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catscratch

High Rollers
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Posts posted by catscratch

  1. Man, this sucks. Looking at those pictures, you're really lucky to be alive. Right now, I think you need to focus on the positives, not the negatives, remember that the pain will pass, and most of all you need to do whatever you can to ensure the best long-term health for you and your daughter. As others have said, school isn't going anywhere, and there's no rush.

     

    Hang in there. I can only wish you both all the best.

  2. Gee, there's a big surprise. After pissing people off for years and getting away with it because nobody takes them seriously anymore, they finally stepped on one toe too many. That's what happens when your primary selling shtick is a mix of crude bumbling slapstick and caricature nationalist xenophobia. I'm gonna say they had it coming.

  3. Interested in seeing shots with the Art 50. So far from what I've seen I'm kinda leaning towards Kai's take on it, it seems absurdly sharp and is the perfect lens on paper but I haven't really liked the render all that much, though maybe it has been the photographer more than the lens in the images that I've seen thus far.

  4. So let's say you have a 007 Mk1 that you bought from KuboTen hell knows how long. Let's also say that it's going intermittent every once in a while in the right channel. What do you do as far as repairing it? Are Stax willing to work on a headphone like that? Last time I tried to get them to do something they told me to go to the local distributor, which in turn told me to go straight to Stax, and in the end nothing got done.

  5. A good first part to what seems like a promising special. Hopefully the second part will me more Top Gear and less caricature Top Gear. I guess after 21 seasons it's hard to do this shit with a straight face anymore, but so far this season was quite uneven.

  6. Quite an enjoyable episode. The first one was ridiculous, but this one was more like old Top Gear. Looking forward to the specials, and the lap times.

     

    On that note, the idea of a performance hybrid is quite an appealing one, since you can have an engine that's normally not suited for the street and make it everyday useable with an electric engine. Imagine something like a Subaru BRZ, with maybe a 1.3 liter motorcycle-derived engine that revs to 13000 rpm and an electric motor to fill out the torque curve. Sounds pretty good, to be honest, now they just need to make it affordable.

     

    The Alfa is very pretty, but the US-spec version will be bloated by hundreds of pounds and loses some of its lustre. That, and most people will buy a Cayman instead, anyway.

  7. Well, of course it's hyperbole. When is anything I post NOT hyperbole. And this time it isn't even MY hyperbole. Either way, before we devolve into a silly argument over who is faster (and I don't even know how to respond to "have you listened to any Slayer") check out the rest of the album, and not, you know, by far the slowest track which I just happened to link because I liked it.

  8. R-367770-1155128951.jpeg

    Absu - Tara.

     

     

    Fffffffffuuuuuuuuuu...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     

    Ok, so there probably won't be any takers here for this. It's about as fast, mean, heavy, and vicious as metal gets. One reviewer likened this band to Wolverine: "they're the best at what they do, but what they do isn't very nice." Another likened them to Slayer being played at double speed. I don't know how to describe what's going on here, but the drumming is simply amazing, the riffs are actually quite catchy at times, there are bagpipes for some reason, and the whole thing feels like a very meticulously crafted slab of extreme metal madness that I've quite enjoyed lately.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjPRKFi_oeQ

    Only for the brave.

  9. I'll echo the general sentiment of the thread in echoing the general sentiment of the article even if the execution could be better. At least it's an attempt at critical thinking by the community. Maybe success at critical thinking will come next, and who knows, maybe overpriced underengineered shit won't sell half as well in the future.

  10. AFAIK (I could be wrong)...

     

    The problem is impending fuel and emissions regulations, and developing the tech that meets those regulations. The regulations themselves are largely unrealistic, and every manufacturer is terrified at the amount of money they'll lose trying to meet them. That's why BMW is betting it all on the i3/i8, and that's why a lot of high-end manufacturers are trying to make exciting hybrids - you need to sell the idea of high-performance hybrids to the public and get people to start buying these cars, and of course pure electrics, or the requirements will never be met. Never mind that the actual mileage estimates for a lot of these cars are bollocks, that's not what this is about. It's about being able to fudge your numbers just enough, and making cars that are a bit more impractical an easier sell to the public, and about building up high-end lustre for something that a lot of the market doesn't want.

     

    There is one advantage to a performance hybrid - you don't need to worry about low-end torque. You can have an extremely oversquare high-revving engine optimized purely for high-end torque and make up for low-end deficiencies with the electric motor. This actually sounds a bit appealing, to be honest. Of course, the weight, cost, and complexity doesn't sound appealing at all.

     

    As far as PW. This sucks. His acting was questionable, but it seems like he was generally a good guy. Bummer. And, they were in a Carrera GT, so let's dispel any illusions of "safe speed" right off the bat. They probably were going bonkers and lost control, and the Carrera GT is notorious as a car that's very twitchy and very hard to control even in professional hands. Also, given that it's a carbon fiber tub, you'd have to be going pretty bloody fast to get killed in it in the first place.

  11. Either that's a comment on how US international pricing often equates the dollar with the euro/pound and screws the UK over, or that's just Top Gear being horrible to America again.

     

    That's ok, we fat, stupid Americans weren't going to pay for it anyway. Incidentally, it's a pretty good special.

  12. The headphone that interests me, although it's not closed, is the Oppo PM-1, mainly because Oppo strikes me as a no-nonsense company that can make a polished product at a good price, which these days is something of an exception. Tyll, if I may ask, have you heard the prototype?

  13. Reputation systems also come with their own set of issues, just implementing one doesn't easily fix the issue.

     

    To necro-reply to a slightly earlier post...

     

    Basically, this. Why on earth would you want a reputation system in a forum where the noise massively outweighs the signal? That just means the noise is going to get more reputation, and the signal less. And all those dipshits that milk the peanut gallery for so-called respect as reviewers are only going to be legitimized with a massive rep.

     

    For once - and I really can't believe I'm saying this - I agree with Jude.

     

    HF is fucked. It would be nice to ignore it, except that it is a driving force in the industry, scary as that sounds. That means blind leading the blind, and all sorts of shady MOTs rubbing their hands with glee. I wouldn't have a clue as to how to fix it now, that should have been done in 2007. Best we can do is keep on doing what we're doing already - well, what YOU are doing already.

     

    Just, uh, politely. Because when you criticize something with vitriol the content gets ignored because of the tone, and it doesn't help anybody.

  14. Yeah that's why I'm looking forward to it too. Though thinking twice about it and setting the new toy itch aside for a second - when you're dealing with 36mp, no aa, and a ff sensor, those vintage primes will probably start to show their age, especially in the corners. And having recently done some field comparisons between the Mk3 and D800e, I'm not sure that it's a night and day difference in the final image. Now, I think the D800e has a thinner aa filter instead of no aa filter, and it's an upgraded version of the sensor - but I also can't shake the thought that the smart money may be to stick with what I've got and get more fast glass instead.

     

    Regardless - Sony is keeping the market interesting. Canon sure isn't. I can't want to know more.

  15. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if it's an E mount, can't you use pretty much any Canon, Nikon, or what have you lens with an adapter on it? I would think that the advantage of this is the same as the Nex - infinite lens compatibility - except that this time, you don't have a crop factor to deal with.

     

    Either way, unless I'm very much mistaken, I'll get this and use all my existing Canon lenses with it, plus the nice array of vintage lenses we've been slowly building up. The plan is to compare it against the 5d Mk3 and see what I can live with, and keep what wins... or both.

  16. I did notice the honk with the SZ2 007, and I compared it side by side with the 71xxx 007. It's what killed the SZ2 for me, which otherwise was a capable headphone. If that honk is also present in the 009, then I'm pretty sure I'd prefer the 71xxx 007 too. On the other hand, I also feel that  007 is too polite and laid-back for its own good. So far I'm compensating for that with a very punchy source, but even with a BH the 007 is still not involving enough when paired with a lot of otherwise great sources.

     

    So I can kinda see both sides of the argument. Ideally, I'd want a phone that's more forward than the 007, but one that retains the warm mids and general sense of fluidity. Maybe the SR-Omega would be perfect, but given the current prices and the reliability issues, I'll hold off and stick with what I've got.

  17. Entheogenic - Anthropomorphic.

     

    It's nice to see Entheogenic return to form. They were one of the main psychill stalwarts back in the day and their first album is an absolute gem, but after two albums they stagnated and the inspiration seemed to run dry. Now, over a decade later, they're back with a darker, more focused sound, more energy, more intensity, and a lot more inspiration all-around. Of course, with DR6 the sound quality could be better, but considering what passes for electronic music production these days, even this is not bad.

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDFwKVv3qW4

  18. Dunno, but in his more recent solo shows he rather likes some of the 911s. Like anything Top Gear it's probably faked for laughs.

     

    Electric steering is awful in new BMWs, and if the 911 is anything like that, I can totally understand the hate. Driving the E90 335 back to back with the X3 is a pretty good demonstration on how to go nearly perfect steering - and then how to totally fuck it up. But then BMW has kinda been losing its marbles lately.

  19. Motor Trend also puts out some pretty good videos these days. Not everything they have is good, and I don't entirely trust their reviews - or their numbers - but Ignition is a pretty good review series and, of course, you also have Roadkill. That's a show with two super charismatic hosts and is basically what US Top Gear should have been. It's probably the best Top Gear-ish car show on the internet for car related around-dickery.

     

    Then you have Jay Leno's Garage. If you want to see a true temple to automotive worship, Leno's the man. Whatever you may think about his comedy, his car videos are a totally different animal. Leno has an incredible collection, is a knowledgeable automotive historian, and really lets his passion show forth. Again, it's mostly vintage cars and grey-haired old-guy stuff, and, well, I love all that.

     

    There are definitely quality car shows on the internet these days. And if you know any more, I'm all ears.

  20. Good episode and overall very good season. Even the nationalistic circle-jerk at the end wasn't too bad either.

     

    Also, Chris Harris is a legend and his videos are epic.

     

    As far as Top Gear faking stuff, it's pretty well known that even its lap times are often outright fabrications. Look up the whole Hawk Stratos debacle where the Stig was instructed to spin the car and recover on the test to make sure it finished last, and where the car was portrayed as breaking down all the time whereas in fact it was quite reliable.

     

    Top Gear has a very clear bias and an equally clear agenda. They're so popular that they haven't even bothered hiding it in years. I've said this before - I treat Top Gear like I would an old dog. It shits on your carpet and doesn't even remember its own name anymore, but somehow you've been with it so long that you can't quite bring yourself to kick it.

  21. Ok, I'll be honest... this episode was fucking brilliant. One of the best they've ever done. Normally, I don't like it when they go this far into the ridiculous, but hovervan was hilarious, and the Hugh Jackman interview was quite good too.

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