Nanoha

Woot! Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Birgir!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for your huge contributions to the community!

Whoa, so a Backblaze Pod! I remember reading about Backblaze a while ago. Are you part of the Backblaze group or did you buy/build one?

Whoa wait, that is 164 terabytes right? So pro What kind of hardware setup is it?

Yep just saw the news. Thanks!

Yes that is Ray Samuels from RSA

It might not be a good idea to stick SSDs in a parity based RAID configuration. The constant parity updates will wear out the SSDs at an accelerated rate. Error checking might also be insufficient for this purpose in Synology system. Also, parity is good for mechanical drives where you don't expect the drives to fail at the same time (mechanical drives failure). But with SSD failure usually based on prolonged wear, the spread load of parity RAID might mean the SSDs all start developing errors at the almost the same time. I do agree that the noise-free operation of SSDs is quite desirable. One possible setup is having a Wi-Fi dongle attached to the Synology NAS and placing the NAS far away from the listening area. I personally don't bother using 7200 RPM drives in my personal RAID setups due to noise.

A shot stolen from A'gon of another Lampizator @ http://app.audiogon.com/listings/da-converters-lampizator-gen3-l4u-upgraded-usb-europe-2013-04-20-digital-switzerland Ahahaha, this is great

Many congrats!!!

It looks like Apple will be pushing out a software update to fix the Wi-Fi issue with the new Airs hopefully soon. Beta tests going on right now: http://9to5mac.com/2013/07/01/some-new-macbook-air-owners-invited-to-test-wifi-update/ Wi-Fi issue outlined: http://9to5mac.com/2013/06/24/apple-investigating-new-macbook-air-wifi-issues-some-customers-receiving-replacements/ Wi-Fi issue explained in detailed (tech details): http://anandtech.com/show/7085/the-2013-macbook-air-review-13inch/10

Hahaha that is great

73 days on average per year (1 in 5 days) of precipitation in San Francisco; but I'm guessing light rain during the night counts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco#Climate

warning: NSFW Language https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDzinoEspBI

Oh haha almost no male vocals this time around. I have a bunch of british rock and power/industrial metal with male vocals, but almost no male pop. I should acquire a lot more jazz.

Summer album purchases round 1 A mix of new and old stuff procured from Amazon.com Thanks to everyone for recommendations/inspiration!

Thanks so much for the detailed comparison overview! Really appreciate it as always. On a tangential note, are thicker pads procurable from other places, and if so, is it possible to easily swap them in? (Disregarding changes in sound that may occur)

Phenomenal! Congrats and happy anniversary!!!

Ah, that's unfortunate to hear. I also have comfort issues with with many of the headphones I've used in the past. (Both head clamp and ears touching grills)

I remembered there a discussion a while ago about how the 507 may be uncomfortable for people with large heads and ears that stick out more than the norm. Do these observations apply to the 207 as well?

I went to the Apple Store today thinking I was ready to plunk down money for the new 13" Air. I then realized midway through talking to one of the associates that the annual Back to School promotion would probably be starting soon. I wonder what the promotion will entail this year.

Anyone want to take a shot at when Apple will introduce Haswell rMBPs? I was hoping they would have announced them at WWDC, but now I'm thinking they might just wait to release them whenever Mavericks lands (meaning we'll have wait until the Fall). The current rMBP was originally released in February of this year so I'm thinking it doesn't make sense for Apple to release Haswell upgrades too quickly. I'm quite interested by Haswell's seemingly substantial gains in power efficiency. The new integrated graphics (Iris Pro 5200) that comes with the mobile Haswell i7 also looks like a huge improvement over past integrated graphics. Iris Pro 5200 seems comparable in some applications to the Nvidia 650M0, the dedicated graphics in the current 15" rMPB. Iris Pro 5200+CPU has a thermal draw power value of ~50W. The old Nvidia 650M+CPU setup maxed at ~90W. I presume the Iris Pro 5200 would mean huge gains in battery life under graphics intensive situations. Based on Haswell SKU lists so far, dual core i5s come with Intel HD 5000.1 A new13" rMBP would most likely use those since the current models use dual core i5s with integrated graphics. Some of the quad core Haswell i7s come with Iris Pro 5200.2 Apple would most likely want to use these in new 15" rMPBs. Apple has been the primary motivator for Intel's surprising commitment to improving integrated graphics over the past few years. I have a feeling Apple wants to drop dedicated graphics in their notebook computers all together some day. I personally don't think it will happen in this generation, but it might in the next with Broadwell, the future 14mm shrink of Haswell. On a secondary note, it seems that the high performance mobile Haswell chips are more expensive than their previous generation counterparts. I wonder how Apple will respond. I presume they will choose among cutting profit margins, raising prices, or cutting some corners (e.g. maybe even removing dedicated graphics).

Hmm, in case anyone is interested in a 8-bay NAS: It appears Newegg now has a deal for the Synology DS1812+ (last year's model) since the Synology DS1813+ was announced/released three days ago. The DS1812+ is going for $899 ($999 before) after coupon code listed on the page: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-TechBargains&cm_mmc=AFC-TechBargains-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&Item=N82E16822108097 Not too much in terms of savings, but I haven't seen Synology products on sale frequently. I think the main differences between the new DS1813+ and old DS1812+ are: quad-ethernet ports (versus dual), on-board 2GB RAM (versus 1GB), different looking enclosure (??). Not sure what else is different. A lot of people were hoping the DS1813+ would have this year's new Intel chipset, but appears Synology kept the same CPU as last year's. Some of the newer Intel CPUs have hardware accelerated volume encryption. The D2700 in the DS1813+/DS1812+ does not. Oh, and if I'm not mistaken, the MSRP on the new DS1813+ is $1099.

In case Newegg makes anyone uncomfortable, I think Amazon is also offering the WD Red 3TB for $130.99 today. http://www.amazon.com/WD-Red-NAS-Hard-Drive/dp/B008JJLW4M/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1369873193&sr=1-1&keywords=western+digital+red (Amazon prices fluctuate depending on stock, but as of this post, the price is at $130.99)

Oww absolutely terrible! Nate, my sincerest wishes to you for a speedy, smooth, and painless recovery! edit: water everyone water!

I've been drinking a number of these Virgil's zero calorie drinks recently. I'm a sucker for all the different types of drinks I can find at Whole Foods and Wegmans. Stevia is the sweetener Virgil uses here. The taste is weird but acceptable. I happened to have a really weird throat irritation develop just recently. I just realized that the throat irritation might be a result of an allergic reaction to ragweed (Stevia is a ragweed I think). Doh.... Time to lay off the Stevia. Edit: Oh hey, just realized there's a thread somewhere else for drinks, hah