4 ms·

You know what happens, though, this is one fake Chinese tube amplifier but what happens if someone makes a fake fake Chinese tube amplifier? At a certain point

You know what happens, though, this is one fake Chinese tube amplifier but what happens if someone makes a fake fake Chinese tube amplifier? At a certain point, like with miomg (either guerilla marketing on a blog, or an actual flash card with merit, or both), you just make the real thing. Like even cheap fake watches have a real 32.768 KHz oscillator inside, which are like 22 cents. That's better than almost all mechanical watches, and it's very hard to fuck that up, because it's the cheapest oscillator by far, and making even a fake watch is actual work, and because hey maybe maybe there's a repeat sale. I'm considering buying this fake Chinese tube amp amplifier to figure out what's up, they used their smarts to fake the tube function, but those are still smarts. Might help with IP protection, ironically.

ratww 4y ago
> Like even cheap fake watches have a real 32.768 KHz oscillator inside, which are like 22 cents. That's better than almost all mechanical watches Only as long as the oscillator is really connected. Which, after seeing this article, has a potential of not being the case ;) I like your analogy to copy protection btw
- daniel-cussen 4y ago
  Well if the oscillator isn't connected it's hard to get a convincing tick. Generally watches are sold actively ticking.
KennyBlanken 4y ago
High end watches, like other jewelry, are not about timekeeping but status display, taxless generational wealth transfer, wealth storage, and less-traceable money laundering/payments. I want to give you $100,000 for doing illegal work for me. I buy a $100k watch, hop on a plane, meet you for drinks on a yacht, and say "my friend, you are such a good friend, have my watch!" No taxes, duties, or paperwork. Rinse, wash, repeat. When daddy gives his daughter a several thousand dollar watch, he's not giving her a watch. He's passing along several thousand dollars of family wealth, to be used for both communicating the family's status but also convertible into currency if need be. A bonus is that it likely appreciates in value over time. When daddy gives his mistress some jewelry, he's paying her for services in a way his wife (or her attorneys) can't trace. Before the age of near credit card / digital payment/transfer systems and worldwide near-instant communication, rich travelers would wear a rolex because it served as a sort of compact money storage unit. If you're wealthy and traveling to places wealthy people liked to go and needed help, your rolex serves as proof of resources, or can serve as a payment itself.
- daniel-cussen 4y ago
  That's really funny, I wear a fake Rolex, the watch-repairer looked at it and initially refused to open it because he thought "¡Es un reloj automático!" but I set him straight no it's a fake, you can for sure fix this. He did, I frankly wouldn't wear a genuine...the faster-tiny ticking is cool...but, uh, you could do that with that same oscillator anyway. And the complications, at the present moment I write this I just think they're stupid. Stupidifications, that's how I see them now. Maybe I'll change my mind, I think I will. The only advantage to a genuine mechanical watch is surviving uh...solar flares and EMPs. That's cool, hey maybe someday that'll matter. Especially solar flares, because that fucks with the light from the sky, like it did in the 19th century. Anyway, it'll matter, but not yet. Also, there's expensive oscillators with much lower time variation, they're like $60 for a 100x lower Tau (I think it's called Tau, there's a whole language I don't understand). Same size, basically. Just two wires. That's the whole luxury element of a watch in it's essence, the idea you are getting time from it, the luxury of time. Jules Verne talks about this, in Around the World in 80 Days, there's a watch that loses a second per year. You could do that for real with that oscillator. To say nothing of the CSAC 45 chip on the market, kind of big, but somebody made a clock that loses a second per...million years or something, out of that. It just looks ugly, is the problem. Too big. Hey maybe it'll be cool to wear!

ratww 4y ago

> Like even cheap fake watches have a real 32.768 KHz oscillator inside, which are like 22 cents. That's better than almost all mechanical watches Only as long as the oscillator is really connected. Which, after seeing this article, has a potential of not being the case ;) I like your analogy to copy protection btw

daniel-cussen 4y ago
Well if the oscillator isn't connected it's hard to get a convincing tick. Generally watches are sold actively ticking.

KennyBlanken 4y ago

High end watches, like other jewelry, are not about timekeeping but status display, taxless generational wealth transfer, wealth storage, and less-traceable money laundering/payments. I want to give you $100,000 for doing illegal work for me. I buy a $100k watch, hop on a plane, meet you for drinks on a yacht, and say "my friend, you are such a good friend, have my watch!" No taxes, duties, or paperwork. Rinse, wash, repeat. When daddy gives his daughter a several thousand dollar watch, he's not giving her a watch. He's passing along several thousand dollars of family wealth, to be used for both communicating the family's status but also convertible into currency if need be. A bonus is that it likely appreciates in value over time. When daddy gives his mistress some jewelry, he's paying her for services in a way his wife (or her attorneys) can't trace. Before the age of near credit card / digital payment/transfer systems and worldwide near-instant communication, rich travelers would wear a rolex because it served as a sort of compact money storage unit. If you're wealthy and traveling to places wealthy people liked to go and needed help, your rolex serves as proof of resources, or can serve as a payment itself.

daniel-cussen 4y ago
That's really funny, I wear a fake Rolex, the watch-repairer looked at it and initially refused to open it because he thought "¡Es un reloj automático!" but I set him straight no it's a fake, you can for sure fix this. He did, I frankly wouldn't wear a genuine...the faster-tiny ticking is cool...but, uh, you could do that with that same oscillator anyway. And the complications, at the present moment I write this I just think they're stupid. Stupidifications, that's how I see them now. Maybe I'll change my mind, I think I will. The only advantage to a genuine mechanical watch is surviving uh...solar flares and EMPs. That's cool, hey maybe someday that'll matter. Especially solar flares, because that fucks with the light from the sky, like it did in the 19th century. Anyway, it'll matter, but not yet. Also, there's expensive oscillators with much lower time variation, they're like $60 for a 100x lower Tau (I think it's called Tau, there's a whole language I don't understand). Same size, basically. Just two wires. That's the whole luxury element of a watch in it's essence, the idea you are getting time from it, the luxury of time. Jules Verne talks about this, in Around the World in 80 Days, there's a watch that loses a second per year. You could do that for real with that oscillator. To say nothing of the CSAC 45 chip on the market, kind of big, but somebody made a clock that loses a second per...million years or something, out of that. It just looks ugly, is the problem. Too big. Hey maybe it'll be cool to wear!