A very complete, BBC documentary about the McLaren MP4-12C; at around 39:20 (to about 43:38), they feature an acoustic engineer at Ricardo that is doing the sound tuning for the exhaust note. The MP4-12C isn't my favorite supercar around, though I must say the engineering bits are incredible. McLaren really know how to put together a performance vehicle. Personally, the best sounding exhaust note I've ever heard out of a modern-day production supercar is the hands down the Lexus LF-A. Its 4.8L V10 just screams like no other, courtesy of Yamaha. It's probably the closest to an F1 note you'll ever get out of a normal car.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coq de Combat 

Warm and Cozy Greetings from Sweden!

 

Honestly, that still looks beautiful!

Look at it this way, it gives you a ton of time to spend indoors inventing REALLY cool stuff.  For those that don't know, Swedes are fantastic inventors!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardgedee 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomscy2000 

Being a spoiled kid from sunny SoCal, I thought I'd enjoy living in a place with four seasons. Then I went to interview with schools in Boston in the thick of winter in 5 degree Fahrenheit weather, and my viewpoint changed...

I hear that so often from people from California.

All that easy living makes you soft.

Well okay, but the road rage makes us hard.  FWIW, I once had to go to Cleveland in January for business.  Aside from the ice on the windshields, I LOVED how cold it was.

Quote:

Originally Posted by driver 8 

 

Hey Fitear, I'd like to buy your $2k earphones 99.999% of the population would consider completely insane.  Would you let me give you money?

 

No gaijins!

LOL! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuppetFace 

I don't know, this is obviously just speculation on my part. I think in the case of FitEar however, it has less to do with customer support and logistics, and more to do with being resistant to change and being set in their ways. The addition of universals to their lineup was a step in the right direction toward changing these attitudes I think, though it took a while for them to "allow" importers to supply them. It was pretty ridiculous to have to order the TG 334 in secret when it first came out, and not disclosing the name of the importer openly despite tons of folks asking (see? The demand is there) for fear of repercussions. FitEar specifically said they didn't want their universals being sold overseas either at first, so in that case it seems to be about more than just the complexity of ordering customs. They then did the same thing again with the F111, giving exclusive rights to a Japanese vendor who didn't accept international orders. Now these earphones are finally available among import retailers.

I'd like to put forth an alternate theory if I may, and please keep in mind that I don't know a thing about FitEar the company.  But amongst the more reputable companies of the world, there is a firm policy to not enter a market before an infrastructure has been set up.  This would include - among other things - an authorized dealer network, customer support personnel, and (in this case) an audiologist network.  Part of it is a high sense of corporate ethics - or at least a reflection of the personal ethics of the company's principals.  But it's also good business sense.  A poor initial showing in a new market is not something that can be easily undone.  Again, not saying that this is definitely the case with FitEar, but might it be a possibility?

Having said that, still sucks that you can't get them easily.

I liked the Aventador sound (the first Lambo I actually like since the Countach); never heard the 458 in person...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardgedee 

 

I was in touch with a friend at the time who lived downtown. It sounded like the locals' survival strategy amounted to huddling together to stay warm, and drinking together to stay entertained.

Yep, from what I heard people began to band together into groups and work together cooperatively. On an amusing note 9 months later there was an explosion in births. You have to love how the French mind works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalFreak 

Yep, from what I heard people began to band together into groups and work together cooperatively. On an amusing note 9 months later there was an explosion in births. You have to love how the French mind works.

I can't really say the same thing back home where super typhoons literally ravage entire areas. In fact Reuters had a headline "Entire families were washed away" as the death toll climbs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomscy2000 

 

A very complete, BBC documentary about the McLaren MP4-12C; at around 39:20 (to about 43:38), they feature an acoustic engineer at Ricardo that is doing the sound tuning for the exhaust note. The MP4-12C isn't my favorite supercar around, though I must say the engineering bits are incredible. McLaren really know how to put together a performance vehicle. Personally, the best sounding exhaust note I've ever heard out of a modern-day production supercar is the hands down the Lexus LF-A. Its 4.8L V10 just screams like no other, courtesy of Yamaha. It's probably the closest to an F1 note you'll ever get out of a normal car.

Courtesy of Yamaha, the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments, coincidence? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalFreak 

My city looked like that a week ago. We got lucky though, it started coming down mid afternoon and continued on through the night therefore not many people got stranded at work or at the bus stations. We usually don't shut the city down when a small storm hits. The suburban streets are usually left a couple of days but the main arteries and the bus routes are usually plowed enough where traffic can get through albeit traffic will flow at a bumper to bumper trickle of what it would usually flow. Snow storms don't really bother us Canadians to much. What's dangerous and can shut down our cities are ice storms. Thankfully we rarely get to many of those.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalFreak 

HERE we go, that storm in 1998 cost 30 people their lives and completely shut down Montreal and nearly shut down Ottawa. One of the worst ice storms Canadians have ever had to face. It took days to get power back on in Montreal and there was even talk of airlifting the children and the sick out of Montreal until the power grid could be reconstructed.

 

 

 

 

Wow, yeah we don't have ice storms here. Not that I know of. Perhaps it's something that has to do with the seas, as we're pretty closed in. In fact, we're pretty well off wen it comes to natural disasters and such. All we have is the cold weather but that's pretty much it. Rarely do we have storms.

This is a Swedish newspaper in english describing the recent weather: http://www.thelocal.se/44872/20121205/#.UMA0B4PXyYU

Here are some photos from the same newspaper: http://www.thelocal.se/gallery/2694/#.UMA66YPXyYV

Today it's going to be back to normal according to news. I think what really hit us bad was that the local communication, as in buses, trains and subway trains got cancelled and malfunctioned. When walking to the christmas dinner party yesterday after work, it felt like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie as people had abandoned their cars and a few buses. So we walked on the road, zig-zagging through the zone of abandoned vehicles. 

When heading back from the restaurant (superb food, thank you very much mr professor!) I snapped those shots. The first one, with the cars that are parked along the road, is a pretty fun one - since those aren't parking slots! The bigger road where those cars were headed got closed down (according to my wife) so they were pretty much stranded there. Nothing else to do but to park your car on the walk. Oh, and the subways were doing just fine when I was heading back home since the blizzard had stopped and they had gotten the subway system under control again. Hopefully it's true that the biggest part of the blizzard is overwith today. I will participate on another dissertation dinner tonight.

It feels incredible how much they go out of their way to include me on these kinds of events. At first I felt a little bit as an "outsider", as if I weren't a part of the science team because I just manage their data, but they are very insisting on me being part of the whole team instead of dividing it into the different kinds of people there, i.e. IT-guys, statisticians, biologists, medical doctors, chemists and so on and so forth. It's like one big team where everyone works towards a joint goal, each one with their specialty and mine is the programming and database administration. Really happy to be a part of it. Also, yesterday the professor that hired me went along and presented me to the other professors in an informal manner and we chatted some about their research and so on. I also feel like I'm getting a hang of it all - obviously not on the same level as those who have been studying it for a long time, but more in a general manner. The research data that I am handling right now is about rheumatic arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Smoking is bad, m'kay? 

I was writing something in this thread, then the power went out at my apartment, in all units, at the office now.

I'm also the only person in the office at the moment, and this office has desks for 12 people!, and I have to pay the rent for it at the end of December!  Lol.

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Originally Posted by Silent One   Courtesy of Yamaha, the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments, coincidence? 

Yep, that's the key. They're also quite adept at designing/building the engines themselves. All the quality motors introduced by Toyota these days have been developed by Yamaha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomscy2000 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silent One   Courtesy of Yamaha, the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments, coincidence? 

Yep, that's the key. They're also quite adept at designing/building the engines themselves. All the quality motors introduced by Toyota these days have been developed by Yamaha.

Yamaha also introduced the world to Keiko Matsui...and I love it! And if that wasn't enough, Yamaha R&D Studios in LA was the first in the city to build a Sound Studio from the ground up and had 5 floating floors. All studios in LA previously had been acquired spaces retrofitted to work. 

Sadly, with the economy being tight the last few years in Japan, Yamaha sold the studio about a year ago - now a dental office I believe. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mutabor 

 

Yeah, a few days ago we had some snow in my city too.

 

 

How did your city handle it? I'm sure it wasn't as bad as over here with cancelled buses and abandoned cars on the roads. 

What's even more surprising about it all is that it wasn't colder than -5 degrees celsius.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coq de Combat 

How did your city handle it? I'm sure it wasn't as bad as over here with cancelled buses and abandoned cars on the roads. 

 

What's even more surprising about it all is that it wasn't colder than -5 degrees celsius.

...

........

I'm surprised you're a Swede and didn't know this. It snows more when the temperature is warmer then when it's colder. Matter of fact once the temp drops past a certain point it becomes to cold for crystallization to occur to form snowflakes. If you you live in a cold climate and don't want a winter buried in snow you pray it gets as cold as possible and stays that way until the thaw comes along. The cold will be brutal but at least you're not buried up to your nose in a blizzard.