Iron_Dreamer

Wow, W1000x, looks.....shiny! I still prefer the more chill look of the W5000.

Fucktards indeed!

Sounds like a good trade to me. At worst, you can just sell off the W5000, if its' sound or fit doesn't jive with you. I definitely dug the W5000 in the year or so I owned them.

Yeah, the Texas crew is good peeps, no doubt. I shoulda gone, if only as a good excuse for some good BBQ!

Here's to a very happy birthday, Dom! To bad Tyll couldn't be there!

I gotcha covered there, I am a master de-clutterator! From what the others have said, building an external staircase would seem to offer the most utility, but then again what does my lousy non-engineer ass know?

Yeah, Nikon's models which have come out since the launch of the "Exspeed" processor (from the D3 onward) have had much better in-camera processing. It used to be that I shot RAW-only 90% of the time with the D200. Since moving to the D700, I only rarely feel the need to RAW process, the JPEG's are usually close enough to what I want, assuming I use the right color profile.

AFAIK the JH16 is meant to compliment the JH13, for those who would use it, mainly in a live music environment, where much great bass headroom is necessary. The extra bass drivers give it the ability to handle very high SPLs, even with bass boosted for the performer's rhythmic benefit. At least when the topic of what became the JH16 came up, when I last spoke with Jerry, he had me pretty convinced that this is not a piece for the audiophile set, and would not offer us an "upgrade" per say over the JH13 for OUR purposes. Hence the reason that despite having known about it for a while, I really could have cared less.

Wah wah wah

Thanks for the effort in JP's absence, Al. I think that hotel generally worked out very well last year, and has the added benefit of familiarity for all those of us who were there.

Well, if you get WB in-camera close enough to "right"/correct then it is less PP work to do. On the other hand, RAW allowing for setting WB on each shot has more creative possiblities than having WB baked-in to JPEG files. Auto-WB usually works pretty well outdoors in daylight. Nightime and indoor, or, more specifically, man-made light sources usually trip up auto WB systems. If you want to be sure, use a custom WB setting. By that I mean, use the capability of the camera to measure WB off a grey card, expodisc, or even a white tablecloth, shirt, or napkin, to get the correct WB for your setting. Or just shoot RAW and fix it all later. Whatever floats your boat.

The wrestling shots all look quite underexposed to me. IS shouldn't even be coming into play for that sort of sports shooting, as your shutter speeds should be sufficiently high to avoid motion blur (1/500+), thus rendering IS moot. FWIW the lighting in that gym looks pretty horrible, as evidenced by your need to use f/2.8 and ISO1600 to attain 1/160ss. Next time, I'd try a custom WB, and using a higher shutter speed (increase ISO as needed).

Hey Luis, Happy Belated! Aaron and I would have certainly taken you out had it not been for his moving. We'll have to make it up soon.

Pass me the yep, please!

Well, if you go by the prices of just about any off the shelf PC, it becomes hard to make sense of building your own. That is, if you don't place much value in controlling the quality of all the parts, how they are set up, and not having a ton of junk software installed with your OS (not to mention no real Windows disc). I just don't trust the parts quality in an off-the-shelf system, especially the power supply.

100% agreed. I have three Scythe S-Flex 120mm fans in my main desktop system, running about 400RPM most of the time. Plenty of air to keep an [email protected] and 9600GT cool, and it is as silent as can be unless your head is within about a foot of the tower, and you don't breathe or make any other bodily sounds. There needs to be a very extreme reason to demand a totally passive, fanless system. Considering that there will be noise in the room from the aforementioned DVR, and the actual media being played, I HIGHLY doubt the noise floor of your room is low enough to demand a completely passive system. I'd go with an ION system. SSD's make such a huge difference in system speed, I'd get one if you can afford it. If 30-40GB is enough, you can get either an OCZ Vertex or Kingston SSDnow V-series for around $100. I have the former in my laptop, and it is a very quick drive indeed. I like this case: Newegg.com - Antec ISK 300-65 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case - Computer Cases Use a high quality 80mm fan like a nexus, scythe, or noctua, with a speed controller to tune the noise/cooling to your liking. The case is well-designed for good airflow, and comes with a passive power supply setup already installed. Check out the SPCR review for more details (granted, they tested with a much more power hungry C2D system): Antec ISK 300-65 Mini-ITX Case | silentpcreview.com

Nice abstraction of what drunk driving must feel like!

Martyr indeed! I'll be there, regardless of wherever the heck this circus ends up!

Well said. Most corporate criminals never receive the punishment that they deserve. And of course the very best never get caught, that's what the lobbyists are for!

I initially wanted to go with 2TB'ers. But 1.5's from Amazon for $80 were just too hot to pass up. I ended up with a nice big case for next to nothing, so data density became less of a issue.

Ordered a bunch of stuff to build a home server, as my 2TB NAS is long past stuffed full now. So, by mid week it'll be replaced by a nice little 4.5TB box o' goodness.

Very cool. Now that I've been well versed in Blu-Ray ripping, it will be nice to have it as a conduit for high-res audio as well.

I went ahead and got a Clip+ 8GB from Amazon. Loading it up as we speak. I'm definitely happy with the physical changes from the regular clip, and of course the card slot makes it a much more versatile device.

The HifiMan sounds better than any portable, battery-powered DAC I've ever heard, and it's all in one.

I was going to suggest that as well. You can probably find a Canon or Panasonic with better image quality, but not near that price. Both of my P&S cameras have been Fuji (E900 & F100fd), and I have been quite happy with them.