Something Random

Handruin

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Hmmm...Sure looks comfortable for a light person, but I'm ~200lbs and I wouldn't feel safe sitting on that chair. How much weight is it rated for?

It'll hold you. I weigh more than you and it has no issues with me. It may look like it's a fragile chair, but it's quite strong and well-tested.

Quoting from IKEA:
"The frame withstands weights up to 375 lbs."
 

LunarMist

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Blackened Friday. In days gone by I would buy HDDs then. Is anything worth a damn this year?
 

ddrueding

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At the Crown Plaza next to LAX. Dropping my mother in law off tomorrow morning. This is a nice place, but charging $11/ day for WiFi is dumb.
 

Handruin

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Blackened Friday. In days gone by I would buy HDDs then. Is anything worth a damn this year?

I haven't even been bothered to look for deals this year. From what I hear, the Best Buy near where I live will complicate the black Friday matter by offering a huge projection screen outside playing Harry Potter. Like it won't be a cluster fuck of consumer-grabbing people without the odd spectacle of playing a movie in the shopping center's parking lot. :roll:
 

Handruin

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At the Crown Plaza next to LAX. Dropping my mother in law off tomorrow morning. This is a nice place, but charging $11/ day for WiFi is dumb.

That is a lot for WiFi. Why are you in LA? Isn't there a closer airport to where you live?
 

Stereodude

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At the Crown Plaza next to LAX. Dropping my mother in law off tomorrow morning. This is a nice place, but charging $11/ day for WiFi is dumb.
There's a rule of thumb for hotels. The more expensive / higher end the hotel is the more they nickle and dime you for stuff. Take the Marriott chains for example.

Marriott - $$$ - charges for internet / no free breakfast
Courtyard - $$ - free internet / no free breakfast
Fairfield Inn - $ - free internet / free breakfast
 

LunarMist

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There's a rule of thumb for hotels. The more expensive / higher end the hotel is the more they nickle and dime you for stuff. Take the Marriott chains for example.

Marriott - $$$ - charges for internet / no free breakfast
Courtyard - $$ - free internet / no free breakfast
Fairfield Inn - $ - free internet / free breakfast

That is the same everywhere. Hotels in some countries tend to be even worse.
 

ddrueding

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At least my hot spot is claiming 4G ;)

The only direct flight to Moscow on the west coast is out of LA. Mom's English isn't good enough to manage a transfer on her own.
 

ddrueding

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I get to do this to one of these on one of these for a parade on Sunday that will run for a total of 15 minutes. We are moderately confident that it can make most of the corners on the parade route, and we'll have two days to set up and one evening to tear down.

Stressful, but darn fun and pretty cool. Should have a YouTube video by next week.
 

Handruin

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I guess I don't know enough about it and never seeing it before, but what makes it worth having for headphones you haven't bought yet? Are you getting the HifiMan HE-500 Planar Magnetic headphones you mentioned in the other Aune thread?
 

Stereodude

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It's a fully balanced DAC + AMP with gobs of output power capability. I plan to get the HD-500, but I suppose there's a small chance I'll lose my mind and get these instead.
 

Handruin

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Looks like a nice config. I really don't know much about the different headphones on the market to even recognize that name or know what makes them so special. I'm still rocking my old Grado SR60s from years ago. They need new pads on them, but otherwise still work fine.
 

Stereodude

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Looks like a nice config. I really don't know much about the different headphones on the market to even recognize that name or know what makes them so special. I'm still rocking my old Grado SR60s from years ago. They need new pads on them, but otherwise still work fine.
I'm not real keen to buy something I haven't heard and I haven't heard a lot of high end headphones. My buddy has the HE-500's so I borrowed them for about a week which gave me a good feel for their sound. I spent a lot of time at Headroom comparing the frequency response of different headphones. I know you can't tell everything about a headphone with a single graph, but it seems unlikely that someone would take a liking to a headphone with a drastically different response curve.

On the Audeze LCD-3.. I can afford them if I want to. My buddy with the HE-500's swears they're scary good, but at nearly 3x the cost of the HE-500's I'd want my ears to decided if they're worth an extra $1250. The last bit of performance in high end audio is usually pretty expensive and they're probably way out there on the curve of diminishing returns.
 

Handruin

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I would love to be able to hear a setup like that and the compare and contrast with other pairs of headphones. I would like to get a nicer pair of headphones than what I have right now, but I haven't really dedicated the time to research and to go find places that have them to try them.

It's nice that your buddy has a set of really nice headphones that you can borrow for several days to see if they're what you enjoy. None of my local friends or family or even coworkers are really into audio with the one exception of the senior department director at my job who I know is on several of the different audio forums and has a few really nice setups using Salk STs and Vandersteen C5a with crazy amounts of room treatments, etc.

You're probably in a much better place and knowledge of audio equipment to appreciate the last bit of the curve in diminishing returns than I am. I'm still looking to learn what those differences are.
 
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ddrueding

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I have the same problem as Handruin; my gear is better than all my friends with the possible exception of the boss. I should put together a list of the bits there for SD and the other experts to look at and tell me what I'm working with.
 

Handruin

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Some of it is trial and error and the whole living and learning thing. SD might disagree because he's crazy about researching things to death, but more power to him for being a very well informed consumer.

After going through and building up a living-room setup, I feel as though I learned a lot and the typical mantra of, 'if I knew then what I know now', I would have done a couple things differently. At the time SD recommended me looking into Salk, but I wasn't comfortable enough with the amount of background and knowledge of the company to purchase a speaker from an internet-direct company when it costs in the multi-thousand dollar range. Now I'm at the point where I would like to sell my current B&Ws and buy a pair of Salk HT2-TLs. Now I know the background of Salk, the hundreds of forum members who rave of their quality, and positive experiences people have had. I also now know that there are several people in my area who I can go audition them before purchasing.
 

MaxBurn

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Used my NFC credit card for the first time today. Actually I didn't, handed it to the clerk like normal and they slapped it on a reader. I completely forgot the thing had it and I have had it for at least two years. Seems like a slow adoption, most places I go don't have the reader.
 

ddrueding

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Not a fan. Being able to use the card should at least require physical possession of the card without exception. From what I understand, there are ways to read the NFC in cards the same as passports and standard RFID keys.
 

MaxBurn

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One of the reasons I have a metal wallet.

Or you can also break the NFC chip pretty easily.
 

LunarMist

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What happens when you go through the smoke detector every day or do you have to do that?
 

LunarMist

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:doh: I meant the metal detector.

Isn't the metal wallet uncomfortable in your pants, or is it constructed of mesh like mail?
 

LunarMist

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The reviews of that one are rather bad, and do mention the dangerous poking action. :(
 

CougTek

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Maybe the AOC i2353Fh 23" IPS monitor, if it's available. First IPS monitor available for less than 200$.

Otherwise, RAM is still cheap, if you haven't maxed your computers already.
 

Handruin

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I already took advantage and bought a bunch of games through Steam (and it's not even Friday). Enough that if I mention it, Mercutio will have a seizure.
 

Stereodude

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Will coworkers nerd-gasm when they see it on your desk? Will that become annoying? :-D
1) I'm not taking it to work
2) Not very many coworkers come to my desk
3) It'd probably get lost (visually) among the power supplies, boards, and other development gear already on my desk.
 

Stereodude

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SD might disagree because he's crazy about researching things to death, but more power to him for being a very well informed consumer.
Why, whatever gave you the idea that I like to research my purchases extremely thoroughly before buying nearly anything? :rofl:
 

MaxBurn

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I switched to a metal wallet in the front left pocket a very long time ago. When I fly it goes in the bin along with the laptop and cell phones. Generally they are antique cigarette cases.
 
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