oogabooga

The second shot of the house is awesome, the colours are just right. The IR shot is quite interesting, as I figured the water would absorb the IR from the trees and appear pretty black. Very cool! Did you use a DSLR or film for that one? Edit: Just saw the info on Flickr - didn't know a G2 could do IR. Also, didn't know a G2 was that freaking sharp!

I can report that I have 4 greens in my Drobo (two are WD15EADS) and have no problems with that setup in terms of dropped drives, etc. The drobo is connected directly to my WDTV, so it spins up and down once a day when I go to watch TV. I will note that it takes a long time (10-15 seconds) to spin up the first time I go to play a video file, but once it's running it's perfectly fine. I would have to recommend against the Drobo in this case. Transfer rates with my Drobo, using FW800, are a crappy 30 MB/s max, so transferring your needledrops will be painfully slow compared to a NAS. A properly configured 4-drive RAID 5 array should be MUCH faster than that (hell, a single drive transfers at close to 70 MB/s). One of my buddies has the Acer H340 for his WHS and really likes it, and if I had to do it again I'd go the NAS route. The big advantage of the Drobo is that it requires basically NO setup and maintenance, but at the cost of speed and $$. With a NAS you also have the freedom to network the drives (Droboshare is $200 and even slower, FWIR).

"The fingers you have used to click are too fat. To obtain a special mousing wand, please mash the mouse with your palm now."

unless one is into that sort of thing... Back to Stax: a few pages ago I asked about XLR wiring, phase, and the Stax-006t - well my XLR cables arrived yesterday (from Monoprice ) and the channel separation is better than before (which is not that bad on RCA cables with the 006t). Thanks again spritzer and Colin.

I don't have an AppleTV so I don't know if this would work, but Firefly Media Server (aka mt-daapd) streams from my WDTV to my MBP. They have flavours of the program for Linux, etc.

While I try to fall asleep in 'soldier', I invariably move to 'foetus' after a few minutes, then give up and fall asleep in Colin's 'freefaller' a short while later. My chiro told me that freefaller is supposed to be pretty bad on the back, FWIW, but I can't sleep any other way.

Knowing your rig, I'd say that the weak point in an O2 upgrade is the amp... when we tried your SRM-1/Mk2 with Djarum's O2s, the result was "so-so". I know you're getting a T1, but if it's as similar to the 006t as I think it may be, I wouldn't use it - I find the combination of 006t/O2 to have atrociously boomy bass. Of course, YMMV. Next time we have a meet out this way, remind me and I'll bring the Parasound 1500 and a gamma2 for you to try out. One of the locals also has the PS Audio Perfectwave - it's a freaking beasty of a DAC!

Thanks for pointing this out! I usually convert FLAC to ALAC (using Max) b/c I'm a sucker for iTunes Cover Flow, but it'd be nice to have something a bit easier to navigate than VLC for playing FLAC when I don't convert. Yeah, I'll agree that the aesthetics are better (I like having all the ports on one side!), and Apple is not one to shy from picking form over function, but it does mean one more cable I have to remember when I'm giving a presentation (not to mention an extra $30 to Apple for each laptop sold). I still don't know why they don't include one with the MBP for free.

I really liked the SRH840, except for the fact that it didn't fit my big head. The sound was nice and seemed far less "closed" than any other closed can I've heard (all the closed cans I've heard are in that price range).

Thanks to both of you, I appreciate it.

Picked up the 15" i7 a few days ago and popped in my SSD. For everyday stuff it's pretty much as fast as the 2.5 y.o. MBP it replaced - the SSD really makes both computers fly, IMO. Haven't done too much number crunching or graphics yet. The fans are MUCH quieter than the older (i.e. non-unibody) MBP - with the SSD the computer is practically silent. Only silly thing compared to the older one is the swap of the DVI port for the mini-displayport connector, since I plug into DVI monitors both at home and work. However, a couple of $8 mini-dp to DVI convertors from Monoprice are going to fix that I ran VMWare/WinXP on my 2.2GHz Core2Duo MBP - IMO all that matters for most work is the RAM - when I upgraded from 2GB to 4GB that helped with the VM a lot.

I couldn't find this answered in the previous 300+ pages - but I'm a bit confused with the issue of "polarity" with respect to connecting my Parasound 1500 to an SRM-006t via XLR. According to the SRM-006t manual (p.5), the XLR input polarity is: 1=ground 2=cold 3=hot According to the Parasound 1500 manual, its output polarity is: 1=ground 2=+ signal 3=- signal Am I correct to assume + means hot, and - means cold? Do I need some kind of "crosslinked" XLR cable (i.e. 2->3 and 3->2) to hook the two together? I'd appreciate any help/insight on this - I don't want to just plug cables in and have something blow up...

I also run and power my audio (gamma2) out of a powered hub, which is connected to another powered hub, connected to my Macbook Pro. Never had a problem. An unpowered hub should be OK unless there are other items plugged in that require power (most computer USB ports provide 500mA, so an unpowered hub has to share that across all devices).

Ironically that's why I got the darn thing in the first place - the Starbucks at my campus can't even make espresso right (by SB standards) and always has a 15-minute lineup - Nespresso takes less than a minute and makes the same goodness every time. It was a stay at the Hooge Vuursche in Amsterdam for me - they had a Nespresso machine in the room, I tried it and bought one soon after I came back from the trip!

I am no aficionado, but I do drink a lot of espresso (about three a day) from my Nespresso machine. I'm not going to say that it tastes as good as a real espresso, but I do really like about four (of the 16) roasts they have, and since I use it at my desk the lack of grinds/mess works is a plus - the grinds never leave the capsule. I find there is a good flavour, the espresso is just the right temperature, and there is a decent crema (depending on the flavour, of course). Between the sixteen flavours I would expect you'd find a few decent ones you'd like. The Bay in TO and Vancouver have little boutiques where you can try them out - I'm sure Montreal's got one too. The capsules cost 0.63 each and are lined aluminum, like the SIGG water bottles. I've never tasted any metallic flavour from the capsule and never had any grinds appear in my drink. While the coffee has never tasted like it was ground a while ago (the capsules are airtight), they also don't have the taste of coffee ground that day, either. IIRC they have a money-back deal, so you could pick one up and return it if you didn't like it.

I thought the Oppo didn't have any digital inputs

Yeah, and the cheap price is going to completely wreck any chances of people selling their HF-2's at anything close to what they paid for them.

I've used a Nikon and a Canon, and I currently own a Nikon D300 which I love. My first recommendation would be to use the same system as the friends you might go shooting with, so you can swap lenses, flashes, etc. After that, I feel that Canon has a wider selection of lenses in the "mid-fi" area (more f/4 glass than Nikon). Also, I might be tempted to spend less money on your first SLR body, so that you can spend some money on a flash and a second lens. Bodies become obsolete quickly but flashes and lenses hold their value (and use) longer. I owned one of the earlier Sony alpha cameras for a week. I was not impressed (it had a loud shutter release) and felt their selection of new lenses was thin at the time. Not sure what it's like now (that was 2 years ago). I can say that I really liked VR (when I had some VR lenses - now I just use f/2.8 glass ), so if Sony's are still coming with in-camera vibration reduction, that's a definite pro for the Sony's. Nikon/Canon keep their VR tech inside the lenses - they claim it can handle more vibration but it adds a cost to each lens. As grawk says ergonomics play a role - my first camera (a D40) was too small for my meathooks, and nowadays I can only really use the D300 when my battery pack is attached - otherwise the feel is just wrong. I'd suggest borrowing a friends for a day or finding a place with an exchange policy. BTW, if you're doing any indoor shooting (or anything with a 'close' subject), I can't tell you how much I appreciate having a dedicated flash that I can bounce off the ceiling, use a diffuser on, etc. My wedding/event photos that people like most always used the flash in a way that the on-body flash can't hack. I'd definitely save some of that $1000 for a flash.

Hey Guillaume (did I spell that right)? I'm happy to lend you my GLite for a week if you want to A/B the two amps. It's the older version 1 amp, but whatever. Shipping to and from Mississauga shouldn't be too much. Of course if you are ever in Toronto, that'd work do. Je ne pense que be in Montreal anytime soon, malheuresement.

Have you seen Amelie? It came out a few years back - good foreign film.

In my opinion and experience, Plasma beats LCD hands down in terms of colour, even the new LED TVs (which may have a wider colour gamut, but since all TV is sRGB there's little point to having that wide gamut). I recently did some research/shopping for a new HDTV during the Boxing Day sales we have in Canada, and had narrowed my choice down to Panasonic S-series, due to the 1080p resolution (I was looking at a 50") and the anti-glare filter (helps with reflections but still not as good as LCD). Samsung was also on the list but a number of comments about "buzzing" emanating from the particular 50" model I was eyeing (550 series) gave me pause. Mind you, when the sale prices actually came out I decided the price wasn't right, so I don't actually own anything beyond my 32" 3-year old LCD, and my comments above and below come only from looking at the TV's online and in stores for a week prior to Boxing Day (our equivalent of Black Friday). Please take them with a grain of salt! Consider also the Panasonic X series - it's one up from the entry-level (C series) and adds an anti-glare coating to the screen. I noticed a significant improvement from casual observations at the Best Buy (with their harsh overhead lamps). Both are 720p, which I think is enough for your viewing distance/TV size. I found this useful: 1080p charted: Viewing distance to screen size -- Engadget HD Also, not only would I not trust the displays in the stores, but I would urge colour calibration after you buy the TV - it makes a difference (I say this from personal experience using my Spyder 3). The displays at one store I went to were all showing the same feed - while it was HD it was analog and horribly crappy due to signal degradation.

They beat the canuckleheads today, maybe the start of a streak?

Thanks Manaox and CW. I'll give both those programs a try. Diskwarrior didn't do much of anything - it found a couple errors in the directory and rebuilt it, but that was about it. The whole process took five minutes or so. I do think it's a directory and not a hardware problem, as the file pointers seem to be messed up. For example, when I double-click on one of my movie .ts files (HD transport stream), it opens, but the content being played is from some television episode also on the Drobo, in another folder. Not touching MacDrive again... ever. Sadly pulling/reformatting/restarting isn't an option (don't have the drive space) but you're right, it's the best solution. If those programs don't work I'll have to just hope for the best after rebuilding the directory, etc.

Okay, so I need some computer help. I've got a Drobo, formatted HFS+, that I was using to store a lot of my goodies (2.8TB worth). The Drobo was usually connected to my HTPC running Windows XP - I used MacDrive to access the Drobo. Occasionally I would swtich the Drobo to my Mac to transfer files directly. I recently noticed that some of my files weren't working on the PC - I would play videos in VLC and nothing would happen, etc. When I connected the Drobo to my Mac, they would play. Now, I've discovered that some files "work" when Drobo is connected to the PC but not the Mac, others work when connected to the Mac but not to the PC, and some files don't work in either mode. I've tried Disk Utility, Disk Warrior, and calling Drobo for support - nothing has worked yet. I'm near my wits' end, and the only option left is to find some more hard drives and verify each file on the PC and the Mac and transfer over what I can - a process that would probably take me an entire weekend. Can anyone think of anything that I haven't tried yet?

I just shoot RAW - all the WB and other information is carried over in the metadata, and I can easily make JPEG's in Lightroom on demand. The benefit for me is in saving space - since I don't need the JPEG's, I can eke out a few more photos on the CF card (and my HD). I agree the EXPEED processor does a nice job of choosing the WB - I have to tweak WB far less often on my D300 than I did with the D40!