to begin the process of unattaching my original computer speakers. My new dog unplugged those in the wire jungle. And didn't electrocute herself. These speakers are cheap, zoobie blue LED bottoms, and the sound quality is much better. Those are now the only speakers connected to any at-call noise production device in my house. I did a speaker elimination a few years back, remember those enormous speakers that could also be used as furniture? Gone, gone. I still have a pair of AR4s, teak ply fairly good, original linen faces, not connected to any sound production. Sentimental value. They could use acoustical sealant (black goo), but I am reluctant to crack the backs because I have no clue, same as the wonky light switch which involves electricity and I bought a $1.99 replacement, and know where the circuit switch is. My daughter frets that I will burn the house down, I fret that wonky switch will burn the house down.

I know I will feel all empowered to play with electric circuits. That high might last a week.

Your children must be so happy with you!

https://savethelink.org/eu

Where does the European Commission get these sorts of ideas?

Not just Britain; I’m beginning to think Germany needs to exit too so everyone can start over. The E.U. we have now is just a big lobbying club, and (George Carlin voice) you and me ain’t in it.

Sounds like a major accomplishment to me. I can't imagine building my own computer, but I can imagine what a sense of accomplishment it would bring if I could do such a thing.

Good morning to everyone! It's a chilly Sunday morning here. Frost on the car, but it is supposed to warm up at least to the low 60s F. Probably a little rain.

detroitmechworks, where is the pretty open thread banner?

TV news just said the fire is expected to have affected 500,000 acres today.

They showed a brief clip of the inside of a home caught on a home security camera, filling up with smoke. The homeowner was able to watch inside his house burning via computer. Horrible.

I worked among the geeks, Dilberts and Dickweeds. Somebody always had a project going. When it comes to computers, I usually start with a working platform and hot rod up from there. I've been a tad busy too and missed your write ups. Being a gamer, I assume you off loaded video to a dedicated video processor.

Work placated my need to fiddle with modern electronics, so I had a little more retro hobby. The Fender Stratocaster, and Telecaster, are exemplary specimens of Eli Whitney's concept of interchangable parts. I used to trawl ebay for Stratocaster parts and assemble Stratocasters. I have built ~dozen Stratensteins and a Tele. I have traded and parted out everything except for two I liked best.

I kept a blonde Ash Stratocaster with a Goncalo alves neck, vintage tuners, vintage bridge and G&L Legacy pickups. Also an Ash Telecaster with Goncalo alves neck, Pao Ferro fretboard, Seymour Duncan Broadcaster bridge pickup, SD Antiquity neck pickup, Nashville bridge and vintage tuners. (PS - just the guitars I built. The closet is full of guitars.)

Plus a room full of tube amps and boxes upon boxes of tubes. I had to swap tubes to get the tone right. Aiming more for blues than metal.

Thanks, have a great one!

My partner has 20 acres of desert land...an investment she sunk a little inheritance money into, rather than put it into the stock market. It's a fun place for us to go look at the stars, camp out, have a little fire. She is trying to nurture some (desert) plants out there, so yesterday I built a rainwater catchment onto one of the shade shelters out there. Gutters, downspout, horse trough, cement board lid, and a hinged bucket access. It's a long ways from anything, so I had to take all the tools (battery powered) and supplies with me. Naturally, I forgot a couple things, and had to improvise.

And, since I was working on her 'garden', and yesterday was world 'Naked Gardening Day', and I was miles from anywhere, I decided to get a little sun on my pale white body. Unfortunately, I left the cattle gate open. Halfway through the project, two very large women came riding up on their quads, asking if this was the trail that connected to the rainbow-flagged RV campground that can be seen in the distance. No it wasn't. Did I know where the trail was? No I didn't. Well somebody told us that it came this way...is this a dead end road? Yes it is. I was standing behind the open door of my old VW bus, trying to save everyone at least a little bit of embarrassment, but later I realized that the shape of the door really didn't help all than much. Finally, after playing 20 questions, and mentioning private property a couple of times, they had their fill, and drove away.

Well, one stalled her quad, first.

http://www.juancole.com/2016/05/wildfire-refugees-donating.html

on good work and the worth of work. The Turisas are a lot of fun! I've got a youtube compilation going and the fan-created Battle Metal video is awesome :=) Enjoy your day, mate,

only a couple of months ago those of us who were here would make a comment, come back in an hour, see if anyone had replied. I can recall when the most recent comment, as shown in that left-hand column, was 4 hours old. Now I look and see "33 seconds", and "55 seconds" and "1 minute, 21 seconds ago".

I just clicked "who's online". In those olden days of February 2016 there might have been 3 people, maybe as many as 7. Now, at 9:40-ish a.m. on a Sunday it's 111 people. 111!

I've pondered on the question of why c99p has been a success. There have been other sites for us. Docudharma, Voices on the Square, the Stars Hollow Gazette, to name three. But this one seems to have taken off. Ease of use? Conveniently around when another site went insane?

Whatever the reason, it's fantastic to see everyone here. Or, if not "fantastic", then "encouraging"!

Yes, the culture over there is just ugly. Like a contest to see who can jump in first with a clever put down of the diarist. They think it's witty/clever, but it's just ugly and jerky. (See Trix, for example.) Insults and vulgarities are the theme. Pictures of people eating corn dogs, to me, would be one description of the place if you wanted to try to explain it to others. So stupid, so childish, so offensive. Extrapolate that to all areas of discourse. And, Kos set that tone.

I've thought recently about how I have never shared or told any of my relatives about TOP. I didn't want them to see the ugliness and know that I read it. That should have been a big clue for me to get out. Don't know why it took me so long.