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Comment Loudness war comes to TV programming (Score 1) 289

Maintaining contrast with the adverts was the only reason networks didn't remove all the dynamic range from the programming. Now that the contrast is illegal, there's nothing stopping channel vs. channel competition for loudness. Just as election campaigns target the swing voters, TV producers care about the channel flippers, and being louder than the competition is an easy way to grab their attention.

This law has the perverse consequence of making *everything* sound as bad as the adverts.

Comment Re:Start with your chair, monitor, keyboard setup (Score 1) 235

I also change my sitting position frequently. I removed my chair's arm rests to allow more flexibility.

I use a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000, which has a great layout but poor quality rubber dome keyswitches. Several people on the geekhack.org keyboard forums have modded these to use mechanical keyswitches, so maybe I'll do the same.

Comment Re:Jaded (Score 1) 77

A good modern low self-discharge NiHM (eg. 2nd generation Eneloop) can survive more charge cycles than lithium ion, and has better self-discharge performance. Capacity is a bit worse than traditional NiMH, but it's still a lot better than NiCd. It would probably be possible to build a NiMH that meets your specifications for electric vehicles.

Comment Re:Rechargeables? (Score 1) 297

Tried a low self-discharge NiMH? I strongly recommend the 2nd generation Eneloops. Excellent self-discharge performance and lots of charge cycles. Better high current performance than alkalines too. It's very rare to find something that won't run on 1.2V cells nowadays.

Comment Re:Suggested test fails (Score 1) 125

Do you use a wireless mouse? Some of them update only at about 60Hz, so you'll not see the benefit in window dragging. And even with a wired mouse, the default 100Hz (Linux) or 125Hz (Windows) mouse update rate isn't fast enough to guarantee updating every frame on a 120Hz monitor, so you'll need to change mousepoll (Linux) or install a hacked hidusbf with test certificate (Windows). It's also possible your window compositing system is capped at 60fps. IIRC correctly Compiz does that unless you change some hidden setting, and maybe Aero does too. I don't use compositing.

The difference between 60Hz and 120Hz is extremely obvious if you're actually updating every frame. I refused to use a LCD until 120Hz LCDs were available, and even that's just barely adequate. A 200Hz CRT is clearly smoother.

Comment Re:Typical microsoft... (Score 1) 168

All FPSs have some randomness to them, because of random player spawns, and because optimal play involves moving unpredictably. When players are limited by bad hardware they reach a point where significant skill differences are no longer possible and the randomness dominates. With high quality hardware (and good game design) the player skill difference dominates.

Comment Re:Typical microsoft... (Score 1) 168

The better hardware you have the more you can benefit from high skill. High level console play has too much randomness because the players are bottlenecked by the controller/autoaim/low fps/small fov/etc. High level PC play often ends in very one-sided matches where small skill differences can be decisive. It's the difference between casual and hardcore play.

Comment Re:Great. (Score 1) 325

Not going to work, because of latency. Some animations eg. Mario's legs are only decorative, but others, eg. an enemy preparing to attack, are important game information and shouldn't be delayed at all. There's no way to algorithmically distinguish between them so even the important information will be delayed 1/4 to 1/2 second.

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