Craig Sawyers

RIP the dead in the horrendous pile up on a freeway in Fort Worth. Black Ice was apparently the cause. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-56035298 Very much hope that no HC folks were involved in that.

Have a truly superb day!

I have certified four LSK389A from Micross, and are definitely Linear Systems products. Because I'm in the UK I had to sign all sorts of export waiver forms to get them out of the USA. They all measure bang on and are very well matched and very close to Idss of 5mA. I've just looked at the package markings, and there is nothing to say that they are A grade. They are just marked with LSK389 1509C, and "Philippines". So LS either send their bare die to the Philippines for packaging, or use a foundry out there. I also have similarly certified LSK489 and LSK689 and both of those are marked Philippines too. These were purchased after quite a long discussion with Linear Systems by email. Anyway, if you have bought a few of different grades, don't mix them up - you have no way of telling from the device markings what grade each one is. A bit like Z-foil resistors; no markings at all. So you have no idea what the value is, or the tolerance. Deliberate error - LSJ689

One of my all-time heroes is Krenov. Now he had a surface planer, and a really big bandsaw to do rough preparation of stock. But after that he went across to hand tools, many of which he made himself. He's now long dead of course, but he lives on through his excellent books.

I have machine tools to take the hassle out. But there is a quiet joy in using sharp and finely adjusted hand tools, instead of the screaming of machines.

Maybe Bannon saw this (note the date: 37 years ago), and added his own conspiracy version

The sublime Joni Mitchell, now age 77. Currently releasing her unheard back catalog on CD and records. Before lockdown we went to see Graham Nash in concert; In his words "a night of recollections and music", and it was clear he has never really got over breaking up with her after two years of living together way back. And the regret has defined his music ever since.

Sony founder Akio Morita would have entirely appreciated something as weird, quirky and innovative as that. He called the company Sony because, when he founded the company just after WWII, anything with a Japanese name had a very negative connotation elsewhere. Back in the early 70's I worked on a Saturday in a hifi store in Newcastle (the UK one) when I was a school kid.. A man and his wife came in to buy a TV; I immediately tried to sell them a Sony Trinitron. He looked at me and said "Is this Japanese?" "Yes". Turned out he was a POW in Japan, which was not fun at all. Turned out selling him a Dynatron, which was a Philips chassis inside something that looked like a piece of furniture. With picture performance that was really poor as compared with the Sony.

Have a truly great day!

Good grief - you're both going through the dental wars. Hope you both get through it just fine, and your wallet recovers. That is if they don't get you both confused and give you a cat's tooth implant and fit Dunhill with human dentures....

Getting past those, the equipment and the cables to safely get to the CD's and records, seems somewhat hazardous

A genius record producer who turned out to be as mad as a box of frogs, and died in prison for murder.

Marilyn in 1949, age 23. Kodachrome.

Have a spiffing day, old chap! Happy birthday Grahame!!

These were the original Aerius, and when plugged in to the mains power were energized all the time - so 24/7. And that was the process that killed the connection to the diaphragm. They never admitted there was a problem, but the Aerius 2, and every ML since, goes into sleep mode and turns off the HT energizing voltage until an incoming audio signal turns it back on again. But it nevertheless is a technology that I wouldn't mess with. Electrostatic panels are fragile period. UV radiation kills them, so a location near a window (yes - window glass attenuates UV quite a bit) is not a good move, neither is thermal radiation that heats up the black painted panel. Not just a problem with ML; other E/S speakers are likewise fragile.

Hmm. I don't know how sensible it is to put a light behind a pair of ML's. I know from bitter experience how fragile that curved electrostatic driver is. Mine disconnected themselves just sitting there. I repaired them by putting small discs of conductive foam through the holes at one side in the front cover, then a thin wire contacting the foam, then Kapton tape. The wire went inside and was hard wired into the energizing transformer. They were out of guarantee, and there was no way I was going to pay for a new set of panels so I got creative. I was not impressed with their reliability, candidly. Sounded great when they were working though. All the repair was behind the wooden trim strips, and so was invisible.

That was a hell of a series, made more relevant because I am the same age as the group that Apted followed from age 7 in 1963 through to mid 60's now. But until I read the obituary I did not realise he was a movie director too. RIP Apted.

Happy birthday - have a truly great day!

Looks like a DIY version of an early STAX unit. Whatever it is, it is really nicely made with high quality components. The ceramic tagstrips are the ones used in 1960's Tektronix tubed oscilloscopes, which is a sign that the builder was very aware of their quality in a point-to -point wired build.

I was a few days ago adding up how few of the original Star Wars cast were still around. It is missing one more that has gone - Jeremy Bulloch, who was Boba Fett, only a few days ago. Oh - and Alec Guiness of course...

In my shop in my converted garage the power tools I have are: A Wadkin BRA350 radial arm saw. Although this three phase beast can do any compound angle, I have it accurately set up to do 90 degree cuts. To the extent if you use a square on a cut edge, you can't see light through. An industrial grade bandsaw which I've fitted with a Kreg fence with microadjuster. An Axminster planer/thicknesser. That is a 3-blade 30cm cut. Lousy for interlocking grain woods because of tear-out. A router table with a Dewalt 2000W router with depth adjuster. A biscuit jointer. I've also got a pretty comprehensive set of hand tools. But no table saw - and oddly enough have never found a piece that has needed one. The things I make are quite small. I've already got more machine tools than my all-time hero Krenov used to build his iconic furniture, for which he mainly used finely tuned hand tools, many of which he made himself. Even when Krenov was so elderly that he lost his eyesight, he was still making wooden planes (to sell) by feel. Amazing guy. He was also a realist - many of his carcase joints used dowels. But he said that if biscuits has been available when he was working he would have used them instead in a heartbeat.

Oh damn - Tim de Paravicini. I didn't see that coming. RIP a guy who designed a landmark series of products.

Boba Fett actor Jeremy Bulloch, RIP. Too early from Parkinsons at 75. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55358301

When we bought our house, newly built, around 30 years ago, I jumped up and down on the floor - "woohoo - it is a concrete raft! Let's buy it!" So fortunately I get none of the bouncy floor stuff at all In an earlier house maybe 35 years ago, which did have bouncy floors, I had a custom slab of slate made (from here http://www.delaboleslate.co.uk/ ) and put it on on wooden bearers which I screwed into the walls in an alcove for the deck. But Stretch hand me down or not, that sir is a hell of a deck!

Dead easy if you make it from two pieces. Make the join a feature with a row of really nice countersunk brass screws. Make it from two contrasting woods. Or, if you want to hone your traditional skills, contrasting woods dovetailed together. Or a finger joint. You also need tough woods given this thing is going to get walked on and scuffed. So for contrasting tough wearing woods that won't warp - hornbeam for the flat bit and iroko for the vertical bit. Nicely contrasting too,