Craig Sawyers

Got it. He looks like a real piece of work that needs to be taken down. Where he allegedly lives is about 70 minutes drive from where I am. If anyone knows where and if he is auctioning something, I'll contact him and ask if I can drop in to inspect the goods

I read that three times and still don't have the foggiest clue what it is all about.

Because I'm a grumpy old git, I got my university education entirely free of charge. In fact the UK government *paid* you a (means tested) grant, in today's money about £6-10k per year for living expenses, books and hedonism, and tuition was free. And that was both degrees. But in those days back in the mid 70's (pass the walking frame...) only 6% of school leavers went to university in the UK. Fast forward. John Major introduced the concept of tuition fees in 1997 at a low, £1k per annum, and means tested level. Then Tony Blair set a target that 50% of all school leavers should go to university. Why 50%? Who knows. But it had two effects. First the government could not possibly fund that level of university places, and upped the fees. When my kids went through 10-13 years ago it was £3000 per year for tuition fees plus a "student loan" for all other exenses. But under Cameron's government it was increased to £9000 a year for tuition fees, plus an annual student loan of £3575. Second effect is that in order to cope with the massive influx of students, universities went into a huge building programme, and generated all sorts of strange courses like Ethical Hacking (University of Abertay Dundee), Brewing & distilling (Heriot-Watt University), Applied golf management (University of Birmingham) and International Spa Management (University of Derby). There are endless examples. And those who currently emerge from a UK University owe around £40k + compound interest, and a payback time of typically 25 years. So you could be pushing 50 before you're free of the University financial yoke.

Ayre are a very interesting company. Their preamps in particular sound glorious, and are works of art internally (the KX-R). Can't afford one, but that is a different story.....

Saw him with Carole around 25 years ago in some London arena (forget where), and maybe four years ago in Birmingham with Lizzie - front row seats right in the middle bang in front of the keyboards (20 feet away) and the laser harp even closer. Much longer ago a good friend made the trek out to London Docklands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtTsCbfXZuQ in the pouring rain for one of his greatest outdoor extravaganzas - I unfortunately missed that one. But that was a great heads up Dusty - cheers!

Well that was truly awesome - absolutely fantastic. Seen him live twice, and this was the next best thing.

Designing support circuits, voltage references, precision clocking, and above all board layout is critical to get true 20-bit performance from such a DAC ( AD5791, according to Schiit's site). Given that, the Yggdrasil seems to be something of a bargain. But on R2R (a technology I haven't looked at for a looong time) I might spring for a Soekris just to find out what the fuss is all about.

I see your Casio PT-8 vs Virus Ti2 and up you the Adagio für Glasharmonika by Mozart. And sorry about the rubbish video.

What are you doing to wear the gladiators

Sad times. RIP Pongo.

Wow - I had no idea he was still alive. That is a great age - happy birthday Kirk!

Steve, FWIW I use blades from this outfit http://www.awsaws.uk/home_page.html . They do mildly custom stuff at not a lot more; my Wadkin RAS is old (the original round arm BRA), and it has an odd imperial diameter shaft. They modify by adding a pressed in feature to suit whatever diameter shaft your machine has. I recall that the blades that I have were the equivalent of $120-$140 each. Not cheap, but they are superb blades. I see that they do blades with anti-kickback features (page 5 of their catalogue http://www.awsaws.uk/ELECTRONIC CATALOGUE.pdf ), which I urge your cheapskate boss to invest in. And a riving knife, which I would have thought was essential for a table saw. Like everyone else, I'm massively impressed with how chilled you are about all this!

Not what I meant. I meant the angle the tooth makes with the radius. I use the term rake angle, but the alternative name is hook angle. I use a triple chip blade with negative rake in my radial arm saw - in that machine a positive tooth angle grabs the stock and the blade tries to climb out of the wood; that is not a good outcome. A negative rake gives much more control. The choice will definitely be different with a table saw, where the blade has to act to hold the piece firmly on the table.

Bloody hell Steve. A whole new definition to a hand job. As a user of woodwork machine tools (planer thicknesser, band saw, and an entirely lethal Wadkin radial arm saw) I can visualise precisely what happened. Here's hoping the tannin in the oak had a natural infection control. Let us know what the hand Doc says. Thinking of that table saw Steve - what rake angle is your blade?

RIP John Glenn - a guy made from the right stuff.

Moog have recreated the Emerson Moog Modular https://www.moogmusic.com/content/moog-modular-synthesizers . They have been paranoid about authenticity - same circuit cards, they trawled the world for obsolete semiconductors, switches and controls to make a thing of great beautu. Keith Emerson had to have a technician touring with the band to limp the old original one along, until he eventually had it rebuilt. A great and fitting tribute to a fine and completely original band. Wish I'd seen them live. Too damned true, Stretch. Too damned true.

In full flight in 1977, when they were in their late 20's, in deep snow in a Canadian sports stadium - the best ever version of Fanfare for the Common Man

That makes me extremely hungry!

RIP Greg Lake, the second of ELP to bite the dust. Age 69 from cancer. Bugger. I'm beyond words about 2016.

We loved Istanbul - have a great audio career there! The area you're going to looks great - massive park to run in, open air theatre, museums. What is not to like?

Cat and mouse. This is daughter's cat Cheese, that we have adopted (1) while she was on tour and (2) now she's gone to Aus

Jeeze - 42. RIP JK.

Have a great birthday Todd!

Have a great one - happy birthday.

in all honesty it cannot have been that long - it just seemed like a long time. Anyhow, complete and stable hearing is back, with no problems in popping my ears.