909

two current faves... pliny the elder -- russian river rouge grand cru -- ommegang (flemish style red sour ale)

Happy B-day, Bryan!

welcome. have you seen this rating site? Headphone Reviews :: Headphone Review System

i seriously need a tripod, but anyway here's an idea of what the HD 2 looks like in darkness, kind of spooky...

just received confirmation -- Craig has nothing to do with this knock-off.

i get a strong feeling this amp isn't the real deal.

she... might really be a he.

Billy De

LCDs are getting much better and Sony's top of the line LCDs are among my favorites as they look the most natural, though, I still can't handle the overall pitting and image choppiness at up close viewing and especially with fast action which is a deal breaker for me. And yeah, Plasmas scale up nicely in dark environments, but mine also does exceedingly well during daylight too.

BTW, here's a pretty decent place to price check and possibly buy from... Pioneer Plasma Displays from Invision Displays I bought mine here and know about five other folks that bought from them as well because they really have great prices and policies.

Our couch is approximately 10 feet away from a 50" Pioneer and we can easily tell the difference between 1080i, 720p and 480i, but the difference between the first two is pretty close. It took about a month to get use to the 50" as it first felt too big especially considering we upgraded from a 32" CRT, but now we are very glad we opted to go bigger. We watch a ton of wide screen movies so that cuts about 5 to 10% off the screen and quite a few HD broadcasts cut the sides off as well. Plus back when I was shopping the 50" processed fast action better than the 42" -- I remember reading something along the lines that there is less processing/conversion with the 50" and it actually achieves a truer HDTV picture.

Happy belated B-day!

SONY PS-X600 TURNTABLE - eBay (item 130267581515 end time Nov-12-08 19:00:00 PST)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S-fmKqwa98&eurl=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1085059/Pictured-The-robot-pull-faces-just-like-human-being.html Pictured: The robot that can pull faces just like a human being | Mail Online

very cool, mike, congrats!

did you try to trade with another raffle winner?

Here's an excerpt from an email a knowledgeable friend sent me a while back... "In the balanced line world one of the biggest issues is ground loops between equipment. Electronically balanced equipment like X are two identical amplifiers running opposite polarity. They are true balanced amplifiers with all the benefits of common mode reduction but they share the same ground so there is no benefit breaking ground over a single ended, or unbalanced piece of equipment. All the Pro audio gear from the Beatles early recordings and until solid-state were transformer balanced. The best Pro audio gear today is still transformer balanced even though the amplifier may be solid-state."

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toMTAHsz26I]YouTube - Jeff Beck - A day in the life (Beatles)[/ame]

Godspeed President elect Obama... Day One: Obama faces a Cold War threat and a warning from Israel | Mail Online

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPzNl6NKAG0]YouTube - ????[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4]YouTube - "Star Wars" - an a capella tribute to John Williams[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZHTJsR4Bc]YouTube - Fox News: Palin didn't know Africa was a continent[/ame]

no but i found the transcript WARREN: There’s a lot more I’d like to ask on that. We have 15 other questions here. Define marriage. OBAMA: I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix. But – WARREN: Would you support a Constitutional Amendment with that definition? OBAMA: No, I would not. WARREN: Why not? OBAMA: Because historically — because historically, we have not defined marriage in our constitution. It’s been a matter of state law. That has been our tradition. I mean, let’s break it down. The reason that people think there needs to be a constitutional amendment, some people believe, is because of the concern that — about same-sex marriage. I am not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage, but I do believe in civil unions. I do believe that we should not — that for gay partners to want to visit each other in the hospital for the state to say, you know what, that’s all right, I don’t think in any way inhibits my core beliefs about what marriage are. I think my faith is strong enough and my marriage is strong enough that I can afford those civil rights to others, even if I have a different perspective or different view.