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A sensor for sensing vibrations in a transducer assembly and for generating an electrical signal indicative of the vibrations is disclosed. The sensor includes a piezoelectric generator which is mounted with a bimorph on a common substrate. The piezoelectric generator and bimorph have a common cantilevered end portion and an opposed deflectable free end portion so that deflection of the free end portion of the bimorph causes a corresponding deflection of the free end portion of the piezoelectric generator, whereby the piezoelectric generator generates an electrical indication of the instantaneous degree of deflection of the bimorph.
1. A deflectable read transducer assembly for use in a magnetic recorder, comprising:
a deflectable support arm comprising a pair of piezo-ceramic elements bonded to a common electrically conductive substrate between said pair of elements, one of said elements having a first conductive layer on the surface opposite said substrate, the other element having a second conductive layer opposite said substrate, said support arm being cantilevered at one end portion of its lengthwise dimension and being free to deflect at its opposed end portion;
a read transducer mounted to one of said pairs of elements on the opposed free end portion of said support arm, said transducer being electrically isolated from said conductive layers so that voltage applied to said substrate and said first and second layers does not produce a signal that is read by said transducer; and,
a support arm deflection sensor comprising a piezo-ceramic generator element bonded to said common substrate and a third conductive layer overlying said generator element, said third conductive layer being generally in the same plane as said first layer and separated therefrom by a dielectric gap, said third conductive layer being electrically isolated from said first and second conductive layers, whereby deflection of said support arm results in an electrical output signal between said substrate and said third conductive layer, which output signal is indicative of the instantaneous amount of deflection of said support arm.
2. A transducer assembly as set forth in claim 1 wherein one of said piezo-ceramic elements and said generator element comprise a unitary piezo-ceramic element.
3. A read transducer assembly for use in a magnetic recorder, comprising:
a support arm capable of large scale deflection comprising a pair of elongated thin planar piezo-ceramic elements bonded to a common electrically conductive substrate located therebetween, said support arm being cantilevered at one end portion of its lengthwise dimension, the remainder, including the opposite end portion being free for large scale deflection in a direction generally transverse to the plane of said elements, the surfaces of each of said pair of elements opposite said common substrate having an electrically conductive layer bonded thereto, one of said conductive layers having a dielectric gap therein defining a relatively narrow conductive strip extending generally along said lengthwise direction which is electrically isolated from the main portion of said conductive layer, the main portion of said one conductive layer together with the other conductive layer, said substrate and the elements therebetween defining a piezo-ceramic motor for deflecting said arm in response to voltage being selectively applied thereto, the portion of said element adjacent said conductive strip defining a generator for generating an output signal in said conductive strip that is indicative of the instantaneous deflection of said support arm;
a read transducer for reproducing signal information from a magnetic recording media, said transducer being attached to one of said conductive layers at said opposite end of said support arm, the transducer extending beyond the end of said support arm and being electrically isolated from said conductive layer so that the signals being read thereby have no effect on the deflection of said arm and the output signal from said generator.
4. A read assembly as defined in claim 3 wherein said conductive strip is located along one side of said one conductive layer.
5. A transducer assembly as set forth in claim 3 wherein said dielectric gap extends from the cantilevered end portion of said arm to the opposed free end portion thereof.
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 668,653, filed Mar. 19, 1976, now abandoned.
This invention is directed generally to piezoelectric benders or bimorphs and, more particularly, to apparatus for generating an electrical indication of the instantaneous amount of deflection or vibration of a deflectable bimorph.
A typical piezoelectric bimorph comprises a pair of electrically poled piezo-ceramic elements bonded to opposite sides of a common substrate. The bimorph may be caused to bend or deflect by cantilevering one end portion and leaving the other end portion free to deflect and by applying an appropriate voltage between each piezo-ceramic element and the substrate. In this mode of operation, the bimorph is said to be acting as a motor. The amount and direction of deflection of the bimorph can be controlled by varying the polarity and magnitude of the applied voltage.
The ability of a bimorph to deflect in response to an applied signal makes it useful in a variety of applications. One such application is in videotape recorders of the type described in the commonly assigned copending Applications by Raymond Francis Ravizza and James Ronald Wheeler, Ser. No. 669,047, entitled AUTOMATIC SCAN TRACKING, filed on Mar. 22, 1976, and by Richard Allen Hathaway, Ser. No. 668,571, entitled AUTOMATIC SCAN TRACKING, and Ser. No. 668,651, ID-2502, entitled POSITIONABLE TRANSDUCER MOUNTING STRUCTURE, both of which were filed on Mar. 19, 1976. Briefly, one embodiment of a helical videotape recorder described in said Applications has a reproduce or "read" transducer mounted on one end portion of a deflectable bimorph. While the read transducer is in physical contact with a videotape, it senses or "reads" information recorded on discrete tracks on the tape. In such systems, it is important that the read transducer be centered on the track being read to accurately sense the information in the track. To ensure that the transducer is correctly aligned with the track being read, its position with respect to the center of that track is sensed and a correction signal is developed and applied to the bimorph to deflect it and the read transducer toward the center of the track. While the bimorph is well suited to such uses, precautions must be taken to limit or damp unwanted electrically and mechanically induced vibrations in the bimorph, which vibrations may extend over a frequency range of from approximately 10 Hertz to over 700 Hertz.
Mechanically induced bimorph vibrations may occur as a result of the read transducer abruptly making and losing contact with the videotape. In a helical videotape recorder, the read transducer loses contact briefly with the tape at the end of every track and shortly thereafter making contact with the tape as it begins to read the next successive track. As the transducer enters and leaves transductional relationship with the tape, a mechanical impulse is received by the read transducer which may cause it and the bimorph to which it is attached to vibrate. The transducers experience an impulse as they enter and leave the scan of the tape because the coefficient of friction of the air film that is established between the transducer and the tape in most helical type videotape recorders is several orders of magnitude greater than that of the free space conditions encountered by the transducers between scans of the tape.
It is known that such vibrations can be limited by means of so-called dead-rubber pads positioned on either side of the transducer to absorb impact from the transducer without immediate rebound. However, such pads also limit the extent to which the bimorph can be deflected and therefore restrict the dynamic deflection range of the transducer. In addition, if such pads are used in a helical videotape recorder where the transducer head assembly rotates at a high speed, the pads are subjected to accelerations that may approach or exceed 1,000 G's. At this level it is difficult to ensure that the pads will remain in their assigned positions.
Vibrations in the read transducer can be generated by electrical impulses as well as by mechanical impulses. For example, in a videotape recorder such as that described in commonly assigned Application by Richard Allen Hathaway et al, Ser. No. 668,652 now abandoned, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING SPECIAL MOTION EFFECTS IN VIDEO RECORDING AND REPRODUCING APPARATUS, filed on Mar. 19, 1976, slow motion and other effects in a reproduced video scene can be produced. For example, a half speed slow motion playback of a tape can be generated by reducing the tape speed to one-half its normal speed and by causing the read transducer to read each track twice before advancing to the next track. In order to read a track twice, the read transducer must be physically repositioned or reset to the beginning of the track which is to be repeated. This reset of the read transducer is effected by applying an electrical reset signal to a deflectable bimorph upon which the read transducer is mounted and thereby deflecting the bimorph and the transducer so as to reset the transducer to the beginning of the desired track. The reset signal is in the form of an electrical impulse which tends to cause the bimorph to vibrate or oscillate and, as pointed out above, such vibrations must be damped to ensure correct alignment between the read transducer and the videotape. The use of dead-rubber pads to effect the damping of electrically induced oscillations poses the same difficulties referred to above with respect to the damping of mechanically induced oscillations.
Therefore, in videotape recorders having transducers mounted on deflectable bimorphs, it is desirable to have some means for sensing vibrations in the bimorph and for generating an electrical signal indicative of the extent of such vibrations. This electrical signal can then be used to generate a damping signal for application to the bimorph so as to damp its vibrations. The advantage of electrically sensing vibrations in bimorphs used with videotape recorder transducers also applies to other applications where it is desirable to damp bimorph vibrations.
Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to provide an improved vibration sensor for use with transducer supporting deflectable bimorphs.
It is another object of this invention to provide a vibration sensor which is very low in cost, takes up very little room, and which provides good response to transducer supporting bimorph vibrations over a wide frequency range.
It is another object of this invention to provide a bimorph vibration sensor which is particularly well suited for use with videotape read transducers.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description while referring to the attached drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a helical videotape recorder simplified for the sake of clarity and particularly illustrating a rotatable scanning drum and read head;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a read transducer assembly embodying various features of this invention;
FIG. 2a is an enlarged cross-section of a portion of the transducer assembly shown in FIG. 2 and illustrating the layered construction of the assembly;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a feedback control system for controlling vibrations in a bimorph read transducer assembly;
FIGS. 4a and 4b graphically illustrate the frequency and phase response of the bimorph transducer assembly used in the control system of FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the control system illustrated in FIG. 3;
FIG. 6 shows prior art methods of deflecting a bimorph;
FIG. 7 illustrates an improved method of deflecting a bimorph;
FIG. 8a shows a system for driving a bimorph using DC coupling;
FIG. 8b graphically illustrate the net voltage which is applied to one element of the bimorph shown in FIG. 8a;
FIG. 9 shows an improved method of driving a bimorph when the bimorph deflection signal does not include very low frequency or DC components;
FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a deflectable read transducer system embodying the improved bimorph deflection method illustrated in FIG. 8a.
Broadly stated, the present invention is directed to a bimorph vibration sensor in the form of a transducer supporting piezoelectric generator combined with a piezoelectric motor element for sensing vibrations in the transducer supporting motor element and generating an electrical signal indicative of the vibrations.
In a preferred embodiment, the transducer supporting piezoelectric generator and motor are mounted on a common substrate and cantilevered at one end so that deflection or vibration of the opposed end causes the generator to produce an electrical signal indicative of the instantaneous degree of deflection of the motor element and supported transducer. The motor-generator combination is preferably formed from a unitary piezo-ceramic element having one surface mounted on a substrate and the opposite surface covered with a pair of conductive layers, one layer for the motor and one layer for the generator. The two conductive layers are separated by a dielectric gap to electrically isolate the piezoelectric generator from signals applied to the piezoelectric motor.
It should be apparent from the following description that this invention is useful in a variety of applications and is particularly useful in the environment of a helical videotape recorder. Accordingly, while the embodiments of the invention specifically shown and described herein are in conjunction with helical videotape recorders, it should be understood that the scope of the invention should not be limited to such helical recorders.
To more clearly describe this invention and its cooperation with other inventions which find use in helical videotape recorders, this description will cover not only embodiments of this invention but also embodiments of other inventions not claimed herein. The inventions described but not claimed herein are claimed in commonly assigned co-pending Applications by Raymond Francis Ravizza, Ser. No. 668,581 now abandoned, entitled DRIVE CIRCUITRY FOR CONTROLLING MOVABLE VIDEO HEAD, and by Raymond Francis Ravizza, Ser. No. 668,580 now abandoned, entitled SYSTEM FOR DAMPING VIBRATIONS IN A DEFLECTABLE TRANSDUCER, filed on Mar. 19, 1976. As has been pointed out above, some of the embodiments described herein relate to helical videotape recorders. They are particularly related to apparatus and methods for controlling the alignment of a read transducer with respect to tracks on a videotape. Therefore, a brief description of the operation of a videotape recorder read transducer will first be given.
Referring to the drawings, and particularly FIG. 1, a scanning drum 20 of a helical videotape recorder is shown and has a rotatable portion which carries a reproducing or "read" head which contacts and scans successive tracks on a magnetic videotape.
The scanning drum 20 has a pair of drum portions 22 and 24 around which a videotape 26 is wrapped. The tape 26 is caused to move by tape transport means (not shown) in the direction of the arrows A and wraps around the drum portions 22 and 24 in a helical path. The tape 26 is kept in tight contact and alignment with the drums by guide rollers 28 and 30 and by tension exerted on the tape by the tape transport.
In a helical videotape recorder the information tracks run diagonally with respect to the lengthwise dimension of the tape, and a portion of one such track 32 whose size is exaggerated for clarity is shown in FIG. 1. In order to sense the information recorded on track 32 a read transducing head 34 is mounted on drum portion 22 which rotates in the direction of the arrow B. The movement of the tape 26 and the rotation of the transducer 34 causes transducer 34 to contact the tape along the track 32 and to generate an electrical signal representative of the information previously recorded on the track. This electrical signal is fed to signal processing circuitry for processing in a manner well known in the art.
It is apparent that the extent to which the transducer 34 can faithfully reproduce the information originally recorded on the track 32 depends on the transducer 34 accurately following or tracking the track 32. Tracking problems arise, for example, when videotapes or the tracks become distorted, as by temperature or humidity induced dimensional changes in the tape, or by faulty tensioning mechanisms in the tape transport, for example.
Because of such tracking problems, it is desirable to sense the instantaneous position of transducer 34 with respect to track 32. Apparatus for sensing the position of a read transducer with respect to a track is disclosed and claimed in the aforementioned Hathaway applications, Ser. No. 668,571, an Ser. No. 668,651, and the aforementioned Ravizza et al. application Ser. No. 669,047. Briefly, when perfect tracking between the read transducer and the track is not occurring, an electrical correction signal is applied to a deflectable support arm such as a bimorph on which the read transducing head is mounted. The correction signal causes the support arm to deflect the transducer toward track center and thus reduces tracking errors.
Deflection of the read transducer is also desirable in helical videotape recorders such as that described in the aforementioned Hathaway et al, application Ser. No. 668,652, filed on Mar. 19, 1976, wherein slow motion and other effects in a reproduced video scene are generated, the approximately half speed slow motion effect, for example, being produced by reducing the tape transport speed to one-half its normal speed and by causing the read transducer to read each track twice. In oder to read a track twice, the read transducer must be physically re-positioned or reset to the beginning of the track which is to be repeated. This reset of the read transducer is accomplished in one embodiment of the recorder disclosed in the above-noted Application by applying an electrical reset signal to the deflectable support arm upon which the read transducer is mounted and thereby deflecting the support arm and the transducer so as to reset the transducer to the beginning of the desired track. The reset signal is in the form of an electrical impulse which may tend to cause the support arm to vibrate or oscillate, and such vibrations must be damped to assure correct alignment between the transducer and the tape.
Vibrations in the deflectable transducer support arm are also induced when the transducer makes and loses contact with the tape. For example, in the scanning drum arrangement of FIG. 1, read transducer 34 experiences a dropout because it loses contact with tape 26 in the gap between guide rollers 28 and 30 during each rotation of the drum 20. Contact between the transducer 34 and the tape 26 is re-established as transducer 34 passes roller 28 as it rotates in the direction of arrow B.
The vibrations set up in a deflectable transducer support arm are, of course, undesirable since they can produce a loss of tracking. This loss of tracking due to vibrations can be minimized or eliminated by sensing the vibrations in the deflectable support arm and supplying a damping signal to the support arm to counteract the vibrations.
Thus, in helical videotape recorders in which it is desirable to include a deflectable support arm for reducing tracking errors, it is also desirable to include means for damping electrically and mechanically induced vibrations in the deflectable support arm. Preferably, damping the vibrations can be done electronically, in which case some means for sensing the amplitude of the vibrations and for generating an electrical signal indicative thereof, is required.
A deflectable read transducer assembly which includes means for sensing vibrations induced therein is shown in FIG. 2 and is indicated generally by reference numeral 36.
At one end of assemply 36 is the read transducer 34 itself. Its output is coupled via wires 38 to a pair of transducer output terminals 40 from which the transducer output is fed via line 82 to a conventional video processing circuit 84.
A support arm, indicated generally at 42, for holding and deflecting transducer 34 is a piezoelectric bimorph which deflects or bends when a deflection potential is applied to it. The bimorph is formed from a number of layers bonded together to act as a piezoelectric motor 43 and includes a top piezo-ceramic element or layer 44 and a bottom piezo-ceramic element or layer 46. The various layers of transducer assembly 36 are shown more clearly in FIG. 2a. Piezo-ceramic elements 44 and 46 are both bonded to a common, electrically conductive substrate 48. Substrate 48 limits the movement of the bimorph to a bending motion in response to an applied electrical potential.
In order to impress an electrical potential to piezo-ceramic elements 44 and 46, conductive layers 50 and 52 cover the outer surfaces of elements 44 and 46. Terminals 54 and 56 (FIG. 2) are electrically connected to layers 50 and 52, respectively, for receiving an electrical deflection potential. Substrate 48 also has an input terminal 58 to serve as electrical common for the applied deflection potential. The electrical potential for deflecting support arm 42 is applied across piezo-ceramic element 44 between terminals 54 and 58 and across piezo-ceramic element 46 between terminals 56 and 58.
In order to force support arm 42 to deflect at its free end 60 where transducer 34 is mounted, arm 42 is cantilevered between insulating spacers 64 which may be held in place by a bolt (not shown) passing through hole 66.
In operation, appropriate deflection potentials are applied across piezo-ceramic elements 44 and 46 via input terminals 54, 56 and 58. Support arm 42 then bends at its free end 60 and deflects transducer 34 in a direction and to an extent which is dependent on the magnitude and polarity of the potentials applied to terminals 54, 56 and 58.
In some applications, a piezoelectric motor need include only one piezo-ceramic element bonded to a substrate. For example, a single piezo-ceramic element could have a top surface covered by a conductive layer and a bottom surface bonded to a conductive substrate which forces the element to bend when an electric potential is applied between the substrate and conductive layer. However, where large amounts of deflection are required, such as in videotape transducers, a motor element comprising two piezo-ceramic elements 44 and 46, as shown in FIG. 2, is preferable.
In addition to having a piezoelectric motor 43 for deflecting transducer 34, the assembly 36 also includes a deflection or vibration sensor in the form of a piezoelectric generator 68. The generator 68 includes, in the illustrated embodiment, an edge portion 70 of the piezo-ceramic element 44 whose bottom surface is bonded to substrate 48 as previously described. It should be appreciated, however, the generator 68 could be formed by a portion located in the center of the element 44. The generator has a separate conductive layer 72 overlying the element portions 70. The conductive layer 72 is isolated from conductive layer 50 by a dielectric gap 74 to electrically isolate the output of generator 68 from potential applied to the conductive layer 50.
The generator 68 is cantilevered at 76 and has an opposite, free deflectable end 78. Thus, whenever vibrations or deflections occur in the motor 43 due to electrical or mechanical impulses, a corresponding deflection or vibration of the free end 78 of generator element 68 occurs and produces, between the common substrate 48 and the conductive layer 72, an electrical signal indicative of the instantaneous degree of deflection of the motor 43 and of the transducer 34.
In the description of the piezoelectric motor and generator above, generator 68 was said to include a piezo-ceramic element portion 70 of the element 44 and the motor 43 includes the bulk of the piezo-ceramic element 44. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 2a, piezo-ceramic element portion 70 is preferably part of the unitary piezo-ceramic layer or element 44. However, it is not necessary that the portion 70 be part of a larger unitary piece. For example, gap 74 could be extended downwardly to cut through layer 44 and form a separate element 70. It has been found, however, that even with large amplitude deflection signals applied to the elements 44 and 46, these deflection signals are not substantially coupled to generator 68 when the element portion 70 is part of the large unitary element 44. However, cutting the element down to the ground plane results in an increased isolation of the motor-to-generator and increases the element's tolerance to surface contamination.
Any vibration sensor which develops an electrical output indicative of vibrations in arm 42 should be responsive to vibrations over a frequency range extending from approximately 10 Hertz up to at least 400 Hertz, at which the illustrated bimorph support arm has a resonant frequency. The generator 68 of FIG. 2, by extending lengthwise along the support arm 42, does exhibit a good frequency response over the range desired. This response appears much better, particularly at low frequencies, than the frequency response of a generator which may extend transverse to the lengthwise dimension of the support arm 42.
The preferred dimensions for support arm 42 include a length L extending from free end 60 to the cantilevered point 76 of approximately 0.9 inch and a width W of approximately 0.5 inch. Each of the layers 44, 46 and 48 are preferably approximately 0.006 inch thick while conductive layers 50, 52, and 72 have thicknesses in the range of a few microns. The width of the conductive layer 72, as measured between the gap 74 and the nearest edge of the support arm 36, is preferably about 50 mils. The substrate 48 is preferably made of brass and the conductive layers 50, 52 and 72 are nickel depositions. The piezo-ceramic layers 44 and 46 are bonded to substrate 48 by an epoxy adhesive or the like.
The read transducer assembly 36 may be enclosed in a housing (not shown) having top and bottom portions which hold assembly 36 between them. The entire housed assembly may be held together by a bolt passing through appropriate holes in a top portion of the housing, through hole 66 (FIG. 2), and through another hole in a bottom portion of the housing. A more detailed description of a housing which may be used for assembly 36 is given in in aforementioned Richard Allen Hathaway application, Ser. No. 668,651, the pertinent teachings of which are incorporated by reference herein.
The piezoelectric motor-generator combination described above is a low cost, reliable device capable of being controllably deflected and for simultaneously generating an output signal representative of the controlled deflection or of vibration-induced deflection. It is particularly useful as part of a read transducer assembly for a videotape recorder and is illustrated schematically in connection with the videotape recorder systems described below.
The piezoelectric motor-generator combination described above which simultaneously deflects a read transducer and senses vibrations therein is used in electronic feedback control system for damping vibrations in a videotape read transducer.
There have been transducer damping schemes which have used so-called dead rubber pads to absorb vibrations in a transducer but the pads also limit the effective deflection range of the transducer. If the pads are mounted on the read head adjacent the transducer in a rotatable scanning drive, they are subjected to high G forces as the drum rotates. Under these conditions, it can be difficult to keep the pads properly situated on the drum. An improved damping system in which the above-described motor-generator combination can be used is shown schematically in FIG. 3. Before describing the improved damping system, however, a brief description of associated transducer circuitry will be given in order to clearly indicate how the damping system cooperates with the associated circuitry.
Referring now to FIG. 3, a read transducer 34 operates as described above to sense or read previously recorded information in videotape tracks. The transducer 34 is part of the read transducer assembly 36 such as that shown in FIG. 2 and has a deflectable support arm 42 for deflecting transducer 34 in response to deflection signals to correct the alignment of transducer 34 with a track or to reset transducer 34 to the beginning of a track, as in the slow motion mode of operation described above. The support arm 42 is cantilevered at point 76 and its opposite end portion which supports transducer 34 is free to deflect.
The electrical signal output of transducer 34 appears on conductor 82 which conducts this signal to conventional video processing circuitry 84 for generating, for example, a composite television signal for RF transmission.
The output of transducer 34 is also fed to a transducer position control circuit 86. The function of control circuit 86 is described in detail in the aforementioned copending U.S. Applications by Ravizza et al., Ser. No. 669,047, and by Hathaway Ser. No. 668,651, is not a part of the present invention. Briefly, however, they describe a portion control circuit 86 which generates a "dither" signal of fixed frequency for application to the deflectable support arm 42 for deflecting or "dithering" transducer 34 back-and-forth across a track at a fixed rate. Since dithering causes the transducer 34 to move transversely relative to the track, the signal output of transducer 34 will be amplitude modulated at the dither frequency. The amplitude modulated signal envelope contains information concerning the alignment between transducer 34 and the track being read and is detected to produce a correction signal for moving the transducer 34 toward the center of the track. This correction signal and the dither signal appear on conductor 88 and are ultimately applied to the deflectable support arm 42.
A transducer reset signal generator 90 develops an electrical signal for application to the deflectable support arm 42 for selectively resetting the transducer 34 to the beginning of a track when such is required. Circuitry for developing such reset signals is described and claimed in co-pending Hathaway application, Ser. No. 668,652.
The reset signal from signal generator 90 and the dither correction signal from circuit 86 are both fed to a frequency compensator 92 which comprises an amplifier whose frequency response complements the undesired residual response variations of support arm 42 when electronic feedback control damping is applied to it as shown schematically in FIG. 3. Frequency compensator 92 augments the action of the electronic damping circuit in order to provide the desired uniform frequency response for the overall system. The area of augmentation is in the 300 to 400 Hz region where the electronic damping action does not completely remove the rise in frequency response of arm 42 at its first-order mechanical resonant frequency.
The frequency compensated deflection signals from compensator 92 are fed via conductor 94 to a summing amplifier 96 which sums the deflection signals with a transducer damping signal generated by the feedback loop described below. The output of the summing amplifier 96 is fed via conductor 98 to a drive amplifier 100 which amplifies its input and applies it to deflectable support arm 42 for controllably deflecting transducer 34 to the center of the track and maintaining proper transducer to track alignment.
The various deflection signals which are applied to the support arm 42, particularly signals generated by the reset generator 90, may set up unwanted vibrations in the arm 42. This is particularly true where the arm 42 is a bimorph since bimorphs exhibit resonance characteristics which tend to drive the bimorph into damped oscillation.
To damp such oscillations, a negative feedback loop is included in the system shown in FIG. 3 for developing an electrical damping signal and for applying the damping signal to support arm 42 to dampen its vibrations or oscillations. The required damping signal is derived, in general, from a signal generator which generates a deflection velocity signal representative of the instantaneous deflection velocity of the read transducer 34. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, said signal generator includes a sensor 102 integral to the support arm 42 for generating a signal representative of the instantaneous deflected position of the transducer 34 and a differentiator 104 for converting the transducer position signal to a transducer velocity signal. The sensor 102 is preferably a piezoelectric generator of the type shown in FIG. 2 which is integrally formed with the bimorph support arm.
The output of sensor 102 is fed to a high input impedance amplifier 106 which presents a very small load to the sensor 102. Since the sensor 102 is typically equivalent to a voltage source in series with a capacitance, any electrical load on sensor 102 must be small in order to effectively couple low frequency signals from the sensor 102.
The output of amplifier 106 is coupled through a summer 108, whose other input will be described below, and to the differentiator 104 which differentiates the transducer position signal from the sensor 102 and converts it to a signal representative of instantaneous transducer velocity.
The differentiator 104 is illustrated as having an amplitude versus frequency characteristic similar to that of a high pass filter and therefore introduces a phase lead to the signals it passes. The significance of the phase shift experienced by a signal traversing the feedback loop is explained immediately below in order to better appreciate the function of the remaining undescribed elements of the feedback loop.
Because the support arm 42 is preferably a piezoelectric bimorph, it exhibits the well known first order resonance and anti-resonance characteristics of piezoelectric crystals, as well as higher order resonance characteristics. FIG. 4a illustrates the combined frequency response of a bimorph motorgenerator combination of the type shown in FIG. 2. This response is generated by applying a varying frequency, constant amplitude sine wave to the piezoelectric motor and measuring the resultant output of the piezoelectric generator. The results of such a measurement are shown in FIG. 4a which indicates a resonance point near 400 Hertz and an anti-resonance point, which has been found to vary from around 700 Hertz to about 1000 Hertz, depending on the particular bimorph being used. The maximum output of the motor-generator combination occurs at resonance and the minimum output occurs at very low frequencies and at anit-resonance. High order resonance characteristics are not shown in FIG. 4a.
Since the output of the motor-generator combination is maximum at resonance, vibrations or oscillations will tend to occur at its resonant frequency when the bimorph is excited by an electrical or mechanical impulse. Therefore, to eliminate the possibility of such oscillations, the feedback loop is tailored to feed back to the bimorph damping signals which are 180 degrees out of phase with respect to the signals which initially excited the bimorph into oscillation, thereby counteracting the tendency of the bimorph to oscillate.
To insure that the damping signals are of the correct phase, the phase response of the bimorph motor-generator combination must be taken into account. As indicated in FIG. 4b on the curve labeled "bimorph", signals near resonance (about 400 Hertz) experience a phase shift of about 90� in passing through the motor-generator combination, and high frequency signals experience a phase shift of 180�. In order to ensure that signals near resonance experience a net phase shift of 180� around the feedback loop, and since all signals in the loop will be phase shifted 180� by an inverting feedback amplifier prior to being applied to support arm 42, the signals near resonance must be phase compensated by 90� so that their net phase shift is zero at the input to the inverting feedback amplifier. This insures that the loop will not oscillate at the resonant frequency due to instability in the feedback system. Since signals having a frequency far from resonance have a very low amplitude, the loop gain of the feedback loop will always be less than unity for them so that the phase shift which they experience will not cause instability in the loop.
Returning to the feedback loop of FIG. 3, the transducer velocity signal developed by differentiator 104 is fed to a low pass filter 110 whose upper cutoff frequency is chosen to substantially attenuate signals atributable to second order and higher order resonance characteristics of the bimorph. Such signals generally have a frequency of over 2000 Hertz and are attenuated at least 20 decibels by the filter 110. The filter 110 contributes some phase lag to signals which it passes in addition to the initial phase lag of 90 degrees due to the bimorph itself (as shown in FIG. 4b).
To compensate for the total phase lag experienced by signals near resonance, a phase lead network 112 follows filter 110 and shifts the phase of signals received from the filter 110 so that those signals having a frequency near resonance have net phase shift of zero degrees upon leaving the lead network 112. The curve labeled "with lead network" of FIG. 4b illustrates the effect of lead network 112. In practice, the differentiator 104 also adds some phase lead and thereby assists the lead network 112 in properly adjusting the phase of the signals near resonance.
The signals near resonance from lead network 112 have a phase of zero degrees with respect to the signals initially exciting the bimorph and are in condition to be applied to a negative feedback amplifier 114 which inverts the signals received from the lead network 112. The output of negative feedback amplifier 114 is the damping signal which is combined in the summer 96 with the transducer deflection signals from the conductor 94, amplified by the drive amplifier 100, and applied to the bimorph support arm 42 to damp vibrations therein. The feedback amplifier 114 has a variable amount of negative feedback for adjusting the gain of the feedback loop to accommodate differences among bimorphs.
The feedback loop illustrated in FIG. 3 also includes means for compensating for the different antiresonance responses among bimorphs. A frequency response curve is shown by the solid line in FIG. 4a and a dashed line indicates the variable nature of the anti-resonance characteristic among various bimorphs. For example, at 700 Hertz the frequency response of one bimorph may be considerably less than that of another bimorph, as indicated by the difference between the solid line and the dashed line at the frequency of 700 Hertz. Referring to FIG. 4b, the phase response of the feedback system with the lead network is such that signals near 700 Hertz undergo a 180� phase shift. If signals having a 180� phase shift are applied to inverting feedback amplifier 114, they will ultimately be applied to a deflectable support arm 42 in phase with the original exciting deflection signals and may lead to oscillations at that frequency if their amplitude is large enough at frequencies corresponding to positive feedback conditions for the feedback loop. Bimorphs having a frequency response illustrated by the solid curve of FIG. 4a have a very small output at 700 Hertz so that the overall loop gain of the system for such signals will be low enough to avoid oscillations, irrespective of their phase response. However, bimorphs exhibiting greater gain at 700 Hertz, as illustrated by the dashed line, may induce instability into the system if not otherwise compensated for. The feedback system illustrated in FIG. 3 compensates for such differences between bimorphs by adding a portion of the exciting deflection signals to the output of the sensing device 102 so that signals normally experiencing a 180� phase shift between their application to bimorph 42 and their output at sensor 102 will be effectively nulled. Signals experiencing such a 180� phase shift are shown by FIG. 4b to be in the vicinity of anti-resonance. Therefore, signals near anti-resonance can be effectively nulled by coupling across the transducer assembly 36 a portion of the signal normally fed thereto.
Referring to FIG. 3, a means for feeding through a portion of the deflection signal and combining it with the portion signal developed by the sensor 102 includes the potentiometer 116 and the summer 108. Deflection signals appearing at the output of the summer 96 are fed to both the drive amplifier 100 and the potentiometer 116, whereupon a portion of the deflection signals are fed via conductor 118 to summer 108. Summer 108 also receives, from amplifier 106, deflection position signals developed by sensor 102. Deflection signals which undergo a 180� phase shift in passing through the input to support arm 42 to the output of sensor 102 (i.e. frequencies near anti-resonance) are nulled in summer 108 so that the loop is stabilized for frequencies near anti-resonance. This operation effectively creates an artificial null near 700 Hertz so that, regardless of the bimorph being used in transducer assembly 36, it will appear to have an effective null near 700 Hertz so that the loop gain for signals near 700 Hertz will always be less than unity and the feedback loop will be stabilized for signals at those frequencies.
Circuitry for effecting the functions of the various blocks in FIG. 3 is illustrated in FIG. 5. Transducer deflection signals, including the dither signal and reset signals referred to above, are applied at terminal 120 to frequency compensator 92 which includes a pair of conventional amplifiers 122 and 124. The frequency response of compensator 92 is shaped conventionally by the RC coupling around amplifier 122 and between amplifiers 122 and 124 to have an overall amplification which decreases with frequency in the 300 to 400 Hz region in order to compensate for the residual frequency-dependent variations in deflection sensitivity of support arm 42 after electronic damping has been applied.
The output of amplifier 124 is fed via conductor 94 to summing amplifier 96 which also receives, at its noninverting input, an input from the feedback control loop. The output of summing amplifier 96 is applied to drive amplifier 100 via conductor 98.
The negative feedback loop begins at terminal 126 at which the output from sensor 102 appears. The signal from sensor 102 is applied to amplifier 106 which is a conventional, frequency compensated, feedback amplifier 128. The output of amplifier 128 is fed to the inverting terminal of summing amplifier 108 which also receives, at the same input, a portion of the transducer deflection signals for creating the artifical null at anti-resonance as described above. Diodes 131 protect amplifier 128 from damaging high voltage transients due to accidental short circuits between sensor 102 and the input to support arm 42.
The output of summing amplifier 108 is then conducted to differentiator 104, comprising serially connected capacitor 129 and resistor 130.
The low pass filter 110 which receives the output of differentiator 104 is an active elliptical filter comprised of amplifiers 132 and 134, and indicated generally at 136.
The lead network 112 receives the output of the filer 110 and comprises a capacitor 136 serially coupled to resistor 138. The output of the lead network 112 is applied to the inverting input of a conventional feedback amplifier 114 whose feedback and therefore forward gain is varied by adjusting the variable resistor 140. The output of amplifier 114 is coupled to the non-inverting input of summing amplifier 96 and then applied to the drive amplifier 100 which, in turn, drives the deflectable support arm 42 for deflecting the transducer 34 in the manner previously described.
The damping system described above provides improved damping for deflectable videotape transducers without restricting their dynamic range. The feedback control loop, in combination with the motor-generator transducer assembly, provides a reliable and low cost vibration damper for videotape recorders and other applications where vibrations in a deflectable bimorph transducer assembly require damping.
From the foregoing, it should be understood how a videotape read transducer can be controllably deflected and damped to maintain alignment between itself and a tape track. An improved bimorph transducer system, including a method of applying deflection signals to a deflectable bimorph to achieve maximum deflection sensitivity will now be described. Such an improved system is useful in the tape recorder apparatus already described and will be illustrated in that environment. It is understood, however, that the improved method of driving a deflectable bimorph disclosed below is also useful in other applications where it is desirable to achieve a large amount of bimorph deflection.
A bimorph which is used for bi-directional deflection consists generally of two layers of piezo-ceramic material bonded to opposite sides of a conductive substrate. One end of the bimorph is cantilevered and the opposite end is left free to deflect in response to a voltage applied to the bimorph.
The direction in which a bimorph deflects depends on the polarity of the voltage applied to it and the poling direction of the pair of piezo-ceramic elements. The poling direction of a piezo-ceramic element is established by being initially subjected to a unidirectional electric field which polarizes the element according to the direction of the field. The polarized piezo-ceramic element is then said to have a "poling direction" and thereafter exhibits unique mechanical properties when subjected to subsequently applied voltages.
A known method of causing a bimorph to deflect or bend is illustrated in FIG. 6 wherein a bimorph 142 includes piezo-ceramic elements 144 and 146 bonded to opposite sides of conductive substrate 148. Bimorph 142 is cantilevered at 150 while its opposite end 152 is free to deflect.
Piezo-ceramic elements 144 and 146 are each shown with an arrow to indicate their respective poling directions. When they are aligned as shown in FIG. 6 with their arrows pointing in the same direction, they are referred to herein as having a common poling direction.
The poling directions shown are obtained by applying a voltage across a piezo-ceramic element such that the more positive potential is at the tail of the arrow and the more negative potential is at the head of the arrow. For example, in FIG. 6, bimorph 142 is shown being deflected upwardly by a voltage source 154 connected between elements 144, 146 and substrate 148. The polarity of source 154 is such that it is applying a voltage to element 144 in the same direction as its original polarizing voltage, whereas source 154 is applying a voltage to element 146 of a polarity opposed to its original polarizing voltage. When the polarity of a deflection voltage applied to a piezo-ceramic element is identical to the polarity of that element's original polarizing voltage, the applied deflection voltage is referred to herein as being applied in the poling direction. Thus, source 154 is applied to element 144 in its poling direction and is applied to element 146 in a polarity opposed to its poling direction.
When pairs of piezo-ceramic elements are aligned and cantilevered as indicated in FIG. 6, the bimorph will bend in the direction of the element which is being driven in its poling direction. Thus, bimorph 142 bends upwardly toward element 144 when driven by source 154 with the indicated polarity. When no voltage is applied to the bimorph, there is no deflection. When a source 156 is connected between substrate 148 and elements 144 and 146 as shown in FIG. 6, element 146 is driven in its poling direction and bimorph 142 deflects downwardly as indicated.
For some applications, the method of driving a bimorph illustrated in FIG. 6, wherein a deflection voltage is applied in the poling direction of one piezo-ceramic element and opposite to the poling direction of a second piezo-ceramic element is satisfactory. However, where a large amount of deflection is required, large deflection voltages are also required. It has been found that applying large voltages in a direction opposed to the poling direction of a piezo-ceramic element tends to depolarize that element and reduce its ability to bend or deflect.
A method of driving a bimorph with large amplitude deflection voltages without depolarizing either piezo-ceramic element is illustrated in FIG. 7. In the improved method, a bimorph 158 has a pair of electrically poled piezo-ceramic elements 160 and 162 which are also aligned in a common poling direction and bonded to a common substrate 164 between them. The bimorph 158 is cantilevered at one end 166 and is free to deflect at opposed end 168. In this improved method of deflecting a bimorph, deflection voltages are applied to the piezo-ceramic elements such that the polarity of the applied voltage is always in the poling direction of the element to which it is applied so that a large degree of deflection of the bimorph can be effected without depolarizing either of the piezo-ceramic elements.
As shown in FIG. 7, when bimorph 158 is to be deflected upwardly, a voltage source 170 is connected between the piezo-ceramic element 160 and the substrate 164 such that the polarity of the applied voltage is in the poling direction of element 160. No opposed polarity voltage is applied to the element 162 since most of the bending of a bimorph is effected by the element which is driven in its poling direction.
When the bimorph 158 is to be deflected downwardly, a voltage source 172 is connected between the element 162 and the substrate 164 such that the polarity of the applied voltage is in the poling direction of the element 162. No opposed polarity voltage is applied to the element 160.
When bimorph 158 is to remain undeflected, sources 170 and 172 of equal magnitudes are applied between the elements 160 and 162 and the substrate 164 so that both piezo-ceramic elements 160 and 162 are driven in their poling directions. The net result of driving both elements equally is that no deflection takes place.
Although the sources 170 and 172 are depicted as being constant amplitude voltage sources, they need not be. If the bimorph 158 is to be deflected upwardly and downwardly with variable amounts of deflection, sources 170 and 172 could be made variable to accomplish such movement. However, the polarity of the voltages applied to elements 160 and 162 should always be in the poling direction of the element to which the voltage is applied.
A method of varying the magnitude and frequency of the deflection of bimorph 158 is illustrated schematically in FIG. 8a. As shown therein, a DC voltage from a source 174 is applied to the element 160 in its poling direction. The element 162 receives a DC voltage from source 176 which is in its poling direction. Preferably, sources 174 and 176 generate positive and negative DC voltages respectively, of magnitudes equal to 1/2 Vmax, where Vmax is the peak to peak amplitude of the largest deflection signal which will be applied to the elements 160 and 162. Elements 160 and 162 are thus oppositely "biased" to 1/2 Vmax and, in the absence of any other deflection voltages, no deflection of bimorph 158 will occur.
For effecting alternating deflection of bimorph 158, an AC deflection source 178 is coupled between elements 160, 162 and substrate 164 through a pair of amplifiers 180 and 182 and DC sources 174 and 176. The peak-to-peak magnitude of the AC deflection signal applied in phase to elements 160 and 162 may now be as large as Vmax without ever applying to either element a net voltage which is opposed to its poling direction.
When the deflection signal from the source 178 varies generally sinusoidally, the net voltage which appears across element 160 is indicated in FIG. 8b. With the elements 160 and 162 oppositely biased at 1/2 Vmax and the superimposed AC deflection signal applied in phase to the elements, the net voltage cross each of the elements 160 and 162 always has a polarity which is in the poling direction of elements. The curves labeled "deflection" in FIG. 8b indicate that bimorph 158 deflects in accordance with the two times the instantaneous amplitude of the AC deflection voltage provided by source 178.
When the net voltage on element 160 becomes more (or less) positive about 1/2 Vmax, the net amplitude of the voltage on element 162 becomes less (or more) negative correspondingly. However, because of the bias provided by source 176, the net voltage on the element 162 will always be in its poling direction as long as the magnitude of the AC deflection voltage does not exceed Vmax.
The system shown in FIG. 8a for driving the bimorph 158 is completely DC coupled so that bimorph 158 can be driven at very low frequencies by the source 178. In applications where low frequency bimorph deflection is not required, a system such as that shown in FIG. 9 may be used. In the system of FIG. 9, only one amplifier 184 is needed for amplifying the AC deflection voltage from source 186. The amplified deflection voltage is applied to elements 160 and 162 via coupling capacitors 186 and 188, respectively. Separate DC bias voltage sources 190 and 192, each having an amplitude of 1/2 Vmax, bias the elements 160 and 162 so that the next voltage on either element will be in its poling direction.
Referring again to FIG. 8a, the DC source 174 and amplifier 180 are enclosed in a dashed triangle to indicate that, in practice, they may be embodied together in one composite amplifier which amplifies the deflection signal and also provides the proper bias. Similarly, sources 176 and 182 may also be combined in a single composite amplifier. An example of a pair of composite amplifiers for driving a bimorph is shown in FIG. 10. The bimorph which is being driven in FIG. 10 is part of a read transducer assembly 194 for use with the videotape apparatus shown in FIG. 3. Transducer assembly 194 is shown schematically and in simplified form in FIG. 10 but is preferably similar to transducer assembly 36 shown in FIG. 2. (The piezo-ceramic generator 68 is not shown as part of transducer assembly 194 only in order to simplify the drawing.)
The transducer assembly 194 has a top piezoceramic layer 196 and a bottom piezo-ceramic layer 198 bonded to a common substrate 200 which is grounded. Deflection signals are applied to the transducer assembly 194 at upper and lower conductive layers 202 and 204. Piezo-ceramic elements 196 and 198 are poled in a common direction as indicated by the arrows.
A read transducer 199 is mounted on assembly 194 and is to be deflected in accordance with the principles and apparatus hereinbefore described. The piezo-ceramic layer 196 is driven by composite amplifier 206 and piezo-ceramic layer 198 is driven by the composite amplifier 208. The amplifiers 206 and 208 receive low level AC deflection signals at input terminal 210, amplify the deflection signals, and apply them superimposed on a DC bias voltage, to conductive layers 202 and 204. Generally, amplifier 206 includes a first stage of amplification provided by differential transistor pair 212 and 214 and a second stage of amplification provided by differential transistor pair 216 and 218. The output of transistor 218 is taken across constant current source transistor 220. The amplified signal at the collector of transistor 218 is applied to the bases of emitter followers 224 and 226 and through emitter resistors 228 and 230 to an output terminal 232. The signal at terminal 232 is fed back to the base of transistor 214 via a feedback resistor 234 so that amplifier 206 operates as a conventional operational amplifier with negative feedback.
The DC bias appearing at output terminal 232 is typically +100 volts and is determined by resistors 236, 238, the feedback resistor 234 and the +200 volt power supply. An AC deflection signal of 200 volts peak to peak can appear at the output terminal 232 without opposing the polarization polarity of piezo-ceramic layer 196. The transistors 240 and 242 provide short circuit protection for emitter followers 224 and 226, respectively, in order to limit their output current in the event that terminal 232 becomes inadvertently grounded. Amplifier 208 is similar to amplifier 206 and provides an amplified deflection signal at its output terminal 244 superimposed on a DC bias of -100 volts. Amplifiers 206 and 208 can be used together to provide the amplification performed by drive amplifier 100 in FIG. 3.
The composite amplifiers 206 and 208 provide large amplitude AC deflection signals superimposed on a DC bias voltage for driving the deflectable bimorph without depolarizing it and thereby ensure that the driven bimorph does not lose its deflection sensitivity. The transducer system shown in FIG. 10 and the methods illustrated in FIGS. 8a and 9 and described herein provide improved performance for deflectable bimorphs.
From the foregoing, it should be appreciated that various improved bimorph devices and methods have been described which, while representing different inventions, have been disclosed together in the environment of an improved videotape read system. The bimorph motor-generator combination, for example, provides a compact, reliable device for sensing the instantaneous deflected position of a deflectable piezo-ceramic support arm. The illustrated embodiment of this device shows it as part of an improved videotape read assembly for generating an output signal indicative of the deflected position of a read transducer. This novel assembly overcomes problems associated with deflectable read assemblies which vibrate when they receive an electrical or mechanical impulse by generating an output signal which can be converted to a damping signal for damping the transducer vibrations.
The damping of transducer vibrations is achieved by the described feedback control system which generates a signal indicative of the velocity of a deflected or vibrating transducer, converts the velocity signal to a damping signal, and applies the damping signal to the transducer support arm to dampen vibrations therein. The improved bimorph motorgenerator combination is preferably used in this damping system to generate a signal indicative of instantaneous transducer position, the transducer velocity signal being derived by differentiating the transducer position signal. Various means are included in the damping system for stabilizing the feedback control system at frequencies near the resonant and anti-resonant points of the bimorph-motorgenerator. This feedback control system, in combination with the novel bimorph motor-generator transducer assembly, provides effective damping of a deflectable videotape read transducer without restricting the dynamic range of the transducer. Moreover, this electronic damping system is not adversely affected by the high G accelerations normally encountered in videotape read systems.
The damping signals and transducer deflection signals are preferably applied to the bimorph transducer support arm by the method and apparatus of this invention which overcomes the depolarizing effects associated with prior methods by ensuring that the applied deflection signals are always in the poling direction of the piezoceramic element to which they are applied. A composite amplifier embodying this improved method receives large amplitude transducer deflection signals and applies them to the bimorph so as to achieve large bidirectional bimorph deflection without depolarizing the bimorph, thereby maintaining high bimorph deflection sensitivity.
The above-described improvements have been combined in a new improved videotape read system for use with videotape recorders, and particularly for use with helical videotape recorders. However, the improvements may be used independently of one another and in applications other than videotape read systems. Moreover, many alternatives, modifications and variations in the specific embodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to include all such alternatives, modifications and variations which fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.
Various features of the invention are set forth in the following claims.
Patent Citations
Referenced by
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Front door step ideas please
Hi all, I'm at a loss for what to do with my unsightly front door step. It's currently non-level/square and covered in old mastic. Any ideas that wouldn't look out of place on my 1922 house would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
You really could do several materials. It looks like your house is siding, so brick might look out of place, but concrete would work, although it's not nearly as decorative. It also seems like you'd want to extend it over to the left side of the door some, too. Wood is another options, although that has some maintenance issues, but if it's covered it might not be too bad. Concrete with slate over top?
You know, I'll bet this isn't the first steps this house has had. Notice the white 'beam' to the right of the steps. It's truncated at the bottom exactly at the level of the bottom of the door, like that was the original bottom and the steps replaced with something lower. It looks like the step has been poured or placed after the new siding was put on too.
I don't think brick looks bad against vinyl/aluminum siding, but I think slate would look really good. I have a prejudice against wooden steps/stoops and it's just a personal thing. I have found them to be slippery when wet, needing maintenance if painted, and it's a choice for porches in my locale on older, established homes simply because it's cheaper than pouring concrete and modern looking 'decks' stuck on homes when it's not historically accurate. You house, btw is very pretty.
Thanks! I think you're right about the door. In fact, marks on the interior floor indicate the front door was formerly located about 12" to the right.
The house started out as about 500 sq ft. It was then moved to its current locations and had the two bedrooms added on. Many changes over the years.
I was wondering why the stoop was offset to the right so much. That would do it. You know something, that empty area of stoop is begging your for a large pottery urn filled with flowers. LOL. My mind goes immediately to entrances and urns, can you tell I own greenhouses?
That's a fabulous door. Did you paint yourself? Do you know the colors, trim, door, siding? Wonderful choices, it looks fantastic.
I think the most practical thing would be a wooden step that you could paint similar to the wall or trim color so it blends and looks original. All your existing exterior is wood, so I'd personally want to stay with a wood platform for this reason.
The wooden 'platform' will have slats to allow ventilation i.e. not interfering with that vent on the lh side, yet it would still allow you to expand the stoop over the vent. You could also build over the existing concrete stoop, thus saving money for cost of removal.
It just needs to be made wider so that it's symmetrical (same dimensions on each side of the door - it looks like the trim on each side of the door is already equal distance - the area to the right of the mailbox and left of the vent), and of course the platform needs more depth (jutting out further to a comfortable position).
Urns or planters flanking this doorway would look spectacular.
If you did build a wooden, slatted platform, I think I'd bring up up to the original step level, just slightly below the bottom of the door, so that when one walked out, they didn't have to immediately step down. It would also solve the truncated white beam suspended in mid-air, on the right lol, and not occlude the little vent space.
I was thinking of a pebble like finish on the step. Here's a site that just gives an idea of pebble ideas. The cool thing with that is you can buy pebble runners and mats that would tie in and give it an earthy feel.
Thanks! I bought the house 95% complete so I can't take credit for the color choices but I definitely love the work the restorers did! The colors are as follows:
Door: Benjamin Moore "Cottage Red"
Body: Benjamin Moore HC-31
Trim: Benjamin Moore HC-32
I think I'm leaning towards wood at this point. I think it'll "blend" better with the house and will definitely be easier to do. Plus, it's a quick demo if I don't like the results. What do you guys think about an overhanging red deck and yellow risers? Too much red?
Either way, I'm definitely getting some pottery containers. Thanks all!
I think a wood landing would look real nice. Of course with the Flower Pots.
Good luck
What a beautiful house!
The porchguy
Here is a link that might be useful: My Album
Not that you asked, but looking at your pictures, your "sidewalk to nowhere" in the front of your house is really confusing to a first-time-viewer. What were they thinking? Practicing the side-step dance? I think while you are re-doing the front step, you should also tie in the arch of the entranceway with matching colors and/or materials, so people don't have to guess where your front door is. And if you are really motivated, move the sidewalk over so it goes directly to the front entrance. (Yes, I've been watching too much HGTV!)
Regarding the "sidewalk to nowhere", my guess is that someone planned to build a front door/entryway there since the house was relocated to the current location and the actual/original front door is now on the side. I know I've had the thought...but now that mention it, it'd be way easier to move the walkway then move the entryway. Hmmm, new item for the low priority list.
Thanks! I picked up the Cumaru/Brazilian Teak (aka poor mans teak) at the local lumber yard. They had the real thing but it was going for over $27/board foot (compared to $3.25/board foot for the Cumaru). However, there are plenty of online places that'll ship it to your door.
That is absolutely beautiful and you did a great job. Awesome wood, nice finish. Really makes an impact at the front door.
I am curious, though, why you didn't take that dummy board from under the door jamb, and make the steps more level with the bottom of the door, and bringing it up to its former height? You'd have caught that board hanging in mid-air at the same time. Rationale of what I am not seeing?
Thanks for the nice words. At the current height, 2x8s lined up perfectly with 1.5x4s screwed directly onto the old concrete. Making it any higher would've required long rip cuts and joisting shenanigans which I wasn't sure I could pull off decently.
Want to see a picture of my 'custom' step?
Are you ready?
Ok....promise not to laugh.
ok..ok...you have the right to laugh. I won't hold it against you.
Actually, this is the original stoop to the house that we're remodeling this year. We had a contractor over and he kept complaining because the concrete platform sits uncomfortably low under the door, the distance obviously not up to code, so he built this for us on a whim...a temporary wooden step. I painted it and threw some of that rough tape on it to prevent us from slipping....LOL...it's really a pathetic looking thing, but temporary.
Trust me, I can't wait to see it go. Especially after seeing your beautiful Teak!
BTW - that's my old dog Cody (17 yrs) and the Chi is my beloved Chewy - I had to put Chewy down this past weekend due to congestive heart failure. I miss him dearly, he was such a little lover boy. He hadn't a clue to his own size...he'd charge Pit Bulls though he weighed all but 4 lbs! LOL.


text:
Econo Lodge
4940 Chef Menteur Hwy,
New Orleans, LA 70126
Phone: (504) 940-5550
Fax: (504) 945-5819
NOLA Brewing
3001 Tchoupitoulas Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
+1 504 301 0117
Mo from 02:00 PM to 11:00 PM,We to Fr from 02:00 PM to 11:00 PM,Sa to Su from 11:00 AM to 11:30 PMKirk Coco and Dylan Lintern, two businessmen, collaborated to establish NOLA Brewing in 2008. An abbreviation for New Orleans Lager & Ale, this brewery leans towards production of European brews. A brewing process headed by esteemed brew master, Peter Caddoo, results in delicious ales like NOLA Brown Ale and NOLA Blonde Ale and Hopitoulas IPA, which are popular favorites. Apart from their year-round selections, seasonal specials are also offered here.
Earn valuable points toward free nights.


text:
Annoying network popup still there
The damn annoying "network disconnected" popup is still there. Designed by Microsoft, this popup is inevitable when your train journey includes three long tunnels.
610 posts • joined 21 Mar 2009
The damn annoying "network disconnected" popup is still there. Designed by Microsoft, this popup is inevitable when your train journey includes three long tunnels.
Now how do I get that tune out of my head?!?
Are Goldman Sachs saying that they think Ballmer's got too much on his plate to handle all of the company?
No mention of all the enterprise departments flogging servers & services. Odd.
FileVault doesn't work with Time Machine.
Nothing more to add.
FileVault is a half-arsed solution that doesn't work with TimeMachine. It only encrypts the /users directory leaving all the system files and applications unencrypted.
Whole disc encryption means everything is encrypted all the time. No exceptions.
Who needs it; everyone who values their personal information. E.g. everyone. Anyone who carries other people's data around has a duty of care to protect it, for example your address book or email archive, or your client's information.
Laptop computers, particularly the shiny Macs, are prime targets for thieves. Just take a laptop bag into a pub in London and see how quickly it's stolen. WDE with a decent pass phrase and decent (different) logon password will render the laptop's data useless to all but the most determined or security services.
I struggle to understand how people don't get this simple fact.
BTW Symantec only recently bought PGP. There's only one other WDE system for a Mac which is owned by a company that's even less desirable than Symantec. TruCrypt WDE isn't available on the Mac.
Encryption of a whole-disc-encrypted hard drive takes ages. It took 7 hours for a 3GHz MBP 17" on a 500Gb 7200RPM drive when I did this a couple of weeks ago after a hard disc failure.
No doubt it's the same to decrypt?
I *have* to run PGP whole-disc-encryption as it's the only one available. Apple only supply a half-arsed solution, FileVault, which DOESN'T work with Time Machine. There's one other company that does WDE, but they're on my list of "I just don't trust them".
Pity -- or maybe just as well -- that TruCrypt doesn't work on the Mac for a bootable full-disc encryption solution.
A HUGE thankyou to TheRegister forum poster "uncertified-dba" who made everyone aware of this yesterday.
Pity there's no cover over the camera lens. As it sticks out, it gets covered in grime which somewhat affects it's performance. How strange!
You're right, it's too easy to say something like Win Pho sucky sucky. But why is it so easy. Oh, it sucks that's why.
It lacks basic functionality. It's buggy. It's very much a first version.
Platform & hardware aren't relevant as it's a software package. If you don't like Win Dog, just install Android. I'm sure there'll be a hackintosh hacked version of iOS to install one day.
There's little available software. Certainly compared with the 300,000 apps available on the iPhone.
To top the lot The iTunes^H^H Zune software sucks on Macintosh - I've never got any Windos Vista II on me and never intend to.
You sure lurve your WinDog:-). Good. I'll stick to my iPhone & iPad (used to write this)
Sounds like a North Korean dynasty Win Mo handed down to Win Pho. What happened to Win Dog?
That's a huge issue for whole disc encryption users. Having just suffered from a disc failure, that would have been a real pain.
Thank you.
I'm enjoying, nay relishing, no I'm "really excited" that Microsoft have eaten crow pie and finally come up with something that will be a worthy opponent in the forthcoming great SmartPhone wars. This is a genuinely good thing. It'll even improve Apple and Google's products.
What can't be denied is that Microsoft has released something that's truly a version one product when the competition are on their 4th major version (iOS), or second major version (Android - or is it the third?). Microsoft have an enormous chasm to bridge, and given their recent lack of innovation their biggest challenges are internal.
That said, I'm sure there's some good things about WinDog (I like that name, so I'm going to use it from now on). But you have to accept that there's a shed load of rubbish things about it. Having read some of the better reviews -- that's the ones that aren't paid for by Microsoft's PR department or written by barking MS fanboi shills. They all say there's a load of issues, as is quite reasonable given it's only just been released. Give it three more years...
Zune maketplace - only £90/year. Oh do leave it out. I've never bought a single track from iTunes, so what would I want with another DRM infested shop. I buy CDs and rip them. Or I buy tracks directly from the artist.
You didn't mention Office on WinDog. Wot a larf that would be to edit a document using a microscope. Still, at least it's not wrapped up in a ribbon. But in any case, Microsoft always add Office to their DogOS's. I've a 10+ year old HP Journada running Whince with Office. I never used Office cos it was crap then and nothing's changed since. Of course, if it were ported to an iPad with a decent screen size, that would be an entirely different story...
Sharepoint: snake oil. I once attended a 4 day introduction to Sharepoint course. I walked away with the feeling I'd wasted 4 days of my life staring in a marketeer's porn flick.
The fact is I, in common with absolutely loads of other IT *professionals*, have turned our backs on Microsoft. They make shoddy products, have the morals of a stoat, milk their cash cow markets dry; I'm tired of being lied to and Microsoft wasting my and my client's time and money. I'm thinking of IE primarily, but years of shoddy Wince phones, unreliable Office products and >100,000++ viruses tend to be rather significant factors.
For years I observed Microsoft release a product, pretty much any product, saying it's "the best", "they're really excited", etc. and that the previous product wasn't much use, certainly compared with the current release. Look at Office 2011, or Vista, or Exchange. When you've swum around the goldfish bowl a few times you recognise the same old rubbish and that it's really good to skip a few releases. I'm sure you'll grow to recognise it eventually.
So what makes you so happy about WinDog? Do you work for them or something?
> Yes they are a little late
Wow, the master of understatement.
> doesn't that say something about how well Microsoft have done with this product?
No. Not until it's in general availability and 'real' people have 'real' experience using it. At the moment it's very much a version one product with huge numbers of features missing and the only people reporting are either paid to report or have vested interests.
We don't know how reliable it is (fanboi shill opinions don't count); what it's like to live with; how long the battery lasts; if the missing features are really painful to live without; if the 'new' features are of any real use; being Microsoft, how much it crashes... It's a long list.
Or a Cockney using the parlance of London: dog & bone = phone. Happens to fit the moment as "Windows Phone 7" trips off the tongue about as elegantly as a kebab hits the pavement on a Saturday night.
Why would I want to use the software? I don't do Facebook, think twatter is a bore and I've as much motivation to use WinDog as I have to downgrade my iPhone 4 from version 4.1 to 1.0.
You MS philes really are a sensitive bunch aren't you.
BTW how does WinDog work with YouTube? Can it render H.264 video in the browser?
> HTC seems to be having some software problems with its pair of Windows Phone 7 handsets
That's why there's a shortage, I'm not surprised they sold their two handsets even with software problems. I'm sure that they could sell a few more than that to Microsoft employees, etc.
The iPhone sold in hundreds of thousands at launch, even when it was overpriced.
BTW, if the WinDog7 software turns out to be a, well, dog, can one just install Android?
Competition's great. But in this case Dell have to eat their WinDog dog food; if they don't then who else would. What a minging phone though - I bet the employees are well miffed with handing in their dedicated and finely tuned crackberries for a house brick of a glorified Skype phone!
We don't have a pathological hatred of all things Microsoft. We do have years of suffering their bloody awful products and have wasted years of development time. So if it seems like we're anti, we're not it's just our enjoyment of watching Microsoft squirm as the ball is on the other foot for a change.
I doubt if we're going to see endless 'new' products from Microsoft simply because they've forgotten how to innovate.
Oh, I'm writing this on an iPad. Where's the Microsoft equivalent?
More adverts, innane animations, inept UI designs, sound, CPU wastage...
I've FlashBlock to calm Flash down and 'just say no' to prevent Silverlight from installing. Now if only I could simply eliminate pointless jQuery animations...
It's been such a rush they haven't been able to refine the design nor test it. Are you surprised that they've not thought this through?
...between IE Nein and the other browsers?
IE Nein only runs on Windows Vista and VII.
So what use is IE Nein to the majority of the world who don't run Vista and VII?
What about the other people who run their festering previous browsers - all three of them.
Microsoft are developing a phone browser that supports HTML5.
Seems only logical.
Pity the poor people who've been suckered in to invest a great deal of time and effort into SilverLight. That'll teach them for adopting new, proprietary technologies too quickly.
I've always wondered if the state of the sun and moon should be considered when weighing things to this accuracy. After all, these celestial objects are responsible for moving giga-tons of water around the planet. Just ask Canute. Oh, he drowned.
It only runs on a couple of obscure operating systems so how can it be finished. Doesn't even run on XP FFS.
FUD FUD glorious FUD...
Why, for goodness sake, why is the winsxs directory so large?
I know that on my iPad, I often miss items I'm poking at with my fingers. Whilst it sounds a good idea to have a smaller form factor, Jobs' does have a very good point about fat finger syndrome.
Dell = dull IMHO. There's a lot of room for improvement.
Add that the cost/effort/complexity of doing a procurement is part of the problem. In commercial companies people can make decisions. In government you can't.
It's been divide and conquer for too long. It's time that 'gold' items (operating systems, office suites, core databases, desktop PCs, servers, etc.) were centrally procured to use the scale and credit rating of government.
The likes of Microsoft, Oracle, HP and the service providers, etc have shafted us for too long.
WTF are individual departments doing in purchasing the same old stuff over and over again?
Drag the Microsoft account manager into a room and tell him/her what we are prepared to pay for the whole of central and local government. If he doesn't like it tell him to fuck off and go open source. There's billions to be saved.
I have bare-bones Vista & 7 VMs that I can't get below 12Gb - that's *only* for testing browsers, compared with XP's 2.5 GB. Something to do with Microsoft's inability to sort out DLL hell; save every DLL in the winsxs directory. Google for "huge windows folder".
The new Air machines, particularly the small one, will rarely be used as a primary machine and probably used as a lightweight secondary "proper" machine to take on the road (e.g. where an iPad isn't sufficient). You're unlikely to need loads of space for music/videos, OK, a few Windows VMs might need some room.
I'm really looking forwards to seeing the small one. I might just buy one to upset the second poster! It looks so pretty, I could get one just to put on the wall to look at a thing of beauty. Chuck another acer/hp/tosh on the fire...
OK, someone with a Facebook fetish isn't concerned about security. However, as someone who eschews social networking as a future scourge that will blight careers, I'm interested in its security features.
1- what's the lock like; is there a pin or password; limited number of guesses, then what?
2- wiping data? Does it allow remote wiping? Does it wipe after 'x' failures?
3- how's the data stored? Encrypted?
4- backing up? Is this automatic from mTunes? Recovery?
5- locate my MPhone?
All of these points are missing from the article and are very important considering how much info one carries around in the average smartphone.
You forgot to add:
Minging looks vs gorgeous modern design
Plastic vs metal
3cm thick vs 1.7 cm (appearing much thinner towards the front).
Windows vs OSX
Some people WANT to have nice things; others go for price.
It's about time there was a central place to go to browse and download software. Sure, there's google, shareware.com, versiontracker, but the sheer convenience of the iPhone/iPad app store has been great.
As a customer, I like the idea of being able to download an app from that place with some confidence that it's, errm, genuine.
I don't expect Apple to create the walled garden of the iPhone/iPad -- they can't as one can simply install apps from anywhere. But I do like the idea of telling numpties that the only place they can get apps is from the app store and having a good chance that they'll listen.
Microsoft are at least three years late. Nope, FOUR years late as the iPhone's been out that long. Microsoft don't even have a version one product on the market yet**.
Unless Microsoft can invent a time machine to jump forwards and gain four years of tablet development and tablet application development experience... well, history is being made.
As someone said, Microsoft are suffering from the Ballmer effect. They're fundamentally an engineering company, now lead by a sales manager/accountant with a huge ego but little or no engineering knowledge to match.
If he did know a little about engineering, he'd know that you can't have lightweight + long battery life + fast performance + Windows 7. Pick any three. Or two.
**Windows mobile 6.5 doesn't count.
Was that why Jobs bought those throwing stars?
My £2400 MacBook Pro 17" is *good* value for money. It's an excellent device, very fast, loads of storage and memory. It also costs a lot less than the tools in a plumber's van.
As a *professional* I don't care a jot about what amateur users think or purchase. As a *professional* I care passionately about being given the choice to purchase a decent high-end machine.
Please go down to Dixons and buy your £500 plastic, dog-slow, crapware-laden, pig-ugly, large, heavy, unreliable, shell of a computer that runs WinDos. I'm very happy to use a device that makes me feel good every day I use it.
Or, to put it into your words, you drive your 12 year old 1.2 litre car; I'll drive my new Range Rover (albeit that they're hideously ugly).
The one great benefit of the iPhone is that Jobs simply won't let the carriers add their crapware to the iPhone or iPad.
Lets face it, the carriers need to get used to the fact that they're simple suppliers of airtime. The world has moved on. Get used to it. And please will you just compete on a better network and carrier features (visual voicemail Vodaphone)?
Will Microsoft simply buy market share by subsidising phones so that the operators simply fill the stores with more profitable lines -- windows phones -- than the others? E.g. drive demand from dumb punters.
The missing element is cool. The iPhone has that in buckets. Android too. RIM addicts don't care.
I guess Microsoft is just 'cheap' and possibly will be a success in that notoriously disloyal and fickle market segment: the children. Trouble is, it's not a particularly profitable market. It's either that or the pay-as-you-go market which the operators hate.
Ooh, it's such fun watching Microsoft's self-made, or is that Ballmer made, troubles. It isn't half going to cost them as RIM is so entrenched in a vertical segment whilst Google and Apple are truly fearsome adversaries.
Fight, fight, fight. Just imagine Ballmer in a Mexican wrestling mask!
Apart from Microsoft apologists such as Paul Thurrott, there won't be many people downloading this patch as Microsoft are so late and we've already got our smartphones. I'm on my third iPhone and I've many friends on their second Android phone.
WTF is a zone anyway?
That was August? They've missed that - or has this article taken 4 months to be published?
The next time people buy things in force is Christmas - or around Guy Fawkes night when the Americans make Bernard Matthews very happy.
10/10 for me meant that I was really tempted to buy a pair whilst waiting for a plane in Gatwick. Realising I couldn't turn the Dr Who Cyber Headset light off meant I didn't buy them. I'm sure there's plenty of kids that may like that sort of bling, but once out of school we soon grow out of that phase.
Odd really as it's adults that have the money to splash out on this kind of gadget.
Ended up going for the au naturelle B&W P5's instead. And I is really chuffed with them too.
The've got a pathetic blue light on them that can't be turned off AFAICT.
Turned it from a 10/10 to 0/10 for me as soon as I realised that.
If IE Nein doesn't suffer from this vuln, then at least they've finally written some new code.
I expect it's related to the scripting built into CSS that's proprietary to IE. If it's quirks mode then IE Nein will also suffer as it ships with no fewer than four parsing engines for backwards incompatibility with their browsers formerly known as "great" or "best ever", but now on the scrap-heap.
This can be blamed on Ballmer too
1995-1997 - beat those bastards at Netscape by ignoring standards
1997-2000 - write our own "standards" and build several substandard browsers
2000-2005 - created a substandard browser that proper fucked the web and held back development
2005-2008 - created a substandard browser that proper fucked the web and held back development
2008-2010 - created a mediocre browser that didn't support HTML5
2010 - built a browser that's nearly, but not quite, as good as all the others
Why, Google, Why?
Microsoft chose to only make IE9 available at the enormous cost of upgrading** and it just ain't worth it.
Just install XP with any modern browser and remove access to IE6. Job done.
Why should a business building and selling spod rods and gangel pins be interested in filling Microsoft's coffers? It's Microsoft's business to extract more money by obsoleting IT, a job which they do extremely well. It's the gangel pin manufacturer's business to sell more spod rods and keep costs low.
If XP was good enough 8 years ago, it's good enough for now.
** Costs include: training, planning, migration, hardware, software, testing, support, personnel, infrastructure updates... Not migrating includes costs such as: [none of the above].
1) MS just haven't potted their *beta* IE9 to XP yet and will do it later.
2) Their code is so shit that it needs hardware acceleration - unlike all other browsers.
3) A MS marketing tard fantasises that people will move to VII just to use IE9
Who cares?
The fact is that rubbish browsers from Microsoft generates huge wealth for the web development community. Sure, it's a right ball-ache to code for, but that's why the punters pay us so much. Let's celebrate that IE9 won't be generally available to the vast majority of MS customers for years hence.
Sorry, but you've missed the point. An iPad isn't a replacement for a lappie, even a small one.
It's an entirely different device aimed at different uses. Reading in bed, on the bog, standing on the train, watching the telly. Sure you could use a lappie but it's not the same.
Take, for example, this morning. I checked my email on my iPhone whilst waiting for the train, realised I needed to write a few paragraph reply. I got on the train and pulled out the iPad to write the answer whilst listening to some music. Did so and sent the message as it's always on network is transparent to use. Then decided to do some paid work so as the train wasnt too full, I brought out the 17" Macbook Pro to update a course I wrote using PowerPoint, Word and various Windos virtual machines; you need a machine with real grunt for that along with a decent keyboard and mouse.
Why carry both? Simply that the client whose site I'm working at needs me to do some design work which isn't possible on their lousy machines. Hence the Mac. So I billed twice today because I used my time wisely.
Each computer is different and optimised accordingly.
Spot on with that observation; it's amazing how useful cursor keys are and how annoying it is to use the point and magnify facility for typing. Doubly so if you're using a RDP emulator to connect to a server/whatever.
The lack of an an 'apostrophe' where God intended it to be by the return key is also annoying.
But, it has to be said that it's (yet another hit of the return key where the apostrophe should be) a great device for when you are travelling really light. I took mine on holiday just to do lightweight emailing & browsing; terrific for that.
I actually find typing - with the exception of the aforesaid apostrophe - really quite a good experience.
I reckon we need a keyboard application so we can customise the layouts or have special keyboards with four rows for editing.
Will be so much better with the forthcoming OS upgrade.
Surely this is the strongest argument for taking away general purpose computers from numpties and giving them a locked down device where they simply can't do any harm. Like an iPad.
I don't understand how Windows allowed an executable .scr that's from an external source. Doesn't it pop up a window? I thought outlook classified executables such as .scr's as non functional and prevented them from even running. Oh, of course, it's IE to blame.
You're right; Microsoft have finally added PST import into their fourth version of Office for the Mac. About bloody time. I admit I was wrong and apologise for misleading anyone.
To quote from Amazon.co.uk about the £104 Office 2011 3 user: "Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 includes Word for Mac, PowerPoint for Mac, Excel for Mac and Messenger for Mac."
No mention of Outlook. I've seen this elsewhere but can't find the reference. BTW Messenger is a free download.
Office 2008 Home & Student 3 user - which includes Outlook^H^H^H^HEntourage - currently sells for £70)
Also from Amazon.co.uk, "Office for Mac, Home and Business Edition, 2011" includes Outlook and sells for £177.
Office 2008 Business edition (AFAIKS the only difference between the versions is an Exchange connector) is listed at £322. This also lists the free remote desktop connection application as included.
So, like for like, most people will need to pay an £177 - that's an additional 150% or £107 -- for the equivalent version of Office 2011.
Again, I'll restate that Office 2008 is actually quite a good application so there's no point in upgrading, especially as 2011 include the damnable screen-space wasting ribbon.
It appears that this is a lightweight, superficial update to something that works perfectly well thank you very much. It adds a few new features but there's nothing that's compelling enough to dig out large piles of money for the upgrade.
It's still missing critical features: Entourage^H^H^H^H^H Outlook still cannot import PST files. You will need to shell out for a third party product for that.
Pricing is interesting; up from that charged for Office 2008 (currently selling for around £70) to £190 for Office 2011 Business Edition as they DON'T include Outlook in the base version.
Mac users have the choice of using the built-in OSX Mail and Calendar applications and are quite pre-disposed to using other suites - iWork (£60), or OpenOffice (free). It's going to be a hard sell for Microsoft.
Maybe their pricing strategy is based upon the average Mac user being more affluent than PC users? Affluent maybe, but not stupid.
I use my copy of Office 2008 daily and really like Entourage. I sure as hell won't be upgrading as there's no point, certainly not at those prices. And where's the iPad version?
That only applies to certain demographics. Like those with Facebook accounts and of those, the ones who actively take part in their network.
In short, mostly younger people.
Statistics, damned statistics and lies. Probably propagated by the FaceBook PR company. Again.
Citation please. Base data too.
Ever since installing iOS4 on my 3G it's run like a dog and is borderline unusable.
Could this be a sneaky way of getting people to upgrade to the iPhone 4? If so, it was obviously planned in Job's secret island whilst stroking his white cat. Not sure I want to upgrade now my arm's been twisted.
How I wish I could downgrade to iPhone OS version 3.1 as iOS4 offers very little to 3G users, certainly not multi-tasking.
Pondered these for ages and finally got the chance to listen to them at the Apple Temple to Tech. Hundreds of yoofs filling the store. Put these on my head, plugged in my iPhone and.... like entering a different world. Now had them for three months and have never regretted buying them.
The attenuation of external noise is superb. Train journeys are a pleasure. The sound quality sublime. The comfort, like an old pair of slippers.
But it's the quality that just can't be understated. Cannot be compared with the plastic tat from the likes of Bose, et al. Like getting into a Bentley in a car park full of blinged up todger-mobiles.
Not to be underestimated, the box opening experience is one to rival Apple. Superb, and one that reinforces your decision to spend money on decent head gear.
And then there's the natty soft quilted case with magnetic flap to store them in once you've finished.
Only criticisms are they're heavier than their plastic counterparts. Not that heavy, but you do notice them after a day. They're also not particularly comfy when hung around your neck, such as when you slide them off your head to speak to someone.


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