Snake oil etc

[daveh75]

my shiny silver laptop is 10 years old and still faster than anything you can buy for £600 today.

Exaggerating much!

It will also no longer be receiving maintenance & security updates from Apple.

Best thing to do with any PC of that vintage is install a (lightweight) Linux distro.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

This thread isn't about Apple/Android, so back on topic please. If you want to discuss such things, there's a sub forum where it would be appropriate.

 

[James105]

I don't hate, only making fun. Competition is always good, without Apple dominating its sector, its competitors would never up their game.
Kudos to Bose for their excellent customer service.
A £600 laptop today can outperform any 10 year old laptop, Mac included 😊.
It's important that you are happy with your product. It doesn't matter what I think, its a little bit of tribalism on my part.
My sister who has a MAC, I would tease her and she would call me peasant because I can't afford to buy one!
Apologies for going off topic.

can she afford to buy your Hi-Fi? I over reacted, i hate people slagging Bose, I spend 30% of my working life on the road and their stuff really works for me. As for Apple well after ten years I still have an excellent display, full positive travel on the keyboard and the mouse pad, the HID is as good as it ever was.

Exaggerating much!

It will also no longer be receiving maintenance & security updates from Apple.

Best thing to do with any PC of that vintage is install a (lightweight) Linux distro.

It does still receive updates , but I'm also currently backing everything up to thumb drives because, well it really cant last much longer can it?

 

[Jasonovich]

can she afford to buy your Hi-Fi? I over reacted, i hate people slagging Bose, I spend 30% of my working life on the road and their stuff really works for me. As for Apple well after ten years I still have an excellent display, full positive travel on the keyboard and the mouse pad, the HID is as good as it ever was.

It does still receive updates , but I'm also currently backing everything up to thumb drives because, well it really cant last much longer can it?

No worries bro, honestly it was just silly banter from me. 😊

10 years is a good stretch for any laptop! If you feel the need to upgrade do check out the new Apple laptops M2 chip with Liquid Retina display.
Apple ditched Intel few years ago and they now use their own Arm based M2 proprietary CPUs. These are far more energy efficient than the Intel based chipset and as you're on the road much of your time, these will compliment well your lifestyle 😊

 

[James105]

No worries bro, honestly it was just silly banter from me. 😊

10 years is a good stretch for any laptop! If you feel the need to upgrade do check out the new Apple laptops M2 chip with Liquid Retina display.
Apple ditched Intel few years ago and they now use their own Arm based M2 proprietary CPUs. These are far more energy efficient than the Intel based chipset and as you're on the road much of your time, these will compliment well your lifestyle

And stupid from me, I hope we're good

 

[Jasonovich]

And stupid from me, I hope we're good

Yeah totally!

 

[My2Cents]

Hi all just wondering if anyone remembers back in the early days of CD, the now debunked idea that you could improve the sound quality of CD's by coating the edge of a CD with a green felt tip. I'm sure I even read an article in Whathifi about it. The theory was "As best they could work out, the green ink absorbed stray light from the red laser that read the digital bits on the disc, somehow making it more accurate–better data retrieval, allegedly–and improving the sound"
I have to admit when I first read the article to my mind it sounded plausible but I was still sceptical. As I didn't have a CD player it was irrelevant.
I was just thinking about it because of the many posts on the forums debunking a few of the ideas about hifi that were prevalent in the 80's and 90's.

Anyone on the forums actually try the green felt pen idea back in the day?

I remember years ago someone touting the idea that if you placed a certain type of paper 'square' under the feet of each piece of gear (amp., turntable etc.) that it too would improve the overall sound of the system. Then a whole discussion as to what type of paper and size was best and that a paper circle was in fact better.
However, having one's ears syringed once in a while (by a qualified medical professional) can also help a lot too.

 

[Cricketbat70]

I remember years ago someone touting the idea that if you placed a certain type of paper 'square' under the feet of each piece of gear (amp., turntable etc.) that it too would improve the overall sound of the system. Then a whole discussion as to what type of paper and size was best and that a paper circle was in fact better.
However, having one's ears syringed once in a while (by a qualified medical professional) can also help a lot too.

😂

 

[Jasonovich]

😂

Oh the glorious MJHughes, was it WHF in the 80s? Not sure green felt was his idea but I did try it.
I tried it and I didn't notice any noticeable improvement in sound quality, I tried a few more stripes of green.
Nah it wasn't working, I felt worthless, I felt dirty. Yes no matter how much I scrubbed my fingers, the green felt wasn't coming off!
In those days I was fully lubricated in snake oil, all these nonsensical ideas had me hissing.
Some of the things that came out had merits like using solid core 13 amp power cables as speaker wire, clean mains filtering and the science of cleaning your vinyl collections.

 

[froze]

I remember years ago someone touting the idea that if you placed a certain type of paper 'square' under the feet of each piece of gear (amp., turntable etc.) that it too would improve the overall sound of the system. Then a whole discussion as to what type of paper and size was best and that a paper circle was in fact better.
However, having one's ears syringed once in a while (by a qualified medical professional) can also help a lot too.

there's another snake oil, you don't need a professional to clean your ears out either simple wax removal liquid and a ball thingy to squish warm water of of that they sell at drugstores does the job just as well.

 

[abacus]

there's another snake oil, you don't need a professional to clean your ears out either simple wax removal liquid and a ball thingy to squish warm water of of that they sell at drugstores does the job just as well.

Depends how bad the wax is in the ear as to whether ear drops will work or not but always worth trying first. Under NO circumstances try and force anything into the ear as you can easily damage your hearing unless you are fully trained. (Most professionals use suction these days rather than irrigation)

Bill

 

[JDL]

I remember years ago someone touting the idea that if you placed a certain type of paper 'square' under the feet of each piece of gear (amp., turntable etc.) that it too would improve the overall sound of the system. Then a whole discussion as to what type of paper and size was best and that a paper circle was in fact better.
However, having one's ears syringed once in a while (by a qualified medical professional) can also help a lot too.

Last time I tried to make an appointment at my local Surgery to get my ear canals cleaned out, the reception woman proudly announced that they no longer do it there anymore.
The woman honestly sounded truly proud to announce this to me. She sounded chuffed to bits about it. So in order to get this done I would have to make an appointment and pay a private "professional" something like £65 and drive thirty-five miles to get it done.
I ended up buying a squirty bottle thing with attachments from eBay and doing it myself. In the end it's actually better because I can do it as often as I like and not wait until they're blocked up before going to the Surgery to then be told I must fill my ears up with Olive oil for a week before they'll do anything.

 

[Gray]

...the reception woman proudly announced that they no longer do it there anymore.
The woman honestly sounded truly proud to announce this to me. She sounded chuffed to bits about it.

I don't doubt she was in her element giving you bad news.
My brother used to visit doctors surgeries, repairing their phone systems....he met some real horrors.

Some of them were born to be horrible, so it's a good career choice for them.

Having said that, my nephew's woman is a doc receptionist - almost daily she gets called a Jeremy Hunt - by some very unreasonable patients.

Bit of a vicious circle really 😕

 

[Cricketbat70]

Last time I tried to make an appointment at my local Surgery to get my ear canals cleaned out, the reception woman proudly announced that they no longer do it there anymore.
The woman honestly sounded truly proud to announce this to me. She sounded chuffed to bits about it. So in order to get this done I would have to make an appointment and pay a private "professional" something like £65 and drive thirty-five miles to get it done.
I ended up buying a squirty bottle thing with attachments from eBay and doing it myself. In the end it's actually better because I can do it as often as I like and not wait until they're blocked up before going to the Surgery to then be told I must fill my ears up with Olive oil for a week before they'll do anything.

I think they are doing that all over the place. Our local surgery stopped doing it ages ago.

 

[abacus]

It was stopped in 2021, when the health minister decided it was no longer a priority treatment.

Bill

 

[Gray]

It was stopped in 2021, when the health minister decided it was no longer a priority treatment.

Bill

Some people have never needed to have the treatment.
I'll take a rough guess that the health minister in question was one of those people.

 

[Al ears]

Pardon??

 

[nopiano]

I remember years ago someone touting the idea that if you placed a certain type of paper 'square' under the feet of each piece of gear (amp., turntable etc.) that it too would improve the overall sound of the system. Then a whole discussion as to what type of paper and size was best and that a paper circle was in fact better.
However, having one's ears syringed once in a while (by a qualified medical professional) can also help a lot too.

I think that was the late Peter Belt. Interesting article here…

Read This Facing North- August 2005 MusicWeb-International

Classical CD reviews posted every day

www.musicweb-international.com

Paper squares mentioned in para 6!

 

[JDL]

I don't doubt she was in her element giving you bad news.
My brother used to visit doctors surgeries, repairing their phone systems....he met some real horrors.

Some of them were born to be horrible, so it's a good career choice for them.

Having said that, my nephew's woman is a doc receptionist - almost daily she gets called a Jeremy Hunt - by some very unreasonable patients.

Bit of a vicious circle really 😕

Believe me this woman thoroughly enjoyed announcing to me that they don't do it any more.
I'm always polite to people in general and on the phone and I am not a complainer.
The receptionists at this surgery have a habit of being rude to be quite honest.
I avoid going there. In fact I'd have to be at "death's door" before I would reluctantly have anything to do with them and even then I quite likely would not bother.

 

[JDL]

I don't doubt she was in her element giving you bad news.
My brother used to visit doctors surgeries, repairing their phone systems....he met some real horrors.

Some of them were born to be horrible, so it's a good career choice for them.

Having said that, my nephew's woman is a doc receptionist - almost daily she gets called a Jeremy Hunt - by some very unreasonable patients.

Bit of a vicious circle really 😕

That may well be. However I'm not in the habit of calling people names or insulting them on the phone, whether that be surgery receptionists or anyone else.

 

[Gray]

That may well be. However I'm not in the habit of calling people names or insulting them on the phone, whether that be surgery receptionists or anyone else.

Chill out John.
Nowhere was I suggesting you were at fault.
Point I was making: You don't have to be rude to get a less than customer focused response from the wrong type of doc receptionist - that's all.

My own surgery happily told me they no longer did syringing.
So I had a botched NHS hospital microsuction that left me deaf for a couple of weeks.
Ended up paying £200 for a private hospital to rectify the problem.

Oh, and my doctor's website has a message to the effect that - if you don't state your problem when booking the appointment.....you're not getting an appointment.
Who'd have thought that was even possible?

 

[JDL]

Chill out John.
Nowhere was I suggesting you were at fault.
Point I was making: You don't have to be rude to get a less than customer focused response from the wrong type of doc receptionist - that's all.

My own surgery happily told me they no longer did syringing.
So I had a botched NHS hospital microsuction that left me deaf for a couple of weeks.
Ended up paying £200 for a private hospital to rectify the problem.

Oh, and my doctor's website has a message to the effect that - if you don't state your problem when booking the appointment.....you're not getting an appointment.
Who'd have thought that was even possible?

Will do....sorry if it seemed like I was having a go at you.

 

[Covenanter]

Hi all just wondering if anyone remembers back in the early days of CD, the now debunked idea that you could improve the sound quality of CD's by coating the edge of a CD with a green felt tip. I'm sure I even read an article in Whathifi about it. The theory was "As best they could work out, the green ink absorbed stray light from the red laser that read the digital bits on the disc, somehow making it more accurate–better data retrieval, allegedly–and improving the sound"
I have to admit when I first read the article to my mind it sounded plausible but I was still sceptical. As I didn't have a CD player it was irrelevant.
I was just thinking about it because of the many posts on the forums debunking a few of the ideas about hifi that were prevalent in the 80's and 90's.

Anyone on the forums actually try the green felt pen idea back in the day?

This is a bit left-field as it relates to medicine, but really you simply can't trust people's subjective judgements. If you look at medical trials, which they do double blind so that neither the clinician nor the patient knows which medication they are giving / getting, it is common for about 25% of those given the placebo, often a sugar tablet, to report an improvement in their symptoms. I've even heard of a trial where 80% reported an improvement.

In the world of hifi I'm not sure anyone has ever carried out double blind tests so any judgements are even less likely to reflect objective truth.

 

[SteveR750]

Anyone else admit to sticking those little black triangles on your plugs and bass drivers with that infamous Peter Belt and his dark energy wizadry? I tried it, and if course it made no difference whatsoever. Most of these myths are not based on any known physics, and don't stand any form of scientific scrutiny, but hey that's half the attraction of the hobby I guess. If you hear it, it must be real!

 

[podknocker]

Anyone else admit to sticking those little black triangles on your plugs and bass drivers with that infamous Peter Belt and his dark energy wizadry? I tried it, and if course it made no difference whatsoever. Most of these myths are not based on any known physics, and don't stand any form of scientific scrutiny, but hey that's half the attraction of the hobby I guess. If you hear it, it must be real!

Haha! The power of placebo!