Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295072316?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Adventures in Automotive Branding: That ?Distinctive Fender Sound ...
Detroit is a funny market when it comes to advertising. In addition to the ads, commercials and billboards that you might see or hear in other markets from national and regional advertisers, there is some advertising that is specific to the automotive industry, usually from tier 1 vendors trying to make a sale to one of the domestic automakers. As a result, there might be a billboard on I-75 about, for example, exhaust systems, suspension components or audio equipment that is targeted at a relatively small audience, the people at Chrysler, GM and Ford who make the final engineering and purchasing decisions.
Driving home from an errand I heard the announcer on WJR, ?the great voice of the Great Lakes broadcasting from the golden tower of the Fisher Building?, start talking about the synergy when two musicians first meet, discuss common influences, then get together, plug in their instruments and start to write songs. I thought he was going to discuss when Lennon met McCartney or when Richards met Jagger but in fact it was a live commercial?announcement?for how Panasonic and Fender have partnered to sell Fender Premium Audio branded stereos to the OEMs. Apparently the deal that VW has to sell Panasonic made components labeled with Fender?s brand is not an exclusive one.
It?s interesting that Panasonic thinks that Fender is a brand name that has more cachet with consumers when it comes to premium audio equipment than the Panasonic brand name itself. It?s doubly interesting because Fender has, until now, not been a brand for consumer audio equipment, premium or otherwise. This deal should make it clear that just because your car may be branded with the name of a particular audio company doesn?t mean that specific company actually made or even sold what?s installed in your car. The fact that your car comes with Fender Premium Audio doesn?t mean that Fender made the stuff any more than buying a Bill Blass Edition Lincoln meant that you were getting upholstery that came out Mr. Blass? workshops, if he had them. A brand is a brand, just a mark.
Actually it?s triply interesting since the announcer in the commercial touted ?Fender?s distinctive sound?. Now I don?t play guitar but I do make a little bit of noise in key on the harmonica, and if there is something ?distinctive about the sound of Fender amps and loudspeaker cabinets it is their distinctive distortion. As you can see from that link, Jack Baruth discussed this back when the deal with VW was first announced, and we shared a laugh about this, but I never thought they?d actually use ?Fender?s distinctive sound? to sell high fidelity audio systems.
The ideal amplifier, electronically speaking, adds no distinctive audio signature. What goes in comes out, only with more gain. There?s no such thing as the ideal amplifier, but makers of audio equipment used to reproduce music generally design and test equipment to have as little distortion as possible. Sometime in the history of rock and roll or the blues, though, someone figured out that if you turned the amps up loud enough so that the preamp would overdrive the output tubes to distortion levels (this was before transistors and other solid state components), you could end up with some very cool sounding music. Not all distortion is unpleasing. While odd order harmonics are what makes fingernails on a blackboard so grating, the ear tends to like even order harmonics. Guitar players and players of other electric instruments, like harmonica players digging through a box of half-century or older ceramic microphone cartridges, are going for the right combination of distortion. Also, if you chose the right sized drivers for your loudspeaker, you could get them to break up and distort in a pleasing and artistic manner as well. The net result is what players call ?tone?.
That?s the reason why guitar players love the sound of amps like the Fender Bassman, and others derived from Fender?s 1950s classics like Marshalls. They love the distinctive distortion
That?s not the case with home audio equipment and likewise the stuff you want in your car. That gear is intended to be as much like the theoretical ?ideal amplifier as possible. I?m quite sure that the Fender branded audio equipment that is being sold to OEM?s by Panasonic has fine distortion specs. CNET ranked the stereo in the VW Beetle Turbo as their personal favorite for 2011, saying it competed well with audiophile home equipment. I?m sure that Fender Premium Audio equipment very accurately reproduces ?Fender?s distinctive sound? well. It may not make my ears bleed but it does make my head hurt.
The last election cycle in the United States brought forth the term ?low information voter?. That?s made me think about low information consumers. There is, after all, a reason why Panasonic has hooked up with Fender. The Fender brand has recognition well beyond the relatively small community of electric guitar players and other folks familiar with guitar amps. I don?t begrudge Fender and Panasonic and VW and whoever else decides to spec Fender Premium Audio in their cars the right to exploit that brand identification. I just think that they?re treating people like low information consumers and that most of Fender?s existing customers must laugh in derision when they hear about ?Fender?s distinctive sound? when it comes to car audio. The fact that Panasonic and Fender think that the folks who make engineering and purchasing decisions at car companies are also low information consumers is noteworthy as well.
Ronnie Schreiber edits?Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at?Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don?t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks ? RJS
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
hankering commune: dyna markup: Mobile Communications
Mobile Solutions provides our customers with the latest in communication systems including: cell phone boosting systems for building and vehicle applications, radio installations and mobile office accessories.? Our in-house brand of cellular boosters outperforms others in its class and comes to the customer at a great value.? We carry multiple antenna mount options, cables, splitters and masts. For the customer that wants permanently fixed phones in their vehicles we have solutions as well. We carry a wide variety of hands-free products to keep your drivers safe.
Source: http://mobile-solutions.ca/?p=397
Alfonso Ribeiro
Source: http://dyna-markup.blogspot.com/2013/03/mobile-communications.html
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Source: http://hankering-commune.blogspot.com/2013/03/dyna-markup-mobile-communications.html
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Car bomb hits Syrian capital as rebels press closer
Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-bomb-explodes-syrian-capital-syrian-tv-151104915.html
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?Anti-Tax? GOP: Republican Senate Members Support Internet Tax.
While Republicans say they are for economic freedom, low taxes, and deregulation, the Senate?passage of the Budget Resolution proves the opposite.
At 6:47 pm on Friday the roll-call was tallied for the ?Internet Sales Tax? amendment (#656) ? sponsored by Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi ? revealing that it passed with the support of twenty-six Republicans (listed below).
Enzi?s amendment is essentially the ?Marketplace Fairness Act? (S.336/H.R.684) in a different form.
In short, this amendment?s passage just goes to show how far big government ?conservatives? are willing to go in broad daylight.
Do these ?conservatives? really think that the Johnny Taxpayer wants to be surrender more of his dollars to government while shopping online ? one of the last places where one can get goods tax-free? Do they think that states and businesses want more bureaucracy to deal with?
Fewer taxes are always good for individuals. It?s a simple concept. Think of it this way: Do you think any retail shop would ever stimulate sales by placing signs in their windows saying, ?Today Only ? Pay 15% More!? Absolutely not. But this is exactly what government wants to do through taxes ? and businesses online will suffer for it.
While the Enzi?s internet tax initiative will likely die as an Amendment ? it will get shot down in the House ? it will probably pass the Senate under its original name: ?the Marketplace Fairness Act.?
Senate conservatives must remain opposed to this and commit to filibuster it on the floor.
| Republican YAYs- | ||
| Alexander (R-TN) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Corker (R-TN) Crapo (R-ID) Enzi (R-WY) | Fischer (R-NE) Graham (R-SC) Hoeven (R-ND) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (R-WI) Kirk (R-IL) McCain (R-AZ) Moran (R-KS)Portman (R-OH) Risch (R-ID) Sessions (R-AL) | Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Wicker (R-MS) |
| Republican NAYs - | ||
| Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Coats (R-IN) Cornyn (R-TX) Cruz (R-TX) Flake (R-AZ) Grassley (R-IA) | Hatch (R-UT) Heller (R-NV) Inhofe (R-OK) Lee (R-UT) McConnell (R-KY) Murkowski (R-AK) Paul (R-KY) Roberts (R-KS) | Rubio (R-FL) Scott (R-SC)Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) |
?
Marginalia: Our pledge says ?Liberty and Justice for all? ? not ?Liberty and Fairness.? Let it be said that fairness ? especially fairness by government force ? is the enemy of justice. If we want a free society we don?t want government-mandated fairness.
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Monday, March 25, 2013
Greg Eads is watching NFL Total Access
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://getglue.com/conversation/greg_eads/2013-03-24T12%3A29%3A48Z
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Mars Curiosity rover gets back to sending snapshots
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Marco Di Lorenzo / Ken Kremer
The Curiosity rover's instrument-laden robotic arm is front and center in this mosaic view captured by the Mars rover's NavCam system and assembled by Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer. The colorized black-and-white imagery was captured on March 23. Click on the image to see the full panorama.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
After a week of down time due to a computer glitch, NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is once again sending back pictures of its rocky Red Planet locale at Yellowknife Bay. In this fresh panorama, the rover looks as if it's sticking its drill-equipped robotic arm right in your face.
"That drill is hungry, looking for something tasty to eat, and 'you' (loaded with water and organics) are it," jokes scientist-writer Ken Kremer, who collaborated with Italian colleague Marco Di Lorenzo to assemble the panorama.
Curiosity's percussive drill played a key role in the science team's most recently reported breakthrough: the finding that powder drilled out of a Martian rock contained the chemical traces of a life-friendly environment that existed on Mars billions of years ago. The team's chemical analysis of the powder indicated that the minerals were probably formed in the presence of drinkable water.
That kind of water no longer exists in liquid form on the Martian surface. The place where Curiosity is currently working may have once been in the vicinity of a riverbed, but it's now a cold and dry wasteland of sand and rock. In the weeks to come, Curiosity's scientists plan to drill into the rock again, looking for confirmatory clues about the potentially habitable environment in the Red Planet's past.
The plan has been held up due to a series of minor setbacks?? including a memory failure that may have been due to a cosmic-ray strike, a precautionary stand-down to weather a solar storm, and most recently a computer file glitch that put the rover into safe mode. The Curiosity team has been carefully bringing the rover back to full operation, and this picture is presumably part of the checkout process.
It won't be long before the rover will once more have to reduce its contact with its handlers back on Earth, due to an Earth-Mars-sun conjunction that will interfere with radio signaling. Curiosity's communication gap is expected to last from April 4 to May 1, as detailed in a mission update from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During the break, Curiosity is expected to carry on with its experiments, but the transmission of science data and images will have to wait until May. So let's enjoy these fresh images while we can.
For more of Curiosity's raw imagery, check out the galleries on JPL's Mars Science Laboratory website. You'll also find great pictures on UnmannedSpaceflight.com, where Kremer, Di Lorenzo and other image-processing gurus post their work. If you have 3-D glasses, whip 'em out and take a look at Ed Truthan's red-blue view of Curiosity's first drilling site.
Trace the Curiosity rover's journey to Mars and see the pictures that the six-wheeled robot has sent back from the Red Planet.
More about Mars:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log and the rest of NBCNews.com's science and space coverage, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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