nikongod

Happy Birthday Fitz!

you got a pretty nice pen for a guy who does not know what he is doing. Just saying... On a happier note, the AG-7 is "breaking in" a bit. The clicker has gotten a bit smoother with a liberal application of graphite lube, and some fairly obsessive clicking. I still wish it were smoother.

If you sell photos (in america anyways) your camera equipment may no longer be covered under your normal home owners/renters insurance. Tagging your photos properly is very important.

Because Headcase, I bought a Fisher AG-7 "spacepen" and a 400G Bullet Pen. I have not actually used either *much* seeing as how I only received them a few days ago, but here are some quick first impressions. I realllllly wanted to like the AG-7, but I'm finding it too lacking. I'm not a big fan of the balance of this pen. The center of gravity is a bit closer to the clicker than the tip than I'm comfy with, and I'm not really a fan. I think I am just used to neutrally balanced or tip weighted pens and this just feels weird. The grip of the pen is also thinner than I like. I guess with no gravity pulling the pen around it might not matter. It is heavier than the 849 I have gotten used to, but still lighter than a Rotring although both have better subjective balance than this. The clicker definitely has some metal on metal contact, and scrapes as it goes down but seats with a very positive click. The button release is pretty neat. Ignoring the scraping clicker, the fit and finish of this pen actually feels quite good. It is all metal, and will probably outlast me. I also got the 400G Lacquered Brass bullet pen. I was not sure how I would like the bullet pen, but I must admit it is growing on me quickly. I had previously used HALF of a bullet pen - with no idea what to do with the cap. Whoda known, but with the cap on the back of the pen, it handles like any other full sized pen! The balance is biased towards the tip of the pen, which I like and the weight is nice. Like the AG7, this pen is on the slim side for my tastes, but I see it as a backup for my primary pen, or something to jot quick notes in the car. My only other complaint about this pen is that it tends to sit in the EXACT bottom of my pockets perpendicular to my leg where a full size pen stays more or less straight up & down parallel to my leg. It is probably better suited to being tucked into a wallet, or left in a cup holder in your car which is where mine will live. Seeing as how I am me, I removed the Lacquer from the pen within 12hours of receiving it. I will not be able to comment on the durability of the lacquer, as about 2 minutes soaking in acetone and another 30seconds with a scouring pad made short work of it... The patina of naked brass, combined with the unusual spiral decoration is giving my modified pen a nice well loved look.

Lithium battery explosions/fires are quite violent. They are also SIGNIFICANTLY less common in non-rechargeable batteries than they are in rechargeable batteries. There is basically no chance that happened here. My bet is something flaking off from inside the flashlight.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Happy Birthday Craig!

no. Enough water goes though to dilute the acid to hopelessly weak concentrations. Front load washers are often cited as being gentler than top-load. So even less chance. Batteries don't leak until they are fully dead. Stop. We all have your best interests in mind here. There is nothing to worry about. Water for a batter spill applies to a car battery (or other Lead-Acid battery) and safe handling practices for the much stronger acids found there. It is not applicable to this situation.

I, like the others, doubt any acid (or anything) leaked out of the batteries - they are typically quite well sealed. If it really bugs you just wash the sheets again for piece of mind.

The small-house-fan in me says that should also serve double-duty as an ironing board.

Even if you start off small(ish) it is not hard to get to DIY-Dyna* level pretty quickly. If you are interested in DIY, I would also look at the CKKiii as one of your "middle of learning process amps." It is VASTLY overshadowed by the vastly overhyped b22... so nobody talks about it. But its a good sounding, very affordable mid-complexity build. The hardest part is (still) casework. For me, anyways.

I am not getting notifications for the movie thread I started.

Happy Birthday Naaman!

Will they have a lottery, or will it be first come first to set up a tent and wait in line for 3 days?

25% matching free.

The correct number of bikes is n+1, where n is the number of bikes you currently own.

This is a spin-off of another thread: I have long wondered why IKEA does not make flat-pack speakers. Either a simple, but relatively large (larger than what you could conveniently load into a very small car anyways) single driver or 2-way speaker in a rectangular box (maybe with a port?) OR a crazy-super-sexxy single driver folded horn. I wonder if the market demand for a nicer speaker is just too small

Happy Birthday Dan!

The "Broskie cathode follower" lends its self well to balanced drive. Build 2, and hook them up out of phase. You could also build a simple long-tail-pair output stage with a robust small-signal tube (5687, 6h30, etc) and transformer couple to the output. If you want to get fancy (and why not?) use a blumlein garter instead of a LTP.

I stand happily corrected.

I did not know that the term was used that way. I have heard people say "lume" though.

Everyone knows the lockers cost like 3 times as much as the non-locking ones. Cant be skimping out now... And besides, with all the power it takes to run headphones you might just blow the plug out of the socket if its not secured.

I think tritium lights were available LONG before they started showing up in watches. The wikipedia article for luminous paint mentions that Tritium lights were used in some rotary telephones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_paint

Tritium is a gas. It is only found in those little glass vials. You guys are talking about various luminous paints, which have NO tritium. Radium - perhaps. Various phosphors, absolutely. Other stuff - most likely. Radioactive paints were pretty awesome. Cheap, bright, and reliable. That got banned because the paints were hazardous to the people who had to paint the faces. The radiation is contained by the watch case & crystal so no danger to the wearer. Then we had Non-radioactive luminous-paints which range from awful to "still not as good as radioactive paint." Then someone figured out how to make tritium lights which gets you the awesomeness of radiation, with no exposure factor to the watchmakers. *My timeline may be slightly off for the invention of tritium lights - they were not used in watches until after the prohibition of radioactive paint.

I emailed the people with the watchmaking class to reserve a spot at the May 18 class, and heard back that they are pretty much fuller than full - BUT they are switching to weekly classes! It looks like they are changing from a "reserve a specific time" to simply "first in E-line first in available class", but hopefully I get in soon regardless. I wonder if they let you take pictures?