Cheesebaron

I wouldn't call it a text editor, but rather an IDE, but for Java, IntelliJ is top of the pop with loads of plugins and other cool stuff like Eclipse. IntelliJ is a lot better at code completion and inspection. However it is very rare I do anything in Java anymore. I am mainly writing C# at the moment, which I do with Visual Studio along with the ReSharper plugin, which can get me all the neat stuff from IntelliJ

If you are so good, why not work on your own projects, while attending to get the record for having had said course. These projects could be anything that could challenge you, such as implementing your own versions of different sorting method, data structures etc. Or they could be utilities or small apps you could release somewhere. I don't know what kind of school you are attending, but in universities some courses have prerequisites. So taking the advanced programming course would have the beginner course as a prerequisite. Not sure if that is the case where you study. If it is, stay in the class, if not, get moved up to challenge yourself.

It doesn't have any moving parts it should be completely fine.

I had the Modi for a while, pretty decent DAC, especially for the price. I have no idea how the Magni performs, but if it is anywhere near the performance of the DAC, it is a very nice combo you are getting there

The DT880 are fairly sensitive (96dB SPL), even though they have a high impedance. This means you will need around 0.4mW or 0.489V to drive them to 90dB or 12.58mW and 2.74V to drive them to 105dB, which isn't that much.

I know Audioengine make white speakers. The A2 and A5 are very nice. The latter are out of your price range unless you are buying second hand. There is also the Argon 7340A, which are available in HiFiKlubben if you live in a Nordic country, some other stores do also sell them around Europe. KRK and Genelec do also make white speakers, but they are definitely outside the 200€ price range.

I don't think the video actually proves much, however it is informative and most of the things discussed are correct to a certain degree. Obviously many of the topics discussed have been dumbed down a bit, so it is more comprehensible for the average person. About Lossless vs Compressed formats for your music, most of the time Compressed will suffice, however there might be some areas where you can hear a slight difference between the two, but when listening, you have to know what to listen for. If you want to read more about sampling and uncompressed music in higher bit rates and sample rates, these two[1][2] articles are very informative. Taking a look at balanced headphones and amplifiers, it does make a difference. "it uses inverse positive / negative electrical paths to deliver equal and opposite audio signals to each side of the headphone driver voice coil"[3], as the article also discusses it improves the slew rate drastically if implemented correctly, which can lead to a better audio performance. Using balanced cables also helps eliminating cross talk. However, cross talk on headphone cables are not usually present as the lengths of the cables are quite short. It is used a lot in professional settings, where long cable runs to speakers etc. are used. My personal opinion on balanced setups is that it does make a difference, and it is an audible one. However you will not get a night and day difference, but it is noticeable enough for me that I don't want to switch back, especially not on my main rig. I agree getting a sound card for you computer is not a great decision, unless, you are using it for recording or similar. I have owned different sound cards such as Xonar D2x and ESi Prodigy 7.1 HiFi and they were pretty good, the latter had some noise issues, which is why I returned it and got the D2x instead. However, I never got to use all the features they provide and used them with a headphone amplifier anyways, because at the time I was using some high impedance headphones. Majority of time I was simply using the stereo output and that was it. Looking back buying a DAC would have been a better choice and which is what I have now. So the only use for a new sound card would be either: For recording stuff The current one is bad at something and you really want to keep stuff internally in the computer You have driver issues etc. with your current. Otherwise pick a DAC if it is in your price range. Buying a $30 sound card will in most case not improve much, if anything at all. For anyone interested I am currently using a Audio-gd 10.32 and a pair of HiFiMAN HE-400 with a balanced cable. Pretty kick ass combo and I have listened to higher end rigs, and the price difference for what you get is currently too high for me to even consider upgrading anything.

HTML is not a programming language, it is a Markup Language.

So you are saying that having no sales department, to find potential customers, help them choose the appropriate product and inform them about the various solutions. Opposed to majority of OSS, which has neither of that, which potential customers need to find out about themselves is better? Anyways, this is going a bit too off topic, so maybe we should stop this discussion about MS vs. OSS here.

Because Microsoft has a better sales department

Oh you should just know how many servers are running Windows. Not as many as Linux servers, but there are a lot! Most of them probably serve ASP.NET websites or similar. Also take the entire Azure Cloud Microsoft has, it is also running on Windows.

Aaaaaand you can do that with WPF projects as well...

I'd probably make it more like this: https://gist.github.com/Cheesebaron/8043501

I'd go and use Twitter Bootstrap and build upon that instead of making something entirely from scratch.

LOL, nope. Make your own homework. Or at least try formulate the problem so it is possible to help you...

Use it along with an MVVM pattern and you are golden. Totally decoupled Model and View code!

There is also a lot of useful things to gather from the NLTK book even though it might not be the language you are using for Machine Learning it still goes through a lot of stuff about the topic.

Only KitKat supports IR blasters natively so to have that working in your app without using some other SDK library you will need to target your app for API 19. You will be able to use the ConsumerIrManager by grabbing it from the getSystemService() querying for CONSUMER_IR_SERVICE. How you exactly will emulate the remote I don't know, as you will need to send the correct pattern on the correct frequency, which is different from TV to TV. You might be able to find something useful in the lirc.org project, which is a library for IR blasters. Otherwise take one of the apps and disassemble it and see what they do.

Why not a WPF project? Then you won't have to touch the horrible VB or Java

I got the Gigabyte Windforce 3 one, it is pretty quite and clocks OK. However the core voltage is locked so the OC capabilities are somewhat limited unless you flash another bios with altered core voltages.

Man I've played so much Enemy Territory, that game was so awesome.

I am totally relaxed. However, I really doubt it is 99%. It is like asking, what happens when you take a pen or a small rock with you on the moon, then drop it. Then afterwards ask why the astronauts were walking on the moon and not floating. More than 66% of people do not know this, and I bet you that a lot of people do not know the answer to this on this forum. Neither do they know the answer to what connector does what and what kind of signal they carry.

Typical coaxial connectors: They can also be used for digital connections. Typical optical connectors: Do you spot the difference?! They are not the same! Stop talking nonsense please.

Yes it is a DAC, the advantages it has is mainly that it is able the be used on different computers without having to have a PCI-e port. It also sounds pretty decent and you will be able to drive headphones of it as well.

I'd pick up a pair of Superlux HD681 Evo, they are like having subwoofers on your head, however not that lame boomy and unruly bass. They produce very nice and tight bass and it goes very deep. Best bang for the buck imo. In the long run I would pick up a pair of AKG K2xx velour pads and slap those on instead of the pleather ones they come with.