Needed: Speaker mounts for Acoustic Research "The Edge" Speakers

When we moved into the house in 2002 we had a little over a week to prepare for Seder. In the hustle to prepare I managed to break the speaker mount for one of two speakers mounted in the dining room. Now, three years later, I'd like to either fix it or remove the speakers entirely.

So, I started hunting for Acoustic Research The Edge speakers. They're all over the place, but generally in outlets or last chance sales.

Hmmm...

Can't find an Acoustic Research home page.

Finally after massaging the search terms I was using I discovered Recoton apparently bought Acoustic Research. Check the Recoton homepage. Not very helpful.

Now, the three of you might be wondering why I don't just get generic speaker brackets. However, after digging around and comparing the back of the existing speakers with what I've found to be standard brackets, I realized that they're not going to work, not with these speakers.

I think, just maybe, I'll junk the speakers (well, remove from the wall and place somewhere not requiring a pretty mount).

But (and, this is for Todd to think about while he recovers), it reminded me of the problem inherent with many corporate web sites: they're run by the sales or marketing arm and are geared almost entirely to attracting new customers. Old customers? Could care less about them. Customers of a subsidiary you've assimilated? Could care even less.

Thing is, these are nice speakers. If I had even a remote clue about how to service them I'd consider buying more. But the only information you can find online is how to buy the closeout versions of the speakers (which I guess is a strong hint that they're not longer manufactured).

Visualizing data & folksonomies

Via Visualizing shared metadata: the tag landscape comes It begins......basically visualizing tags and tag relationships in Java and flash.

Imaginary Friends: not so bad after all

Study looks at benefits of imaginary friends: Researchers are investigating whether having an imaginary friend might help children to develop language skills, boost creativity and retain knowledge.

Ms Roby said that imaginary friends "come in all shapes and sizes, some live in castles, some in the forest ... they become consistent characters, and mum will know what their names are".
Ms Roby did not have an invisible friend when she was growing up, but her brother did. She conceded that imaginary friends might not be assets for a child in a confrontation with a bully.

Social Practices in del.icio.us

i d e a n t: A del.icio.us study: Bookmark, Classify and Share: A mini-ethnography of social practices in a distributed classification community.

AS bonbons

Via: Making Light: AS bonbons just in time for Seder, the four questions in Old English:

For hwi is þeos niht ungelic eallum oþrum nihtum?
On eallum oþrum nihtum we etað hlaf swa gehafene swa þeorfne. On þisse nihte, þeorfne anan.

For hwi is þeos niht ungelic eallum oþrum nihtum?
On eallum oþrum nihtum we etað mislice wyrta.
On þisse nihte, bitre wyrta anan.

For hwi is þeos niht ungelic eallum oþrum nihtum?
On eallum oþrum nihtum ne dyppað we swa oft swa anes.
On þisse nihte, we dyppað tuwa.

For hwi is þeos niht ungelic eallum oþrum nihtum?
On eallum oþrum nihtum we etað swa sittende swa hleoniende.
On þisse nihte, ealle we hleoniað.

There's some other goodies in the Making Light entry.

Wave Theory ∩ Time

I took Physics in my Junior year in High School. I enjoyed it, we got to play with all sorts of things and perform many of the (safe) classic experiments in Physics. I also got a C since I didn't take the Calculus class needed for the Physics class until my second year in college.

Anyway, one of the experiments is called the Double Slit experiment: you aim particles at a mask with two slits in it. What happens is you get interference patterns which are a phenomenon of waves, not particles.

This classic experiment has been perfomed now with single electrons which are passed through a double slit in time. Read more in: New look for classic experiment (March 2005) - News - PhysicsWeb.