My God, Its Full of Snake Oil

[Killingbeans]

The old trick of putting a grain of truth in a bowl of BS to make it go down easy.

Yes, cryogenically treated metals become more conductive. So what? Conductivity is not a parameter that can't be changed through other means, and we know very well how it affects a system. Conductivity obtained through cryogenic treatment is not a "special" kind of conductivity that suddenly reveals untreated metal as a hellish nightmare full of noise and distortion.

But it looks good, and it sounds very technical, so people will gladly throw money at it.

 

[FrantzM]

The old trick of putting a grain of truth in a bowl of BS to make it go down easy.

Yes, cryogenically treated metals become more conductive. So what? Conductivity is not a parameter that can't be changed through other means, and we know very well how it affects a system. Conductivity obtained through cryogenic treatment is not a "special" kind of conductivity that suddenly reveals untreated metal as a hellish nightmare full of noise and distortion.

But it looks good, and it sounds very technical, so people will gladly throw money at it.

IOW BS by any other name ...

Oh! Sorry I was out and promised not to post

 

[mansr]

View attachment 239339

I'd like to see the EMC test report for that.

 

[Galliardist]

Below 10 Kelvin you can get a superconductor...

Only good for orchestral music then?

 

[xaviescacs]

Only good for orchestral music then?

xDDD A cold-blooded one.

 

[thegeton]

I remember another thread mentioning their €6,700 record weight.

I found it funny that the coating on the stupid thing was done with sputter deposition, but got described as done in a "particle accelerator". Technically correct, but any old CRT monitor is also a "particle accelerator". Not remotely as exotic and monumental as they'd like it to sound.

And apparently they have also rebranded the poor old inductor as an "Active Tesla Coil" giving it magical properties in the process

Looks like these companies take the saying: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and twist it into: "Any customer sufficiently ignorant about technology will buy any moronic contraption as long as you describe it as being magical".



Doesn't exactly do much good for my national pride that this trifecta of nonsense has appeared in my home country.

No disrespect to the many people who rely on these three companies for a steady income, but I do in some sadistic way hope that the collaboration was initiated out of desperacy. Not that I would like to see them file for bankruptcy, but any sign of the hobby being fed up with BS is more than welcome. Best scenario would be that they throw in the towel and start making useful products rather than the ones that leech on ignorance.

Not getting my hopes up though. I have a feeling that collaboration is actually taking place in order to squeeze a bountiful lemon of stupidity even more

It's like the spammers axiom: they only need a 1% connect rate to be successful.

 

[Boris Badinov]

I have nothing to add to the thread, but the thread title brought a smile to my lips when I saw it!
Not my favorite movie of all, but in the top 10 and maybe top 5 -- and probably my single favorite director.

Lift The Pod Bay Veils, Please, HAL​

 

[fatoldgit]

I have nothing to add to the thread, but the thread title brought a smile to my lips when I saw it!
Not my favorite movie of all, but in the top 10 and maybe top 5 -- and probably my single favorite director.

I spent a while scrapping images off the movie to make my desktop. Shows most of the movie plot (except the Monolith which, being black, didnt show up to well on a black background). OS is Linux Zorin (Ubuntu with Zorin desktop)

No one I know likes the movie (or have even bothered to see it)... it doesnt fit into the Wham! Bam! Thank You, Ma'am! action movies that people like.

 

[mhardy6647]

It's a great movie. I still haven't seen a more plausible depiction of space travel. And the majesty of the whole movie is sublime.
It uses the (relatively) banal human piece of the story to emphasize how little we really are in the great scheme of things.
Plus, there's the bone-hurling scene. Phenomenal. The whole of human history in a split-second.

Oh, and an incredible soundtrack.

That said, all in all I (slightly) prefer Dr. Strangelove and (believe it or not) A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick-wise.

 

[Head_Unit]

Ansuz

Ansuz

Ansuz

I think you are all off, isn't it spelled "ZARDOZ"?!?
Hmmm...what kind of cables WOULD the monolith use? (Before, and after HAL and David Bowman were integrated*)

*I alternate between loving Arthur C. Clarke for so many great stories, and hating him for not finishing the Odyssey and telling us if HAL and David survived the final upload! Dammit inquiring minds want to know!!! "Finally Odyssey" indeed, pfui and ptui! And, what happened to the humans and the Ramans for that matter...
...I guess I shouldn't complain, since he popularized the idea of geostationary telecommunications satellites and space elevators...

 

[Blumlein 88]

It's a great movie. I still haven't seen a more plausible depiction of space travel. And the majesty of the whole movie is sublime.
It uses the (relatively) banal human piece of the story to emphasize how little we really are in the great scheme of things.
Plus, there's the bone-hurling scene. Phenomenal. The whole of human history in a split-second.

Oh, and an incredible soundtrack.

That said, all in all I (slightly) prefer Dr. Strangelove and (believe it or not) A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick-wise.

I've never cared for 2001. Feel the same way about the Shining. In both I felt the viewer is being beaten over the head with the points being rather obvious.

Now Dr. Strangelove is on my list of best movies. A Clockwork Orange is good too. I think Full Metal Jacket is better than a Clockwork Orange though Kubrick made several anti-war movies.

 

[Head_Unit]

No one I know likes the movie

Well, I never liked the ending of the book, so there's that. And the movie to me looked dated upon release-the furniture etc is trying way too hard to look futuristic. In constrast, my beloved 2010 the future looks rather similar to today with some added cues like an electric car, the dolphin pool in the living room, and such clues. I hope someone makes (GOOD!!) movies of 2061 and 3001 (which apparently has been in the works since 2014 or so ha ha). I pray his estate finds someone worthy to continue the series.

 

[drallim]

They seem big on magic rocks and metal chunks for "resonance control". A full range of inanimate objects to place in and around your audio system.

 

[Galliardist]

A couple of quick questions.
Firstly, I can't get my head around the words "passive Tesla coil". What are these things really?

Secondly, the Anti Arial Resonance control. Why do they need to control a typeface? Are other typefaces dangerous to sound? Is this finally the breakthrough we've been waiting for?

 

[Blumlein 88]

A couple of quick questions.
Firstly, I can't get my head around the words "passive Tesla coil". What are these things really?

Secondly, the Anti Arial Resonance control. Why do they need to control a typeface? Are other typefaces dangerous to sound? Is this finally the breakthrough we've been waiting for?

That was a mis-spelling in some photos. The actual maker says Anti Aerial as in radio aerial (antenna). So RFI control allegedly.

Now a real Tesla coil would transmit energy wirelessly. The implied operation here is a wound Tesla coil is intercepting RFI energy in the environment. However a counter wound Tesla coil is claimed to intercept the same energy and cancel it out like sort of kinda the way balanced wiring works when twisted together for CMRR. Of course this is all conceptually a hodge podge of garbled bollocks. Stunning preposterous levels of it. Exceeded only by the price they are charging for it.

 

[voodooless]

Secondly, the Anti Arial Resonance control. Why do they need to control a typeface? Are other typefaces dangerous to sound? Is this finally the breakthrough we've been waiting for?

Anti Comic Sans I could understand… maybe this is what the Chinese solved long ago: use as many type faces as possible on your product. It creates a kind of analog sounding jitter.

 

[voodooless]

Now a real Tesla coil would transmit energy wirelessly. The implied operation here is a wound Tesla coil is intercepting RFI energy in the environment. However a counter wound Tesla coil is claimed to intercept the same energy and cancel it out like sort of kinda the way balanced wiring works when twisted together for CMRR. Of course this is all conceptually a hodge podge of garbled bollocks. Stunning preposterous levels of it. Exceeded only by the price they are charging for it.

I’ve actually seen them talk about the noise that is already “in” the wires, and not intercepted from the air. Question is: why would it be destructive for noise, and not for the primary signal? It’s all nonsense…

 

[roog]

I find it a worry that we live in a world where someone or some organization will go to this much trouble to make something that does nothing of any benefit, what a waste of resources.

 

[fordiebianco]

Well, I never liked the ending of the book, so there's that. And the movie to me looked dated upon release-the furniture etc is trying way too hard to look futuristic. In constrast, my beloved 2010 the future looks rather similar to today with some added cues like an electric car, the dolphin pool in the living room, and such clues. I hope someone makes (GOOD!!) movies of 2061 and 3001 (which apparently has been in the works since 2014 or so ha ha). I pray his estate finds someone worthy to continue the series.

I love 2010. Guilty pleasure of mine, but there has rarely been a Sci-Fi movie with a better cast.

 

[astcal]

I am erasing Denmark from my vacation country list.