HiWire

That's the most metal thing ever, short of literally precipitating the apocalypse with your epic brutal chords.

So... no to Yes? Thanks for the link!

Happy Birthday!

The Leftovers More than a little contrived, melodramatic, nihilistic, preachy, and silly(!) – just my cup of tea. Some odd parallels with the pandemic situation, so somewhat prescient.

Dying to Say This to You – The Sounds

Carboot Soul – Nightmares On Wax It's been a few years since I last listened to this one... Eldorado – Electric Light Orchestra

Nothing Lasts... But Nothing is Lost – Shpongle

It's that color on the sleeve of my CD. The album cover inside the jewel case is the standard beige.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Wilco

These Sony box things are the opposite of porn, in my opinion (they remind me of lighting equipment – so willfully ugly they have to sound good?), but it's interesting to see where Sony's research goes... at $7999, they're not a "desktop speaker" for most people. I might look into them if I was some kind of music professional and someone else was paying (and maybe hide them under some plants): Review: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/sony-sa-z1-nearfield-listening-system

I didn't even know the album was coming until I randomly saw it on the front page of AllMusic. A happy surprise to start 2021!

Happy Birthday!

I think I'll need a new computer to run this (it's a 2-person Polish game company and one of the them worked on Witcher 3) – Early Access in February, so it will be a while before the finished game is released:

I thought DCS wasn't that resource-intensive, but I've never looked at VR setups for it.

I hear you. I'd love a 3070 for gaming but it only seems to make sense when you let an OEM like Dell or HP absorb the cost. Putting a system together at today's prices (and availability) is ridiculous unless you shop for old or bottom-of-bin parts.

I read Anandtech's guide to the new Z590 motherboards (some of which are more than $1,100) and said a big nope to building a new box. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16347/the-intel-z590-overview/54

Catspaw – Matthew Sweet

It's a niche product for sure, but even the Fuji cameras are niche products at this point, when people are using their phones, drones, or GoPro to create a lot of the content I'm enjoying. The review mentioned a learning curve and using the Quattro as a second camera, which sounds like a bit more investment than a casual photographer would tolerate. I was "gifted" a Nikon D70 (with NIKKOR 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5G ED) that I haven't tried out yet, and I'd feel bad if I didn't make an attempt at learning its ins and outs. There is also a local place that still processes (the last time I checked) APS film and I've got to finish off those rolls of film as soon as possible. It's a good problem to have. P.S. I was searching for the Lytro camera but found this oddball product first: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/4/10/17218758/light-l16-review-camera-photos which may be reaching the end of the line: https://www.dpreview.com/news/3781485434/l16-camera-manufacturer-light-abandons-consumer-imaging-turns-to-automotive I still think the Lytro is an awesome idea, just not for the selfie market...

Looks like Sigma Corporation acquired the Foveon technology and they've been using it in their digital cameras – the Sigma SD Quattro H seems to have been the most recent product (2017) and it was well-reviewed by dpreview: https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigma-sd-quattro-h Their newer, compact Sigma fp camera (2020) uses a Bayer sensor. I lost track of them after the Merrill camera... it sounds like someone is going to keep working on it if they can get enough resources to continue development.

There was a lot of discussion about Fuji's X-Trans sensors vs. the Bayer filter in the early days of the technology. I think people mentioned the different greens, for example, in Fuji images (and the human eye doesn't have "balanced" preferences for colors anyway), so there is as much art as science in developing the technology, in my opinion. https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2020/04/20/fujifilm-x-trans-is-it-really-all-that-different

I've still got a few rolls of Fuji APS film. I found them a little less colorful (possibly more accurate, less saturated) than the Kodak rolls, but APS is not the greatest examplar of film quality. ... been wanting to get a Fuji digital for a while, something like the X-T30.

For those really long hikes:

"What's in my violin case? Violence!" https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/tommy-guns-violin-cases-gangster-films-history/

Julia Fischer – Mozart

Happy Birthday!