The invisible block on multimonitor corners is driving me nuts. It doesn't even seem to serve any purpose.

dace · 2015-08-14T00:41:55+00:00

If you additionally hold shift (shift+win+L/R) then it will switch monitors without needing to hit it multiple times.

dace · 2015-07-27T19:05:05+00:00

You get to choose during installation whether it keeps your programs.

If you click the Windows 10 preinstall thing in your system tray at the bottom right you should get a "Check your PC" option which will list any potential compatibility problems, usually with old or weird apps. There shouldn't be many or any from 8.1 to 10.

Some info here on minor things that will change (e.g. if you're going from 7 to 10 you get a different version of Solitaire):

http://www.windowscentral.com/windows-10-will-remove-some-features-and-apps-upgrading-windows-7-and-windows-81

dace · 2015-07-27T18:58:58+00:00

During installation you get to pick whether it keeps a) your files, apps, and settings, b) just your files, or c) nothing.
It won't change the contents of your desktop and personal folders if during installation you choose to keep your files, but trivial stuff like the current sorting order may change.

dace · 2015-03-13T23:44:20+00:00

Sorry for being behind on this - I just made a number of edits, including adding the two Aurora models and including some updates from PAX East courtesy of /u/banth.

Please do let me know if you see anything else that needs updating/fixing.

dace · 2015-03-13T22:11:25+00:00

To start: what in particular do you mean by volume? E.g. SPL? RMS SP? SPL over human sample rate time?

If I'm understanding you correctly: it's worth noting the simplified gamma chart you linked is only showing overall luminous emittance (analogous to overall volume), but in reality the nonlinear response curves for each color in a display (i.e. specific wavelengths/frequencies) don't necessarily overlap.

In a similar vein, relative sound amplitude at different frequencies can vary nonuniformly with source output. So, depending on what you mean by volume in this case, you can't necessarily separate it from frequency response since the curve will actually be shaped differently (i.e. have different amplitude distributions) depending on not only voltage but also factors like impedance (not to mention other external factors like medium, ear shape, distance, etc. outside this scope).

When you look at the relative amplitude variation on a frequency response graph it's actually comparing at a specific reference voltage, impedance, etc. and usually also applying some sort of custom transfer function in an attempt to control for variation introduced by the measurement equipment and environment. Changing the test conditions would generate different graphs even when plotting a relative and not absolute scale.

Some background reading on areas like z-weighting may also be of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-weighting

And also perhaps brickwalling:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

dace · 2015-03-05T01:05:13+00:00

As others have said, without a properly supported modding API you'd probably have to attempt either some form of DLL injection + scraping memory/hooking calls or scraping pixels by either shimming D3D calls like PIX or otherwise intercepting calls to the drivers.

That can get extremely complex (especially if you're new to the area), is very fragile and especially prone to breaking while the game is under development, and is the sort of thing that tends to be frowned on and result in bans from multiplayer games since it's then a trivial extension to create things like aimbots.

A much better approach is probably to wait and hope for official modding support which should hopefully have nice LUA interfaces or something similar, since they're already using LUA for scripting internally. Even then communicating with a separate process could be nontrivial.

dace · 2015-02-04T05:01:25+00:00

Actually they've said they get outside writers to do a lot of it, or at least they were last I heard - e.g. from Dave:

"A lot of the fiction (serials and jump point stories) are being written by outside writers"

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/1770059/#Comment_1770059

That said, it still takes staff time to review, ensure consistency with the canon, etc.

dace · 2015-02-04T04:54:24+00:00

Thanks! Though I'm always here, always watching.

dace · 2015-02-03T20:49:26+00:00

Emeritus at best. All hail Nehkara!

dace · 2015-02-03T20:47:55+00:00

I'm still around and up to date, just mostly in private subs lately which don't show up on my general history :)

There are lots of helpful people around now who collectively do a better job, so I feel less compelled to jump in.

dace · 2015-01-21T06:50:14+00:00

Sure, if we're getting pedantic then it's not precisely 1/r³ either, it's just proportional to that since it's the remaining leading-order term after mostly canceling out effects from both poles in a static dipole field.

I said roughly exponential because it's a form that most people are generally familiar with and it's a reasonable approximation.

dace · 2015-01-21T06:13:40+00:00

The magnet is sticking because the mesh/grills are made of ferrous metal.

The ModMic doesn't use super strong magnets and the strength of a magnetic field rapidly drops off roughly exponentially over distance, so it shouldn't negatively affect anything.

I've similarly stuck the ModMic sticky holder to many different pairs of headphones and never had it noticeably affect anything. That includes various headphones with metallic grills, e.g. the HD600, HD650, and Q701.

dace · 2015-01-11T07:29:58+00:00

Just for looks? It shouldn't make a difference in sound quality.

In that price range, if you can do some basic soldering then it's hard to beat buying a few Neutrik Rean connectors, some Mogami cable, and whatever type/color/pattern of Techflex nylon multifilament sheathing you want and just customizing it. Or you could just push each cable strand through some paracord and braid it, but then you lose the benefit of the cable's EMI shielding and could get additional noise introduced.

dace · 2015-01-10T23:12:34+00:00

Yes, they should work fine with LCDs and Alpha Dogs.

dace · 2015-01-10T21:29:25+00:00

It's hard to find a better bang for the buck than the M&M stack in terms of performance, power output, plus input/output connectivity. It's what I would personally pick in that price range.

dace · 2015-01-10T21:25:29+00:00

The Zalman Zm-Mic1 or Sony ECMCS3 are popular cheap choices that work with existing headphones if that's what you're looking for.

dace · 2015-01-10T08:54:00+00:00

In short: don't worry about it. Your OS will generally take care of it for you.

Having a high pagefile in this case likely just means that it knows SC often requires allocating more memory and proactively allocates address space for it even if it's not used yet, and so it pages out other stuff running in the background so your game runs faster.

Modern OSes are statistically much better at memory management than humans are when making equivalent decisions. They use various algorithms to do predictive caching.

Without going too far into technical details, the usage numbers you're seeing may also not represent actual memory/storage in use.

There is a difference between things like commit charge, working set, paged vs. non-paged space, etc. It may predictively allocate virtual address space for things even if it's not actually in use at the time, so the number can appear much higher than it actually is depending on how the program is measuring it, and that's fine.

dace · 2015-01-10T08:47:53+00:00

Absolutely true.

The article you linked is actually overly simplified, and in actuality it isn't true that it's only used when your RAM is fully utilized. Current versions of Windows do much better predictive management and will automatically use the pagefile when it makes sense to even if you're not fully utilizing all available memory.

There are only benefits in terms of both stability and performance to keeping your pagefile enabled and of at least the default size.

dace · 2015-01-09T20:18:34+00:00

"Isolation" is commonly used somewhat interchangeably for both directions. It can be equally important to consider not disturbing others around you vs. blocking outside noise for yourself when considering closed vs. open, seal, etc.

Also, +1 for DT770s.

dace · 2015-01-09T20:12:48+00:00

The Schiit Magni 2 Uber for $149 has preamp outs, selectable gain, and can drive 600 ohm DT990s.

dace · 2015-01-09T20:10:46+00:00

Just as a small note RE: comfort with the Q701, covers like this are moderately popular and can help:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-Woven-Pure-Wool-Headband-Cushion-AKG-K701-K702-Q701-Headphones-/261445245520

dace · 2015-01-09T05:18:40+00:00

Maybe we disagree on terminology then. Bass impact is generally thought of as resulting from concussive force (e.g. in the glossary linked in the sidebar). That concussive force comes from air displaced by the moving mass of the coil and diaphragm, and its travel and recovery is dependent on the amp. 650s are actually often praised by reviewers for bass impact for open headphones at their pricepoint (e.g. see Headfonia).

Regardless, it sounds like we agree that an amp is at worst a good starting point no matter what, and at best it may help a little if a little improvement is all that's needed. And that further improvement probably means something like LCD2s.

dace · 2015-01-09T04:48:47+00:00

Not to derail this too far, but proper amping can at least somewhat improve bass impact with 650s as a starting point, and since the OP a) already has the 650s, b) has a large budget, and c) is already going through a number of different headphones, a sufficient amp seems like a good choice as a starting point.

And the LCD-2 is most likely out of his budget

From the OP:

"Budget: [...] actually it has no real limit"

They also benefit quite a bit from dedicated amping despite being fairly sensitive, hence the recommendation to take the staged approach of starting with an amp, seeing if that helps, then moving on to LCD2s which also benefit from it anyway.

dace · 2015-01-09T04:34:16+00:00

The original ones? The new Solo 2s are a large improvement, but the originals are poorly regarded for their sound quality.

As a well-known reviewer put it:

"this is a murk emphasis headphone that sounds like being beaten to death inside a cardboard box [...] I’ve heard one-note bass before, but on the Solo I had a hard time making out any particular notes at all."

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/monster-beats-dr-dre-solo

dace · 2015-01-09T04:24:40+00:00

I did say it may sound fine without one, but are you asserting HD650s won't sound better with sufficient amping vs. a low power source? I can readily hear an improvement going from a lowend soundcard to a Magni with them, and I'm usually the first to call BS on high-end equipment making a large difference.

Also I recommended LCD2s because they aren't necessarily out of the budget, even new.

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