Craig Sawyers

Yes - cloning high ticket, high volume items is big business in China. A guy I know runs a seismic monitoring equipment company - quite a big one - and he was trying to set up a sales office in China. His agent showed him the problems in doing this by taking him to a large nondescript building. In one single room (of many) there were 200 people with racks of gear disassembling program memory, DSP algorithms, FPGA code and so forth in Western products so they could be cloned. But we're not talking anything remotely on the scale industrial-level cloning activities. This one that has ripped off the Stax amp is likely two or three people in a small facility. And they have not got product ready to ship - they are asking for pre-orders to generate some cash to keep going. Which is why a threat might stand a chance of having an effect.

But a Cease and Desist, with reference to the Berne Convention would at least give the bastards pause for thought. And it is not a big company - it is a small outfit that is asking for pre-orders. Nip them in the bud with a legal threat - a couple of hundred dollars to Saul Goodman for a formal letter.

Yes - indeed it was. But there is implicit copyright in a work of creation, such as an electronic design - the design does not need to be registered to be owned. And that agreement to uphold implicit copyright internationally is called the Berne Convention. One of the signatories to the Berne Convention is China. In fact it is more difficult to find a country who is not a signatory. So it is entirely possible to pursue the plagiarising assholes though international agreements that have been in place for over a century (China signed up to this is 1992). Initially to send them a Cease and Desist order.

It is a pity that these plagiarizing assholes can't be sued. Tektronix was in a similar position but was big and ugly enough to sue. The US government did not want to pay Tektronix's prices, so the aided three companies (Hickok, Jetronic and Lavoie) in ripping off the Tek designs and selling them to the US military cheap. That ran from 1959 to 1969, although the case was not settled until 1977 https://www.leagle.com/decision/1977895552f2d3431820 . The government has to pay Tektronix many millions of dollars in direct loss plus interest.

Absolutely nailed it

Happy birthday!

I'm a rare steak guy, and have never had any gastric problems as a result. And in France I've eaten steak cooked "bleu" or blue - which means that the chef threatened the steak with the stove and then just put it on the plate. Then of course steak carpaccio, which is basically thin strips of raw sirloin lightly marinaded. Yummy

The link above actually loads a page which says: Rare steak 'is safe to eat' Meat can become contaminated during the butchery process Eating rare steak will not cause food poisoning if kitchen utensils used to cook it are kept clean, it is claimed. University of Nottingham scientists spiked steak samples with E.coli bacteria, then cooked them rare. The bacteria only survived where the steaks were touched by utensils that were not cleaned after being used to handle raw meat, researchers found. The study dispels the myth that eating rare steak is in itself unsafe, the Meat and Livestock Commission said.

How did you manage to shave it?

Bring on the vinyl! Just as well since I've spent a shed load on deck/arm/cartridge and phono stage.

Have a spiffing day! Happy birthday!

No for some classic British humour; Gerard Hoffnung in 1958

Nothing to stop you driving from Class A. Lowest distortion configuration because no crossover non-linearities. I had a Krell KSA100mk2 for many years, which sounded great, gave a hernia to lift it, and it blew up twice to the extent that flames were imminent. It burned clean through the board at one stage when 2nd breakdown killed the power transistors, which killed the drivers and the emitter loads for the drivers burnt through the board. Great fun, but I tend to like non-exciting technologies now; um like the STM-T2 clone

Well, you can either go valved, classical A or A/B, or one of the stunning new generation of class D. It's heresy, but I'd go class D. Hypex N-core has the real lead in this, and an increasing number of high end manufacturers are using them (Bel Canto, ATI, Nord etc). Distortions 0.0002% (2 parts per million), frequency, power and load independent. https://www.diyclassd.com/audio-amplifiers/ NC400 is the unit. 580W into 2 ohm, 400W into 4 ohm and 200W into 8 ohms. And it will drive down to 1 ohm, quite important for the balky load that ES speakers can present. Output impedance 0.6 milliohm. Discrete balanced input (can be configured for single ended). 125dB S/N - it goes on and on.

*Which* Quad ESL?

Only got the manufacturer's spec, one review I read that said it was great, and an Amazon price of a shade under $1500 to go on. I guess everyone is in that position, hence general lack of reply.

After the "beast from the East" that hit the UK a couple of weeks ago - followed by real spring weather (13C, or 55F today and glorious sunshine) - we're in for another bout of Winter. Temperature set to plummet to freezing tomorrow and Sunday, with significant snow fall. Mid March. In the UK - that is pretty damned unusual.

The other hidden benefit of the UK Royal Family is the number of good works they do. The charity my wife runs has a Patron. That used to be the Queen Mother, but is now Countess Wessex (wife of the Queen's youngest son). She is not just a title - she is massively engaged with the charity, most recently hosting a fund raising dinner at her house (Bagshot Park). But - that is only one of 70 charities she is patron of. That is absolutely gratis, and multiplying the effort for my wife's charity by 70 and you get pretty much a full-time job. And she is not unique - everyone in the Royal Family does this sort of thing, and is absolutely priceless to the good causes they support.

That level of snow is insane - stay safe all!

RIP Steven Hawking. I worked near Cambridge for about ten years during the 80's and used to see him out and about with his wife (the one he divorced in order to live with his nurse). Of course he was well known then, but not the mobbed famous he became in recent years, particularly after the movie. So people use to just walk by and think "Oh - there's Hawking". He'd lost control of his neck even then, so when he went over a curb his head would flop forward; so he'd stop and his wife would put it vertical again. He visited the Space Research Centre at Leicester University when I was doing a contract there about ten years ago. Unfortunately the lift was too small for his chair (!) - so he never managed to get up to see our work. Given his level of disability, it is a real wonder he lived to 76. But absolutely one of the greats. Again, RIP.

Editing because it turns out Stewart lost his hair at age 19, but used to wear toupees in many acting roles (pre Star Trek) - which he might well have done in TTSS.

For a rocker he still looks in good shape! Almost as good as me

Belated happy birthday - hope it was a great one!

^This. And that short animation about how badly we cope with snow in the UK is so very true!