Canadian Computer Reseller - July 2, 1997
Bravo for AST's silent desktops
AST Canada Inc. has announced its line of Bravo MS commercial desktop machines, which incorporate a 166 Mhz or 200 Mhz Intel Pentium, or Pentium with MMX processor; 32 MB SDRAM, expandable to 256 MB; 512 KB Level 2 cache; 10/100 Ethernet; 3D audio; and, an Intel 430TX PCI chip set.
... AST is also dubbing its new line the first "silent PCs," shipping the computers with System Noise Reduction (SNR) technology developed by AST's European division. By using a "noise-dampening enclosure," SNR is said to reduce CPU noise by up to 70 per cent...
Contact www.ast-canada.com
Globe and Mail - May 1997
Can't hear to read
Children who live in noisy areas have poorer reading skills than those in quieter areas, reports the New Scientist. Lorraine Maxwell and Gary Evans, researchers at Cornell University in Ithica, N.Y. suggest this is because they find it harder to recognize and understand human speech. A study of 58 children who lived under a New York City airport flight path were compared with 50 children from a quiet neighbourhood. As well as having more trouble reading, the children from the noisy environment had more trouble recognizing and understanding spoken words.
Globe and Mail - May 24, 1997
Noises off
Recent news about the movies:
"It's not your imagination," writes Desmond Ryan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The decibel level [in movie theatres] is rising. Critics may argue that movies are getting dumb and dumber. But they have also gone from loud to louder with the advent of high-tech digital sound systems in the 90's." Before digital sound, film sound never exceeded 85 decibels; a survey ofthree Philadelphia theatres found a minimum volume of 84 decibels in the first 12 rows and two films were as loud as a jackhammer.