dougmwne

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há 3 anosdiscuss

I think everyone is missing the point. Sam Altman seems to be a reasonably effective leader (and certainly flawed and a bit sociopathic), but ultimately unimportant and replaceable. This was not about Sam, this was about the strategic direction of a critical Microsoft partner. Microsoft felt Sam would take orders and therefore supported him. If Sam ever asserts himself, he will be gone, just like the board was replaced.

há 3 anosdiscuss

My partner's grandmother spent her entire career researching a single bacteria species and its reaction to a single environmental toxin.

há 4 anosdiscuss

I have terrible wax issues from before I used in ear headphones, mostly from swimming. I have found an earwax cleaning kit called Earwax MD and it works great for me. The peroxide based kits didn’t remove my wax and I needed to do periodic ENT appointments to scrape it out when it got impacted. This Earwax MD formula really eats away the wax and dries it out so that it can be rinsed out or fall out on its own.

And before anyone raises a stink about this being bad for my ears, I become functionally deaf when my earwax gets impacted which happens about once ever 2 years.

há 4 anosdiscuss

That was a manufacturing defect with the first gen. I had a pair replaced for free.

há 4 anosdiscuss

I just gave a pair to my mom who uses hearing aids. She was able to enter her audiogram in them and use them as both backup hearing aids when her regular ones are on the charger or in for repair and as headphones that match her hearing needs. So heck yeah they can be viewed as a medical assistive device.

há 4 anosdiscuss

Yes, there is a licensing cost that only a few manufacturers will pay.

há 4 anosdiscuss

I suppose you mean that you have cauliflower ear? That seems like most IEMs would not work for you.

há 4 anosdiscuss

You lose enough of the features that I would not use them with Android regularly. Most importantly, the only high fidelity bluetooth codec they support is AAC, which most Android devices do not support, causing you to fall back to SBC. You will also not be able to adjust any of the settings.

há 4 anosdiscuss

That is an advertised feature, so I assume that the lawyers have looked into those health claims as somewhat defensible.

First, they do seal, so even if it's not as tight as a foam earplug, it is something.

Second, there's the ANC which is producing out of phase sound and lowering the sound pressure level reaching your ear. I have seen commercial hearing protection with ANC, though I'm not sure if it's allowed to be advertised as such. The theory is sensible at least.

Thirdly, the ANC is allowing you to listen to your audio content at lower volumes, especially in a very loud environment like an airplane.

Fourthly, there's an advertised hearing protection feature in passthrough mode where external noises loud enough to cause hearing damage will be automatically reduced.

Fifthly, There are sound pressure measurements being sent to the iphone for audio content loudness in real time, and also over time notifications you receive if you have been listening too loudly.

So all in all, yes in practice, but we're not exactly talking OSHA here.

há 4 anosdiscuss

There are 3rd party tips you could try.

há 4 anosdiscuss

I'm not aware of any evidence of that, though for me I rarely notice my tinnitus unless I am in a quiet space. It is almost never quiet for most people in most cities, so I can understand someone noticing it for the first time while using ANC.

há 4 anosdiscuss

It's very dependant on your ears and the eartip size you use. I personally would not bike with them, because as good as the passthrough audio is, there could be small differences in localizing sound that could really cause trouble on a bike. The passthrough is great, but not life or death situation great.

Edit: this is for the Pros. The open non-pros seem like they would be safe for biking at lower volumes.

há 4 anosdiscuss

Just tried these for the first time from TJ's and you are absolutely right!

há 4 anosdiscuss

Airpod Pro 2

They are basically bionic ears. Headphones, headset, earplugs, hearing protection, hearing aids, extendable ears, and more. Wish they could act as universal translators, but I suppose that's still yet to come.

há 4 anosdiscuss

Google is absolutely not going to start taking more risks. They are at the part of the business lifecycle where they squeeze the juice out of the cash cow and protect it jealously in the meantime. While Google gets much recognition for this research, I believe they are incapable as a corporate entity of creating a product out of it because they can no longer capable of taking risks. That is going to fall to other companies still building their product and able to gamble on risk-reward.

há 4 anosdiscuss

Thanks for the flashback. I too remember when playing an MP3 took a good chunk of processor utilization, maybe 40%, and doing too many other things at the same time would cause it to stutter. I also remember when 1080p and 4k were taxing respectively.

há 4 anosdiscuss

Given the current state of the governance of the US, maybe you can forgive some cynicism.

há 4 anosdiscuss

I have observed that even when all parties know someone is full of BS, it can still be quite difficult to fight against it. It takes much more energy to debunk than lie. Lies, once spoken take on a weird truth of their own.

há 4 anosdiscuss

You're absolutely correct. Of course this phenomenon applies to exactly the framework and platform musical chairs that the industry plays. Politics is human and exists in all areas of life. Many things on the technical side have absolute reason to exist, because it would be impossible to build a complex system without them. Some things are BS. On the flip side, some things on the management side are absolutely essential to the profitable functioning of a company, but there is also a huge amount of room for BS to thrive. It's possible for profitable companies to exist basically due to the law of large numbers, but this is not possible on the technical side unless you are training ML models.

há 4 anosdiscuss

Sure, not all bureaucracy is misused, it can have a good function in governance. But it absolutely can be used to extend and protect power as well. It is a tool, plain and simple.