All Activity

[funny accent] This camera is jewelry. [funny accent] $300 thumb grip. [funny accent] It's fun to take photos with it. [funny accent] It's too big to be a compact camera. [funny accent] Chromatic aberration. [funny accent] For north of 5 grand, I want a UD element and CA under control. At that point Sony need to really commit to the Leica price point, give a lens that's much better wide open and charge $7000 for it.

Yesterday was an Isao Tomita kind of day: Today is a Vangelis kind of day:

Tarzan by Various Artists (1999) https://album.link/89gxj8dmg0md6 Example: This soundtrack has no right to be this good for a mediocre Disney movie. Phil and Mark went hard on this one.

More new cassette players - the azimuth adjustment and measurements are surprising:

Woo Audio and Lampazitor in the same system... damn this one is a glutton for punishment

Some good lookin' Corn

Click da link! 🫡

RIP, macOS hard drive icon: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/rip-to-the-macintosh-hd-hard-drive-icon-2000-2025/

$280K speakers, $150K in amps, $60K DAC, all stuffed into a room the size of a foyer.

I do not like this one bit.

More from the archives....

I re-addressed the question of drive cloning today - EaseUS seems to be getting some recommendations but the company is based in Chengdu, China and it comes cheap at $20 or less for their home Disk Copy software. I'm somewhat leery of using this kind of tool - I remember when they started showing up at the top of Google search results a few years ago and I was skeptical then, too (i.e., they may be paying reviewers to promote their software). Macrium Reflect X looks like a decent tool - it's not as cheap as EaseUS but they have a long history and a good reputation (Windows only). Acronis True Image may also be good - they add anti-ransomware tools which you may not need and some reviews noted a slower system startup (Windows and macOS). Both offer free trials and they start at about $50/year - subscription only. You can also use Clonezilla, which is free and open source. It was developed by Steven Shiau and the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) in Taiwan and it's been around since 2007 (Windows, Intel macOS, Linux, Unix). The Clonezilla interface is definitely more technical and less beginner-friendly than the other software. In my opinion, Windows is more of a serious candidate for drive cloning. Many tools exist at the enterprise level for backup and data management, but your average home/small business user doesn't do a good job of backup or disaster preparation. You can use these software tools along with an inexpensive drive/NAS to fully backup your system in case of data loss or hardware failure. Apple's macOS has built-in tools for backup (Time Machine), data migration (Migration Assistant), and disk encryption (FileVault 2). I've found that these tools work extremely well for most users - enterprise admins have more expensive and sophisticated MDM (mobile device management) software like Jamf Pro, Kandji, NinjaOne to run their Macs. Backblaze, a large cloud backup company, just released their quarterly drive stats for Q2 2025: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q2-2025/ It's reassuring to see that most hard drives across the board have lower than 1% failure rates, with a few exceptions. Backblaze uses consumer SATA hard drives rather than more expensive enterprise drives, so your mileage may vary. It's also important to note that these are failures in operation - if Backblaze received a dead-on-arrival drive from their supplier, that's not going to go in their metrics.

Part Two of *mumble* The Wenlock Barracks apparently. It's a dog photo with some background people and vehicles. That's a lot of square trucks. Time for some pointy ears. What we have here is a Corgi 90 and a Corgi 110, though looking now he might even be a Corgi 130. At the time my (sainted, octogenarian) mother commented that the fella in the foreground was "first to the food bowl." There's a case to be made for the parallels between Corgis and Land Rovers. Both originate from the British Isles. Both are expensive and high maintenance for what they are and can be a bit ...temperamental at times. Both also have loyal (and in some cases, royal) fans who swear on their virtues vs other breeds/brands. Also, both are quite photogenic. Woof.

Just too fucking cute! When I was in my early teens, we got a cat that was originally named Skittles, but my mom renamed her to Skeeter (she had another cat by that name and she looked similar she said). In later years, I started reverting to calling her Skittles, and she would come to me when I called. She also was not a lap cat so much, but loved to lie next to me and lean into me on one of our couches. Such a sweetie....

Skittles playtime!! IMG_3930.mov

to achieve additional truth, I bought a device that was recommended to me on our forum - DUOYI DY294. I am waiting for the arrival of both DigiKey and Ali

I showed you a photo of the transistors and the gain of the transistors that arrived. I am NOT happy with the big difference in measurements between the datasheet and what I see from the transistors from Mouser. I spent extra money for comparison. I made a test purchase from Digi. I will write the results.

Yup. Totally agree JoaMat. I've placed orders with Mouser for decades with zero problems. If Mouser keep an eye on forums, or as a lurking member, Micron21 could end up in hot water. I used to be list admin for a Jaguar forum with 10,000 international members. And occasionally a list member would openly criticize a supplier. But all the major Jaguar parts and service outlets lurked as members on the list. So threats of legal action for defamation were regular, including to the list owner (me). I quit as admin because the stress of being potential sued was too much.

Please be careful with words. I do believe Mouser is a reliable company.

Speaking of VW charm https://www.autoevolution.com/news/artful-canadian-engineer-spits-out-the-vw-frankencopter-a-different-kind-of-luftwaffe-255331.html

Thanks Knucks. Let me know when you launch roverhub or whatever you're going to call it.

33 year old space heater.

I warn you in advance. I am not happy with the purchase from Mouser. I bought several parts from digikey - 9360, 004, 06, 56. They will arrive around August 11. I am very interested in what I will see on the 9350 case, and what the device will show - in hFE mode.