Есть возможность купить в Киеве MZ-RH1 - последнее чудо минидисковой техники Сони (мини-импорт с Американского континента в Украину, предварительный заказ).

Hi-MD recorder Sony MZ-RH1 - на сегодня лучший минидисковый рекордер, выпущенный фирмой Сони (или вообще кем-либо, когда-либо)

Неофициально причисленный к третьему поколению Hi-MD (1-епоколение - 2004 год - первые модели Hi-MD, 2-е поколение - 2005 - появилась поддержка MP3)
Выделение этого устройства в "3-е поколение" произошло не на ровном месте, а из-за того, что эти приводы имеют

Преимущества Sony MZ-RH1 (модель 2006 года) перед предыдущими выпусками Hi-MD (2005 - MZ-RHx10, 2004 - MZ-NH)

• Запоминание параметров записи при смене дисков: уровень записи и - самое главное - можно навсегда отключить АРУЗ! (т.е. полная дружелюбность к профессионалам, предпочитающим ручную регулировку уровня записи)
• Возможность сгона старых записей Atrac SP, сделанных на обычном MD оборудовании до 2004 г. выпуска (деки и портативные рекордеры), на компьютер в цифровом виде
• Также, можно производить запись в старом формате SP (80 минут на диск)
• Расположение OLED дисплея, оптимизированное для выполнения записей в профессиональных ситуациях (в сумке на поясе, в нагрудном кармане, на полке или на стопке другого оборудование)
• Совместимость с компьютерами Mac
• Графический анализатор спектра
• Правильное воспроизведение MP3 (исправлен завал выше 10 кГц, который был у моделей 2-го поколения)
• Возвращена функция Timestamp (из всех Hi-MD присутствовала только в MZ-NH1)
• Также возвращён линейный выход (имевшийся в некоторых моделях 2004)
• Уменьшены размеры: толщина 14.7 мм, вес с батареей 106 г (Li-Ion)

Само собой, сохранены все преимущества перед обычным форматом MD (MiniDisc)

• Цифровой выход (USB) - в дополнение к стандартному для MD цифровому входу S/PDIF, а также входу USB, который появился еще во времена Net-MD
• Запись в формате 2 Channel Stereo Linear PCM (44.1 kHz/16 bit) (CD-Audio) на новые диски Hi-MD 1GB. Продолжительность записи - 94 минуты (на старые диски - 28 минут)
• Увеличенная ёмкость обычных 80-минутных дисков (со 140 МБ до 300 МБ) позволяет производить запись в качестве, сопоставимом с SP, в течение 143 минут без смены диска

Описание рекордера даёт намёк - если вы подумываете о покупке обычной деки, наподобие популярной Sony MDS-JE480 - обратить внимание на возможности MZ-RH1 - это, по сути, дека в карманном исполнении с серьёзным набором дополнительных функций, таких как, например, цифровой выход на компьютер, ранее невиданных в мире MD.

Скачать руководство пользователя Sony MZ-RH1 manual в формате PDF (3.9 MB)

Для заказа напишите по адресу: himd-may06@stereo.org.ua или звоните


Ориентировочная цена $400, срок поставки - месяц.

Have you noticed how craftily mobile phone manufacturers hide the single but probably most controversial piece of information - SAR?

(SAR stands for Specific Absorption Rate - a measure of radio wave energy exposure upon a cellular phone user. It varies greatly between phone models even by the same maker)

So far only Siemens has been found to clearly state this parameter on the product pages in its website. Samsung-Europe publishes it on their website quite prominently, but not in the product manuals.

All the others producers checked (Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola) guard it pretty heavily.

For e.g. Nokia makes these data available in seemingly convenient form but keeps them on an isolated domain. Why not on the same pages with the rest of the technical data? That’s easy - to exclude them from the product selection process.

Sony-Ericsson buried this 2-significant-digit value into a 2.5 MB (!) PDF file - a dedicated monster for each single cell phone model - probably to deter the inquisitiveness of the potential customers.
FYI: it’ll take an average dial-up user (these users still comprise some 40-60% of all home users or more, depending on the market) half an hour to download this “document” of the WHOLE TWO decimal digits for only one phone model.

So why’s that?
Do they just keep customers for brainless cattle?
Do they fear that customers are going to make “wrong” purchasing decisions based on “unimportant”, but highly vexed data which SAR definitely is?

The marketer’s logic in Sony-Ericsson’s case is fairly clear: dial-up users are overly conservative folks who don’t understand the benefits of broadband which is very cool and it is very wrong not to choose new technology. These marketers aren’t willing to realize that dial-up users are just being reasonable in not going for crazy speeds (or any other new “cool” stuff for that matter) - they can’t read text at 2 Megabits per second anyway, so why pay for it?

Therefore, mobile makers probably think, it’s better to liberate these unfortunate from any distractions. Or otherwise these consumers will risk conservatively sticking to their old handsets thus spoiling sales prospects.

Due to nicely warming climate this year’s biking season has already been started (it happened on Jan 18)

As always, new season start is marked by summing up the statistical data for the previous one.

So… the season of 2006 has had the following features:

• Total Distance ridden: 2017.8 km
• First ride (season start): February 17, 2006
• Last ride (season finish): December 16, 2006
• Total riding days: 89 (22.67 km/day)
• Time on the go (wheels spinning): 140:12:54, or 5d20h12m54s
• Maximum speed (downhill on the highway): 63.0 km/h
• Average speed: 14.4 km/h
• Maximum trip distance within a day: 62.84 km
• Minimum trip distance: 1.78 km

Season’s graphs:

Odometer

Notice the perfect inverse tangent curve shape

Average & Maximum speeds

Note: the maximum of 79 km/h was a cyclometer’s fault which is running its 6th year on the original (factory loaded) battery.

And here’s my invention - an attempt to numerify (i.e. to represent numerically) the hardness of a day’s ride - currently it is calculated as Distance ridden times the day’s Average speed.

It seems to classify the “hardness”, or ride difficulty, or body burden caused, pretty well assuming terrains do not differentiate substantially

Everyone hates spam. I mean, ok, some people may actually like advertising, but spam isn’t just ads. Most spams are genuine frauds & scams. And who likes to be defrauded?

So why hasn’t it been stopped yet? Why do we see the volume of spam in our mailboxes only growing instead?

One of the markings of the past ‘06 was the drastic attempt by guys of BlueSecurity (Israel based BTW) to finally stop this vice. The idea was brilliant - to block spammers with the spammers’ methods - DDoS against the spamvertised sites (used to distribute goods - either electronic or physical), effectively stopping sales, not the innocent zombified home computers (used to promote those goods).

The plan was so huge, it hit spammers really hard, but didn’t stop spam on Earth.

Unfortunately the good guys have lost this blitzkrieg. The spammers struck back and made notable collateral damage to the whole Internet, generating quite a lot of news - on slashdot.org, Washington Post etc.

As we see, it is a multimillion-dollar business which makes tier-1 ISPs to play to their tune. This is the problem as ever more laymen are joining the Internet in coming years. The more technically unsavvy the average Internet user becomes, the more desirable target for spammers the userbase presents.

Sadly, unprofessional users are both consumers of spam and tools in hands of spammers to spread the evil.

And as long as big criminals are entering the game (see BBC report for e.g.) we are about to become witnesses of large financial interests repartition which historically leads to… wars.

Furthermore, assuming these interests are not merely large, but worldwide - just like the phenomenon of Internet economy suggests - the problem at hand (the war) provokes to be more precisely called “The World (War)”…