There have been a number of articles recently about how much information web companies are collecting about people, especially with the increasing trend of deep packet inspection. Stuff that I generally think is rather bad and is part of the reason why I support groups like the EFF and ACLU. But all of the articles seem to say that the big bad thing that companies are going to do with all that info is use it for targeted advertising. To which I say - so freaking what? If I'm missing something, someone please fill me in, but if someone can figure out products that I'm likely to want and show them to me in a way that appeals to me - good for them. Heck I spend all that time on amazon and netflixs rating books and movies I like so they can find more books and movies I should buy...
What the articles seem to leave out is stuff like changing the price given to different people based on their information, collecting medical info or other risk indicators and giving it to insurance companies or potential employers, what happens when the NSA asks for the information... Anyway, those articles made me feel the need to rant and now I have so we can move on.
Tonight I went up to San Francisco to see my cowoker's band play again. It was another small bar, but a bit more comfortable and was a good time. Although the band after them was playing way too loud - is there ever a time when a band asks how's the volume and it is ok to say - too loud, turn it down? They actually seemed to know they were playing too loud, but didn't seem to realize what a volume control is, in spite of having all sorts of fancy electronic equipment. So right now my ears are ringing. Actually it is more than just ringing since it is not just a high frequency tone, but a high frequency tone with a low frequency (about 2 Hz) amplitude modulation (aka the ringing is fading in and out).
Friday, August 22, 2008
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1 comment:
The ringing you hear is the firing of the damaged hair cells that are probably on their way to dying... The way your hearing hair cells are set up, the high-freq are sort of "closer" to the outside and more sensitive to damage. As people get older the ringing gets increasingly lower in freq until all one is left with is low-freq hearing...
Protect your hearing!! If a concert's too loud, the best thing to do is to hide out in quieter places in the venue--the bar, the bathroom, just outside (where people are usually smoking, unfortunately).
See you tonight!
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