roadtonowhere08

He certainly is the better singer; however, I could never really get into post-Ozzy Sabbath. I think Dio and Sabbath are great apart, but together they represent genres that do not really mix that well - at least to me. Sabbath is loved for that bluesy sludge sound (at least in their more famous albums) and Dio for more of the dramatic... well, Dio metal sound. Dio's singing style and Tony's guitar together never clicked with me. This topic makes me laugh, because a former student of mine is a HUGE Dio fan and likes to jab me about being more into Ozzy than Dio.

Yeah, Ozzy is very hit or miss. His voice on his last solo tour was pretty good - MUCH better than the disaster of many Ozzfest 2004 dates. I doubt he will ever top his performance on the Reunion album. I've read that there was no fudging with vocals after the show. I could be wrong about that, but he sounded GREAT considering he was never really a great live singer. Tony and Gezzer will always be great. Bill, while not what he was, is still pretty good.

Source (Among Many Others): http://www.black-sabbath.com/news/index.html I have to post this because Ozzy/Sabbath got me into music. Sure, they will not be at the top of their game live due to their age, but I am very curious about the album. Could be great, could be bad. As long as Ozzy stays away from the writing and lets Tony and Geezer do their thing, it certainly has a chance. I will always see Sabbath live, because to this day, I have never heard such an awesome live guitar sound as Tony's. That alone, is worth the price. Going to be interesting...

Fair enough, guys. I certainly appreciate his contributions to society (except for his love of proprietary hardware and software), but I will never understand those who would want to see an interview of him in a theater

He's WAY past that. I get that he was a brilliant leader, had a great sense of the market, and was a perfectionist, but he was still a businessman. He was no Mother Teresa, and even she was just a blip on the radar right after Lady Diana's death, which was a sin in my book.

Eric5676: I get what you are saying, but what I wanted was in BF2 and not in BF3. I get that it's all about multiplayer, but not everyone has the time or desire to play online with others. Why take that feature away? Surely with all the advancements in processing power and coding, making a decent AI in BF3 would not have been too much to ask.

Currently listening to Mournful Congregation's The Book Of Kings, and it kicks major ass. This album, Grace For Drowning, and Kauan's Kuu... are my top three albums of the year thus far.

Yep, that's why I was only interested in an AI skirmish. I want to play for a short time and by my rules. Just get in, blow crap up, and go do something else. I have no interest playing people who play this game like it is a religion.

The only two albums I listen to with regularity are Images and Words and Awake. There are some great songs sparsely spread throughout afterward up to and including Octavarium. Not a fan at all of anything after that album. The stance that they are all skill and no soul is for the most part true for everything post Kevin Moore. I have a very low tolerance for wankery, and a lot of their stuff is off the charts.

Two index fingers, one thumb (or a toe) ... you some creepy contortionist, or did you have help?

I only trust Intel and Crucial SSDs right now. I am going to use my X25-E until the end of time. Snappy as hell and the SLC chips should last forever for a consumer. In reality, the controller is the weak link for a lot of SSDs, so I suppose the Marvell controller in the Crucial and the Intel's controller are the ones to beat currently for reliability.

I have never seen that acronym before, but knowing this place, it came together quickly

For what you want to spend, the HF-2 or the RS-225i are your only real options when you mention relaxing and Grado together with a heavy recommendation to find a used HF-2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-gI_pFog0

I was very much looking forward to this game for the sole reason of a quick hour of exploring and blowing stuff up via offline skirmish like in BF2, but I just discovered there is no offline AI skirmish in this one. I do not follow video games much anymore, so this was news to me. I am bummed, because that is the only mode that interested me. I do not have the time to mess with servers and get better so that I do not die in 15 seconds, and I am not a campaign mode kind of person. It looks like an awesome game, but I think the developers really dropped the ball on this.

I read and reread your statement after the fact, because I was not clear about it. I was just about to add an edit stating that. I misinterpreted your post, my apologies. This post clarifies things perfectly.

Trust in public institutions is earned. The taxes outlined by spritzer are insane and are just BEGGING people people to circumvent them. Functioning societies are maintained when both sides (private and public) are thinking long-term. These taxes are a cash grab that is insulting to the consumer... not to mention far from consistent. That erodes trust in government. Spritzer, I am curious as to your observations about the people in your country. What do you think are the main factors leading to their apathy? Is it a sudden development, or has it been pervasive for a while?

It's not the fact that one can or cannot afford it. It's the fact that the tax is so high in many areas, and the country collecting the tax did nothing to earn it. I agree with RudeWolf, the country that the company resides in is the country that should collect any taxes on the sale (I have the same opinion about sales tax in the US). Yes, it leads to a very long discussion about globalism, maintaining international commerce competitiveness, and a plethora of other topics, but I hope that you understand my underlying perspective: an egregious tax on imports only hurts the consumer living in that country - it limits choice. I thought that was what globalism was all about... As an aside: though this is wildly off topic, I find discussions like this very fascinating.

Crap argument. Nobody is advocating the eliminating of taxes. The issue at hand is an outright obscene tax just for importing.

With such a high duty tax in many countries, who would blame them? The REAL crime is expecting people to pay that crap.

Yep. I have a lot of respect for companies that sell high quality products despite the trend to the contrary. I will never have a problem with companies charging a lot for products as long as it is reflected in the materials used, the R&D invested, and the workmanship involved - no matter how esoteric the product is. This "pricing to keep up with the Jones'" really annoys me, because instead of focusing on sound and giving consumers bang for buck (while still having healthy margins), it perpetuates many companies' insane perception that, in the case of audio, if a $945 phone sounds great then an almost identical phone that is $1000 more can be marketed with a straight face. Grado (though I love their phones) is guilty of the same thing. It's rampant in many aspects of audio. Turntable cartridges... holy CRAP!!! That was said in hopes that nobody jumps on me with the "they can market what they want", "vote with your wallet", and "if it sounds better to some, then the purchase is justified" statements. It is very well understood on my part. Part of the appeal of Audeze was that the LCD-2 (though expensive to many people) was able to make many people on this site (who are brutally honest about everything ) very happy at under a thousand bucks. I want them to succeed, but the LCD-3 is very much overpriced.

And that is what separates so called "audiophiles" from music lovers. To jack up the price to be taken seriously really tells something about the intended market, doesn't it?

I love that photo, Peter. I wish I was there. Would you happen to know what type of tree those are? Spruces?