Daily archives: March 30, 2010

Good news and sad news for cyclists

This entry was posted in Bikes on by

The good news is more for American than British cyclists. Ray LaHood, Obama’s Transportation Secretary, told a cycling summit of his support for sustainable communities and getting people out of cars. Any politician looking at ways to get more people walking and cycling is a good thing.

Unfortunately, the news on this side of the Atlantic isn’t so good. The Sun reports on a soldier killed whilst cycling along the A338 on Salisbury Plain. Blame for the accident is being laid on a huge pothole which Captain Jonathon Allen was avoiding when he was hit by a lorry. I have to agree with The Cycling Lawyer, who points out that it wasn’t the hole that killed Captain Allen, but the lorry, the driver of which tried to overtake at the wrong time.

In future, can we have more stories like the first and less like the second please.

Objects of Desire- Heavy music calls for heavy speakers 1

This entry was posted in Objects of Desire Stereo on by

As my job involves listing fairly high end audio equipment on the web I’m in danger of becoming an armchair hi-fi expert whilst listening to mp3s on crappy computer speakers fed from a basic sound card. There’s no way I can afford the sort of equipment needed to really appreciate my music. Maybe I should make some.

Whilst researching a product today I happened upon a load of pages about DIY speaker builds. Including this one- speaker enclosures made from granite. They look about the size that I’d put in the Bookshelf Speaker category. But those would have to be very sturdy bookshelves. The write up is on DIY audio projects, which has a number of other builds.

Also intriguing is this radial loudspeaker project, which should project sound 360 degrees. Not sure what reflections off walls would do to that, but it looks cool nonetheless.

Turning everything on its head, here’s a project to turn a speaker into a microphone. Ideal for capturing more accurate bass notes and particularly drums, it says.

I’ll probably not get round to doing anything like this, which is a shame. For now I’ll just have to wonder how I can save up for something entry level from Whafedale, Tannoy or any of the other shiny products I get to stare at.