[X] My Assistant

Lol, I only just noticed windows was set to 16bit. Maybe 24bit sounds different, can really tell on my current headphones.

Honestly, on account of the roughly logarithmic nature of human hearing, those extra bits of detail don't account for very much. It's just a finer gradient after all.

Sample rate is much, much, much more critical.

I still capture vinyl and whatnot in 24-bit, just because of the idea of "preservation," but I really don't notice a difference myself. The primary time you even need over 48KHz is if you plan to do editing or speed changes in software (correcting for a fast cassette deck/turntable, for instance).

I have bought a few new-old-stock records - mostly rock and psych records from the 60's/70's, but also one or two movie theatre pipe organ recordings - and transferred their first plays, setting recording levels first using secondary shit copies from ebay.
(if you happen to be into that, PM me and I can share some. Sort of wonder how good/bad they would sound on your headphones now. But I know this stuff isn't everyone's cuppa.)

Of course, even the organ recordings might not have been the best to begin with, but they still sound pleasant to me.
Sample (pipe organ recording). This is actually a really bad example because I accidentally captured it using the 'phono' mode instead of the amplified/filtered version. So it's got a kind of bad noise floor problem. Once the organ gets playing, it's not too bad though. I find pipe organs get a lot of range. And movie theater organs even have percussive instruments.
But it's one of the ones that I didn't upload anywhere already on account of my fuckup, so it can't dox me if I share it outside a PM.
[files.catbox.moe] https://files.catbox.moe/u1f3pd.flac

Pops and cracks are much more noticeable with these headphones. But especially towards the inner edge of the records, stuff doesn't sound too bad to me (vinyl is lower quality near the outer edge).

Maybe i'll just stick it to 24/48khz.

I do 16/48KHz (mainly because of the classic Audigy 2 resampling problems). 24/48KHz should also be fine. Nyquist theorem says that should be plenty.

I have a couple cards that do 24/48 (or higher) well, but I just like the versatility of my Audigy 2 under Linux for things like mixing inputs together or doing wavetable synthesis on the card.

Not sure how to get automatic switching working, maybe it doesn't have that feature.

All I remember is you have to make the windows built-in sound mixer behave on Vista and up; by default it downsamples everything anyway.

I have one pair of ultra detailed headphones but everything sounds crap with them unless its really well mastered.

Yeah. Ironically, old vinyl rips sound better than a lot of CD's on mine.

Most of my CD's are from the 80s/early 90s when they just re-used the tapes they used for the Vinyl, with the RIAA curve on them. So I can't win there either.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 9 2022, 07:57

Last time I tried ripping vinyls I think the line level was too low, they ended up being pretty poor copies.

Last time I tried ripping vinyls I think the line level was too low, they ended up being pretty poor copies.

Yeah, my turntable has a switch on the back. My A/V receiver has "phono" connections so I tend to use those with it, but I forgot to change the switch to "line level" on that recording.

If you're interested though I do have a couple examples where I did everything right.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 9 2022, 18:30

Tried to connect a usb disk to my internet box to use it instead of the internal disk for a big torrent since space on internal disk is limited, but it kept crashing.
At first I thought I found a setting that may shut down a disk for power saving, but turning it off had no effect, and it was referring to SATA anyway, probably unrelated.
So I copied the data to the internal disk, and after starting a torrent using that data folder, and a very very long verification, it worked just fine.
Guess USB was a bad idea, or maybe it was a download speed issue, or torrent being too big and it caused a specific issue, or who know what?

This post has been edited by uareader: Feb 9 2022, 21:36

turns out lubing cassettes with silicon oil/lube totally works even when they're completely stuck and sound like they're on their last legs, very good day today. all the old cassettes I thought were a goner sound fine again

turns out lubing cassettes with silicon oil/lube totally works even when they're completely stuck and sound like they're on their last legs, very good day today. all the old cassettes I thought were a goner sound fine again

Good to hear.

In a stunning display of sheer optimism, today I decided to try to use the official windscribe "app" so that I could send a log via their stupid API. Even though I already sent them a log via email containing the OpenVPN console output (which is useless).

Lo and behold, that's broken too.

CODE

$ windscribe sendlog
API Error: No API Connectivity

So I deleted my sandbox VM and let them know they suck (in such a way that I think I still sound polite on the surface). I know I'm past the refund point, but I still am holding out hope of getting my money back if I just keep bugging them.

They seem like they're selling an "experience" (SaaS) more than they are selling a VPN subscription service.

(IMG:[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/jB482iv.jpg)



This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 10 2022, 22:37

Today using my laptop, I saw in Windows Update the invitation to install Win 11 made more flashy with colors and stuff (oh no).
But luckily, there was an option to remove this invitation AND of course not install Win 11 (oh yes).
But the text of the button was "not now", so it will definitely come back (oh no).

Well, one more thing to add to the antivirus rants about not having setup "protection in the cloud" and "randomly upload my personal files" so that Microsoft can look for pics of my dick (spoiler: there are none) or my bank info or something.

I've said it before, but you are bringing this on yourself at this point by continuing to not switch to something that respects your ownership of your hardware.

Discovered Creative still makes/sells a card that uses a derivative of the DSP from the Sound Blaster Live!.

(Audigy Rx.)

According to [www.alsa-project.org] https://www.alsa-project.org/files/pub/data...ative/m2049.pdf , E-Mu designed the chipset in or prior to 1999. So we're coming up on a quarter century in production now. Impressive (although it's probably just Creative staying stuck in its ways).

That said the current generation chips are apparently of lower quality than the one in my Audigy 2 ZS, specifically the now-integrated DAC and discrete transistor amplifier. Apparently, they are much noisier. This card seems to be Audigy 4-derived (and the 4 was basically a cost cutting measure).

Essentially they put a PCI/PCIe bridge on an Audigy 4 and are still using the same old EMU10K1/EMU10K2 DSP, with all the limitations of that design and almost none of the nice things about the 2 that keep me using mine. Only upshot is PCIe. They still want $50 for that shit when I can get a 2 ZS for $5-10.

Windscribe update:

After some testing, we have tracked the issue down to a regression in our handling of TCP keepalives in our streaming redirection system.

We are deploying a fix to the following locations as a canary test, with a wide release within the next few days if all looks good. In the meantime you should be able to bypass this issue by turning off the "unlock streaming" option.
--snip--

So it appears this "unlock streaming" option breaks "streaming" (i.e., long-duration TCP connections)? That's incredible.

Putting aside how I feel about that "feature" even existing in the first place, I suppose the idea is that they wanted you to pay for "premium" or they'd kill your connections every 90 seconds. But instead they just fucked up peoples' connections if they WERE paying for the "premium" service.

I'd wondered if it was related to that setting, but then thought "Nah, they can't be that stupid." Guess I'm wrong once again. But I am glad they eventually pulled their heads out of the sand, even if it did take over a month.

if they hadn't done so, I had a nice big rant I was going to plaster everywhere I could that prospective VPN users might be looking at, starting today. Once I've had a nap I'll test their "fixed" locations and see if I still need to post it.

And whaddya know, it wasn't something their "app" (openvpn/wireguard wrapper) would have helped with anyway. Just like i said.
(IMG:[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/WvLFVw7.png)
Several additional warnings later:
(IMG:[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/UIFZu9t.png)

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 12 2022, 12:50

That said the current generation chips are apparently of lower quality than the one in my Audigy 2 ZS, specifically the now-integrated DAC and discrete transistor amplifier. Apparently, they are much noisier. This card seems to be Audigy 4-derived (and the 4 was basically a cost cutting measure).

I have felt that their cards have just been hardware DRM for audio drivers and dolby stuff for a while now.

I have felt that their cards have just been hardware DRM for audio drivers and dolby stuff for a while now.

You aren't wrong about that for a lot of their newer ones, especially. But the emu10k1 has very good linux drivers.

Actually, it has good third party windows drivers as well that expose a lot of extra functionality (KX project). Though 64 bit Windows NT 6.x+ code signing enforcement gets irritating. I consider WHQL and windows driver signatures to be at least 50% DRM as well.

About windscribe again:

Also, anyone who submitted a support request about this issue should send me the ticket number so we can investigate why we didn't attempt to diagnose this sooner.

I hope people see that message, and I also sincerely hope I wasn't the only one who reported the issue in over a month.

I tried one of their servers that they were staging their test on, and it seems to be working properly now. That's a month of my life I'm not getting back.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 12 2022, 22:28

You aren't wrong about that for a lot of their newer ones, especially. But the emu10k1 has very good linux drivers.

Actually, it has good third party windows drivers as well that expose a lot of extra functionality (KX project). Though 64 bit Windows NT 6.x+ code signing enforcement gets irritating. I consider WHQL and windows driver signatures to be at least 50% DRM as well.

I find that good third party drivers make a huge difference for sound cards. I am not sure why the manufactures don't give a shit. After XP they started putting in the bare minimum effort for sound cards. On board chips became better, but driver support for them is also hit or miss.

I ended up going with external DACs because of the interference from graphics cards though.

May overlap with gaming, but oh well.
I had decided to start replaying a PS1 game on emulator, so went first to the one I knew (for confidence that it would have compatibility with at least the game I know, and the fact I would know how to configure it to get best results).
Things sure have changed, and the game I was trying to play, at some point was slowing down a ton, obviously because of some major issue as PS1 games on modern hardware could not possibly cause that (even...maybe it was 10~15 years ago, even in the past it would already be unthinkable).
I tried another emulator, but now I'm facing 2 issues:
1. Not compatible with search finding through the program Cheat Engine.
2. Rather than lagging or missing scenes or display wrong or freezing, that thing can just shutdown without warning or explanation (may be my first emulator ever to do that).

*sigh*

I find that good third party drivers make a huge difference for sound cards. I am not sure why the manufactures don't give a shit. After XP they started putting in the bare minimum effort for sound cards. On board chips became better, but driver support for them is also hit or miss.

I ended up going with external DACs because of the interference from graphics cards though.

Yeah, i've considered building a faraday cage for my card with cardboard and tinfoil- although the noise level is low enough on mine that I only hear anything with it cranked all the way up and my loudspeakers also cranked. So I probably won't.

had decided to start replaying a PS1 game on emulator, so went first to the one I knew (for confidence that it would have compatibility with at least the game I know, and the fact I would know how to configure it to get best results).
Things sure have changed, and the game I was trying to play, at some point was slowing down a ton, obviously because of some major issue as PS1 games on modern hardware could not possibly cause that (even...maybe it was 10~15 years ago, even in the past it would already be unthinkable).
I tried another emulator, but now I'm facing 2 issues:
1. Not compatible with search finding through the program Cheat Engine.
2. Rather than lagging or missing scenes or display wrong or freezing, that thing can just shutdown without warning or explanation (may be my first emulator ever to do that).

The best PS1 emulator is the one in Mednafen.

I'm guessing you were using ePSXe or PCSXr?

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 13 2022, 18:27

I'll be moving away by end this month. I'll be packing my monitor and desktop PC into their respective boxes. But I'll also be taking out the GPU, CPU cooler and possibly the PSU as well and packed them separately in a different box. I feel afraid the size and weight of the CPU cooler and GPU might lead to issues during transportation of the PC in a cargo truck.

I brought a pack of disposable black trash plastic bags from the site office, thinking I could use them to wrap the boxes. But the plastic bags are generating a good amount of static charge, strong enough to attract my clothes on contact or body hair a few centimeters away.

It is a bad idea to proceed using these plastic bags even if all the electronic stuffs are packed inside cardboard boxes, right? Can the static charges generated by the plastic bags however go away on it own, maybe leaving them somewhere else first for several days after I took them out from its packaging?

I'll be moving away by end this month. I'll be packing my monitor and desktop PC into their respective boxes. But I'll also be taking out the GPU, CPU cooler and possibly the PSU as well and packed them separately in a different box. I feel afraid the size and weight of the CPU cooler and GPU might lead to issues during transportation of the PC in a cargo truck.

You can also get foam or those instapak expanders to fill in the gaps inside the PC if you have a large tower.

Usually I transported PCs/Laptops in my car instead of by removalists.

Usually I transported PCs/Laptops in my car instead of by removalists.

The original plan was to use the company's 4x4 as before many times, once the current construction project ends. Because the news is that my (now former) employer is negotiating contract for a new project in the same town, I initially thought my job is secure for the long term. Just received the bad news from the HR Dept. According to my assistant engineer, her husband who also worked in the same company but at a different site was also being let go.

I would've bought a car. I was planning it back in 2017 but my mother instead wanted to move to Kuching and the rest of the siblings agreed. Unfortunately, they had me be the one who pay for the house loan.

This post has been edited by elda88: Feb 14 2022, 12:08

it took four years, but i finally got 60fps tear-free 720p+ video playback working on my Powerbook G4.

Only works with mplayer, since mpv removed the all the useful and performant video output drivers (as usual).

CODE

mplayer -vo xvidix:radeon file.mkv

The one downside is that it has to run as root (or use a library like svgalib_helper) in order to do DMA into the framebuffer.

Oh well. Setuid it is.

I guess this means the problem was bus throughput after all. I'd kind of given up hope of ever seeing good video playback on this laptop.

edit: just saved 5GB in an 18GB artist CG directory by hardlinking all the identical checksummed files together (they're sorted into a bunch of categories and there are dupes).

The most duped image had eight copies.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Feb 15 2022, 06:17

Something that worked like a booru, bit locally, would be really slick. Even moreso if you could import tags from booru, e621, etc posts.

Something that worked like a booru, bit locally, would be really slick. Even moreso if you could import tags from booru, e621, etc posts.