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Anechoicon Tell the speakers that you liked their talks

but don't make the talk rely on people getting the jokes

Adding to this, don't automatically include <wait for laughter> in your joke delivery. Make the joke - if it lands and the audience is laughing, you can pause until it dies down. If the joke doesn't land, you just move on and everyone will forget about it.

Anechoicon iPhone Duo

I know the general consensus is that the mini was cancelled for (relatively) low sales, but I wonder if that was due in part to the release of the SE? I got the SE 2 not because it was cheaper, but because it was smaller. At the time I was on a 2-3 year upgrade cycle, so when the 12 mini was released a couple of months later, I thought "cool, I'll upgrade to the 14 mini when it's released." Of course the mini was canceled after the 13, so I snatched up the 13 and will hold on to it until it crumbles in my hand.

Anechoicon Studio Canal Movies purchased on PlayStation Store removed without refund

DVD perhaps yes, until the disc degrades.

Which is the same constraint as pretty much any other physical item one might purchase. "reasonably a forever" is a reasonable description.

Anechoicon First tunnel element of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel immersed

Imagining building a bridge and then in the middle someone comes along and says it should also be a tunnel

While converting a bridge to tunnel mid-construction doesn't happen, what does often happen is that design assumes a particular construction technique can be used, construction starts with that technique, and midway through it's determined that an entirely different technique is required. This results in a bunch of redesign, remobilization, etc. Just like with software, construction often does not survive first contact with reality.

Anechoicon SPEAKE(a)R: Turn Speakers to Microphones for Fun and Profit [pdf] (2017)

* The vast majority of mics for PCs are condensers and electrets.*

These can be run in reverse as well, it requires CB custom electronics so it’s not something a lay person can do out of the box.

Anechoicon SPEAKE(a)R: Turn Speakers to Microphones for Fun and Profit [pdf] (2017)

This is how drive-thru kiosks work (principal, not the specific implementation).

Source: I used to measure the “microphone” frequency response for a kiosk OEM.

Anechoicon Maine is about to become the first state to ban major new data centers

noise pollution (it’s really worth watching Benn Jordan’s video on infrasound,)

Noise from data centers is a real issue, but Benn's measurements and analysis are not great (speeding up the sample rate to demonstrate frequency effects is just wrong, among other issues).

Anechoicon iPhone 17e

Spring 2020, they released the iPhone SE 2020, 4 years after the previous iPhone SE. This satiated a lot of the demand for people holding out for a smaller phone.

Count me in this group. I wound up buying the 13 mini right before it was going to be discontinued because I knew that would be the last small phone they would produce and I'm keeping it until it dies (or I can't get a battery for it).

Anechoicon iPhone dumbphone

If you're going through the hassle of reseting your iPhone to set with Configurator, you should think about pair locking your phone while you're at it:

https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/pair-lock-supervise-ip...

Anechoicon NYPD bypassed facial recognition ban to ID pro-Palestinian student protester

Analyzing security footage for potential suspects should be done by police.

Again, it's not just "potential suspects" it's potential witnesses, or identification of potential casualties. I don't feel great about state actors of any type using facial ID, but I can think of any number of reasons why a FD might use it in the course of their duties, and I would much prefer they have it over the PD.

Anechoicon NYPD bypassed facial recognition ban to ID pro-Palestinian student protester

The job of the fire department should be to fight fires, not to investigate crimes.

Part of the investigation is determining whether the event is actually a crime. I'd much rather have subject matter experts make the determination of arson vs. act-of-god rather than "every nail needs a hammer" police force.

Anechoicon The Effect of Noise on Sleep

https://acousticssingapore.com might have some leads.

Anechoicon The Effect of Noise on Sleep

I wish there were an expert or researcher interested in these areas: residential buildings, shops, parks, churches, and schools.

You mean an expert in acoustics related to those areas? There are lots of experts and researchers. Take a look at the Acoustical Society of America, the Institute of Noise Control Engineering, and Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation for starters.

Penn State, University of Hartford, Purdue University, Michigan Technological University, University of Nebraska, Morgan State Univeristy, and Brigham Young University (among others) all have strong acoustics programs with research in a bunch of areas.

Anechoicon The Effect of Noise on Sleep

I've tried searching the literature to find out whether this is either 1)wrong, or 2)generally known within the fields of audiology and occupational hygiene, but so far I've come up empty.

FWIW, I've also heard the same, but don't remember where off the top of my head. It's at least potentially true, but the conventional wisdom among acousticians/noise control engineering is that age-related hearing loss is mostly to increasing age rather than external factors.

Anechoicon The Effect of Noise on Sleep

FYI, there's been tons of research of the effects of noise on sleep from different sources. There have been studies ranging from in-lab experiments, to in-home experiments with artificial and natural sources. If you're interested, some resources:

Institute of Noise Control Engineering Digital library: https://www.inceusa.org/publications/ince-digital-library/ (papers older than 10 years old are available free)

Federal Interagency Committee on Aviation Noise: https://fican1.wordpress.com/findings/ (focuses on aviation noise)

Acoustical Society of America Lay Language Papers: https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/ (search for "sleep" -- the ASA has a full library of more detailed research but the documents cost money unless you're an ASA member)

World Health Organization guidelines on noise - https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/343936/WHO-EURO-... (doesn't get into specifics on research on sleep, but does refer recommended limits to sleep disturbance)

NIH has done a bunch of research on sleep disturbance from noise, you would need to search through their library

edit (one more): TRB/National Academies https://nap.nationalacademies.org/search/?rpp=20&ft=1&term=n...

A lot of the stuff that posters are asking for have in fact been done, it just takes some digging through the research sites to find them. There's a lot of variation in the data, the hypothesis is that sleep sensitivity varies a lot based on various physical factors (age being a big one).

Anechoicon Elon Musk is wrong about GDP

The biggest issue one person raised is how do you separate out government spending form GDP?

(Note that I agree with your larger point)

One discussion of this point can be found in an Indicator podcast[0] from a couple of months ago.

[0] https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1237470062

Anechoicon Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

How? Which major law firm is standing up like Harvard is?

WilerHale and Jenner & BLock are two: https://www.npr.org/2025/03/28/g-s1-56890/law-firms-sue-trum...

Anechoicon An unused nuclear power plant became home to a world-class acoustics lab

Ron is a fixture at acoustics conferences, he's a nice guy and was very passionate about making the facility work when he was raising funds in the aughts. If you're going to be in the area and give him enough notice, he'll be happy to give you a tour.

Last I heard (which was admittedly about 10 years ago, things may have changed since then), the facility was struggling a bit. It's true that these types of testing facilities need quiet background noise levels for testing, but that can usually be achieved either through putting the facility in the middle of nowhere, or over-engineering the structure. NWAA obviously has both, but that results in increased costs. On the other hand, you have facilities like Orfield Labs and Microsoft's newest anechoic chamber that manage to be _very_ quiet while still located in relatively convenient areas. Plus many audio/speaker/acoustical products companies have their own facilities.

That said I'm glad NWAA is still getting press and I hope it remains a fixture for generations to come. We need more of these moonshots.

Anechoicon My stupid noise journey (2023)

one decibel reduction at what reference pressure

The implication is that we're talking about sound pressure level in air, therefore the reference pressure would be 20 µPa.

and for which frequencies?

Again, the implication is annoyance and in that context I'm looking at overall SPL in A-weighted decibels (A-weighted decibels, while not perfect, is reliably correlated with annoyance)

I think you don't really know

For the record I'm an expert [0] in acoustics and noise control. It's how I've made my living for the past 30 years. So yes, I really know.

or you would have specified

I wasn't trying to get into a detailed discussion here, but I'm happy to oblige for anyone that wants to learn.

as with most things relating to acoustics, the truth appears to be extremely complicated

Absolutely. That said, if you look at the link, the author mentions 8-9 dB of excess attenuation with 50 meters of intervening foliage. That correlates to about 1 dB of attenuation per 18 feet of foliage. Again, that demonstrates that a strip of foliage would do almost nothing to reduce sound levels. And for what it's worth, the phonemea the author is describing is not "absorption" - it's a combination of partial cancellation of the reflected/direct wave interaction in porous soil (same reason why snow covered ground makes things quieter) and refraction from leaves/trunks (which is why the foliage needs to be _dense_, otherwise soon waves travel through the gaps and provide no reduction).

[0] By "expert" I mean a) studied the subject as an undergrad at MIT b) worked for 30 years in the field, producing or contributing to several hundred Environmental Impact Statements in the USA, authoring/co-authoring a couple dozen papers and presentations including one peer-reviewed study, c) authored or contributed to acoustics guidance manuals for the U.S. Federal Transit Administration, Federal Aviation Administration and National Academies, d) have been admitted as an expert witness in acoustics/noise control in criminal and civil trials in seven states, e) have certification demonstrating noise control expertise [1], f) been recognized by my peers as having contributed to the field, g) have had research referenced by international researchers

[1] https://www.inceusa.org/board-certification/about/ (sample test questions available at https://www.inceusa.org/pub/?id=6FBAEF10-B2FE-1D7D-AFCA-55D5... if you want to see the type of acoustics knowledge that is tested.

Anechoicon My stupid noise journey (2023)

> Can you plant bushes or shrubs between you and the road?

A thin strip of foliage does (basically) nothing to reduce noise propagation. Dense foliage (meaning you can’t see anything through it or move through it) gets you about 1 dB reduction for every 10 feet of thickness.

Anechoicon Bald eagles are thriving again after near extinction

Same here in western MA, there's a nest along the Connecticut River in West Springfield.

Anechoicon Detrimental Decibels: A Study of Noise Levels in Vancouver's SkyTrain System (2022)

The paper basically reinforces one of the tenets of transit noise and vibration analyses: if you don't maintain your system (specifically wheels and rails in the case of noise), things tend to get louder over time. BCRTC knows this [0] and they're working on it. As with all things, it's about time and money, but they are trying to be proactive with vehicle and track maintenance via rail grinding and complaint tracking.

[0] https://archive.wheel-rail-seminars.com/archives/2022/rt-pap...

Anechoicon App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

Oh, and apparently Apple recently disabled PWAs entirely in the EU

Apple reversed that decision back in March [0] (expand "Why don't users in the EU have access to Home Screen web apps?")

[0] https://developer.apple.com/support/dma-and-apps-in-the-eu

Anechoicon Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

FAA through the National Academies did a research study a few years ago [1] to provide guidance on improving the intelligibility of PA systems and also improving the overall acoustics of airport terminals. The idea is that this guidance would be used for terminal renovations and new construction. It looks like they may have put this to use! (I was on the team but not an author of the final report).

https://crp.trb.org/acrpwebresource2/improving-intelligibili...

Anechoicon Malware can turn off webcam LED and record video, demonstrated on ThinkPad X230

and has been common(ish) knowledge among electrical engineers for decades.

Not only is it common knowledge it's how drive-thru kiosks work!

Source: I used to test microphone/speakers for a kiosk OEM.

Anechoicon CrowdStrike accepting the PwnieAwards for "most epic fail" at defcon

Civil engineering doesn’t change. Gravity is a constant. Physics are constants.
Physics may be a constant, but materials and methods are not. There is a reason why ISO/IEC/ICC/ASTM/ANSI/ASME/ASHRAE/DIN/IEEE/etc standards have specific dates associated with them.

If Rome wrote an engineering manual, it would still be quite valid today.*

Considering many engineering standards from a few years ago are no longer valid, this is almost certainly not true.

Anechoicon Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

https://nleomf.org/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-p...

Anechoicon A former slave who became a cowboy, a rancher, and a Texas legend

Important to remember just how close we really are to slavery. It's not ancient history by any means.

Absolutely. My grandmother's grandmother was a slave. It's still hard for me to wrap my hand around the fact that I knew and talked to someone that new a slave.

(yes, I know modern-day slavery exists, I'm speaking in context of US chattel slavery)

Anechoicon Walmart in talks to buy TV maker Vizio for more than $2B

It would also give Walmart access to the breadth of customer data collected by Vizio’s smart TV platform and the revenue stream created by serving up personalized ads and taking a cut of subscription fees.

Anechoicon Cable companies, automakers try to derail FTC, FCC quest to kill misleading fees

I don't know why other car manufacturers don't make D2C a bigger focus for their business

Because in most cases it's literally illegal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_dealerships_in_the_United_...