Comments on: Endless summer, or: with a single click, you can sponsor an OLPC Education Jam in the Philippines http://blog.melchua.com/2007/07/07/endless-summer-or-with-a-single-click-you-can-sponsor-an-olpc-education-jam-in-the-philippines/ Braindumps on things Mel Chua has found shiny lately. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:28:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mel http://blog.melchua.com/2007/07/07/endless-summer-or-with-a-single-click-you-can-sponsor-an-olpc-education-jam-in-the-philippines/comment-page-1/#comment-303 Mel Sun, 08 Jul 2007 16:55:00 +0000 http://blog.melchua.com/2007/07/07/endless-summer-or-with-a-single-click-you-can-sponsor-an-olpc-education-jam-in-the-philippines/#comment-303 l33tminion: Sweet - I wanted to take that class but it was canceled the semester I signed up, and then I graduated. Let me know how it goes! And regarding white papers - you're absolutely right, we're waiting for some data to come in but hopefully I'll be able to finish them next weekend.<br/><br/>dj: <br/><i>your disinterest in working to hear missing segments of the musical spectrum always did confuse me a bit, and it'll be great if others can do it without fear of stigma.</i><br/><br/>Warning, dj - long reply!<br/><br/>I would really love to hear flutes. And birds. However:<br/><br/>1. <b>Hearing aids won't work for me yet.</b> I have a severe hearing loss concentrated in the high frequency ranges. I've been told that my hearing profile is one of the most difficult to deal with through amplification. (Btw, most of the ads you see for hearing aids are cheap ones built for older people; those aren't what I'm talking about. It's like comparing the wheelchairs they use at the airport with the wheelchair a lifetime paraplegic uses to get around.)<br/><br/>Designing a high-quality audio system smaller than your pinky in a high-stress, high-moisture environment is... hard. You deal with sweat, vibration, feedback (microphone is less than 2 in. from speaker), reliability, interoperability with other technologies (think of talking on your cell while wearing earphones and you'll get a glimpse of the problem) and the real kicker: customizing the aid for individual hearing profiles, since no people hear alike. It's a tough problem, and the technology isn't quite up to my standards yet (in terms of how much I'm willing to pay to get something that good).<br/><br/>2. <b>Hearing aids (and cochlear implants, I bet) are hot, itchy, annoying, conspicuous*, and just Really Not Fun To Wear.</b> I run around in crazy ways, dive through sprinklers, quasi-legally raft the Charles, and things like that - expensive (I could buy several good laptops with the money) electronics on one's person aren't usually compatible with such activities.<br/><br/>*It's amazing how differently people treat you when their first impression of you is "Deaf." Part of the reason I love computer is that on the internet, nobody can tell you're not hearing...<br/><br/>3. <b>Quite simply, they sound bad.</b> It's the difference between hearing Muse perform a song live and blasting the same song from lousy laptop speakers. Music, in particular, takes a terrible blow; even fairly recent cochlear implants have low enough resolution as to render notes indistinguishable from each other. <br/><br/>Cochlear implants <a HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant#Risks_and_disadvantages" REL="nofollow">destroy your normal hearing.</a> You either remain a cyborg for the rest of your life, or you're totally deaf. I'd rather cling to the shreds of good music I can get now and work on making the technology better so I might actually want to use it in the future. l33tminion: Sweet – I wanted to take that class but it was canceled the semester I signed up, and then I graduated. Let me know how it goes! And regarding white papers – you’re absolutely right, we’re waiting for some data to come in but hopefully I’ll be able to finish them next weekend.

dj:
your disinterest in working to hear missing segments of the musical spectrum always did confuse me a bit, and it’ll be great if others can do it without fear of stigma.

Warning, dj – long reply!

I would really love to hear flutes. And birds. However:

1. Hearing aids won’t work for me yet. I have a severe hearing loss concentrated in the high frequency ranges. I’ve been told that my hearing profile is one of the most difficult to deal with through amplification. (Btw, most of the ads you see for hearing aids are cheap ones built for older people; those aren’t what I’m talking about. It’s like comparing the wheelchairs they use at the airport with the wheelchair a lifetime paraplegic uses to get around.)

Designing a high-quality audio system smaller than your pinky in a high-stress, high-moisture environment is… hard. You deal with sweat, vibration, feedback (microphone is less than 2 in. from speaker), reliability, interoperability with other technologies (think of talking on your cell while wearing earphones and you’ll get a glimpse of the problem) and the real kicker: customizing the aid for individual hearing profiles, since no people hear alike. It’s a tough problem, and the technology isn’t quite up to my standards yet (in terms of how much I’m willing to pay to get something that good).

2. Hearing aids (and cochlear implants, I bet) are hot, itchy, annoying, conspicuous*, and just Really Not Fun To Wear. I run around in crazy ways, dive through sprinklers, quasi-legally raft the Charles, and things like that – expensive (I could buy several good laptops with the money) electronics on one’s person aren’t usually compatible with such activities.

*It’s amazing how differently people treat you when their first impression of you is “Deaf.” Part of the reason I love computer is that on the internet, nobody can tell you’re not hearing…

3. Quite simply, they sound bad. It’s the difference between hearing Muse perform a song live and blasting the same song from lousy laptop speakers. Music, in particular, takes a terrible blow; even fairly recent cochlear implants have low enough resolution as to render notes indistinguishable from each other.

Cochlear implants destroy your normal hearing. You either remain a cyborg for the rest of your life, or you’re totally deaf. I’d rather cling to the shreds of good music I can get now and work on making the technology better so I might actually want to use it in the future.

]]> By: DJ http://blog.melchua.com/2007/07/07/endless-summer-or-with-a-single-click-you-can-sponsor-an-olpc-education-jam-in-the-philippines/comment-page-1/#comment-302 DJ Sun, 08 Jul 2007 16:22:00 +0000 http://blog.melchua.com/2007/07/07/endless-summer-or-with-a-single-click-you-can-sponsor-an-olpc-education-jam-in-the-philippines/#comment-302 So yeah, I didn't know you were up to this much cool stuff either, and we were just hanging out. You modest person, you. I like the hardware design project concept; your disinterest in working to hear missing segments of the musical spectrum always did confuse me a bit, and it'll be great if others can do it without fear of stigma.<br/><br/>Consider me in (conditionally) on the Boston jam as well, provided I'm still in town (which I certainly hope I am). So yeah, I didn’t know you were up to this much cool stuff either, and we were just hanging out. You modest person, you. I like the hardware design project concept; your disinterest in working to hear missing segments of the musical spectrum always did confuse me a bit, and it’ll be great if others can do it without fear of stigma.

Consider me in (conditionally) on the Boston jam as well, provided I’m still in town (which I certainly hope I am).

]]> By: L33tminion http://blog.melchua.com/2007/07/07/endless-summer-or-with-a-single-click-you-can-sponsor-an-olpc-education-jam-in-the-philippines/comment-page-1/#comment-301 L33tminion Sun, 08 Jul 2007 08:26:00 +0000 http://blog.melchua.com/2007/07/07/endless-summer-or-with-a-single-click-you-can-sponsor-an-olpc-education-jam-in-the-philippines/#comment-301 Cool stuff. I'm sorry that I missed the Game Jam, it looks like that turned out awesome. Your interview came out excellently, too. (I was a bit surprised by their editorial decision to subtitle your segments, but maybe I'm just used to your accent...)<br/><br/>The Curriculum Jam is of interest to me, since I plan on continuing with meta-Olin stuff next year. I'm taking a class at Wellesley on "Psychology of Teaching, Learning, and Motivation" that looks really interesting, and there's apparently some people looking into doing a pedagogy focused sequel to the Meta-Olin CC. By the way, weren't you going to send me the white papers (or whatever) from the committee looking at grading last semester? I don't think I ever got those. Cool stuff. I’m sorry that I missed the Game Jam, it looks like that turned out awesome. Your interview came out excellently, too. (I was a bit surprised by their editorial decision to subtitle your segments, but maybe I’m just used to your accent…)

The Curriculum Jam is of interest to me, since I plan on continuing with meta-Olin stuff next year. I’m taking a class at Wellesley on “Psychology of Teaching, Learning, and Motivation” that looks really interesting, and there’s apparently some people looking into doing a pedagogy focused sequel to the Meta-Olin CC. By the way, weren’t you going to send me the white papers (or whatever) from the committee looking at grading last semester? I don’t think I ever got those.

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