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One of our neighbors has a Columbian wife, and has started a coffee company using her family's farm. https://www.orchideacoffee.com/ So we said put us down for a bag when you get started. This week one was hand delivered to our door. Joanne said we should reserve it as a weekend treat. Not too shabby.

I don’t get the “Apple is expensive” rhetoric. They’re comparable in price and have better performance and features than other first tier manufacturers.

Chris Rea - The Road to Hell

Just dropping in to say Hi and glad to see F1 fans still here. A fairly decent season so far, hoping Ferrari can pull their thumbs out. Cheers!

Things have been so chaotic recently that I'm not sure I mentioned this or not: My M1 lappy had a major problem. First one of the TB ports stopped working, then the keyboard began to fail. I lost use of left arrow key, which was a nightmare. I am constantly using arrow keys to highlight text. I began to get the "MacOS doesn't recognize this keyboard" messages ...on a laptop. I had the option to renew my AppleCare this past February and didn't. Big mistake. It cost me three times that to get this machine fixed. With that said, when one gives APPL nine hundred fucking dollars, they really deliver. They sent me a super neat box to ship it out and got the machine back to me within 5 business days. Here's the punchline. It's an entirely/mostly new machine with my SSD in it. I am on this laptop more or less constantly. The only objects I own where I know the nicks and scratches better are things like my Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 Mk I that I've had for 20 years. Apple is a weird as shit company and I could write a book about them. It'd be titled "Why Apple Sucks Balls, But I Swear On Steve Jobs' Smug Grin, Windows And Android Are Worse At Every Fucking Turn."

Ran Blake - Grey December (Live in Rome) Ex.

Mouser is legit, ‘Mauser’ is probably not. The one in the first picture is more likely a fake. Even without a known genuine sample for comparison, you can tell by at least two factors: The four top corners of the plastic molding are rounded and inconsistent, suggesting that the package may have been sanded. The ST logo is a raster image composed of parallel horizontal lines, suggesting that it is a scanned reproduction. A genuine product would have a vector artwork since it is the manufacturer’s original design. Other factors such as the laser marking font or etching depth can vary from manufacturer from manufacturer and even from factory to factory. You would need a known genuine sample for comparison. A low cost transistor tester such as DY294 can test breakdown voltages up to 1kV and measure hFE at different collector current settings. You can choose one that’s close to the transistors’ actual operating point. DY294 Digital Transistor DC Parameter Tester Field Effect Tube Tester Multifunction Semiconductor Tester https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqGVojt

get yourself a high voltage transistor tester and make an adapter board or solder wires to test subject. in this case it absolutely has to have a breakdown voltage of about 640. but in any case >600 the second part is likely genuine. no one is going to pirate a $1 part. the big hfe change i am beginning to see more and more of.

The base model M4 Mini is basically the best deal in computing right now. It's so good that it has more or less killed the used Mac market. Except for a few exotics, it's difficult to sell Intel based Macs at all. I'm seeing them pile up on the MV Stuff 4 Sale group. No one is selling Apple Silicon models.

Deck, Farmer's Market Porchetta Sandwich.

I have to agree. There are lots of things wrong with Apple (and not just from 2025), but when things are working, Macs can be brilliant. I've been contemplating the upcoming Window 10 shutdown with some trepidation - Microsoft gave users a lifeline with an extra year of support, using a Microsoft account (and their Backup cloud service), but that's a deal with the devil, where you hand them all your data. What could possibly go wrong? I spent nearly half an hour looking at Microsoft Edge browser settings and I think it is sending a ton of private data to Microsoft. Many of the settings are extremely disturbing - it is using some kind of AI to "help" write your text and "accelerate" your browsing. Clearing your cache and cookies won't work any more, from what I can tell - I think it is retaining more information elsewhere, both on your system and in the Microsoft cloud. Windows 11 has been getting more and more scary, with Microsoft ramming Copilot, OneDrive, Teams and other stuff users don't want into the operating system along with new terrifying bugs and increasing surveillance with every update. You can attempt to keep abreast of all the problems - PCWorld does a good job documenting the carnage: https://www.pcworld.com/windows/news Google just forced Gemini AI on Android users - you have to opt out if you don't want Gemini sending messages, initiating phone calls or setting timers on your behalf. They're also cutting battery power to the Pixel 6a phone battery. It's all sounding really dystopian. On the Linux side, things are slowly getting better. It's still an arcane system for non-nerds, but each year the mainstream distros get easier to install and run for newbies. I wouldn't recommend stepping into Linux for non-hobbyists - I've installed Ubuntu and it's been mostly OK but you still need to know what you're doing and avoid running a new update version for over half a year. I was able to find software equivalents for many popular Windows and macOS apps, but I think Linux evangelists are misguided when they claim that it's a suitable desktop system for mainstream users. Going back to Apple - it's apparent that they have a lot of strengths as a vertically-integrated company with a well-developed ecosystem, but the high price of their hardware and relatively small market share can cause problems for home and small business customers. The sad tale Pars posted above about the M4 Mac Mini could be a warning sign.

Blasphema?!? {...or science...}

Heather Nova - Breath and Air. Been a huge fan for years, she has an inner passion that I just love. Even though I don't think all her newer music is as strong as much of her earlier work, she still has that passion I love. I FINALLY got to see her live in a small setting, a semi-acoustic set with her brother (who goes by Misha); this was maybe 2-3 years ago, after having 2 different shows cancelled before that. A wonderful experience, got to chat a tiny bit after the show, she is very nice and gracious, really appreciates her fans. Example:

Dang an entire kitchen just filled with people with tweezers..

Yup smoker still works. I had a good chunk of it as sushi last night, sans wasabi, which bummed me out, but the fish was yummy. And the chunk of freshly smoked for supper tonight night was lovely. Also receently 10lbs of pork belly {not pictured}...

I have the audiovisual for that above pic, yessir i do. Starts with pops hauling crates, making noises down in the garage, real early like. Pregnant pause before he walks in from the kitchen door and i look up real doe-like. Queueing the audio in in my imaginary mixer: Son? Yes sir? We've got work to do today, eat that breakfast. Yessir! And don't discuss any of this with your mother, you hear me?

Wow that was overly dramatic and just plain stupid. Please, before you post stupid bullshit, learn to use the interwebz. (Directed at the poster of the link Pars posted, not Chris)