Why should I STFU (which I had, until you reposted), when I'm probably
right?

About two years ago, someone in rec.audio.pro asked where in the A to D
conversion process the signal actually went from analog to digital.

I responded that it occurred at the point at which the samples were
quantized.

I was immediately barraged with invective. I was an idiot, I didn't know
what I was talking about, the data had to actually be converted to binary
numbers, etc, etc, etc.

I pointed out that numbers weren't necessary. Once the data had been
quantized -- that is, reduced to a finite, enumerable set of data (rather
than an infinite, continuously varying set) -- it was digital. "Numbers"
weren't necessary.

The screaming was repeated. Not one person (that I recall) agreed.

Yet what I said was correct. Anyone with a basic understanding of how
information is represented would immediately see that "digital =
quantization", not "digital = numbers". Once data are quantized, their
continuous representation is lost.

It's not whether data _are_ represented as numbers, but whether they _can
be_ represented as numbers that determines whether data are digital. One can
have digital PAM and PWM data systems in which there are no "numbers" -- the
pulse amplitude or pulse width is quantized.

If educated technical people cannot grasp such a simple concept, am I
entitled to call them "insufferably stupid"? You decide.

I felt rather like God telling Abraham he would spare Sodom if 10 righteous
people "be found there". If one person had responded "Oh, yes. I see what
you're getting at. That makes perfect sense.", I wouldn't have been too
upset. But not one person "got it".

Mr. Daily, if you wish to continue reacting violently when people express
points of view different from yours, insisting that disagreements are due to
the other fellow's foolishness, bad values, or inability to reason, be my
guest. Is that how you discuss serious matters with other people?


As far as the never-ending Bose arguments go... Yes, businesses often
misrepresent their products, and sometimes lie outright. That doesn't make
it right, nor does it mean we should keep our mouths shut.

Nor does it mean that we can't say to someone "Did you know that, for what
you spent for that Bose Wave radio, you could have had much better sound?"
There are polite ways to criticize people, another thing it took me a long
time to learn. (The trick is to ask questions, rather than confronting
people directly.)