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Nipple, or otherwise?

Woodworker: An official title that one earns from buying clamps.

Yikes. Beastly!

The Mavericks are annoying. The crocs are truly epic.

A couple of pies for dinner with friends from across the street. One with Mexican chorizo, red onion, corn and jalapeño, over cheddar, mozzarella and topped with grated cotija, which was the clear winner. The other with pepperoni, shaved fennel, mushrooms, and fresh basil grown by the neighbors over mozzarella, which was tasty but more basic. Working with a shitty oven and a pizza stone instead of a pizza steel was a handicap, but it worked out fine.

After the air disaster article linked in the reading thread where Rear Admiral Moffett doesn’t exactly come off well, decided to return today with Esmé to the Moffett Field Museum that’s five minutes from our house. Of course the museum is about the place, not the man the place is named after, and the emphasis is on the USS Macon, once docked here, not its sister ship the USS Akron, where Moffett and nearly the entire crew perished (twice those of Hindenburg), all in the pursuit of military rigid airship supremacy (20/20 of course on what was accomplished there), but sometimes strange how heroes are selected. Bonus: Tom Cruises. Still a great, volunteer-led tiny museum

With temps in the high 50s and storms rolling through after mile 30 we decided that bit over 70 miles was the smart play. Despite 2-1/2hrs in heavy rain still was a great event for an even better cause.

Tungsten heatsink Very exclusive

It turned out to be the four big caps had failed. I took it to a local hi-fi dealer who recently started carrying Stax and had it repaired.

I had some fun on my first longer ride (22mi) but I haven’t felt so exposed cardio-wise in a long time. I think I’m on a bike one size too big so I’m going to try and see if the shop can swap me for a smaller one for tomorrow. My hands and shoulders are a little sore from having to stretch a little further than is comfortable to reach the hoods and drops. Very much leaning towards an e-bike so the assist will be there if i want it, but I’m going to try another 20-ish mile ride tomorrow and see how I feel. https://strava.app.link/G4g98I3TrWb

RIP to a hockey legend, Ken Dryden. Even as a Boston Bruins fan and forever-enemy of the Montreal Canadiens, he was something special. And fuck fuck fuck cancer! https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/ken-dryden-obit-1.7627028

Please do. Silk screen says +/-450V, I think. I got this table based on LTspice simulation for supply voltage +/-450V. Rupper is upper tube cathode resistor, Rlower is lower tube cathode resistor, values give offset zero for given Rupper , the resistance is the total of paralleling resistors.

Have a good ride Nate!

Godspeed!

Tomorrow is the day. Weather isn't looking great but we'll get it done regardless. Thanks again for all the support. #NFLO

Cervelo, without thinking. My gen Roubaix can't run wide enough tires, the newer ones can.

After some rounds of trial and simulation, I thought I’d put together a rough guide for setting the 300B operating point, mainly to make life easier when dialing things in. Given static operating currents: 34.3 mA → Rk = 2160 Ω, Vgk = –73.7 V, Grid pot = 10 kΩ, set around 10%. 23.8 mA → Rk = 3200 Ω, Vgk = –75.8 V, Grid pot = 10 kΩ, set around 10%. Plate voltage check (with Va = 0 V target): At 34.3 mA → Plate Voltage = Va – Vk = 0 – (–325.9) = 325.9 V. At 23.8 mA → Plate Voltage = 323.8 V. By matching these points against the 300B characteristic curves (see the red-line markers in the attached graph), the theoretical Vgk comes out roughly between –70 V and –75 V, which lines up with the measured –73.7 V and –75.8 V. From the curves, the 34.3 mA point looks more linear. Pushing current further could be even better, but that depends on whether the EL34 can handle it safely and whether the PSU has enough overhead. All of these measurements are under a ±400 V supply. The 300B datasheet gives a max plate voltage of 400 V (though some manufacturers claim 450 V). On the XL build, with 400 V rails, the plate voltage is about 335 V, and still within a safe zone. I haven’t confirmed the behavior at 450 V rails, but I’d expect plate voltage around ~380 V, which starts to get a bit risky. If anyone’s interested, I can run tests at 450 V and report back the voltages at each node.

Wow, they've made replicas also for Stax... What a life's today's life!

That's better...

Silksong crashes Steam, Nintendo eShop on release day — highly anticipated indie video game took six years to arrive and is already one of the most played games ever on Steam. My (sainted, octogenarian) mother asked me about Silksong today. Its launch was so big that the type of news she listens to covered it.

I went back to 2010 this week. I didn't buy and bitcoin or, ahem, play any classic 8 bit Nintendo games. I did blow the metaphorical and some of the actual dust off my PowerShot S95. (More on that in a minute.) It took me a couple tries to get it going. It took me even longer to figure out how to use the damn thing. The S series of PowerShots (S95 to S110 or so) have dual physical wheels, which is the best. I had to work to remember exposure compensation. I also had to set the time, date and things like picture style. All of this took some futzing. Unfortunately, about 10 years ago during one cold and miserable winter, I got depressed and left the S95 on its back for six months (while running the wood stove). The meant it got some killer sensor grime, which I cannot clean. In broad daylight the dirt is invisible, but indoors the dirt specs are a curse. This is a shame as the S95 has an F/2 lens and works quite well in low light. With that said, I took a stroll through downtown Edgartown and snapped a few street shots. The best second hand store on MV was on this street for decades. Now it's a boutique that sells uber-expensive skin care products. Downtown Edgartown is still bustling with "shoulder season" people. The kids are back in school, so now it's blue haired retirees and buses full of people with name tags. It's a PITA to navigate around them, but TBH I cannot blame them. The weather is perfect here this time of year. The four trees in front of this house are of historical significance. That thing on the other side purports to be a Volkswagen. Looking down toward South Water St. That farthest point is Chappaquiddick. Built in 1703(!), this is one of the oldest buildings on the Vineyard. I quite like it, but the modern signs in front of it are ugly AF. This is the only shot I posted that I don't totally like. For some reason I shot it wide open (F/2) and there's significant smearing in the upper corners. As I mentioned, I'm just getting re-acquainted with the S95 after a decade. Also what's happened in the interceding 10 years is that my vision has deteriorated sufficiently that I can NOT read the controls of the camera without my glasses on. This makes all aspects of photography more complicated. EDG harbor with Chappy in the background. There's not one but two catamarans in this shot. One is the famous Mad Max and the other is even more strange looking, somehow. My mother was friends with a Swiss woman who owned a farm on Chappy. (That is a huge deal. Chappaquiddick isn't that big, and the island itself is eroding. Land on it is very precious.) She was born in 1924 and refused to accept the idea that Mad Max was a real boat. A kid dropped their heart glasses and some kind soul put them on top of a mailbox in case they came back looking for them. This sweet dog was waiting patiently for his mistress. He turned to look at me just for a second before she returned. The S95 is fast enough that I caught him the moment his head turned.

If you could only pick one of your Cervelo and your Roubaix to do 75% road, 25% fire road, which one would it be?

I think a lot of the iconic clothes of Miami Vice were from Armani, too. Truly a giant in his field and a style icon.

I'm not sure Sen. John Kennedy has seen it either.