Knuckledragger

This is probably longer than the average Slow viewer wants to sit through: I'd like to report a murder. No, not that one.

Oh snap. Titan Quest Anniversary Edition is currently free on Steam(!) I sunk 100s of hours into the original version of this game in another lifetime. It's a fantastic hack n slash loot grinder. Definitely worth both the price of "as in beer" and your time: https://store.steampowered.com/app/475150/Titan_Quest_Anniversary_Edition/

Holy crap. I have waxed poetic about the golden era of Eat Static many times, especially on my radio show. The period from 1993-1995 when they had Steve Everitt working with them in the studio resulted in the best music they ever made. 'Static has been a Merv Pepler solo project for years now, and he occasionally strikes musical gold but it's never quite like the classic era. I have just about all of Eat Static's material on CD and/or vinyl. If I live long enough, I'll eventually get around to writing reviews of their better material. One thing I have never bothered to get is the PAL-only VHS tape they released in 1994. There was a time in the late 90s when I worked for an institution of higher learning where I had access to world format conversion decks (these things were insanely expensive, like $3500 in 1999 dollars) and could dupe tapes to my heart's content. Of course at that point, Discogs did not exist, eBay was in its infancy and I had no way to get the tape. It's now on YouTube in its entirety and ...it's okay. The video effects are amusing, but very dated. They're little more than fodder for a 1990s rave "acid wall" of TV sets. Weirdly, there are a handful of exclusive track on that video tape that have never been released elsewhere. This is odd as Eat Static have put out a number of anthologies over the years. I happened to look at Eat Static's social media for the first time in months, and discovered something amazing. They're re-releasing Abduction and Implant both as 3CD sets. They're ...expensive. 19GBP each + shipping form the UK (translates to "oww, my arse!") https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/eat-static-abduction-3cd/ https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/eat-static-implant-3cd/ Across the 4 bonus CDs on these pair of 3CD sets are just about all of the Everitt-era Eat Static, including the tracks from the Intrusion VHS (which, as I said, have never been released in another form.) I have everything except the Intrusion stuff, though I have never seen the remixes from the Gulf Breeze EP released in a digital form before. I have the original vinyl of course and FLACs of someone's needle drop that I got off slsk ages ago. The packaging on these sets is glorious. It reminds me of riding my bike in 1994 or so, to the local Media Play record store which had a weirdly good electronic music section. There I got Implant, Abduction and the US pressing of Epsylon with the bonus tracks from the Lost in Time EP. I'm not entirely sure HOW, but I am going to get both of these re-releases. Warning, copious porn below:

You know what is the definition of "damning with faint praise?" "I like Apple more than Epic."

Live right now:

I can live without a laptop until the new ones drop. I can live without a laptop until the new ones drop. I can live without a laptop until the new ones drop.

Hey guys, let's thread necro! At this juncture I can say I'm quite happy with BackBlaze and plan on extending my subscription shortly. Their backup widget for MacOS has a small footprint and is reasonably configurable. The only real issue I've had is that it's impossible (as best I can determine) to back up my Time Machine images.

This segment may prove to be prophetically relevant in the future.

I'm going to exhume by dormant HF account and post a comment saying that having experienced a JR Audio amp, I deem it to be equal in every way to a ca. 2008 McAlister product.

This is pretty fricken cool.

I'm actually typing to you on a PC now, which I built in late 2013. It has a newer GPU (8GB RX 580, which was supposed to be a stop gap) but other than storage is unchanged in 8 years. It was my plan to build a new machine Real Soon Now but the GPU (and high end CPU) market continues to get worse, no better. Also Windows is a horrid OS for anything other than video games. I have neither the skills nor inclination to run Linux. That leaves MacOS. While I could write a book on what I dislike about Apple in the modern era, their computer OS is really the only option if I want to get shit done. I DJ on MacOS. I edit photos on MacOS. I hoard terabytes of data (mostly FLACs and photos) on MacOS. As I have mentioned before, I am an old man with freakishly large hands and increasingly bad eyesight. I don't use smartphones anymore than I have to. The way the younger generation is "connected" with their mobile devices, I am similarly with a laptop. Part of the Apple Tax(tm) is accepting that one is buying a multi thousand dollar device that is essentially disposable.

As I mentioned in the broadcast thread, my laptop (which has been giving warning signs of going south for a while now) is stuck in a boot loop. I've been doing research on what precisely to replace it with and I have come to the conclusion that right now is a crap time to try to buy a new Macintop. The 13" MBP (too small for my freakishly large hands) is nearly 300 days old, and due for a refresh. The 16" is 650 days old and comically overdue. I've looked at Apple's refurb stock and it's underwhelming. Similarly, MacSales (OWC) has what can charitably be described as a picked over selection. Trying to buy a Mac laptop in 2021 is like trying to buy a GPU.

This may have been posted elsewhere, I dunno.

Since I pay for the Bozos Space Fund, I have access to AMZN Prime Video and sometimes avail myself of it. I watched a documentary on the late Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones a few nights ago. Prime Video's suggestion algorithm is hilarious, especially compared to the "we track your every move" nature of YouTube and Google. It suggested season 4 of The Grand Tour, which is the, ahem, spiritual successor to Top Gear. In spite of the fact that I find Jeremy Clarkson to be one of the most loathsome people in the history of humans (or things that are loathsome) I watched the first episode. It's quite well produced as one would expect. Apparently Prime has the first for seasons.

Macintop is stuck in a loop where it won't full boot. Probability of a radio show tonight very low. Weekend is going to be "interesting" in the sense of the Chinese curse.

"Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage! " In the words of the late, great Bill Hicks does anyone not know where this is going?

I did not sign up for this.

Saints Row the Third remaster is free on EGS until Sept 2nd, which is about what it's worth.

This is a bit of an odd one. Anyone who has listened to my radio show knows I'm not a huge fan of psytrance. With that said, I'm sad to find out about the passing of Olli Wisdom. He recorded a mass of albums and performed live as Space Tribe. In the early 80s Olli was part of the goth rock band Specimen and ran the Batcave nightclub. The club released a couple cassettes including one by the infamous industrial and proto power electronics act Whitehouse. Olli got in early on the UK acid house revolutions (which took place when he was the tender age of ...30) and was active as a DJ since the early 90s. I never met him, but I was aware of his presence and music for a good 25 years. In a scene full of revered egos and people with vastly inflated senses of self-importance, Olli was a very down to earth greatly respected individual. He was quite a character, too. There was a time when I'd have thought 63 was ancient and a ripe old age. Now it's "ulp, that's not that far off is it?"

This post will not make much sense. There's a regular in my group of gaming friends who goes by Redeko. Naturally, I always refer to him as "Dorko," usually in the same intonation as David Lee Roth saying "Sit down, Waldo." One of the many idiot behaviors I get up to with said gaming group is making memes that are so many layers of in-jokes even the subjects themselves don't entirely understand them. Redeko works at a sandwich shop, owns an RE-20 microphone, and recently bought a new car and a 4K webcam (because those are a thing now.) I memes I usually represent him as a sandwich, because of his job: One of the other MicS members has been harping on the fact that Redeko IRL looks like a SoundCloud rapper named Yung Gravy and I should use him instead of a sandwich to represent Dorko: After completing the above two 'Shops, I made the mistaking of listening to a Yung Gravy song. The track that made him famous, in fact: It's not just that I'm old. Your music is BAD. I had to dig up one of my favorite hip hop songs of all time just to feel okay again. I am biased by having been exactly at the right age in 1991, but this is an entire genre and subculture peaking in one track.

Test Tone @ Home live right now: https://mixlr.com/illuminator/