Knuckledragger

RIP "Office Space" actor Richard Riehle who has jumped to his last conclusion.

Apple Music Now Available on Bluesound. I have to admit, I don't entirely know what this means. A bunch of redditors are quite happy about it.

There are long standing threads for speaker and amplifier porn on HC. Thus far, sources have been neglected. It's true, speakers and amps are in general better looking units than most sources but there are certainly some good looking ones out there. Let's start with a mid 80s Revox CDP that is a bit of a legend amongst collectors: The Revox B225. It's overbuilt like a MFer, which is good as it's also prone to failure and in need of extensive servicing. I just watched a really good YouTube video on repairing one while I was editing a whole stack of photos. TL;DW: A whole pile of Swiss engineering, dirty electrical contacts and a new motor. There were some variants with balanced out and at least one meant for professional use: Love those green lights.

Kim Jong Un in Coma After Brain Hemorrhage? China Hospital Rumors Spark Despite Recent Public Appearance. Unproven of course. Big if true, as the kids say.

The famous photos of Margaret and printouts (plural) of the code use in the Apollo program: The first image has been serially reposted on reddit, usually incorrectly described as "the code she wrote by hand." Not to take away from Margaret's work in the slightest, but these binders are multiple copies of all the code written by everyone who worked on it. Here's where things get weird: Margaret has her own wiki page. It lists two relatives that have links. One is James Cox Chambers, a billionaire "renewable energy businessman." The other is Fergie Chambers who is a communist activist. Family gatherings must be awkward.

As I mentioned when I bought it, the primary reason for my acquisition of the R5 Mk II was to use it with vintage lenses: Old (EOS autofocus), older (Nikon F, Minolta MD, Pentax K) and really old (the mighty M42.) With the purchase of the camera body I ordered the EF, Nikon and M42 adapters. I've been using them since the get-go. Today I spent ...more hours than I can to contemplate going through the rest of my manual focus lens collection. I have a motley assortment of glass I purchased off eBay, from the local second hand shop, and numerous other places. I carefully evaluated every manual lens I have that was not already in active use. The end result is that two lenses I thought I'd not be keeping are staying with me, one that I imagined I'd keep is being donated, and two FD lenses will remain in limbo. After much cross referencing, I bought MD to RF and PK to RF adapters. Both are made by the Chinese company Fotsay. They made my Nikon F and M42 adapters. Both are very well made, finely machined pieces of kit. Mirrorless bodies have a number of significant advantages over SLRs when it comes to using old glass. The first is that the flange distance allows almost any SLR lens to be used as well as many ones meant for rangefinders. Another important facet is that the adapters are significantly bigger pieces of metal, making them easier to handle. I always hated my old Nikon F to Canon EF adapter, and in fact I threw it in the trash this afternoon (it was mostly broken.) From now on, the only manual lenses I will mount on any of my old EOS bodies will be M42 ones. I also bought a pile of PK and MD rear lens caps (I had like 2 total) as well as some 49mm front caps. There was a time, say, 1974, when 49mm was an industry standard filter size. Another win for the boomers, I suppose. After this lengthy indexing project, I tackled a 70s Tamron Adapt-A-Matic 135mm F/2.8 I got for a whopping $5. As the name would suggest, the Adapt-A-Matic series of lenses had swappable rear mounts and could be adapted to a variety of popular brands. Tamron now has a similar "Adaptall" that works with more modern bodies. The 135mm I have came with an adapter I still have not identified (nor will I, it's now in the trash.) I found a Nikon F adapter on Ebay, which cost many times what the lens itself did. Given that the system is over 50 years old, I felt lucky to find it. As I mentioned above, I've had back luck with my Nikon F to Canon EF adapter, and it was with this Tamron that I finally gave up on it. I did manage a few photos with the combination. Greetings from the Vineyard, November, 2023! I've had that middle finger carving for 40 years now. I told a guy I went to school with at the time that I had it and not only did he not believe me, he mercilessly mocked me. To this day, I still have not forgiven him, but I digress. The Tamron is actually quite a nice lens, optically. The truth is it's not that difficult to make a good 135mm and many companies have done it. It's also the truth that I have far more 135mm primes than any sane person would ever need, including the mushroom cloud laying MFer that is Canon EF 135mm F/2L. Also, as an side, I'm now uploading photos straight to HC. In spite of the fact that I pay Flickr $150 dollars every two years, they apparently can't reliably host photos in 2026. What was I saying? Oh yeah. The problem with the Adapt-A-Matic is that the Nikon end for the Tamron doesn't appear to have a set screw and it doesn't stay on the lens as well as I'd like. The stacked adapters made the entire arrangement feel very loose and sloppy, especially when adjusting focus or aperture (which, you know, one does rather often with a fully manual lens.) All of this is less of an issue with the chonky Nikon F to Canon RF adapter. The end result is that I'm keeping the Tamron 135mm. 2026 greetings from MV! Some things never change. The lighting conditions were significantly better in 2023. Also, it was raining today and I'm not entirely sure how weatherproof the R5 II is with a manual lens attached to it and TBH I don't want to find it out. Also also, in the 90s I was hugely into ska. In 1997 I bought a compilation of instrumental ska tracks. On it is a cover of Ghost Riders in the Sky by The Rhyth-o-matics. The name of the Adapt-A-Matic has been making me think of it all day. It's a lot of fun, except for the kind of cheesy "SNL closing credits" solo in the middle. I actually have a time corrected version of this I've played on Test Tone a few times.

One of the members of the world's favorite trio of motorist jackasses bought himself a Series III and has a lot to say about it. "Then why didn't you get a Defender?"

RJ Mitte, 'Breaking Bad' star, dies at 34. [TMZ] stated it was told that Mitte died by suicide.

As the middle east continues to catch ablaze (the Houthis are serially attacking Saudi airports) the oil market has gone (further) insane. I keep seeing headlines about Brent crude rising and all I can picture is a certain fat-headed Mexican cursing up a storm.

Russia's Yandex bot traffic nearly eliminated overnight after Ukraine drone strikes cripple multiple of 'Russia's Google' data centers — Ukraine intensifies bombing of Yandex data centers in response to Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv data centers. Ha ha. Get fucked-ski.

My kind of DJ setup.

Legendary coach, Hall of Fame TE Mike Ditka dies at age 86.

In the parlance of our times, least excessive Mac built.

Nomadland (2020) It's a drama that's shot alternately like it's a documentary (it kind of is) with a lot of long, West Anderson style establishing shots. Frances McDormand is an amazing actor. She earned her flowers and not because she married to a Coen Brother (to this day I'm not sure which one.) Apparently a lot of people were Bigmadland when it won a number of Oscars.

DJTJ's ex-fiance Kimberly Guilfoyle is getting a lot of bad press because of her blatant bribes (and attempts to get more) from the "Snappy Tomato Pizza" co-owner Eric Deters. Deters got mad at her because he gave her $300K and got shit to show for it. Among his list of demands was wanting Guilfoyle to pass on a copy of a song he wrote to Kid Rock. I present the song in question:

We've got some uncharacteristically early fall weather here on MV, that means a man's thoughts turn to ...blues metal. I've been a fan of Glenn Danzig's music for 40 years now. The Misfits need no introduction nor explanation. Samhain was an amusing but short-lived diversion into goth rock. The first four Danzig albums (and the fun little Thrall-Demonsweatlive EP) are represent Glenn in his absolute prime. He had the ideal backing band for his possessed Elvis persona. Eerie Von is the perfect backbone for the whole thing, and already had experience dealing with Glenn in Samhain. John Christ's riffs are leadenly heavy but still cut sharply through the mix. Chuck Biscuits got his start in punk rock (DOA, Black Flag, Circle Jerks) but adapts seamlessly to the demonic blues sound of Danzig. He's not a showy drummer, but he always does exactly the right thing. The efforts of all of these men are captured by producer Rick Rubin, who was also at the absolute top of his game at the time. Rick has done an awful lot to tarnish his own legacy, but the truth is in the 80s and 90s he was a music god. The first Danzig album is lightning in a bottle, and really without peer. I'm biased, because I bought it new on cassette in 1988, at a very impressionable age. Similarly, I bought II and III on CD when they came out. Both albums seek to the one(s) before them, and succeed in some areas and fall short in others. Also, they straight up fucking ROCK. Even at his most goofy, Glenn was a savant at conjuring compelling cheese. I didn't pick up 4 until years later, some time post millennium. While it's vastly inferior to the first three, it still a solid listen. Glenn was veering into experimental territory and well out of his natural depth. This would be a harbinger of (bad) things to come. He was fortunate to still have the classic band lineup and Rick Rubin producing. 4 was recorded in legendary Sound City studio, and I'm sure that helped. Look up the albums recorded there sometime, it's a staggering list. The album with the greatest guitar tone ever was recorded there. (I will die on this hill.) All of the above was enough to counterweight Glenn's worst ideas. Mostly.

TBH Stretch, I suspect you are in fact the ideal target market for the iFold new iPhone Duo™. The strength of Apple products is the ecosystem. The individual pieces are only okay and invariably overpriced, but like 1980s Transformer toys, they make something really cool when combined. As I've mentioned, I'm friends with a silent generation couple here on MV. He turns 90 at the end of the month(!) and has no use for mobile phones, smart or otherwise. She's a comparatively youthful 86 and is in the market for a new iPhone. She has already got a recent iPad Pro (which is a very slick device) and a MacBook with 8GB of RAM (I swear, I turned my back on her for five minutes and she bought the exact worst model.) I've been encouraging her to at least consider the Duo. Their son, who lives in Spain, has an Apple Vision Pro. I am unsure if he uses it to translate on the fly. He also has a vegan girlfriend who has alienated the rest of the family. I swear, vegans are cultists. They take what starts out as a good idea and twist it into some fundamentalist extremism that... So uh anyway, the machine to buy for legacy Intel based apps is a 2018 i7 Mini, or if one is feeling insane, an Intel Mac Pro. I actually have a friend who has been taunting me with the idea of selling his.

So Jim Bakker croaked, which got me thinking about the 80s. He had a sex scandal with Jessica Hahn. She cashed in on her "fame" and appeared in a few music videos, most infamously with Sam Kinison. That one sucks. Sam was at times a great comedian, but his music career was pathetic. In a much more interesting example, she appeared in a video by the nuclear (and ecology) obsessed Nuclear Assault. Not my favorite example of 80s thrash, but it holds up pretty well.

In September of 2009, I drove to a local brick & mortar store and paid them $30 for a DVD of Snow Leopard. It felt like a genuine upgrade from 10.5. Some time I after that I doubled the RAM in my laptop (remember when we could do that?) from 2GB to 4. I also replaced the spinning rust HDD with an SSD. Good times.

A guy on reddit built a "1968 system." A 275 driving Cornwalls had got him like this:

HAH. Controversial televangelist Jim Bakker dies at 86. Know Your MemeRIPBOZO | Know Your MemeRIP Bozo, often written as RIPBOZO, is a phrase used online to celebrate a person's death, deeming them a "bozo," commonly defined as someone who is insign

Dozens quarantined after researcher at Russian plague laboratory dies of ‘unknown’ infection. Oopsie doop-ski. It's a (possibly/probably weaponized) variant of the bubonic plague.

Political cartoon from 2005.