Craig Sawyers

I've heard the YG Anats at length in an ex-friend's home. They sounded stunning.

Jeeze RIP Gord

I copied this to my brother in law. He said "I actually witnessed a guy try this on a Stag Day I was co-hosting a couple of years ago (yes, in Denmark they last all day and all night). We were on Islands Brygge esplanade in the middle of a wonderful, warm, sunny and surprisingly dry afternoon and it “seemed like a good idea at the time”. Two major flaws in his plan, though. 1. He used an espadrille instead of a shoe and 2. He tried to get the cork out in one huge hit. Result? Smashed bottle of wine + glass embedded in espadrille inner sole lining = dickhead goes barefoot all day + no wine until a visit to a local shop"

Wow - well done digging that out! I'd lost track of the years that had passed since I built my T2

Cats have simple rules. Meow cuddle me. Meow let me out. Meow feed me. And that is about the limit of their vocabulary and needs. The 3am madness seems to stop once they get a bit older - at least that was the case with ours. Granted there is another level of dialog comprising purrs and chirps, and a particular type of meow which means "I've caught something, and I want to bring it inside and give it to you"; as if we need yet another mangled rodent or frog.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

Wow - you go away for a week or two and there is so much to catch up with! California burns. Bloody hell, what a mess. So many dead, so much destruction. Cats, Jacob? What prompted that? I'd have thought you were a dog person. We got our two back from the cattery after our time away and they are going though the cycle "I want to be out, I want to be in, I want to be out...." repeat maybe ten times until they settle back in. Here, the remains of hurricane Ophelia came across the Atlantic and went mainly through Ireland and Scotland yesterday. 100mph wind. Three dead and widespread damage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41627442 . A bit gusty where we live, but we are 400 miles South of the route, so we're OK.

For some reason that reminded me of this http://www.darwinawards.com/legends/legends1998-10.html

Happy birthday!

Have a great one Steve!

This is mine. Looks kind of funky by comparison with the mega-chairs on this list - but there was a reason for choosing it. First off, it is comfortable - it supports your lower back and fits like you are being hugged. Second it is easy to move out into the listenening position from where it sits out of the way (where it is when I just took this photo. And finally, and most importantly, it puts your head in the air, with no obstruction behind your ears. So you don't have the back of a chair behind your ears modifying the acoustics.

Happy birthday!

RIP Petrov - the man whose calm action saved us all from Armageddon. Another cold war movie worth watching is By Dawn's Early Light.

I note they don't mention how much the whole process costs. Darned impressive though.

Deep fried in Beijing. Crunch crunch.

Oooh - a Wall reference

Happy birthday - you have a great day, and forget about the diet for 24 hours!

Yeah - RIP Mr Stanton. Another one, which won't be commonly known, is Nikolaas Bloembergen. He was one of the pioneers of non-linear optics, which was one of the topics of my research degree. In fact he was one of three recipients of the Nobel prize for Physics in 1981. I'd kind of lost track of the years, because he got to the fine old age of 97 (which means that he was younger than I am now when I was at University; which is very sobering). http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2017/sep/12/laser-spectroscopy-pioneer-nicolaas-bloembergen-dies-at-97

Happy birthday! Have a great one.

That is just as shocking now as it was when it originally happened. I was working in London at University College when the Prof came in and said "one of my old students, living now in New York has just emailed - planes have crashed into the twin towers and one has collapsed; I thought it was a bad joke, until I checked on the web". No more work got done. All the the business tower blocks in London were evacuated in case we were a target too (given our close ties to the US). As I traveled home, there was total silence on the underground - everyone was kind of in shock about what was happening in New York (and the attack on the Pentagon, and Flight 93). I'd lost track of the fact that it was 16 years ago.

Where our daughter lives in Australia, the really common big one is the Golden Orb Weaver. Non poisonous (although they can give you a nip), but a big bugger with a body length (not including legs) of 5cm. They keep to the forest floor during day, and come out at night and spin their webs across forest paths in serious quantity - so walking at night can be an "adventure"!

Acetate failure - must remember that The casework also runs stinking hot. The four EL34's for each channel are horizontal between a slotted bottom panel and a perforated cage. I thermocoupled the cage - 80C (175F) and easy enough to be hazardous. This particular amp was only made for two years because the failure rate was so high that many did not even get out of the factory without needing their first repair. The only reason the guy had this amp was Anthony Michaelson gave him it (he'd done that industrial appearance design for Michaelson; although the electronic design is marginal to say the least, it does look good)

Not really relevant to the thread, but kinda related to old circuit boards. I was recently fixing a friend of a friend's Michaelson Odysseus power amp - which had a single sided board. Apart from a new set of EL34's I noticed a power resistor that would wobble if poked it. Turned the board upside down, and this is the horror story I found. Lots of thermally marginal parts too close to the board, resulting in toasted board, and multiple levels of repair by others. Needed two 47 ohm power resistors one of which was O/C, and both of which were 2.5W parts dissipating 3W. Replaced them with 7W jobbies.