Craig Sawyers

Black Gate caps have not been available for a decade or so. Rubycon used to make them for Jelmax; I think there is graphite powder in there. Rubycon decided that their business model, in making capacitors by the billion did not match making small numbers of boutique parts for the audio industry, and pulled the plug. Actually they pulled it twice. First time, they were persuaded to continue. That lasted a year or two, and then goodnight Vienna. So any NOS Blackgate caps out there have been sat on a shelf for at least ten years. And if they are recent, they are fakes. And dontcha just love vertically mounted resistors. I haven't seen that sort of thing since TV's in the 1970's.

The real tragedy is that so far he has not immortalised himself with a Darwin Award.

Woke up to this. Very unusual in the South of the UK

You're welcome any time for a cold one or two.

What a complete and total shithead. Even his fatuous analysis of how much tax went into paying for the emergency services misses the point that while they were dealing with the microwave fuckwit they were not available to deal with a real emergency. Like a house fire, or major road traffic accident. What an asshole. I apologise profusely for him being British.

Congratulations Jacob - awesome! That is quite a month - married, and a new job. Mind you, when I saw Oxford, I thought "That'll be a hell of a commute"

That'll get watched today

This is actually about a week old news, but last Wednesday night I was up in the UK Dark Peak district doing night navigation practice. The temperature was -5C with a strong wind, so about -15C with wind chill. This was with a trainer called Chris from Beyond the Edge http://www.beyondtheedge.co.uk/ . I drove up in the late morning, and we started the exercise actually in the light, at about 3pm. But by 5pm it was dark, and we continued on until after 9pm. This is all to do with navigation strategy and accuracy with a map and compass between places set by Chris basically in the middle of nowhere. Chris, is ex Army and climbs big stuff - he summitted a 6000m peak in the Himalayas earlier this year http://www.beyondtheedge.co.uk/chris-summits-kyajo-ri/ , he's a mountain rescue leader and trainer, and is an all-round crazy fitness guy. Anyway, this is sunset. Four layers of thermals and a jacket, and lots of layers protecting the crown jewels.

Have a great one, Todd!

Happy birthday!

That is great news, Steve

The link I gave to the Zeppelin gig at Southampton has a brilliant reference in it. Plant at one point says he went to the toilet, and saw the name "Alan Whitehead" written on the inside of the cubicle, and the next number was dedicated to him. Now I knew Alan well - Carole and I used to go to dinner at his and Ruth's student flat and vice versa (Ruth married him - but now decades divorced). He ended up as Student Union President - and then went into politics big time. This is him now, Member of Parliament for Test and Itchen (a Southampton constituency) https://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/dr-alan-whitehead/62 . He is probably blissfully unaware that Zeppelin immortalized his student graffiti!

Found on the web thing. This is Zeppelin live at Southampton University Old Refectory, a micro-venue with 300 jam packed students. About 18 months before I started there. They take few numbers to warm up and get going, but after about 20 minutes they are truly superb.

Ditto to all of that. Good luck with Suzy, Steve - fingers crossed here in the UK.

Fragment of an unpublished Shakespeare sonnet?

Happy birthday!

They are MOSFET's, whereas J40/K170 are low noise JFET's. Why not just go for LSK74/LSJ170?

One of these https://www.baratza.com/grinder/vario/ . 230 grinding settings - what is not to like? Comes with a container to grind into as well. And when eventually the ceramic burrs wear, they are dead easy to replace.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

Looks like a historical photo of me

Wow. David Cassidy. RIP David. And Arne Nudell, an audio icon. RIP Arne.

Wow - Malcolm Young. AC/DC played the University I was at (Southampton, UK) in 1975 or 1976. This was in the dining hall on a makeshift stage we used to build out of Dexion framing and floorboards. As one of the crew that used to build the stage and help the roadies haul gear out of the trucks, you got to see the concert free. Saw some great bands back then on that tiny stage. It was before my time there, but The Who even played there as did Zeppelin. These megabands played to a student audience, with zero security. Capacity was about 500 crammed in like sardines. But AC/DC defeated me. Even aged 20 or so, I found them to be ear splittingly loud. So instead I listened to them through several doors up in the Stage office and even then it was quite loud. But Malcolm Young dying of dementia at the age of 64 is often caused by long term drug use. It is a miracle that Ozzie Osbourne has survived without a terminally fritzed brain. And Manson? - good. What a piece of work he was. AC/DC flyer including the Southampton gig Horribly off-topic, but this is Zeppelin in 1973 crammed onto a tiny area at Southampton University old refectory.

What does a peasant sound like?