Miscellaneous

So my girlfriend's birthday is coming up and I was going to get her some books and wine, but this past weekend while we were at the grocery store she specifically mentioned wanting an indoor herb garden. Now I'm barely capable of cooking for myself and quite honestly don't know shit about herbs, let alone herb gardens... but I was looking around and something like this seems to be pretty much what she is looking for. I'm a little concerned about this particular unit's noise and lighting, but otherwise it looks like a decent product. Anyone used anything like this or have suggestions for alternatives? The extent of additional info I can provide on what she wants is tha…

I've just finished recording all of our old family VHS tapes to the computer and now have about 90 gigs of video which I need to (mainly) trim bits (blanks and tv show popups) from and to make into chapters for putting onto DVDs. Windows XP had that crappy movie maker thing but Windows 7 doesn't seem to have it. I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a (free) bit of software which can do what I'm after. The videos are all recorded to MPEG-2.

Interesting article over on NPR's website ( read it whilst they are still around ) . http://www.npr.org/2011/03/05/134256592/whatever-happened-to-the-audiophile EDIT: add tiny url for tapatalk users http://tinyurl.com/4o8hcxj All the usual suspects are present and correct So, where have they gone or, are we all just here? Lively comments thread. The other place gets a mention

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/02/22/24.bit.music/ Apple is among a group of digital music retailers in discussions with record labels to improve the sound quality of their digital offerings, according to a new report. Citing executives involved in the talks, CNN reports that the change would involve the labels supplying retailers with 24-bit audio files, as opposed to the 16-bit files that are currently distributed. “We’ve gone back now at Universal, and we’re changing our pipes to 24 bit. And Apple has been great,” said Interscope co-founder and chairman Jimmy Iovine. “We’re working with them and other digital services—download services—to change to 24 bit. And som…

I've decided it's time to get rid of cable TV. I'm currently paying Time Warner $190.00 per month for HD cable, 2 DVR's, Phone service and 7 MB Roadrunner service. For now I'll keep Roadrunner and the phone service but plan on transitioning to the following: Mac Mini hooked up to our 2 TV watching areas in place of the DVR. I already own one and just bought another. I have an Elgato Hdhomerun box on the network and I'll watch and record OTA HD broadcasts through that. We have all the major TV networks available in our OTA broadcast area. I've been using Hulu for shows I can't get OTA and that seems to be acceptable. You can also go to the broadcasters direct web sites …

Perhaps I'm too trusting of the human kind. I had an ad on Craigslist for a camera, and this guy called and wanted to a trade with his lens plus cash on my part. He says he is coming from about about an hour and half away and wants me to meet him half-way at a Starbuck's. Sounded reasonable, so I agreed. Drove 45 min to this Starbuck's and sat on my ass for 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, and finally had to leave after an hour. Apparently the guy called me from some sort of internet phone/google voice, etc because the phone number rings and goes into a beep. Messages come back "invalid." The e-mail address I got out of the guy comes back "Delivery failed." Wow, the…

Here's my my 2nd love....3rd if you include wife and family: So far I've done 168 mph, 2-up (Yes, I know I'm crazy, but anyone that knows me, already knows that).

Oh, snap! Has anyone noticed that today Facebook has changed their photo viewer, so that when you click on a photo to view, the bottom of the photo is cut off in order to display an ad at the lower right corner. Only way to view the entire photo is to keep pushing control/- to make the photo small. Absolute FAIL and shows where Facebook is headed! http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100503334101314

I'm setting up a listening room and need to run a dedicated power line to it. So I'm starting this thread to talk about how to do that. I assume I have to ohm out the lines going to my breaker box and then figure a way to separate some of the power lines going to that room. Then I have to install a new breaker for that circuit, and wire the ground differently for that breaker to a ground rod outside hammered into Mother Earth. Is that right?

As posted in another thread, the coverage offered by AT&T in Manhattan (especially lower Manhattan) is laughable. My iPhone will continue to suffice for personal email and stupid apps, but now I need something that will actually work as a phone. I was considering a blackberry, as I have grown accustomed to them and find them excellent. However, I don't really want to pay for the data plan, and I won't have corporate support for email, so that seems to be a waste. So I'm thinking that I need one of them smart phones? I'd like something that is a solid phone, and ideally with a keyboard so I can text without learning to type on a numeric keypad like a teenage g…

So I am in need of a decent component video cable. It has to be somewhere between 15 and 20 feet long. The closer to 20' the better. Unfortunately, MonoPrice has 15 foot and 20 foot. I'd really rather avoid a 25' cable if I can help it. I checked on Amazon and found a few results: Amazon.com: 6M PRO SERIES COMPONENT (87206): Electronics ($22) Amazon.com: Icarus Black Carbon Component Video Cable (19.6 Feet/6 Meters): Electronics ($26) Amazon.com: Monster THX Ultra 800 16ft Ultra-High Performance Component Video Cables: Electronics ($20) Yes, Monster FTMFL, as a company, but that price is excellent. In my experience, Monster video cables are not horrid, just…

My phones setup is in its early stages. I have a Cambridge Audio DACMagic (c.1993) going into 404LE and SRM-T1. There is a Meridian 518 jitter-buster before the DAC, and the digital source is usually my Macbook, and sometimes a Sony CDP-750 from 1988, which I love for it's incredibly fast track access and associated number pad. The problem is, I feel ill after not very long listening to it. A headache which is kind of metallic-toothachey... I don't think I am running it too loud. I suspect the problem is that the source combination is just way too crappy for the Staxes, which of course I know. Even the 518 can't save the DAC. It is probably a minefield of jitter, di…

I've decided that I need something that offers a little more functionality than my ~10 year old Motorola Razer. I'm going to head down to Cable & Wireless (the local phone company) store and buy something today. Hopefully, it will have a lot of buttons on it, a fancy screen, and the ability to BBM. Until today, I didn't know what the hell BBM was, or even that there was such a thing. But someone texted me and asked me if I can BBM her, so I Googled it, and have now come to the conclusion that I need to get with the program. She told me that I couldn't do this with an iPhone, so now I'm sold. Don't know on what, or why, precisely. But I'm sold. Will repor…

Maybe these are old news, but I'm often slow at finding this stuff. I have trouble both at work and at home with power strips that can basically charge my two phones, computer, maybe my slim, ipad, etc at the same time. I just bought one of these and will see how it works. quirky | Pivot Power Flexible Power Strip Any one else try it or have a better solution?

So my daughter is sitting in her bedroom in a rented house while away at college listening to music on a Apple Hi-Fi boombox. Suddenly there is a loud pop and sparks are flying from the power cable to the boombox while the room goes dark. She pours her water on the carpet which ignited from the sparks and called me. The boombox was plugged into a cheap multiple outlet surge protector along with a curling iron and hair straightener neither of which were turned on at the time. The incident caused the house panel circuit breaker for the outlet to trip. Any ideas what could have caused this? She wasn't touching or moving the boombox in any way when the incident happened a…

Nate, this is for you for the upcoming La Nina winter. $2600 Meyer Home Plow

ok, so a couple questions that might seem strange, but.. once digital signal shows up on a digital input, what happens? What I mean is, I'm assuming the driver goes into a fetch loop and it just writes that info to disk. Is there room here for errors or quality degradation? What sort of software is there out there do this "recording", any recommendations? Finally, is there some sort of standalone unit that can do this and say dump the data to a CF card or something? I'm mildly curious also how this is done with DSD as well.

World's most amazing subwoofer has no woofer | The Audiophiliac - CNET News 13k for the hardware and 25k for config and installation

When I was in SFO last weekend for the meet, I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers KSOs at In-jean-ious. I had gone up there with the intent of trying a pair on and possibly buying some, and when I got to the meet, it turned out that Icarium and his whole posse were outfitted with them. Their good recommendations didn't hurt to seal the deal. Anyway, the 47s fit me well enough, so I bought a pair in black. I've been wearing them exclusively ever since. They are totally fucking awesome. They do look kinda funny though, and in black, they look like some sort of water shoe, so be prepared to get shit from your friends. And people who don't give you shit have 1,000,000 quest…

Yeah, moar power is always needed. The SR-007 also likes silver IC's so some DIY could be in your future.

I currently have the Motorola H700. It is truly a piece of shit. I need to get a new headset, as I tend to be on a lot of calls during my commute. The #1 requirement is sound quality on my end and the listener's end. #2 is that it needs to be comfortable. Otherwise it doesn't need a lot of bells and whistles. I've read some decent things about the Jawbone 2, but it is expensive with some drawbacks, but if the sound and comfort are far superior to anything else then so be it. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Hey folks, I find myself in need of a couple of webcams now that my relationship will be long distance for the next 9 months (one for me, one for the gf). I simply don't know very much about webcams and am not looking for anything out of the ordinary but I was still hoping someone could share an experience or two just to give me an idea. The cams won't be used for anything beyond basic web chatting (gchat and skype probably). Need sound for both as well, but I assume that comes standard with most. Budget is probably no more than $50 per webcam. Here's one that intrigued me earlier today. Thanks much for any/all help.

Not for the newborn to take pictures:D, but for us to take pictures and video. My wife was thinking that we might want to get a dedicated video camera and I am on the fence. I have a Sony HX5V that does decent 1080p with okay image stabilization. The plus is that it's pocket-able and takes pictures. The minus is that it doesn't do video as well as a dedicated video cam. Oh what to do? I also want to get a new DSLR, hopefully the D400 it it ever comes out. How do you with DSLRs that do video feel about the video quality?

I'm currently setting up my desktop system in South Africa and will need to run my Ayre DAC off a step-down transformer, since it couldn't be converted to 240V. On the back it says 120V, 50/60Hz, 20 W max. I have a modest 60 W compact/travel step down to hand. To those of you who actually understand this stuff, am I likely to be OK powering the DAC off that? Many thanks.

Anniversary is coming up. In addition to the new car I bought her yesterday, I plan on also getting her a nikon d3000. Just wanted to know which online vendors you guys like to go with.