The doors of perception (was Re: Repeater latency)

[mark <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

On Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at 07:35  AM, S V G wrote:

>  So how far away is 12.5 ms?  I know that it's really simple math, 
> though
> I'm unsure as to how much of a second is a ms.  Is it .001?

Yup.  I measure the Repeater's latency to be .0011 ms.  Kim got a 
little higher, but maybe with the first OS things were a bit worse 
(they sure were!)  I'm pretty sure my method was accurate and I tried 
it several times.

> If so, then the perceived distance is a little over 14 feet away, or 
> 4.3 meters (assuming 68 degrees F or 20 degrees C).  Huh, I guess this 
> puts things in a perspective of sorts.  I try to keep my onstage 
> monitors about 4 feet away from my head, and on the same plane (3.5 ms 
> latency through the air).

Great way to look at it.  Makes me realize I'm not crazy to not be 
effected by the 11 ms latency I'm getting.  When I play shows my 
speakers are often at least 14 ft away from where I'm playing and it 
doesn't trip up my sense of timing.  (Hey drummer, can you move a bit 
closer, I'm getting lag between the light I'm seeing and what I'm 
hearing, thanks!) Maybe my brain just compensates for everything as 
brains are good at sometimes.  Apple brags a possible < 4 ms latency in 
MIDI with OSX which I'm assuming is better than most.  Man, I'm so used 
to MIDI and MIDI guitar and computers my idea of "real time" has become 
very lax.

> There is also latency on a grand piano, and great latency
> on a pipe organ.  And I'm always late to work...

Interesting point.  When I started my job here, I was told "Oh, the 
design staff gets here at 10:00 because content usually comes in later 
in the day and you'll be expected to stay until 7 or 8.  I did this for 
2.5 years.  Some jerk complained when he couldn't find files I had 
worked on the night before.  (I hid them on the company's server in the 
proper folder figuring no one would look where they were supposed to 
be)  Anyway, even though I was called on my cell and got them the 
files, I was asked to start coming in at 9, so I did.

What a difference.  I got several "Wow, you're work has been great the 
last few weeks." type comments to myself and my boss.  *Nothing* 
changed other than the fact that I started coming in an hour earlier.  
Because they don't often know what I should be doing, that hour is 
usually wasted, but they don't perceive it that way at all.  So in the 
end it's all about perception.

If took the blue dye out of my hair and wore Dockers to work every day, 
who knows?  I might run this place one day.

Mark Sottilaro