Headphones = Microphones


I learned that your iPod headphones may be a low-quality microphone today. I plugged my headphones into my desktop’s microphone line-in jack, and talked to Roh over gtalk. I had to have the headphones practically in my mouth, but it worked. There a few sites discussing this:

Earphones and microphones are constructed on a very similiar concept, just that earphones are optimised for hearing, and microphones are optimised for recording.

Some guy even made a completely unnecessary video.
Yes, Roh, you were right. I concede. And make my previous-disbelief-turned-appreciation public for the world.

A concert violinist.. for only $32/hour..

From the Washington Post. Joshua Bell, the world-famous concert violinist and former child prodigy, donned jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap, and played in a Washington DC Metro station for almost an hour. Total take? $32.

In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run — for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look.

Another interesting tidbit from the article, about Bell’s violin.

Bell bought it a few years ago. He had to sell his own Strad and borrow much of the rest. The price tag was reported to be about $3.5 million.

I bought Joshua Bell’s Gershwin Fantasy many years ago, and am a fan.

Guys, are you on this website?

DontDateHimGirl is a community site where users (women) can post guys that should be avoided. Includes pictures and comments. Sample comment:

Otis is a liar and a cheater.He is from over north nobels square. He will do anything to get what he wants. He will say that he cares about you and that you are very special and will treat you well, But there is an alternative motive to this logic. He will take you for all that you have. He will nickel and dime you until you wont have anything. He looks good and drives a nice car with rims on it but he is nasty.

Classic.

Best quote I read all day

For months, hackers–most likely in China and Russia, according to security watchers–have been surreptitiously installing keylogging software on WoW players’ Windows computers, hijacking their accounts and selling off their often valuable in-game assets.

From CNet. WoW = World of Warcraft.

Dentist guilty of urinating in surgery sink

Story here.

LONDON (Reuters) – A British dentist was found guilty Thursday of urinating in his surgery sink and using dental tools meant for patients to clean his fingernails and ears.

A medical tribunal said it was satisfied the evidence showed 51-year-old Alan Hutchinson, who routinely did not wear gloves or wash his hands, had risked the health of “himself, staff and patients” for more than 28 years.

A dental nurse who worked for Hutchinson for 16 years said she had caught him urinating in the sink more than once.

“He was tucking something into his trousers before zipping them up hastily. I walked over and I was behind him. He moved to the left and I could smell urine,” the nurse told the tribunal.

The tribunal determined that the dentist’s poor hygiene habits made him unfit to practice and struck him off the dental register, banning him from work.

“You urinated into a sink in your surgery following which you did not wash your hands and then proceeded to treat a patient. This behavior was clearly inappropriate and is completely unacceptable,” the tribunal chairman said.