs".

Paraphrasing something that I once heard in a podcast:

"Getting a crossed line on the telephone was the internet of the 80's".

This read almost exactly like an Uncyclopedia article.

This is the best bet if the OP is looking for an existential thriller.

I rambled on and forgot to make my point.

My point is, maybe the same way those markets couldn't figure out the fact act of creating a "digital faucet" did not automatically made all the existing faucets "analog", this guy can't figure out that because he made a piece of software that can do things without being explicitly told what to do, does not automatically make it "AI".

His replies make me reminisce the good old days when digital TV was first introduced in my native Brazil all the way back in 2007.

It was most people's first contact with actual HD video (remember, DVD's were king back in the day with a resolution of 720x480).

Suddenly, everything needed to be "digital"! You saw combination front-door locks being rebranded as "digital locks", ovens with a timer function being rebranded as "digital ovens", motion sensing faucets being sold as "digital faucets" (although this one specifically felt more like a hail mary to get those insufferable things some traction in the home market). You get the idea, any old regular household item that they could stick a piezo buzzer in there was trying to surf the hype wave.

But my all time favorite was when they tried to rebrand video doorbells as "digital doorman's", which is ironic because it relied on 100% analog composite video. lol.

The same thing happened again when Avatar (the movie) sparked the resurgence of 3D movies, with some companies being as desperate as releasing "3D White" toothpaste into the market. Fun times.

Black Mirror's Christmas Special (White Christmas) comes to mind. Seem to fit the bill almost to a T.

The only difference being that the AI's are clones made from real humans.