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How Cool is Software-Defined Radio?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 26, 2022  | 
With all due respects to all the great analog engineers out there, it is my opinion that anything an analog circuit can do, software can do better. You don't agree? Fight me. Case in point: software-defined radio.

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How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways.
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 25, 2011  | 

 

How many copies of Jurassic Park do you own? I'll give you an hour to tell me. That's because if you are a dino-fan, it will take awhile to tally them all. Don't miss any! There's VHS, Laserdisk, DVD, the Trilogy DVDs, the Adventure Pack DVDs, Blu-ray…. So, how many copies of Jurassic Park do you own? Well, get ready to buy some more. The Jurassic Park: Ultimate Trilogy Blu-ray set is being released today (with a freshly remastered DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack and a whole lotta extras as incentives to purchase). And after that. . .

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How Google's Live Transcribe Will Aid the Deaf
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Feb 19, 2019  | 
I am an audio guy. All my life, I have been fascinated by the physics, physiology, and technology of audio. You might be surprised to know this, but my hearing is more important to me than my eyesight. But hearing is a privilege that not everyone shares.

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How Important Is Your Internet Connection?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 28, 2017  | 
How important is internet connectivity? In a poll of 18- to 25-year-olds in the U.K., they valued a good internet connection more highly than trifles such as a healthy diet, hot water, daylight, and the welfare system. Now, I admit that vegetables have never been high on my favorites list. Hmm....
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How Much Is Music Worth?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 18, 2021  | 
Money, get away
Get a good job with good pay and you're okay
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

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How Napoleon Bonaparte Invented the Compact Disc
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Apr 12, 2021  | 
You can admit it. You are intrigued. Of course, it can’t be true. But is it purely nonsensical? Is it a “pigs can fly” kind of declaration? Or is there someway, somehow, a grain of truth in it? And if that’s the case, how on earth could you conceivably connect the dots between the Little Corporal and the Compact Disc?
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How to Make Your Own LPs
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Feb 20, 2018  | 
If you're like me, you wake up every morning from a wonderful dream where you own a LP replication plant. In your factory, plastic goes in, and plastic goes out. Except that the outgoing plastic has magical shapes pressed into it. Now my dream, and yours, can come true.

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How to Stop Alexa from Ratting You Out to the FBI
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 05, 2018  | 
You probably saw the news story last week. Unbeknownst to them, a couple's Alexa Echo recorded their conversation, then emailed it to someone in their contact list. Creepy. Here's how you can determine what Alexa has recorded in your house, and edit the archive and delete files.

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I Fought the Mall and the Mall Won
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 27, 2018  | 
Black Friday has a lot in common with circumcision. In both cases, they generally occur whether you like it or not. And I am not a fan of things in which I have no say-so. Both of them also inflict sensations ranging from mild discomfort to outright pain. Although, women don't seem to mind it as much as men. One key difference between Black Friday and circumcision is that after Black Friday, at least you have a new TV.

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In a Black Hole They Can Hear You Scream
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 05, 2023  | 
So, I have this recurring nightmare where the spaceship's crew pushes me out of the airlock and, screaming, I am inexorably pulled into a black hole where I am transported into a new dimension where space and time cease to exist.

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In Cyber We Trust
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 09, 2023  | 
So, it's come to this. New TVs will have a sticker to verify that they can't be hacked. Or, maybe they can be hacked. We're not sure. The logo in the illustration isn't some goofy thing I cooked up to punk you. It is a genuine logo, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government. So you know it's a good thing.

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In Real Life (IRL)
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Mar 12, 2019  | 
Shakespeare famously observed, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” But if Shakespeare could read modern texts, peppered with AFAIK, IMHO, LOL, OMG, ROTLF and WTF (which is NSFW), I’m not sure he would make the same assertion. And don’t get me started about emoticons.
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In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 09, 2017  | 
Saturn's rings are pretty cool. They are clearly visible with even a modest telescope. Going where no spacecraft has ever gone before, the Cassini spacecraft is diving through the rings and into the gap between the rings and the planet's surface. Enterprising scientists at JPL have created a file that lets you hear the "sound" of particles impacting the spacecraft as it passes through the rings and into the gap.

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In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream "Atmos!"
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 18, 2014  | 
You remember Gravity, right? Outer space, pulverized space ships, Sandra Bullock floating weightlessly, heavy breathing—pretty good film from both a technical and narrative standpoint. You might already have a copy on Blu-ray. But I'd like to give you two reasons to consider buying it again. A new "Diamond Luxe Edition" Blu-ray due in February promises to be very interesting for both film aficionados and home-theater enthusiasts. Doubly interesting if you are both.

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In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream, Alexa!
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Mar 07, 2022  | 
Amazon is close to achieving its goal of world domination. Much like Alexander the Great, Mr. Bezos is surely weeping because he has no more worlds to conquer. But cheer up, good sir. Amazon's most talkative progeny will soon go to the final frontier, where only a few men have gone before.

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