Leaderboard

Pretty nice birthday weekend. Started out Friday giving my “famous” dinosaur lecture for Norwich’s Dino Day, then Saturday we went for a late lunch at J. Morgans Steakhouse. Sunday we went for a four hour hike that ended up taking 6 hours because we went the wrong way to the trailhead and ended up having to park the car 1+ miles from the trailhead 🤦‍♂️. Anyway, a very enjoyable birthday in Vermont.

Took Dr. Woods advice and made a Frankenstein’s Monster out of 3/4 aromatic cedar. Cannot decide I keep it inside and not seal it for the nice smell or seal it for the patio.

Santa Barbara Departure Brunch https://jeannines.com/

Seems to work. The red LED turns off and on correctly. Red light means everything is OK – off means something is bad. A green LED might be more appropriate. The short uninsulated wires, one each side, is not to correct a mistake. It was the only way I find to get it working. The board has 19 vias. I did one mistake though. I gave the mosfet driving the relay a wrong footprint, but fortunately it was possible improvise… now it works as it should. I’m waiting for the relay. Omron G6S-2G – surface mounted, good for 2 A.

It’s soldered by hand. I’ve tried hot air, but I prefer a solder pen and tweezer - gives me better control I think.

These new Monitor Audio Silver 100 7G 50th anniversary series speakers are really beautiful, in British racing Green.

Kyle's Cheesy Pig And a combo thai salad

Breakfast Sandwich on Brioche baked farm egg, smoked cheddar, black pepper bacon, scallion butter The Elvis banana bread, peanut butter, black pepper bacon, wildflower honey https://www.helenaavenuebakery.com/about-2/

Shakedown hike complete. It’s kind of cool how the Apple Watch has gone from a goofy communication device with watch 1 to a full on health and fitness device today. It’s a great training companion for aspiring weekend warriors like me

Blue Train: The Complete Masters John Coltrane 1957 https://album.link/i/1636572781 Example: A good expansion set of a classic album. I like the addition of the alt takes (like the example). It really makes me think, how did they pick the one for the original album? They just liked it better?, because they all rip and they are different. I don't really need the mono versions, I listened to a couple of the mono tracks and compared them to the stereo, and I way prefer the stereo mix. And not just for the soundstage, but the dynamics. There are times when mono mixes are the ones to listen to. This one was not for me. I will probably use this set for future listening though, to have those extra tracks from the '57 sessions are gold for me.

Have the best day ever Jim! Hope things are going great in your new state!

The U.S. and the Holocaust This is very good, despite the difficulty of the subject matter. History will never forget the crimes the German butchers perpetuated against the Jews, the Poles, and the peoples of Eastern Europe. What was less well known to me was the story of how things went down over here. A lot of us already know about the bigotry of folks like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh and his “America First” party (sound familiar?). What I did not know about was the behavior of our state department, of the immigration quotas and the pervasiveness of the anti-immigrant and anti-semite crowd. I don’t think these were all necessarily bad people so much as people who could have done way more, yet did not. They were on the wrong side of history. The stories of the survivors, as always, are the most heartbreaking of all. I’ve never understood anti-semitism beyond the fact that Jewish people usually lean to the left politically and hold themselves out as unapologetically different. It didn’t make sense back then and it doesn’t make any more sense now. Streamable on PBS here: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/us-and-the-holocaust/

no, you really need that much current gain when you are doing zero feedback. especially if you like those really low distortion numbers. but sure, go ahead and modify.

Belated Happy Birthday, Jim! Hope it was great.

Hope it was a great one! Cheers!

Happy birthday!

Happy belated, Jim. I’m still catching up on time changes so technically in my brain it may still be your birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Jimbo!...

Happy Birthday!

Popped up at Qobuz grand selection. I enjoyed it.

Got reports that the Showreel from last night's show has issues. I could not replicate them. Also, Mixlr (bless their hears) is rolling out a new "Channels" feature. I have to sign up for it to continue. So far the UI looks awful. In any case, last night's show is up on Mixcloud:

Happy Birthday, Jim.

Happy birthday, Jim! Hope you are able to get out for a nice hike as well today! Looked like an awesome one you did a few weeks back.

Happy Birthday, Jim! Enjoy the day

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Jim! (party favour noise)

Happy Birthday Jim! Are you a hippie yet? 😄

Happy Birthday Jim! Have some fun!

Hope it's a great one!

Happy Birthday!

I completed the first balanced mono CFA2 amp, so I ran RMAA on it. The DAC2 balanced output right channel goes in on a XLR 2 foot Mogami 2534 cable and outputs on a 1 foot XLR cable to a Benchmark ADC1 USB. The left channel goes in a XLR 2 foot cable and a 1 foot XLR cable to the ADC1. This compares the CFA2 balanced mono to the cables. I had to set the ADC1 left channel to 10 dB gain to equal the CFA2 gain which shows 0.3dB lower than the left channel. This results in the CFA2 balanced mono gain at 9.7 dB.

Speaking of a different experience, yesterday went to London (though some old timers referred to its historical name - “Hollister”) and visited the Queen (lookin’ good!) and the extended royal family, aka lizard people. Also other confusing things.

I think I might have been losing some suction with these “closed” blast gates. Got the major parts of the iVac Pro installed though I still have to tackle bypassing the magnetic switch on the dust collector so the system will actually turn it on when the tools come on. Naaman, they do actually provide AC power supplies with the blast gates now.

Roger Waters cancels gigs in Poland after Russian invasion comments https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/24/roger-water-cancels-gigs-in-poland-amid-row-over-ukraine-war-comments?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other