jakdedert said:
I seem to remember, back in the early 80's, that you were supposed to be
able to spread peanut butter and jam on a CD and it would still play.
Then again, according the the science magazines of the 50's, we should be
flying to work in our personal flivvers today.....
jak
We used to have a really good 'everyday science' programme here on TV called
"Tomorrows World", which sadly, has gone now ( I was even on it once ! ) I
can clearly remember that exact demo being done on both a vinyl record and a
CD. The presenter took one of each, that he had previously shown playing,
then smeared jam, and tipped the contents of an ash tray, on to each. Then
came the clever bit - he wiped them both off with a cloth ... Of course, the
vinyl no longer played ... But I bet it would have, if a little care was
taken over giving it a warm water and soap wash. The other one that I saw
demonstrated, was a CD with a quarter inch hole drilled in it, showing how
good the error correction systems are. Vinyl couldn't survive that and still
play !
I guess it looks like I'm a bit of a Luddite regarding digital stuff, on
this thread, but actually, I'm not. I think that for the most part, digital
equipment is really excellent, and that any shortcomings that a particular
item may have, are often well outweighed by the benefits. Digital cell for
instance. Can be a bit metallic sounding compared to an analogue landline,
but look how versatile and useful it is. CD. If you are an audiophile, some
content sounds a bit 'bright' or harsh, but just look at the advantages.
Likewise, DVD over tape, and computers and computer display technology, are
nothing short of 'magic', given their complexity. I even don't have a
problem with digital TV when it's done right - ie allowing sufficient
bandwidth to not have to compress the signal enough that high data rate
areas of the picture generate significant motion artifacts. There is of
course space to do this up on the sat bands, if you've got the money to
lease a high bandwidth transponder. I don't have a problem at all with
movies being received by my sat box, and displayed on my analogue CRT TV.
Where I do have a problem, is when the digital technology does not enhance
the experience, and where its shortcomings actually detract from the
experience rather than being 'neutral' or even masked. Current public
entertainment, and the display / reproduction technology for it, seems to
fall into this category. Digital radio, for instance, employs such high data
compression rates at some times of the day on some stations, that it's like
listening to a Dalek. LCD and plasma TVs generate all sorts of unwanted
artifacts, that become even worse if displaying a low data rate digital
channel. Which brings me right back to digital cinema projection, but
probably, 'nuff said now, as this was an OT thread that I started in the
first place ... d;~}
Arfa