TMoney

I thought S4 was much better than advertised as well. A lot of reviewers trashed it, but it pleasantly exceeded my low expectations.

The MAVEN Launch on the NASA U-Stream Channel on my second monitor at work. T-Minus 20 minutes remaining!

So for anyone who has an iPad and plays battlefield 4, download the battlefield app for iOS. I have to say, I'm seriously impressed. It's my first real experience with a "second screen" app and man oh man is it cool to have the iPad displaying the real-time map while you are playing battlefield. I also dl'ed the some of the Comcast apps. I hate Comcast as much as the next man, but their apps are pretty damn cool. The TV guide app works great, and the Live TV app is nice too, though the live-tv channel selection is pretty limited right now. All in all, there are some very cool apps out there. I didn't think there was anything to the "second screen" movement until I tried it for myself. Now I'm hooked.

Some of it I agree with. Some of it I do not. In particular I completely disagree with his treatment and criticism of California's "Three Strikes" Law. Its decent, but I would not say it is one of Gladwell's best reads by any means.

I am impressed with the lack of overlap between peoples picks. I don't know whether to be surprised by this or not. Pink Floyd and Opeth are pretty much the only bands that show up on multiple lists. In any case, I can't wait to start tracking down albums on everyones top 5's and give them a listen.

Alright, I'll give this a shot. Like everyone before me has said, this was a very hard list to pick. There are so many bands I absolutely love that just don't have that one standout album that you'd really go for. Likewise, there are some albums with terrific songs on them that might not burn at that supernova intensity the entire way though. In any case, leave me one a deserted island with these five discs and I'll die happy. I have a bit more of a pop music bent that some of the lists that have gone before. (In no particular order). Fleetwood Mac - Rumours [1977] - The best pop album ever? Brilliant songwriting/musicianship/production the entire way through. Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St. [1972] - The best rock album ever? IMO this is the best album to come out of the 'Stones brilliant period with Mic Taylor. Love it. Not a bad track on the album. Miles Davis and Gil Evans - Porgy and Bess [1959] - An irrational choice perhaps, but this is my all time favorite jazz album. Maybe its because it has Davis and Evans reinterpreting Gershwin? Its a brilliant album that, like all the albums on this list, moves me every time I hear it. Paul Simon - Graceland [1986] - As a songwriter, Simon has incredible honesty and vulnerability that really give his songs beauty. Mix that with some incredibly talented African musicians and some amazing studio production work and you have magic. And, last, but not least, Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life [1976] - Stevie's voice is a gift from up above. Its a very tough call between this album and Inversions but I ultimately chose this one. IMO this is his magnum opus.

Lighter? Sure. Faster? Debatable. Huge $? You bet. I know a few people on the yearly Apple upgrade cadence and I'm trying to understand it. Yeah, you get the new shiny, but damn if it isn't expensive as all hell.

^ Wait, you bought the fully decked out iPad Air when you already had an iPad 4 with LTE? Why not just get a macbook pro at that point?

Having owned both, I think the iOS7 redesign is generally a good thing, though there are some notable sore spots, especially the calendar app on the phone. I hate that thing. Also the safari icon is quite the eye sore. That being said, I couldn't imagine downgrading back to iOS6 at this point. The biggest different in the platforms, to me, is the developer/app support. Both sides are great for checking email, watching netflix and youtube, and surfing the web. But I draw the line there. The (non-google) apps on the apple side are just plain better. Maybe it is the fact that they only have to design apps for a few specific display resolutions/hardware skus that leads to a much more polished and coherent design interface on the apple side? Whatever it is, the difference is startling.

I went to the Apple store today to compare the size of the new Air to the mini. I was thinking there was no way in hell I'd walk out of there prefering the Air. I was wrong. Coming from the retina-pad (3rd gen aka the heavy one) the reduction of weight is nothing short of stunning. The 3rd gen ipad just had to have so much battery to power that retina screen. The weight of it didnt seem that bad at the time but one-handing the thing got old fast. The Anandtech review talked about the reduction in weight being similar to the feeling you got going from the iphone 4 to the iphone 5. I totally agree with that assessment. I didn't really like how wide the mini was for one handed use. I can easily get my hand around the Nexus 7, but the mini just seemed a little too wide for holding that way. I figured as long as I couldn't really get a hand around the thing why not just go for the big one? After all, at arms length the Air is considerably easier to read. After playing around with the Air a little more I decided to go with it rather than wait for the retina-mini and I'm now the proud owner of a black 32gb wifi. I'm really happy with it. The Nexus 7 will be going up for sale this weekend.

Just finished Carl Sagan's Cosmos in anticipation of the remake of the TV Series next year with Neil DG-T. IMO the original Cosmos series was probably the best thing PBS has ever aired. It is a masterpiece. Sagan is a bona-fide genius, and a very good writer to boot. He is excellent at explaining some very complex topics and through his organization he keeps you from getting lost. Its also amazing how much his personal politics/philosophy comes through even more in the book than it did in the TV series. He can be a bit heavy handed at times, but he is ultimately right. The most fun part of the book that didn't make the TV Series? The reductio proof in the appendix showing that the square root of two is an irrational number. I literally broke out a sheet of paper and worked it out for myself along with the book. It brought me back to my undergrad days of having to demonstrate proofs up at the board. Good stuff. Next up is either the sequel to Game Change about the 2012 election or the new Malcolm Gladwell.

Great list, Dusty! I'd really have to sit down with a deck of notecards with album names written on them to pick and choose a top 5. Maybe an activity for the weekend.

I sat next to Lou at a Restaurant in the West Village about a year and a half ago. I didn't want to bother him, as I figured there was nothing I would say to him that he hadn't heard from other fans a million times before. Its sad to see that he is gone.

Fix? Of course not. Step in the right direction?

I've always thought what head-fi needed to solve some of these issues was a reputation system, ideally with a way to upvote/downvote posts. I've told this to Jude personally at meets, but I don't think he was all that keen on the idea. Also it'd be nice if reputation in certain forums like the DIY thread and the Summit-Fi thread were weighted much more heavily as opposed to the budget/joke/lifestyle threads to help distinguish who knows what the heck they are talking about from those who don't.

FWIW I find it somewhat difficult to read comics on my 7" Nexus 7 (which will be sold when the new mini comes). If you view panel by panel it looks great, but at times when viewing entire pages of panels the smaller text can be a pain to read. I like to play board games on iOS and I'm hoping the mini wont be too small for that. We shall see. Still, in using a similarly sized Nexus 7 for the past few months I will say the smaller size is very nice, especially if you already have a suitable laptop. Once I got the Nexus 7 I sold my full sized retina-pad. It won't be the case for everyone, but for me the 7-8" size is just right.

I'm pretty excited about the retina mini. With the A7 it should be a big upgrade both in form factor and performance from the 3rd Gen Retina-pad I am upgrading from. Gotta hand it to apple on their updates to the big ipad too. While some thought they might launch it with some sort of A7x chip with extreme performance, they took the alternate route and decided to chop down the thickness and weight (presumably by chopping down the battery). This was probably the right move. I'm a bit surprised to see that we don't have gold versions of the ipads like with the 5s. After all, we all know that gold is best.

I have the exact same problem running multi-monitor. The dock just does not want to come up unless you give it some effort. When I unplug the second monitor it goes back to normal. My guess is it is just a bug.

As if there wasn't already enough reason to be impressed by Adrian Peterson I can't believe he is actually going to play today after experiencing the death of his two year old from abuse by his baby's mother's boyfriend. Truly impressive, Mr. Peterson. I don't know how I'd even get out of bed, let alone play a football game.

Congrats on the build. Everything looks good except that AMD gfx card in there. #teamgreen Kidding, of course. Your machine should smoke all games short of Crysis 3 and Arma 3 at 1080p. Plug it in to the TV and you have a PS5/XboxTwo.

I had a feeling after the first Sonny Gray/Verlander matchup that the winner of the Detroit-Oakland series was going to win it all. I still feel that way.

I lived in SD for three years while I attended law school at USD so I'm pretty familiar with the place. The zoo can easily turn in to an all day affair. I would plan on at least 3 hours there. Its quite impressive, and, like all things in San Diego, its just nice to be outside. As far as things to do I highly recommend just walking around downtown in the gaslamp district. Its very neat, and you can always cut over a few blocks and walk along the waterfront. Start down by the ballpark (Petco Park) and work your way up. Also, if you have time, drive the 15 minutes up to La Jolla to walk around or to grab dinner. Its absolutely beautiful and worth the trip. There are some nice restaurants where you can eat and overlook the ocean. If you are looking for Mexican food, check out Old Town. It is kind of touristy, but the locals actually go down there to eat just as much as the tourists.

Spritzer is selling a KGSS IIRC.

^ Potential mini-meet opportunity? They do have a website but it just has the same "upcoming events" over and over again so I have no idea. http://www.coltranechurch.org/

Out of curiosity, Voltron, as a fellow Bay Area resident have you ever been to the Church of St. Coltrane? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_coltrane#Religious_figure