My dad just donated a bunch of glass sheet negatives that the city of Seattle was throwing away back in the fifties when his dad worked there. Gave them to the museum of history and industry here in Seattle. My grandpa knew they were valuable, also had his own photography studios before that. He even made a traveling studio to use during the war so he could go to the customers and develop the film, and prints right there. It was a custom made trailer with everything built in.
My daughter has a Polaroid knockoff that has been a popular thing in Asia, it is cool to see her plan her shots instead of what we all now do with digital media storage.
My daughter has a Polaroid knockoff that has been a popular thing in Asia, it is cool to see her plan her shots instead of what we all now do with digital media storage.
People are searching for good vibrations, and it is hard to find a place where your can make really good things on this planet. During my student hollidays, i've worked as a cabinetmaker in the industry and i've made tons of toilet doors for the hotels and trains. I'm absolutely certain that my work and my energy had given huge amount of satifaction to millions of people and i will go to a kind of heaven when i die. How will you define "better" threads, how can you measure the reader pleasure ?
I struggle with computers, even though I used to be an IT consultant. The reason is that they keep changing, unlike audio electronics. Not necessarily improving, just changing. I left the industry because I was tired of running to stand still. These days I can now forget things quicker than I can learn them, especially if they are arbitrary (or appear so to me). To do X I have to Google it; six months later if I have to do it again I have to Google it again. It may tell me that first I have to do Y, so I have to Google that too.
Yes, 'private facts' seem to be more common these days.Evenharmonics said:
I have sometimes come across people who think of themselves as having great audio experience, yet Ohm's law seems to confuse them. One problem, of course, is that Ohm's law is not a law of physics (unlike, for example, Kirchoff's two laws) but merely a statement that most conductors turn out to be approximately linear for reasons which can be explained. Thermodynamics is routinely quibbled by people who believe in quantum magic, such as devices which can distinguish between noise and signal, even though they do not always realise they are quibbling.Pano said:
I'm happy to discuss my scanning process, but, none of the slides are "art", I'm just trying to preserve old family images from back in day when we had a lot more hair and a waistline. Plus there was more of us on the earth back then, rather than under it. It can be a sad endeavour.
There are quite a few different topics in this poorly focused thread, but it's interesting that you pick out this one as first on your list. Yes, there are new generations of DIY'ers that are intimidated by this forum, and yes, there are ways the forum could change to accommodate this new talent and address their needs.
My #1 concern is related but somewhat different: my concern is that audio technology has evolved and created new markets and new technology thrusts, especially in the last 5 years (see this chart). And in order to be relevant to the new generation of DIY'ers, this site needs to have new discussion areas or else some other way to organize and search (the use of tags is one possible solution).
So you have some people who want this site to evolve and meet new user needs and address new audio technologies. And yet there is a very large and vocal contingent who do not want this site to change, and get defensive when any suggestions to change the site are made. There are two comments in particular that I understood as not wanting to consider changes: one comment was about this thread being against the spirit of this forum and the other suggestion was that this thread shouldn't exist, and that you were part of the problem if you didn't understand that. Obviously, there was a lot of "mud" in this thread, as Michael put it, but there were also some good nuggets of thought-provoking suggestions to make this forum a "higher quality" and more inclusive audio DIY community.
I understand why people who have lived with this forum for many years would not want to see changes or even discussions of change. After all, this site has proven to be a great site for discussion, with good technical insights, engineering innovation and high-quality analysis. But technology-oriented domains change rapidly, and it shouldn't be forbidden to question whether the same high standards that shaped this forum are still being maintained.
The forum software is going to change, and that is going to have a large impact on the "look and feel" of this site. If there is any interest in addressing the needs of a new generation of DIY'ers and to facilitate discussion on new audio technologies, this would be a good time for this community to discuss potential changes. Unfortunately, this thread went off in so many random directions that it isn't a good place anymore for a serious discussion about how to engage new talent and address new directions in audio. I think it would be productive to continue with the "gold nuggets" in this thread, but discussions of change on this site seem to make some long-timers here defensive and almost hostile. Does anyone have some ideas on how to address these issues without getting everyone riled up and how to keep the discussion on course?
The comment 'this thread being against the spirit of this forum' was mine, and it was in the context of one group deciding what was good and what was bad content. I stick with that still.
It was certainly not meant against any change; I fully agree with you on that. Maybe, following your thoughts, we should indeed look at establishing more areas about 'current technology'.
There is at least one potential problem here: the more modern the technology becomes, the less it lends itself to hobby-like diy. Building a tube amp is within reach of pretty much anyone who wants to 'make things' and doesn't have 2 left hands. Fiddling with DSP crossovers needs much more investments in various obvious fields. If you read the current AES journal literature, I have often a problem even to understand the title.
What do you think is this about: "Hybrid Approach to Speech Source Separation Depending on the Voicing State" or "Analysis of 2D Feature Spaces for Deep Learning-Based Speech Recognition"??
Jan
It was certainly not meant against any change; I fully agree with you on that. Maybe, following your thoughts, we should indeed look at establishing more areas about 'current technology'.
There is at least one potential problem here: the more modern the technology becomes, the less it lends itself to hobby-like diy. Building a tube amp is within reach of pretty much anyone who wants to 'make things' and doesn't have 2 left hands. Fiddling with DSP crossovers needs much more investments in various obvious fields. If you read the current AES journal literature, I have often a problem even to understand the title.
What do you think is this about: "Hybrid Approach to Speech Source Separation Depending on the Voicing State" or "Analysis of 2D Feature Spaces for Deep Learning-Based Speech Recognition"??
Jan
Why does everybody keep saying the software change will bring far reaching or intrinsic change? The last one didn't.
You know, I have to say, much of the true root problem this thread dances around is entry-level MBA material: the organization's (diyaudio) fundamental mission, values, objectives are not defined (or, if they are defined, they are not shared with forum members, who are important stakeholders). Just about everybody assumes their vision and objective for the forum is the correct one, and therein starts the "how dare you, sir" crap. Vision, Mission, Values, Goals, and Objectives - Whittington & Associates
If my last post was too cryptic, and anybody is really interested in reading the tons of business management material out there:
The organization is diyaudio. The management are the moderators. The staff are the regular forum members. The policies are the forum rules. The staff are continuously told the policies, but the not what should be the foundational (INSPIRATIONAL) elements of those policies (vision, mission, values). The staff are not even sure if the policies were developed in the absence of vision, or it is just not shared with them. Thus management manages by stick, punishing any rule breaking, instead of the organization encouraging and inspiring positive behaviour by promoting vision, mission, and values. Think of it this way and looks likes a ubiquitous MBA assignment question.
Again, this is not meant to be negative, but positive.
The organization is diyaudio. The management are the moderators. The staff are the regular forum members. The policies are the forum rules. The staff are continuously told the policies, but the not what should be the foundational (INSPIRATIONAL) elements of those policies (vision, mission, values). The staff are not even sure if the policies were developed in the absence of vision, or it is just not shared with them. Thus management manages by stick, punishing any rule breaking, instead of the organization encouraging and inspiring positive behaviour by promoting vision, mission, and values. Think of it this way and looks likes a ubiquitous MBA assignment question.
Again, this is not meant to be negative, but positive.
Jan-- I didn't see that the two paragraphs of your post were related. My apologies for misunderstanding your intent.
I agree that the newer technology can be a barrier to DIY, but I'm not convinced that it is significantly more difficult now than it was "back in the day". There are so many modules available now for DSP and amps and WiFi audio, so DIY is happening at a "higher level". The Maker movement has resulted in easy to use compilers for $20 32-bit processor boards that can control the DSP, and excellent software development tools such as Android Studio and Visual Studio can be used to control the modules. Sure, there are learning curves for these tools, but the tools are free and the amount of online help is astonishing.
I don't see the new DIY challenges as that much more difficult than the problems we had to solve in the early days of audio. Back in 1974 or so I wrote an article for Audio Amateur on the "Folded and Stapled Horn", and in order to calculate the horn dimensions I had to borrow our neighbor's new-fangled Sharp calculator. I spent many days crunching numbers and evaluating different designs that today could be done in seconds with a spreadsheet and simple CAD tools. I'm sure there are many, many other examples on this board where DIY'ers pushed the boundaries of what is possible for the DIY'er. The development of all of those spreadsheet-based modeling and simulation tools about 15 years ago is another example where the DIY community worked together to make complex crossover design a reality for the DIY'er.
And with these new tools and readily available modules, I see a lot of opportunities for DIY audio as a community effort. The technical challenges are different than before, but I see a lot of opportunities for Wireless speakers with DSP that are within the reach of many DIY'ers. There are also new possibilities in line array systems (such as CBT) that are easier to address with the new software tools, and 3D printing is likely to be a new frontier for audio DIY'ers, for waveguides and cabinet miniaturization. Some of the new technology is out of the reach of the DIY'er, but that has always been the case, and I think that overall there still are many opportunities for the DIY'er.
I agree that the newer technology can be a barrier to DIY, but I'm not convinced that it is significantly more difficult now than it was "back in the day". There are so many modules available now for DSP and amps and WiFi audio, so DIY is happening at a "higher level". The Maker movement has resulted in easy to use compilers for $20 32-bit processor boards that can control the DSP, and excellent software development tools such as Android Studio and Visual Studio can be used to control the modules. Sure, there are learning curves for these tools, but the tools are free and the amount of online help is astonishing.
I don't see the new DIY challenges as that much more difficult than the problems we had to solve in the early days of audio. Back in 1974 or so I wrote an article for Audio Amateur on the "Folded and Stapled Horn", and in order to calculate the horn dimensions I had to borrow our neighbor's new-fangled Sharp calculator. I spent many days crunching numbers and evaluating different designs that today could be done in seconds with a spreadsheet and simple CAD tools. I'm sure there are many, many other examples on this board where DIY'ers pushed the boundaries of what is possible for the DIY'er. The development of all of those spreadsheet-based modeling and simulation tools about 15 years ago is another example where the DIY community worked together to make complex crossover design a reality for the DIY'er.
And with these new tools and readily available modules, I see a lot of opportunities for DIY audio as a community effort. The technical challenges are different than before, but I see a lot of opportunities for Wireless speakers with DSP that are within the reach of many DIY'ers. There are also new possibilities in line array systems (such as CBT) that are easier to address with the new software tools, and 3D printing is likely to be a new frontier for audio DIY'ers, for waveguides and cabinet miniaturization. Some of the new technology is out of the reach of the DIY'er, but that has always been the case, and I think that overall there still are many opportunities for the DIY'er.
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I think the forum members are more like customers, the Mod crew being management and staff at the same time.
Jan
No. The product being produced is forum content. The mods produce what, 0.1%, 0.01% of that?
The content is not the product. The product is the forum environment allowing members/customers to interact, learn, etc.
The content is just the tool.
The mods and Jason provide that product, that environment.
Jan
The content is just the tool.
The mods and Jason provide that product, that environment.
Jan
No. This place models very closely to a charitable organization, where the staff may be volunteers, and indeed may even donate to the organization.
The customers are advertisers and those folks selling things. Members donate content (of varying utility), also consume it, and may become customers of forum's customers (see above).
Another thing that is important for any organization is to be able to measure things of importance. We are used to thinking in terms of electrical and acoustical measurements, and recognize the importance of doing so. One issue that came up recently is that there is no way to measure thread performance in terms of posts, views, attachments, and moderator interventions, more or less in real time (months, quarters, etc.). All that is available are stats accumulated over years since diyaudio first came into existence.
Leadership and followership are too complicated to get into here, but one way to think about them is that the former can't exist without the latter.
Another thing that is important for any organization is to be able to measure things of importance. We are used to thinking in terms of electrical and acoustical measurements, and recognize the importance of doing so. One issue that came up recently is that there is no way to measure thread performance in terms of posts, views, attachments, and moderator interventions, more or less in real time (months, quarters, etc.). All that is available are stats accumulated over years since diyaudio first came into existence.
Leadership and followership are too complicated to get into here, but one way to think about them is that the former can't exist without the latter.
@Neil Davis- "There are quite a few different topics in this poorly focused thread, but it's interesting that you pick out this one as first on your list. Yes, there are new generations of DIY'ers that are intimidated by this forum, and yes, there are ways the forum could change to accommodate this new talent and address their needs."
Neil, I don't go online and post to a audio DIY forum to write my "focused thread" just for intimidating people like you.
Neil, I don't go online and post to a audio DIY forum to write my "focused thread" just for intimidating people like you.
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