Dusty Chalk

Noise floor? I don't know.

Yeah, room treatments, definitely. Good power conditioning is maybe -- there have been some inadequate power conditioners that end up stifling the amp draw on heavy amp draw things like amps. But like DigiPete said, it will help if your original power is dirty. Only way to tell is to try it with and without (AFAIK).

High On Fire are fun, almost like a Black Sabbath tribute band doing original material. Cheese factor is kind of high, but you'll have to let me know if that carries over live.

I like the faux-4AD cover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJSEHouoHK0

"Don't do it yourself" is not necessarily the same thing as "send it in". I don't know about Hirsch, but even I would suggest finding someone else if you don't know what you are doing. And by someone else, I mean someone other than Mikhail.

Gai Gra Tiem Phrik Tai from Pilin nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom...

Next time, find a male colleague and give them to him. Preferably the janitor or intern or someone else who has no idea what they're doing.

I know I would hate it if Kevin claimed "massive bullshit" if I was just trying to offer some helpful safety advice -- it had nothing to do with Singlepower, Hirsch was speaking about tube amps in general. I'd tell him to fuck off, too. He's a man, he can take it.

Two separate questions: What are the best choices for ergonomic keyboards? What are the best choices for trackballs?

(shakes head with palm in the general vicinity of the face, while trying to suppress a smirk)

What? I got that from you.

That's what they got for not wearing their sunglasses at night.

'To ground' only works if you leave it plugged in, no?

I emailed them right after that post, we'll see if I get a response.

I got an email from the band (I'm on their mailing list) -- it didn't say anything about an entrance fee. There's this (see top entry) and this (I didn't see anything about an entrance fee). Sorry, that's all I've got.

Anyone in LA going to the Stripmall Architecture even this Saturday? Apparently they're going to be selling an exclusive CD at the event which I would very much want. If someone wants to pick an extra one up for me, I would gladly pay for it + shipping/handling + a little extra for your efforts for me.

Can you cite your source for that? I'm skeptical.

Any idea how much the 32G are?

What's the best way to rip audio tracks from a DVD? Windows, Linux, Mac? The bonus tracks from my Depeche Mode DVD's are a pain since they're region ...whatever Europe is, but I'd like to have access to them, since some of my favorite tracks are there.

I haven't seen anything that requires the old iPhone users to upgrade their plan. It's only when you buy the new iPhone...but now that you mention it, I have no idea what iTunes is going to do if you were to give it an uninitialized old gen iPhone when you go through the activation process...

So with the free updates, wouldn't it be cheaper to get a used iPhone 1st gen.?

Absolutely not a deal killer. Again, he's just trying to make more money from you (and you're correct in recognizing that he should have brought it up before now). Just buy some racquetball balls and cut them in half. When you can afford them, go back and buy some brass cones, and decide which you like better -- it's that whole coupling vs. decoupling argument all over again. If you have something ultra-solid, you want to couple to that, otherwise you want to decouple (oversimplified, and IMHO). Decoupling will almost always help (unless you happen to already have had a very nicely coupled setup), hence why I recommend the racquetball balls.

I think you're confusing soundcards with video cards. While this is certainly true of video cards, it's a lot less true of soundcards. If my understanding is correct, the only offloading to soundcards that the computer does is the settings at the driver. (E.G. 'TruSurround', on my M-Audio Sonica, can be turned on and off by the Sonica Control Panel, but there's zero awareness by any other audio application that this is going on.)