On Sun, 20 Jul 2014 09:34:21 +0100, Jim Lesurf wrote:

So info on those points would be welcome. Failing that I may try
something like xfce Mint sometime. But its a bit of a faff as a
temporary measure if someone can tell me in advance that won't do the
job and point me at a better choice. (I'm asking at the BBC about this
as well.)

Speaking as a dyed-in-the-wool RedHat guy, I was pretty impressed with
vanilla Mint when I installed it last Xmas for my sister. The install was
easy and I like the Cinnamon desktop. Vanilla Mint runs at an acceptable
speed on her somewhat underpowered HP laptop.

My sister likes Mint too: the reason for this install was that the then-
latest Ubuntu version had really ****ed her off by not only screwing with
the desktop, but also taking away a number of small GUI tools she found
very useful. She's a power user rather than a tekkie, which is why I did
the install.

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Personal BBC comment: I really wish that the NRDC surround sound format
would be reinstated even if only as an Internet audio format. You
probably remember it: it used a tetrahedral mic assembly for recording
and was transmitted as four channnels: mono + left-right, front-rear and
ceiling-floor difference signals. I remember hearing it at an internal
BBC sound equipment exhibition in 1980 and being totally blown away with
it on both speakers and headphones. About the same time I went to the
Sony shop on Regent St and hearing one of their surround sound demos,
also using four speakers, and being distinctly underwhelmed by it.

For me a big plus of the NRDC system was that you could pick your point
in the audience by tweaking the preamp - forward gave a brighter
orchestral sound and minimal audience noise while rearward gave a
mellower orchestral sound and brought up the audience: you could localise
coughs and foot stomping all around yourself. This was from a demo
recording they'd made during the Proms by hanging a single tetrahedral
mice from the middle of the Albert Hall's domed roof.

Never mind all that browser ********: I'd happily install a freestanding
Winamp equivalent application if did the same job as that NRDC preamp and
could feed the result to my headhones or my external sound system via an
external sound card. If it could be installed on a RaspberryPi and look
like another physical preamp, so much the better!


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |