Moron of the day:

Alessandro MS-1 Headphone Bid, Goes Over The Retail Price, Why?

"You know I hate people paying overboard for headphones, but when it comes to people bidding over the odds for used gear, it really gets my goat up. I saw this weekend a pair of Alessandro MS-1 headphones which had reached over £53, and that’s not including the shipping cost, and there was a day or so bidding time left.

Sorry, I forget to mark it, and watch the final bid. However even at a bid price of £53 plus shipping on top (which if I can remember rightly was £7) I new the game was over, and that some poor person was paying way over the top. Much as everyone loves Alessandro, personally, I love saving money more, and this site/blog is here to make sure we all get a fair price.

At today’s exchange rate, the Alessandro MS-1’s are:

99.00 USD = 50.8334 GBP

And that includes shipping! Sorry to whoever, paid over the top. Although in all fairness, you’ve got a lovely pair of headphones."

Source

While this applies not only to audio when it comes to online auctions (there are always morons out there, both buyers and sellers who think that something is worth much more than what it is), it also happens rather frequently in audio for new items. A lot of times people pay more for something not worth its price, especially popular consumer big brand names. Note that I'm not just talking about brands that are widely known by a normal consumer, but also other less big brand names like ******* and ****** (censored, insert the brand you want here) that are hyped up by specific interest groups. It's all for a sense of security, wanting to feel that you made the right decision, so you follow the words and actions of others for that and in order to be accepted. Actions are still okay, how right are the words? Think about it.

Pyramid scheme

(still looking for a job... i think)

Looking at some non-agency-based job offers, seems like there are still traces of it here and there.

Sad that there are still fellow Singaporeans falling for it.

Meh, natural selection.

Random thought of the day

Somebody somewhere once said that, "hybrid tube-SS amp combines the disadvantages of both"

I saw the same thing today on TV.

No not tube amps. Starhuck's digital TV broadcast is well-known for being full of digital compression artifects, most noticably the macroblocks. But on top from that I'm also seeing analogue noise.

That's because I'm connected via the RF coaxial cable.

So, now we're getting both analogue and digital artifects by switching to DTV. Hooray.

One more entry for Murphy's law:

Bugs (in computers) tend to happen only when you're asleep and when you left the computer on overnight to do something important that would take a long time and is time-essential

Quote of the day:

"Up to -20dB ambient moise rejection"

So... it rejects ambient moise? Moisture I presume? But since when is humidity measured in dB?

Quote of the day (super good!!!)

"IIRC, the reason why optical cables are 2m only is precisely because that's about the limit for their use. It wasn't designed to be used for long distances. I would think at longer distances you might get better results with SPDIF."

This statement is so good, I don't even need to explain why.

And no, it's not by me, even though I do write a lot of bullsh!t on this blog, but that's why I have a blog, to contain all my bullsh!t instead of sending it flying on the forums.

This quote actually existed and is found on the net. Existed since 77 minutes ago and found 29 minutes ago to be precise.

Also, no need to comment to explain the technical details, I know, you know, many already know, you'd be better off writing that on the forums. Gets more rep points, too.

Random thought of the day: Flat finish =/= Mirror finish

When talking about this two terms together, one has to be talking about heatsinks. The base of the heatsink to be precise.

Most heatsink bases are predominantly flat, although some concave examples have been found lately.

And people like to sand their heatsinks till their base is mirror-like.

I would like to point out, that a mirror finish does not mean it's flat.

Why something looks like a mirror can be explained using primary or secondary school physics, so I won't go deep into that.

Basically, any smooth (enough) surface will have a mirror finish.

But that doesn't mean it's flat. A curved surface can still have a mirror finish. Like concave mirrors, most straightforward example.

Fortunately, pros sand their heatsinks with a big flat piece of glass, so it's usually flat.

That said, if next time you sand your heatsink without the glass (using hand only, or on an non-flat surface), and you find bad contact, don't be puzzled by the mirror finish.

Kids nowadays getting richer

To be precise, parents nowadays are getting richer

This afternoon, on the bus home from Sengkang central, I saw a secondary school girl with an LG Viewty.

Says a lot isn't it?

I didn't have a handphone till Sec 3.

But then, if they are really that rich, why would they be living in Punggol?

Anime: White Album Anime out!

Actually I wanted to blog about this 3 weeks ago but due to various reasons I put it off until now.

And perhaps I should label things like "Anime", "Audio", "Reviews" in my post title to allow the non-Anime watchers to avoid reading posts of such evil nature. What do you think?

White Album, a game released in 1998 by Aquaplus famous for To-Heart and others (if I say them all out here I'll be an Otaku), was translated to Korean and given the nickname "White Drug" because of its addictive qualities

How I knew about this title was by chance. I was playing Queen Of Hearts '99 and played this stage with the two main female characters and really liked the music. I searched to return White Album (not to be confused with the Beatles). This was back in 2004 I think. These is another version of the song called White Album -Cristmas Eve-. On a sidenote, both versions are still one of my favourite listenings of all times.

The OSTs are good also. Also I find the setting good also, pretty unconventional and bit more realistic.

But the most important thing is the character designs of the two idols.

It was love at first sight.

Candidates for best idol design ever in Anime. And still unbeaten today.

I've always wanted both their models, especially Morikawa Yuki's. But, because of the lack of popularity of the series, there was never a PVC pre-painted version.

And that's the important part of the Anime. With the Anime airing in 040109, this series will get popularity, and finally I can get my hands on their figurines.

040109, isn't that like, yesterday?

I see four Chinese subbers finish the first episode already. Sadly, no English subs. But I don't blame them, the western side is more heavily influenced by the general trend; it's the Chinese that dive deeper into this evil Anime scene.

And speaking of general trend, there's something sad about this series. After lying unknown for ten years, it was made into an Anime, because there was a manga adaptation. And now there is also a PS3 version coming out.

Oh, so it was not made into an Anime because the game was good, but because the manga was good. But think, the manga was good because it was based on the game. Arrrgh, I'm confused.

Remember my previous post on Allison? That time I knew it was going to be a hit, after lying low for long before being made into an Anime. The Anime scored pretty high points and definitly not because of the artwork (or flying castles, or time-travel, or certain famous big-name producer for that matter).

Ironically, I didn't proceed to watch the Anime (at least I'm not going to watch the first half anyway) after finishing reading the book of Allison's arc. The artwork is a turn-off yes, but more importantly I found that the story was only good or better-than-average, and nothing special.

So yea, it's safe to conclude that something is famous only because it is made into an Anime (mainstream series, take a hint), not because it is good. Yes, some of them are made into Anime because they are good, but they make up only a small fraction, and most of the time heavily hit by lack of budget and effort due to low popularity. There are lots of good stories buried underneath the general trend.

Somebody really need to adapt KID's series into manga. Then perhaps we'll see Ever17 in Anime soon. And I'm sure it will be a seller.