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Comment: Re:And Harry Nyquist is rolling around in his grav (Score 2) 255

by Lluc (#40040325) Attached to: Dolby's TrueHD 96K Upsampling To Improve Sound On Blu-Rays

You can't improve audio quality of *audible frequencies* by increasing resolution of the horizontal axis (sampling frequency) beyond a rate which surpasses the Nyquist frequency for human hearing.

Nyquist-Shannon notwithstanding, the range of human hearing is wider than 20kHz.

http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~boyk/spectra/spectra.htm (a properly conducted experiment)

That said, doubling the sampling rate isn't going to do anything for a digital signal. At best, the new signal will simply play each of the old signal's samples twice.

Just because musical instruments produce frequencies above 20kHz (as shown in your link), it doesn't mean that the average human can hear them. Younger people can hear frequencies up to ~20kHz, and maybe a bit above, but most middle age adults probably cut off around 15kHz or lower. Here's one study showing 18-24 yr olds who can mostly hear 24kHz, but they're generating the sound at 117 dB -- a very dangerous level for more than just a few seconds. (http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00206098409070087?journalCode=ija)

Listening to loud sounds (>85dB) for extended periods of time will decrease the high frequency response of the human ear, so I wonder if high frequency hearing in children and teens of the last decade or two will have even worse hearing that their parents due to the ubiquitous white ear buds.

Space

SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace Team Up to Push Private Space Missions->

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes "SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace (BA) have joined forces in an attempt to woo international customers looking to enjoy some extended periods of microgravity. The joint marketing effort will push trips to orbiting Bigelow habitats on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft using the Falcon launch vehicle."
Link to Original Source

Game Of Thrones On Track To Be Most Pirated Show Of 2012; Pirates Still Asking H->

Submitted by
TheGift73
TheGift73 writes "Much like the North, Game of Thrones cannot be held—it's too big and too wild. Matthew Inman warned HBO that they should make their content more accessible or risk driving people to piracy, but that isn't really HBO's style. Now jilocasin points us to the news that Game of Thrones is well on track to be the most torrented show of 2012, and nobody can deny that HBO's foolish subscriber-only distribution is a primary reason for that. Approximately 25-million times have people decided to pay the iron price for the show, and as the comments on Reddit attest, it's often because the gold price wasn't even an option. Others pay for the show but still pirate for the sake of occasional convenience:"
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Businesses

Facebook To Go Public On Friday, May 18-> 1

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes "The IPO on everyone's minds for the past few years — and possibly the biggest one in history — is upon us: Facebook will finally make its Wall Street debut on Friday, May 18, 2012. Sources also say Facebook will begin its IPO roadshow on Monday, May 7, and will eventually list its shares on the Nasdaq (not NYSE) with the ticker symbol "FB." Facebook looks to raise anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion during its roadshow to achieve a $100 billion valuation, which would make it one of the biggest IPOs of all-time."
Link to Original Source
Education

MIT & Harvard start new online education partnership->

Submitted by Lluc
Lluc writes "MIT and Harvard have started a new online education partnership called edX, an "open-source technology platform to deliver online courses." They plan to offer classes starting in Fall 2012. Perhaps this nonprofit venture is a better method for online education than Udacity, the startup created by Stanford professors after their wildly successful free online course offerings."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Sooner rather than later... (Score 2) 648

by Lluc (#39850501) Attached to: Hulu To Require Viewers To Have Cable Subscriptions
Microsoft and Comcast already have authentication worked out for viewing channels on your Xbox 360. They require you to log in with your Comcast account, which knows if you're paying for channels. I can't believe it would take years to do the same thing for Hulu. In any case, I've cut the cord and won't be going back even if they stop broadcasting TV over the air.
Microsoft

Microsoft forges ahead with new home-automation OS, HomeOS->

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes "More than a decade ago, Microsoft execs, led by Chairman Bill Gates, were touting a future where .Net coffee pots, bulletin boards, and refrigerator magnets would be part of homes where smart devices would communicate and interoperate. Microsoft hasn't given up on that dream. In 2010, Microsoft researchers published a white paper about their work on a HomeOS and a HomeStore — early concepts around a Microsoft Research-developed home-automation system. Those concepts have morphed into prototypes since then, based on a white paper, "An Operating System for the Home," (PDF) published this month on the Microsoft Research site.

The core of HomeOS is described in the white paper as "a kernel that is agnostic to the devices to which it provides access, allowing easy incorporation of new devices and applications. The HomeOS itself "runs on a dedicated computer in the home (e.g., the gateway) and does not require any modifications to commodity devices," the paper added. Microsoft has been testing HomeOS in 12 real homes over the past four to eight months, according to the latest updates. As is true with all Microsoft Research projects, there's no guarantee when and if HomeOS will be commercialized, or even be "adopted" by a Microsoft product group."
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Microsoft

Microsoft Makes $300M Investment In New Barnes & Noble Subsidiary

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes "Barnes & Noble has found a new, major partner in its fight to get an edge over Amazon and Apple in the market for e-books and the devices being used to consume them: it is teaming up with Microsoft in what the two are calling a strategic partnership, name yet to be determined. It will come in the form of a new subsidiary of B&N that will include all of its Nook business as well as its educational College business. Microsoft is making a $300 million investment in the subsidiary, valuing the company at $1.7 billion in exchange for around 17.6 percent equity in the subsidiary.

The new company, referred to for the moment as Newco, will contain B&N’s digital business, as well as its College division. While Microsoft will take 17.6 percent, B&N will own 82.4 percent of the venture. And there is a legal twist to the deal, too: the two companies say they have definitely sorted out their patent litigation now: “Moving forward, Barnes & Noble and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft’s patents for its NOOK eReader and Tablet products,” the two write in the release below."

"Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago." -- Bernard Berenson