HeadphoneAddict

Interesting. We've been using a CalDigit USB 3.0 expresscard for our late-2008 Macbook Pro 15" for the past couple of years, and it seems to still be going strong. The expresscard slot has speed limits too, but it still seems to have doubled the speed over the built-in FW800 with the Seagate GoFlex portable HD (we have the USB 3 and the FW800 adapters for the drive). I'd still wish that the CalDigit had one FW800 port.

Took this last evening, right before I went to Apple to have my iPhone replaced after autofocus died a noisy death (camera lens sounded like angry bees)

That pisses me off, especially since it slipped in under the radar like this. It doesn't affect me much, but I stand up for the rights of content creators to not have their works exploited and robbed.

Sucks that people like that still exist these days. Sorry you have to deal with that crap, crappy.

I forgot about the 2009 CanJam in LA, where the number from the credit card I used at the event and hotel was lifted and used to make several $500 purchases at a Walmart in LA. My CC company didn't catch it at first because I'd used the card to buy 2 plane tickets and book the hotel in LA.

Okay, I'm in.

About 10 years ago someone got my CC number and used it over the thanksgiving holiday to rent a TV, buy a pizza, and get a hair style (staying right under the $500 felony amount). I discovered it while doing internet banking, and went investigating. She picked up the TV and Pizza so no address (used a fake), but the Pizza place knew her name. Got it confirmed at the hair style place, along with a phone number and did a reverse lookup, and gave everything to the police. She got arrested and I went to court to testify, but they did a plea deal of 5 years probation and drug rehab before I had to appear.

Happy Birthday!

Changed about 30 recurring monthly transactions from my stolen credit card number to another card that is rarely used anywhere, so it will be harder to steal. It was our mistake for using the same card in public as the card that pays for email, wireless data, satellite radio, netflix and everything else. Although the last card was fairly well guarded, here in Colorado at restaurants they do not bring a credit card terminal out to your table to pay for a meal, so any waiter or waitress has access to the card long enough to skim it. And I heard that some of the local gas stations had skimmers stacked onto the card readers, and my wife was using it to pay for gas. Someone actually made a new physical credit card with our data imprinted on it, and used it at the Sahara in Vegas. It wasn't some random person who just got the number, exp, and CCV2 and bought stuff online (although they did also buy an NBA live online subscription). I hope they catch the bastard.

Shelly, If your budget allowed you don't need portable I would say get a used pair of Denon D7000 (much better than D2000/5000). I'm curious, what did you not like about the ATH-A900 LTD? I thought they were a little better than a stock Denon D2000 when plaidplatypus brought his over for a mini-meet, although bass detail still wasn't the greatest. I own a pair of modified ATH-A900 but not LTD, which are modded with an SPC cable and internal felt dampening, and I still think my V-MODA M-100 bass is faster and better controlled. Plus the ATH-A900 mids are not nearly as engaging as the M-100, although the ATH-A900 has a little more treble presence. From what I recall, my modded ATH-A900 were very similar to plaidplatypus's LTD, but they are still not as smooth and relaxing as the V-MODA M-100. I haven't used the A900 or compared them to the M-100 in several months, so my memory of how the A900 sounds is fading. Maybe we feel the same way about the A900, not sucky but more "meh..." than wow. You could consider the Sony MDR-1 as Tyll suggested. I liked the Sony MDR-1 over the Momentum at RMAF, but they both seemed a little boosted in the bass like the M-100 while at the same time not sounding as smooth and relaxing. I really wish I had been able to spend more time with them when I had the chance. Then there is the V-MODA M-100. I did spend a lot of time with these at RMAF and I was happy to pay full price to buy the demo pair after I did a review. While I really enjoy my M-100, they aren't what I would call neutral either - however, they still remind me a little of an HD650 with a slight veil along with additional bass extension and impact. I find the M-100 to be very comfortable physically for long periods, and not fatiguing in their sound either. Some people would say the M-100 are slightly dark sounding, but I don't think they are any darker than an LCD-2 rev1. I'm listening to them right now with iPad 4 and Amanda Palmer Sings Popular Songs of Radiohead on her Magical Ukelele, and I'm very happy with the sound.

Yes, do what makes you happy and what feels right!

Personally I'd still get an Apple Airport Extreme, and then sprinkle the property with an Airport Express or two as network extenders if needed. But I hear that Apple is about to support a new faster standard than 801.11n 5Ghz soon, and so that might mean a hardware update soon. We have been able to cover the whole 5,000 sq foot 3-level house with just one Airport Extreme router in the upstairs loft, but it got worse when we moved the router to the basement. The speeds are a bit faster now at the far reaches of the house after adding an Airport Express as network extender, especially two floors away and at the other side of the house.

happy birthday!

Our prayers are with everyone affected by this cowardly attack. I was meeting with a thoracic surgeon in Denver when this happened, and didn't hear about it until an hour later on my way home with my wife. My first thought was of my own kids, since BU was my daughter's second choice college and if she'd attended school there she would have definitely wanted to be watching the marathon in person for her first time. Somehow, with as little as I trust the government for invading our privacy and rights, I thought we'd be prepared to prevent an attack like this (or Benghazi). I'm hoping we figure it out soon, and sick our Seal team Six on the MF'rs that did this. There is never a justification for attacks like this, and it only makes people fight back harder instead of giving up.

Tyler?

The Fifth Element (soundtrack)

Happy birthdays!

This is the Trent Charge pack I bought recently which seems to have a good balance between capacity and price plus features. It's got a folding AC plug and can charge two devices via USB at one time, with enough juice to charge a typical iPhone 5 almost 4 times. It's a similar size to my son's Zagg Sparq 3100, but with an extra port and double the juice, for $25 less than a new 3100 (which was $5 cheaper at the time because we got it Black Friday) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BBMW8EM/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Going home this afternoon on Omnicef and Zithromax antibiotics, and 60mg prednisone a day. Should be manic by the end of the week due to prednisone, unless that symptom was exacerbated in the past by one of my other meds. Good news is I've been off the Paxil since Feb 27 (5 weeks) with no adverse effects, so maybe no mania on steroids this time. My sleep apnea Dr thought Paxil would help energize me, but the Nuvigil helps more. I'll meet with surgeon in Denver later, but I'm not planning on surgery right now. They want him to get familiar with me, so when surgery becomes a last resort he won't be seeing me for the first time as a new patient emergency.

My diagnosis Adenovirus

Feeling a little better to follow up here. Still hospitalized, after being ill for 6 weeks. Since my last log in Thursday I've had two more bronchoscopy and spent 6 hours on a ventilator in the ICU, had an echocardiogram, a CAT Scan with pulmonary vein mapping, and 3 days of IV antibiotics and steroids. I've only coughed up old blood for the past 3 days, but nothing fresh. The CAT Scan shows that over the past 12 years the pulmonary veins went from 80% obstructed to 100% obstructed, so now the left lung isn't functioning at all. And now that the fibrosis in my chest has calcified the chances for successful surgery to remove the bad lung are much worse, because they can't tie off any blood vessels they cut. And I'd have certain heart damage because the fibrosing mediastinitis is encasing the pulmonary veins right up to where they join the heart. In 1998 they only gave me a 50% chance of surviving the surgery - I voted no but it actually would have been much easier back then. So, my surgical options are slim. If they embolize the bleeding high pressure bronchial arteries in the cath lab again it could cause severe ischemia or infarction in the bad lung, killing it but it's not safe to remove it. If I get to the point in the future where my lung is bleeding and won't stop, a heart lung transplant might be the only thing to keep me going. Life expectancy with lung transplants is about half that of a heart, but they might not offer me just the heart if I only have one good original lung to go with it. Regardless, if I made it this far without the surgery or more embolizations then I figure that maybe I can go on several more years, if I can avoid situations that make me bleed (too high altitude, or infections, too strenuous exercise). I'm not sure I feel comfortable taking the risk of any kind of surgery until they just can't stop the bleeding. I'll go home in a day or two, likely with outpatient IV antibiotics. But this episode has changed my outlook a bit. I'm quickly loosing my interest in spending time online to read forums. I'm so far behind on reading head-fi that I'll never catch up. I need to focus more on my health, the kid's college plans, time with family, and maybe a possible move to sea level. But we don't want to move while we have one kid in college at CU Boulder for the next 4 years. My wife has a great job here and if we move she needs a similar level of job for 7 more years until the last kid is done with college, because of my early retirement. She wants to travel more and see the world, but flying is troublesome for me because I have to rent oxygen every time, and still risk a pulmonary hemorrhage on the plane. So, maybe we'd sell the house for a giant motorhome...

Thanks everyone, got me all teary eyed. Back to napping...

In the hospital right now for pulmonary hemorrhage due to my fibrosing mediastinitis and pulmonary hypertension. May have to go to cath lab for bronchial artery embolization. Bronchoscopy doesn't look good, in recovery now. Need another bronchoscopy tomorrow under anesthesia before deciding. Prayers would be appreciated... On iPhone but may not have freq access.

Thanks everyone, I didn't get to post much here the past few weeks so I missed this. I've been sick for the past 5 weeks, but I felt a lot better in the four days surrounding my birthday so I got to go to a nice fondue place for dinner and the next day took my wife and daughter to a welcome reception for the daughter getting into CU Boulder, then watched the movie "Flight" together, and then got to go shooting with my son - "pew pew pew" love it. So overall a nice 3-day long break for birthday weekend before things got worse again. My big Bday present was a 500 round case of 147 grain 9mm Ranger Talon ammo and a 250 round case of double aught buck shot, although my wife would rather I wanted something normal like a wrist watch or a TV.