Dusty Chalk

Russian Diver, looks like I don't think I have an 8.5" wrist, but like I said, I'm certainly used to at this point wearing a 47mm watch.

@laxx -- I thought the Nook was color? I probably won't. I have paid for exactly one book so far, but have to admit to feeling ripped off without a physical analog -- it should easily be cheaper than any other format of the same book, since there's no physical media, no shipping, no handling, and no damaged returns.

What big orange watch? I remember you posting when you got it (now that you've brought it up again), but forgot about it when I saw the new big orange Invicta Reserve Subaqua Venom (quartz, unfortunately) recently. It was reminding me of something, but couldn't remember what, now I remember.

No it's not -- why is it stupid if it means "grand", Mr. Panties-in-a-knot?

Alright, so the two hots go to L/R +; ground gets split and sent to L/R - of the drivers. Right so far? On the amp side of the same sitch, where does L/R - go? Unterminated? Loaded? Switched-in-loads? Switch out those half of the amps (so that they don't present some weird load, and yet are green and don't consume power at the same time)? The case I am discussing is the unreterminated single-ended headphones discussed earlier.

No, I don't think he means that, since he's talking about a 5-pin jack -- he'd have to do that anyway.

Sucks, but you should still be able to steal most everything from the mass market codger. That was effectively the second half of my first paragraph in my previous post.

He was just cross-posting it for those of us who didn't read that. Yeah, that's the ticket.

You mean, three-connector, right? Because all dynamic headphones are two single-ended drivers. It's just a matter of how easy it is to access that point where the 3 wires become 4, right? I agree with "provide a separate jack" for those.

I would just assume it doesn't, and budget in a new power supply with the card. That's probably one of the easiest things in the computer to replace. Well, unless it doesn't fit in the case, in which case you'll need a new case, too, and then it becomes one of the hardest, only because you then have to move friggin' everying to the other case. Recommendation: go modular on the power supply. Me, personally, am going to go with the new Radeons.

I have to admit, I was thinking Aye-talian, also, but that's because I'm a musician. I do not think Al is a dumbass, but I have to admit to not knowing if he was serious or not.

Yeah, what are you doing with the 5 connections? I understand 4 of them: +/- L/R, but the 5th one eludes me. I'm with grawk -- 4-pin, a la AKG K1000.

TOL @ "God Hates Flags."

Since people have essentially rebuilt the M-Audio Sonica/Transit, one could mod that for the BNC jack, couldn't one? Does the Oppo BDP-83-SE count? It doesn't have the Sabre DAC in it, but it does have another one. (Um, right?)

Yeah, good ol' PBS. Castle -- finished reading Heat Wave, so caught up on the latest episode. One of the other things I liked about the book (in addition to all of the similarities it had to the show) was the dissimilarities it had with the show -- it really stands like the book he would have written, not just another episode of the show.

Yeah, contact that guy, he has a spare piece that's square that ought to just fit.

They're welcome to try. To 'They' -- I like Asians and redheads. (wink wink, nudge nudge)

Just got up, about to go shovel.

That's about where to stop.

Stephenson's Snow Crash, definitely. One of the few books I've read multiple times. Ditto Diamond Age -- fantastic book. Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead/Xenocide/Children of the Mind and the shadow series: Ender's Shadow/Shadow of the Hegemon/Shadow Puppets/Shadow of the Giant. It is my understanding that this series has continued, but those are the only 8 I've read. Tolkien, obviously. (Did you really read the entire Dune series? It kind of went off into never-never land towards the end.) If you want some serious angst, Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, and the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I actually preferred this to Tolkien, but I enjoy angsty. I wept openly during sections of these books. Surprisingly good was the Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko -- Night Watch; Day Watch; Twilight Watch (sometimes called Dusk Watch); Final Watch (sometimes called Last Watch) -- vampires and wizards and shit. I actually don't "get" Gibson, so my favorite book by him is Pattern Recognition, but Neuromancer (from the aforementioned Sprawl trilogy) is considered by many to have set the template for "cyberpunk". That said -- Difference Engine (steampunk blueprint) and the short story collection Burning Chrome are probably a good place to start. (I think "Dogfight" is one of his best.) I think steampunk will appeal to you. If cyberpunk appeals to you at all (Snowcrash), check out the short story collection, "Mirrorshades" -- it ended up turning me on to a lot of authors. Gaiman -- Neverwhere is outstanding. And if you want a funny, Good Omens, with Terry Pratchett. Heinlein -- Stranger in a Strange Land & Stormship Troopers are classics. Niven & Pournelle used to be my favorite sci-fi writing act -- Mote in God's Eye, Inferno, Lucifer's Hammer, Oath of Fealty, Footfall, and Legacy of Heorot were about as far as I got. Niven alone wrote some pretty interesting work, too: Ringworld is pretty great. Then there's the entire Tales of Known Space continuum. More wizards and shit: Roger Zelazny -- my first favorite author. Lord of Light, and then if you like that, the first Amber series. Another one that does short stories well. Asimov -- well, you gotta do I, Robot. That's where a lot of it started.

I vaguely remember drooling over reading a review of it over a year ago. I omnis.

This, coming from someone who prides himself on not knowing the weather more than 4 hours in advance.

I have to admit that the last episode had something about it that I didn't like either -- not sure it was "rushed", but not sure it wasn't, neither. It did have some (but not all) of the low-budget-ness of Epitaph 1. And it tried too hard to tie up too many loose ends. Didn't need to go the other direction, but they could have left off some of them. IMHO, the show ended with the previous episode. I agree with Thrice that Whedon's pacing is better when he's in for the long haul. Some of the developments over the last several episodes did seem rushed, like he was trying to squeeze an entire season's story arc in 4 shows. That said, I think one of the weaknesses of the show, overall, was the fact that many of the main characters weren't supposed to have a personality, sort of. I.E. Echo. That's just hamstringing yourself from the get-go.

No, it sounded like you described three different connections: digital audio out from PC into Azur 740C analog-ly into 640R; digital audio out from PC into 640R; and then in your second paragraph, something about the DacMagic. (Which is also where you use the word, "vastly", BTW.) So you didn't actually listen to the DacMagic in either of these scenarios? Actually, that smells right -- I think you mentioned that earlier, and from your other response, I get that second paragraph was based on the email exchange. And no, it doesn't really surprise me that the Cambridge Audio doesn't redigitize the signal. Good on them. I am kind of surprised that the digital connection is inferior to the analog connection, though.

Sweet.