random strings - psychologyhttps://blog.randomstring.org/2021-06-19T09:28:37-04:00that should not go there2021-06-19T09:28:37-04:002021-06-19T09:28:37-04:00-dsr-tag:blog.randomstring.org,2021-06-19:/2021/06/19/that-should-not-go-there/
<p>Twenty-five years ago, approximately, my housemates and I bought
office chairs – rolling five-star bases, adjustable arms, comes in a box
with an L-shaped hex driver like IKEA stuff – and put them in our dining
room around the table. They were cheap and comfortable.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you how many people looked at that arrangement and
needed to talk about their sudden feelings.
</p>
<p>Twenty-five years ago, approximately, my housemates and I bought
office chairs – rolling five-star bases, adjustable arms, comes in a box
with an L-shaped hex driver like IKEA stuff – and put them in our dining
room around the table. They were cheap and comfortable.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you how many people looked at that arrangement and
needed to talk about their sudden feelings.
</p>
<p>I can tell you that a bunch of friends immediately declared their
intention to do the same when they next bought furniture – including my
parents. I think most of them did.</p>
<p>Back in the 1980s, a “home computer” would come with a video output
that would drive a television as though it were producing a TV channel.
VCRs used the same system when they first came out. Dedicated monitors
were too expensive unless you were rich or could justify the expense for
business purposes.</p>
<p>Over time it became normal that you bought a specialized,
high-resolution monitor. It could be a big expense – I remember tracking
prices obsessively.</p>
<p>Then LCD monitors went from being terrible and expensive to mediocre
and almost affordable, just before everyone bought a new TV (as ATSC
digital television was introduced). That led to a production revolution
that made big high-res (1920x1080) TVs cheap, and that brought down the
prices of monitors using the same technology.</p>
<p>Still, there is a disconnect in many people’s head between “computer
monitor” and “TV”. No company makes a 42” 4K computer monitor for a
reasonable price, but dozens will sell you a 42” 4K TV for cheap. Pretty
much every computer has an HDMI output, though, and all those TVs use
that input.</p>
<p>It turns out that at normal office desk depths, putting such a TV at
the back of the desk is just like having four normal 21” monitors - the
kind that go for $100 each these days - mounted next to each other, but
without the annoying bezels in between them. So that’s what we do in our
house for the desks that need them. It’s typically 25-40% cheaper than
the separate monitors would be, too.</p>
<p>Just like the office chairs at the dining table, people seem split
between immediate revulsion and delight.</p>
technical escalation2016-10-30T13:31:58-04:002016-10-30T13:31:58-04:00-dsr-tag:blog.randomstring.org,2016-10-30:/2016/10/30/technical-escalation/The purpose of an advertisement is to plant the idea in your head
that you need or want some thing that can be purchased.<p>The purpose of an advertisement is to plant the idea in your head
that you need or want some thing that can be purchased.</p>
<p>Having lived in such a society for a few decades, my now-instinctive
reaction to a successful advertisement is to assume that I might want a
thing, but I am unlikely to want the particular thing being advertised.
It’s a skepticism born of repeated disappointments. The Chocolate
Frosted Sugar Bombs taste like sweet cardboard, and eating four boxes to
get the coupons to send away with $24 results in a propellor beanie
which is notable for its lack of thrust, or indeed motion, or at least
motion unrelated to the incessant twitching derived from the sugar rush.
(Thanks, Bill Watterson.) There are entire catalogs which specialize in
items that can be carefully described to sound a whole lot better than
they actually are. In the 1980s there was one which liked to sell $700
PCs for $1100, on sale from $2499 (original list price, as of three
years ago) and bundled with $5000 in free software.</p>
<p>These days I am nudged towards things. Massdrop offers me a tiny
class-D stereo amplifier for $70. Is it worth it? I google amazon. There
are a bunch of similar amps, offering identical features, at prices
ranging from $20 less (but in need of a DC power supply, about $15) to
$30 more (including a power supply and a Bluetooth audio input.) How
good are these things, really? I get a spec sheet for the chip and
discover that the nominal 50W per channel is really 40W per channel into
real speakers, and suffers a huge 10% distortion… but at 30W per
channel, it’s basically non-existent distortion. The specs are, in fact,
nearly fabulous if you never push the volume knob too high.</p>
<p>But at $100 you can get an actual, new, (2 years in a warehouse, but
full original warranty) Yamaha stereo amp. It’s much bigger and less
efficient, but Yamaha consistently makes good-sounding equipment. The
Yamaha guarantees 100W per channel with the same lack of distortion that
the no-name amp can only get up to 30W. If you push the volume up all
the way, in fact, Yamaha tells you that you can get 140 W with the same
10% distortion on the no-name’s 40W. Clean power isn’t everything, but
is a very large portion of an amplifier’s job.</p>
<p>Note that I have now talked myself up from $70 to $100. Well, $110.
It’s not exactly a doubling in price, but once you add a $25 Bluetooth
input, I’m pretty much there. Now I need to consult my will-power to see
how much I want this versus money in my pocket.</p>
<p>I guess advertising works… but not necessarily on behalf of the one
doing the advertising.</p>