Off Topic

So I played in a free poker tournament in NYC tonight hosted by partypoker.com or something, in Times Square. It was a pretty cool event actually, with free open bar and free food as well. There were about 200 people in the tournament. The good news is that I finished in 7th place. The bad news is that when I was at the final table, my nice coat was stolen off the back of my chair when I was standing up during an all-in The kicker is that while I was looking for my jacket, my 7th place prize (a set of nice poker chips in an aluminum case) was stolen from the tournament organizers. They said they'd mail me the prize - I really hope they follow up on that. Bas…

I opened my mail today and was shocked to find a letter from a debt collection agency (Wyse Financial Services, Inc.), demanding over $3000 in debt from a company called 'NCO Financial Systems' (never heard of them...). As someone who has no debts (I don't even use the 'credit' on my credit cards), it was clearly fraudulent, not on the part of the collection agency who on further investigation are legitimate, however on the part of the company/person demanding the debt, or someone attempting to use my name for identity fraud. Furthermore, my name was incorrectly spelled, and the apartment number was completely wrong (not even close to correct). I have obviously taken t…

I figure this'll get any kind bugs and server issues sorted out by posting this on the forums to get our server loaded. And for whatever reason, I don't get bugs on my end viewing with Safari, IE, Firefox or Opera...low and behold, somebody will get one(which I need to know about)....as it always happens. http://www.fitforkingsclothing.com It's STUPID simple and STUPID basic. We decided against anything even remotely complicated and wanted to keep a simple theme for things to be "off center" as we're both a little, well, off center, lol. We used some of our friends and random people as guinea pigs for the last site and some people thought it was too hard to navi…

My wife wants to go visit her great aunt on Bailey Island, ME, and we figured we'd make it a mini-vacation if possible. We're looking for a 3-4 day rental w/ internet access preferrably within a couple hrs drive of there and near the beach. Anyone know of anything? Needs to be able to sleep 6.

Check out this auction on Ebay for the World's Greatest Music Collection. It includes nearly 3,000,000 records and 300,000 CDs. They are all housed in a climate controlled environment. I don't know if I could listen to everything but it's on sale now. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320230084120 This is what you get: * The Entire Record Collection 1,500,000 + 45 RPM Records 1,000,000 +/- LPs 300,000 +/- CDs Thousands of 78 RPM Records Cassette and 8-Track Tapes * The First CD Ever Produced (300 Copies Made) * The First Flat Phonograph Record (1888) * Antique Recording and Listenin…

Always liked watching NFL games with him and John Madden doing the play by play. Much preferable to Cosell, Meredith, etc., at least for me. Not mentioned in a couple of articles was his announcing of the Masters golf tournament for 20+ years, always (IIRC) with Ken Venturi. RIP...

Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition, Australian media said. He was 44. The guy was over the top but man, I enjoyed his enthusiasm! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_on_en_tv/obit_irwin

Great article about how the 2004 election was stolen. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/1 Read it before you start flaming.

... cannot believe all these other sites discriminating against me for how far away I live or how fast I want something.

Google's shut down a number of music blogs, making the whole blog's content and archives inaccessible not only to readers but to the blog's authors themselves. The issue seems to be accusations of DMCA or other infringement that breach Blogger or Blogspot's Terms of Service, but bloggers are claiming they had permission and encouragement from artists and labels to post the material. More details in the article. The Twitter topic is #musicblogocide2k10. (Yes, it's normally Ric who posts these things, but at this hour I'm assuming he's sleeping the sleep of the just. Hope he won't mind my stepping in.)

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12225&feedId=online-news_rss20

Same rig I've been using for over a year. FLACs in foobar -> Adcom GDC-750 CDP/DAC -> Gilmore Lite + DPS -> HD-650s/Blue Dragon Mk IIs, all the electronics being feed cleaned power via a Monster HTS-5100 MK II. Total cost to me: around $1500. What makes me a true head-fi heretic is that I have resisted upgraditis and FOTM syndrome. That is, until I sent a large-ish payment to one Mr. Takei for some bleeding edge fuglyphones and accompanying boat anchor. One pair of cans doubles the cost of my rig.

Passed away Saturday from prostate cancer... http://legacy.roadru...wsitemID=170627 Official site

I find it very relaxing and mesmerizing to watch. Oooo. Shiny. -Ed

*** Mod's delete or move if this isn't the best place *** Shameless plug for Orchard Audio, and me. I really like their streamers and amps, great sound for relatively small $. As some know, I use multiples of their Pecan Pi (or + version) streamer/DAC. Leo @ Orchard is starting an affiliate program, you can get a bit off ($25) an order and I get a referral bonus. Referral Link: https://orchardaudio.com/tddsmst?nocache=1 Or, just use tddsmst as a discount code on checkout (may not work for sale items, not sure). They sell some boards so you can DIY, as well as finished products. Enjoy! Or ignore....

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=23057

Any users? Thoughts? Discussion? -Mag

Saturday was one of those days. Listened to music on different systems from 10:00 til 7:00. Started out at the Zu Audio demo here ATL. Got to Here the new essence, definition and a prototype they are putting out shortly. The Defenition was a very good speaker, (they all were really) Listened to them with Pass XA30.5 and pass new preamp. Also with a 2.5 watt tube monos, and the Peachtree Nove. (also used as DAC w/laptop). Other source was an Esoteric, I think he said XA-10?? I prefered the Nova as source. Two things that really impressed were the package deals Zu is offering. They are offereng The Essence, Peachtree Nova, and all cables (he said around $1K worth of ther…

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/wtb.pl?dgtlplay&1216359002 At the very least, we should be able to properly use the capslock in our ad title.

I'm heading out to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest for the day on October 21. My plane gets into Denver at 7:30 am and my plane leaves at 6:30 pm, so I figure I'll be at the show for about 7-8 hours. So, who else is going?

Folks, i will be in conus for work and my point of exit will be SFO or LAX. I'm longing to audience a BHSE or WES. I will be bringing back an O2 and looking to try it with BHSE and/or WES. Any member kind enough to accept my visit and let me audience his/her valuable amp? Either SFO or LA (Cal area) should be fine. Thanks

The world's blackest black.

So a few days back all of my analog channels up and vanished leaving me with only the digital channels. I thought perhaps the cable was just screwy with the weather but now it has been a few days. I know in a few years that they have to go all digital but this does not appear to be a step in that direction as the channels I lost are not back in digital form. Any ideas? Cable people are worthless here.

I've been thinking about getting one for my back porch, which would probably stay there all year long. Would be anchored in to cement columns so no need for something with a built in stand. The porch isn't screened in, so it would attract bugs and dust, and would probably collect water as well. Thus I'm leaning towards simple rope hammock. No particular price point, just wondered if anyone has a hammock that they like to lounge in and would recommend. Some rather interesting products out there, ranging all over the place in terms of price: http://gearpatrol.com/2013/07/19/big-swingers-five-best-hammocks-2/ http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/decora…

a dramatised version of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch is being broadcast in episodes on radio4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/nightwatch/pip/psvvz/ the first episode should be up on the web for the next 6 days.