n_maher

Honestly, I'd strongly consider hiring a consultant. Otherwise you're just as likley to get bad results as good. But it also really depends on the level of expectation. Are we talking true isloation (which will require significant investment) or merely mitigation? In my life as a consulting structural engineer I had several experiences with clients wanting anything from mitigation to complete isolation. Migitation was generally desired by developers of multi-unit complexes where sound transmission (to suome degree) is acceptable but paper thing walls are not and I think this is where you're heading. The only person that I ever saw successfully implement isolation was Hughes-esque private masion that I'm quite sure is not what your friend is considering. To get an idea of where to start search for something like "STC rated assemblies" and have a look at this http://www.usg.com/rc/system-catalogs/acoustical-assemblies-en-SA200.pdf. Skip to the end where you can see some typical construction details. There is a minor tangential concern with how much weight you might potentially be adding to the first floor framing (basement ceiling) if you really go whole hog and start adding a bunch of shielding material.

I love Jeff's definition of cheaper.

Happy Birthday Colin!

Blech, Chris. Reminds me of the day I barely had enough time to squeeze in a ride and promptly had my chain skip the big cog and get lodged in my rear wheel. Fuuuuuuuuuu...

Happy Birthday, Steve!!

Happy Birthday!

That's certainly a doable budget with the right expectations. If you're looking at flat-bar/upright bikes then pretty much any decent hard tail MTB or city bike would be good directoin to go. The Jamis already mentioned seems nice. I would try to get to your LBS and at least sit on a few and see how they feel and get a good idea for sizing. If your not comfortable working on bikes I'd suggest just figuring (and including in your budget) on $50 to $100 for a good comprehensive tuneup if you end up purchasing a used ride. But really there's no reason not to buy used and hopefully get better value for your $$.

This.

Define inexpensive. $1000? $100? I think http://www.airbornebicycles.com/category/56-cyclocross-cx.aspx would be a great urban assault vehicle.

5>4 therefore 5. Simple math.

Happy Birthday!

Bwaaahahahahaha!

Take a picture of how you have it mounted. It took a couple of tries to get mine to work but eventually it worked just fine. Now, I can't get the cadence sensor to work because there's too much offset between the crank arm and the receiver but that's a different issue.

For those that might not frequent the DIY forum the Mafia gained a (new/old/reluctant) member last night.

I happened to be reading the Head-Fi DIY forum today for the first time in probably a month or more and came across a thread that pointed at Par-Metals site. The short of it is there appears to have been a semi-catestrophic fire at Par-Metals office/warehouse at the end of January which has currently halted all production of enclosures. I checked Antec's site (the one I actually care about) and they are very limited in what they have as of 2/4 but are saying that they'll be restocked in one to two months. Anyway, just figured I'd give folks a heads up. I can work around the delay on for my project so it's no big deal.

Yeah, that sounds like what I'm seeing. Pretty strange...

Hugh, so my ipad now refuses to show embedded YouTube video content on multiple sites. Wtf?

So, my ipad updated tonight and in so doing basically forced me into calling apple to try to resolve my ID issues. After a maddening half hour on the phone I'm fucked. My primary email address is associated with another apple ID. My secondary email address is associated with another apple ID. So their solution is for me to create a new email address to use as my apple ID. What the fuck? I asked if they could delete the account that uses my email address that I haven't used since I pitched my iphone 3 years ago. No, no one, not even apple can delete an apple id or even sever the relationship between an email address and an account. What a bunch of fucking useless people. So I think I'll sell the ipad.

Wow, Jeff, just wow!

Easy 2' here with drifts well over 3' and probably approaching 4'. Took 2-1/2 hrs to snow blow the driveway which might be a record.

It's still snowing quite hard here, I'd guess we've gotten between 16 and 20" or so but like everyone else the drifting is crazy. My car has been nearly swallowed whole. The worst of it is supposed to be over by 2pm so it'll be an interesting afternoon of trying to clear the driveway.

6 to 8" already and we aren't even at the height of it yet. Pics and maybe video tomorrow.

Very cool, Justin. I hope it works out.

Happy Birthday, Jeff!